Programmed To Kill: A Julia C Story

“This is case 327, Steve Fox Vs. State.” The bailiff announces.

“Ms. Prosecutor, state your case. We’re hearing from you first.” Judge Christie announces.

“Thanks your, Honor.” Miharu steps from behind the table. “The State accuses Steve Fox of the murder of Nina Williams. We have sufficient evidence to do so.”

“Show the evidence.”

“Your Honor, their were neighbors who saw Mr. Fox arrive at the home of Ms. Williams on the night of May 18th at 12 midnight. Promptly at 6 am they saw him leave….”

“Ms. Prosecutor, how would these ‘neighbors’ have seen all of this? Were they watching her home?” Judge Christie asks not believing the prosector.

Miharu answers not in the least surprised with the question. “My witnesses saw this because they were coming from a night out of bowling.”

“May I ask who these witnesses are? And why they were all together at the same time?”

Yes, Your Honor. They’re Angelle Mignon, Jun Kazama, and her daughter Asuka. They arrived in Jun Kazama’s car. The Kazama’s live down the street from Ms. Williams and Ms. Mignon lives next door to them.”

“Continue.” Christie shakes her head in approval.

“Other evidence,’ she turns to the court, ‘includes: Mr. Fox’s skin and blood under Ms. Williams finger nails. His finger prints on the handle of the front door and her bedroom door. Shoe prints, the same size as his, were found inside. They were from Nikes. Steve owns a pair of Nikes. The Coroner determined the cause of death as ‘Strangulation’. This also supports the fact of his skin and blood being found under Nina’s nails. Ms. Williams fought back against Steve. The Coroner stated that the gouges in Steve’s upper arms were a complete match. Nina left defensive wounds on his upper arms. I have pictures of this.” Miharu goes back behind her desk and flips through some papers from a yellow folder.

“Can you bring the pictures Ms. Prosecutor has, Lee?” He nods his head and heads to Miharu. She hands him the pictures.

Christie takes the pictures from Lee and scans them. She nods. “I’m going to allow this.” Miharu nods. The picture is handed to Lee once again, then given back to Miharu.

“Also, the witnesses were asked if they’d ever seen Mr. Fox come or go from Ms. Williams’ home before or around the neighborhood. All were asked separately but with the same answer: ‘Never’. I have nothing further to add at the moment, Your Honor.” Miharu sits with a confidence that her argument was stated well.

“Ok, the Defense may argue.” Christie entwines her fingers on top of her desk.

“Thanks, Your Honor.” Kazuya comes from behind his desk. “My client Steve Fox, says he’s innocent. I wouldn’t have taken his case if I had any doubt that he was.’

Facing the court. “While the evidence says he is guilty, keep in mind that to make a ‘smart’ decision involves knowing all sides and elements. I’d like to start my argument off with calling a few people to the stand. If that’s okay, Your Honor.”

“Proceed, Defense.” She shakes her head.

“Defense would like to call Julia Chang to the stand.” Steve turns around to Julia. She stands and walks to the Judge.

The Lee brings the medium sized black bible out and holds it in his left hand. His right hand slightly raised. Julia does the same but her right hand is touching the bible. “Do you promise to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” She is asked.

“Yes.” The bailiff nods and she proceeds to sit behind the podium.

Kazuya walks up to her, angled so that the courts can see her. How she responds to questions and answers them. “Ms. Chang, you’re Steve’s wife. Right?”

She looks at him. “Yes.”

Kazuya turns to the court. “Who better to know a husband, than a wife?” He turns back to Julia, as if not expecting an answer.

“Tell us about Steve, Julia.”

“My Steve was a good man and husband. Lots of people like him. He just….He ‘wouldn’t’ hurt anybody. That’s what I thought.” She puts her face in her hands. After a few moments, she lifts up. We see tears in her gray eyes.

“What do you mean ‘that’s what you thought’?” Kazuya asks her, slightly confused.

Before she responds, upon closer inspection behind her tears, Kazuya can see how she really feels. She believes the prosecution. “I couldn’t believe what I was told. That Steve, my wonderful husband, killed my boss. I was so very ready to defend him. But now, I see it was a lie; him being innocent. I was too blinded to see what he was capable of.” She cries again.

Kazuya looked so shocked. He couldn’t believe that Julia took the stand ‘against’ Steve, her husband. There was a lot of commotion in the court. The people’s whisperings about Julia and Steve turned to a loud buzz.

“Quiet in the court!” Christie hits her gavel. She hits it two more times before there was order in the court.

“If I have to say quiet in the court one more time, I’m going to have Lee escort all who are loud to a holding cell, in contempt of court. Understand?” Everyone is quiet.

“Okay. I need you, Ms. Chang to step down. There will be no more questions asked of her.” Julia nods. Go to the rest room, compose yourself.” She nods again and avoids Kazuya’s hate stare. As she walks by, Steve looks up at her in shock and… hurt. Julia doesn’t look down. She continues to wipe her eyes with the backs of her hands, walking out of the court room.

Steve turns back to face forward. Cheeks burning in embarrassment, his eyes meet Kazuya’s.

“Counselors, what in the world is going on here?” She asks them angrily.

Pointing to herself, Miharu says “I don’t know what’s going on.”

“Do you?” Miharu asks Kazuya.

“No.” He responds angrily.

“Did you and Ms. Chang work something out, Ms. Prosecutor?”

“No. I knew the Defendant had a wife, but I never talked to her or seen her.”

“Defense, you have a person on the stand to speak for your side and they do the opposite? You need to get your defense together. Understand?” She asks him.

“Yes.”

They both start to walk away, but she tells them “I don’t want to see anything like this in my court again.”

“Yes, Your Honor.” They both respond walking back.

Kazuya and Steve walk out of the court near the fountain outside the Municipal Building. Unbeknown to them, Julia has com back from the rest room to tell the Judge that she is needed at work. Which ironically is true.

“Okay here’s what happened, Steve. I don’t why your wife did that. I was just as shocked as you were. In fact, I’m more than just shocked. I’m pissed.” He shakes his head.

“Did the Prosecutor no why Julia did it? Did them two work together?” Steve asked hopeful.

Kazuya looks at him, sad to have to tell him. “No. She was shocked too. Not that she was complaining.”

Steve’s face drops, lower than it was in court. “Don’t worry about her now. You need to worry about yourself. I’m not going to lie; things are getting worse for you. But I’m not giving up.” He touches Steve’s shoulder in sincerity. “I’m going to call you to the stand…”

“Why!” Steve pulls away.

“You’re the only one who won’t talk bad about yourself. Anyway, I’d already planned to call you.” He looks at his watch.

“We got 1 minute left. Let’s head back.” Steve follows behind Kazuya, heading through the court room doors once again.

Steve walks down the isle to his seat, not looking at anyone. Kazuya walks to the podium, turns around and addresses the court. “I’d like to call Steve Fox to the stand.”

There are hushed whisperings among the court, but one glance up to the look Christie has and they quiet down.

Steve stands, walks down the isle to the bailiff. Lee takes the bible and asks Steve “Do you promise to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”

“Yes.” Lee nods and Steve takes his seat behind the podium.

“Tell us, Steve what you know to have happened.”

“I’m innocent. The morning of May 18, I awoke and saw that Julia was gone. I knew she was gone to work.” He begins but is interrupted by Kazuya.

“Did you notice anything different from any of the other days?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact I did. I noticed that I couldn’t remember the past 6 hours. I never remembered going to bed. I did remember coming in from work, but that’s it.” Steve says looking at the Judge.

“Anything else, Steve?” Kazuya looks at the courts.

“I noticed that I had big gouge marks near my shoulders on both arms. They hurt so bad, but I couldn’t remember what happened, how I got them or when I did. I wanted to talk to Julia, but like I said, she was at work.”

“What’d you do then, Steve?”

“I decided to wait for her to come home. We were going to have dinner that night. It was our 6 year anniversary.” He says this with a bitter smile.

“What did you do while you waited?” Kazuya asks again looking at the court.

“I went to my car and got out my anniversary gift for her. I wanted it to be in a place she’d find easily. I put it in her top drawer of her dresser.” Steve stops and a look of shock appears, like he remembered something that he’d forgotten.

“What?” Kazuya asks him.

“When I opened Julia’s drawer, I saw a tape. A little clear tape you use in a recorder. It had ‘Steve’s Programming’ written on it in red pin. It was Julia’s handwriting.” He swallows. “I’d thought it was a joke at first. Then I was taken into custody. I didn’t have time to think of it. I must’ve forgotten. I don’t know how.” He looks confused.

Kazuya walks up directly in front of Steve. “Do you have this with you?”

“No…It’s at home.” He replies looking at the Judge.

“Where is it?” It’s Christie’s turn to ask questions now.

“In a one of her boxes of facial cleanser. I opened one that she hadn’t yet and put it in there. She still doesn’t know, because I placed it upside down in the back of the cabinet.”

Kazuya looks at Christie. Steve looks between them. “After I was taken into custody and I couldn’t remember where I was between 12 and 6am, I wondered if I ‘was’ guilty. Maybe I pushed what I’d did out of my mind.”

There’s a pause, then Christie asks “Detectives WuLong and Fury, come to the stand.” They do so.

“I usually don’t do this, in fact I’ve never done this, but I want you two to go to Fox residence and find that tape.”

Looking confused. “How are we to do that? We don’t have a court order.” Lei asks.

Christie smiles for the first time in court. “Yes you do. I’m the court and I order you to.” Turning to Lee, “I want you to give me one of my search orders from the gray file cabinet, top drawer.”

Lee leaves. She looks at the court. “Yes I have search orders already filled out. All I have to do is put the date and what should be searched.” Everyone’s truly shocked.

Lee comes back with a white paper, hands it and a red pin to Christie. She takes no more than 2 minutes to fill out what was needed.

Handing the search warrant to Lei, “If that tape exist, I want it. Go. Now.”

“Yes, Your Honor’, they respond. Both proceed to leave the court room.

As they’re leaving, Christie tells the court “Court will be in procession until 12 this afternoon. Make sure you’re here.”