Just before the prosecution asked for a sidebar and the judge recessed for the day, I could have sworn I heard a voice say something to the effect that Alvaro Castillo did not believe in Hell, only Heaven, and that everyone went to Heaven when they died.

Psychiatrist Dr. Nicole Smith was being questioned in the prosecution’s rebuttal case at the time. The doctor had just “opined” that Castillo was “responsible for his actions.” Then, as I said, I must have been hallucinating, because I thought she said Castillo does not believe in Hell.

But overnight no one seems to have written any firsthand accounts of that statement. Beth Karas’s InSession blog from yesterday details the psychiatrist’s testimony (also her Monday blog), and she does not mention this peculiar “forensic” psychiatry testimony.

• Sidebar: If the doctor said this, doesn’t this prove the defense case, if what’s at issue is the defendant’s ability to know right from wrong? Until I learn whether she said it I won’t go into the issue in detail: but 1) the doctor cannot possibly think that a belief in God and Heaven is sufficient to prove a person is rational; 2) the doctor cannot possibly think that her statement proves the defendant does know right from wrong.

This is where my not being a lawyer sometimes gets in the way of my understanding of courtroom rhetoric, I suppose.

I’ve also commented before that even the most diligent juror and attentive listener cannot maintain continuous focus during a trial. Taking notes hurts rather than helps concentration often (and the Castillo jurors not only take notes but they have also been handed documentary evidence to study in the jury box, which must be very distracting and also must be impossible to absorb). And Dr. Wolfe is the fifth psychiatric witness (if I’ve counted correctly), and all their testimony is beginning to sound alike (an odd thing in itself).

So I can’t help but wonder whether any of the jurors heard this same “voice” yesterday. I didn’t record the proceedings yesterday, so I can’t “rewind” and replay.