Day Nine - The Cross-Examination Of Christopher Lee, And A Visit From Nichole Lee

Erin Corwin/Facebook

Hats off to ADA Sean Daugherty for his patient, calm, methodical cross-examination of Christopher Lee. And he's only just begun. Court doesn't resume until Tuesday, Nov. 1, so we'll have to wait until then to hear how he continues to dismantle Lee's defense of why he killed Erin Corwin.

After the lunch break, the judge called in Nichole Lee, who was wearing a bright blue dress and (I believe) the same white pumps she wore that once garnered a compliment from a juror.

Before the jury was allowed back into the courtroom, Judge J. David Mazurek told Nichole that while the defense no longer wished to call her as a witness, the prosecution was interested in having her testify in its rebuttal case. I noticed Nichole began to shake. She said defiantly to the judge that her lawyer would be present if she was called to testify.

Then, the judge informed Nichole that as Liberty Lee's guardian, she needed to have the child available to testify if the prosecution wished. At this point the shaking increased, and she wiped a tear away from her face. When the judge was finished with her, Nichole stormed out of the courtroom and into the hallway. There was a loud booming sound. (It sounded to me like she threw the sunglasses she was holding, and perhaps her purse, and they hit the ground with a bang.) Everyone in the courtroom could also hear her shouting in the hallway. The bailiff then went outside to the hallway to get her under control.

The jury was let in, took their seats, and defense attorney David Kaloyanides finished his direct examination of his client.

It was now Daugherty's turn to cross-examine Lee.

Daugherty started in by establishing that Lee lied to the detectives who questioned him the day after he murdered Erin, when he claimed did not know her well; Lee lied to these same detectives later in the day in the Vons parking lot, when he called Erin a liar and said he had a brief texting relationship with Erin that only involved kissing; Lee lied to Detective Hanke during the multi-hour interrogation about having a sexual relationship with Erin, about knowing she was pregnant, and about seeing her on June 28, 2014, the day she went missing.

"You lie when you're ashamed of yourself," said Daugherty to Lee. "You lie when you're scared."

"Yes," Lee answered.

"Are you scared now?" Daugherty asked.

"Yes," Lee said, his voice flat.

"You're not lying today to protect yourself?"

"No."

Then Daugherty laid out all of the "coincidences" Lee claimed happened in the weeks, days, and moments leading up to Erin's murder:

• He Googled how to dispose of a dead body.
• He had a conversation with fellow Marine Andrew Johnson about the best way to dispose of a dead body, and asked specifically about the Amboy salt pits. 
• He drove to the exact mine shaft on the day he murdered Erin that he had visited a week before with friend Joseph Hollifield, and later described to Isabel Megli as a place so remote, "No one would ever find it."
• He had the murder weapon, a homemade garrote, in his Jeep.
• He murdered Erin just days before he was scheduled to leave the Marine Corps.

Daugherty also poked holes in Lee's ridiculous assertion that Erin molested Liberty:

• Chris Lee never called police after Nichole accused Erin of molesting Liberty.
• Nichole never called police after she "suspected" Erin of molesting Liberty.
• Neither parent took Liberty to a pediatrician to examine the little girl for signs of abuse.
• Both Nichole and Chris Lee still allowed Liberty to spend time with Erin.

And there was this exchange:

Daugherty: "You continued having sex with the woman you're wife thought was molesting your daughter?"

Lee: "It wasn't on the forefront of my mind."

The toughest, but most effective part of Daugherty's cross-examination of Lee was when he asked the defendant to demonstrate how he strangled Erin, using a stuffed cloth dummy. Lee stepped down from the stand, took the garrote, and twisted it around the dummy's neck. In one quick, horrifying motion, Lee spun around so that he was facing the opposite way of the dummy, his back touching the dummy's back.

The dummy was jerked up in the air by the force of Lee's action. It was such a shocking moment that I thought I heard a gasp from somewhere in the courtroom. Lee reenacted the murder with such callousness, and RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE JURY, that I can't imagine the jurors weren't as haunted by what they saw as I was.

Daugherty interrupted his cross so the court could take its recess, which will last until court resumes Tuesday at 10 a.m.

Apologies again for not posting in a timely manner. The migraine has stayed with me, which is not usual for me. Bad ones usually last about three days. Just grateful that the wonderful readers who visit this blog are so patient with me!