Commonwealth v. Read — Trial ArchiveJohn Tedman - Direct (Part 2)/Cross
122 linesCOURT OFFICER: Court is in session. Please be seated.
JUDGE CANNONE: Jurors, you have been extraordinarily patient with us today. We're going to go straight through until 4:00, and we're going to make every effort to not leave you waiting out there as long as we did today. All right. Mr. Yannetti is your witness ready?
JUDGE CANNONE: All right, Mr. Tedman, whenever you are ready, sir.
MR. YANNETTI: Thank you. Thank you, Ron. Uh, sir, before the lunch break, you had identified uh three entrances to the front of 34 Fairview Road, leaving aside the two garage car doors. Do you recall that?
MR. TEDMAN: Yes.
MR. YANNETTI: May I have that last exhibit displayed, please? Not that one. The uh one that we discussed right before. There it is. Maybe zoom in on that a little. Okay. What do you see on the screen at this point, sir?
MR. TEDMAN: I see the two rightmost entrances to the house, excluding the main front door.
MR. YANNETTI: Okay. Which would be obviously to the left of this photo. Particularly with regard to the third entrance, the one in red — could you describe that?
MR. TEDMAN: Uh, yes. So, if you're facing the house from the street, you're looking towards the west. So that door goes directly into the garage, facing north.
MR. YANNETTI: Okay. So, basically from the street, you don't have to enter the house — you can go into the garage directly.
MR. TEDMAN: That is directly into the garage. Yes.
MR. YANNETTI: All right. And as we're looking at the house from this point, are we looking at it from the vantage point of Fairview Road?
MR. TEDMAN: Yes.
MR. YANNETTI: And that is a westerly direction toward the house, sir.
MR. TEDMAN: Correct.
MR. YANNETTI: Uh, in the course of doing your further work that you were asked to do in this case, did you peer inside the garage?
MR. TEDMAN: Yes, I did.
MR. YANNETTI: Did you see concrete steps and a ridge there and a hard concrete floor?
MR. TEDMAN: Yes.
JUDGE CANNONE: Jurors, disregard that answer.
MR. YANNETTI: Uh, you mentioned that you were asked to do some measurements. Uh, can you describe what you were asked to do for the jury?
MR. TEDMAN: Yes, I was asked to measure uh from basically the mailbox area of the driveway to the various entrances to the house.
MR. YANNETTI: Did you take those measurements?
MR. TEDMAN: I did.
MR. YANNETTI: Okay. I'd like to take them one at a time. Uh, first, did you measure from the uh end of the driveway next to the mailbox all the way to the main front door, which is not depicted on this photo?
MR. TEDMAN: Yes, I did.
MR. YANNETTI: How did you measure it?
MR. TEDMAN: I used my wheeled measuring device. And I walked directly across the lawn to the front door, or, well, to the bottom of the front steps, and then used it to go up the front steps straight to the door.
MR. YANNETTI: And what was the measurement, if you recall, from the mailbox area near the end of the driveway to the main front door on the left?
MR. TEDMAN: I believe it was 65 feet 9 inches, but I have my notes if needed.
MR. YANNETTI: Okay. Uh, next, uh, did you measure from that same location, uh, near the street — the end of the driveway next to the mailbox — to the second front door, which is actually depicted in the exhibit that's on the screen?
MR. TEDMAN: I did.
MR. YANNETTI: And how did you measure that?
MR. TEDMAN: Uh, I walked along the edge of the driveway on the asphalt right next to the grass uh towards the house from the mailbox and the edge of the street towards the house. Uh, I took a left onto the brick walkway. Uh, proceeded along that walkway, then took a right to the walkway that you can see right there, heading directly to the door, uh, and went up onto the little decking area, and then uh those two steps directly to the doorstep.
MR. YANNETTI: Okay. So, you walked essentially almost the whole length of the driveway.
MR. TEDMAN: Yes.
MR. YANNETTI: Before you took the left to get to where the steps start going to that second front door.
MR. TEDMAN: Yes.
MR. YANNETTI: And then went up to the door itself.
MR. TEDMAN: Yes.
MR. YANNETTI: Do you recall from your memory what the measurement was?
MR. TEDMAN: I believe it was 70 feet 1 inch.
MR. YANNETTI: And finally, did you measure from that same end of the driveway near the street next to the mailbox to the red side door, which is the pedestrian entrance into the garage directly?
MR. TEDMAN: I did.
MR. YANNETTI: How did you measure that?
MR. TEDMAN: Uh, I did the same thing, walking directly from where the mailbox and the driveway uh intersect, basically, all the way up the driveway. Took the same left onto the red brick pathway, took a right to go towards the front door, went up the one step that you can see, and then instead of going up the next two steps, I took a right directly towards the garage entry door.
MR. YANNETTI: So, essentially the same path of travel. It's just you didn't go straight into the second front door. You took a right to go into the pedestrian entrance to the garage.
MR. TEDMAN: Correct.
MR. YANNETTI: And what was the measurement that you discovered having done that?
MR. TEDMAN: I believe it was 78 feet 3 inches.
MR. YANNETTI: Now finally, could we have displayed the map of Cedarcrest, Fairview, and Chapman? There it is. Uh, sir, are you able to see the street names from where you are? Uh, and if not, could we have uh the top street magnified so that the witness can see it? Okay. You see that?
MR. TEDMAN: I do.
MR. YANNETTI: What do you see that to be?
MR. TEDMAN: Cedarcrest Road.
MR. YANNETTI: Okay. If we could have the connecting street — uh, that that's it.
MR. TEDMAN: Fairview Road.
MR. YANNETTI: All right. And finally, the one down the bottom.
MR. TEDMAN: Chapman Street.
MR. YANNETTI: Okay. If we can get the whole map back up. Um, having seen those three street names, does that orient you as to what this is a map of?
MR. TEDMAN: It does.
MR. YANNETTI: And what is that?
MR. TEDMAN: Uh, this is the surrounding area of uh 34 Fairview Road, the neighborhood basically.
MR. YANNETTI: Okay. And it includes the two connecting streets on either end.
MR. TEDMAN: Correct.
MR. YANNETTI: Uh, does the red dot uh symbolize anything for you?
MR. TEDMAN: It looks to be where 34 Fairview Road is located.
MR. YANNETTI: Okay. And if you're on Fairview Road to the right of that red dot as it exists on that exhibit and you're looking toward Fairview Road, what direction would you be facing?
MR. TEDMAN: I'd be facing west.
MR. YANNETTI: One moment. Okay. No further questions. Thank you very much, sir.
MR. TEDMAN: Thank you.
JUDGE CANNONE: Questions?
MR. BRENNAN: Yes. Good afternoon, sir.
MR. TEDMAN: Good afternoon.
MR. BRENNAN: You had a wheel to measure, correct? And so there's like a tape measure and when you wheel it out, it gives a straight line.
MR. TEDMAN: No. It's two wheels with a meter in between them and you roll it out in front of you.
MR. BRENNAN: I see. Your first measurement was from the driveway to the front door — to the main front door to the far left.
MR. TEDMAN: Yes.
MR. BRENNAN: And that was about 63 ft.
MR. TEDMAN: Uh, I believe it was 65 ft, something like that. I have my notes.
MR. BRENNAN: Yes. So suffice to say if you were to leave the front door and come back to that spot, it would be an additional 65 ft back, right?
MR. TEDMAN: Yes.
MR. BRENNAN: The second measurement was from the bottom of the driveway to the middle door on the side.
MR. TEDMAN: Yeah, the second front door.
MR. BRENNAN: Yes. Did you say that was about 70 ft?
MR. TEDMAN: It was. Yes.
MR. BRENNAN: And again, if you were to come back, that would be an additional 70 ft.
MR. TEDMAN: It would.
MR. BRENNAN: And the last one was the door near the garage. Did you say that was further, around 80 ft?
MR. TEDMAN: Uh, 78 feet 3 inches, I believe, one way.
MR. BRENNAN: Correct. And back is another 78 ft.
MR. TEDMAN: Correct.
MR. BRENNAN: When you measured these, was it from the asphalt of the driveway or to the left of the mailbox as you're looking at Fairview Road?
MR. TEDMAN: Uh, it was to the right of the mailbox on the asphalt, as close to the mailbox as I could get.
MR. BRENNAN: Did you happen to take any measurements from the flag pole to the front door as far as distance?
MR. TEDMAN: I did.
MR. BRENNAN: And what was that?
MR. TEDMAN: I do not have the exact measurements. I'm not sure.
MR. BRENNAN: Do you have it in a report?
MR. TEDMAN: I don't. No, not with me.
MR. BRENNAN: How about the flag pole to the middle door on the side? Did you take any measurements of that?
MR. TEDMAN: I'm not sure I took that one.
MR. BRENNAN: How about the flag pole to the furthest away door, which would be the door next to the garage. Did you take any measurements of that?
MR. TEDMAN: I think I took a direct measurement to that. Yes.
MR. BRENNAN: What was that number?
MR. TEDMAN: I don't know.
MR. BRENNAN: Do you have a report you could share with us?
MR. TEDMAN: I don't. No, I'm sorry.
MR. BRENNAN: It's okay. Did you ever measure — if you were at the flag pole area — how far it would be to walk up the street, up the driveway to any of those doors? Did you ever measure it that way?
MR. TEDMAN: I did.
MR. BRENNAN: And what was the distance? You were going to start at the flag pole, walk up the street, up the driveway, down the walkway to the front door?
MR. TEDMAN: I'm not sure of that distance. Not positive the distance.
MR. BRENNAN: Was it over 80 ft?
MR. TEDMAN: It was.
MR. BRENNAN: And if you did the same route up the street, up the driveway to the middle door, would you agree that would be well over 80 ft as well?
MR. TEDMAN: Can you repeat the question?
MR. BRENNAN: If you were to measure from the flag pole up the street, up the driveway to the middle door — that would be well over 80 ft.
MR. TEDMAN: Yes.
MR. BRENNAN: Same to the door next to the garage.
MR. TEDMAN: Yes.
MR. BRENNAN: Thank you for your time.
MR. TEDMAN: Thank you.
JUDGE CANNONE: All right. You are all set, sir. Thank you very much.