Illegal Alien

When court resumed, Ziegler picked up her case-in-chief.

"Please state and spell your name," said the clerk to the man now seated in the witness stand.

"Feinstein, Moshe." He spelled them both.

’’Thank you."

Feinstein was forty-four, with a long, dour face and thick steel-gray hair. He wore horn-rim glasses and had a plastic pocket protector in the breast pocket of his short-sleeved blue shirt. Ziegler got up. "Mr. Feinstein, please tell the Court who you are."

"I’m a supervising criminalist for the Los Angeles Police Department."

"Your Honor, we have here Mr. Feinstein’s curriculum vitae, which runs to six pages. We would like to enter it into evidence."

Judge Pringle looked at Dale, who nodded. "All right," said Pringle.

"Briefly, Mr. Feinstein, can you summarize your chief credentials?"

Feinstein smiled. It was not a pretty sight. "I’ve been with the LAPD for sixteen years. I have a master-of-science degree in criminology, and a second M.S. in chemistry. I’m on the board of directors of the California Association of Criminalists and am a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences — and I hold certifications of professional competency from both those organizations."

"Thank you. Early on the morning of December twenty-third of last year, were you called to Valcour Hall, a residence on the campus of the University of Southern California?"

"I was."

"Why were you called there?"

"To be principal criminalist at the scene of the murder of Cletus Calhoun, and to supervise the other criminalists working there."

"Mr. Feinstein, did you find anything in Dr. Calhoun’s dorm room that could have served as the murder weapon?"

"Objection," said Dale, rising to his feet. "Prejudicial. The term ‘murder weapon’ implies intent to kill. The People have not established that this was a first-degree crime."

"Sustained."

"Very well," said Ziegler. "Did you find anything in Dr. Calhoun’s dorm room that could have been used to sever his right leg from his body?"

"I did not."

"Did you find any implement there that could have been used to spread Dr. Calhoun’s ribs?"

"No, but I didn’t expect to."

"Could you explain that?"

"Well, the incision down the center of Dr. Calhoun’s chest was clearly made by a mechanical device — it’s a perfectly straight line running from throat to groin. The cut split the breastbone, and dug into the heart and other soft tissues. But the actual spreading of the ribs was apparently done by brute force."

"What do you mean?"

"It was apparently done by hand — by someone grabbing either side of Dr. Calhoun’s severed breastbone and pulling hard." Feinstein pantomimed the action against his own chest.

"What makes you think it was done by hand, Mr. Feinstein?"

"Well, whenever there’s an open wound, we look at the edges of it, and—"

"Why do you do that?"

"Oh, you never know what you’ll find. Say we’re dealing with a naked corpse, killed by stabbing. We look to see if fabric fibers are embedded along the edges of the wound. If there are some, then the person was knifed while still clothed. If the knife is rusty, we’ll find iron-oxide flakes along the periphery. Stuff like that."

"And did you find any iron-oxide flakes?"

"No."

"Did you find any embedded fabric?"

"No — meaning, as seemed likely at first glance, that Dr. Calhoun’s shirt had been opened before the vertical cut was made."

"Did you find anything unusual at all?"

"Yes."

"What did you find?"

"Well, as I indicated, the breastbone had been split by an extraordinarily sharp cutting tool — and that meant the breastbone had sharp ridges. On one of those edges we found pinkish crystals."

"Crystals, Mr. Feinstein?"

"Yes."

"Did you collect these for analysis?"

"Yes."

"And what did you find?"

"The crystals were quite complex chemically. I was unable to identify them, so I sent them to the department of chemistry at UCLA; we have a contract arrangement with them to do forensics work for us."

"Mr. Feinstein, let me pose a hypothetical: if a human being were to grab the sharp edges of a breastbone split as Dr. Calhoun’s was, and that human yanked hard in order to open up the chest, what would happen to the hands of the human?"

"As I said, the breastbone had very sharp edges. Unless the person was wearing protective gloves, he’d probably cut his fingers in trying to do so."

"Presumably there was a lot of human blood on the edges of the breastbone."

"Oh, yes, indeed."

"Was all of it Dr. Calhoun’s?"

"As far as I could tell, yes. It matched his blood in ABO grouping, Rh factor, and all other categorizations."

"Thank you. In addition to the pink crystals, what other evidence, if any, did you find at the crime scene?"

"I found certain objects."

Ziegler picked a small Ziploc bag off the prosecution’s table. "Are these the objects?"

"Yes."

"Enter as Defense twenty-seven," said Ziegler.

"No objection," said Dale.

"So entered," said Judge Pringle.

"Mr. Feinstein, please describe the contents of that pouch."

"Inside here are three flat diamond-shaped objects found in Dr. Calhoun’s room at USC."