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  In many ways, spending so much time speaking about Islam and Pakistan, Gutierrez has not only confused a jury that probably had little knowledge and is now getting all sorts of conflated, unconnected facts thrown at them, but she is also confirming the role of Islam in the case and “otherizing” Adnan far better than even the State can do. Not to mention that much of her opening is unrelated and irrelevant to the crime itself and has little discernible organization. Her best bet was to open with the facts of January 13, 1999, tell the jury her witnesses will show Adnan was at school when the State says Hae was killed, and emphasize that the State’s case is based on bias and bigotry. Instead, she inadvertently legitimizes their theory.

  Gutierrez goes on for fourteen transcribed pages before the judge asks her how long she’ll be. She responds that she needs another fifteen, twenty minutes. Half an hour later, it takes a five-minute warning by Quarles to finally shut her down.

  The next day, the State begins to put on its witnesses, starting with Hae’s brother, Young Lee.

  Lee testifies to the events of January 13, including the phone calls he made, Adnan’s and his sister’s relationship, and the T-shirt with bloodstains found in Hae’s car. Lee states that the shirt is a rag she kept to clean up around the car. Using Lee’s testimony as a foundation, the State enters Adnan’s phone records, a prom picture of Hae, and her diary into evidence and ends their examination. Gutierrez does a short cross-examination in which she asks about Lee’s knowledge of Hae’s new boyfriend, Don, and ends by asking if Hae hid her relationship with Adnan from her parents. Lee responds, “She did.”

  The State’s next witness is Nisha Tanna, whom Adnan had met nearly a year prior at a New Year’s Eve party on December 31, 1998. Nisha was asked specifically about a call placed to her phone from Adnan’s cell on January 13. The call was made at 3:32 p.m. and lasted two minutes and twenty-two seconds. But before showing her the call records, Urick asks her about the one time she ever spoke to Jay Wilds.

  Nisha testifies, in response to whether she was sure she spoke to Jay on January 13, “It’s a little hard to recall but I remember Jay invited [Adnan] over to a video store that he worked at and he basically, well Adnan walked in with the cell phone and then he said, like he told me to speak with Jay and I was like okay, because Jay wanted to say hi, so I said hi to Jay and that’s all I really recall.”

  On cross Gutierrez has Nisha reaffirm that she isn’t sure what date she spoke to Jay and that it happened at a video store.

  Nisha’s testimony adds one more piece of the narrative puzzle of the State’s case—by using that cell phone call, they are going to corroborate that Adnan and Jay were together that afternoon.

  The rest of this first day of testimony includes Officer Scott Adcock, who testifies about his investigation the day Hae went missing, and then Sergeant Kevin Forrester, who testifies to the condition of the windshield wiper/selector switch in Hae’s car when it was found. Forrester had taken a video of the car on March 16, 1999, to show that the windshield wiper was hanging limp from the steering column. He also testifies to where the car was found, pointing it out on a map for Urick.

  Gutierrez has exactly one question for the sergeant: “Detective Sergeant, the person who directed you to where the car was found was Jay Wilds?” Forrester responds yes.

  Salvatore Bianca, a criminalist in the trace labs unit of the Baltimore City Police, testifies next. Bianca had tested the T-shirt found in the car and under Urick’s direct examination, admits that it is possible that it is not just blood but also mucous staining the shirt. He testifies that the blood on the shirt comes from Hae and no one else and that two fibers found on her body did not come from her clothing.

  On cross Gutierrez elicits from Bianca that there was no semen found on any of the samples he took, and also that the comparisons done of the blood stains were limited to two suspects: Adnan and Jay. As Gutierrez tries to establish that testing was unduly delayed, Urick responds that the defense was on notice of the samples and could have requested testing themselves but didn’t. This doesn’t sit well with Gutierrez, who mutters her disapproval out of the judge’s hearing range.

  Prosecutor Kathleen Murphy hears it though, and raises an objection: “Judge, I’m going to object to defense counsel calling my co-counsel an asshole at the trial table that she did just a moment ago.”

  The last witness called that day is Romano Thomas, assistant supervisor of the Mobile Crime Lab Unit of the BPD. Thomas had been part of the team that responded to both the burial site and the location where the car was recovered, and he testifies as to how evidence was collected from both crime scenes. In particular Thomas testifies about how the fingerprints and palm print were collected from the floral paper, insurance card, and map book. He also testifies about the note found in Hae’s car, in her handwriting and addressed to Don that he reads for the jury, “Hey cutie sorry I can’t stay I have to go to a wrestling match at Randallstown High, but I promise to page you as soon as I get home. K? Till then take care and drive safely. Always, Hae. PS, the interview went well and I promise to tape it so you can see me as many and as often as you want.”

  Gutierrez has no questions on cross and the day’s proceedings end. The next day further testimony is presented about the fingerprints by Sharon Talmadge from the latent print unit of the BPD. Talmadge essentially affirms Thomas’s testimony but adds one very important fact: that sixteen of the fingerprints taken from Hae’s car returned negative results. They didn’t match Hae, Jay, or Adnan, or anyone in their database.

  Gutierrez, on cross, makes the point that Talmadge was only given two suspect prints from which to compare the recovered prints, and wasn’t even provided the prints of Alonzo Sellers, the neighborhood streaker. Showing the myopic focus of the investigation is her goal.

  “Did there come a time when the fingerprints and the palm prints of a person by the name of Alonzo Sellers were submitted to you?”

  “No, they were not.”

  “And did you, Ms. Talmadge, put any restrictions on the police department as to how many names—of how many suspects they could submit evidence against which you were to compare any evidence that you could recover?”

  “No.”

  “If they had submitted to you a list of ten names would you have conducted the very same thorough analysis that you did as you’ve described to us today?”

  “Yes.”

  “If they had submitted twenty names, would you have done the same thing?”

  “Yes.”

  Day three of the trial opens with testimony by Emmanuel Obot, a crime lab technician with BPD, who was present during the search of Adnan’s home. Obot identifies a picture of the book pulled from Adnan’s room that held the cards, letters, and pictures of and from Hae, including the note with the “I’m going to kill” line written across the top. Gutierrez makes an attempt to imply on cross that the book, out of an entire bookshelf, was specifically pointed out by Ritz to investigate, trying to raise suspicion about the fortunate coincidence of this discovery.

  Detective O’Shea next takes the stand and testifies, most significantly, about the ride that Adnan was supposed to have gotten from Hae after school but then denied when later interviewed. Gutierrez does a solid cross-examination then, raising the facts that Hae was seen by someone other than Adnan at school at 3:00 p.m., that Adnan was likely at track practice, and that Adnan himself had asked to meet with O’Shea to answer questions willingly.

  The State then calls witnesses connected to Woodlawn High—the principal Lynette Woodley, nurse Sharon Watts, athletic trainer Inez Butler, and students Krista Meyers and Debbie Warren.

  Woodley testifies to events on the night of the homecoming dance when Adnan’s parents showed up at school. She states that she saw his parents talking to Hae and intervened, telling her to return to the dance, and that she later asked her if she really wanted to be involved in a relationship where it was creating family problems.

  Watts gives more testimony
that raises questions about Adnan and the context of his relationship with Hae. She recounts the day it was announced in school that Hae had been found murdered.

  “He appeared shocked. His eyes were big. He was mute. He wasn’t talking. He wasn’t crying. He was just absolutely stone still … As soon as I touched Adnan and started to walk him into the health suite the look changed. The eyes weren’t so big. His posture wasn’t so erect. He walked easily. He didn’t need any leading … And just with that alone, his supposedly catatonic appearance changed … My opinion was that this was a very contrived emotion—very, very rehearsed—very insincere.”

  Gutierrez doesn’t do much to counter this assessment other than draw Watts to testify that she hadn’t seen Adnan and Hae together other than once, and that she had no experience with Adnan—she had never examined him before. On redirect, Urick asks one question: “What is a pathological liar?” Guterriez objects, and the court sustains the objection.

  Krista Meyers and Debbie Warren primarily testify about Adnan and Hae’s relationship, the impact of the family pressure on it, how they both took their eventual breakup, and how Adnan reacted at the news of Hae’s death. Urick has Krista identify the writing on the “I’m going to kill” note as Adnan’s without actually reading it out loud in order to enter it into evidence—he’s going to “publish” it with another witness. Urick also asks her about the conversation she had with Adnan the morning of the 13th and she responds, “I recall him mentioning … that Hae was supposed to pick him—pick up his car that afternoon from school because he didn’t have it for whatever reason. Either because it was in the shop or his brother had it, I’m not sure which.”

  Gutierrez does nothing to address this potential ride but has Krista testify about the fact that Hae and Adnan were still close after breaking up, still friends, and that likewise Adnan and Stephanie McPherson were also very close friends.

  Having established Debbie as a friend of Hae’s who knew about the problems of their relationship, Urick has Debbie read a series of passages from Hae’s diary in which she discusses her concerns about Adnan’s religion, doubts about their future, and about falling for someone new, Don. Debbie is also asked to read for the jury the exchange between Adnan and Aisha Pittman on the back of Hae’s note to him, and she concludes her testimony in dramatic fashion by reading the words “I’m going to kill.” Gutierrez continuously objects to all of it, from the diary passages to the note, and her objections are continuously overruled.

  On cross, Gutierrez gets to the most important point she needs to elicit from Debbie, that she told detectives she saw Adnan in school by the guidance counselor’s office around 2:45 p.m. on January 13.

  Gutierrez reads from Debbie’s police statement: “‘And I’m positive just about then I saw Adnan that day before he went to practice. I spoke to him and a couple other kids. And then that was very short—that wasn’t a long period of time that we did that.’ And then probably about 2:45 you left. Do you remember telling them (police) that?”

  “Yes.”

  One last important witness takes the stand on this day: Donald Clinedinst.

  Don testifies to having seen Adnan before he and Hae began dating because Adnan would occasionally swing by the store, and after they began dating, he saw him one more time. Hae had a small accident in the snow and called Adnan to take a look at her car, an incident Hae writes about in her diary. A discrepancy here, though, is that she indicates this happened in December, before she and Don began dating, and he testifies it happened after they began dating, which would have to have been in January.

  Urick offers Don’s employment records into evidence through his testimony, helping to establish that he was at work until 6:00 p.m. on the day Hae disappeared.

  Gutierrez asks Don to describe Adnan and his relationship with Hae after they broke up—that they were still friends, and there was no hostility.

  The next day, Tuesday, December 14, the State calls more witnesses to testify about the forensics, including the medical examiner, Dr. Margarita Korrell, who testifies about the autopsy and manner of death. She offers evidence that led her to conclude Hae was strangled in a homicide: eye hemorrhaging and a broken hyoid bone. She also testifies about the condition of the body and how it conforms to the theory that Hae was killed on January 13, 1999. The State then brings up evidence that shows Hae was not just strangled, but that she was hit viciously beforehand, asking the doctor to refer to the portion of her report that refers to bruises on Hae’s head.

  Dr. Korrell explains, “These are bruises that are in the right occipital and right temporalis muscle … (T)hey are under the skin, subfilial is on the surface of the bone and into the muscle of the right temple. And they only occur when the heart is still pumping.”

  Gutierrez is able, on cross, to get the pathologist to admit that there is no way to pinpoint the time of death. She also gets her to admit that there was no sign of external bleeding on the body. Lastly, under cross Korrell testifies that there was no sign of semen in any of the swabs taken from Hae’s body.

  Next on the stand is Melissa Stangroom, a forensic chemist with the Maryland State Police Crime Lab. Stangroom was in charge of the DNA testing on the bloodstained shirt. Her conclusion after testing was that while Adnan and Jay could be ruled out as the source of the blood, Hae could not. This allowed for the possibility of other suspects. Gutierrez pounced on this, asking Stangroom about how many samples she was asked to compare the blood to—only three, making a point to show how narrow the State’s investigation was.

  The prosecution also calls Woodlawn French teacher Hope Schab, who quickly establishes herself as someone deeply suspicious of Adnan’s behavior. She testifies about a time when Adnan was waiting for Hae in her classroom and Hae called the room phone, pretending to be a teacher, and asked Schab not to tell him where she was because they had a fight. She also testifies that she has been coordinating questioning with teachers and students, and indeed was even investigating Adnan herself, because Detective O’Shea had asked her to. She was asking around about his sex life, and Adnan asked her to put a stop to it, saying, “Are you asking questions about me, because, you know, my parents don’t know everything that goes on in my life, and I would appreciate it if you would, you know, not ask questions about me.”

  The State then calls Yaser Ali, Adnan’s friend of many years who also attended his mosque. Yaser’s number shows up twice on Adnan’s cell phone on January 13, but Urick also wants him to testify about the do’s and don’ts of being a Muslim. Gutierrez isn’t having it, objecting that this teenager is no expert on Islam, and the judge calls them both to the bench to make their points.

  Urick argues that Yaser’s testimony regarding the requirements of Islam are important because, “This defendant was leading a double life. He was leading one life that his parents’ religion wanted him to lead. He was leading a hidden or illicit life that caused him to lie to many people to create different personas, different fronts for different people.”

  Gutierrez renews her objection, saying that nothing Urick was exploring with this witness had any relevance to the day the murder was committed.

  The judge sides with Gutierrez, stating, “I have some difficultly in exploring any witness’s religious beliefs sort of generally … I think we raise needless due process considerations if you’re going to do generally an exploration of his adherence to his religious beliefs,” and telling Urick that he will have made his point if he gets to whether Adnan and Hae’s relationship was frowned upon in Islam.

  Having been duly guided, Urick returns to examine Yaser further about what Islam has to say about dating and premarital sex.

  Gutierrez is successful on cross in getting Yaser to testify that this “double-life” angle Urick is getting at actually applies to all the young Muslim men at the mosque who are dating. She ends with a long line of questioning on Ramadan, the involvement of Muslims at the mosque in this month, and the honor of leading prayers.

  The l
ast witness to testify before the State’s key witness is a young woman named Kristina (Christina in trial documents) Vinson.

  Adnan does not really know Vinson except as a friend of Jay and Jenn. But her testimony is about to place him with Jay in her house at a crucial time on January 13, right before he is supposed to have buried Hae around 7:00 p.m. It’s the first time he’s going to hear this part of the State’s case, and he’s perplexed because while he remembers once having swung by her apartment with Jay, he is almost certain it wasn’t on that night. But he could be wrong—after breaking his fast that night he had gotten high and, in all honesty, what happened after smoking pot wasn’t exactly clear for him.