Chapter Forty-Eight

The Trial

When Dean Baldwin called Beatrice Jackson Willis to the stand, he pointed toward Claude Jordan, “Are you related to the defendant?”

“Yayes, I aim. He my ’dopted brother.”

“By what name do you know him?”

“He Clay Jackson.”

“Does he have any identifying birthmarks or tattoos that you know about?”

“Yayes, he do. He got dis ol’ tattatoo on his back. It be dis skull wit a knife stuck in da eyeball and blood jist a drippin’ from the skull.”

“Your Honor, at this time I’d like to present into evidence these photographs taken this morning of Claude Jordan.”

The bailiff gave the photos to the judge. When the judge was finished reviewing them, Baldwin said, “If the jurors will look at the white screen, my assistant will project the photos onto it.”

All photos were marked with the current day’s date. The first showed a front view of Jackson stripped to the waist. The next photo was Jackson with his back to the camera. A skull, a knife plunged into the eye socket, and dripping blood from the skull were displayed on the left side of his back. Several other poses were shown. On each pose the gory tattoo was visible.

After the spectators calmed down, Baldwin asked Beatrice Willis several more questions regarding Clay Jackson. Palmer did not cross examine her.

Next Baldwin called Horace McIntire to the witness stand. “Mr. McIntire, is it true in the early seventies you were friends with Deputy Sheriff Edgar Fitzsimmons?”

McIntire, looking around the courtroom, found Claude Jordan sitting at the defendant’s table. A look of confusion was on his face.

Baldwin asked, “Mr. McIntire, did you hear the question?”

McIntire looked at Baldwin, still confused, and responded, “Uh, yayes. I knewed Ed Fitzsimmons.”

“Do you see Edgar Fitzsimmons in this courtroom today?”

“Uh, yayes.”

“Can you point him out to the court?”

McIntire looked around the room, very muddled. Then he raised his hand and pointed to Claude Jordan. “That man right thar be Ed Fitzsimmons.”

“Let the court note that Mr. McIntire has pointed to Claude Jordan.”

Baldwin finished his questioning of McIntire, and Palmer began his cross examination. He tried to discredit McIntire’s testimony because of his past dealings with the law, but the judge wouldn’t allow it.

The judge then asked, “Mr. Baldwin, do you have any other witness to present in the case?”

“No, Your Honor. The prosecution rests.”

“We will adjourn until ten a.m. tomorrow.