6.Pearl Walker — Direct/Cross
263 lines(At the bench.)
THE COURT: Yes, sir.
MR. OWENS: Judge, we're way ahead of schedule.
THE COURT: Okay.
MR. OWENS: We intend to call Pearl Walker. She's the elderly lady out there, that she's disabled. I think we've got her accommodated. But next, we're going to call Dr. Julie Harper. I'm asking for a little more time because she just got in after midnight and, of course, she was working on some kind of a death penalty case in Bay County, so she's reading over her transcript as we speak. I was talking to her, but I had to get back over here. I'm asking for her testimony to be about 2:30. So maybe take a break in there and give her a minute. She wasn't scheduled to testify --
THE COURT: Until Thursday.
MR. OWENS: -- until the morning.
THE COURT: I recall.
MR. OWENS: I've spoken with the State's attorney, and they said they're going to have Dr. Werner, their rebuttal expert, here tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m.
THE COURT: Okay.
MR. OWENS: So that's going to be their last witness. I would think the charging conference after that, and then we'd start closing arguments Thursday afternoon at 1:00. The jury will get the case --
THE COURT: Well, if we've got an hour break, I'm on board with starting the charging conference this afternoon. I want to receive from the defense what they want for the 3.6(f), self-defense instruction. I mean, the instruction is long --
MR. OWENS: I think Tony Henderson will probably handle the charging conference. And I'll be speaking with Dr. Harper during that time --
THE COURT: Okay.
MR. OWENS: -- in preparation for her direct examination.
THE COURT: State, what say you?
MR. JAY: Judge, it's not my fault they're not prepared to have their witness testify. We shouldn't be making the jury wait.
So my first preference is, she needs to testify. I had to go talk to Dr. Werner on the phone over lunch to get the prep done for tomorrow morning. They said she came in at midnight. I don't know why this preparation wasn't done before. The deposition was taken on October 1st. I outlined the deposition. I created my cross-examination nearly two weeks ago. I don't know why we're delaying this jury.
THE COURT: Okay. Anything else, Mr. Owens?
MR. OWENS: Just that we're way ahead of schedule. She was scheduled for Thursday morning, tomorrow morning, and I'm asking for an hour. I'm asking for 2:30 for her to be called, so taking a short break after Ms. Walker. Ms. Walker is not going to take too long. She'll probably be done --
How long do you anticipate Ms. Walker's testimony?
THE COURT: All right. Anything else, Mr. Jay?
MR. JAY: Judge, if you're not going to grant my request to make us press forward, then my suggestion is we need to use that time to go ahead and let me start putting on the rebuttal evidence out of order and we can do the charge conference tomorrow. I'm not prepared to get into the 3.6 today. I was going to do that tonight with our proposal. The proposal will be an underlined, strike-through -- will be strike-through proposed strikes. I was hoping to do 3.6 tonight.
THE COURT: Okay.
MR. OWENS: What do you mean by strike? Strike through paragraphs, you mean?
THE COURT: What the State does not want from their side of the ledger.
MR. OWENS: Yeah, that are not relevant.
THE COURT: Okay.
MR. OWENS: And, Judge, we've also got to discuss an issue about a special jury instruction on battered spouse syndrome, so that's going to be an issue as well.
THE COURT: So here's what we're going to do. With regard to the jury instructions, it doesn't sound like the State's ready to address that today and we haven't had any -- I've been taking notes and red lines on the jury instructions, removing things that are obviously not germane, like defendant not testifying, interlineating 2.7, the closing instruction, because I give that before I give the final verdict instruction. So I can send you what I've put together from a red line perspective. I can have Anita send that to you-all this afternoon.
I need to know from your side of the ledger, defense, what it is that you want included in your 3.6(f) instruction. Self-defense is yours. I want to hear from the defense as to --
MR. OWENS: Tony Henderson is working on that.
THE COURT: So, Mr. Henderson, tomorrow, sir, we'll have the charging conference.
MR. HENDERSON: Yes.
THE COURT: I would like you to prepare what it is out of the 3.6(f) instruction that you want. The State will also similarly send me what they want, and we can address that tomorrow during the charging conference.
Any instructions that you want, be it the 3.6(f), self-defense, or battered spouse special instruction, you need to prepare so we can have a conversation on that. Please prepare them in Word and send them to my JA before tomorrow morning, and copy the State so that we can review them during our charging conference.
As I advised Mr. Owens, I have been taking notes and I have a red line of the jury instructions that the State provided, excising and removing things that are not germane based on the evidence and testimony so far. I will send those to you-all this evening.
With regard to this afternoon -- afternoon -- excuse me -- I understand you-all have been working very hard. It's clear that both of you-all are pretty well-prepared. I understand that we were not anticipating Dr. Harper testifying until tomorrow. However, she did arrive at approximately 12:05 midnight this morning and is here. I'm inclined to move forward and not waste the jury's time, because no one is prepared, by no fault of anyone, to address the jury instructions this afternoon at approximately 1:30 after Pearl, whose last name is escaping me, is going to be testifying. Pearl Walker.
MR. OWENS: Can we take a short break after Pearl Walker testifies? Can we get a 15-minute break for the jury to go out and for me get my client -- my witness over here?
THE COURT: JI think it's as simple of a phone call and say, We're ready for you, be here at 1:30. So I'm intending on pressing forward.
MR. OWENS: Can I take a minute and go outside and call her?
THE COURT: Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. Just tell her to be here at 1:30.
MR. OWENS: Okay. Can you give me a few minutes?
THE COURT: Yeah. I mean, this should not take a substantial amount of time, Mr. Owens. It's a phone call of, I need you here at 1:30, okay?
All right. I'm going to have the deputy move the chair out, because I understand Ms. Walker is ina wheelchair.
MR. OWENS: Mr. Lane? He's the one that's handling that.
THE COURT: Understood.
We have a witness in a wheelchair who's going to be in the box. Can we move that chair out, sir? Thank you.
MR. OWENS: Is she in a wheelchair?
THE COURT: Okay. We're taking care of that. So we're moving the chair out of the box and we'll wheel her over in the back.
MR. OWENS: So she's going to come in the front?
THE COURT: She'll come in the front and then she'll come up the gangplank. Where I come in, there's a door on the back that will open and we'll put her in the box.
THE COURT: Is she mobile herself?
THE COURT: Then yeah.
MR. OWENS: Either her daughter --
THE COURT: Deputy, can you assist? It's not self-propelled.
So we'll have the deputy do it, Mr. Lane.
THE COURT: Okay. All right. Thank you.
(In open court.)
THE COURT: All right. Thank you-all very much.
Mr. Owens, if you could see to calling Dr. Harper at this time to advise her to be here at 1:30 for her testimony.
MR. OWENS: Yes, sir.
COURT STAFF: Judge, do you want the jury in first?
THE COURT: Just one second, sir. I'm waiting for Mr. Owens to return.
(Pause.)
MR. HENDERSON: Judge, may we approach a minute?
THE COURT: Without Mr. Owens?
MR. HENDERSON: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Sure.
MR. OWENS: Can we approach the bench?
THE COURT: Yes, sir. Mr. Henderson asked.
(At the bench.)
THE COURT: Hang on. We'll wait for the rest of your team.
MR. OWENS: I just called -- can I do this first?
THE COURT: Yes, sir.
MR. OWENS: I just called Dr. Harper. She didn't answer the phone, but sometimes I communicate with her by text. I'm going to just text her. I don't know if she's -- they made her last night -- the hotel room -- the Hilton is split into two different types of room, like a home-to-home and then the Hilton. They put her in the more expensive one. JAC doesn't cover that, so she had to move this morning to the other one. So I don't know what her status is, but I'm going to text her --
THE COURT: Just text her and tell her to be here at 1:30.
Mr. Henderson, yes, sir?
MR. HENDERSON: Yes, Judge. I know you stated that 3.6(f). I'm also going to be sending 3.6(g), too, non-deadly, because I think, under certain situations, they both have to be read.
THE COURT: Whatever instruction that you want, please send.
Okay. Thank you.
(In open court.)
THE COURT: All right. As we've discussed, we are not going to be having the charging conference regarding the jury instructions at this time. That will be conducted tomorrow.
I have requested the defense to provide any instructions that they are seeking to be provided to the Court and to the State in Word format tomorrow, including, but not limited to 3.6(f) or 3.6(g) and any portions thereof that the defense is seeking to utilize for the purposes of jury instructions.
The Court's -- the Court, throughout the trial, has been red-lining the jury instructions that were provided initially by the State at the end of the evidence and testimony presentation this afternoon. The State will -- or the Court will email those to all parties.
Once Mr. Owens comes back in from making -- advising witnesses of when to be here, we will bring in our jury and proceed with the evidence presentation this afternoon.
State, anything else we need to address?
THE COURT: Defense, anything else we need to address?
MR. HENDERSON: No, Your Honor.
THE COURT: All right. Very good.
As soon as Mr. Owens enters, we'll bring in our jury.
The deputies will assist Ms. Walker in the wheelchair into the jury box.
MR. OWENS: Judge, I've called her three times and I did text her. I don't know if she's in the process of switching rooms.
THE COURT: No worries. We'll cross that bridge at 1:30 if she's not here, sir.
MR. OWENS: All right.
THE COURT: All right. Let's go ahead and stand and bring in our jury.
COURT STAFF: All rise. Jury is entering.
(Jury entered.)
THE COURT: State, do you recognize our jury?
MR. CACCIATORE: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Defense, do you recognize our jury?
MR. OWENS: Yes.
THE COURT: All right. Everyone can be seated. Thank you.
Members of the jury, again, welcome back. I hope you enjoyed your lunch.
I see Juror No. -- fifth from the right to left, second row, his hand is already up. He knows what's coming. If you can, just raise those hands, confirm you've complied with the Court's instructions. Record will reflect all hands have been raised.
All right. Members of the jury, the defense is going to continue with their evidence and testimony presentation this afternoon. Thank you.
Mr. Owens, you may call your next witness, sir.
MR. BECK: Your Honor, the defense calls Ms. Pearl Walker.
May I approach the witness, Your Honor, just in case --
THE COURT: I think the deputy has got it.
COURT CLERK: Ms. Walker? Ms. Walker, can you raise your right hand to be sworn, please?
PEARL WALKER
was called as a witness and, having first been duly sworn,
testified as follows:
PEARL WALKER: Yes, ma'am.
COURT CLERK: Thank you.
THE COURT: Ma'am, good afternoon. Could you state and spell your name for the record for us?
PEARL WALKER: What did you say?
THE COURT: Can you state and spell your name for the record for us?
PEARL WALKER: Pearl Walker, P-e-a-r-l, Walker, W-a-l-k-e-r.
THE COURT: Thank you very much, ma'am.
Mr. Beck, you may proceed.
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. BECK:
PEARL WALKER: Yes.
MR. BECK: How do you know her, matam? How do you know Ms. Boone?
If you can't hear me, just ask me to repeat myself and I'll do so.
PEARL WALKER: Okay.
PEARL WALKER: She lived in the same apartment building that I lived in.
MR. BECK: And can you tell us how long the two of you shared the same apartment complex, apartment buildings?
PEARL WALKER: About four years.
PEARL WALKER: My husband and I were sitting out on the porch and we see her coming with her two dogs.
PEARL WALKER: Then I will call her over, you know, with her dogs.
PEARL WALKER: When I see her walking with her dogs and I see her and I look at her and I said, Hey, Sarah, how are you doing, and that's it.
PEARL WALKER: Yes.
PEARL WALKER: Did I spend time?
PEARL WALKER: Yes.
PEARL WALKER: About 15 or 20 minutes, that's all.
PEARL WALKER: He'd just say hi.
PEARL WALKER: Yes, sir.
MR. BECK: Okay. In the time that you knew Ms. Boone, did you witness anything about her person or her body that gave you cause for concern?
PEARL WALKER: Sometimes we see, like, she would've been choked around her neck or her arm be hurting her, have a mark on her arm, and I just asked her.
PEARL WALKER: She just said I had --
THE COURT: Hang on.
THE COURT: The objection is sustained.
BY MR. BECK:
MR. BECK: When you would ask her that, how did she appear to you to respond emotionally to your questions about her injuries?
PEARL WALKER: She'd just say, One of them days, or something.
THE COURT: Objection sustained.
BY MR. BECK:
MR. BECK: Just for the record, instead of telling us what she would say, would she demonstrate any emotion on her face?
PEARL WALKER: Well, I would see emotion that she was upset about something.
MR. BECK: And did you ask about her obvious upset persona -- her upset -- the fact that she was upset, would you ask her about that?
PEARL WALKER: Yeah, I would ask.
MR. BECK: And you have to just limit your answer to the question.
Would you ask her about that, that issue, about why she was upset?
PEARL WALKER: Yeah.
MR. BECK: Okay. And, I'm sorry, I just can't go beyond that. Thank you.
Now, how frequently would that occur?
PEARL WALKER: I would say on the weekends when I'd see her.
PEARL WALKER: Mostly I would see her walking through, going to her place, and when she -- and I'm sitting on the porch and I'd see her then.
MR. BECK: Now -- strike that.
While you were there in that apartment complex -- and excuse me for getting ahead of myself. Do you still live in that apartment complex?
PEARL WALKER: No.
MR. BECK: How long have you been gone from that apartment complex?
If you don't know, that's fine.
PEARL WALKER: It's been a while.
MR. BECK: Okay. Thank you, ma'am.
During the occasions that you had to interact with Ms. Boone, how did she treat you?
PEARL WALKER: Nice lady.
THE COURT: Overruled.
PEARL WALKER: Nice to me.
BY MR. BECK:
THE COURT: Overruled.
BY MR. BECK:
PEARL WALKER: What you mean, sir?
PEARL WALKER: Oh, no.
PEARL WALKER: No.
THE COURT: Sustained.
THE COURT: Yes.
(At the bench.)
THE COURT: Yes, sir.
MR. BECK: That was in direct response to the State having requested of Dr. Brannon as to whether or not there were signs of grandiosity that were presented by -- by the hypothetical individual during the course of her life or any circumstances. I'm refuting any sense that the State may have left the jury with that Sarah Boone is grandiose -- grandiose or narcissistic.
THE COURT: Response?
MR. JAY: Judge, it's completely inappropriate to be asking how she treated Ms. Walker. What the doctor said clearly during testimony was that somebody can be very nice in one situation and be very different ina different situation, so it doesn't provide any relevance to the relationship between Sarah Boone and Mr. Torres, which is what the State's evidence is about.
THE COURT: What's your response to that?
MR. BECK: Well, I think that that's not what his testimony was. His testimony was, as a part of the corroborative process of evaluating or assessing an individual, you had to -- you had to look at their interaction with other individuals.
THE COURT: Unless the objection has morphed, I believe the State's objection is character. So that response goes to more of the relevancy of why, but what's your response to character?
MR. BECK: Well, one, character has been called into question by the State in the cross-examination of the State witnesses. Has been called into question as a result of the cross-examination of Dr. Brannon. The character of this witness -- or the character of the defendant has been called into question and this is an opportunity for the defense to refute that presumption by describing or at least giving the jury some sense of what kind of an individual they are about to judge.
THE COURT: Anything else?
MR. JAY: That's a misstatement of how the evidence works. They called an expert witness. They're the ones that opened the door to Ms. Boone's mental health. They are attributing her actions on February 23rd, 2020, to a stress disorder. And what the experts have to consider in evaluating the credibility of the person -- in this case, the patient/client -- relaying information to them are things like what Dr. Brannon testified to and what Dr. Harper will testify to; whether they're consuming alcohol, whether they have narcissistic personality disorder. So what's relevant is what Dr. Harper's perception is of the evidence that she reviewed, and that evidence is going to largely be based on eight different meetings with Ms. Boone.
So how Ms. Boone goes out in the world and interacts with Ms. Walker and anybody else isn't relevant because that's not something Dr. Harper considered.
THE COURT: Anything else, sir?
THE COURT: Okay. I'm going to sustain the objections, both as to character, and to the extent it's not being offered to show action and conformity therewith, I don't find that it's relevant.
(In open court.)
THE COURT: Objection is sustained.
BY MR. BECK:
MR. BECK: I'm sorry. I'm back, Ms. Walker.
In the time that you and Ms. Boone lived together, on occasion, did you see law enforcement arrive at the apartment complex?
PEARL WALKER: A couple of times.
PEARL WALKER: No.
MR. BECK: Were you ever -- I'm sorry. Were you ever approached by law enforcement and asked for information, evidence, insight into what might be going on?
PEARL WALKER: No, sir.
MR. BECK: Now, in all candor, were there occasions when you believed that Sarah Boone may have been under the influence of alcohol?
PEARL WALKER: No, I can't say.
MR. BECK: Were there -- did you also observe Jorge Torres during the time that you lived together -- lived there in the apartment complex?
PEARL WALKER: I didn't see him very much. If we're sitting on the porch, that's the only time I seen him.
PEARL WALKER: No.
PEARL WALKER: Yes.
MR. BECK: Did you witness a pattern between Ms. Boone and Mr. Torres wherein you observed signs of abuse?
THE COURT: Sustained.
BY MR. BECK:
MR. BECK: You testified that you saw Ms. Boone on occasion with bruises, other injuries, and a black eye; is that correct? Is that accurate?
PEARL WALKER: Yes.
MR. BECK: And was there any pattern to what you observed in regards to those injuries and bruises that you observed on Ms. Boone?
PEARL WALKER: One time I seen her with a black eye and like she had been choked one time.
PEARL WALKER: Yes.
THE COURT: Any cross-examination?
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. JAY:
PEARL WALKER: How are you?
MR. JAY: Is it fair to say you're not sure when exactly you saw any of those injuries on her, correct?
PEARL WALKER: Say that again.
PEARL WALKER: When she come past the apartment, I be sitting out there, because we always sat out there.
PEARL WALKER: I can't remember, sir.
PEARL WALKER: Repeat that again.
PEARL WALKER: On the weekends I see him and her going.
PEARL WALKER: Well --
PEARL WALKER: -- I can tell when they must have had an argument or something. I hear the dogs barking.
PEARL WALKER: Yeah.
THE COURT: Any redirect examination?
THE COURT: Can this witness be released?
THE COURT: Thank you very much, ma'am.
Ms. Walker, the deputies are going to come get you and take you out, okay?
PEARL WALKER: We all done?
THE COURT: Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much.
(Witness excused.)
THE COURT: Defense, ready to call your next witness?
MR. OWENS: Can I have a moment?
THE COURT: Yes.
(Pause. )
MR. OWENS: Judge, can we approach the bench?
THE COURT: Yes.