courtroom after leaving her precious toddler to suffocate in the trunk of her car, has lied her way through life and lived off the backs of others. But the one thing she wanted, she couldnât have. She wanted Mark Stringer, a fellow student at UCLA. She wanted him so desperately that she set out to get pregnant with his child with the belief that he would marry her. When she didnât immediately get pregnant by Stringer, the defendant went on a promiscuous binge, sleeping with an untold number of men until she accomplished her goal. What Noelle didnât know, and even Mark Stringer himself wasnât aware of at that time, wasthat he was physically unable to father a child. Mr. Stringer was sterile.
âFor the first time in her life, Noelle tasted failure and rejection. And she now had a baby to care for when she had never cared for anyone or anything other than herself. As her lies began to unravel and her gravy train came to a screeching halt, the defendant began to plot ways she could rid herself of what she saw as a liabilityâher own flesh and blood, her son, little Brandon Reynolds.â
As Silverstein walked back to the counsel table, his face frozen into hard lines, he stopped and stood beside a large poster-size photograph of Brandon, propped up on an easel. The boy had white blond hair and enormous blue eyes, and there was a happy smile on his young face. âDoes this look like a liability to you, something to be shoved in a garbage bag and left to float in the frigid waters of the ocean until his tiny ravaged body ended up in a place his murderous mother believed he belongedâfloating among human waste at the Oxnard sewage plant? I donât think so.â
Several of the female jurors had tears streaming down their faces and even a few of the men found it hard to remain dry-eyed in the face of such depravity. At the counsel table, Silverstein leaned down to quickly confer with his co-counsel, Beth Sanders, a fortyish woman with brown hair and a masculine jawline. âWhen the defendant ran home to her father, believing he would take care of her problems as heâd always done in the past, Dr. Reynolds became furious and refused to let his daughter and her new baby live in his home. He also cut the defendant off financially, forcing her to get a job to support herself and little Brandon. Ms. Reynolds begged her friends in Ventura to help her, but by now, they all had responsibilities of their own.â
Many judges actually went to sleep on the bench, especially during this stage of the proceedings. Prior to a case reaching Lilyâs courtroom, a preliminary hearing was held in the municipal court. A preliminary hearing was similar to a mini trial without a jury. At the conclusion, the municipal court judge decided if the defendant should be held to answer in superior court. Of course, Lily hadalready read through the court reporterâs transcript on the preliminary hearing, so she was all too familiar with the facts of the case. She had never fallen asleep but her thoughts occasionally wandered, and having Richard Fowler only a few feet away was hugely distracting. She tried not to look at him, but she was only human and as hard as she fought, she couldnât stop herself from remembering the first time they had made love.
The district attorneyâs office had been having a party. She generally didnât go to these affairs, but it had been her birthday and no one had remembered except her mother. Her husband hadnât remembered. Her daughter hadnât remembered. If her mother hadnât sent her a card, even Lily would have forgotten. But she would never forget that night. She had experienced pleasure she never knew existed, went on to end her marriage to Shanaâs father, and had set a chain of events in motion that had possibly led a rapist to her doorstep and turned her into a killer.
SPRING, 1993
VENTURA, CALIFORNIA
The Elephant Bar was filled to
âFor the first time in her life, Noelle tasted failure and rejection. And she now had a baby to care for when she had never cared for anyone or anything other than herself. As her lies began to unravel and her gravy train came to a screeching halt, the defendant began to plot ways she could rid herself of what she saw as a liabilityâher own flesh and blood, her son, little Brandon Reynolds.â
As Silverstein walked back to the counsel table, his face frozen into hard lines, he stopped and stood beside a large poster-size photograph of Brandon, propped up on an easel. The boy had white blond hair and enormous blue eyes, and there was a happy smile on his young face. âDoes this look like a liability to you, something to be shoved in a garbage bag and left to float in the frigid waters of the ocean until his tiny ravaged body ended up in a place his murderous mother believed he belongedâfloating among human waste at the Oxnard sewage plant? I donât think so.â
Several of the female jurors had tears streaming down their faces and even a few of the men found it hard to remain dry-eyed in the face of such depravity. At the counsel table, Silverstein leaned down to quickly confer with his co-counsel, Beth Sanders, a fortyish woman with brown hair and a masculine jawline. âWhen the defendant ran home to her father, believing he would take care of her problems as heâd always done in the past, Dr. Reynolds became furious and refused to let his daughter and her new baby live in his home. He also cut the defendant off financially, forcing her to get a job to support herself and little Brandon. Ms. Reynolds begged her friends in Ventura to help her, but by now, they all had responsibilities of their own.â
Many judges actually went to sleep on the bench, especially during this stage of the proceedings. Prior to a case reaching Lilyâs courtroom, a preliminary hearing was held in the municipal court. A preliminary hearing was similar to a mini trial without a jury. At the conclusion, the municipal court judge decided if the defendant should be held to answer in superior court. Of course, Lily hadalready read through the court reporterâs transcript on the preliminary hearing, so she was all too familiar with the facts of the case. She had never fallen asleep but her thoughts occasionally wandered, and having Richard Fowler only a few feet away was hugely distracting. She tried not to look at him, but she was only human and as hard as she fought, she couldnât stop herself from remembering the first time they had made love.
The district attorneyâs office had been having a party. She generally didnât go to these affairs, but it had been her birthday and no one had remembered except her mother. Her husband hadnât remembered. Her daughter hadnât remembered. If her mother hadnât sent her a card, even Lily would have forgotten. But she would never forget that night. She had experienced pleasure she never knew existed, went on to end her marriage to Shanaâs father, and had set a chain of events in motion that had possibly led a rapist to her doorstep and turned her into a killer.
SPRING, 1993
VENTURA, CALIFORNIA
The Elephant Bar was filled to
Similar Books
Echoes of Tomorrow
Jenny Lykins
The Death of Rex Nhongo
C.B. George
The Butcher of Smithfield
Susanna Gregory
T.J. and the Cup Run
Theo Walcott
The Ivory Road: A Walk in the Sand
Siobhan Muir
Murder in the Dorm
C.G. Prado
Looking for Alibrandi
Melina Marchetta
Rescue Nights
Nina Hamilton
