Orange County Superior Court
Department C-35
Oct. 9, 2009
Louis Wiechecki, in a suit and tie, sat at the counsel table in Judge Frank Fasel’s eighth-floor courtroom awaiting the most important judicial ruling in his life.
I sat in the gallery, as a spectator without a pen and pad. My editors grounded me after defense attorney John Barnett contended in his motion to dismiss that “this prosecution was not driven by evidence, but by the scrutiny of Larry Welborn.”
My colleague Rachanee Srisavasdi had the reporting assignment. My own emotional stake in the outcome only added to the drama that marks every verdict in every case in every courtroom I’ve ever covered.
Judge Fasel began with a summary of the facts and list of evidence he would be relying upon.
He noted Wiechecki’s role in discovering the body and his use of a manager’s passkey to enter Linda Cummings’ apartment. He detailed the suspicious circumstances confronted by police investigators, including the unusual way the rope was configured and knotted around Linda’s neck. He described how Wiechecki was the primary source telling police that Linda was schizophrenic, paranoid and suicidal.
He recounted how coroner’s investigator Joe Stevens was hesitant to conclude that Linda killed herself – until he made one phone call to Dr. Vincent Mark that convinced him she had previously attempted suicide. And once the death…
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