492 The Fish Took the Bai (1/2)

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the trial continued. Now, it was Wilfrid's turn to ask the questions.

”Mr. Li, on the day of the crime, you shot and wounded Mr. Sam Gardner. My question is why did you choose Mr. Sam Gardner as your target?” asked Wilfrid.

”Because Mr. Sam Gardner was passing by. At that time, I could only look outside through the air outlet and wait. Mr. Gardner just came into my sight. I did not target him specifically,” said Dai Li.

”In other words, you chose to shoot Mr. Gardner because he entered into your sight. You didn't shoot someone randomly. You just shot the first person you saw, right?” asked Wilfrid immediately.

”Yes. Due to the limitation of view, I couldn't choose the target, but had to wait for someone to walk by,” responded Dai Li.

”Why did you choose to shoot him in his leg?” Wilfrid continued to ask.

”Because an injury to the leg won't cause any fatal damage,” responded Dai Li.

”Why not the arm? A gunshot to the arm wouldn't have caused fatal damage either.”.

”Because the arms are in the upper body, so they're closer to the chest, heart, and head. The risk of a fatal injury would have been much higher if I chose to shoot his arm,” responded Dai Li.

”In other words, before you shot Mr. Gardner, you fully considered the danger that your gunshot might cause to the injured person's life. In order to reduce the possibility of that risk, you made a choice to avoid shooting the parts that may cause fatal injuries to the victim,” said Wilfrid.

”Yes.” Dai Li nodded.

”However, you didn't consider the possibility that the person might bleed to death, or the possibility that he wouldn't have a phone, or that he might pass out because of the pain,” said Wilfrid.

”That is correct. I didn't think of that then. I apologize for what I did to Mr. Sam Gardner,” said Dai Li.

Dai Li didn't tell the other reason why he had shot Gardner in his leg. He hadn't wanted Gardner to run away. Dai Li certainly wouldn't bring that up because it made him look bad.

Nick Reiss looked at Dai Li and Wilfrid with a sneer. As Dai Li's attorney, Wilfrid must have told Dai Li what questions he would ask and how he should answer. Therefore, it was meaningless for Nick Reiss to seek loopholes in Li's responses. He might fall into a trap set by Wilfrid.

Wilfrid said, ” The prosecutor's charge that the defendant is completely oblivious to the life of the injured is not true. My client deliberately did not shooting the victim's upper body in order to avoid fatally injuring the victim, which means that he didn't want to threaten Mr. Gardner's life.

”As mentioned by the prosecutor, there did exist possibilities that my client didn't take into account. The victim could have bled to death. He might not have been able to call the police for various reasons. My client has admitted that he didn't think of these possibilities at that time. I don't think anyone can guarantee that every decision they make is perfectly thought out. This doesn't prove that the defendant ignored the victim's life. There was no causal relationship.

” Considering that the defendant was kidnapped at that time, he must have been frightened and hopeless. In that case, he tried to avoid shooting the vital parts of the victim as much as possible. That couldn't have been easy for him. The defendant couldn't sit in a chair and think like we do. We expect the defendant to have thought through everything given the circumstances.”

Wilfrid nodded at the judge as he said, ”Your Honor, I have no more questions.”

”What do you want to add, prosecutor?” The judge turned to prosecutor Reiss.

Reiss stood up immediately. ”I have several new questions for the defendant.”

Reiss walked to Dai Li and asked, ”Mr. Li, according to what you just said, when you shot, you avoided shooting the victim's upper body. That means you chose to shoot him in his leg, right?”

Dai Li thought for a while and couldn't see any reason why he shouldn't answer truthfully. ”Yes,” he responded.

”How did you succeed in shooting his leg specifically?” Reiss continued to ask.

”Sorry, I don't know what you mean,” said Dai Li.

”Well, let me reword my question. How were you certain you would hit his leg and not fatally injure him? If you couldn't make sure that you could avoid shooting the victim's upper body, you might have killed him. You didn't kill the victim because you got lucky that you did not fatally wound him. You couldn't have known you wouldn't commit a murder.”

Dai Li understood what he was implying.

Just as Wilfrid expected. The fish has taken the bait.

Dai Li smiled and said, ”I certainly knew that I could just shoot his leg.”

”How could you have been sure?” Reiss asked.

”I am confident in my accuracy,” said Dai Li, brimming with pride.

”Mr. Li, I shall remind you that this is court. Confidence can't be served as evidence,” Reiss said coldly.

”Well, let me put it another way then. I can shoot very well,” responded Dai Li.

”Very well? that's very broad. Everyone has a different definition of 'very well'. Maybe you think that you can shoot very well, but someone else thinks you can't. It is totally inadmissable as evidence,” Reiss said reasonably.

Dai Li thought for a while as if he was hesitating. Seconds later, he said, ”I can hit a coin at a distance of fifty meters with a rifle. I would like to ask you, Mr. Reiss, and I would like to ask the jury as well, whether that is line with most people's concept of skilled shooting. If you don't agree that that is correct, you can present your own evidence.”

Both the judge and the jury were stunned..