she offered. “Nothing she does ever works out, except the one thing she shouldn’t be doing. Like shooting Roy in the chest. But, yes, you’re right. She wasn’t a deadeye shot like the rest of my family. Never even picked up a gun to the best of my knowledge. Not even when Daddy wanted her to go out hunting with him and, believe me, Gail would have done anything for that man’s approval.” Brenda shook her head. “Gail never understood about the Honeycutt men. They don’t show anything on the outside, and I’m not so sure they ever feel anything on the inside. Expecting one to love you and show it is a losing proposition. I never bothered. I just did the best I could to get the hell out on my own as soon as possible.”
“Why didn’t the jury think the bullet holes drilled perfectly through her husband’s heart was unlikely?” I asked.
“The jury didn’t believe she was a bad shot,” Brenda explained. “That’s the trouble when you throw up a defense that’s a lie from the start. They smelled a lie and thought it was all a lie.”
“What about the fact that Roy was working with an antidrug unit when he was killed?” I asked. “Did anyone look into that? If he’d been putting drug kingpins behind bars, that’s a pretty large pool of potential suspects right there.” e=“ere.”
She nodded her head. “Her legal team spent a month and over $20,000 of Nanny’s money having that angle looked into. There wasn’t a whisper of threats against him by dealers. He didn’t put that many behind bars, anyway. Roy died before most of his arrests came to trial. So the drug connection was a dead end.”
“What about the rumors that he was dirty?” I asked.
“We looked into his financial records and followed leads up and down the Eastern seaboard. If Roy was dirty, he sure as hell wasn’t getting rich from it. He had zippo assets except for their home. He didn’t even own their fishing cabin. His stepfather did. I think Roy was clean.”
“Why didn’t Gail’s daughter testify during the trial?” I asked. “She was there that night.”
“Brittany couldn’t add anything that would have helped, and Gail didn’t want to put her through it. I agreed, but for a different reason. It would have made Gail look bad if Brittany had been put on the stand. What kind of a person would shoot a kid’s father practically in front of her? Her lawyer wanted to avoid that issue.”
I groped for another lead. “What about the two bullets in the wall above the door frame?” I asked. “The trajectory is odd. Does that mean anything to you?”
“Well, Ham contended during his closing argument that Gail had lied about blacking out, shot Roy through the heart then discharged her gun wildly into the air. In victory, to hear him tell it.”
I stared at her incredulously. “What? Like Pecos Pete getting a snoot full of tequila and shooting off his pistol for fun?”
She shrugged. “You and I both know that Ham’s an idiot. The jury would probably agree. But I don’t think they found the extra shots important.”
“What about her appeals? Who’s handling them?”
Brenda’s sigh was a long one. “Ever heard of Northern Lights?”
“You’re kidding?” I said. The Northern Lights Foundation was a nonprofit organization devoted to overturning death-penalty convictions everywhere. But, it seemed, mostly in the South. You would have thought they’d have better sense than to send a bunch of Yankee lawyers marching into the South to bring enlightenment to the masses under the name “Northern Lights.” But they didn’t.
“Gail has a good appeals lawyer,” Brenda explained, “but she doesn’t know southern judges. During the first federal appeal, she argued that Gail htsd that had been so medicated during the trial, she had been unable to assist in her own defense. I thought we had a pretty good chance, but it was turned down. A second appeal was filed with the Fourth Circuit. We expect to hear from
“Why didn’t the jury think the bullet holes drilled perfectly through her husband’s heart was unlikely?” I asked.
“The jury didn’t believe she was a bad shot,” Brenda explained. “That’s the trouble when you throw up a defense that’s a lie from the start. They smelled a lie and thought it was all a lie.”
“What about the fact that Roy was working with an antidrug unit when he was killed?” I asked. “Did anyone look into that? If he’d been putting drug kingpins behind bars, that’s a pretty large pool of potential suspects right there.” e=“ere.”
She nodded her head. “Her legal team spent a month and over $20,000 of Nanny’s money having that angle looked into. There wasn’t a whisper of threats against him by dealers. He didn’t put that many behind bars, anyway. Roy died before most of his arrests came to trial. So the drug connection was a dead end.”
“What about the rumors that he was dirty?” I asked.
“We looked into his financial records and followed leads up and down the Eastern seaboard. If Roy was dirty, he sure as hell wasn’t getting rich from it. He had zippo assets except for their home. He didn’t even own their fishing cabin. His stepfather did. I think Roy was clean.”
“Why didn’t Gail’s daughter testify during the trial?” I asked. “She was there that night.”
“Brittany couldn’t add anything that would have helped, and Gail didn’t want to put her through it. I agreed, but for a different reason. It would have made Gail look bad if Brittany had been put on the stand. What kind of a person would shoot a kid’s father practically in front of her? Her lawyer wanted to avoid that issue.”
I groped for another lead. “What about the two bullets in the wall above the door frame?” I asked. “The trajectory is odd. Does that mean anything to you?”
“Well, Ham contended during his closing argument that Gail had lied about blacking out, shot Roy through the heart then discharged her gun wildly into the air. In victory, to hear him tell it.”
I stared at her incredulously. “What? Like Pecos Pete getting a snoot full of tequila and shooting off his pistol for fun?”
She shrugged. “You and I both know that Ham’s an idiot. The jury would probably agree. But I don’t think they found the extra shots important.”
“What about her appeals? Who’s handling them?”
Brenda’s sigh was a long one. “Ever heard of Northern Lights?”
“You’re kidding?” I said. The Northern Lights Foundation was a nonprofit organization devoted to overturning death-penalty convictions everywhere. But, it seemed, mostly in the South. You would have thought they’d have better sense than to send a bunch of Yankee lawyers marching into the South to bring enlightenment to the masses under the name “Northern Lights.” But they didn’t.
“Gail has a good appeals lawyer,” Brenda explained, “but she doesn’t know southern judges. During the first federal appeal, she argued that Gail htsd that had been so medicated during the trial, she had been unable to assist in her own defense. I thought we had a pretty good chance, but it was turned down. A second appeal was filed with the Fourth Circuit. We expect to hear from
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