The Commonwealth called Dr. Janet Andrejco, who’d been the principal of Great Bridge High School for four years until her retirement on August 1, 2010. Her presence on the stand spawned another defense objection, which led to a round of questioning outside of the presence of the jury.
After a lengthy argument, the judge ruled Dr. Andrejco’s testimony was admissible and the jury returned to the courtroom. She reviewed the schedule for the school, demonstrating that Wesley had not been responsible for overseeing any school activities on December 19, 2007, and that he’d been at work on December 20, the last day the school was in session before beginning their holiday break on December 21. In response to the prosecutor’s questions, she told the jury that there were approximately 350 computers and 150 printers at Great Bridge High.
Nance asked, “Did he [Wesley Earnest] return after the winter break?”
“He did.” However, Dr. Andrejco testified, he did not return after law enforcement appeared at the high school on January 24, 2008, pursuant to the investigation into the death of Jocelyn Earnest.
On cross, Dr. Andrejco testified that the school walkie-talkie system had about fifteen people on it, including the assistant principals, and they could all be reached immediately at any time they were at the school.
• • •
Next, the Commonwealth called Jesse McCoy’s uncle to the stand, where the Baptist pastor testified about helping out his nephew—Wesley’s former student—by performing the detailing on Wesley Earnest’s car on Thursday, December 20, because Wesley said he’d be out of town on Wednesday.
On cross, Joey Sanzone asked, “Sir, you say this was a brand-new business. When had it started up?”
“It never officially materialized,” he said. Wesley Earnest was their only client.
Sanzone asked the preacher if he could, without any reference to his notes, tell the jury when was the first time anybody asked him to go back and revisit the conversations with Wesley Earnest.
“I had no reason to until Dr. Earnest called me the following May asking me for a receipt.”
“. . . You hadn’t even thought about these conversations for six months at that point, had you?”
“That’s correct. Well, I take that back. That’s not entirely true. Earlier that year, my nephew called me [ . . . ] and said [ . . . ] had I heard about Dr. Earnest being indicted? And at that time I did not. But that made me think, do I need to be aware of anything. So I certainly started to replay some things in my mind to make sure that I had what I had clear.”
“But you had no notes?”
“No, sir.”
“And all of this is just done just sitting around thinking back over a few months?”
“Well, he would have been our first official customer. And you always remember your first and [ . . . ] with much more clarity than others.”
“Well, but he was your only customer. Y’all weren’t in business.”
“That’s true. And that’s all the more reason for me to remember that a little clearer.”
“You didn’t call him up on Wednesday and confirm that he was out of town anywhere, did you?”
“No, sir.”
“You didn’t talk to him on Thursday about returning from town anywhere, did you?”
“No, sir.”
“In fact [ . . . ] all you needed was a day when he was going to be at school from eight o’clock in the morning to four o’clock in the afternoon so you could pick up the car and detail it.”
“Essentially.”
“And with him being at school on Wednesday from eight to four, you could have done it that day.”
“We talked about that day, but . . .”
“You couldn’t do it that day.”
McCoy explained that Thursday worked better for him anyway. “Being a Baptist pastor, Wednesdays are heavy church days [ . . . ] I told him that would not be a good day for me and if we could avoid that day that would be best, but if it absolutely had to be that day, I could make an exception.”
“And he certainly didn’t insist on it being Wednesday, did he?”
“At one time he did. That was the best day for him at one time [ . . . ] but he changed it because he had other commitments.”
• • •
Erik Goodrick hopped into the hot seat saying that he lived in Virginia Beach and Wesley was his neighbor in 2007. When Wesley moved, they still kept loosely in contact by telephone.
Erik told the jury that he was in Chicago in between Thanksgiving and Christmas installing a printing press. Wesley called him twice while he was gone, but since his phone was dead, he did not retrieve any messages until after Christmas. In the first message, Wesley simply asked that Erik call him back. In the second one, Wesley said he needed to borrow Erik’s truck. When he got the messages, Erik returned the calls and left a message but Wesley never called him back.
In response to questions from the defense, Erik said he knew nothing about Jocelyn Earnest and never saw her. He did, however, see Wesley’s girlfriend, Shameka Wright.
Erik said that he was not surprised by Wesley asking to borrow his truck because he’d done so once before when he had needed to move some furniture. On that occasion, Wesley had cleaned the truck before returning it, something Erik never did himself. He and his wife used to joke about needing to get Wesley to borrow the truck again so it could get cleaned.
• • •
David Hall, a teacher and coach with the stocky body of a wrestler, took Erik’s place before the jury. He said that he struck up a friendship with Wesley, who was teaching him how to hunt. The two of them went out together as much as they possibly could. He said that Wesley never mentioned Jocelyn, and they never discussed finances.
Before Christmas break, he and Wesley exchanged vehicles after school during the week of December 17. David said that Wesley wanted to move furniture to a trailer but asked him not to say anything about that to any of the administrators because he was trying to establish a residence.
When Nance asked about the condition of the tires on his truck, Dave said, “Oh, they were in great shape. They were about a year and three months old, but I rotate them every three thousand miles.” He then told the jury about Wesley borrowing the truck again in January and returning it with new, but inferior, tires.
• • •
Like Wesley Earnest, Jim Clevenger was a public school administrator working as an assistant principal at Great Bridge High School. While he and Wesley worked together, they formed a professional friendship. “There were times that we would go out and get dinner before a football game or something, you know. That was the extent of the social activity. But, yes, we did [ . . . ] Wesley actually volunteered some information about his financial status [ . . . ] He indicated in his first year that he didn’t necessarily have to work, that he was not like most administrators who could limit how much they could invest, that the folks downtown were investigating how to coordinate the paperwork so that he could invest a portion of his money.”
“Did he say the status of his debts? Anything like that?” Nance asked.
“He indicated that he didn’t have a lot of responsibility.”
Jim told the jury about Wesley Earnest’s stressed reaction to the arrival of two men in dark suits at the high school on January 24. He said that Wesley specifically asked if Dave Hall had spoken to them and that Wesley appeared preoccupied all day.
Joey Sanzone did his best to make Wesley’s inquiry about David Hall appear innocent or coincidental. The question, however, hung in the air. It had made a lasting impression on the witness; would it weigh as heavy with the jury?