Hooking Captain Hook

A fishing city in the boonies of Alaska with a population less than 9,000 nearly burned to the ground during the riots. Government buildings still smoldered from the riots. National Guard humvees rumbled through the streets, and heavily armed law enforcement strictly enforced the buffer zone in front of the courthouse.

Inside the courtroom, the prosecution’s murder case limped to the finish line. Again. For the fourth time.

They believed they finally captured the infamous “Captain Hook” killer, who’s believed to have butchered upwards of 14 people over the last two decades. A poor, 72-year-old Yup’ik fisherman and part-time school janitor sat in the defendant’s chair and listened to prosecutors detail graphic accusations. This is the second trial - third if you count the first case’s retrial - but the jury found him not guilty.

He stared forward and gave into the weight of the shackles around his arms and legs like an anchor off his boat. At times, he rested his head on the table while his lawyer and the prosecution exchanged jabs. Once in a while he’d fidget in his chair or shift his body weight.

Otherwise he didn’t move. He didn’t look at the packed courtroom behind him. He nodded if the judge addressed him. He spoke with a raspy voice only when specifically instructed to do so.

The DA personally tried this case, with his top, up-and-coming ADA as second chair. He was in the process of questioning the world-renown criminal psychologist who interviewed the defendant several times after his first arrest. She was fascinated by what looked like indifference or boredom when he rested his head on the table. And his baby-faced public defender didn’t tell him to sit up, or even seem to notice him.

While on the stand, she slightly mimicked the fisherman’s head rest. Pretending there was a table in front of her, she imitated how he lowered his head. He rested on the right side of his face, away from his attorney.

“….you need me to repeat the question?” the DA asked again. He watched her bizarre movement, unsure what she was doing. There was a slight pause until she snapped out of the tunnel-vision focus on the suspect and lawyer’s behaviors.

——

“This trial is OJ. It’s the white Bronco. The dream team. But all fuckwad backwards,” a True Crime podcaster said during his opening monologue.His viewers watched the live feed of the trial while he yapped from a corner inset.

“The charismatic NFL star is this grubby, fat fisherman and part-time school janitor. Cali palm trees are Alaska’s frozen tundra,, and the white Bronco is this dude’s rickety ass boat. The dream team is this no-name toddler. Seriously, anyone check if he’s a lawyer? Can he even drink? And yet he’s dealing L’s to this DA.”

News cameras aren’t allowed inside the courtroom, but everyday, the city live-streams the trial on its website. News outlets, true crime enthusiast podcasters, Tik-Tokers, social media influencers playing journalists are all plugged in.

And they all like to hear themselves talk. Some at least have legit insight, but most just spew blubbering idiocies for likes and followers.

Two guests - an award-winning, local newspaper and a former attorney general - joined NPR’s live coverage of the trial. The journalist broke a major scoop on the show. According to his sources inside the DA’s office, the prosecution tracked down the suspect’s ex-wife in Canada.

“I’m told this is the quote smoking gun we needed closed quote,” the journalist said. “It’s gonna be a matter of convincing her to testify and quickly.”

The criminal psychologist diagnosed the suspect as a sociopath. During her testimony, she said the fisherman was adept at mimicking human emotions, but can’t actually feel them. “His actions are even more intriguing than simple imitation,” she said.

Video evidence played on the screens for the jury. The defense lawyer scribbled a note and showed it to his client. The fisherman kept his head down, read the note, shrugged and nodded. At the same time, the expert showed four short videos that were taken during school functions.

She used a laser pointer to highlight the defendant in each clip and emphasized how his playfulness and jubilance made kids laugh.

”He pretends to be a monster or something and small kids wrap around his legs and hold on. Older kids run and pretend to take down the monster. The whole scene disarms any potential suspicions.

“Now watch his smile. His smile is different in each video. His smile matches the most pronounced child’s smile. So he’s not only imitating happiness; he’s imitating children’s innocence and jovial behavior. To anyone with an untrained eye looking in, he’s basically Santa.”

The DA switched to video segments during both arrests and recorded interrogation and therapy sessions. “What about now?” the DA asked his witness.

The criminal psychologist paused and slowed the videos to break them down frame by frame. “This is what I mean by the untrained eye. These are split second mistakes in his imitations.”

She explained to the jury how the fisherman’s anger was slightly delayed when asked about his victim. She showed another clip where he seems to make the same “mistake,” as she called them. “Sometimes his first choice in tone or facial expression are wrong. He immediately starts with a slight smile.

“Think of an electronic device after it’s been reset. It resorts to a default setting. He’s so used to mimicking happiness to not only fit into society, but be loved, he forgets to be angry, or surprised. Even if it’s just for a mili-second.”

She flips through several video examples. “It’s not once or twice. It’s consistent, especially after the first arrest. But he appears to self-correct this mistake as questioning continues following the second arrest. He rarely uses the wrong tone or facial expression.”

A retired prosecutor and defense attorney, who built quite the following on Tik Tok during this trial, was quiet while the DA’s witness gave her testimony.

The DA ended his line of questioning, and it was baby-face defense’s time for cross. While the lawyers shuffled around and switched spots, the retired attorney-turned-Tik-Toker chimed in.

“So we watched the DA establish a pattern of behavior. And now I see why it was a vital win for the State to enter previous footage of the defendent into evidence,” she said.

“Personally, I think this was one the DA’s best line of questioning. It’s still circumstantial, but it’s damning. I’m watching like everyone of you. And I don’t have any information you don’t have, but if I’m the defense, I’m asking myself, ‘Why didn’t she discuss the suspect’s body language during their interview or during the previous footage shown to the jury?’”

All these broadcasts, news shows, podcasts and social media streams are happening simultaneously as the trial unfolds. The defense lawyer looked like he was about to question the witness then suddenly stopped. He took exaggerated steps back to the defense table. His client watched him move around but didn’t react.

The lawyer flipped through some pages, read one of them to himself and waltzed back to the witness stand and asked about his client’s body language during the same videos.

The retired lawyer’s TikTok lit up with comments about how she can see into the future along with heart and exclamation emojis. Her followers praised her insight.

“I can’t wait to hear this.”

——

An eight-person panel that consisted of retired lawyers, crime reporters and a criminal psychologist discussed the most recent line of questioning and the strategy behind it.

“I think stopping any potential momentum and casting even the smallest dark cloud over this witness is more important for strategy than the Actual substance of the information,” a 30-year defense attorney said.

“This is all fascinating but there’s still no murder weapon, a manifesto. Nothing concrete,” another guest chimed in. “This is just like the previous trials. They laid out a compelling case but nothing that pushes the needle beyond ….”

”I don’t mean to cut you off but we have breaking news,” the host said. “A family member of the victim in the first trial has been arrested. We haven’t been able to confirm who, but there was an altercation with protestors. We’re told one person suffered life-threatening injuries.”

A pretty, blonde TikToker spoke a million words a second. “WOAH! WOAH! WOAH! Fellow busty busters, this shit just got wild! Your reality shows can wait. Binge those later and watch this with me.

“The news is reporting that one of the victim’s family members turned a protestor into a pulp. They won’t say who but I betchu it was the mom. Those eyes during that press conference.”

She shook her head. “I wouldn’t wanna be in her way.”

——-

The fisherman’s lawyer went to work on his cross exam. There were probably hundreds - maybe thousands - of hours of footage from each officer’s bodycam, the Coast Guard when they stopped his boat in national waters, as well as interrogation videos and therapy sessions that the defendant agreed can be entered into evidence.

The defense pinpointed dozens of split second “body language tells,” as the lawyer called them, in these videos and played them for the jury. He slowed each down frame by frame to point out telltale signs of distress, confusion, anger, fright.

“These are all normal reactions. The defense wants to pretend like he doesn’t have emotions. But clearly he does. These are an eclectic handful or reactions that are expected. But you’re the expert. What’s out of the ordinary in his body language?“

The criminal psychologist shook her head and said, “Nothing in these videos.”

The lawyer read her report during their pre-trial sessions. She noted there was nothing out of the normal in his body language during their time together, or in any of the videos that she watched.

Behind the lawyer’s soliloquy, an FBI agent whispered something in the DA’s ear. He immediately shot up. ”Your honor, sidebar. Please. It’s urgent.”

The judge looked at both men. The defense said he was done with the witness. They gathered in front of the judge, who called for a recess.

The courtroom live stream went silent. The camera fixated on a spinning ceiling fan. For social media and podcasts, this break was great. They used this lull to remind their audiences to “smash that like button, “subscribe,” “support the channel.”

————

Everyone returned about 15 minutes later. The judge announced that there were no more witnesses. Each side can make their closing remarks, and the jury will deliberate.

None of the commotion, or the ADA’s compelling closing remarks that included graphic details “gutting his victim like a fish” seemed to even register with the defendant.

During the closing remarks, the reporter who broke the story about the fisherman’s wife was back on NPR with another bombshell.

His wife initially agreed to testify but suddenly refused. “This is what I’m hearing. She was packing and then stopped. She was hysterical. That’s my source’s word; not mine. Crisis counselors were called. She said she wasn’t threatened and even allowed law enforcement to search her electronics. They didn’t find an…”

The host cut off the reporter. “So no threats. Just a sudden change of heart?”

”Not just a change of heart. From what I’m told, a complete mental and emotional breakdown.”

——

The jury returned with an emphatic not guilty on all counts after deliberating for less than three hours.

The fisherman shook his lawyer’s hand and looked into the sea of supporters and journalists in the courtroom. He smiled. The criminal psychologist studied his smile, which she thought eerily matched a man’s smile in the front row.

But in real time, that’s almost impossible to tell. She figured she convinced herself it was true.

Meanwhile, the DA slammed his fist, and his top ADA looked like she was going to throw up. They believed they were letting “Captain Hook” leave the courtroom a free man for the third time. And each loss was more embarrassing than the last.

It’s like the defense had the prosecution in check since the start, but kept playing for love of the sport.

The fisherman and his lawyer walked out together. His lawyer yelled, “Vindicated! Again!” to the roar of supporters’ cheers and news cameras.

Children from the local school bolted toward their loveable janitor. A couple latched onto his legs and begged to play “Yeti.” He made a small but exaggerated step like he was the infamous mythical creature. The kids shouted more questions than the reporters. They wanted to know if he was going to be in school Monday. Did he have his “secret cookie stash with him?”

One social media influencer, who prides herself in being an advocate for victims and their families, took to Facebook live. With this scene playing out in the background, she said, “I hope police don’t give up their pursuit of justice for ‘Captain Hook’s’ victims. He’s not just some boogeyman. Innocent people were brutally murdered. But this man isn’t the monster they’re chasing.”

——

The lawyer drove the fisherman away from the commotion of the courthouse towards the serenity of the water and his boat.

During the drive, the fisherman asked, “How did we do?”

The lawyer’s voice became robotic. “Running diagnostics now.” After a few moments of silence, the lawyer ran through a list of stats.

“All mentions of Ernie Callaway; fisherman trial; Sitka Elementary janitor trial; District Attorney Thomas Loveland; Assistant District Attorney Nanurjuk; Judge Ahnah; Captain Hook trial; Sitka, Alaska; Lusa death; Kajuk death; Sakari death; AKumik death; Anjij death; Pana death; and Ulu death were flagged and analyzed within 43 seconds of mention.

“Mentions deemed unrelated or not useful were discarded within 73 seconds wiTh 98.62% accuracy. Mentions deemed useful or crucial were analyzed and implemented into defense legal strategy within 153 seconds with 91.22% accuracy.

”Message to Luna’s Alexa was sent successfully. Alexa recorded audible response.”

Ernie nodded to himself. His lips remained pressed together. “And news of note?”

”Searching….Imiq, Lusa’s biological mother, was involved in an altercation. She was arrested. Charges are pending.”

Ernie opened his flip phone and let the “lawyer” scan Imiq’s image. “Run facial recognition. Find altercation footage involving this woman over last 10 hours.”

”Searching…..Two partial videos found. One from red light camera. Second from ATM camera. Subject of facial recognition appears to swing a bat at two young men.”

”Is she in jail?”

”Subject of facial recognition is currently being held in Sitka’s local jail.”

”How strong is the security system? Can you free her?”

”Searching…Jail’s security system is antiquated. A simple email virus will shut down the jail’s power and open the cell door. It would take someone inside clicking on the link.”

”Send it. And use facial recognition to track this woman for next 24 hours,” Ernie told his lawyer.

“Done.”

”I’ll give her a day’s head start before I go big-game fishing,” Ernie said to himself.

“Drop me here and recharge at home. If I need you, I’ll call for my lawyer.”

“Done.”

Ernie stood alone in the marina and watched his boat bob in the water.