America's King of Poetry

Chapter 62 alibi

After communicating with Karen, Arthur returned to the cell where he was detained, and saw the tall and thin man with disheveled hair again.

He sat cross-legged on the ground motionless, and beside him was a skinny black man with curly hair turning around beside him. The black man's eyes were always big, rolling around, looking up and down at the tall and thin man.Everyone else in the cell watched with cold eyes. No one likes to cause trouble, but no one doesn't like to watch the excitement.The nigger obviously didn't like being tall and thin, and wanted to find something to pass the time.

"Hey, buddy, are you awake? It's dawn, you'd better find a corner to huddle, it will be more comfortable, don't you think?" The tall and thin man sat cross-legged in the center of the cell, very eye-catching.This little black is obviously looking for trouble, and wants to make the tall and thin one move.But the tall and thin man was unmoved, the smell of alcohol on his body had dissipated a lot, his sloppy appearance still looked sloppy, but he looked much more energetic.He sat cross-legged on the ground motionless, like a statue.

Xiao Hei squatted down and reached out to grab his beard. Arthur suddenly stepped forward and grabbed Xiao Hei's wrist.

"Don't do it if you want to live longer."

Xiao Hei looked at Arthur. Arthur was tall and strong, and he looked very temperamental, and he looked like he could bluff people.

"What do you mean? Is he electrified? What if I touch him? Electrocuted to death?" Xiao ** asked in his sharp voice, this guy is a drug addict, purely boring.In addition, the whole person is a little nervous because of drug addiction, and has been looking for trouble since he was arrested.

Arthur couldn't answer Xiao Hei's question, he just had a feeling that this tall and thin man was an extremely dangerous person.It was this tramp who spoke in his ear last night.If he had brought poker with him, Arthur would have taken it out to show the tall, thin man.But the cards are in the safe at home.

After a while, a policeman came in, patted the tall and thin man awake, and said, "Get up Vincent, wake up, wake up!"

The tall and thin man opened his eyes, looking sleepy, looked up at the policeman, and said, "Oh... oh, where is this... shit, am I drunk? I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." The tall and thin man said sorry vaguely, and was pulled up by the police and taken out of the cell.This guy was supposed to be a drunk and troublemaker, and he was caught and locked up at the police station overnight, and it was obvious that this was not the first time.Before leaving the cell, he turned his head and glanced at Arthur, and the door closed with a bang.

……

Arthur stayed in the detention cell of the police station for two days, and there were two more interrogations in the middle, including an interrogation by the prosecutor, showing Arthur an important piece of evidence-a few days ago, traces of liquid were extracted from Joya Sisi's skirt, which was consistent with Arthur's DNA test.This is a rather deadly piece of evidence. The prosecutor believes that Arthur can plead guilty to the law, so that he can skip the jury process and directly convict him.

But unexpectedly, Arthur still insisted on pleading not guilty, and said that he could accept a public trial by a jury to confirm his guilt.Because it was not a major case, the prosecution didn't do much other work, and everything will be seen in court.For Arthur, the biggest pain of staying in the cell is missing the live broadcast of the first two games of this year's finals, which could have easily made a fortune by betting.

On June 6, the second game between the Rockets and the Knicks was played in Houston. The Knicks defeated the Rockets 10:91, and the big score between the two sides became 83:1.The third game will move to New York's Madison Square Garden.For Arthur, this will be his chance to hit Jackie Gandolfield hard.In this game, the betting volume in the New York area will definitely soar. If the calculation is wrong, Gandolfield's casino will definitely suffer heavy losses.

Before June 6th, Arthur must leave.

On June 6, Arthur's sexual assault case opened.The court session was scheduled for ten o'clock in the morning at the New York County Courthouse in Manhattan.Arthur was escorted here to await trial early in the morning, and he saw Karen again in the waiting room.She changed into a silver-gray uniform jacket today to make herself look more mature.She just graduated this year and is still in the internship period, she doesn't want to look like a rookie.This was not her first case, but her first felony criminal prosecution.If Arthur is convicted, he will be sentenced to at least 11 years in prison.

But for some reason, Arthur, who was sitting across from him, didn't look nervous at all, he was picking his nails there.

"Aren't you worried at all?" Karen still couldn't help asking.

Since the brief romance in the library last time, although Karen had fond memories of Arthur, her busy work and the gap in their social circles quickly made her forget about this handsome man with a half oriental face.When we met again, I didn't expect that he took over his sexual assault case. When Karen saw the information, he couldn't help but look down on Arthur. He didn't expect him to be such a person.But after contact, it was discovered that this person was covered with something as mysterious as his black eyes.

"Didn't you already get the evidence?" Arthur changed from peeling his fingers to picking out his ears. He couldn't take a bath in prison, and his body was itchy.

"That's right, and it's very solid evidence... If you had presented it earlier, maybe there wouldn't have been a trial."

"But they still have evidence of my DNA, how do you explain that?"

"It's easy to explain, maybe you had sex with her at another time, you were voluntary, or..."

"Or what?"

"Or... nothing."

"Why don't you go on? Or, I did rape her, but I just manipulated the time so that Joya thought I sexually assaulted her at 10:[-]."

Karen stared at Arthur without saying a word. She did not deny Arthur's statement. Indeed, this matter was really strange.Both sides have solid evidence, but the conclusions are completely opposite, which shows that one side must be lying.What Arthur said was unbelievable, but not impossible. For a moment, Karen didn't know whether Arthur was telling the truth or joking.

Arthur suddenly laughed, and said: "Actually, there is another possibility that someone is going to frame me. They found my used condoms in the garbage bag and collected my liquid from them. After the sexual assault, they spilled them on Joya's skirt. Don't forget, Joya and I are neighbors, and the trash can is right at the entrance of the corridor. And, dear Karen, do you think I need to use violence if I want to get a woman?"

Karen's eyes suddenly became ambiguous and soft. She stroked her hair lightly and said, "It's hard to say, not everyone likes you."

"But you like it."

Karen blushed suddenly, and she tidied up her clothes a little awkwardly, letting her inexplicably elevated blood pressure drop.Damn cook, is this still the waiting room of the court?The eyes of the two looking at each other became more and more ambiguous, and a crazy idea popped up in Karen's mind, if it wasn't in the court, if it wasn't for Arthur still wearing shackles.

"Arthur, Arthur Luciano! It's time for you to go to court." The bailiff came in at this moment, breaking the delicate atmosphere between the two.

……

Arthur did not miss the American court trial on the television of later generations.In court, lawyers for the prosecution and the defense presented evidence one after another, questioned witnesses, and engaged in fierce confrontations to convince the jury that the suspect was guilty or innocent.The judge, on the other hand, does a good job of balance and guides the jury to make a final verdict within the framework of the law.After determining whether he is guilty or not, the judge will determine the sentence according to the circumstances of the crime.

Sitting in the dock, Arthur was uncuffed.He looked at the jurors sitting in the jury box. There were men and women, black and white, old and young.They come from all walks of life and positions. They only have common sense of law but no legal knowledge. They rely on a citizen's basic moral principles and intuition to determine whether another citizen is guilty.

Before the trial began, the jurors had been selected by both the prosecution and the defense, and were screened and excluded from the 20 people based on their gender, race, work, family background, religious beliefs, etc., and those members who might obviously make judgments that were not conducive to their own side were excluded.It is difficult for Arthur to give a good or bad judgment on this court trial and judgment method, which is very different from that in his home country. He just feels that it is troublesome.

Arthur looked back at the gallery again. Dorothy was sitting not far away wearing a light blue coat, and waved to Arthur.Sitting next to Arthur was Gina, who looked at Arthur with complicated eyes.She would rather Arthur had committed homicide than sexual assault.If Arthur knew what Gina was thinking, he would definitely want to have such a girlfriend, so why not be shot.

Besides these two, another person Arthur knew was Carson.I don't know whether he came to observe out of loyalty among friends, or to inquire about news under Schmidt's order.Based on what Arthur knew about Carson, he felt that the latter possibility was more likely.Arthur is sure that this matter must have something to do with Schmidt, and he will definitely make him look good after he goes out.

Russell, Montolo, Abramo and others did not show up because of avoiding suspicion.If they showed up and were recognized by the police, it would undoubtedly complicate the matter.Today's presiding judge is Judge Hoffman. According to Karen, he is a relatively young and flexible law enforcement officer.Just don't know if this characteristic is good or bad for Arthur.

After taking the opening oath, Judge Hoffman asked the prosecution and the defense to make opening statements, introducing the case and presenting the case.

The prosecuting prosecutor is a middle-aged man with brown hair and looks quite dignified.Qiao Ya chose to avoid as a victim, and Qiao Ya's father, Uncle Ceci, sat beside the prosecutor as an agent, but when Arthur looked towards Sisi, Sisi looked a little flustered and did not dare to look at Arthur.

He got up and made his case statement.In his statement, Arthur became a villain who took advantage of the trust of his neighbors, broke into private homes, used violence to intimidate, beat and sexually assaulted a woman.The prosecutor's description was vivid and the jury was also shown photos of the victim's injuries after being beaten.Prosecutors pleaded guilty because the victim made it clear that the perpetrator was his neighbor Arthur Luciano.

And Karen's case statement is very simple, "As a woman, I express my deep sympathy for the victim's experience and hope that the criminal will be brought to justice. However, the person who violated the victim Joya Sisi was not Arthur Luciano, but someone else. They caught the wrong person. Arthur Luciano, innocent."

"Okay, then, are the prosecution and defense ready to present their facts?" Judge Hoffman asked after the bipartisan case presentation and arguments were concluded.After getting an affirmative answer, the trial entered the proof link.Witnesses are crucial in American courts.But in this case, there was a lack of effective witnesses, so the main evidence for the prosecution came from the victim's statement and the liquid stains found on her clothes.

The prosecution showed the DNA test results to the court, proving that the liquid stain on Qiao Ya's clothes came from Arthur Luciano.This is very hard evidence. Since DNA technology began to be used in the detection of criminal cases in 1986, for most sexual assault cases, once the residues found on the victim's female body match the suspect's gene, it is almost ironclad evidence.

Seeing this evidence in the auditorium, Gina was about to shed tears.Dorothy on the side quickly comforted her and said, "Don't worry, Gina, I swear it's not Arthur. You went to a classmate's house that day, and Arthur was with me all the time."

"Then why didn't you testify for him?" Gina asked.

"Because he has more solid evidence." Dorothy replied, and of course there was another reason, that was, Arthur didn't want any leaks about the Heart Society.

When it was the defense's turn to testify, Karen called Witness No. 1, a Brooklyn traffic police officer, Reggie Jackson.

"Officer Jackson, what were you doing at around 6:5 p.m. on Sunday, June 10th?"

"I'm at work, checking for DUIs near Central Brooklyn Interchange, with my partner, Lance."

"Excuse me, has a man named Arthur Luciano been found? He is riding a motorcycle and has alcohol in his blood."

"I can't remember the name, but there was a guy on a motorcycle who we stopped for a test around 10:0.07. The blood alcohol level, if I remember correctly, was 0.1%, which is below the [-]% limit in New York City, so we let him go."

"Is there any receipt left?"

"Yes, although he did not drink and drive, but he was speeding while driving. I gave him a speeding ticket with my signature on it and his own signature."

Karen was very satisfied with Jackson's answer.Then, she took out the speeding ticket from the Brooklyn traffic police from the evidence bag and showed it to the jury and the judge.Time, place, signature, clearly written. On June 6, at 5:10 p.m., Arthur was still on his way back to Manhattan.

"I did a handwriting test, and the signature on the ticket was Arthur Luciano's. Also, there was a surveillance video under the central overhead, which can also prove that Arthur was not in the Manhattan apartment at that time, but on his way back. By the time he got home, it was already early morning."

(End of this chapter)