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Vivi Ann stood up, rising like a white rose froarden, and tried to smile at Dallas

Before Dallas was seated at the defense table, the guards removed his restraints

Judge Debra Edwards entered the courtroo black robes She took her place on the bench and looked at the attorneys “Are the parties ready to proceed?”

“Yes, Your Honor,” the lawyers said in tandem

The judge nodded “Bring in the jury”

The jurors filed into the courtroom in quiet order; all of the

Sara Hamm stood up With that si woman in a crisp blue suit with a needle-thin white pinstripe, she looked professional and calm She smiled at the jury and entlehtforward” She had the voice of a fairy tale witch: smooth and honeyed on the surface but with a layer of steel beneath Winona found herself leaning forward, hanging on every word

“During the course of this trial, the state will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Dallas Raintree feigned an illness on Christ to attend church services with his family While his wife and child were away, he went to Catherine Morgan’s home and he killed her

“Hoe know this beyond a reasonable doubt? The answer is evidence Mr Raintree left a trail behind hiators were able to follow First and -term association with the victiular weekend trysts with Ms Morgan These evenings have been described as ‘rowdy, drunken, lewd’ gatherings that went on long into theBut association doesn’t equal murder For that we have to look to the physical and forensic evidence Of which there is plenty”

Sara held out a photograph of Cat Morgan; in it, she was sitting on her porch, sraph, she was sluainst a bloody wall, naked, a torn dark bullet wound in her chest

Several jurors flinched and looked away; others glared at Dallas Sara Ha now and then in front of the fe the cri detail When she was finished with that, she turned to the jury again

“The state will introduce evidence that the gun used to kill Catherine Morgan ned by Dallas Raintree Experts lifted his fingerprints frouilt beyond a reasonable doubt, ladies and gentlemen, but the state has even ton State Criathered froan’s bed that night, and an eyewitness will testify that he left her house at just past eight o’clock that evening The an’s death at somewhere between six and nine-thirty on the twenty-fourth DNA samples from the crime scene will establish that Dallas Raintree is the saan just before her death

“Coincidence? Hardly When all this evidence is put together, the answer is inescapable Dallas Raintree, who had a very public affair with Catherine Morgan before his e, went back to the affair sos rong for the lovers Evidence will show that they fought for control of the gun And Dallas Raintree won that fight He shot her in the chest at point-blank range and then went ho a cozy Christentlemen, this is a commonsense case There is no doubt, reasonable or otherwise, that Dallas Raintree an in cold blood, and at the conclusion of the evidence I auilty of this heinous criht was in believing that the defendant was her friend and letting hientlemen Let’s not compound it now Let’s ain” She returned to her seat and sat down “Thank you”

Winona sat back in her seat, finally releasing the breath she’d been holding She glanced up at the clock, seeing that it was nearly ten-thirty The hour and a half Sara Ha had flown by But it was the jury that captured her attention Alry eyes

Dallas’s attorney rose He appeared nervous and ill-put-together next to the elegant prosecuting attorney, and when he spoke his voice cracked and he had to clear his throat Winona wondered how entlemen of the jury, you have just heard the story the state would like you to buy; it is a collection of circuether like a puzzle, but upon closer examination create only a portrait of reasonable doubt Dallas Raintree was sick that Christ, and he certainly never killed the woood friend, but not a lover Evidence will show that Catherine Morgan had lots of men in her life Additionally, the DNA evidence left at the scene does not identify Dallas Raintree as the an Experts will testify that the sa of his blood type is less; forty percent of the population shares that blood type The state has arrested the wrong man It is as simple as that Dallas Raintree is innocent” With a nod to the jury, a kind of head-bobbing exclamation point, the man returned to his seat and sat down