Murder In Woodbury, A Duty to Warn & Silent Plight

By Jill Province

Murder In Woodbury -Stephanie Rawls meets up with a charming killer, resulting in a murder that could have been prevented. Daniel Caiman is smart, handsome, and funny. He is also delusional and paranoid, believing that a whole town is out to get him. Stephanie innocently becomes part of ‘the conspiracy.’ During the murder trial and subsequent civil case against the family of the killer, it is revealed that a severely psychotic Daniel was not only protected by his parents, but also supplied with the murder weapon. Despite all the warning signs, Daniel’s parents may just as well have pulled the trigger themselves. Harry Cohen, small town lawyer, goes head to head against a powerful law firm to fight the good fight. And although there was no legal precedent requiring a private citizen to warn or protect a potential victim, he decides to take on the civil case on behalf of the victim’s family. While the defense attempts to block him at every turn, his victory sets a new standard and a legal precedent that is sited to this day.

Silent Plight - When Morgan Foster becomes a New York Times best selling author, she thinks the road ahead is paved with sweet freedom. But World Boutique Publishing has other plans and hands her a less than plum assignment. Sent off to write yet another version of a tired, over used formula story, Morgan gets way more than she bargained for.
As her alter ego comes alive in the main character, Morgan discovers that her quiet, suppressed life disappointments are not so quiet after all. She begins to crave the fictitious life she has created until she realizes that this fantasy comes with a huge price.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jill Province
• Release date: Aug 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311269003

Jill Province

Jill Province is the creator of the Carol Freeman's trilogy: Silent epidemic, Grave Perception, and A Cycle of Greed. Illusion is a stand alone medical thriller, followed by Murder in Woodbury. Her novels draw on her extensive experience in the mental health field, to create exciting journeys. After a lifetime of moving around the country, she has settled in North Carolina with her family and two Eskimo Spitz cuties. Her life long ambition is to somehow understand the strange phenomenon that is human behavior.

Book preview

Introduction

Tarasoff vs. Regents of the University of California was a case in which the Supreme Court of California held that mental health professionals have a duty to protect individuals who are being threatened with bodily harm by a patient. The original 1974 decision mandated warning the threatened individual, but a 1976 rehearing of the case by the California Supreme Court called for a duty to protect the intended victim. The professional was required to discharge this duty in several ways, including notifying police, warning the intended victim, and/or taking other reasonable steps to protect the threatened individual.

This mandate did not address the responsibility of private individuals to act accordingly. If a family member was aware of such danger, they were under no obligation to warn or protect the intended victim. This gross negligence in the justice system left a gaping hole in what should have been a common sense extension of the law. That was about to change.

Murder In Woodbury

A Duty To Warn

Everyone has a moment in time they long to return to. A chance to warn their former self not to take that left turn, but instead continue straight ahead. Because they know now, in hindsight, that the left turn was the beginning of the end. And while most live through the long series of bad choices they make, there are those unfortunate few who will never live to regret that ill-advised decision. Such was the case for Stephanie Rawls.

In November 1993, Attorney Harry Cohen greeted an attractive, cheerful applicant for the vacant apartment in his building. Stephanie Rawls was accompanied by her mother, Sara Ingram; they were both pleased and excited about the living quarters.

Harry had acquired the majestic, old style, Victorian building with his previous partner, Charles Lehn, in the early seventies. Due to the ordinances of that time, Harry was able to maintain both commercial and living quarters under the grandfather clause. The efficiency apartment on the third floor appeared to meet Stephanie’s budget. She signed the lease agreement, excited about her new job and new found independence. However, the events to follow would take a deadly turn and re-surface later as a landmark moment in Harry’s legal career.

Chapter 1

The phone call came a short time after Harry’s tenant had moved into the building. Stephanie Rawls had been murdered. According to her mother, the suspect was Daniel Caiman, Stephanie’s ex-boyfriend. The family was devastated. While the victim’s parents were frozen from the shock of their daughter’s brutal murder, the attorney began searching for answers. Driven by the rage of an injustice that had taken place too close to home, Harry directed a nearly comatose Sara Ingram through her story.

Stephanie had taken the apartment in Harry’s building so that she would be close to her new job with a local fuel company. Previously, she had lived with Daniel Caiman, first as a nanny for his three children, and then as his girlfriend. When Daniel became violent, she left reluctantly. Her devotion and concern for the children continued to haunt her. But Stephanie took the only way out at the time and moved to a safer place.

Her first day on the job was also her last. The facts surrounding Stephanie’s unfortunate choice to visit Daniel on the day of her murder varies from each storyteller. Stephanie still had possession of Daniels car, and, according to Sara’s version, was invited back to Daniel’s home so that he could inspect faulty brakes. A dinner was thrown into the mix. Sara did not know what time her daughter had arrived at Daniel’s home or how long she remained there before Daniel made the distress call alerting his friend.

Daniel reported that he had just shot his girlfriend, Stephanie, and that she appeared to be dead. His frame of mind during that phone call was not disclosed. The friend immediately called the police, who arrived on the scene minutes later. The officers were cautious and did not enter the home. Daniel was contacted by phone from outside his front door and was told to come out of the house – empty handed. Daniel complied with the police and was taken into custody.

Two officers then entered the house through the front door and followed their suspicion to the master bedroom. Upon entering that room, officers found Stephanie on the floor at the foot of the bed. She was fully clothed, lying on her back. The top half of Stephanie’s torso was wrapped in a blanket that was folded across her face. Her clothes were torn and there were several wounds to her face. A shell casing was found in her hair. The police noted a pool of blood by the wall, and drag marks from the wall to the foot of the bed.

It was at this point in the conversation that Sara broke down. Harry had to strain to understand what the woman was saying. In the midst of her sobs, he heard one final piece of information that would begin his crusade. In one of the bedroom walls, behind an undamaged poster, were three bullet holes, surrounded by blood spatter and hair. Blood stained clothes were buried in a laundry basket. Sara blurted these last pieces of the story through gasping hysteria. This last twist in the officer’s account would become the defense’s greatest obstacle and Harry’s greatest motivation. The guy knew enough to cover his tracks.

Harry realized he would have to gather more information. He asked Sara if there was anyone she could call for support. After confirming that she would be taken care of, Harry began to dig into the investigation. He had to find out more about the facts leading up to such a brutal attack. Through interviews with the police as well as neighbors and friends of Daniel Caiman, Harry began the process of looking into the mind of a killer.

Chapter 2

Harry Cohen was a small town lawyer with a big heart. He began the practice of law in his growing hometown of New Milford, Connecticut in 1946, where he quickly earned a reputation as a fighter for just but difficult causes. The late Connecticut Supreme Court Justice T. Clark Hull referred to Atty. Cohen as a fighter of lost causes. Small on manpower, but big on principle, Harry rolled up his sleeves and began the process of one of the most influential cases of the time. His investigation would reveal the following.

Daniel believed that the town he lived in was a dangerous place with toxic fumes waiting to consume him. From his perspective, the people of Woodbury quietly plotted behind closed doors, planting human doubles who lay in wait to destroy him.

Daniel Caiman