Michael Benson's True Crime Bundle (102 page)

Hebert said that in order to look at self-defense, the jurors would need to look at the whole picture, to hear all of the eyewitnesses—including those whom, for whatever reason, the state had chosen not to call.

The first would be Javier Laboy, a friend of the defendant’s who had once dated her. He was a confidant to Rachel Wade and understood the
drama
that led up to the tragedy. It all revolved around Joshua Camacho. It included Sarah, Erin, and Rachel. It involved Facebook, Myspace, and phone calls.

Throughout his opening statement, and on occasion during the defense case, Hebert would refer to the date of the stabbing as “November fourteenth.” Names and dates were unusually problematic for the lawyers on both sides. Later in his opening statement, Hebert referred to “Ashley Laboy.”

Javier would testify that he received a phone call from Rachel Wade that night and he would describe her demeanor. Javier suggested that Rachel come over to his house. They could hang out and get something to eat and, as Hebert put it, “defuse the situation.” And all of this was important because, in order for the jurors truly to understand what occurred that tragic night, they had to fully understand his client’s state of mind.

“What was she thinking? What was she feeling? What was going on in her world?” These were questions Hebert wanted the jurors to ask themselves.

Javier Laboy would confront the testimony of Ashley Lovelady. He was there when Ashley drove by that night, and he saw how she was speeding and how she swerved at Rachel, terrifying his client, heightening her awareness that there was a group of kids out to get her.

Javier would testify that things happened quickly, that he wanted to get Rachel out of there because this was a percolating situation, ready to explode.

But he didn’t make it to his house because he was almost to his front door when his attention was drawn to Sarah’s van, which barreled around the corner, drifted like a street racer, and screeched to a halt in the middle of the street.

“All hell was about to break loose,” Hebert noted.

If the van hadn’t stopped so abruptly, Javier would say, it would have struck Rachel or Rachel’s car. The van stopped four feet away from Rachel’s car in the pitch-black darkness. To demonstrate his point, Hebert aggressively walked toward the jury box, stopping when he was about four feet away.

And then Javier was going to say that contrary to the testimony of Jilica Smith and Janet Camacho,
all three girls piled out of the van simultaneously.
Javier would say that Sarah had come to Rachel, and Rachel had no choice but to defend herself. As difficult as it was to say, Sarah Ludemann was the aggressor, the one to throw the first punch, the one who grabbed Rachel Wade by the hair. When that fight was over, and Sarah went back and sat in the van, Janet Camacho attacked Rachel in an immediate continuation of the first fight.

After Javier, the defense was going to call Joshua Camacho, whom he referred to as “the playa.” Joshua, the defense anticipated, would testify that he was not dating Sarah at the time of the stabbing. In fact, he would admit that he was planning on spending the night that night with Rachel. He would say that he wasn’t dating any of the girls—Sarah, Rachel, Erin—they were all friends with benefits. Joshua knew all about the “banter and the drama.” He would admit that Erin was the “baby mama” of his child. But Joshua would also be able to provide important details regarding what was going on at Janet’s house earlier in the evening. He would testify that there was much calling and texting going on, back and forth. He would testify that—again, contrary to the testimony of Jilica and Janet—everyone was smoking marijuana that night. And not just a small amount, either: seven blunts.

Joshua would also expose another one of Janet Camacho’s lies, Hebert said, when he testified that there were no kids at Janet’s house that night. Janet said the kids were home. Her brother disagreed. He would say it was just them having a party.

Hebert promised that he wasn’t going to let Joshua Camacho off easy, and he was going to grill him about his role in this case, that he was the focus of the drama and eventually the violence.

Reminding the jury once again that the defense had no burden whatsoever to prove anything, Hebert announced that the last witness he planned to call was Rachel Wade herself. “This is her day in court,” Hebert announced.

At the prosecution table, Lisset Hanewicz slumped back in her seat and made a show of rolling her eyes as Hebert said this. In the spectator section, there were many scornful expressions. While Charlie Ludemann’s face remained inscrutable, Gay couldn’t hide her disdain.

Rachel was going to talk about the reasons why she felt it was necessary to arm herself on the night of the tragic incident, such as the threats that Sarah made to her, threats that went unrecorded on any cell phones.

“‘I will beat your f’n ass,’” Hebert quoted Sarah as saying. “‘Stay the “eff” away from my man. Watch your f’n back. I will hurt you. You’ve got something coming to you, just wait. I will find you. If I were you, I’d watch my back because I know where you live.’”

Hebert said it was unfortunate that his client didn’t save any of those messages.

Rachel was going to testify about Joshua’s gun. She was in fear of that gun. Joshua had pointed that gun at her when they were alone together, and he used that gun to prevent her from leaving on one occasion. She feared Janet Camacho; she feared Sarah Ludemann; she had no idea where that gun was that night. She feared that gun might come into play.

Unfortunately for his client, there was no official record of Joshua’s gun threat. The police were not called, and Joshua wasn’t going to admit it. Joshua said Sarah knew about the gun, but that Rachel did not.

So the jurors would have to listen to Rachel. She would tell the truth about that gun. She not only knew about it, but she had been threatened with it. She was in fear of it—
that
night—as the drama came to a head.

“All of those issues go to Rachel’s state of mind, that heightened alert that was going on,” Hebert said. “She will tell you how she felt that night, that she was in a panic at her house because Sarah’s van drove by her apartment and she heard a voice.”

Hebert made it seem like the most reasonable thing in the world. She felt as if she was about to be ambushed, so she went to a kitchen drawer and grabbed a knife. Then she called her friend Javier and went to his house.

“She took the knife for her protection,” he said. “You’ve seen the knife. It is a very common kitchen knife. She will tell you that her hope was that she would show the knife and it would never need to be used.” Her game plan was sound. The threat of the knife, the sight of the knife, would frighten those who were out to get her. The knife would defuse the violence. Rachel’s attackers would turn around and go away.

Rachel’s plan, however, didn’t work out. She hadn’t counted on being startled by the suddenness of the attack. The van raced around the corner, screeched to a halt, and all three girls piled out and came at her.

As he described the fight itself, Hebert moved from behind his lectern so he was standing very close to the jury box. The fight began quickly, and quickly it was over. Five seconds, tops.

Rachel couldn’t see what she was doing during the fight because her hair was being pulled and her head was down. She was punched two or three times in the head by Sarah, so she flailed her hands to defend herself.

“She doesn’t even remember. She doesn’t even remember stabbing Sarah,” Hebert said. “It wasn’t until she saw the blood that she freaked out. She saw the blood on the knife, and then, instantaneously, Janet was upon her.”

The sight of the blood was what made Rachel quit fighting. She didn’t fight back as Janet beat her down. And she didn’t know that Sarah was seriously hurt, or that Sarah had died. She did not know until police told her hours later.

Rachel would explain the voice mails she sent to Sarah. Hebert knew how the jury felt when they heard them. “They’re just awful,” he said. But he asked the jurors to place those recordings in context. Rachel was speaking that way because she was responding to threats that had come at her, and that was the way teenagers talked. There was a generational difference in what was acceptable speech. What might seem to them to be the words of a monster was—to the younger generation—just a girl talking smack.

“Make no mistake. You have to look at the whole puzzle before you can see the picture, and we ask you to look at that picture, and to wait until the very end before you make your decision,” Hebert said.

There were two families in the courtroom that would never be the same because of what had happened. If they could turn back the hands of time, they would, of course. But they couldn’t. His goal was that justice be carried out, and justice meant in this case that Rachel was acting in self-defense. She was not guilty of second-degree murder.

Hebert thanked the jurors for their attention and sat down.

Judge Bulone said, “Call your first witness.”

Hebert said, “The defense calls Javier Laboy.”

The young man who took the oath and sat down wore a maroon shirt and black tie, no jacket. Javier Laboy introduced himself to the jury and explained he was a bookkeeper for a car dealership. Jay Hebert began by asking the witness to define his relationship with the defendant. He said they “used to date,” that they dated between four and six months, remained friends after they broke up, and then “lost contact.” They were not dating at the time of the incident.

Yes, he knew Joshua Camacho. They’d gone to Pinellas Park High School together. He and Joshua, in fact, had “a few problems for a few years.” He knew Janet Camacho slightly. He’d only met her once or twice. He’d known Erin Slothower since middle school, and they had dated for a time. He didn’t know Sarah Ludemann at all, but he had been aware of the Rachel/Sarah feud. During the evening of April 14, 2009, he’d been at his mom’s home. At some point, he’d received a call from Rachel Wade.

“What was Miss Wade’s demeanor when she made that call?” Hebert asked.

The witness turned toward the jury and spoke with solemn sincerity: “She was upset and terrified.”

“As a result of that phone call, what did you encourage Miss Wade to do?” Hebert asked.

“I encouraged her to come over to my mom’s house.”

“It had been four or five months since you had had regular contact with Miss Wade?”

“Yes.” Long enough for his house to be “off the radar” of anyone who was looking for her. He told no one she was coming over or that she was there.

At some point, Dustin Grimes, a friend of his, also came over. When Rachel arrived, she was in tears, shaking, scared, unable to keep herself together. She said she’d been threatened and felt his house provided her safe haven. They didn’t go inside. They sat out front, just hanging out. They tried to calm her down, made plans to go to Starbucks, to have fun, forget about everything else that was going on. But she didn’t calm down. She was on her cell phone, rattled, crying, arguing, pacing back and forth, shaking.

In the gallery, the Ludemanns watched, doing nothing to hide their skepticism. Every once in a while, Charlie would shake his head from side to side, not persuaded.

“At some point in time, did something happen that drew your attention to the street?” Hebert asked.

“Yes, we were talking to Rachel. She was on the phone arguing. Dustin and I figured if she never gets off the phone, we’re never going to leave. So, as I was walking up to her to take the phone, we saw a car coming down the street. At first it was creeping, really slowly, and then, all of a sudden, it sped up and swerved toward us. I reached up and pulled Rachel out of the way. We were right behind Rachel’s car, and it was a good thing. If the car hadn’t been there, me pulling her out of the way wouldn’t have done any good. The car would have hit all of us.”

“That car was traveling at a great rate of speed when it got to you.”

“Correct.” And yes, he was certain the car
swerved—toward
them. The car came within four or five feet of them. The incident altered Rachel’s demeanor: “She was in shock.” The incident “escalated” the situation. “I thought we should get out of there. I told them, ‘I’m getting my keys. We’re leaving now.’” He headed back toward his house. Things happened quickly. He made it almost to the front of his house when something drew his attention back to the street: tires screeching, coming around the corner, a van.

Again, in the audience, Charlie Ludemann sat all the way back in his pew and shook his head in disbelief.

“How was that van driving when it came around the corner?”

“Like a street racer, drifting around the corner.” It might have been up on two wheels. If the van had been going any faster, it could have tipped. At the time, Rachel was leaning on the hood of her car, “kind of in the middle.”

“It was just a couple of minutes after the car swerved that the van arrived?”

“Yes.”

Hebert set up an easel and the witness was allowed to step down from the stand to ID and testify regarding photos. As Jay Hebert was setting up, Lisset Hanewicz got up from behind the prosecution table and circled Hebert and the easel once. She eyed the defense attorney suspiciously. She let the jury know through her actions that she wasn’t going to allow any funny business, although what funny business she had in mind was unclear. Hebert proceeded as if he didn’t notice her.

The first photo was an aerial shot of Javier Laboy’s neighborhood, upon which he identified his mother’s house. Laboy then showed which direction the swerving car had come from, and around which corner the van had drifted.

Javier pointed out the location of Rachel’s car. Hebert showed the witness two photos of the crime scene, one that was taken with the flash and one without. He asked which one best depicted the way things looked on the night of the incident, which occurred around midnight. Javier said the photo without the flash was most accurate. Because of the position of the streetlight, it was darkest-looking in the direction from which the van came tearing around the corner.