Page 101 of The First Gentleman
CHAPTER 97
Rockingham County Courthouse, New Hampshire
I get to court early to snag a good seat for the second day of the trial.
The media people are already in place.
I wave to Ron Reynolds, and he tips his tweed newsboy cap at me.
As the defendant and his team of attorneys file in, I catch a glimpse of his ankle monitor, well hidden beneath his somber bespoke suit.
The cameras light up.
So does the tension in the room.
Testimony opens with the deputy attorney general calling the deputy chief medical examiner Alice Woods to the stand.
Bastinelli takes her through a review of her educational credentials and forensics experience.
As she starts to explain how she positively identified the remains, Tess Hardy stands up and interrupts.
“Your Honor, in the interest of time, the defense is willing to stipulate that the remains found in the trunk of the Sentra are in fact those of Suzanne Bonanno.”
Smart move.
Hardy looks like she’s being accommodating but she’s actually taking control.
The defense attorney wants Bastinelli to hurry up with Woods so she can get a crack at her.
The strategy throws Bastinelli off his game; it takes him a few seconds to adjust and skip down his question list. He grabs a controller from the lectern and turns on a video screen.
“Your Honor, State’s exhibit eleven C.”
The monitor shows a full set of human bones laid out on an exam table in the rough shape of a human—the human who was Suzanne.
I look over at Cole Wright.
His head is bowed. He’s the only person in court not looking at the screen.
Bastinelli hands Dr. Woods a laser pointer.
Under the deputy AG’s questioning, the expert witness highlights ribs, vertebrae, femurs, radii.
She shows the landmarks that identify the skeleton as female.
She tells him how she determined the approximate age of the bones and length of time they’d been buried.
There’s one bone Bastinelli seems particularly interested in.
“Dr. Woods, can you explain the location and function of the hyoid bone?”
“Yes,” she says, using the laser pointer to highlight a small U-shaped bone.
“The hyoid bone is crescent-shaped, thinner on the ends, thicker in the middle. It’s about two inches across. It sits in the neck, about here.” She places two fingers on her own throat.
“It supports the tongue and helps with speaking and swallowing.”
“And what bones does it attach to?”
“None,” says Woods.
“It floats.”
“It floats?” says Bastinelli.
“Please explain.”
“The hyoid bone is the only bone in the body that’s not attached to another bone. It’s connected to cartilage and ligaments only.”
“Does that make it easier to isolate and identify?”
“It’s a very distinctive little bone, yes.”
“And were you able to locate the hyoid bone in the skeletal remains of Suzanne Bonanno?”
“I was.”
“Your Honor, State’s exhibit fourteen A.” Bastinelli clicks to a close-up of a grayish curve of bone lying on a blue surgical towel.
It’s split on one side, and the rough edges are overlapping.
“Dr. Woods, is this a photograph of Suzanne Bonanno’s hyoid bone?”
“Yes, it is.”
“And can you tell the court what you found significant about it as you examined it?”
“It was broken.”
“And in your extensive experience examining the victims of violent crimes, Dr. Woods, does a broken hyoid bone have any special significance?”
“Yes. It indicates strong external pressure on the throat before the victim’s death.”
“Dr. Woods, is the hyoid bone easy to break?”
“Well, bones get more brittle as we age. In a young person, it would be quite flexible.”
“So the force required to fracture the hyoid bone of a twenty-two-year-old woman would be pretty intense, am I correct?”
“Yes.”
“Requiring considerable pressure.”
“Considerable force, yes.”
“And did the fractured hyoid bone in this case lead you to a conclusion about Suzanne Bonanno’s cause of death?”
“Yes. In my opinion, she was strangled.”
I look over at the jurors.
Some of them have their eyes down.
One woman is biting her lip.
Bastinelli chooses to end here.
“Thank you, Doctor. No further questions.”
Judge Dow turns to Tess Hardy.
She’s already on her feet.
The first thing she does is click off the video screen.
“Good morning, Dr. Woods.”
“Good morning.”
“Dr. Woods, let’s return to this mysterious little hyoid bone. Isn’t it true that a hyoid bone can be fractured by impact in a car accident, by hard contact in an athletic event, or even by violent vomiting?”
“Yes, but I saw no evidence of—”
“Violent vomiting? There would be no evidence of that in skeletal remains, correct?”
“Vomiting? No.”
“So when you make an educated guess that the victim was strangled–”
“Objection!” Bastinelli interjects.
“Defense is mischaracterizing the witness’s testimony.”
“Sustained,” says Dow.
I watch Hardy shift gears in a flash.
“So when you came to an opinion that the victim was strangled, you did not consider other possibilities, is that right?”
“I used my best judgment,” says Woods.
“But it’s possible that the victim’s hyoid bone was fractured in a manner other than strangulation, correct?”
“Yes. It’s possible,” Dr. Woods concedes.
“Thank you, Doctor. I’m glad we could put that to rest.”
Hardy goes over and whispers to her client.
I watch him give an almost imperceptible nod.
The defense attorney walks to the lectern and picks up a stapled set of pages.
“Now I’d like to turn your attention to your preliminary autopsy report. Your Honor, this is defendant’s exhibit twelve B.”
She flips through the pages until she reaches a highlighted section.
I can see the neon-green color from where I’m sitting.
“Dr. Woods, you offered an opinion that the victim was pregnant at the time of her death.”
An undercurrent of surprised murmuring rolls through the courtroom.
It’s not the first time I’ve heard this pregnancy theory, but I’m surprised that Hardy is the one to bring it up.
What does this mean for the defense’s trial strategy?
“That’s right,” Dr. Woods says.
“But there were no fetal remains? No way to check for fetal DNA?”
“Correct.”
“And you were unable to extract placental DNA from the bones?”
“True.”
“So what, in your expert opinion, makes you think that the victim was with child?”
Dr. Woods doesn’t immediately respond.
She seems to be organizing her thoughts.
She looks over at the jury, then speaks directly to them.
“When a woman becomes pregnant, the body undergoes physical changes to prepare for delivery. By the start of the second trimester, ligaments attached to bones in the pelvis start to loosen. That causes changes in the composition of the bones in those areas that we can see under a microscope. I saw evidence of those changes in the pelvic bones of the victim.”
“Conclusive evidence?” Hardy asks.
“That might be overstating it.”
“So do you know for certain the victim was pregnant at the time of her death?” asks Hardy.
“No. As the report states, it’s my opinion.”
“And would these compositional changes give you an indication of who the father was?”
“No. That would require fetal DNA.”
“And if I understand you correctly, you’ve just told us that there was no fetal DNA.”
“Well, after seventeen years underground—”
Hardy holds up her hand.
“Dr. Woods, sorry to interrupt, but what I asked was if there was any detectable fetal DNA present in the remains. Yes or no?”
“No.”
“So you cannot say with certainty that Suzanne Bonanno was pregnant?”
“I cannot.”
“And even if she had been pregnant, establishing paternity would be an impossibility without fetal DNA.”
“Correct.”
“So, from your testimony, you can conclude only that the skeletal remains recovered in Seabrook belong to Suzanne Bonanno. Everything else is purely theoretical. Suzanne could have died in any number of ways. Speculation beyond that seems to border on fantasy.”
“Objection!” Bastinelli calls out.
“Defense is again mischaracterizing the witness’s testimony.”
“Sustained,” says the judge.
“Ms. Hardy? Any more questions for this witness?”
Hardy tosses a glance at the jury.
“No, Your Honor, I think we’ve all heard enough.”