“No. Again, because I didn’t realize how important that dinner would later become, I didn’t count my drinks that evening. And, I’m not particularly proud of this fact, but one thing I’ve done over the years is build up a pretty good tolerance to alcohol. So, if I had three, four, five, even six drinks that night, I would have been fine. I wouldn’t have driven a car, mind you, but I would have been in complete control of myself.”

“Please tell the jury what happened when you came home from dinner that evening.”

“It was just a regular night. We got home at . . . I think a little after ten. We watched some television, and I was asleep before eleven. The next thing I knew, I was receiving a call from our doorman saying that the police were there to see me. And this I remember so clearly. I was groggy when I spoke to our doorman, but then I rolled over to tell Lauren that the police were there. I mean, she deals with the police on a daily basis, so I assumed they were there to see her. That’s when I saw she wasn’t in bed. And that’s when I began to panic.”

“Last question, Mr. Trofino. Did you kill your wife?”

He clenches his teeth as if he’s disgusted that he has to dignify the question with a reply. Then he says, “Absolutely not.”

52. DANA GOODWIN

52.

DANA GOODWIN

LeMarcus has a herculean task before him. There’s no way Richard Trofino is going to crack on cross-examination. That means that LeMarcus has to make his points through his questions only, at the same time expecting that every answer from Richard will knock us back.

He goes straight for the kill, without any setup.

“Mr. Trofino, you lied when you testified that you didn’t know about your wife’s affair, because you most certainly knew about it. Isn’t that correct?”

“No, that’s not correct,” Richard answers calmly, exactly the way a witness should on cross. No matter how hot the questioner, you remain cool.

“You’re going to sit there and tell this jury that your wife didn’t tell you that she was in love with Dana?”

“She never said that, and I don’t believe it’s true.”

LeMarcus’s voice is so loud that he’s yelling, while Richard issues his denials the way you would address a lunatic—so as not to agitate them further.

Richard testifies that he did not take my cell phone, that he did not leave the apartment that night after he and Lauren came home from dinner, and most important, that he did not kill his wife, even as LeMarcus’s every query suggests the opposite.