Part 4 (1/2)

As entertaining as some of these might be, they could never match the chilling content of a schooled medical examiner reciting the details of a sudden and violent death.

Max Schwimmer's speech still retains hints of an Austrian accent, a remnant of his childhood. ”Of course” comes out ”af coss.”

He is the county's chief medical examiner, and today Tannery has him on the stand outlining the case of murder against my client.

At the heart of the case is the infamous cable tie, a thin piece of white nylon. This one was nearly forty inches long, though one end had been cut. It is ratcheted on one side by tiny teeth molded into a nylon strip. When slipped into the yoke at the other end making a loop and pulled through, these teeth make a sound like a zipper as the tie is tightened. The tie locks in place and can be moved in only one direction, to tighten it. When pulled fast, it can hold tremendous tension. Cable ties may be purchased in any hardware store and are used by everyone from electricians to bundle mazes of wire, to cops who sometimes use them as temporary handcuffs to collar rioters. In this case, a cable tie was used to strangle Kalista Jordan.

”Doctor, can you state with certainty the cause of death?”

”Asphyxia. Technically, it was mechanical asphyxia.”

”You're not saying that some machine did this?” Tannery is holding up one of the photos of the victim, her head looking like a purple blister about to burst.

”Mechanical asphyxia is a technical term. She was strangled, by the application of a ligature, in this case a nylon cable tie that was fastened and pulled tight around her throat.”

”I believe you stated earlier that the victim was rendered unconscious at some point prior to death. Do you know how long after the ligature was applied before the victim would have become unconscious?”

Schwimmer thinks for a moment. ”Perhaps a minute, maybe two, after the ligature was tightened. Up here. Up high,” he says. The pathologist motions with both hands, front and back around his throat. ”All movement by the victim would cease within three or four minutes.”

”So she might still be moving even though she was unconscious?”

”Some involuntary reflexes,” says the doctor.

”Would she feel pain during this period?”

”Oh, yes.”

”And how long before death took place?”

”The heart would stop beating within another five minutes.”

”So if my calculations are correct, from the time the ligature was applied to the point of death might have been anywhere from nine to eleven minutes?”

”That's right.”

”So there is nothing quick, instantaneous or particularly humane about this kind of death?”

”Absolutely not.”

”Would you call it a lingering death in that it is slow?”

”Yah. Several minutes.”

”Would you call it a painful death?” asks Tannery.

”Objection. The witness has already testified that the victim was unconscious at the time of death.”

”Your Honor, I'm talking about the period before she became completely unconscious.”

”Overruled. The witness can answer the question.” Judge Harvey Coats is himself a former prosecutor. He was elected to the bench six years ago, knocking off an inc.u.mbent appointed by the governor, who failed to heed the warnings of local law enforcement that his man did not have their blessing.

”I would say that strangulation is a painful way to die,” says Schwimmer. ”I would not choose it if I had a choice.”

”Would you call it an agonizing death, Doctor?”

”Objection.”

”I think you've made your point,” says Coats. ”Move on.”

If Tannery wanted to drive this sword in deeper he would now take out his watch, turn to the jury, stare at them, and time it. Two minutes of silence would seem like a year. Nine to eleven minutes, a.s.suming some tepid judge would allow it, would be an eternity. I have had it done to me, and I have done it to others. Fortunately for us, Tannery doesn't think of this.

Instead he takes a different course.

”Can you describe for the jury the physical effects suffered by the victim as the cable tie was applied and tightened around her throat?”

”The tie is very strong. The one in question used here has a tensile strength of two hundred and fifty pounds.”

”What does that mean?”

”You could apply that much tension to the tie before it would fail, stretch or break. And it was thin. It produced a severe cutting edge when tightened. In this case it cut partially into the victim's jugular vein.”

”Can you be sure that the victim died of asphyxiation? Is it possible that she could have bled to death?”

What the significance of this is I am not sure, but Schwimmer quickly puts it to rest.

”Asphyxiation. Due to ligature strangulation,” he says.

”Wouldn't she tend to bleed to death if the jugular were cut?”

”If it were severed cleanly, completely, perhaps. But in this case the cable tie merely cut a deep ligature furrow that abraded a small portion of the surface of the vein. The orientation of this furrow was horizontal with just a little upward deviation at the posterior of the neck. There was some bleeding, including soft-tissue hemorrhage and abrasion, just below the ligature furrow. This groove, the ligature furrow, crosses the anterior midline of the neck, the front just below the laryngeal prominence. Here,” he says, ”around the Adam's apple. And fracture of the hyoid bone.”

”In layman's terms?” says Tannery.

”The voice box was crushed. The breathing pa.s.sage collapsed. There is no doubt. She died of asphyxia.”

”In nine to eleven minutes?” asks Tannery.

”Approximately.”

”Can you describe for the jury the physiological changes, what the victim would feel or experience as a result of asphyxiation by strangulation?”

”Yes. The pressure in the head would build as a result of constricted blood vessels, and the inability of the brain to obtain oxygen. There would be panic, a good deal of fear. The back of the tongue would be lifted and pulled into the posterior of the throat. This would block the airway. In a few seconds, the tongue would begin to swell. The head would turn a reddish purple. The lips would ultimately become cyanotic. . . .”

”What does that mean?”

”They would take on a pale blue to black color. Death would result from a lack of oxygen in the tissues of the brain.”

”How can you be sure this particular case was not suicide or an accident?” asks Tannery.

Schwimmer actually smiles at this. He looks at the D.A. as if perhaps Tannery is joking. ”You mean apart from the fact that the body was dismembered after death?” asks Schwimmer.