At two o"clock in the afternoon, the trial continued. Now, it was Wilfrid"s turn to ask the questions.
"Mr. Li, on the day of the crime, you shot and wounded Mr. Sam Gardner. My question is why did you choose Mr. Sam Gardner as your target?" asked Wilfrid.
"Because Mr. Sam Gardner was pa.s.sing by. At that time, I could only look outside through the air outlet and wait. Mr. Gardner just came into my sight. I did not target him specifically," said Dai Li.
"In other words, you chose to shoot Mr. Gardner because he entered into your sight. You didn"t shoot someone randomly. You just shot the first person you saw, right?" asked Wilfrid immediately.
"Yes. Due to the limitation of view, I couldn"t choose the target, but had to wait for someone to walk by," responded Dai Li.
"Why did you choose to shoot him in his leg?" Wilfrid continued to ask.
"Because an injury to the leg won"t cause any fatal damage," responded Dai Li.
"Why not the arm? A gunshot to the arm wouldn"t have caused fatal damage either.".
"Because the arms are in the upper body, so they"re closer to the chest, heart, and head. The risk of a fatal injury would have been much higher if I chose to shoot his arm," responded Dai Li.
"In other words, before you shot Mr. Gardner, you fully considered the danger that your gunshot might cause to the injured person"s life. In order to reduce the possibility of that risk, you made a choice to avoid shooting the parts that may cause fatal injuries to the victim," said Wilfrid.
"Yes." Dai Li nodded.
"However, you didn"t consider the possibility that the person might bleed to death, or the possibility that he wouldn"t have a phone, or that he might pa.s.s out because of the pain," said Wilfrid.
"That is correct. I didn"t think of that then. I apologize for what I did to Mr. Sam Gardner," said Dai Li.
Dai Li didn"t tell the other reason why he had shot Gardner in his leg. He hadn"t wanted Gardner to run away. Dai Li certainly wouldn"t bring that up because it made him look bad.
Nick Reiss looked at Dai Li and Wilfrid with a sneer. As Dai Li"s attorney, Wilfrid must have told Dai Li what questions he would ask and how he should answer. Therefore, it was meaningless for Nick Reiss to seek loopholes in Li"s responses. He might fall into a trap set by Wilfrid.
Wilfrid said, " The prosecutor"s charge that the defendant is completely oblivious to the life of the injured is not true. My client deliberately did not shooting the victim"s upper body in order to avoid fatally injuring the victim, which means that he didn"t want to threaten Mr. Gardner"s life.
"As mentioned by the prosecutor, there did exist possibilities that my client didn"t take into account. The victim could have bled to death. He might not have been able to call the police for various reasons. My client has admitted that he didn"t think of these possibilities at that time. I don"t think anyone can guarantee that every decision they make is perfectly thought out. This doesn"t prove that the defendant ignored the victim"s life. There was no causal relations.h.i.+p.
" Considering that the defendant was kidnapped at that time, he must have been frightened and hopeless. In that case, he tried to avoid shooting the vital parts of the victim as much as possible. That couldn"t have been easy for him. The defendant couldn"t sit in a chair and think like we do. We expect the defendant to have thought through everything given the circ.u.mstances."
Wilfrid nodded at the judge as he said, "Your Honor, I have no more questions."
"What do you want to add, prosecutor?" The judge turned to prosecutor Reiss.
Reiss stood up immediately. "I have several new questions for the defendant."
Reiss walked to Dai Li and asked, "Mr. Li, according to what you just said, when you shot, you avoided shooting the victim"s upper body. That means you chose to shoot him in his leg, right?"
Dai Li thought for a while and couldn"t see any reason why he shouldn"t answer truthfully. "Yes," he responded.
"How did you succeed in shooting his leg specifically?" Reiss continued to ask.
"Sorry, I don"t know what you mean," said Dai Li.
"Well, let me reword my question. How were you certain you would hit his leg and not fatally injure him? If you couldn"t make sure that you could avoid shooting the victim"s upper body, you might have killed him. You didn"t kill the victim because you got lucky that you did not fatally wound him. You couldn"t have known you wouldn"t commit a murder."
Dai Li understood what he was implying.
Just as Wilfrid expected. The fish has taken the bait.
Dai Li smiled and said, "I certainly knew that I could just shoot his leg."
"How could you have been sure?" Reiss asked.
"I am confident in my accuracy," said Dai Li, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with pride.
"Mr. Li, I shall remind you that this is court. Confidence can"t be served as evidence," Reiss said coldly.
"Well, let me put it another way then. I can shoot very well," responded Dai Li.
"Very well? that"s very broad. Everyone has a different definition of "very well". Maybe you think that you can shoot very well, but someone else thinks you can"t. It is totally inadmissable as evidence," Reiss said reasonably.
Dai Li thought for a while as if he was hesitating. Seconds later, he said, "I can hit a coin at a distance of fifty meters with a rifle. I would like to ask you, Mr. Reiss, and I would like to ask the jury as well, whether that is line with most people"s concept of skilled shooting. If you don"t agree that that is correct, you can present your own evidence."
Both the judge and the jury were stunned..
Reiss was also shocked. Of course, Dai Li"s proposed standard was fair. Dai Li said he could hit a coin from 50 meters away, that was beyond Reiss" comprehension.
Reiss subconsciously glanced at the door of the courtroom. He stood about thirty meters away from the door, and even he could not see the keyhole clearly.
Bulls.h.i.+t! How could it be possible to hit a coin from 50 meters away? I can"t even see the keyhole from 30 meters away. It"s definitely impossible to see a coin from fifty meters away! He must be bluffing.
Reiss asked at once, "Mr. Li, are you sure you said 50 meters?"
"It seems that you didn"t hear me. I can hit a coin at a distance of fifty meters with a rifle." Dai Li slowed down his speech deliberately so that everyone in the court could hear him clearly.
"Mr. Li, I shall remind you, this is a courtroom. Every word you say is evidence and will be recorded. If you lie, I can sue you for perjury." Reiss looked at Dai Li with a piercing stare.
"Mr. Reiss, just because you don"t believe me doesn"t mean I"m lying. Just like you charged me with first-degree murder and attacking the police because you don"t believe I"m innocent. That"s not the truth." Dai Li shrugged his shoulders.
Reiss frowned awkwardly. Dai Li"s a.n.a.logy indicated that he was challenging him.
"Whether you are guilty or not is up to the court to decide. But you said you could hit a coin from 50 meters away. That"s not a claim you can make casually," said Reiss.
"If I can hit a coin at a distance of 50 meters, does that prove I was confident enough in my ability to ensure Mr. Gardner"s safety?" Dai Li asked immediately.
"Well..." Reiss began to hesitate. He didn"t want to give Dai Li a clear answer. Although he didn"t think that Dai Li could do that, he thought it was necessary to leave himself some wiggle room.
However, Dai Li continued. "Mr. Reiss, you just said you didn"t believe my claim and asked me to prove it. Now I intend to prove it, but you seem to have changed your mind. What are you afraid of? Or you don"t think I am guilty?"
Everyone was looking at Reiss now, including the jurors. Reiss could clearly feel that the jury began to distrust him.
It looks bad if I don"t agree with him. Reiss took a deep breath and said, "Mr. Li, if you can prove that you can shoot as well as you claim, I will agree that you are capable of hitting the victim"s leg without causing fatal injury."
"Good," Dai Li turned his eyes to Wilfrid.
Wilfrid stood up at once and said to the judge, "Your Honor, the prosecutor asks us for new evidence. As the attorney of the defendant, I apply to the court for a temporary adjournment and an extension, so that we have time to prepare the evidence."
The judge nodded and turned to Reiss. "Do you have any comments?"
"Your Honor, I have no problem with the request. However, I think that the new evidence provided by the defendant"s attorney must be approved by the court and the prosecution," said Reiss.
"Reiss, what do you mean?" Wilfrid asked immediately.
Reiss answered, "Simple. Since the defendant said that he could hit a coin from 50 meters away, I hope that the court and the prosecution will witness this in person."
"Attorney for the defendant, can you accept this request from the prosecution?" asked the judge.
Wilfrid looked at Dai Li and Dai Li nodded at him.
"We can accept the prosecution"s request," said Wilfrid.
"Jury, can you accept the prosecution"s request?" The judge looked at the jury.
The jury began to discuss. Most of them were curious about whether Dai Li could actually hit a coin from 50 meters away, so they accepted Reiss" request at last.
...
"Our plan succeeded, but I figured we"d just need the notary"s witness. Mr. Li, Reiss deliberately created obstacles for you," Wilfrid said.
"I see. Nick Reiss thinks I will be nervous and miss the target if there are a lot of people watching me. He is wrong. My concentration is impeccable," said Dai Li confidently.
If an ordinary man was asked to perform in front of this many people, he would become nervous and miss the target. It was quite normal. Just like athletes who lacked experience, they couldn"t perform as well in front of a crowd as they could in training.
However, Dai Li could use a copy card of Adam Holly and acquire 70% of Holly"s shooting ability.
As a world-cla.s.s athlete, Adam Holly had attended countless compet.i.tions, including many international ones. It was common for thousands to watch those compet.i.tions in person and there were dozens of cameras broadcasting Holly live. For athletes of his caliber, having an audience was not an issue. Dai Li acquired 70% of Adam Holly"s ability, so naturally he wouldn"t be afraid.
Wilfrid asked, "Mr. Li, can you really do that? I don"t mean to question you, but it seems so incredible to me. A coin is so small from 50 meters that people can"t see it at all, let alone shoot it."
"Wilfrid, have you watched any 50-meter air rifle compet.i.tions?" asked Dai Li.
"Yes, but not much. I have seen Adam Holly"s compet.i.tions, though."
"You should know then that it is not difficult for a professional athlete to get nine points," Dai Li said as he gestured. "A coin is about as big as the ninth ring on the target of a 50-meter air rifle."