| |
Dan was relieved Jazlyn did not attempt to reinvent trial strategy on the first day. She followed the tried-and-true template for criminal prosecution. First item on the agenda was proof of crime, which in this case, meant proof of death by unnatural causes. There was no dispute about the fact that four men died a gruesome death in that oven, but it was still an essential element of the crimes asserted against Camila, and if Jazlyn didn’t cover it, she risked being shut down by a motion to dismiss.
Jazlyn started with the medical examiner, though she had many other experts ready to testify on the subject. Where do you find experts on death by baking? He didn’t even want to know.
The medical examiner, Dr. Zanzibar, took the stand first. Blue suit. Pocket protector. Bow tie. Stiff as a board. Jazlyn quickly established that he had been called to the scene of the crime soon as the corpses were found by a uniformed officer investigating a revolting odor emanating from the bakery. Zanzibar performed an initial investigation on site, then took a closer look at the corpses in his morgue. Although he examined all four bodies, Jazlyn focused most of his testimony on Nick Mansfield. Presumably, that was where Jazlyn thought she had the strongest case against Camila. Ultimately, it didn’t matter if the jury found Camila guilty of one murder or four. One was enough to earn the ultimate sanction.
“Could you please explain what caused these deaths?”
He nodded. “It’s not entirely different from the heat stroke that arises after extreme physical exertion, or when people have been out in the sun too long. Or go to sleep inside their cars on a hot Florida day. All of which can be potentially lethal.”
“But why?”
“Your body always wants to maintain an ideal temperature of about thirty-seven degrees Celsius. When the outside temperature is higher, the body tries to maintain that ideal temperature by increasing its rate of heat dissipation through mechanisms that involve significant increases in blood flow to the skin. Unfortunately, that means the amount of blood available to other organs decreases. A sharp decrease in blood flow to the brain can cause unconsciousness and eventually death. It’s simple thermodynamics, really.”
Which probably meant nothing to most of the jurors, but certainly indicated that the witness knew what he was talking about. “How hot does it need to be before this process starts?”
“Not as hot as you might imagine. The interior of this oven was probably uncomfortable in a matter of minutes. Plus, these men were touching it, so they would experience burns even before their bodies began to go haywire. Most people have accidentally touched a hot pan or stovetop briefly. Imagine if that happened but you were unable to jerk your hand away.”
He noted several disturbed expressions on the faces of the jurors.
“Would the bodies sweat?”
“Of course. That’s the body’s first line of defense, as it tries to push the heat within the body to the surface. The sweat cools the body—for a time. When your skin temperature is warmer than the outside temperature, you can also lose heat. That’s what we call dry heat loss. But that would not have happened here. The oven interior became too hot, too quickly.”
“How quickly?”
Zanzibar’s testimony was typically unemotional, but even he appeared affected by thoughts of the interior of that deadly cauldron. “At forty degrees, the body tells the muscles to slow down. That’s when fatigue sets in. At forty-one degrees, the body starts to shut down. Cells deteriorate. Organ failure begins. The body can’t even sweat anymore, because blood flow to the skin will cease. The body will feel cold and clammy—while the skin may actually be cooking. Or melting.”
“Is that when heatstroke sets in?”
“Yes. Hyperthermia.”
“How quickly would that occur?”
“Given how fast the oven heated—perhaps five minutes.”
“Did the men live long?”
“No.” He took a breath. “Thank goodness. If heatstroke is not treated immediately, the likelihood of survival is virtually nil. Heat and organ failure would be painful, but the body would shut down and they would lose consciousness long before they were actually dead. Which is a mercy. This was a hellish way to die, but probably not a prolonged one.”
He could see the jurors’ pained expressions. They knew the nature of the crime before the trial began, of course, but hearing a witness talk about it at length was far more disturbing.
“What other symptoms did they suffer?”
“I can’t speak with certainty since I wasn’t there. But based upon my examination of the remains, I believe that before death they suffered delirium, convulsions, and possibly entered a comatic state. Various forms of trauma and electrolyte abnormalities. All of those symptoms are pathophysiological inflammatory responses determined by the intense heat, as is multiple organ failure. On at least one of the victims, organs actually burst, plus a blood vessel eruption near the surface caused a skin rupture, possibly aided by weakening of the skin due to contact with the oven heating elements. As a result, blood splattered.”
“Beside Nick Mansfield?”
“The victim in question was positioned to his right.”
“What was the actual cause of death?”
“There are multiple possibilities, and the corpses I examined were so damaged it’s difficult to make a precise determination. But in all likelihood, it was the loss of blood to the brain. Intercranial hypertension, cerebral hypoperfusion, and neuronal injuries. But I want to stress that all of that might have been augmented, or possibly preceded, by what was happening in the rest of the body. Arterial hypotension. Multi-organ ischemia. At the cellular level, exposure to this degree of heat at will inhibit DNA synthesis and transcription and cause protein degradation, cell-cycle interruption, metabolic changes, and cytoskeletal alteration. The autopsies revealed marked petechiae and ecchymosis on the thymus, as well as hemorrhagic diathesis, brain and pulmonary edema, cerebral edema, massive blood aspiration, and internal bleeding in multiple organs. No one could recover from that.”
“Doctor, I fear the jury may not understand all your medical terminology. Can you give them the bottom line?”
The doctor shrugged. “The four men baked to death.”
Jazlyn finished her questioning. He had not originally planned to cross at all. He and Maria both thought the sooner they got Doctor Death off the stand, the better. One thing Zanzibar mentioned triggered his interest, though.
“You said the victims might have suffered from delusions?”
Zanzibar nodded. “Very likely. In the brief time before they died. I don't know the circumstances that led to them being placed in that oven, but I think we can all agree that it was probably not voluntary.”
Especially since they were drugged, but he knew another witness would testify about the tox screen later. “What conclusion do you draw from that?”
“They were already in an agitated state. Then confined in a rapidly heating deathtrap. Anyone might panic, hallucinate. But combine that heat with the biological distress—and delusion seems much more likely. Possibly a hypnotic state. Certainly impaired judgment.”
“Thank you. Nothing more.” And good riddance to Doctor Death.