Not Guilty Due to Insanity

By George W. Barclay Jr.

Lawyer Juan Baptista, previously well, committed axe murder of Lynette Dematerez and assaulted ADA Elizabeth Borden with deadly weapon. He was wounded, admitted in shock to Del Arroyo for emergency surgery, and life-flighted to Matamoros by his surgeon friend, Dr. Guadalupe Alvarez.

Juan was subsequently located in a Guadalajara hospital. While he was convalescing from abdominal surgery in Guadalajara, he was found to have elevated PSA, enlarged prostate, and coin lesion of lung. Physicians recommended castration and hormone therapy. Having no memory of previous events Juan voluntarily returned to Houston for consultation and incarceration.

Lawyer Sandra Lerner aided by Private Investigator Derek Strong elected to plead NOT GUILTY DUE TO INSANITY.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 8, 2008
• ISBN: 9780595614363

George W. Barclay Jr.

Dr. George W. Barclay Jr. is retired Beaumont Cardiologist. He writes adventure, mystery, science fiction and metaphysics. This is his twenty-sixth novel. He is graduate of Texas AM and Southwestern Medical School (MD FACC).

Book preview

Not Guilty Due to

Insanity

A Novel

George W. Barclay Jr.

iUniverse, Inc.

New York Lincoln Shanghai

Not Guilty Due to Insanity

Copyright © 2008 by George Barclay Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

ISBN: 978-0-595-50254-7 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-595-61436-3 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

LIST OF MAJOR CHARACTERS

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LIST OF MAJOR CHARACTERS 

1

There were at least five organizations trafficking illegal drugs in Houston, the Cuban Mafia in Heights, the blacks in Northeast, the Mexicans in Southeast, the Russians and Colombians in Southwest, and the Orientals in China Park. Dirk had experience only with the Russians et al. at the Golden Apple strip bar and Pancho’s Automotive near the intersection of South Queen with South Mean.

El Cyuga ceased to be a major player when they tore down the federal housing project and dispersed the welfare recipients and immigrant minorities. Drugs were still plentiful and marijuana had made it down to the seventh grade.

Dr. Jack Strongbach was sweet on Dirk’s ex-wife, Roxanne, and agreed to pay child support to Dirk’s pregnant daughter. Dirk would still pay until Julie graduated in January.

Dirk lived in a modest bachelor apartment in Atascocita in north Houston on the west bank of Lake Houston and drove a 1987 Chevrolet Caprice. Captain Jerry Billings DPS spent Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights at his place.

Dirk grew up on the bank of the Trinity in Hardin, attended Liberty schools, and graduated with BS in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston after which he served two years in Vietnam followed by twenty-five years on the Dallas Police force from which he retired after coronary bypass. He moved to Houston to be near Julie. Roxanne soon followed and found employment as a stripper at the Blue Goose.

2

Atascocita, Texas June 1,1993

The world changed for the better for Dirk Tuesday morning. He switched from generic Bran Flakes to Post’s Superior Raisin Bran, and it was worth every penny. He dressed in tan slacks and blue blazer, strapped on his usual arsenal of handguns and balanced throwing knife, got in his new blue second hand Chevy Caprice classic, drove through Atascocita and Humble, up on US 59, crossed over to US 610 west, got off on South Main, turned left at the light at West Mean and pulled into the parking spaces of Sam’s Gym and Ballroom next door to the El Cyuga Shopping Mall and across the street from Sophie and Sam’s Dea-gio’s Bar and Grill. There was construction, boarded off, across South Main where the demolished El Cyuga housing project once stood, and construction next door to Sam’s Gym and Ballroom with a sign out front announcing the opening soon of Sam Junior’s new Sports Palace. It was to be an enclosed domelike structure with air conditioning and all the modern conveniences to hold five thousand fans, etc. Sam’s father built the original Sam’s Sports Palace in 1928, but it was bulldozed twenty plus years ago when Donald Tantalia leased the land from Sam to build the El Cyuga Mall.

SROCO oil had purchased the old El Cyuga housing project, and a rumor was they were planning a super tall, ultra modern, five star mid-Eastern Islamic tourist hotel, gated playgrounds and parking, and an exact duplicate of the Dome of the Rock Mosque, the third holiest place in Islam.

Doris Russell was instructing and leading a plump lady’s aerobics class. Li Chen was in her office eating breakfast. Sam was at ringside with a stopwatch coaching their ex-World Heavy Weight Champion, Howard Johnson, going 5-3/ 1 with big Abner Domass. Light-heavy Holmes White was shadow boxing at ringside waiting to go on next.

Dirk took Holmes aside and asked, Where can you buy a rock nowdays?

Holmes looked around to see if anyone were listening. Try the Buddha over on east side.

Seniors occupied most all the universals, stairclimbers, and treadmills. Dirk spotted Sergeant Miguel Montalban, HPD undercover Vice, curling twenty-five pound dumbbells in front of a mirror, so he walked over to chat.

There’s a Universal Gym across Lawndale from Little Mexico Mall where you can find me afternoons. Sheila and I have been transferred back. We’ll stay in touch by cell phone and meet for a quick lunch in the OXACA at 1 PM. You are welcome to join us. Sheila is on wardrobe expense account, will masquerade as a fashion model, and be dressed in the latest. Order came from Bill Riley DA, himself. Booker wants me to track the dope through Southeast urban and keep an eye on Lieutenant Hernan Costello and the SEHP detectives. They may be mixed up in it or just looking the other way. Miguel stopped and waited for Dirk to comment.

Do you know anything about a Buddha? asked Dirk, cautiously. He looked to see if Holmes were sparring.

It’s over there close to the docks somewhere in a warehouse the county seized for taxes. SEHP uses it for storage. The Buddha has an Indian legend. Kay Berkeley did a feature story on it in the PRESS. Ask Li Chen. Her parents are Buddhists. If I were you, I wouldn’t cross over the north side of IH-10. It’s all black north of the Rap-Salsa border. Miguel smiled.

Please explain? Dirk smiled in return.

You might get shot. The Dudes, Hombres, and Tigers have been shooting at each other all week. The Colombians missed two shipments, and the junkies are looting, shooting, and running wild. Methadone doesn’t do anything, and the police just stop and search traffic. We can’t jail everybody.

Li Chen had finished eating and was reading the PRESS. Kay Berkeley had a byline on today’s trials in Judge Morrison’s court. Dirk commented.

I think they will drop the charges on Dr. Strongbach, and lawyer Lovett will be acquitted of the murder of Eugene Cash. It was strictly an inside job, and there’s a lot of lying going on which will take time to refute. You hired Doris Russell as dance instructor? She looks exceptionally competent to me. What about her job waiting tables at Sophie’s across the street?

Don’t sweat it, Dirk. I needed help, and she’s a college graduate from Van Nuys in Performing Arts. I’m paying her to take a couple of classes for me, and Sophie’s paying her to wait tables. The state is paying her to work under cover for Captain Jerry Billings, DPS, and Maria Galbreaux has her under contract to start as a topless waitress and exotic dancer at the Blue Goose starting as soon as Sophie trains her as a waitress. She’s destined to be top billing at the Blue Goose right along up there with your ex-wife, Roxanne, and their current Las Vegas bombshell, Jeananne Russell, her older sister. You lied to me about Pam.

What are you talking about? Every time I’ve seen Pam I was with you. You’ve been right there. Dirk lied discretely. Pam was Li Chen’s older sister and wife of Dr. Rochester, president of Saint Nicholas University.

She bragged to me about you. What would your dear sweet little straight shooting DPS Captain, Jerry Billings, say to that? I work under cover for Jerry. She taught me everything I know. Jerry doesn’t suffer fools, or fooling around, period.

You’ll never get me to admit anything. Pam’s just teasing you. Sister stuff! You are jealous! Li Chen, our relationship must remain platonic. I need to keep a clear head. You would complicate my life.

You bet I would! I know you love me. Nights are sweet torture for me—fire and ice!

Platonic love! I’m old enough to be your father, and I’ve had coronary bypass. It should be obvious to you. You’re like a daughter.

"Hah! Who cares? Passion is where you find it. It’s a sin for you to deny me.

You’ll go to hell, Wallace Derek Strong!"

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Dirk rushed down West Mean to Saint Benedict where Father Burke was conducting a special Rosary and Mass for Maria Tantalia Galbreath who had appointment with the Holy See in Rome to plea for annulment of her marriage to Father Joseph Galbreaux, her former priest confessor, now defrocked. Maria had sworn testimony, medical records, and DNA evidence that Marci, her twenty-four year old daughter was conceived by spontaneous parthenogenesis.

She had arranged through Misty Tantalia with approval of lawyer Sandra Lerner for Dirk to accompany her as personal bodyguard. Only the time and date had yet to be arranged.

Dirk met Maria last November at Prince Kahli’s party in the sky room of the SROCO building, otherwise, he knew her only by reputation.

Maria was rich and lived in a large family mansion in old River Oaks. Her grandfather endowed Saint Nicholas University, and her father retired to Sicily leaving Maria in charge of the family businesses.

Dirk didn’t know all her businesses, but she was Chairman of the Board and manager of the endowment fund of Saint Nicholas University, owner and manager of the El Cyuga shopping mall, owner of El Cyuga State Bank, owner of the MTG Armored Car Service, stockholder and director of FHC hospital corporation, etc., etc.

He parked at the church and waited for the service to finish. There were three limos which he surmised belonged to Maria, Misty, and Sophie Tantalia, and several sedans, one of which belonged to Bette Tantalia, the third sister. The three limo drivers were waiting outside their vehicles and smoking. They were a cautious bunch, dark Sicilian types, and each had an unmistakable coat bulge suggesting a concealed weapon.

Maria’s business interests were global, and Dirk heard rumors that her El Cyuga State Bank along with a Japanese bank officed in the downtown SROCO building were brokering Saudi crude to private interests in Japan. Maria was a stockholder in Saudi Royal Oil Company (SROCO) and on the board of directors. SROCO was buying up land in southwest Houston and planned to build a mosque like the Temple Mount in Houston and provide housing and jobs for displaced Palestinians.

Dirk surmised that Maria had made unescorted trips abroad to Rome, Sicily, Japan, Arabia, and elsewhere before, but, since the assassination attempt in Houston on Prince Kahli in November, the car bombings of NASA and the World Trade Center, she preferred armed escort en route. Dirk chuckled. He’d heard or read somewhere that the Russians had reported ten nuclear satchel bombs missing since the Soviet split up, and some crazy had tried to assassinate Pope John Paul in Saint Peter’s Square.

Misty must have recommended Dirk, since he had escorted her to the Prince Kahli/SROCO party last November and other social affairs since her husband, Hoshio Yamamoto, was blown away in his office during a robbery of the El

Cyuga State Bank a month earlier (October ‘92).

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At 2 AM, Tuesday, June 1, 1993 an air ambulance helicopter rose from the top of the Del Arroya Clinic, flew high over Houston and south toward Matam-oros, Mexico. Juan Baptista, with records and x-rays, was transferred to Mexico for further treatment and care.

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At 5 AM Dr. Guadalupe Alvarez dressed in scrubs, walked out of Del Arroya Clinic, crossed a parking lot, opened his auto, inserted a key, rolled down the windshield, put on the safety belt, and started the ignition. A car pulled up, a window was lowered and greetings were exchanged. Dr. Alvarez turned back, and a gun with a silencer discharged. Dr. Alvarez suffered a fatal wound and slumped, dead.

A uniformed policeman got out, removed Dr. Alvarez’s keys and opened his trunk. He removed nothing, returned the keys and drove off.

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Sandra Lerner, defense lawyer, appeared in District Court at 9 AM representing lawyers Barbara Quick and Percy Lovett for the murder of lawyer Eugene Cash. They pled not guilty and were scheduled for a bench trial on June 9 in

Judge Lois Morrison’s court. They were released on recognizance.

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Sandra checked on Ilych Yerkoff, Viktor Christof, and Guiana Hungun at the county jail. Viktor and Ilych were charged with murders of Emil Fernandez and Rafael Allegromande and were scheduled for trial on September 24. Guiana Hungun, psychopathic serial killer, was waiting for extradition to Canada. Lupe Lopez, her other jailed client, was eating a late breakfast before returning to his cell which he shared with Hungun. His arraignment was scheduled for June 15, pending positive identification of the murder victim, health status of a wounded guard, and response to his request for extradition to Mexico.

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Dr. Nu was in his office signing reports, and Dr. Potswami was busy performing an autopsy. A covered body was supine on Dr. Nu’s dissection table. Sandra walked over and pulled back the sheet. It was a Latino about forty-five with a 9mm hole in his left temple and the right side of his face and head blown off. There were no powder burns or smut ring suggesting somebody was a good shot, maybe a cop. She looked at his toe tag: Guadalupe Alvarez, 6 AM, Del Arroyo parking lot. It was signed by Lieutenant Hernan Costello and Xavier Vargus, Justice of Peace. She pulled back the sheet. He wore green surgery scrub pants stamped Del Arroyo Clinic. There were no other marks on his body; his watch and jewelry had been removed, and she could detect no overt signs of rigor mortis. She figured he’d been dead about six hours. She walked over and rapped on Dr. Nu’s door. He looked up, smiled, bade her come in, and began filling his pipe.

I’ve come to see about Jesus Posadas. When are you going to perform his autopsy? I have a client in jail charged with his murder, and you have not positively identified the victim. Southeast Patrol could not get a single witness to volunteer identification, and Homicide has only his pocketbook and personal belongings removed in the Del Arroyo emergency room.

I’m sorry, Sandra, but we’ve been busy with all that mayhem and killing on east side. There’s a real cocaine shortage, and the gangs are fighting to get whatever. You read the paper or watch TV? They had to call out the riot squads and military and put on a curfew. It’s still not safe. Crack is up to a hundred a pop and looting is going on. Small businesses are closing down and barring the doors and windows. Armed robbery is rampant. People are holed up, and no delivery trucks will enter the area. Even the postal service has quit home delivery. Talk about war zone!

What about Jesus Posadas? I have a client to defend.

"Don’t worry! You’re just like a humming bird, flopping your wings and sticking your beak into everything. We’ll find his body. We’ve never had one walk out yet.

Sandra rushed out to Saint Nicholas University to meet Tisha in the beer garden across from the book store, keep her dance appointment with Dr. Blood, and sign up for an additional class for the summer session starting Monday. Since Austin wasn’t coming for the weekend, she had agreed to be Dr. Blood’s guest at the Faculty-Alumni Awards banquet Saturday evening. Her psychiatrist’s appointment was at three, and she had clients scheduled in the office at four.

SNU campus was relatively quiet. Old Don Allegeri Tantalia was still holding the same cigar and staring out over the horizon. Students were socializing in the Union, and the summer book business was brisk. Students from other universities were home for the summer and taking easy courses at SNU for makeup and credit. Maria kept the tuition low and fifty percent of the endowment scholarships were for foreign students with modest financial means. English was a required foreign language. Part time jobs went begging, and some of the female gene pool lottery winners were making big bucks as exotic dancers, topless waitresses, etc., and driving Jaguars and other less ostentatious sport cars while carrying a full academic load and gracing the dean’s list consistently. SNU had always stressed the honor system, and had adhered to the four freedoms: speech, press, religion, and sexual persuasion.

SNU, like many universities, had athletic recruiting problems and was on both basketball and football probations. But, since they were independent, they scheduled well in advance and just had to show up in uniform ready to play. The urine test was their biggest obstacle to athletic greatness, and the athletes received special tutoring and oral exams as well as ultra special living quarters and lavish diets. In fact, most of the regular students had never seen a scholarship athlete on campus and knew them only by numbers.

Education is the pathway to knowledge was carved into the granite below old Don Tantalia’s statue. He had immigrated to the U.S. in 1905 at the age of fifteen and never learned to read or write English. By 1934 he was the richest man in Houston and established a generous endowment for a Catholic school for destitute immigrant boys. The Catholics excommunicated him for divorcing his first wife, so he dismissed the Catholics and turned the endowment over to Donald, his son, who immigrated back to Sicily and left it to his four daughters, Maria, Sophie, Bette, and Misty.

Maria Tantalia Galbreaux was Chairman of the Board of Trustees and manager of the SNU endowment fund. She was also the largest private stockholder in the For Profit Hospital Corporation (FHC) and member of the hospital boards of Mean Street MASH, Blue Bird Hospital in Pasadena, and Bayside Hospital at Clear Lake.

Under Donald Tantalia and Maria’s management SNU had thrived, and was a fully accredited university with all natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, liberal arts, fine arts, performing arts, engineering, space and aeronautics, and you name it. Its enrollment was ten thousand with half on immigrant scholarships. Two thousand lived in dormitories on campus, and the rest in the Sorborne apartments close by. It received government grants for basic research in natural sciences and had been chosen by NASA to provide special scholarships for the anticipated space colonization of Mars.

Sandra, Anthony Parigello, and Devine’ Sparks were on permanent retainer by both SNU and FHC for miscellaneous legal services within their specialties of criminal law. Part of Sandra’s job was to keep an eye on things and consult with Maria at Maria’s pleasure. She audited courses during her noon hour and checked with Tisha LaFemme, her other private operative.

Tisha, forty, was full time in Maintenance on night call and lived in a one bedroom apartment at the Sorborne. Tisha lacked only a few credits toward a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and had signed up full time as a student the first summer session. Graduation was Saturday. The faculty and alumni gala was Saturday night, and summer classes began tomorrow. Either consciously or subconsciously, Tisha had slimmed up, adopted the coed’s dress style, lost or covered her neck wrinkles and freckles, and looked young, attractive, and vibrant.

Well, I’m ready, Miss Lerner, and I’ll stay in touch by cell phone around ten each evening, unless an emergency comes up. Your answering service has my number and can call me any time.

Sandra smiled happily. Geology and Calculus sound tough!

They’re for dummies! Watered down for non-science students and summer students from other colleges looking for easy credits in science. When is that Holy Land tour?

October! It’s cheaper if we go as a pair and a lot more fun. I forgot the dates, but I signed us up, and we’re going.

When is the dance contest?

Labor Day weekend. Winston and I have decided to enter Swing/Jive and Tango. Austin has to work this weekend, and Winston’s escorting me to the faculty-alumni awards banquet and dinner-dance Saturday night.

I heard they have a new Physics professor coming in that’s an expert on UFO and ET, replied Tisha, but Sandra was out of hearing on her way to Performing Arts.

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After fighting downtown traffic, she found Dr. Freid’s waiting room empty. His nurse weighed her (120), checked her blood pressure (110/70), and ushered her in where she found Dr. Freid reading another patient’s chart and talking on the phone.

The nurse put Sandra’s chart on his desk, and Sandra sat down and stared at the ceiling while Dr. Freid tried to calm a hysterical grief stricken woman. The voice on the other end sounded young adult, and Sandra guessed correctly that he was talking with the newly widowed Mrs. Guadalupe Alvarez. He ordered Valium, put the phone down, picked up Sandra’s chart, studied it, and mumbled.

You didn’t see Dr. Alvarez for your CT follow-up exam.

Right! I saw him earlier today laid out on a slab in the morgue with a bullet hole in his head. How is Mrs. Alvarez taking it? You ordered Valium for her and Clorazepate for me.

Guadalupe and I played tennis once or twice a month at the East Park country club. Good man! Great physician! Sounded like a gangland shooting. You know, he was hereditary chief of the Matigwa Indian Nation. His ancestral lineage was Spanish and Indian, and he grew up in Houston.

Premeditated murder is a family affair, commented Sandra, smiling. What was her name before she married Dr. Alvarez?

Juanita Costello! She and Carmaleta Posadas are sisters of Lt. Hernan Cos-tello, Chief Detective over at SEHPD station on I-45 between Little Mexico Mall and Clear Lake City. They are nice people. Hernan made all city running back in high school and was Jesus Posadas’ brother-in-law. I’ve seen both girls in the office from time-to-time.

Why did you tell me?

You and I have doctor-patient and lawyer-client confidentiality, and I thought you ought to know. You said yourself that premeditated murder was a family affair. I can’t go any further. How are you doing? Any more nightmares or nocturnal panic attacks?

No, but I do have a question about the medication. He waited. Do you think it might effect my attitude toward promiscuity?

Dr. Freid chuckled. The Zoloft hasn’t even kicked in yet, and the Cloraze-pate may take the edge off acute and chronic anxiety and help you relax and sleep better. Less anxiety means less worry and perhaps a more relaxed attitude about sex. Any problems?

Yes and no! My relationship with my male friend, the one I intend to marry, Dr. Austin Hale, is even better, but he can’t get off from work every weekend, and I feel attracted to a female, a young woman who has just moved in down the hall.

What kind of work?

She’s a highly skilled transplant surgeon that spent many years of chronic sleep depredation in an eight year residency program. Now she works to the point of exhaustion, and once I came home and found her in my bed.

How did she get in?

She walked through the door just like a ghost. I saw her do it. Just like she was transparent, and the door was locked. Sandra worried that Dr. Freid might think her crazy.

What do they say about her at work?

I’ve only talked with the Chief of Nurses, Patsy Redmon, RN. The lady surgeon is Suzette Pusske’, and she’s niece of Vladimer Pusske’, who may be the world’s greatest. Anyway, Patsy said she didn’t care if they were Kasper the friendly ghost as long as they showed up for work and practiced flawless surgery.

I take it you were sure she walked through the door.

Yes! She told me she walked through the door to get in. She and Vladimer are ET. We’ve proved it in the forensic laboratory, no question. You can ask Dr. Nu. Vladimer Pusske’ has come back from the grave at least three times, and Suzette was resuscitated by Dr. Pusske’ after she had been dead at least thirty minutes. I saw it along with two other witnesses, Kay Berkeley and Devine’ Sparks, who live across from me at the high-rise.

Dr. Freid made a few notes in Sandra’s chart. Have you heard voices?

Only the Rosary and church bells, but that’s much better. I’m not having hallucinations!

Maybe you ought to refer all new cases for a couple of months. Don’t take on anything stressful. Hallucinations are not part of depression, but nocturnal panic attacks are. It’s not the medication, and there’s no way I can control your dreams. Nightmares are part of the business we’re in. Get your mind off law. What about recreational pursuits?

I found a partner and took up ballroom. As part of my job, I audit classes during lunch break at Saint Nicholas, and I signed up for a tour of the Holy Land in October with a group from the college. With the Clintons in office peace has broken out all over.

Don’t count on it! However, they had over a million Christians visit the Holy Land last year and no mishaps. That’s big bucks to the Arabs and Jews. I believe you are better. No change in medication and back one week. Call me any time. Dr. Freid hesitated and smiled. And Sandra, people don’t walk through locked doors.

3

When Sandra got to the office, Evita Garza, and Rene’ Lopez were sitting in her waiting room, and there was a frown note on her desk to call Dr. Nu at the morgue. She dialed and identified herself.

Recognized your voice, Sandra. Got bad news and good news. He was talking with a pipe in his mouth.

Give me the good news first.

Your client, Lupe Lopez, may get off with just aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and multiple lesser charges. If I were you, I’d plea bargain and ship him back to old Mexico. He waited for her