The story starts in June of 1993, when I got a notice to report for jury duty in mid-July.

The timing was not great, because I was supposed to start a new job in early July, but
what can you do? I had a pretty high jury number, and for a while, it looked like I
wouldn’t have to go at all, but I ended up having to report on the last day, Friday, July
16.

Friday, July 16: I got a ton of reading done. I had one of the highest numbers, and by
lunchtime, they hadn’t even gotten close to me. About 3:00, I was resigned to a wasted
day when they called a huge batch of jurors to head down for the last case of the day. It
was about 50 people, when they had been calling an average of 25 per case.

We trooped down to the courtroom, where we were informed that this was a murder trial
that would last between 10 days and two weeks. That drew some groans from my fellow
candidates, but the lawyers and judge didn’t seem to mind. They drew the first 14 names
and started the questioning. It became pretty obvious that the defense wanted a young,
female jury and the prosecution wanted an older, male jury. The problem for the
prosecution was that the pool was at least 75% female.

The process went on and on and on, for at least two hours. A lot of people were excused
for cause, because they couldn’t miss that much work or had small children or
something. And both sets of lawyers were using their challenges to get rid of jurors that
they didn’t want.

Eventually, there were 15 people left in the pool – 14 in the box and one person left in
the spectator area – me. Both sides had one challenge left, and the prosecutor used his
last one to dump a youngish female. The defense attorney turned to me, grinned and
said “Guess who is going to get drawn this time?”

So I went into the box and answered the questions. I told them what I did for a living,
how much education I had, that I had never served on a jury, that I didn’t know any of
the principals, etc. The defense huddled, trying to decide if they should use their last
challenge on me or come back on Monday and take their chances with the first person
out of a new pool. They decided to take me.

The judge swore us in, gave us some instructions about not discussing the case with
anyone and told us to report for duty on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday, July 20: I finally got a chance to meet my 13 fellow jurors. Unlike the O.J. trial,
none of us were designated as alternates. At the end of the trial, they would draw two
names out of a hat and those two people would go home. It would be awful to sit through
the whole trial and never even get to take part in the verdict.

For privacy’s sake, I’m not going to write individually about the other jurors. It was a
mixed group – 10 women and four men. I was the youngest person on the jury, having
just turned 24, and the oldest was a pair of retirees in their mid-60s. There were a couple
teachers on summer break, a cocktail waitress, a road-commission worker and several
people who worked in offices.

(Comment: While I’m on the subject of privacy, I’m going to use actual names in this
account, with one exception. The person called Christina Edwards in this story has had
her name changed, since she was the one semi-innocent bystander in the story and
there’s no reason to attach her to the narrative.)

Oh, and we were only one of two juries in the case. There were two defendants, and for
reasons that weren’t explained right away, two juries. We would be judging the guilt of
the younger defendant, Jennifer Pruitt, while the other would be judging Donnell Miracle.
So we didn’t even get to sit in the jury box – we were in a roped-off section of the
spectator benches.

The trial started, as trials do, with the prosecution’s opening statement. Unfortunately,
they didn’t let us take notes until after the opening statement, and to be perfectly honest,
nine years later, I don’t remember much detail. It lasted 10 minutes, and gave us an
overview of the case. Basically, Pruitt, Miracle and Christina had been drinking and run
out of beer. They didn’t have any money to buy more beer, so Pruitt and Miracle had
gone down the street to rob an old man who lived nearby. There was a struggle, and he
got stabbed 27 times.

The defense attorneys deferred their opening statements until the beginning of their
case. A court official passed out pens and notepads and the prosecution called the first
witness at 11:38 am.

Witness #1 - Pontiac police officer Craig Friedline: He testified that he received a call at
8:30 am on 8/31/92 to go to 772 Blaine St. in Pontiac. When he arrived, he was met
by the homeowner, Larry Ledger, and a 16-year-old woman (Pruitt) who was in a
“hysterical state”. He eventually calmed her down enough to find out that she was
very upset about something that had happened at 165 W. Cornell.

Friedline, along with Pruitt, proceeded to that address where he found another officer,
David Galloway, who had been flagged down by a neighbor who noticed that the
screens at 165 had been sliced and damaged. Galloway and Friedline banged on the
door and yelled, with no response. Eventually, a female arrived and let them use her key
to get into the house.

(Comment: By the time of the trial, Galloway had retired from the police force after being
elected to the State House of Representatives – he was actually my representative at
the time. Later, he served on the County Commission, and he just lost in a primary for
the State Senate.)

Inside the door, the officers found the body of an elderly man lying in a pool of blood. He
was “cut up pretty badly and clearly dead”.

At this point, the testimony was interrupted by an argument over the prosecution’s
attempt to introduce two pictures of the body into evidence. For reasons that were never
explained, only one of them was allowed. It was pretty nasty – it was, well, an elderly
man lying in a pool of blood. Luckily, he was lying on his face, so you couldn’t see the
actual wounds. That would come later.

After securing the scene, Friedline put Pruitt in his car to take her statement. At 12:10,
we were excused so that the judge and lawyers could discuss something about Pruitt’s
statement. We were brought back in at 12:25 and put in the jury box with the Miracle jury
absent. That was when we were finally informed that we would not be allowed to hear
Miracle’s statements that incriminated Pruitt and the Miracle jury wouldn’t be allowed to
hear Pruitt’s statements blaming Miracle. This became hugely important.

Upon questioning from the defense attorney, Mitchell Ribitwer, Friedline testified that
Pruitt had told him that she had been in the home of Elmer Heichel with Miracle, had
gone to the bathroom, and when she came out, Miracle was stabbing him. After they
returned to Miracle’s house, Pruitt wasn’t allowed to leave. Miracle hid the bloody knives
in a dresser and the bloody clothes in a closet.

With his rebuttal, Cabadas pointed out that Pruitt had carefully made sure not to admit to
anything that would connect her to the crime, other than being there.

At 12:35, the Miracle jury was brought back in and court was adjourned for the day.

Wednesday, July 21: Witness #2 – Larry Ledger: He testified that early in the morning
of August 31, a very upset Pruitt arrived at his hours and asked to use the telephone. He
didn’t know her, but said she could. She talked for about 10 minutes, and he heard her
use the word “killed”.

Next, she called her mother, talked for a while, and asked for a ride. Cabadas very
obviously didn’t ask what she talked about, even though Ledger overheard the
conversation.

Pruitt then left the house, but Ledger followed her into the street and told her that there
was a Pontiac police officer living across the street. She walked away, but eventually
came back and they went over to the cop’s house. He was the one who made the call
that resulted in Friedline coming to Ledger’s house.

To start the cross-examination, Ribitwer read from a police report that said Pruitt was
“hysterical and appeared to be in shock”. Ledger agreed with that assessment. He was
then asked what Pruitt said to her mother on the phone. She said that she had been out
with another girl (Donnell Miracle) who had stabbed a man, and that when she had come
out of the bathroom, Miracle had told her to go back in. She also told her mom that she
was afraid Miracle would kill her, and that she had waited until Miracle had fallen asleep
before sneaking out.

Again, on rebuttal, Cabadas pointed out that Pruitt had been careful not to admit
anything that made her liable for the crime.

Witness #3 – Pontiac police officer Ronald Khouri: He testified that at 9:30 on August 31,
he was dispatched to the crime scene. Upon his arrival, he was sent down the street to
Miracle’s house where he got Miracle out of bed and arrested her. He noticed that she
had several small cuts, and she said she had gotten them during “the stabbing”. After
talking to her, he took her to the station, and then went back to the crime scene to arrest
Pruitt.

He told Pruitt not to talk, and did not ask her any questions, but she volunteered that
Miracle had done the stabbing with three knives, which were now in a dresser in her
bedroom.

Ribitwer pointed out that Pruitt had no cuts or wounds.

Witness #4 – Pontiac police officer Diana Peters: She is a forensic specialist for the
Pontiac PD. She testified that she fingerprinted and photographed Miracle, who sat
quietly with a blank stare. Miracle had cuts on both index fingers and both hands, and
said that she had gotten them the night before. We were then shown pictures of the cuts
– pretty painful looking, but nothing too ghastly.

Peters also took the t-shirt and jeans that Miracle was wearing for evidence, since they
showed signs of blood, probably from her own wounds. Her purse was also seized, and
Peters noted that the birth date on her driver’s license didn’t match the date Miracle had
given for the booking sheet.

The defense attorney quickly pointed out that the birth date discrepancy wasn’t as
mysterious as it sounded – Miracle said June 16, 1969 when her actual birth date was
June 6, 1969. She’s exactly a month younger than me.

(Comment: If you are going to cheat on your age, cheat by more than 10 days!)

Witness #5 – Pontiac police office James Batchelor: He is a CSI specialist – that’s Crime
Scene Investigation for those of you who don’t watch CSI or CSI: Miami – and has a lot
of training. He and his partner, Officer Ferrich, dusted the apartment for fingerprints,
sketched it and photographed it. The most notable thing was that the southeastern
bedroom appeared to be ransacked. They also took the following items into evidence:

1. A nylon stocking found outside the rear of the house.

2. A bloodstain from the floor outside of the bedroom.
3. A blood spatter off the side of the refrigerator.
4. A blood sample from the body.
5. 2 flowers that were lying on the body.
6. 2 hats on the floor next to the body.
7. A cup from a nearby china cabinet.

After a break for lunch, Officer Batchelor testified that a kitchen chair was knocked over.
He then described how he went to Miracle’s house and collected:

1. $94.60 in bills and coins.

2. A carton of Best Buy cigarettes.
3. A Timex watch, stopped at 2:54.
4. A calculator.
5. 2 gold-colored rings.
6. 2 knives – a paring knife and a folding knife.
7. A wallet.
8. A ring of keys.
9. 3 more knives that were in the kitchen sink.
10. A camera in a case.
11. 2 40-ounce beer bottles.
12. Some clothing, consisting of socks – white and lavender – tennis shoes, two jean
jackets, a pair of jeans and a blood-stained (apparently) washcloth.

We also got to see pictures of everything except the three knives that had been in the
sink. That picture wasn’t admitted into evidence after an objection from the defense.
The defense pointed out that, while the screens were torn, there was no evidence of pry
marks on the windows, and that the bedroom was the only room that appeared to be
ransacked. The knocked-over chair was the only disturbance in the kitchen or living
room. There were also no significant fingerprints and just the one blood spatter.

Finally, Officer Batchelor testified that, while there was a vase full of artificial flowers in
the house, they didn’t match the ones left on the body.

At 5:10, we were sent home for the day.

Thursday, July 22: Witness #6 – Michigan State Police scientist David Woodford: He is
a body-fluid specialist, and was brought in to examine the blood evidence in the case. In
all, he looked at 13 items:

1. A sample taken from the bedroom window. Was found to be blood of an

unknown type.
2. Sample taken from the refrigerator spatter. Type-A blood.
3. Sample taken from under body. Type-A blood.
4. Sample taken from baseball caps. Type-A blood.
5. Sample taken from cup from china cabinet. Unknown blood.
6. Sample taken from under Miracle’s fingernails. Unknown blood.
7. A tube of blood taken from Elmer. Type-A blood.
8. Sample taken from watch. Type-A blood.
9. Sample taken from knives from #6 above. Unknown blood.
10. Samples taken from clothing found at Miracle’s house. Type-A blood on
everything but the white socks and smaller jean jacket. More blood than could
have resulted from Miracle’s wounds.
11. Sample taken from knives in kitchen sink. No blood.
12. Sample taken from Elmer’s fingernails. No blood.
13. Pruitt’s clothing. No blood.

Obviously, the victim has Type-A blood. So does Miracle. Pruitt has Type-O blood, and
Ribitwer was quick to point out that no O blood was found anywhere.

Woodford also testified that enzyme tests were unable to determine if the blood on
Miracle’s jeans came from Miracle or Elmer.

Witness #7 – Janet Gorsline: She is Elmer’s daughter. She lived at the house on Cornell
with him for two years, and still came over on a weekly basis to clean and do laundry.
Her father had bad arthritis. She said that the watch, wallet and rings were Elmer’s, but
didn’t recognize any of the knives. She also testified that the screens had been fine the
last time she visited.

Witness #8 – Dolly Arnold: She was the female who let Friedline and Galloway into the
house. Had known Elmer for 20 years, and had been at the VFW hall with him on
Saturday night. She was coming to pick him up for church that morning.

She testified that Elmer’s arthritis was bad enough that he couldn’t drive, but he was
able to walk without aid. She had lived with him from 1978-90 and still saw him on a
regular basis. He had two cans of beer in a 4.5-hour span at the VFW on Saturday night.
The last beer was at 9 p.m. and she had dropped him off at home at 10:30.

She also testifies that Elmer often kept large amounts of cash in the house.

(Comment: Got to hand it to Elmer – 75 and still had a steady girlfriend.)

Witness #9 – Christina Edwards: Writing this in October 2002 – nine years after the
event – I can’t remember a thing about what Janet Gorsline or Larry Ledger or Dolly
Arnold looked like. As a matter of fact, until I started rereading my notes, I didn’t even
remember Janet Gorsline existed.

But I’ll never forget Christina. She was this cute 14-year-old who seemed to have some
native intelligence, but who couldn’t read her own statement when it was handed to her.
On a Saturday night, with her first day of high school coming on Tuesday, she was
staying up all night and getting drunk with a 16-year-old and a 23-year-old. It was really
pathetic, and I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. There were a lot of snotty
comments in the jury room about the mother who fussed over Christina on the days she
was testifying, but who let her live the life she had been living a year before.

We weren’t the only one who noticed, either. There was a column in the paper after the
trial about how sad the girl was, and it quoted the judge as saying she was the one
person he wished he could help.

She started her testimony by talking about how she knew Miracle and Pruitt. Miracle’s
house actually belonged to a woman named Diane Terry, and Miracle rented a room.
Christina babysat for Terry’s kids (and Miracle’s kid) and quite often (4-5 nights a week)
stayed over.

On the night in question, Christina, Pruitt and Miracle were watching TV and drinking.
They split five 40-ounce King Cobras. Christina originally said she had “five swallows”,
but it later seemed that she had one can while the other two had two each. At this point,
I think I’ll switch formats and give the timeline for the night that Christina provided:

10:30 – Pruitt and Miracle go for a walk, leaving Christina with the kids.
11:15 – Pruitt and Miracle return.
11:40 – Pruitt and Miracle leave again. By this point, Pruitt is having trouble talking.
12:15 – They return and the trip finishes their malt liquors and watches TV until 2:30.
2:30 – The trio runs out of booze and has no money. Pruitt says that she knows Elmer
keeps a lot of money. Miracle announces that she’s going to get the money, and if she
has to hurt Elmer, she will. Miracle and Pruitt gave Christina $20 to take care of the kids,
put socks on their hands and went out the bedroom window.
3:00 – Christina sees Miracle and Pruitt running away from Elmer’s house. They come
back in through the bedroom window. Miracle took off her jacket and went into the
bathroom while Pruitt sat on the bed and put down the money, rings, wallet and
cigarettes. While she was counting the money (“around $95”), she told Christina that the
stuff came from Elmer.

At this point, Miracle came out of the bathroom, and they began cleaning up. Christina
saw three knives – a paring knife, a pocketknife and Diane Terry’s butcher knife. She
also said that at this point, it was Miracle who was crying and “freaked”, while Pruitt was
perfectly calm.

After another trip to the bathroom, Miracle told Christina that if anyone asked, she and
Pruitt had mugged some old man on the street. Pruitt told her that Elmer had grabbed a
knife so she had stepped on his ankle, and Miracle had picked up the knife and stabbed
him.

3:30 – Pruitt suddenly announced that she had left fingerprints at Elmer’s house and
needed to wipe the place down. Miracle said she would do it, while Christina and Pruitt
stood watch. So they climbed out through the window yet again, and after Pruitt had to
go back for the keys, Miracle went in and the other two stood guard.

(Comment: Bonnie and Clyde this wasn’t. First, they kept stealthily climbing out the
window, then walking across the street and in the front door of Elmer’s house. Second,
how did they give Christina $20?)

While they were waiting, a truck started across the street, so Pruitt grabbed Christina
into the house, where she was confronted with the body. They let Christina run home
and throw up, and followed shortly after. The whole group went for yet another walk.

(Comment: It was so nice of them to let the 14-year-old tag along to see the body.)

Friday, July 23: This walk lasted about 45 minutes. During it, Pruitt cried a little and
Miracle told her that they had thrown some flowers on Elmer. Miracle also stressed that
Christina couldn’t tell anyone, not even a priest, because they could tell the police.

About 4:30, they finally got home and lied down on the bed. Christina said she could still
smell the blood from Elmer’s house. She fell asleep, and the next thing she knew, the
police were arresting Miracle.

At this point, the defense started the cross-examination, and things got a little confusing.
Christina didn’t have much success keeping her story straight.

First, they established that Christina spent four nights a week at Miracle’s house, serving
as a sort of live-in babysitter for Miracle and Diane Terry’s kids. They didn’t pay her most
of the time.

(Comment: Where in the hell was this child’s mother? She was 14!)

Next, Christina admitted that she had gone to the store to call her boyfriend at about
1:30 and had gotten into a fight with someone on the street. She got back to the house
with her eye all swollen.

She also admitted that in one of her previous statements, she had said that Pruitt was
“kinda hysterical” after getting back from Elmer’s and that Miracle had been standing
guard with her and dragged her into the house.

(Comment: It hadn’t made much sense when she said Miracle was wiping down the
house to get rid of Pruitt’s fingerprints.)
The next hour featured the defense attorney picking nits between the endless series of
statements that Christina had given. This was when they kept giving her the statements
that she had signed, only for it to become obvious that she could barely read. The only
useful bit of knowledge was that she hadn’t seen any weapons when they left for Elmer’s
house the first time.

The next segment was with Howard Ankoff’s cross-examination. He was Miracle’s
defense attorney, and we had barely seen him because of the double-jury stuff.
Basically, we found out that Miracle was supposed to be baby-sitting for Diane Terry’s
kids that night and Pruitt and Christina were visiting. Christina had no idea where Miracle
got the $20 from, but she might have met up with her boyfriend during one of the walks.
Christina said she really admired Miracle.

(Comment: Well, if Christina’s mother was letting her stay out all night and drink, at least
it was with a role model like Miracle. I know that when I hire a baby-sitter, I always give
them the option to leave if they need to go murder someone to pay for more beer.)

The big revelation late in the session was that Miracle had said she hadn’t meant to stab
Elmer, but he had touched her breasts and her “private parts” and she had had a
flashback to being sexually assaulted as a child.

That was it for the week, and since the judge had other obligations on Mondays, we got
a three-day weekend out of the deal.

Tuesday, July 27: Christina was back in the witness box, and getting very grouchy
about the whole thing. Luckily, she only had another 45 minutes left. It was spent
trying to clarify who pulled her into the house. In one statement, she said that she
was standing guard with Pruitt while Miracle wiped away her (Miracle’s) prints. In
another statement, she said she was standing guard with Miracle while Pruitt
wiped away her prints. In the trial, she said she was standing guard with Pruitt
while Miracle wiped away Pruitt’s prints.

In an attempt to save his star witness’ credibility, Cabadas pointed out that Christina has
given 130 pages of statements, plus her testimony here, and that it is only human for
there to be minor discrepancies.

Witness #10 – Pontiac police detective Nolan Gattscholl: He was the person in charge of
the interrogations on that first morning. He talked to Miracle, then Christina, then Pruitt.
His testimony, though, started with Pruitt’s statement about what happened at Elmer’s
house.

Pruitt and Miracle entered the house through an unlocked door and Pruitt went to get a
drink of water while Miracle talked to Elmer. She then went to the bathroom, and when
she came out, she saw Miracle stabbing him in the back of the head, then saw him take
a long knife and stick it into the right side of his neck. From the ground, Elmer looked at
Pruitt and said, “You know me!” Her answer was “I’m sorry. I can’t help you.”

(Comment: Elmer was right – he had known Pruitt since she was a baby. As a matter of
fact, just a couple weeks before the murder, she had gone to one of the barbecues that
he held for the neighborhood. That’s how she knew he had money in the house.)
Under questioning, the detective pointed out that, the way Elmer was laying, he wasn’t
facing the bathroom and that Pruitt couldn’t have seen what she claimed to have seen.

Pruitt said that the only thing that she did was make a mess in the bedroom, because
Miracle wanted to make it look like someone broke in and robbed the place. (Someone
else, I suppose.) She said she was very upset and Miracle was calm, and that it was
Miracle’s idea to go back to wipe off the prints. She also said that Miracle was tired of
having to work hard while old people sat around and collected pensions, but that she
only stabbed him because of the flashback to the molestation.

Pruitt originally went to Blain Street as soon as Miracle fell asleep. She went to her
boyfriend’s house. He wasn’t there, but she talked to his mother, who suggested calling
her mother and the police. She went from there to Larry Ledger’s house to use the
phone.

Gattscholl also talked about Pruitt’s demeanor during the interview. She had obviously
been crying, and her testimony was “disjointed”. They had to stop several times because
she was too upset. Until they gave her some food, she hadn’t eaten in 24 hours, but had
had two 40-ounce King Cobras.

(Comment: That’s the equivalent of a six-pack of beer, except that King Cobra has more
alcohol than a beer. Pruitt was a pretty small kid, maybe 130 pounds. So she had to be
pretty lit.)

Thursday, July 29: Ribitwer started the cross-examination by making sure we realized
that Pruitt had said Miracle did all the stabbing, and that Christina had said that Pruitt
stepped on Elmer’s ankle because Elmer had a knife at Miracle’s throat. We also found
out that Pruitt was in the psych ward of the hospital for 10 days after the attack.

The prosecutor responded by pointing out that Pruitt admitted herself into the hospital,
she wasn’t committed, and that she never took any blame on herself. She even said that
Miracle took everything, which contradicted Christina’s testimony.

There was then a debate over whether Pruitt could have seen what she claimed from the
door to the bathroom, which was about 25 feet from Elmer’s body. The detective said
that she could not have seen it, but admitted that he had no way of knowing how Elmer
might have struggled before ending up in his final position.

Witness #11 – Assistant Medical Examiner Lujibosa J. Dragovic: He was supposed to

have testified early in the trial, but was busy testifying at one of the Kevorkian trials.

He performed the autopsy on Elmer and found him to be a well-nourished white male,
5’7” and 162 pounds. He had 27 stab wounds and seven defense injuries. Keep in mind
as you read the list that we were seeing pictures of each wound as we went along:

1. A ¼” nick on the back left scalp. A superficial wound.

2. A ¾”-long, 1 ½”-deep complex wound to the left back neck. A complex wound is
a stab wound that tears, basically.
3. A similar wound to the left side of the neck.
4. Ditto, but 2 ½” deep.
5. A long, shallow slash to the left side of the neck.
 6. A shallow stab wound to the left side of the neck.
7. A ½”-long, 1 ¾”-deep complex wound to the lower left side of the neck.
8. A superficial nick to the upper back.
9. A superficial cut to the right lower lip.
10. A scrape on the chin. Wounds 8-10 could have been caused by any knife.
11. A complex wound to the right front neck – ¾” long and 1 ¾” deep. Penetrated
into the voice box. Wounds 1-11 could have been caused by the paring knife or
folding fish knife, but not the butcher knife.
12. The first of three wounds that would have been fatal. This is where she slit
his throat. The wound severed the voice box, larynx, jugular vein and
carotid artery. After this wound, he would have been unable to speak,
unable to breathe and would have bled to death within a minute. He would
have died without this wound – see wounds #20 and #23 – but this is the
one that actually killed him. I can’t even begin to describe how hideous this
picture was. Several jury members gasped and at least two people started
to cry. The voice box and larynx were actually protruding through the
wound. They actually gave us a 30-minute break after looking at this one.
13. A superficial slash to the throat – 2 ½” long.
14. A 1 ¾”-deep stab wound to the bottom of the neck. A wider blade, consistent with
the butcher knife, caused this wound.
15. A 2 ½”-deep stab wound to the bottom of the neck. Also done with the butcher
knife.
16. A shallow stab wound to the right upper chest. Butcher knife. (BK)
17. A gaping complex wound next to #16. 2 ½” long, 1 ¼” deep. BK.
18. A 1 ¼” deep stab wound next to #17. Probably BK.
19. A 1 ½” deep stab wound to the middle upper chest. Probably the fish knife.
20. A complex stab wound to the left upper chest. 1 ½” long and 7” deep. It
severed a rib and entered the heart. This wound would have also been fatal,
as blood would escape the heart with every beat, but not as quickly as #12.
(BK)
21. A complex stab wound to the left upper arm. 1” long and 1” deep. (BK)
22. A complex stab wound to the right lower chest. 1” long and 3 ½” deep. Entered
the diaphragm and the liver. (BK)
23. A gaping complex wound to the upper belly. 1 ¼” long and 9” deep. It also
severed a rib, perforated the stomach, lower vene cava and the back of the
heart. This would have also been a fatal wound. (BK)
24. A stab wound to the left lower belly. An inch deep, it penetrated the large bowel.
25. Similar wound to #24.
26. Similar wound to #24 and #25. All three were done with either the fish knife or
paring knife.
27. A 3 ½”-deep stab wound to the left groin. Perforated the large bowel. (BK)

After describing and showing us the defense wounds, a series of nicks on the hands and
upper arms, as well as a, drum roll please, large bruise on his ankle, they … sent us to
lunch. Yep, we were really hungry after looking at 34 autopsy photos.

After a quick lunch – I had pizza at the food court at the mall across the street – we
settled in for a continuation of the ongoing euchre game. There were three diehard
players, and they drafted a rotating fourth player in. That day, I was it.
I had played the game a couple times in college, but they had had to teach me the rules
the day before, so I was struggling to not let my partner down. In one of the last hands
before court resumed, I did more than that.

I was dealing, and dealt myself the 10 of clubs, jack of diamonds and the jack-queen-
king of hearts. I then turned over the ace of hearts. I’m sure you can see where this is
going. All three players passed, and I picked up the ace, discarded the 10, and told my
partner I was going alone. She was aghast, since I wasn’t exactly a card shark, but not
even I could mess up a hand where I had the five highest cards in the deck.

I guess this point is a good one to talk about jury life outside the courtroom. On a normal
day, we got to the jury room at nine, got a one-hour lunch break and left somewhere
between noon and 5:30. But that doesn’t mean we spent all of that time in the
courtroom. We spent lots and lots of time in the jury room waiting – waiting for testimony
that only the Miracle jury could here, waiting for the lawyers and judge to work out some
problem, waiting for the judge to handle another matter or waiting for one of Elmer’s
relatives or Christina to stop sobbing.

In all, we spent around 22 hours in that jury room doing nothing. How do I know?
Because, for some reason, I wrote the exact time everything happened. When we went
into court, when we were excused, when every witness started to testify and when the
cross-examination started, everything. Some days, especially when Christina was
testifying, we had almost no dead time. On one day, as you will see later, it was all dead
time.

And 22 hours is actually low, since we ate together almost every day, as well. There’s
not much in the area, so we either ate at Ruby Tuesday’s or the mall’s food court in
groups of 4-6.

So we had a lot of time to kill, and had to do it in a way where we didn’t want to kill each
other. Most people read, or knitted, or chatted in small groups, or played cards. We were
immensely proud of the fact that we never touched the jigsaw puzzles they made
available. The other jury did actually work on one, which amused us endlessly when we
noticed.

There were little social groups, but it never got unpleasant, and we were still friendly
when it ended. I’m proud of that, and frankly amazed that we pulled it off.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my little diversion. Back to the wonderful world of Dr.
Dragovic’s testimony. There wasn’t much left to add – Elmer would have died within a
minute or two from any of the three major wounds. He wasn’t in horrible health before
the attack, but did have hardening of the arteries and emphysema.

The cross-examination promised to be interesting. Ribitwer started by pointing out that

none of the wounds from the smaller knives would have been fatal. Also, while there was
definitely more than one knife, there might have only been two. He also got testimony
that Elmer could have spoken after the belly wounds and still could have moved even
after the heart and throat wounds.
He also got him to say that, while the ankle bruise was fresh, there are cases of bruising
after death, and there was no age test done on the bruise, so Elmer could have done it
earlier in the night.

To further that theory, we got a long discussion of just how drunk Elmer must have
been. His blood-alcohol level at the time of death was .09. How high it had been
depended entirely on when he stopped drinking that night, but he had to have had at
least 4-5 beers, possibly more. If he had spread the drinking out, as Ms. Arnold stated, it
was probably more like seven. That level would have definitely slowed down anyone,
much less a 74-year-old man.

In response to a question from Miracle’s attorney, Dr. Dragovic said that it was unlikely
that one person had done all of the stabbing, especially given the grouping of the
wounds, but he couldn’t be 100 percent certain of that.

Also, the belly wound could have been inflicted while he was in a “fondling position”, and
the wounds suggested rage because of the amount of “overkill”.

And with that, the prosecution rested (I have a Freudian slip in my notes – it says
“defense rests”) and we were sent home for the day.

Friday, July 30: This was a day full of fun. We were told when we left on Thursday that
we shouldn’t arrive until 11 on Friday, instead of the normal 9:00. When we got there at
11, we sat around for 15 minutes, and then were told to go to lunch … and to be back at
2:00. We were. And we sat, and we sat. Because there had been an open door when we
left for lunch, we knew Miracle was testifying, but we had no idea what she was saying.

At 3:41, we went into the courtroom … and the defense rested. No opening statement,
no witnesses. Nothing. Court was then adjourned for the day. We spent about two
minutes in the courtroom all day, and walked out in stunned silence. No defense case at
all? What the hell did that mean?

Monday, August 2: Today was devoted to closing arguments and instructions. The
judge told us that we would get the case today, but probably too late to do any serious
deliberations.

We started out with the prosecutor, Steven Cabadas. He started out by listing the four
counts that Pruitt was charged with: 1st degree murder, felony murder – larceny, felony
murder – robbery and armed robbery. He explained them in some detail, but I’ll save that
for the judge’s instructions.

He focused on Christina’s testimony, especially that Pruitt was not hysterical that night,
but calm enough to count the money and think of the need to go back and wipe off
fingerprints. She showed no fear of Miracle and gave no indication that she felt that she
was being forced to do anything.

He then talked about the evidence presented by the various police scientists, which
showed that she could not have seen what she claimed to have seen from the bathroom.
Also, she told Christina that she kicked Elmer in the ankle, and Elmer did indeed have a
bruise on his ankle. She could not have done that from 25 feet away.
Finally, he discussed the medical examiner’s finding that it would be “unlikely” for only
one person to have done the stabbing, given the multiple knives and various groupings
of the wounds.

Ribitwer didn’t take nearly as much time, which was surprising, given that he hadn’t even
presented a case. He had two major points. First, he believed that both Christina and
Pruitt were frightened of Miracle, and went along with her to avoid physical harm.
Secondly, he felt that the prosecution’s case depended almost entirely on Christina’s
testimony, and that the inconsistencies should put serious doubt on her credibility.

He didn’t ask us to let her walk – he admitted she was guilty of armed robbery, but he
didn’t think she should be held responsible for the murder.

After a brief rebuttal that pointed out that Christina is only human and should be
expected to have minor inconsistencies, we broke for lunch, and then came back for the
judge’s instructions. But first, we had to find out which two jurors would end up as
alternates. I was dreading this – I would have been crushed to have sat through this
whole thing and not get to take part in the actual decision. Luckily, I wasn’t drawn. In a
victory for the defense, though, a male was, so we ended up with nine females and three
males.

The first instruction came on the murder charge. That charge had two backup charges –
we could find her guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, voluntary
manslaughter or find her not guilty.

For us to find her guilty of first-degree murder, we had to believe beyond a reasonable
doubt that she helped caused Elmer’s death and that she did it intentionally and with
premeditation. Also, the killing had to be unjustified.

Second-degree murder also involved her intentionally causing Elmer’s unjustified death,
but without premeditation. Instead, she had to have had knowingly put him into a
situation where he was at great risk of death or great bodily harm. And, since we asked
during the deliberation, no, there is no specific definition of great bodily harm. You are
just supposed to know it when you see it.

The last option was voluntary manslaughter. To find her guilty of that, we would have to
decide that she intentionally caused his death due to anger or other mental disturbance,
and that she would not have killed him without the disturbance. In other words, if he got
killed simply because they panicked upon being discovered, or in Miracle’s case, if she
freaked because of the supposed fondling.

The other important charge was armed robbery. That required six conditions to be met.
There had to be an assault (actual or threatened), they had to be armed, they had to
take money or property, the property had to be taken in his presence, the property had
to be moved to a different location and there had to be intent for the taking to be
permanent.

The two felony murder charges basically relied on the other two – they had to do with the
commission of a murder during a robbery or larceny. To this day, I’m not entirely sure
why she was charged with the larceny charge – it just seemed redundant.
By the time we finished getting all of the instructions and got back to the jury room, it
was 3:30. The first thing that we had to do was pick a foreman. I was curious as to how
we would make that decision, but to my surprise, it had basically already been made. A
group of jurors approached one of the women on the jury – the sixth-grade teacher –
and me to ask that one of us do it. Apparently, they had been talking over the last few
days and decided we would do the best job.

Susan, the teacher, declined the job because she didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of
reading the verdict in open court, but she said that if I would do that, she would be happy
to “facilitate” the discussions. I agreed, knowing that I was going to lead the discussions
anyway.

We only got a chance to deliberate for about an hour that evening, and reached
consensus on two issues. We believed that she kicked him in the ankle, so her story
about the bathroom wasn’t true, and we did not believe they went down there with the
intent of killing him. With that settled, we went home for the evening.

Tuesday, August 3: We all arrived at 8:30, per the judge’s instructions, but we couldn’t
get into the jury room until 9. The first thing I decided to do was get a consensus on the
easier of the two important charges – armed robbery. I didn’t expect much of a fight,
since Ribitwer came right out and said she was guilty of it, and there wasn’t. It was 12-0
guilty on the first straw vote.

The two felony murder charges basically decided themselves if we found her guilty of
murder and armed robbery, so I held my breath and did a straw poll on the murder
charge. I was not happy when the results came out as one vote for first-degree murder,
two for second-degree murder (including me) and nine for voluntary manslaughter. If
there was ever any doubt as to why the defense wanted a female jury, this answered it –
the nine women voted for manslaughter, while the three men voted for murder.

I huddled with the other two guys and asked them if they were willing to settle for
manslaughter. They were not, which pleased me, and we started the process of trying to
reverse the votes.

I’ve been trying to figure out a way to write this modestly, but I can’t. I was brilliant. All
those years of watching Law and Order, L.A. Law, The Practice, A Few Good Men and
the O.J. Simpson trial paid off as I basically retried the case all over again. I even got a
couple of the exhibits, including the picture of the bruised ankle, to help me do it.

(Yes, I know that several of those shows weren’t around in 1993 – poetic license.)

I started talking about 10. We took 30 minutes for lunch at noon, and I started again at
1:00. Basically, I had to convince the holdouts that Pruitt knowingly put Elmer at risk,
knowing it was “very likely” that he would be “killed or come to great bodily harm”. The
basic argument I used was something like this: In a typical home invasion, if the burglars
are discovered, they can flee to relative safety. But in this case, if they were discovered,
flight wasn’t a reasonable option, so they would have to take stronger action. Why?

Because Elmer knew them.

Think about it. He’d known Jenny Pruitt since she was a toddler. She’d been at his
house a couple weeks earlier. It would be a cinch for him to identify them to the police,
so if he woke up, how could they just leave him alone? Also, Christina testified that
Miracle had said before the attack that she was going to get some money and that if she
had to hurt Elmer, she would.

It took hours, but at 4:45, the last holdout decided to vote for second-degree murder. It
should have taken 30 seconds to dispose of the last two counts, but it took me 20
minutes to explain to a couple confused jurors that first-degree felony murder - robbery
and first-degree murder weren’t the same thing, and that it was perfectly correct to find
her guilty of second-degree murder and first-degree on the felony murder charges.

At that point, we told our guard that we had a verdict, and he came back with a form for
me to fill out. After that, they brought us into the courtroom, where the judge asked me to
stand and asked me if we had reached a verdict. I said, “Yes, your honor” and he asked
“How say you?”

And I realized that no one had told me what to say.

You would think they would give you a script or something, but they didn’t. So I just
pretended I was playing the foreman on L.A. Law and gave it my best shot.

“On the first count, we find the defendant, Jennifer Pruitt, guilty of second-degree
murder.”

I had planned to stare at the judge while reading, and not look at Pruitt until I was done. I
hadn’t counted on her screaming and breaking into loud sobs.

By the time I read the next two counts, I could hear people crying in the jury box. I finally
finished with “On the fourth count, we find the defendant guilty of armed robbery” and
took a deep breath. Pruitt had her head buried in her hands and was shaking with sobs,
while her attorney patted her on the back.

The judge asked if either side wanted to poll the jury, and the defense lawyer did, of
course. All 12 jurors were asked if that was their verdict, and they all said yes. The only
mild snafu came when it turned out the clerk had written down the wrong number for the
female juror that got bumped off at the end, so they originally tried to poll someone who
wasn’t there.

After that, the judge thanked us and court was adjourned. Several people were still
crying as we were escorted to the judge’s chambers for some final remarks. As we
waited, a couple people mentioned that they were amazed that my voice never quavered
a bit, even after Pruitt started screaming and sobbing. Before I could say a word, Susan,
who sat next to me in the jury box piped up:

“His voice might have been steady, but he was gripping the rail of the box so tightly that
sawdust was leaking out between his fingers.”

Judge Mester came in, thanked us for our service, and said that he believed we had
come to the proper verdict, given the information we possessed. He let us know that the
other jury had found Miracle guilty of first-degree murder in 45 minutes, and that the next
step in the process would be sentencing. He had to decide if he was going to sentence
Pruitt as an adult, and seemed to indicate that he was leaning strongly in that direction.

After that, he told us that we should be proud of ourselves, and that we’d never have to
serve on a jury again – especially our foreman. No defense attorney would ever take us.
And then he reminded us that we didn’t have to speak to the media if we didn’t want to,
and that a guard would escort us to the parking lot.

As it turned out, the media had given up on us and left in mid-afternoon, so the next
day’s paper had details of the teary-eyed forewoman of the Miracle jury, but no
descriptions of me. So near to fame, and yet so far.

I hugged a couple of people, assured them I would call the two who got bumped off as
soon as I got home, and left.

EPILOGUE: I drove home in a daze. When I got to my parents’ house, my mom handed
me all of the newspaper clippings that she had cut out of every day’s paper before I
could read it. I was horrified to realize that we had never been told an important part of
the story, because of the rules about defendants testifying against each other.

You see, Miracle and Pruitt didn’t rob him and then kill him in the same visit. They went
home, discussed the fact that he knew them and would turn him in, and then went back
to kill him. So it was first-degree murder, and we almost convicted her of manslaughter.

In the newspaper story the next day, the prosecutor said that he thought we would have
voted for first-degree murder if we had known about the two visits. He was right. I talked
to almost every jury member on the phone over the next few days, and they all said they
would have voted for first-degree. Several of them thanked me for not letting them vote
manslaughter.

A few weeks later, I drove to Cornell and walked from one house to the other. It took
about 20 seconds. It didn’t appear anyone was living in either one.

The judge eventually decided to sentence Pruitt as an adult – I don’t think it was a tough
decision – and because she had committed murder during the commission of another
felony, she got life without parole, as did Miracle. They’ve both been in prison for nine
years now. Obviously, I have no idea where or even if they are still alive. I do wonder
from time to time.

I also have no way of knowing what happened to Christina. I just googled her (unusual)
real name and found someone of the right age who is living on the far side of the state
and just had a kid a couple months ago. I hope that’s her and she’s having a decent life.

The only contact I’ve had with anyone on the jury came the next summer when one of
them read my death notice in the paper and called to offer his condolences to my
parents. Boy, was he surprised when I answered the phone. But that’s a whole different
story …

I did have contact with one other participant – prosecutor Steven Cabadas. I ran into him
in a bar about a year after the trial. He remembered me and we chatted about the trial
for a bit. I was impressed on how well he and his colleagues read the jury. He said they
knew they would get a good verdict when they saw my name on the first request for
information – they had been hoping I would be picked as foreman over one of the two
female teachers.

Oh, and the judge lied. I got called for jury duty again, and ended up on another jury. I
was the foreman again, and we found a kid guilty of marijuana possession. This time,
the kid was thrilled by the verdict – he had been charged with intent to sell, and he was
clearly guilty, but they couldn’t prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

2010 Epilogue: In November of 2010, Pruitt was part of an ACLU lawsuit against the
state of Michigan. The lawsuit alleges that sentencing a minor to life without parole is
cruel and unusual punishment. However, I’d be more impressed if the ACLU didn’t also
try to paint her as an innocent victim that had no idea the robbery was going to take
place, much less the murder. Obviously, given what we learned in the trial and
afterward, I don’t believe that, but I do have concerns about the sentencing guidelines.

By the way, Pruitt was also one of the faces of the huge lawsuit that uncovered horrible
levels of sexual abuse by guards against female prisoners. She testified that she was
abused within the first days of entering Scott Correctional Facility.