Chapter 7 - The Trial of Linda Carter
The criminal trial of State of North Carolina v. Linda Carter began on a freezing morning in January.
Briana had officially signed her plea agreement thirty days prior. She sat in the state's witness holding room, wearing an orange jumpsuit, waiting to deliver the blow that would seal her mother's fate.
My mother sat alone at the defense table. Her high-priced attorneys had been replaced by a overworked public defender after her remaining liquid assets were exhausted. She looked frail, her skin sallow, her eyes hollow and dark.
The courtroom was silent as Assistant District Attorney Sarah Jenkins called the state's star witness to the stand.
"The State calls Briana Carter."
The side door opened, and Briana was led in by two armed bailiffs, the heavy iron chains clinking around her ankles and wrists.
When Linda saw her daughter walking toward the witness stand in chains, a sharp, choked sob escaped her throat. "Briana... no... baby, please..."
Briana didn't look at her mother. She kept her eyes fixed straight ahead, her face pale, her jaw locked.
She took the oath, sat down in the wooden witness box, and adjusted the microphone with her trembling, handcuffed hands.
For two hours, Jenkins guided Briana through her testimony.
"Miss Carter," Jenkins asked, stepping toward the center of the room. "Who suggested hosting the sixtieth birthday party at the Myers Park estate?"
"My mother," Briana whispered into the microphone.
"Speak up for the jury, please," the judge instructed.
"My mother," Briana repeated louder, her voice cracking. "She said we needed to host it at the house because... because the audit was happening the following week. She told me Autumn was going to check the books and that we were both going to be ruined if Autumn didn't sign the liability waiver."
"And what did your mother suggest regarding your sister, Autumn?" Jenkins asked, her tone sharp and precise.
Briana swallowed hard, a tear spilling down her cheek. "She told me... she told me to make a scene. She knew I was jealous of Autumn's marriage. She told me to push Autumn's buttons until Autumn got angry. And she said... she said if Autumn had an 'accident' near the fire pit, the trust money would automatically default to her as primary executor."
In the gallery, jurors were taking frantic notes. Two women on the jury looked at my mother with expressions of absolute horror.
Linda's public defender attempted a weak cross-examination, trying to paint Briana as a desperate criminal lying to reduce her own prison sentence, but the damage was already done. The video evidence backed up every single word Briana spoke.
When Briana finished her testimony, she was led past the defense table.
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My mother reached out a hand, her voice weeping. "Briana... how could you do this to your mother?!"
Briana stopped for a fraction of a second, looked down at Linda with an expression of pure, cold resentment, and said, "You taught me how to survive, Mom. You just didn't think I'd use it on you."
