Examination of Defense Witness ~Mr. Ezra Reisch~

Examination of witness: Mr. Ezra Reisch

Representing the accused: Ms. Lucia Moretti, Esq.

Representing the State: Mr. Dragan Rajic, Esq.

Q: Ms. Lucia Moretti

A: Mr. Ezra Reisch

Excerpt:

Q. Do you mind introducing yourself?

A. My name is Ezra Reisch. That’s… ‘Reisch’ with an ‘s’.

Q. Okay, Mr. Reisch with an ‘s’, what do you do?

A. I’m a first-year medical student. Or… I hope I still am. I don’t know what’s going to happen after… well…

Q. How would you characterize your relationship with Dr. Tobias Kane?

A. I consider him a friend and a mentor. He’s the person who saved my life, and… and that’s not hyperbole. I really mean it. I had—and still do have—the utmost respect for him, and I miss him dearly.

Q. Hm. Given that poignant tribute, I’m a little hesitant to proceed, but my next question is this: did you attend Dr. Kane’s final lecture at University Hall?

A. No.

Q. Really? You valued him as a friend. You respected him as a mentor. But you didn’t attend the last talk he gave in a professional capacity?

A. Well… maybe at this point, it’s sort of redundant for me to say this, but… he and I didn’t part on the best of terms. Things… happened that I wish I could take back. And maybe… he felt the same way on his end, at least on some level. In any case, I… wasn’t quite ready to face him at the time.

Q. But in that case, I’d assume you watched the lecture at least? From the safety of an Internet browser?

A. Unfortunately, yes.

Q. Why unfortunately?

A. Well, I mean… it really was a tough watch.

Q. Hm. Who do you think he was talking to?

A. Well… I can only assume… must’ve been one of the students at the lecture hall. Maybe… someone that looked like me?

Q. Why do you say that?

A. He… what he said… what he said was about me.

Q. You sound so sure and yet so unsure at the same time.

A. I’m sure.

Q. ‘Never lacked for bravado’? ‘Fake smiles and unearned swagger’? You think you fit those descriptions?

A. I… I imagine a version of me, at least in Dr. Kane’s mind, might fit those descriptions.

Q. What about ‘I made you what you are’? ‘Showed and gave you everything of me’? Can you or a version of you corroborate those statements?

A. I… I think it’s possible that Tob—Dr. Kane—believed that to be the case, yes.

Q. Hm. Now, Ezra, why do you think Dr. Kane thought he was talking to you when you weren’t even there?

A. I don’t know. Like I said, maybe it was someone that looked like me.

Q. Have you known Dr. Kane to do something like that before? Mistake you for someone else, I mean?

A. No.

Q. You sound pretty sure about that.

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A. I’m sure. He’s really good with faces. And he’s—sorry, was—really smart. Sorry, not trying to suggest that being smart has anything to do with—

Q. You sound like you knew him well.

A. (pause) I’d like to think so, yes.

Q. Would you say that a deteriorated mental state—maybe his marriage was breaking down; maybe he had a young mentee he’d fallen out with—do you think that might cause someone like Dr. Kane to make mistakes he normally wouldn’t? To behave in a way… that was wildly inappropriate for any setting, let alone the one he’d found himself in?

A. I… I’m not sure if I can… I’m a student and not—

Q. I’m not looking for an expert opinion. I just want to know what you think.

A. (pause) Yes. I think it’d have to. I can’t imagine… I can’t imagine him doing that if he were still himself.

Q. I see. Who fired the gun, Ezra?

A. Um… well, I'm not sure that I—

Q. Give us your best shot. You were one of the three people in that living room. One of only three people on the entire planet who would’ve seen or known who pulled the trigger. So, who did?

A. I…

Q. Let’s break it down then. Step by step. You and Dr. Kane went into his living room. What was he like at the time?

A. He was… ah, jeez. He was drunk.

Q. More drunk than you’ve ever seen him, maybe?

A. Well, I wouldn’t… I mean, he was pretty drunk.

Q. Slurred speech? Unfocused eyes? Uncoordinated movement?

A. Yes. All that.

Q. But I seem to recall an earlier testimony that said he had the strength to overpower a much younger man in a wrestling match. That he had the coordination to charge across the room and grab a loaded gun before it could be used against him. I’m having a hard time squaring that version of Dr. Kane with the one you’re describing to me now. Help me out?

A. (inaudible) Alright, look. What I’m about to say might, uh, contradict some of Ver—Ms. Arenas’s—testimony. But it’s just what I saw. What I experienced. To the best of my recollection.

Q. And that’s all I need. Go ahead.

A. Over the course of my conversation with Dr. Kane, he became… emotionally volatile. He began to cry, alternate between obscenities and tearful apologies, throw random objects across the room. That kind of thing.

Q. Go on.

A. At some point, he knocked a whiskey bottle against the coffee table. Accidentally, just to be clear. It shattered, and a piece of it managed to nick him pretty good on his right hand. He started bleeding.

Q. He wasn’t trying to glass you?

A. No! Then I sort of panicked when I saw all that blood. It’s embarrassing to say, I know, with me being a medical student and all, but I haven’t started my clinicals, alright? All I could think to do at the time was grab onto his wrists and stop him from hurting himself any more than he already had.

Q. Understandable. Then what happened?

A. That’s when… that’s when Vera walked in.

Q. Ms. Arenas.

A. Uh, yes, sorry, what did I say? That’s when Ms. Arenas walked in, and she… she had a gun in her hand. And she was pointing it at me.

Q. At you. You sound pretty sure about this.

A. That’s because I am sure.

Q. You were wrestling Dr. Kane, but in fact, you were merely trying to save him from further injuries. But that’s when Ms. Arenas walked in and pointed a gun at you. What did you do?

A. Nothing.

Q. Nothing?

A. I froze. I’ve never had a gun pointed at me in my life. I was terrified, and I froze. And I let go of Tobias.

Q. And then what happened?

A. Tobias—sorry, Dr. Kane—got up and ran at Ms. Arenas. But not very well. He sort of stumbled, grabbed onto Ms. Arenas’s hands—gun and all—then fell on top of her.

Q. What would you say was the distance that separated Dr. Kane and Ms. Arenas before he ran at her?

A. Five… maybe six feet?

Q. Fairly close. Close enough that Ms. Arenas might not have had the time to react to what was happening. Which would explain why she didn’t step out of the way as her husband came stumbling into her.

A. I… I suppose that’s plausible.

Q. And what happened when Dr. Kane—all 6 feet 3 inches and 198 pounds of him—fell on top of Ms. Arenas?

A. (pause) The gun went off.

Q. The gun went off. Ms. Arenas fired it, then?

A. She… she must have. Accidentally, just to be clear.

Q. And then?

A. As soon as I realized what had happened, I ran over and rolled Tobias off of Vera. But… by then, it was too late.

Q. And what of the gun?

A. Vera was in shock. She’d let go of the gun, and it somehow ended up in Tobias’s hand. Then… I don’t know what came over me, but I grabbed the gun and… tried to wipe it down.

Q. You tried to wipe it down? To get rid of the fingerprints, you mean?

A. Yeah. Obviously didn’t do a good job of it, considering all three of our prints were still on it.

Q. But you did manage to smudge the prints on the trigger… just enough to create this mess we’re all in now. Why did you do it?

A. Why did I wipe down the gun?

Q. Yes. Who were you trying to protect?

A. (long pause) I guess… both of them? I didn’t want Vera to get in trouble, and I didn’t want Tobias’s memory to be tarnished. And I… I guess a part of me, deep down, almost wanted it all to fall on me. Like I wanted—needed—to be punished.