The Testimony of Jeanine Teixeira

I think the hardest part of the whole trial was listening to the testimony of Luckas and Pooda's mother Jeanine. Jeanine has initially cooperated with he DA, and had made statements in a Grand Jury concerning Cleo's death.

Jeanine is a 4o year old women who appears to be Portuguese. She was thick, but not fat. The most distinctive thing about Jeanine was her chubby baby face a streak of bright right through her dark brown hair.

Flashner began questioning Jeanine, starting with questions about the day of the murder. At first the questioning had a certain amount of humor.

Flashner: I would like to address your attention to the morning of April 29, 2008. When you woke up that morning, what did you do?

Jeanine: I spoke to Cleo and went to check on the boys.

Flashner: Did you do anything before checking on the boys?

Jeanine: *sighs audibly into the mic* I smoked at a blunt and had sex.

The look on everyones face was priceless. Even the judge put a hand over his face to suppress a giggle.

As the questioning went on however, Jeanine began to cry. Flashner slowly had her walk through the day of Shadide's death. It became apparent, that no matter what he had done to her, at one point Jeanine had loved Cleo.

At one point Jeanine was asked about walking into the boys room.

Flashner: When you walked into the boys room, what did you see?

Jeanine: Luckas was on his futon, and Pooda... Pooda was in the closet.

As she said this she looked to her youngest boy sitting at the defendants table and the two laughed as they looked into each others eyes.

As the questioning proceeded, Jeanine became more and more incoherent and uncooperative. She denied seeing a female police officer, even though there was one. She said she had take 2 oz. of cocaine from the apartment, even though it seemed very unlikely that she had been allowed inside and she denied remembering a number of things she said at the police station, despite there being video of the interview.

The testimony with Flashner's questioning went on all day.

On the next day, she was questioned first by Murphy. Murphy had been working with her since the day of the crime. Murphy was a family friend, via Jeanine's mother, who was experienced in such matters. Meticulously, he began poking holes in the story Flashner had gotten out of her.

The most impactful cross examination came from Weymouth's questioning however. Rather than try to muddy the situation as more confusing like Murphy had done, Weymouth focused on his client, the younger boy.

Slowly, a story emerged.

Aasim Smith was born in 1990 to Jeanine Teixeira and Aasim Smith Sr. Tat that time they lived on the cape. For the first hear of Aasim's life, his family was a tight family unit, then, when he was one his mother ran away. For the nest 15 years Aasim was raised by his father, with occasional stays at his grandmothers and aunts. For the most part though, Aasim's father bore the weight alone of keeping his son on the right track and in school.

Jeanine never paid child support. She rarely visited. When she regained custody in 2007, she spent Christmas eve with Cleo at a crack house in East Boston, and not with her son.

The jury was almost reduced to tears, and Jeanine was bordering on hysterical.