Sealing the Bridge (Cross-Examination)

*Sealing the Bridge* is the first testimony of Johnny Smiles, and the second of the trial as a whole. A security guard on watch on the night of the murder, it is his testimony that contributed to the arrest of Nick Johnson.

## Text

1. After an incident at my last job, I became a security guard at the Paville Institute. I follow the rules to the letter, when they're not a hindrance.

2. I arrived at 4 PM. It was a new shift, but things went without incident. I did some preparation the first hour, as there was another guard on duty.

3. Then he left at 5. After that, it was even more quiet than usual due to people taking off early, as it was the day before the celebration.

4. At 5:30, Nick Johnson and the VIP crossed the bridge, onto the moat. I ensured there was nothing suspicious about them and moved on.

4a. At 5:30, Nick Johnson and the VIP, Alexandra Kranf, crossed the bridge, onto the moat. I ensured there was nothing suspicious about them and moved on.

5. 6:36, another fellow, Ross, crosses the bridge from the moat, coming over to the other side. He starts bothering some handywoman, Jackie...

6. That lasted through 6:40, when Jackie received a phone call that took until 6:42. I saw Ross fiddling with some tablet device in the meantime.

7. I had half a mind to come over, but then Ross left at 6:45. After that, Jackie came over, saying she was there to fix the sign on the bridge.

8. I let her tend to that. She got on the bridge, but never crossed it.

9. And that was all. From 7:00 on, nothing happened 'til the body was discovered.

## Pressed Details (summary)

- The VIP in question was unquestionably Alexandra Kranf (the victim), clarified by being added in the testimony.

- The witness did not closely catalogue when exactly Jackie left the bridge (estimated guess: minute, maybe two).

- No one crossed the bridge, coming or going, after seven up until security came over much later in the evening. The police came later.

- It wasn't dark when Smiles identified Johnson crossing the bridge. Smiles could clearly see who was coming and going, and exactly identified everyone who crossed.

- The rules alluded to in statement 1 were of no hindrance to his shift that night.

- The witness saw Ross wore no gloves.

- The tablet model witnessed in Ross' possession is the standard kind for the facility, with the markings "Property of Paville" and "For Research Use Only," as well as something else he couldn't make out. Paville tablets, besides those markings, are not "special."

- There was no full body search, but the witness checked the defendant and victim as they first crossed. The defendant did not have anything except his light jacket, his pockets seemed empty. The witness saw nothing of interest in the victim's bag, though did find a tablet. The witness exchanged words with them and let them continue.

- The victim did seem a bit out of it, according to the witness.

- A mass email was sent to all Paville employees the day before the inspection, informing them of it.

- Smiles attests that he was vigilant that night, but almost any other night, he'd have been watching television.

- It's implied that Smiles isn't familiar with how breaks work at his job.

- Smiles often sees Johnson leaving late from the front gates, but didn't have much other interaction with him.

- Smiles has worked at the Institute for about three months.

- Smiles knows Ross as a test subject and person who "does general work" about the Institute, but nothing further.

- The sign Jackie was messing with was "a half-circle canvas, exactly matching the bridge, secured with ropes. It simply says 'Happy 50th, Paville!'" He heard that it was just put up that day. When Jackie was messing with it, she was fixing some sagging ropes. Smiles was watching her the whole time.

- Smiles swears that Alexandra was not scratched or bruised when she crossed over the bridge.

- Smiles said he had never seen the victim before that day.

- Smiles does not think anybody could have known about his brand-new shift beforehand except the people directly affected by the change.

- A report from Fulbright: At the victim's house, he found a low-strength, over-the-counter anxiety medication, and Alexandra spent a great deal of her day with Jackie Riemowski.

## Pressed Details (messy raw but still paraphrased cut and paste)

(Prosecution summons Johnny Smiles to the stand)
(Crowe) "Our next witness will show the court who was on the scene when Ms. Kranz was killed. We call Mr. Smiles, the bridge guard, to the stand." Assuming Smiles reached the stand without incident, Crowe began with the usual questions: "Your name and occupation, please. Then, would you tell us who crossed - and didn't cross - the bridge on the night of the murder?"
(Smiles)
"The name's Smiles," he says, "Johnny Smiles. Security professional." "I was the security guard stationed at Round Bridge on the night of the murder. It's a quiet job, that one, but an important one. You never know when an emergency is going to break out. Always got to be prepared for a life and death situation." The import of this remark doesn't seem to strike Smiles, as he keeps babbling on, "But fortunately for the lot of you, I have expertly prepared testimony to help put that scoundrel behind bars, just like in--"
(Judge) "Thank you, Mr. Smiles!" "Now then... Just testify like the prosecutor said."

(second cross-examination)

(Judge) "Normally I'd ask some questions myself, but I'll leave this to the attorneys... Just start the cross-examination."

(Ledger, on statement 4) "Excuse me... the prosecution asks that you identify the VIP for the court," "and... amend your statement to include their name."
(Smiles) "Easy enough. The VIP was the inspector, Alexandra Kranf. That was common knowledge, but I can amend if you want."
(Ledger, on statement 8) "Witness... when did this, er, Jackie leave?"
(Smiles) "Hmm... It got a bit exhausting logging all that information, so I don't have a quite exact time. minute? Maybe two? My mind has better things to do than record every in and out."
(Ledger, on statement 9) "Uh, the prosecution asks of the witness... who else crossed the bridge after seven."
(Smiles) "And after seven?" Smiles lifts up his sunglasses for extra drama. "Not a soul until a couple fellows from security came over. The rest followed soon after."

pg.10
(Ledger, statement 4 again) "The... prosecution wishes to further clarify from the witness, on... this point, back at... 5:30," he clears his throat. "You're positive, completely... that the person you saw at this time is one Mr. Nick Johnson," he gestures with an open hand, not curling any of his fingers inward so it's more like a waving motion, "the defendant standing in the courtroom today?"
(Smiles) "Yeah, it's that guy you're pointing too. I saw him clearly. It wasn't exactly dark."

(Crowe, on statement 1) "Is there any evidence whatsoever to suggest that this incident at your previous job is relevant to the current case?" "Were the rules a hindrance to you at all after 7:00 PM on the night of the murder?"
(Crowe, on statement 6) "By the way... could you recognize the make of that tablet Ross was fiddling with? And was he wearing gloves while doing so?"
(Judge) "The witness can't answer that unless he knows exactly what happened in this incident. However, he can answer to the best of his knowledge."
(Smiles) "... To the best of my knowledge, these are completely unrelated, and my knowledge is always the best." Smiles' response gets a groan from the gallery. "As for the rules, they weren't a hindrance, though they came dangerously close! I almost missed my program! Gloves? I certainly didn't see any. The tablet model was our standard kind, actually."

(Tingling) "Sorry, you said the tablet was your standard kind? As in, property of Paville? Did it perhaps resemble the tablet we have in evidence, believed to belong to the victim?"
(Smiles) Johnny nods. "Right, it looked just like the ones we use sometimes... Come to think of it, I do recall seeing the 'Property of Paville' stamp on it! There was some text beneath it, 'For Research Use Only.' There was something else written on it, but I had to devote all my attention to the scene between him and the woman. No time to look at unimportant things." He promptly munches his chocolate bar.

(Quintero failing it at point 4a) Alberto eyes started shining, his face transformed from a worried face to a cocky smile. "Objection!" he shouted "Mr.Smiles, you say that you ensured that there was nothing suspicious in Mr.Johnson and Ms.Kranf, but that's a lie, Your honor, I want to direct court's attention to the autopsy report, where it's says that the victim was drugged with chlorophorm, in case that Mr. Johnson drugged the victim with chlorophorm, why Mr.Smiles didn't found a container with this substance when he was ensuring that the defendant didn't brought anything suspicious?"
(Crowe) "Objection," replies Crowe, but looks pleased at this evidence of thought. "You're making too many assumptions. If the defendant had intended to drug the victim, why would he have kept the bottle in plain sight? He'd have kept it in a bag or under his coat, or some other place where Mr. Smiles wouldn't have seen it... perhaps even in the building across the moat.

(Crowe) "Mr. Smiles, did you actually perform a full-body search of the defendant?"
(Smiles) Smiles shudders with revulsion. "No. Just... no... It's not in my business to be so invasive. I just looked briefly through what each had with them and noted anything suspicious. Mr. Johnson didn't have anything except a light jacket, so there was nothing to search. His pockets looked empty to me, though. As for the victim, I just looked in her bag, looked hard to show her I was no slouch, and saw nothing of interest. After that, I exchanged a couple words with them and let them on their way."

(Crowe) "Hmm. While we're talking about drugs and what you saw... did Ms. Kranf seem at all drowsy to you, or was she entirely alert?"
(Smiles, reply on page 11) "Hmm..." Smiles appears deep in thought on this one. Probably deeper than he should be. "I'd say she looked a bit out of it, myself."

## Contradictions

There was concern raised by defense attorney Alberto Quintero about how the accused would have had chloroform to attack the victim with if it wasn't found on his person when the witness checked. It is ultimately handwaved at the time as having perhaps been prepared in advance, stashed away on the building across the moat.

A later testimony with accompanying evidence revealed the very strong possibility that the timeline Smiles gave for what he saw might have been in error, although the sequence of events still hold. If Smiles' timeline were correct, only Nick Johnson could have killed the victim. Another testimony that followed appears to confirm that Smiles had an incorrect timeframe.

As it appears to be in error, there is now a possibility of Ross Moebus having also been present at the time of the murder.

Smiles also testified that when he searched the victim, he found no lorazepam, contradicting the prosecution's claim that she had taken the lorazepam herself.

Prosecution at one point argued that the defendant depended on Smiles' shift for his scheme, but defense showed that because the shift was new, this was impossible. Prosecution counter-argued from this that nobody could come up with a Smiles-dependent scheme, there was no scheme to circumvent the locked room. As the locked room stood, only Johnson could be the killer. Defense countered that under this plan, Johnson stood an absurdly high chance of being accused, and his murder plan made no sense. Prosecution argued that even so, killers had done silly schemes before, and that the defense needed to come up with some kind of positive explanation for what happened.

The cross-examination ends when the defense decides to question Jackie and Ross about their movements that day.

## Time of Events

There is suspicion that Smiles' timeline is an hour off. Smiles says that this was his first day on a new shift after an Alaskan vacation, and he couldn't testify to what exactly the time difference between his old shift (at the front gate) and his new shift (at the bridge) was. He did testify to applying the time difference after returning from Alaska.

That there were two guards at this post is also suspicious, but Smiles doesn't know whether that's typical for the bridge or not.

## Logic Battle

To deny that the lorazepam contradiction meant anything, Crowe challenge the defense to devise a self-consistent theory regarding the lorazepam. The defense theorized that Kranf knowingly took the lorazepam from some person she trusted, and the killer encouraged or administered this, to make the job of offing her easier. Prosecution argued that this "person she trusted" probably had not come to Paville that day. Defense further argued the lorazepam had been obtained illegally.

Crowe then argued that base on the "low concentrations" of lorazepam, and its biological half-life, the lorazepam was probably taken after a day of normal use, or maybe given her to interfere with her investigation. He further argued that it is unlikely a federal inspector would willingly take lorazepam over the course of an inspection, and the illegal means of acquiring the medication would make Alexandra suspicious, and that if it was given by a person she trusted, the medication would have been given later, when it would have disabled her further.

At this point, the judge reminded the court that arguments about lorazepam timing weren't well-supported by the autopsy, penalized Crowe for being misleading on the terms of the argument, and asked the defense to show a plausible theory.

Defense then claimed that there was somebody at Paville who regularly gave the victim lorazepam outside of Paville. The killer could then rely on her taking the lorazepam, and used that to either disrupt the investigation or kill her.