Fatal Convictions

84

the present virginia beach, virginia

Alex and his team were cautiously optimistic Wednesday night. It seemed to Alex that the jury was bothered by the same thing that had struck him about this case-why would Khalid send text messages from his own cell phone?

There were, of course, a number of possible explanations. Perhaps Khalid really didn’t know about the particulars of the Patriot Act. Perhaps Khalid didn’t think he would ever be a suspect because the police would zero in on Fatih Mahdi. Perhaps Khalid did it precisely because it would seem too obvious and he could later argue that it created reasonable doubt, like a killer signing the crime scene in blood. Who could be that stupid? Maybe Khalid had outsmarted everybody, including his own lawyers.

Alex preferred not to think about that last alternative.

Nara seemed upbeat when she showed up at the office after visiting her father. “My dad says you guys really know what you’re doing,” she said.

They were sitting around the conference table preparing for the following day’s witnesses. Shannon merely looked up when Nara made the comment and then went back to work. Alex took it as Nara’s way of apologizing for the way she had acted at lunch. The words I’m sorry were not a prominent part of Nara’s vocabulary.

“Shannon did a great job on cross-examination,” Alex said. “And as you know, I made no mistakes in my opening statement.”

“So I heard,” Nara said. She flashed a beautiful white smile.

Apology accepted, Alex thought.

Later, Alex had a few minutes to talk with Nara in the privacy of his office. “I’m ready to testify,” she said.

“We’ll make that call this weekend,” Alex responded. “The commonwealth should rest its case on Friday. I’ll know better after I cross-examine Fatih Mahdi whether we’ll need you.”

“Alex,” Nara said, waiting for Alex to look in her eyes before she continued. “If there’s any chance we might lose this case, I need to take the stand. Promise me.”

Alex didn’t respond. He still believed that if he put Nara on the stand, it would only be a matter of time before Hezbollah took her out. Even the witness protection program was no guarantee against an organization with as many tentacles as Hezbollah.

“Promise me,” she insisted.

He looked down. “If I think we need your testimony, I’ll put you on the stand.”

“Thank you, Alex.” Nara rose from her seat, approached Alex, and kissed him on the cheek. She paused a few inches away from his face. “If I have to testify, I’ll be okay. I’ve got a place to go. After a few years, I’ll come back.”

Looking directly into her eyes, Alex wanted to believe her. He wanted to believe that she would be all right. He wanted to believe that she would come back for him. But during their trip to Beirut, Hezbollah had already demonstrated its ability to know things it shouldn’t know.

He had the uneasy feeling that she was only telling him the things that she knew he wanted to hear. Al toqiah. Anything for the sake of the cause.

But two could play this game. Unless the case fell completely apart, Alex had no intention of putting her on the stand.

And then, a split second later, none of that mattered. Who could think of such things when a woman like Nara leaned in for a serious kiss?***

Even the juiciest trials get bogged down in details, and Thursday was that day for the Mobassar trial. Dr. Kumar Santi took the stand and gave the jury a lesson in cell phone triangulation. To keep the jury somewhat awake, Deegan showed PowerPoints with lots of colorful charts and maps. When Santi stepped down, there was little doubt that the text messages from Khalid’s cell phone had been sent from the vicinity of the Islamic Learning Center in Norfolk. The message from the killer’s cell phone had been sent from Sandbridge.

Santi was followed by someone from the CSI lab who testified about the traces of Ja’dah Mahdi’s DNA at the Sandbridge rental property. Next came a Sandbridge rental agent who explained how she had left the key to the property under a mat because of the occupant’s plan to arrive late at night. A signed rental agreement under a phony name had been sent previously via mail. In other words, the rental agent never laid eyes on the killer.

The deputy sheriff who had found the bodies testified next. He told the jury all about the elaborate search and the carefully trained dogs who actually located the bodies. Just before lunch, Taj Deegan again grossed out the jury with the pictures of the bodies.

It was all very interesting, Alex thought, but not particularly damaging. A tale of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

After lunch came more of the same. Taj Deegan might as well have passed out pillows and cots as the jurors listened to a computer technician testify about the way he had searched the hard drive of Khalid Mobassar’s work computer. The witness had a monotone voice, an expressionless face, and a unique way of making a murder trial seem as exciting as high school calculus.

After about twenty minutes, Judge Rosenthal clearly needed a cigarette break, and some of the jurors looked like they needed alarm clocks. Eventually the technician meandered around to the point of his testimony-someone had used Khalid Mobassar’s work computer to search for Sandbridge rental properties on March 29, just a few months prior to the killings. Other searches and e-mails made it pretty clear Khalid was the only one using his computer that day, and in particular during the time frame surrounding the search.

Shannon had no questions for the witness on cross-examination, and Rosenthal mercifully decided that it was time for a break.

The rest of the afternoon was taken up with the testimony of Detective Terri Brown. The detective explained how she had first focused on Fatih Mahdi as the primary suspect. The crime fit the profile for a religiously motivated honor killing, and the husband would therefore be the primary suspect. But, according to Brown, all the hard evidence pointed toward the defendant.

They had also caught the defendant in a couple of lies. For example, during her interviews with Mr. Mobassar, the imam denied knowing anything about a search for Sandbridge rental listings. Brown also noted that the defendant had been less than forthcoming about his conversations with Fatih Mahdi and had been a supporter of Hezbollah in the past.

During Brown’s testimony, Taj Deegan introduced copies of the books she had waved around during her opening statement and a copy of the manuscript for Khalid’s new book. The jury was also shown video of Khalid talking on Hezbollah television shortly after Omar was killed and on American television after the Israeli strikes against Lebanon in 2006.

Brown was a seasoned witness, so Shannon conducted a limited and cautious cross-examination. She scored a few points about why Fatih Mahdi had been a suspect and asked Brown numerous questions about Mahdi’s radical philosophy and belief in Sharia law. Then she carefully returned to the same theme she had introduced earlier: why would somebody as intelligent as Khalid Mobassar use his own cell phone to send text messages ordering an honor killing?

“I have no reason to believe that the defendant knew his text messages were being monitored under the Patriot Act,” Brown responded. “I believe that the defendant thought we would focus on the husband and therefore never seriously investigate the defendant. Plus, I’ve been a detective long enough to see murder suspects do some incredibly stupid things.”

Alex could tell from the look on Shannon’s face that she regretted asking the question. But she was a pro and quickly moved on to the next line of questioning.

By the time court adjourned at five o’clock, one thing had become obvious to everyone in the courtroom: the case would rise or fall on the testimony of two men-Fatih Mahdi and, if he took the stand, Khalid Mobassar. That knowledge kept Alex at the office until well after midnight on Thursday. He probably would have stayed all night if his grandmother hadn’t chased him out.

“You can’t think straight if you don’t get any sleep,” Ramona said, setting some papers on his desk.

“Ten more minutes,” Alex said. He really needed two more hours but didn’t have the strength to argue with anyone, especially his grandmother. He would take the documents home and finish his work there.

“You said that an hour ago,” Ramona reminded him.

Alex sighed and rolled his eyes. “Didn’t I already fire you once? Now go home and let me finish getting ready.”

Ramona told Alex that she needed to get a few more documents copied and a few more things organized. Not once in the last week had Ramona left before Alex. She headed out of his office but stopped at the door and turned back toward Alex.

“I’m proud of you, Alex Madison. Your parents and your granddad are proud of you too.”