Opinion ID: 1379546
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Use of Tolliver's Statement During Opening and Closing Arguments

Text: Having showed the jury the video of Tolliver's statements to the police, the prosecution spent a good deal of time discussing the import of Tolliver's words. Before showing the video, the prosecution first informed the members of the jury that they were going to hear Tolliver claim that he could not find a phone, despite the fact that a cell phone was right there in the apartment. The prosecutor focused at greater length on the statement in her closing statement: You have heard all of the evidence. Nothing in the evidence, other than the word of the defendant, supports the fact that Claire Schneider killed herself. Nothing. The evidence does support the fact that the defendant murdered Claire Schneider. Not only was Claire Schneider murdered by the defendant, he then compounded it by telling the police that she killed herself, compounded the horror and made it worse.    Everyone who saw Claire that day, every single person said she acted normal, appeared to be in a good mood, she was fine. You heard the tape of the defendant. The defendant lied. The defendant told you several lies in that video. I'm certain you caught many of them, and they all make sense now. He told you he spent 20 minutes running through the house looking for his phone. First of all, you heard his phone was right outside at his [car], a few feet from the door. . . . His keys are laying right there. They are in the pictures. If he was looking for Claire's phone  Gail told you she kept it in her purse. The purse was laying right in open sight. He was waiting for Claire to die. Gee whiz. If I call the police before she was dead, I can't say she did herself, because what if she makes it? What if she can talk? He said, We have just closed on a house today together. The mortgage was all in Claire's name. Control? Who had the obligation for that mortgage? I just bought a $7500 diamond engagement ring. His own witness told you not only had he not bought a ring, they hadn't even talked prices of rings. They had had a conversation, one conversation about rings. He said we were not having any problems. You heard how loudly they were arguing across the street from Krome; you heard how he was glaring at Claire at Krome. No problems. You heard him over and over and over say Check me for gunpowder. Check me for gunshot residue. The forensics will clear me. Check me. Check me, the man with clean hands when the police showed up. Check her for gunshot residue. Of course, she had it on her hands. She should have had it on her hands. You would expect her to have it on her hands because she was in the room. You heard that. We were planning our wedding tonight. That's funny, because Gail told you that Claire  if she were engaged in their wedding plans  her wedding or even talking about it, she would have called Gail immediately and told her. She shared everything. Gail had never heard anything about that. Neither had her father. [4] I should have just killed myself right there. I just had to see my daughter first. You saw it on video. He saw his daughter. If that were a true statement, look how much time he had. Child came out of the building at two o'clock. The police went into the building at 2:14. He had 14 minutes. Put the clip in and pull the trigger if you really were going to kill yourself. You had gotten to see your daughter. He didn't have any intention of killing himself. He was going to leave. Read the note. Claire and I rented the apartment. Not only was his name not on the lease, he had his attorney call them up and say he didn't live there. Talks more about trying to find a phone. Can't find a phone.    He talks about her being in the middle of a sentence. What do you want me to  Does that make sense? Any sense whatsoever? I was in the bathroom by myself when she came in. I was getting the other gun out, the other gun that is stowed away safely in the bathroom closet. The door wasn't open to the closet. The gun was still there tucked away on a shelf. He wasn't getting it out. He was getting them there. He wasn't getting them out of the house. He told you her jaw felt like it was broken, but Dr. Norton said, Huh-huh. It didn't feel like that. Bullet went through soft tissue. He tried to tell you he banged on the door across the hall, the door across the hall that Joe Swick knew was not occupied at the time. He knew that, because there was junk mail. The people were out of town.    He said we were going to the Dominican Republic, starting for two months in January. You know that's not true. Claire had a ticket. Claire was leaving. Claire was getting away from him, and he didn't like it. He was not going. He was going to visit her at the very end of her trip. He said, I put the clip in. The second shot would have been fired. The clip was not in the gun. And then he said he wanted to spend some time with the daughter before the police showed up. He didn't realize we knew he had already spent time with his daughter. We had it on video. (JA 1933-1957.) The transcript of the prosecution's closing argument runs for 24 pages; of that, approximately 4-5 pages (or between 16% and 20% of the total) includes commentary about Tolliver's statements. Following the defense closing argument, the prosecution on rebuttal once again focused on Tolliver's statements, and began by focusing on one statement in particular: [5] One simple way for you to know whether Kevin Tolliver lied, simple, twice in the tape and has been repeated by Mr. Reinhart [Tolliver's attorney] himself, he said that Claire Schneider said, What do you want me to  twice, in the tape, What do you want me to  and I want all of you to say, What do you want met to  Where are your teeth when you finish? What do you want me to  Now, I want you to scream, No. I want you to scream No, like somebody is trying to kill you. No, no. Please don't. How far away are your teeth? This bullet went between her teeth. It's not possible. What do you me to  bullet wouldn't fit. Absolutely, would not fit. He lied. He lied about other things. He said they were naked. They weren't naked. Claire was wearing a coat. . . . And all she had on under it was one skimpy pair of underwear. How much of a hurry do you have to be in to only put on a coat and those underwear if you are leaving? Pretty big hurry.    He [Tolliver's attorney] said that Kevin Tolliver never used the word suicide. He is right, but what did he say? You couldn't have been this upset. So she was supposed to be taking Paxil. She hadn't taken her medication. She was upset about her family. What if she didn't mean it? He didn't suggest suicide. Absolutely. He couldn't get his story straight. He said suicide, accident, suicide, accident. He couldn't keep his story straight.    Was he afraid he would get accused of something he didn't do? Or was he afraid of the fact that a lot of his story didn't make sense? Does a distraught person say, I'm not psychologically sound of mind? That is not possible. Are those the statements of an innocent man? (JA 1999-2000, 2005-06, 2010.) The jury found Tolliver guilty on June 4, 2002, and the judge sentenced Tolliver to serve 15 years to life, with an additional three years added on through a firearm specification.