A MOTHER TESTIFIES

"Can you state your full name and spell your last name for the record?" "Gloria Anne Misener. M-I-S-E-N-E-R."

It is 3:50 p.m. After a half-hour recess following Dr. Dragovic's cross- examination—some members of the jury will need extra time to get out of the courthouse for a cigarette—Leann's mother takes the stand.

From the beginning of this tragedy—from the time Troy police knocked on her door to tell her she needed to go to the Hazel Park police station—she has been a bedrock of strength, an indomitable will holding her family together. She is at the center of the family both physically—when it gathers at court and when it leaves for lunch or recess, its members seem to surround and follow her—and emotionally.

From the beginning, she has been sure Mick intentionally murdered her daughter. Her hatred for him is palpable as she testifies, but it is a hatred all the more fierce for the way it comes through a more or less placid exterior. She has a job to do today, an important job, and she is ready for it.

Briefly, she tells the court and the jury some of the details that made up her daughter's life—married six years, a house on Hazelwood Avenue in Hazel Park, one brother, three sisters. "She was a nice person, very outgoing. She loved life."

As for Mick, he and Leann got along fine in the early days, she says. But a party Leann threw for him upon his graduation from the University of Detroit– Mercy Law School seemed to end that happy chapter of their marriage.

"When he graduated from law school, he changed from a nice, loving guy to a cold-hearted person," she says.

What about their marriage troubles? asks Townsend.

"She didn't tell us much about it. She said he'd moved out, that they were having troubles. That he'd changed when he got out of law school."

What about any possibility that Leann could have shot herself?

"That thought wouldn't have even entered her head. She loved life. She

loved Hannah. She was pleased every day to do things with Hannah."

And then she described what she knew of Leann's last day. Mick and Leann would go to the gun range for an hour, then Leann would join her parents, along with Hannah and sister Lindy for a walk on the trails in a nearby park.

"I asked her, 'Why are you going to a gun range?' And she said, 'To keep Mick happy.'"

Was she depressed that day or the days before? "No. She was very happy."

Did she like guns? "No, she was very afraid of them. She didn't want to touch guns."

What had happened the night before the death? Leann and her parents had gone out to dinner, after which Mick did something that took both Gloria and Jack Misener by surprise. "He had never asked us to babysit before. Leann always asked, but she said she'd asked us to babysit so much, she wasn't going to ask anymore." And so Mick had asked Jack.

The next day, Mick and Leann came over in two cars, dropped Leann's car and Hannah off and headed to the shooting range in Mick's truck, just a mile and a half or so down the nearest main highway, Dequindre.

"They should have come back at one. Two came. Three came. We thought something must have happened, a traffic accident or something. Then the police came and said there had been an accident. We thought it had been a car accident, and they asked us to call the Hazel Park police. I said, 'Was it a car accident?' He said, 'No, a shooting accident.' And I said, 'Oh my God, he shot her!'"

Fletcher, as he will remain throughout the trial, is completely impassive, his expression unchanged. He seems to be staring off, not at Gloria but past her.

"Why did you say that?" asks Townsend.

"Because I knew it. She wouldn't have put a gun anywhere near her head." "No further questions."

Gloria Misener has been on the stand for just ten minutes. The judge announces that since there is so much road construction on Telegraph Avenue, the main thoroughfare that leads to the court complex, she wants to get the jury out before rush hour, if possible, and so she calling it a day. The announcement jolts Legghio, since the week before, she had told both sides that the court day

would run till 5 p.m., and Legghio is stunned to hear that he won't be able to cross-examine Mrs. Misener until the next morning.

The jury will spend the night with her declaration ringing in their heads: "Oh my God, he shot her!"

And it is that line that replaces the image of Dr. Dragovic holding the Smith & Wesson in the minds of the local TV people planning their evening news shows. Beginning at five and re-run periodically till 7 p.m. and then again at 11, viewers throughout southeastern Michigan will watch her say it again and again.

Out in the hallway the family clusters around her. Some of them are crying.

They head down the hall and board an elevator, en masse.

*

Tuesday, June 13, 8:40 a.m. Before the jury is brought in, Legghio has a motion for the judge to consider. He asks Cooper to instruct Townsend not to ask prosecution witnesses questions intended to elicit testimony that Leann would not have committed suicide.

Since the defense will not be alleging suicide as an explanation, says Legghio, court rules prohibit the prosecution from pursuing that line. Townsend can only ask questions proving the elements of the charge of murder on direct examination.

"Mr. Townsend?" the judge asks. He stands at his table, near the jury box. "This is analogous to an arson case," he says. "You must exclude all possibilities of accidental ignition, and if you do, you are left with an intentional fire. If we rule out accident and suicide, we're left with murder."

The judge agrees. He will be allowed to ask the question of other witnesses, too.

At 9 a.m. the jury is brought in and Mrs. Misener is put back on the stand and reminded she is still under oath.

Legghio has her recount more details of the Fletchers' marriage. At the end, they had broken up and separated "so many times I couldn't keep it straight. It was three or four times. One time he left for five days, came back for five days and left again."

Leann worked part-time. And Mick, did he work full-time? "He left every day," she answers neatly, the implication being that while he might have been gone every day, he wasn't working full-time.

"You don't know if he was working?" "No."

"Did the Hazel Park police tell you it was a suspicious shooting?" "No, I told them. They wouldn't even tell me where she was shot."

What happened at the station? "They took us back into a room and sat us down and I told them, 'He shot her.'"

"Did you know your daughter was dead?"

"I knew she was dead as soon as they told us, because instead of sending us to the hospital, they sent us to the police station."

Mrs. Misener told how just before Easter of 1999, during one of their separations, Mick had sent a basket of flowers to the beauty shop where Leann worked, "begging her to take him back."

And from then on, Mrs. Misener told the court, "he'd gone overboard with love."

What did she mean by that? "He did things he never did before. Kissing her in public. He was filled with affection. He was helping her carry the baby things, which he'd never done before." She described how Mick and Leann came over to the Miseners' on Easter Sunday—Jack and Gloria always went overboard at all the holidays, decorating the house and yard, and Easter was one of their favorites; their kids and grandkids always spent the day there with egg hunts and dinner—and Mick later did something for the first time ever when the day was over: "He helped Leann carry their stuff out of the house. Before, she always did that. And he took the garbage out. He was putting on a big show."

He asked her about what happened the day after the shooting, when Hazel Park police came over to the Miseners' and took turns interviewing Jack and Gloria, their children and the kids' spouses, one by one in the back yard. At that session, Mrs. Misener gave them the letter Mick had sent to the beauty shop with the flowers, when he'd asked for the reconciliation.

Mrs. Misener, it was clear, thought the letter suspicious.

"He started to act too nice?" asked Legghio. "Too loving?" "Yes. I think it was part of the plan."

"To kill your daughter?" "Yes."

Legghio has brought her to this point brilliantly. He wants the jury to see that this is, and has been, an angry mother-in-law. Look, this is a woman who got mad when Mick took out the garbage for her, who thought being nice after a separation was just a big show. What do you expect her to say after her daughter is shot?

"You told police you asked your daughter when she told you about the gun range. 'Did he take out an insurance policy on you?'"

"It was a joke. She said, 'Mother, he's not going to shoot me.' But he did. I know he did it. I'd stake my life on it."

"You hate my client, don't you?" "Yes."

"You want him convicted." "Yes."

"There's something else at stake here, isn't there? Isn't there another court hearing going on?"

"Yes, there is."

"There's a probate hearing before Judge Sosnick and you and your husband are seeking custody of Hannah so your daughter can adopt her, correct?"

"Yes."

"And if my client is convicted of murder, you're going to keep custody of her, won't you?"

"I suppose so."

"You've told people you want your daughter to adopt her, haven't you?" "Have I? I guess I have."

"No further questions."

*

Townsend asks several questions on redirect, including:

"You said something changed when Mick became a lawyer. What did you mean by that?"

"It went to his head when he became a lawyer. He was trying to sleep his way to the top of the legal system. He was mean to her and did cruel things."

Mrs. Misener steps off the stand. Her stint as witness over, she will be able to sit in the courtroom, now. She sits there, at the center of her family, nearly as impassive as Mick for the next two weeks.