Something doesn’t add up here, but I can’t seem to put my finger on it. Okay, let’s start over at the beginning. Let’s close the folder, sit back and think about it… weigh the evidence… recall the kid’s statement.
He said he got in from practice, dropped his gear at his house, grabbed a can of soda from the frig and headed over to the girl’s house. He knocked on the door but as was his usual habit, he didn’t wait for anyone to let him in. After closing the door and calling out her name, he said he heard a thud… no, it wasn’t a thud… it was a loud thump, coming from upstairs, so he headed in that direction. A girl’s scream startled him. He dropped the unopened soda, raced up the stairs and headed to the girl’s room. Then…
Think… what’d he say? Oh yeah. He heard a second scream just before he entered her room… and sounds of a struggle. He opened the door to find the girl being pushed against the bedroom wall by a man whose back was to him.
The kid rushed to stop him and at the same time, the girl grabbed a vase that was within arm’s reach on the nightstand. She swung it at the guy, but the kid had just reached him, when he said he felt the vase slam into his head. He recalled grabbing the back of the guy’s neck, but then he blacked out.
It’s all he remembered until the police woke him. They pulled him to his feet and read him his rights, but he said he didn’t really hear them because the sight of the dead girl made him sick, and he dropped down and vomited. After that, they took him to the hospital where his head was stitched up and then he was taken to the county lock-up.
It all seems very plausible. Geez, I want to believe the kid. He doesn’t seem like a cold-hearted killer or rapist but the evidence… both the physical and medical evidence all point to him – to his DNA. Damn. It just doesn’t calculate.
How long had they known each other? It’s in the file… where did I see that? Ah, right there. They’ve been neighbors since the kid’s family moved there in 2000. He was what… 2 years old. They’ve known each other 14 years and all of a sudden the kid turns whacko and rapes and murders her? I don’t buy that no matter what the evidence says. He doesn’t fit the profile.
The kid said they were best friends and admitted he had more than just platonic feelings towards her, but he swears he never acted upon them… says he had more respect for her than that and wasn’t about to jeopardize their friendship in any way because he thinks he may have even been in love with her. I believe him. Twenty-three years of experience tells me he’s not lying… he’s not a killer or a rapist. He’s just a kid that walked in on something that no kid should ever walk in on.
But the evidence… Okay, I can accept the evidence that proves he was there. Hell, the fact that he was out cold on the floor when the police got there is a no brainer. But the DNA evidence nails his coffin shut. If he’s not the killer, how’d his DNA wind up in the samples taken from the girl? She was raped… of that we’re sure. But if it wasn’t him, then how…
No... the real question isn't how... but who?
YOU ARE READING
False Conviction
Teen FictionSociety… It had become so corrupt that change was needed. The government made small changes at first with the promised legislature that larger ones would follow. They did. Now things are worse.
