Hometown Killer. Carol J. Rothgeb
again. Detective Graeber conducted the interview. Also present were Jamie’s mother and Agent John Finnegan of the FBI.
After Detective Graeber read him his rights, Jamie removed his jacket and hung the dark windbreaker on the back of the chair, then asked: “Am I going to jail?”
Graeber: We can’t answer that right now.
Finnegan: That’s not up to us, Jamie.
Jamie: Who is it up to?
Finnegan: It’s up to the prosecutor.
Jamie (whining): I have to go to jail for something I didn’t do.
Graeber: Well, did we accuse you of doing anything?
Jamie: No.
Graeber (mildly exasperated): The only thing I’ve ever said is that you haven’t always told me the truth. Isn’t that what I’ve always said?
Jamie: Yeah. After we get done questioning, can I leave?
Detective Graeber (patiently explaining): Well, today we have to go through a whole bunch of people between me and you, okay? The prosecutor, the chief, the captain—
Jamie: I don’t understand what he’s saying.
Finnegan: It’s not up to us.
Graeber: I’ve got to clear everything through them. Understand that?
Jamie (pleading): Yeah. After you do that, can I go home?
(Jamie would not admit that it was his idea to meet the girls, even though he had told several of his friends that he was meeting two girls that night.)
Graeber: You met the two girls downtown with them?
Jamie: Yeah.
Graeber: But you set it up.
Jamie: No, I did not. I swear to God I didn’t set it up. They did. I swear to God, Al.
Finnegan: Who is “they,” Jamie?
Jamie: Alex and Damien, they set it up. I didn’t. I swear. You think I lying.
(“Kevin” was never mentioned again.)
Graeber: Well, I don’t know. It’s like I said—there are some questions we’ve got to straighten out.
Jamie: I ain’t lying to you, Al, you know that.
Finnegan: No, he doesn’t, Jamie. He doesn’t know that anymore.
Jamie (insisting he was not lying): I tell you square. That’s a square answer.
Graeber (firmly): What did I tell you last night when you left? Didn’t I tell you that we aren’t done talking yet?
Jamie: Yeah.
Graeber: Didn’t I tell you that you weren’t the main player in this whole thing?
Jamie: Yeah. I ain’t.
Graeber: And the best thing you can do is tell us everything. That’s what we’re doing here; we’re finishing it up.
Jamie: Will you guys bug me no more?
Graeber: Jamie, that’s up to you. Now I told you last night, you’ve got to clear everything up and don’t leave any loose ends.
Finnegan: Jamie, do you want to sleep tonight?
Jamie: Yeah—at home.
(Jamie claimed that they stopped at Rally’s on East Main Street and got hamburgers, French fries, and drinks, then went to the pond to eat. He said he didn’t get anything to eat because he was feeling sick.)
Finnegan: Jamie, they ate at the pond. Then they got doughnuts. Who got the doughnuts?
Jamie: Damien did.
Finnegan: He went into the bakery and got the doughnuts?
Jamie: Yeah.
(Agent Finnegan asked what time he thought it was by then.)
Jamie: About seven-thirty, something like that. I don’t know, you know.
Finnegan: You weren’t wearing a watch, were you?
Jamie (yawning and stretching his arms over his head): Huh-uh. I don’t know how to tell time on a watch.
Finnegan: Was it still light out?
Jamie: Yeah.
Graeber: I’m saying that you were on the other side of the pond, the same side of the pond that Damien was on with the dark-haired girl. And you grabbed ahold of the blond-haired girl.
Jamie: I didn’t kill her.
Graeber (his patience wearing a little thin): Did I say that? Did I say you killed her? Did I?
Jamie: No.
Graeber: I said you were over there and for six months you’ve been telling me this other bullshit that you weren’t over there and that’s exactly where you were.
Jamie: I wasn’t doing nothing to her.
Graeber: That’s where you were—you had your arm around her neck.
Jamie: I wasn’t choking her.
Graeber: But you’re rolling around on the ground with her.
Jamie: I wasn’t choking her.
Graeber: Were you or were you not, did you or did you not, roll around on the ground with her?
Jamie: No, I wasn’t rolling around with her.
Graeber: You were wrestling her on the ground.
Jamie: You act like you don’t believe me no more.
Graeber: Hey, what did I tell you when we started out? Ninety percent of the stuff you told me last night was true, ten percent bullshit. This is part of the ten percent.
Jamie (sulking): I got them for you. What else do you want?
Graeber: You’re damn right you did, which you could have done six months ago.
Jamie: I didn’t kill her; you know that.
Graeber: Didn’t say you did. I didn’t say you did. But it took me six months to get you across this pond. Now what else aren’t you telling me?
Jamie: I’m telling you everything.
Graeber: Jamie, you didn’t tell me about being over here on the ground, holding her until Damien got over there.
Jamie (pouting): You didn’t ask me.
Finnegan: All right, Jamie, you held her. You held the blond girl, Martha, and you are on the other side of the pond up where the pallets are in this picture.
Jamie: I didn’t do nothing to her. I didn’t beat her.
Finnegan: But you held her there.
Jamie: I didn’t kill her, though.
Finnegan: You held her there for Damien. Is that true?
Jamie: Yeah, I didn’t beat her, though.
Finnegan: You hit her. She hit you. Why did she hit you?
Jamie: Because I said something smart to her.
Finnegan: What did you say smart to her, Jamie?
Jamie (rubbing his eyes with the palm of his hand): I forget now.
Graeber: What did you say smart to her to make her slap you?
Jamie: I told you.
Finnegan: What did you say to her, Jamie? Jamie?
Jamie: I quit talking.
Finnegan: You quit talking? What does that mean?
Jamie (frowning): I finished.
Graeber: Well then, Jamie, I’m finished.