Giannini is frustrated by the slowness of the trial, and early in August he decrees that all remaining sessions will be thirty minutes longer.
Testimony ends on the seventy-ninth day of the trial, making it the longest in the state’s 336-year history.
The jury deliberates for eight hours and then returns. As each defendant is brought before the bench, jury foreman Barry Dana of Smithfield, Rhode Islands, reads the verdict to a crowded, hot, and tightly hushed courtroom.
It all comes down to this: You can get away with partaking of the last good heist if one, you kept your mask in place, and two, you had a way to make people think you were somewhere else. The first is up to you; the second is up to your friends.
Walter Ouimette is acquitted because he can prove that while the robbery was taking place he was at home with his wife.
Jake Tarzian is acquitted because a couple of friends support his assertion that he was doing automotive work for them at the time.
Gerald Tillinghast is acquitted because his half-brother, Lawrence J. Mastrofine, of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, testifies that he, Tillinghast, and another man were visiting friends in New Hampshire on August 14. Mastrofine says one of the points of interest on the trip was the Old Man of the Mountain.
During cross-examination, DeRobbio asks, “And who was the old man you saw?”
“He didn’t say his name,” Mastrofine replies.
The Old Man, of course, was an immense rock formation in the rough shape of a man’s face, but Mastrofine mentions enough other potentially legitimate activities to offset the damning impact of his lie.
Skippy Byrnes is found guilty of robbery, kidnapping, and conspiracy. He testifies that on August 14, he helped move a boat and then worked on a dock project in Narragansett Village. Byrnes’s alibi sinks when the general manager of the project testifies that the dock work was finished by the end of the first week of August.
John Ouimette is found guilty of conspiracy and being an accessory to armed robbery before the fact. His alibi depends on a multipage photocopied record noting his presence during some work for the state. DeRobbio, Giblin, and Murphy notice that one page of the record, the one certifying Ouimette’s whereabouts on August 14, has a slightly different and seemingly inconsequential mechanical mark on it. It appears intentional, so they question it and persist. It turns out that the mark is a manufacturer’s brand, a mechanical conceit that could only have been made by a copier that went on the market some time after August 14. The original page in question had been altered to include Ouimette’s name, recopied on the newer machine, and then inserted in the file.
Chucky Flynn, who married Ellen in February at the ACI, is found guilty of robbery, kidnapping, and conspiracy because his lawyers never get to unload his alibi. Among articles submitted as evidence were head and pubic hairs that FBI personnel collected from overalls Chucky used during the robbery. Chucky is a white man with light brown hair, but the hairs in evidence are certified as African American.
The hairs easily could have come from the stolen van used in the robbery. Regardless, Brower, Cicilline, and Berson are all wound up to argue that the hairs create reasonable doubt that Chucky was ever involved.
Chucky’s testimony is the last of the six defendants’.
Cicilline calls him to the stand, asks his age.
“Did you rob the Bonded Vault Company?” Cicilline asks.
“No,” Chucky says, his voice flat and clear.
“Do you know who did?” Cicilline asks.
“Yes,” Chucky says.
“No further questions,” Cicilline says, opening the trap.
DeRobbio is a bit stunned and shuffles some of the papers in front of him to stall for time. Both Giblin and Murphy lean in on him before he can rise to cross-examine Chucky.
DeRobbio asks for a brief recess.
Giannini agrees.
Out of the courtroom, Murphy and Giblin warn DeRobbio that if he continues as the defense anticipates, he’ll walk into a trap: Once the possibility of different culprits is raised, by way of the African American stray hair, there is room for the defense to argue reasonable doubt.
Don’t go there, they say.
Moments later in court, DeRobbio launches his cross-examination and focuses on a mere recitation of Chucky’s criminal record dating back to 1963.
“No further questions,” DeRobbio says.
He doesn’t take the bait.
Brower rushes to the bench and asks Giannini’s permission to call Chucky back to the stand.
Giannini shakes his head.
“You passed up that chance,” he says. “Bring on your next witness.”
“We have no further witnesses today, Your Honor,” Brower says.
Giannini’s stare is long, cold, and forever.
Brower turns away.
It’s all over but the sentencing now.