James Geiger — Direct/Cross
195 linesJUDGE WHEELER: Everyone please be seated.
JUDGE WHEELER: Okay. State, call your first witness.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: The State calls James Geiger.
JUDGE WHEELER: James Geiger, please.
JUDGE WHEELER: Good morning, sir. You come right up to the witness stand, please.
JUDGE WHEELER: Before you have a seat, we are going to swear you in. Okay, okay, please raise your right hand, respond to the clerk.
JUDGE WHEELER: Thank you. Please have a seat.
JUDGE WHEELER: I just need you to speak loud and clear into that microphone, okay? Okay. Thank you, sir.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Good morning, sir. Please introduce yourself and spell your name.
JAMES GEIGER: My name is Jim Geiger, and that's G-E-I-G-E-R.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Mr. Geiger, I'm going to show you a photograph that I've marked as State's Exhibit 1.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you recognize State's Exhibit 1?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: What is that a photograph of?
JAMES GEIGER: Well, it's a photograph of my house and also of the Markel house.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And these residences were back in 2014?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes, it is.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: At this time, I'd ask to move State's Exhibit 1 into evidence.
JUDGE WHEELER: Any objection?
MR. DECOSTE: No objection.
JUDGE WHEELER: No objection. Be admitted as State's Exhibit 1.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: May I come in?
JUDGE WHEELER: You may.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Mr. Geiger, you indicated one of the residences shown in State's 1 as your residence. Is it the one on the right or the one on the left?
JAMES GEIGER: It's the one on the right.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. And did you live there back in 2014?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes, I did.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And at that time, who lived in the residence on the left side of the photograph?
JAMES GEIGER: Dan Markel.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. So you and Mr. Markel were neighbors?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: How long were you neighbors?
JAMES GEIGER: For as long as he was there. We moved into our house in 1977, and when Dan and his wife moved in, then the whole time that he lived there.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. So between whenever he and his wife moved in and when he was killed —
JAMES GEIGER: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: — in 2014. And I want to ask you specifically about July 18, 2014.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was Mr. Markel living in the residence with his wife at that time?
JAMES GEIGER: Not with his wife. He was living alone then.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. What about his boys? Did his boys live at the house at least part of the time with him?
JAMES GEIGER: Some of the time, yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I'm going to show you what I've marked as State's Exhibit 5.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you recognize State's 5?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Who is that photograph of?
JAMES GEIGER: Danny Markel.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: That was back in 2014?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So at this time, I'd ask to move State's 5 into evidence.
JUDGE WHEELER: Any objection?
MR. DECOSTE: No, Your Honor.
JUDGE WHEELER: Be admitted as State's Exhibit 5.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: May I approach?
JUDGE WHEELER: You may.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: What kind of a relationship did you have with Mr. Markel?
JAMES GEIGER: I wouldn't describe it as a close relationship. We were neighbors, but we didn't visit with each other a lot, but we'd see each other out on the street some.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So if you saw each other on the street, you'd speak, but you didn't socialize with each other?
JAMES GEIGER: Correct.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. And did you know how Dr. — or Mr. — Markel was employed?
JAMES GEIGER: Well, I knew that he was an attorney, and I knew he was connected with FSU. I assumed it was a law school, but I wasn't exactly sure.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. I want to ask you a little bit about this residence and the way that it's accessed from Thomasville Road.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I'm going to show you what I've marked as State's 87.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I'm going to orient myself there. Do you recognize State's 87?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. What is State's 87?
JAMES GEIGER: Well, it's an aerial map of our neighborhood.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And is it a fair and accurate aerial map of the way your neighborhood appeared back in 2014?
JAMES GEIGER: It appears to be, yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: At this time, I'd ask to move into evidence State's 87.
JUDGE WHEELER: Any objection?
MR. DECOSTE: No, Your Honor.
JUDGE WHEELER: Be admitted as State's 87.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: May I have a couple?
JUDGE WHEELER: You may.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I have a couple to see. I'm going to use the pointer.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So if you search on the center here, you'll see a red dot right here.
JAMES GEIGER: I don't see one.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: It's up high.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Are you able to see the dot?
JAMES GEIGER: Oh, faintly, yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. So this residence, 2116 Prescott Drive, which is indicated here on the exhibit — is that where Mr. Markel lived back in 2014?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. And which road is Thomasville Road, if you can indicate with that?
JAMES GEIGER: Okay.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So now you're off to the west a little bit.
JAMES GEIGER: Okay. This is Thomasville Road.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. And is there one way or more than one way to access your residence — specifically Mr. Markel's residence — from Thomasville Road?
JAMES GEIGER: There would be more than one way.
JAMES GEIGER: You could come in on Armistead, which I think is up here and down. Or you could come on up to Benton Road here and then back up.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, so two different ways to access. From Thomasville — would Thomasville be the nearest thoroughfare to your residence?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes, it would.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, so I want to talk about July 18th of 2014.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did something unusual happen to you that day?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, tell us what you were doing before that happened.
JAMES GEIGER: That morning, which was a Friday morning, my wife and I were in our living room actually working on her iPad. We were looking up some type of software that we wanted to use. We were kind of testing it out and we were on our couch looking out towards our street, which is Trescot Drive.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Can you describe the view from your living room in reference to Mr. Markel's place?
JAMES GEIGER: If you look at our front window, it's a large bow window — so it's about seven feet high and about that wide. So it's quite a large window.
JAMES GEIGER: You can see the houses across the street. You can't see Mr. Markel's house, but you can see the very end of the driveway leading on to Trescot.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you recognize these exhibits?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: What are these photographs of?
JAMES GEIGER: These are photographs taken from my living room, looking out to the right of our house, over towards the end of Mr. Markel's driveway.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Perhaps your review would— do those have Mr. Markel's residence in question?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes, they do. So these are from that afternoon.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I'd offer them into evidence — two and three?
MR. DECOSTE: No objection.
JUDGE WHEELER: All right, without objection, they'll be admitted.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, so this is looking out your living room window, is that correct?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, and whose driveway is this right here?
JAMES GEIGER: Danny Markel's.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Now, you were in the living room with your wife looking up some software. What unusual happened?
JAMES GEIGER: We sat down about 10:30 in the morning and started that, and maybe 15 or 20 minutes later, we heard a loud noise — a bang.
JAMES GEIGER: We weren't sure what it was, but it startled us, and I stood up and walked to that front window to try to see if I could determine what had caused it. I couldn't tell whether it came from the right side or to the left side of our house.
JAMES GEIGER: And as I looked out, I saw a car rapidly backing up out of Danny's driveway onto Trescot and speedily drive off towards Benton Road.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, so it backed out of the driveway that's seen in here, photograph three, and then went away from the camera lens.
JAMES GEIGER: That's right.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, and was this a vehicle that you had ever seen over there before?
JAMES GEIGER: No.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Were you somewhat familiar with the vehicles that were regular vehicles over there?
JAMES GEIGER: Yeah, there rarely were vehicles there. And Danny's car, he kept in the garage, and so you really didn't see any out there. I was a little surprised to even see a car back out of the garage — I mean, back out of the driveway.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was the vehicle — can you describe sort of where it was when you initially saw it?
JAMES GEIGER: Well, if you look at the photograph that you have up here now, there is a vehicle that's facing out to the street — I guess it's a police vehicle of some sort. It would be right about in that area that I saw it backing out. My impression — and it was like I saw it out of the corner of my eye, it wasn't that I was eyeballing it and watching it directly — but I saw it back out. It looked like a Prius to me. It was light color. I thought it was white or perhaps silver, but a light color. And it looked like a Prius.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And the vehicle was already in motion when you observed it — excuse me, was it already in motion in the backing-out process?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And so you didn't see any people associated with the vehicle?
JAMES GEIGER: No, I couldn't — couldn't see that.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, and couldn't tell us anything about the driver or whether there were any occupants?
JAMES GEIGER: No.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I'm going to show you what I've marked as State's Exhibit 4.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Have you seen State's Exhibit 4 before today?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes, I think I have.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: What is State's Exhibit 4?
JAMES GEIGER: Well, there are two pictures here of a Prius automobile.
JAMES GEIGER: Yeah, I would say it's consistent with —
MS. CAPPLEMAN: What were you able to say about the color of the Prius?
JAMES GEIGER: Uh, as I— as I just said, it was a light color. I thought perhaps white or silver. And—
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Once the Prius pulled out, what did you do?
JAMES GEIGER: Um, I decided that I would walk over next door. And the reason for that was that we had heard that there had been some burglaries in our neighborhood, and I was concerned because of that loud noise that I heard, that maybe somebody had tried to break into Danny's house. And so I decided to walk over to see if that's what might have occurred.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: What was the loud noise?
JAMES GEIGER: Um, well, I didn't know at the time.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, so you walked over there — and what did you observe when you walked over there?
JAMES GEIGER: As I walked over and, uh, looked in towards the garage, I noticed that the garage door was up and there was a car inside — a black car — and the engine was running.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you recognize State's 6 and 7?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: What are those photographs?
JAMES GEIGER: One, you can see the edge of my house, but it's primarily of Danny's house with the garage door open and a car inside.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And is that State's 6?
JAMES GEIGER: That's 6, and 7 is the same one except it's a close-up of the garage door open and the car inside.
JAMES GEIGER: Yes.
JUDGE WHEELER: Any objection?
MR. DECOSTE: None, Your Honor.
JUDGE WHEELER: They're admitted as State's 6 and 7.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You said the vehicle was running.
JAMES GEIGER: The vehicle was running, the garage door was up, and my— my assumption then is that there wasn't a burglary attempt. If, uh, Danny was in his car and getting ready to back out, so I went back to my house.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, how long did you stay at your house?
JAMES GEIGER: Um, just a few minutes. I don't know why I did this, but I stood at that same front window looking out. And, um, after several— maybe not more than five minutes — he had not backed out yet to the street. And I thought something was amiss, and I said to my wife that, you know, I said something just doesn't seem right. Danny hadn't left yet. I think I'm gonna go back over and check again.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was it your regular practice to stand at the window and watch all his comings and goings?
JAMES GEIGER: No, I'm afraid it was very unusual for us to do that. It was very unusual for me to stand there after having been over there, but it was just something — something made me stand there and wait. I don't know what it was.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, so when you decided something was amiss and walked back over there, what did you do?
JAMES GEIGER: Well, as I walked back over, the garage door was still open, the car was still running, and I saw—
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Let me ask you — I'm sorry to interrupt you, but during the five or so minutes that you were standing there, you didn't see the green Prius return, did you?
JAMES GEIGER: No, no.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, so nobody else pulled into the garage?
JAMES GEIGER: Nobody else was there. The neighborhood was very quiet.
JAMES GEIGER: And I thought this time that I would go ahead and walk into the garage.
JAMES GEIGER: My initial thought was, he's probably on the phone. He's talking to somebody.
JAMES GEIGER: But just because it seemed a little unusual, I thought I would walk on into the garage and make sure that everything was okay.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Had you ever been into Dan Markel's garage before?
JAMES GEIGER: If I had, it had been very rare. I'd been in that house before they moved in, a number of times.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, but not since Mr. Markel had moved in?
JAMES GEIGER: No.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, so you walked up and entered the garage. What did you see?
JAMES GEIGER: The first thing that I noticed — and I guess I heard it — was that I started stepping on glass. And the glass that was broken, that caused me then to look at the driver's side window, and it had been kind of blasted out, smashed out. And as I looked inside, I could see a man's head, and it was bloody, and I really didn't know what it was, what had happened. And I hollered out very quickly, "Dan, what's happened?"
JAMES GEIGER: And I didn't get any response.
JAMES GEIGER: And I yelled again, "Danny, Danny, what's happened?"
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And was he making any movements or sounds at all?
JAMES GEIGER: There was no sound. He was making a movement. His head was moving slowly left and right.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was he seated in an upright position in the driver's seat of his vehicle?
JAMES GEIGER: Yes, he was sitting there as though he were getting ready to drive the car.
JAMES GEIGER: Obviously not still on the phone. Uh, I didn't see any phone.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: What did you do after you observed this?
JAMES GEIGER: Well, I knew then that I needed to get help, and so I was going to call 9-1-1. And normally I'd have my cell phone in my pocket, and I reached in to grab it and it wasn't there. And then it dawned on me that it was still sitting back at my living room, on the couch where we sat down. So I quickly ran back over to the house, picked up my phone, and came back then to Danny's, and dialing 9-1-1.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, during the time that you were walking back and forth to Mr. Markel's house and on the phone with 9-1-1, did you ever touch the car at all?
JAMES GEIGER: No, I did not.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you enter the house at all?
JAMES GEIGER: No.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, did you move anything in the garage other than possibly stepping on a little bit of glass?
JAMES GEIGER: No.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: No further questions.
JUDGE WHEELER: Cross-examination?
MR. DECOSTE: No cross, Your Honor.
JUDGE WHEELER: All right, we can release the witness.
JAMES GEIGER: Yes, sir.
JUDGE WHEELER: Okay, all right, thank you, sir. You're free to go.