Monster by Walter Dean Myers Page A

Examiner’s office wanted to move the body. It was time for them to get off, and I allowed them to take it.
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    VO (PETROCELLI)
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    Detective Williams, during the course of your investigation of the crime did you have occasion to speak to a Mr. Zinzi?
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    WILLIAMS
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    My partner got a call from this guy on Riker’s Island. That was Sal Zinzi. He was doing 6 months on a stolen property charge. There were a few guys in there who were giving him a hard time. He wanted out pretty bad. He told me about a guy who had told him about a guy who was selling cigarettes. It was a slim lead, but we followed it up until we found a Richard Evans.
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    VO (PETROCELLI)
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    Known on the street as Bobo?
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    WILLIAMS
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    Known on the street as Bobo, right. We picked him up and he admitted involvement in the stickup.
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    SWITCH TO: DR. MOODY.
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    MOODY (Nods constantly as he testifies.)
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    The bullet entered the body on the left side and traversed upward through the lung. It produced a tearing of the lung and heavy internal bleeding and also went through the esophagus. That also produced internal bleeding. The bullet finally lodged in the upper trapezius area.
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    VO (PETROCELLI)
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    And were you able to recover the bullet from that area?
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    MOODY
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    Yes, we were.
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    VO (PETROCELLI)
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    Dr. Moody, can you tell with reasonable certainty the time and cause of death?
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    MOODY
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    Death was caused by a combination of trauma to the internal organs, which put the victim into a state of shock, as well as by the lungs filling with blood.He wouldn’t have been able to breathe.
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    VO (PETROCELLI)
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    You mean he literally drowned in his own blood?
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    REACTION SHOT: STEVE catches his breath sharply.
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    REACTION SHOT: KING has head tilted to one side, seemingly without a care.

Saturday, July 11th
    Before she left, Miss O’Brien warned me not to write anything in my notebook that I did not want the prosecutor to see.
    I asked Miss O’Brien what she was going to do over the weekend, and she gave me a really funny look, and then she told me she was probably going to watch her niece in a Little League game.
    â€œI’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to cut you off.”
    She smiled at me, and I felt embarrassed that a smile should mean so much. We talked awhile longer and I realized that I did not want her to go. When I asked herhow many times she had appeared in court, her mouth tightened and she said, “Too many times.”
    She thinks I am guilty. I know she thinks I am guilty. I can feel it when we sit together on the bench they have assigned for us. She writes down what is being said, and what is being said about me, and she adds it all up to guilty.
    â€œI’m not guilty,” I said to her.
    â€œYou should have said, ‘I didn’t do it,’” she said.
    â€œI didn’t do it,” I said.
    Sunset got his verdict yesterday. Guilty.
    â€œMan, my life is right here,” he said. “Right here in jail. I know I didthe crime and I got to do the time. It ain’t no big thing. It ain’t no big thing. Most they can give me is 7 to 10, which means I walk in 5 and a half. I can do that without even thinking on it, man.”
    It’s growing. First I was scared of being hit or raped. That being scared was like a little ball in the pit of my stomach. Now that ball is growing when I think about what kind of time I can get. Felony murder is 25 years to life. My whole life will be gone. A guy said that 25 means you have to serve at least 20. I can’t stay in prison for 20 years. I just can’t!
    Everybody in here either talksabout sex or hurting somebody or what they’re in here for. That’s all they think about and that’s what’s on my mind, too. What did I do? I walked into a drugstore to look for some mints, and then I walked out. What was wrong with that? I didn’t kill Mr.