It was my second felony trial. I’d tried a couple dozen misdemeanors and one felony, but I was still so wet behind the ears you could have grown rice on my neck. I wasn’t yet smart enough to know how much I didn’t know.

I’d won my only felony trial, but that was because it was a handoff from Frank Briseno. Frank was one of the stars of the DA’s Office at the time, and whenever he had two trials answer ready on the same day, he would hand one off to a new lawyer, a misdemeanor deputy.