Part 43 (1/2)
”Yes.”
”How did you feel?”
”Cold and scared. The dogs came in. I remember getting sick in the doghouse. The police found me and took me out and took me to the police station.”
Cinnamon remembered the detectives' questions, and she remembered vomiting into the trash can. She remembered telling the police things that weren't true. She kept in her mind that she had to say she didn't like Linda, and that she had done it all by herself.
”Hadn't you just taken a human life? Didn't you know that was wrong?” Robinson asked softly, incredulously.
”Yesa”but my dad told me it was all right.”
”All right?”
”Under these circ.u.mstances, it was all right.”
Cinnamon remembered talking to the psychologists and the psychiatrists, but her father had come to see her and told her that she must tell everyone that she had no memory of the murder at all. She had lied for him for more than three years.
”My dad said I wouldn't be there very long. I'd be let out. He'd hire an attorneya”that it would take a little time.”
”Did your father continue to say that?”
”For a long time.”
Every time she went before the parole board, she lied.
”I told them, 'I don't remember,' and they said I wasn't telling them the truth, and I'd stay there until I did remember.”
”Why did you keep telling that lie?” Robinson asked.
Pohlson objected. ”He's arguing with his own witness, Your Honor.”
”Overruled.” ”I thought my father was going to get me out.”
”At some point, ”Sid you feel your dad wasn't truthful with you?”
”Yes. He kept telling me he'd get me out. I'd call home and he'd say he was sick, but my grandma said he was out shopping.”
Cinnamon described the time she caught her father kissing Patti. The seed of doubt planted then had never really gone away. ”When my dad came to CYA, I questioned him about Patti, and he said there was nothing going ona”that she was just there to take care of Krystal. ...”
Did your dad ever say anything about insurance?”
”No.”
”When is the first time you heard about insurance?”
”When the board brought it up.”
”Why didn't you come forward? Why didn't you get mad?”
”I thought I was being loyal to my dad, but I found out he was lying.”
Robinson asked the questions he knew Gary Pohlson would. ”Does it help your chance of parole to tell the truth ... ?”
”Yes.”
”Do you think because you testified that you'll get out?”
”.. . No. I still have to go to Board, and they can hold me to 1992 or 1995 if they want to.”
”Have you said anything that's untrue?”
”No. I've lied before, but never on the stand.”
”You lied to Jay Newell?”
”Yes. I told the truth except that I shot Linda. I was ashamed to admit that I was the one who actually pulled the trigger.”
”Why?”
”Because I loved Linda.”
”Did you ever actually hate Linda?”
”No.”
”Why did you tell the truth?”
”Because I felt more ashamed not telling the truth.” ”Do you know what perjury is?”
”Yesa”not telling the truth on the stand.”
”Does it bother you to tell your story with your dad here?”
Cinnamon glanced at her father, whose body was silently poised for her response. The look on her face obviated an answer.
Without realizing it, Cinnamon Brown shuddered, ever so slightly.
I.