: Michael A. Jacobs
: TRACKRS On the Cold Trail of a Serial Killer
: Cloudbreak Publishing
: 9781736253410
: TRACKRS
: 1
: CHF 9.40
:
: Sonstiges
: English
: 544
: kein Kopierschutz
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
How would you like to find out what it's like to be in the middle of a real life multiple murder investigation? In a narration unlike any other true crime story, 'TRACKRS: On the Cold Trail of a Serial Killer' takes the reader through all the stages involved in the pursuit, arrest, and prosecution of a serial killer. All the 'in the trenches' and raw details are presented as seen through the eyes of the veteran prosecutor who initiated the investigation and followed the case through to the final jury's verdict.

The author was born in New York City, grew up on Long Island, N.Y., and has been a resident of California since 1967. He attended Occidental College and Loyola University School of Law in Los Angeles. He was admitted to practice law in California in December, 1974 and also was admitted to practice in the U.S District Court for the Central District of California and in the U.S. Supreme Court. His first employment after graduation was as an associate attorney with the Los Angeles general civil litigation firm, Bodkin, Breslin& Luddy. From 1975 until 2006, with two breaks in 1989-1990 and 2001 to 2003, he was employed as a deputy and assistant district attorney with the Orange County District Attorney's office. During his career with the District Attorney's Office, he was assigned to nearly all vertical prosecution teams, and worked for thirteen years in the Homicide Unit. Highlights of his career as a prosecutor included being the trial attorney for six capital cases which resulted in five death penalty verdicts and being chosen as Prosecutor of the Year in 1996. He also successfully prosecuted the first case in Orange County utilizing DNA evidence, the second case under the new death penalty laws, the first case under the Three Strikes legislation, and the first case in which a defendant driving a motor vehicle was convicted of second degree murder. In 1996 his efforts led to the creation of Orange County's first unsolved homicide project 'TRACKRS.' This project's initial investigation solved six homicides from the 1970s and also resulted in the exoneration and freedom from prison of a man wrongly convicted of one of them. A few years later, he helped to create the Orange County Innocence Project. This was a program by which prisoners sentenced to state prison from Orange County, without the assistance of counsel, could petition the District Attorney's Office for an evidentiary review of either DNA or newly discovered physical evidence that could prove their innocence. Mr. Jacobs retired from the District Attorney's Office in 2006 and is presently engaged in a private civil practice in Orange County, California.

CHAPTER ONE:

BACK TO HOMICIDE

“And when you shot him, you shot him in the back, with the gun held like this, sideways, the way they do it in the gangster movies, right?”

I raised the murder weapon, a Browning nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistol, in my left hand up to shoulder level. I was standing at the counsel table, in front of thejury,

The defendant was only twenty years old. He was tall, pale, with dark hair and black, expressionless eyes. When the proceedings inPeople vs. Joseph Dakaj commenced for the afternoon session in Department One of the West Orange County Superior Court, he took the witness stand. On direct examination by his attorney, his testimony was mechanical and monotone, delivered with a dull, sullenexpression.

My question caught Dakaj by surprise. It came right at him, in the middle of my cross examination. It was a great question. I didn’t even care what the answer was, but it was better than I could have hopedfor.

“How do you know? You weren’tthere.”

His response drew an immediate admonition from the trial judge, the Honorable Luis Cardenas. Looking down at the defendant in the witness box, the judge stated, “That answer, Mr. Dakaj, was not responsive to the prosecutor’s question. It would be in your best interest to just answer thequestions.”

There was no need to ask the question again. I just kept ongoing.

“And you shot him three times in the back, didn’tyou?”

“Yeah, I shothim.”

The case was originally assigned to Debra Lloyd, a deputy in the Homicide Unit of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Even though she was engaged in another trial, Dakaj’s defense attorney, Don Kelly, had refused to waive time in order to reschedule his trial, which was supposed to start in less than a week. Without a time-waiver, the case would be dismissed unless another deputy district attorney could step in. Although I was assigned to the office’s Felony Panel at the time, Ms. Lloyd called me and asked if I could help her out. I told her I could. She came by my office and gave me thefile.

Despite being a criminal defense attorney from Los Angeles, Don Kelly seemed like a pretty nice guy. He was of slightly-above-average height with a mustache and graying hair and wore a three-piece gray pin-striped suit. I met him outside of Judge Cardenas’ courtroom a day before the beginning of trial. He told me he didn’t really like “jamming” the DA’s Office, but he felt by doing so he might get a better plea bargain offer to resolve the case or else get it assigned to a less experiencedattorney.

He acknowledged, however, that from what he had heard about me, neither of his objectives had been accomplished. We talked briefly about surfing spots in north Orange County and south Los Angeles and then went to meet with thejudge.

People vs. Joseph Dakaj began on April 11, 1996. I was pleased with the composition of the jury. I had two good civilian eyewitnesses with no availability issues, and I had the Browning nine-millimeter murder weapon. This was going to be a good show. I couldtell.

The facts of the case started out as a road-rage incident involving three cars driving on Laguna Canyon Road heading into Laguna Beach. The drivers of two of the vehicles engaged in cutting off one another with the occupants exchanging obscene gestures. The victim, Loren Chadwick, was a passenger in one of the cars involved. The other two cars were driven by Dakaj’s friends. At a stop light, these two cars, one in the front, and the other in the rear, blocked the vehicle Chadwick was in. The incident quickly evolved into a street fight on Broadway right in the middle of downtown Laguna Beach on Saturday night, November 11,1995. The fight was by no means a fair one. At first, it was two-on-one, Dakaj’s two friends against Chadwick, and then it became three-on-one.

The altercation ended when Dakaj got out of the back seat of the car, carrying the Browning nine-millimeter, and chased Chadwick to an alley off of Broadway. As Chadwick was running away down the alley, Dakaj fired the gun three times at his back. One bullet missed, hitting the side-view mirror of a parked car. Another took off one of Chadwick’s fingers, and a third penetrated his back, his right lung and vital arteries. Chadwick ran a short distance down the alley, up a stairway to the rear of a house, collapsed, and died on the landing. He was twenty-six years old. Dakaj, his fr