Nearly 20 months after the double murder of JoAnn Crystal Harris and her unborn child at the National Guard Armory in Culver City, there is a starting date for the trial of her accused killer, ex-Guardsman Scott A. Ansman.
Probably.
Not definitely.
After one more round of courtroom choreography this morning and further sparring with requested postponements, the extremely frustrated Judge James Dabney ordered the opposing attorneys to return in a fortnight.
On Wednesday, April 29, Judge Dabney will ask defense counsel Nan Whitfield if she is as ready to go to trial as prosecutor Joe Markus has been since the middle of last year.
The strategic highway in this case has become so complicated in recent months that, for the first time, the court may require an English interpreter to stand alongside a Spanish translator.
If Ms. Whitfield affirms that she and her evidence are fully prepared — hardly a cinch, despite warnings from Judge Dabney — that only will be Step One.
A green light from the defense will be the signal for the judge to — at least temporarily, but it could be permanently — transfer the case to the closest eighth-floor courtroom, Dept. E, where both attorneys were subjected to stone-faced rebukes last week from Judge Stephanie Sautner.
It then will be up to Judge Saunter to launch the trial, perhaps as soon as the next day, in her bailiwick, elsewhere in the Airport Courthouse, or perhaps even downtown, at 111 N. Hill St.
Don’t Bring the Cement
None of this information is final because the impressively coordinated Ms. Whitfield — perhaps the busiest and most astute member of the Public Defender staff — still could have an as-yet unplayed tactic up her ladylike sleeve.
For the 11 months the diminutive Ms. Whitfield has been on the Ansman case — after the defendant ran out of money to pay his original attorney — virtually every hearing, and there have been three in just the last eight days, has been taut with white-knuckle drama.
The opposing counsels themselves are stark studies in contrast, the giraffe and the gnat.
The gnat possesses the historical characteristics of the underdog — scrappy, feisty, combative, shrewd and a fulltime ability to cleverly exasperate all on the other side.
Standing stick straight, the bespectacled, sometimes scholarly looking public defender probably does not quite reach the height of Mr. Markus’s wide shoulders, adding still another generous dollop of theatrics to the foundational drama.
Returning this morning a day after Judge Dabney told the two attorneys — more specifically Ms. Whitfield — to sort out the remaining roadblocks, Ms. Whitfield was armed with a double-barreled request for a continuance for two more weeks.
Time for DNA Testing
One request concerned pursuing DNA testing of a blood-marked plastic bag found beneath a storage locker at the Armory after Mr. Ansman allegedly chased Ms. Harris around the gymnasium.
The plastic bag, which Mr. Markus plans to use in his prosecution, long has been available for testing to both sides, although Ms. Whitfield acknowledged she had looked past it. Now she wants it tested, and she calculates two weeks will be needed for the results to be sent to her.
Up to here, however, “two weeks” has not necessarily been a reliable formulation.
Secondly, the 30-minute hearing was interrupted midway for Ms. Whitfield to meet privately with Judge Dabney in chambers to discuss a problem she has with non-Ansman hands touching the Ansman computer after the suspect was in custody.
The judge appeared to zig and zag over whether he would grant her one more extension.
In the end he relented, not necessarily because it was the fairest or easiest resolution but perhaps to buy time for himself to try and unravel an enormously confounding defense strategy.
Both attorneys strongly want Judge Dabney to preside over the double-homicide trial because they appreciate his unchallenged fairness.
Until the trial actually begins, no one even wants to guess anymore when or where it will happen.
