- The Defense - Page 122

If Zeigler was innocent, both Williams and Charlie Mays must be guilty.  What would be their motive in the crime?

The defense believed that money was the answer for both men.  The fact that Zeiglers kept substantial amounts of cash at the store was no secret, and the defense found reason to believe that both Mays and Williams needed the money.

Mays was thought to be a heavy gambler.  The past June, he had been arrested and convicted on charges of illegal betting.  Defense investigators heard reports that during the past year he had bet and lost a large sum that did not belong to him: according to the reports, it was cash that belonged to loan sharks, intended to be the daily payouts to his fruit-picking crew.

Defense investigators that in the past year Williams had twice been laid off construction work, and that aside from his irregular work as a handyman he had worked full-time only five of the last twelve months.  During much of that time he had drawn unemployment of $74 a week.  In December 1975 a local bank was preparing to foreclose on a loan that he had cosigned for a friend.

Around mid-January, as Mrs. Zeigler prepared to open the store, Williams's truck was still parked behind the bay door, where it had sat since Christmas Eve.  She asked Annan to move the truck; inside, Annan found documents showing that his telephone, electricity, and gas had been shut off because of no payment.  (Williams later denied in a disposition that he had failed to pay his utility bills.)

A Florida statute known informally as the "speedy trial law" was intended to protect a criminal defendant from an endless unresolved prosecution.  Speedy trial mandated that a criminal defendant be tried within 180 days of his arrest.

For Zeigler this would be no later than the last week in June. The trials on his two indictments were set for June 1 and June 15.

The defense was not ready.  Discovery material from the state suggested dozens of leads that had to be pursued, and there was more to come.  Witnesses from the state's list had to be interviewed, or else subpoenaed and deposed.  Furthermore, the state seemed unable to locate some pieces of physical evidence, including Edward Williams's slacks, which the defense wanted to examine and test.  Hadley, Davids, and the investigators were already working twelve-to fifteen-hour days, seven days a week, and the work was still piling up.

Hadley needed more time.  He suggested that Zeigler waive his speedy-trial privileges and request a continuance.

Zeigler didn't see the point.  Slacks, minor witnesses—how much could they mean?  Since he had been denied bond, a continuance could mean an indefinite stay in jail.

The defense was not ready for trial, Hadley insisted.

But Zeigler was ready.  He had been ready since he woke up in the hospital bed on Christmas Day.  He would tell his story, and the jury would see that it was true, and this nightmare would be over.