A liar will not be believed
even when he speaks the truth.
– Aesop
Mariet took the stand.
He swore to tell the truth.
His defense attorney prompted him to recall a morning about a week before the massacre.
Mariet recalled that at about 5:45 a.m. that morning he took the family’s blue Nissan Passport. Driving the four-wheel-drive utility vehicle up the street, he saw an unfamiliar yellow truck, parked on the side of the road. As Mariet drove the Passport past the truck. he saw that the driver and the passenger were white. He hadn’t thought much about it.
He had never suspected that the driver, a big fellow, was Rockland Riggs, a professional criminal, there snorting or smoking cocaine at the unnaturally early hour while casing the Ford family’s house for a burglary. Was it possible that Mariet was not guilty, that two white cocaine-addicted criminals had in fact murdered his family?
The defense attorney finished his question, turning Mariet over to the prosecution.
The deputy district attorney set out to undermine Mariet Ford’s story. That wouldn’t be hard. Mariet had given police some bogus leads.
“You told them that your wife had been getting phone calls in the past,” Deputy District Attorney Mark Curry. “Hang-up phone calls. Correct?”
“Yes,” Mariet said. He stammered. Then he spoke about the interview with the Detective Elaine Stevenson and her partner. “I was answering questions that they were asking me.”
“You told them that there had been noises up on the roof,” the prosecuting attorney said. “Correct?”
“Yes,” Mariet said.
“Um… now,” the prosecuting attorney began. “At the time that you were talking to that detective, did you remember at that time about seeing this yellowish pick-up the week before on the street?”
“No, I did not,” Mariet said.
The prosecuting attorney didn’t see how that could possibly be true.
“Completely skipped your mind when these detectives are questioning you about the murder of your family that you had seen this pick-up?”
Ford said he and the detectives had concentrated on the few days before the murders, not the previous few weeks.
When the prosecuting attorney had no further questions he let Mariet step down from the stand and slunk back to the defense table.
