Page 100

CHAPTER 98

YUKI SAT BACK in her chair and listened to Dario’s defense counsel, Jon Credendino, begin speaking. Credendino was impressive in style and tone, but the story he laid out for the jury was total garbage.

Credendino said, “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you’ve heard an incendiary version of events from the prosecution. It’s a terrible story they’ve laid out—but it’s not what happened. Esteban Dario Garza—Dario, as he is called—is accused of a horrific murder that he did not commit. This is what actually happened on that tragic night last June: On the night in question, Dario was taking his two friends to a place called Club Hvar. Dario was a star at that club. The promoters always begged him to come, since other customers enjoyed watching Dario dance and would tell their friends about this handsome premed student who could sing and dance and do party tricks.

“It was a Saturday evening. Dario was driving his secondhand BMW, and he invited two friends to go along for the ride. All three young men had graduated from UC Berkeley and were starting their independent lives. Murder was not part of the plan.

“Dario was behind the wheel, his friend Miguel Hernandez was in the front passenger seat, and their friend—the one who the prosecution calls ‘El Gato’—was in the back seat, when Miguel said he felt nauseous.

“Miguel asked Dario to pull over so that he could throw up in the street.

“Dario said a few words like ‘Do not throw up in my car’ and attempted to pull the car over. But he was at a traffic light that had just turned green, and the cars behind him were backed up and blowing their horns.”

Yuki looked over at Dario Garza, who was nodding his head in agreement, like Right. Right.

Credendino walked to the jury box rail, put his hands on the rail, and went on with the defense’s opening statement, picking up his narrative at the green light. He added to the picture by saying, “A big bruiser of a truck driver got out of his sixteen-wheeler and started toward Dario with a wrench in his hand.”

“At that time, Dario told his friend El Gato, the prosecution’s star protected witness, to get out of the car and stay with Miguel. El Gato and Miguel exited the car, fast, slammed the doors shut, and Dario pulled ahead, avoiding the truck driver and going through the green light, which was about to turn yellow. Dario circled the block and was stopped by another light. He estimates that ten minutes had passed since he’d let his friends out of his car.

“When Dario returned to the spot where he’d last seen his friends, he couldn’t find them. He honked, called out, then drove around for a half hour, looking for Miguel and El Gato, calling their cell phones—and neither one answered. Dario figured that they must’ve gotten a lift and either went to the club or somewhere else for drinks. He kept his phone on, but no one called. So he went to Hvar, alone.

“A few hours later, after an evening of dancing, Dario went home from the club with a girl he knew, and she will testify that he spent the rest of the night with her at her place. Then, when he got home to his own apartment the next day, Dario made more phone calls, trying to find his friends.

“Little did he know that the police were out looking for him. Miguel’s body had been found in a pit at a construction site. Someone had called the police with Dario’s partial license plate number, and Dario was arrested on suspicion of murder without any evidence—except for a self-serving report from El Gato, the prosecution’s star witness, who also directed the police to Miguel’s body.”

Credendino said, “I’ll be introducing other witnesses from Club Hvar who will establish Dario’s presence there that night, and they will tell you that he had no blood on his clothes. In fact, his hair was combed and he was in a calm, unagitated mood.

“So, what did happen?” Credendino asked the jury rhetorically. “Was Miguel mugged? Killed by a stranger on the street? Did El Gato himself dispatch Miguel Hernandez and put the blame on Dario? We only know that Dario never touched Miguel. Dario had no reason to kill anyone.”

Not a bad argument, Yuki thought.

But she knew things that Dario Garza’s lawyer didn’t know.