Stray Bullet Page #7

And, I guess, for the last 25 years,

I started with 32 mentally

and physically challenged children,

and right now, I've built it up,

with the help of other people, of course, to 200.

So I have 200 kids,

and I have parties

every two, three months.

We make an occasion.

We have a St. Paddy's Day party.

We have a Halloween party, a Christmas party.

Things like that.

We come up with an excuse to have parties.

Yeah, usually I take two at a time bowling.

Let me show you amateurs how it's done.

I'm just saying, if you miss this,

you might lose the whole game. No pressure.

[Harley] I usually take Scott Donkersleugh.

I've known Scott at least 25 years.

And we usually bring Joey.

He's got severe down syndrome.

In fact, you can't understand what he says.

Nobody can.

[Harley] Oh no, come on.

[Harley] Those kids bring me several things.

One, they remind me I'm blessed.

So it calms me.

I realize that as bad a day as I'm having,

I'm still blessed.

Two, it reminds me that there are some people out there

who like me for me.

They just like me, Harley, the guy.

They remind me that there's so much goodness out there,

despite the disadvantages and the tragedies.

The injustice of the universe is far more

than the injustice of any court system.

[ethereal theme playing]

[people chattering]

[indistinct conversation]

[Judge] Mr. Breite, closing arguments.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, let me begin by saying

that in a criminal trial, sometimes there's a moment.

Not only has every piece of evidence presented

by the prosecution been discredited

or rendered meaningless,

we have also shown that there is

a far more believable suspect in this killing

who is not on trial here.

We know who that is.

That's Eli Hunt.

He used the gun that killed Genesis three months earlier,

and then showed up here in court to make sure that

Calvary Swinger went through with his false testimony.

Ladies and gentlemen, a trial is a search

for the truth, that's why we're here.

We want to know what really happened that night.

And we don't. There was lazy

and poor detective work.

What might it cost to run a fingerprint analysis

on the casings?

Who cares what it cost?

Justice doesn't have a price.

The life of that 12-year-old girl is not equated

with a price for running a simple fingerprint test.

You shouldn't tolerate an investigation

that fell short, whether it's due to incompetency

or laziness.

And I would ask you ladies and gentlemen,

when you go back into that jury room,

to ask yourself, is there a reasonable possibility

that Swinger and Carter

simply lied to protect themselves

and gain an advantage

with the extremely serious crimes

they were each facing?

If there's a reasonable possibility

that they were lying, then there's reasonable doubt,

and the verdict must be, must be not guilty.

-Thank you. -[Judge] Thank you, Mr. Breite.

All right, Mr. Prosecutor, closing statements.

[Paul] Ladies and gentlemen, this case

comes down to Calvary Swinger and Keyshawn Parton.

Their statements, I submit, are truthful, reliable,

and credible based on other things that we have shown.

We talk about deals given,

deals taken, the dogs, the drugs.

That deal had to be done.

And unfortunately, in Paterson,

in that area where the homicide happened,

these are the witnesses you get.

These are the witnesses that you have.

They are people from the street,

they live out there, they try to raise families out there.

They deal drugs out there.

And they shoot weapons.

And you know why Eli's here?

Because these guys ended up getting that weapon,

getting that first weapon, community handgun,

a shared handgun.

Eli Hines was never arrested with a handgun.

He never had a handgun that was taken off his possession

because he got rid of it.

You don't throw a perfectly good handgun in the river.

You sell it, you give it away. That's the game.

Don't get caught with it twice.

I want to thank you for your paying attention.

Once again, I think, beyond a reasonable doubt,

the state has proven its case and I ask you

to return a verdict on each and every one of those charges

in the affirmative, guilty.

-Thank you. -Thank you, Mr. DeGroot.

[Judge] All right, ladies and gentlemen,

we come to the end of the day,

the only thing left for me to do is to charge you,

that's gonna take about an hour.

So what I'm going to do now is,

I'm going to recess for the day.

[people chattering]

[melancholy theme playing]

How are the other kids doing?

-Taken? -My kids are horrible.

Because I guess it's hard because they know

the type of person that Jeffry is,

and as far for them to explain to them

what actually happened...

I mean, they talk to Jeffry every day,

but it's not the same.

They're used to Jeffry being at the basketball games

and they're really close.

He would never do that.

But I'm hoping, I'm praying.

That's why, I guess, right now,

that's all we have, is because like,

like I said, sometimes, we're forgotten in the background.

I mean, they're going through their whole new issues

and back and forth and everything,

but nobody really takes that consideration

and says, "You know what?

"We need to come to something, the parents can't keep

"going through, the parents can't keep losing work,

they can't keep," you know?

I told my mother, I said, because I said

I look to her every day, I see your pain every day,

and I told my mother, I said I had to say something

because I really do feel bad, I really do.

We as parents, our kids really don't know

what we do for them, they don't know what headaches

we have in our heads and how we try to give them

the best, even that,

even if we can't give the best, we go there.

Because this was a shock to me, and I told Jeffry,

"If you have to go to jail for this,

you just have to deal with the consequences."

I mean, at the end of the day, I said, "I'm still gonna

be your mother, at the end of the day, I'm still..."

Gonna be there for you.

Yeah, but I said, "At the end of the day,

"they lost their daughter, so you just have to have

some kind of compassion for that."

Yeah.

He said he understands.

I don't hate them, 'cause I don't.

I'm just mad.

[melancholy theme playing]

[crying]

[sobbing]

[Janny] Whether they go to jail or not,

I can't see her, I can't talk to her,

I can't hug her, I can't hear her calling me Mommy anymore.

Because it's never gonna happen.

I like chicken.

[Janny] When Genesis passed away,

-they took half of her. -[laughter]

I have never seen a bond like that with two sisters.

Chillin' with Grandma.

Do I look like your grandmother?

[laughter]

[Genesis] You look old.

-Your momma. -Your momma.

-I'm telling Mom. -[Golda] No!

-Mom, Golda said you're old! -[Golda] No, I didn't.

[bailiff] If anyone pulls out their cell phones,

they will be confiscated and they will be kicked out.

[people chattering]

[bailiff] Remain seated.

So we have 12 jurors seated.

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