Trial (June 17, 2026)

On the morning of June 17, 2026, Trucy Wright and Apollo Justice waited outside the courtroom for the day's proceedings to begin. Justice was sleep-deprived and Trucy tried to perk him up with Mr. Hat. Phoenix Wright came over to join the pair, quipping he was bored of being at the Hickfield Clinic. He informed Justice that Klavier Gavin would be calling Alita Tiala to the stand, a strange choice given her status as the soon-to-be wife of the defendant.

The trial opened with the judge recounting the previous day's testimony from Wesley Stickler, who, in spite of questionable personal behavior, had clearly established that the defendant and victim had been seen in the same place in the time frame of the victim's death. Prosecutor Gavin segued this into his first move of the day: bringing Alita Tiala to the stand, whom he claimed had been privy to the defendant's plans for Pal Meraktis.

Tiala claimed that she didn't want to testify, but had ultimately decided that telling the truth would be best. She testified that when the results of the family check-up had arrived, Wocky Kitaki had become incensed at what he perceived as Meraktis's deception and taken a gun from the family's stash to hunt him down. Tiala claimed she couldn't see any other party being guilty except Wocky. Gavin confirmed that the bullet had matched the ballistic signature of the gun that Wocky had brought with him that night. Justice challenged Tiala's claim that her fiancé was the only suspect with merit. On the subject of someone besides Wocky who could have access to the family's weapons, Justice accused Tiala herself, using her knowledge of Wocky's intent that day against her.

Gavin dismissed the possibility of Tiala trying to act on Wocky's behalf as irrational, but Justice countered that it might be more pertinent to examine a relationship between Tiala and Meraktis. He presented the chart he and Trucy had recovered from Meraktis's safe, showing Alita Tiala's name as the attending nurse. Tiala shrugged off the allegation and confirmed her previous employment at the Meraktis Clinic had ended on her own terms six months prior, meaning she didn't hold any current tie to the victim. However, Justice presented the sandals belonging to Tiala found at the clinic's reception, showing she was still connected to the clinic even now. Tiala didn't have an answer, but Gavin stepped in and forced her hand by pointing out the presence of toe prints that could link her to the sandals. The judge demanded a new testimony be given on her reasons for being at the clinic.

Tiala testified that she had come back to the clinic for the first time since January in order to alert Meraktis of Wocky's intentions, and that she wasn't withholding any dark secrets. Justice asked why the medical chart specifically was being locked away so tightly and suggested that Tiala probably knew the answer. Since Meraktis didn't have the luxury of admitting he couldn't help Wocky, he had buried the real information, drawn up a false report, and had Tiala file it, which meant Tiala was in the same bind that Meraktis was in. The judge requested a testimony amendment, which Tiala resisted, but Justice's bracelet reacted. Focusing on her hands while she claimed she had no reason to return to the clinic for a half-year old medical chart, Justice saw her play with the ring on her finger. With the passage of six months since the chart was filed, her impending marriage was in jeopardy because of the contents of the file. The check-up results had come in and the x-ray of Wocky's chest would likely push the Kitakis to investigate into the matter further, and if Meraktis were pressured, he would likely give up the chart with Tiala's name on it.

Tiala admitted she had gone to see Meraktis because of the chart, but nothing else had happened. Justice objected using the bullet also found in the safe, claiming if the ballistic markings could be matched to the weapon that had been used to murder Meraktis, then something had indeed happened at the clinic on the day of the incident. The judge demanded a ballistic examination be done, which confirmed Justice's theory about the bullet's origin and allowed him to take it one step further: Alita Tiala had been holding the doctor at gunpoint and threatened him to open the safe. Tiala's knowledge of Wocky's real condition, coupled with the fact she had gotten engaged to him without actually divulging that, suggested she was not interested in him at all, which Gavin fueled with the mention of the Kitakis' legitimate growing fortunes. Although Wocky didn't want to believe what he was hearing, Tiala finally broke the facade and admitted she was trying to marry into the Kitakis for their money and that the engagement was a sham.

Tiala rebuffed the defense; while it was true that the chart gave her legitimate reason to go after Meraktis, none of the facts of the scene agreed with implements she had access to, since the gun had belonged to Wocky and he had never tried to claim anything to the contrary. Gavin interjected by claiming that if Tiala had needed to threaten Meraktis to open the safe to get the chart, she would certainly have taken what she had come for. The judge instructed Tiala to submit a new testimony about her actions on the day of the murder. Tiala said she had been unsuccessful in getting the chart on her first visit, so she had returned later. She denied stealing the gun and pointed to Wocky's presence at the scene, claiming that the doctor's wound was irrelevant. Her second attempt to get the chart had happened at the same time Justice and Trucy were investigating the clinic, meaning she was the intruder whom they had scared off.

The defense pressed her last statement about the doctor's gunshot. Gavin reestablished the scene, with the victim and defendant facing off and Wesley Stickler shouting from the south, causing the victim to expose his right temple to the gun. However, Justice objected, reminding the prosecution that Stickler had lied about where he was standing when he called out, being north of the defendant and victim and causing the victim to expose his left temple. This prompted some argument from Prosecutor Gavin, demanding that the defense rationalize the position of all the parties with the wound inflicted on the victim. Justice claimed that there was no way to do this without contradiction, meaning that the shooter was not at any of the known positions. Thus there could only be one possible location that would allow everything to work: the shooter was inside the noodle cart Meraktis was pulling!

To reaffirm his theory, Justice presented the slippers that had been found near the cart, and pointed to both the shoe print found near the noodle stand at the scene, as well as the presence of Alita Tiala's toe print inside the left slipper, naming her as the person that Meraktis had been pulling inside the cart. The prosecution and defense went back and forth on the soundness of someone being inside the cart (such as the fact there was only one footprint left) until Justice presented the noodle bowl, recalling the large pile of noodle bowls seen at the clinic's reception desk. The removal of those bowls from the cart would make it possible to store a person within, and those bowls had to have been removed the night of the incident, the same time Tiala had been at the clinic. The judge ordered a new testimony be given about the night of the murder.

Tiala testified that she had gone to the clinic to get the chart from Meraktis for her own sake, but Meraktis had come under the impression that she was there on behalf of the Kitakis and refused, causing her to leave empty-handed. When the cross-examination began, Justice focused his attention on her final statement that she had simply talked to the doctor, then left. When she mentioned merely "talking" to him, Justice noticed she rubbed the side of her neck. Justice presented her with the lamp from Meraktis's office, which caused Tiala to reach for her neck once more. Justice asked her to remove her scarf, and upon doing so, Tiala's neck showed the signs of bruising caused by strangulation. Meraktis had attacked Tiala with the lamp cord when she threatened him to open the safe. However, since she had blacked out after the attack, claiming she had been the one to kill Meraktis later inside the noodle cart didn't seem feasible.

The judge began to end the cross-examination of the witness but an objection came from an unlikely source: Prosecutor Gavin. He challenged Justice over the facts as they stood; did they tell the entire tale? Justice restated the order of events: Wocky found out his medical results, swore revenge, Tiala learned of this and went to the clinic to get the chart back from Meraktis, and was attacked into unconsciousness. This scenario left Dr. Meraktis with a potentially dead body, forcing him to dispose of it, so he had stolen Guy Eldoon's noodle stand to carry her. He brought her body to the park in order to dispose of it in the river, but ran afoul of Wocky Kitaki instead. Wesley Stickler's attempt to break up the confrontation woke Tiala up, and she fired the pistol into Meraktis's right temple.

Tiala refused to admit to the sequence of events, instead deferring to Gavin to explain the irrationality of using a noodle stand when Meraktis had access to a car in his garage. At this point Trucy, offered an objection of her own, claiming that there was a chance the car was not functional on that night, forcing Meraktis to have to employ another means to carry Tiala's body. Gavin retorted that the car had still been running normally when it had hit Phoenix Wright. Justice thought hard and knew that the car was not functioning, presenting Trucy's magic panties to the court as his proof. Recounting the story of Wesley Stickler's theft, Stickler had ditched the panties in the tailpipe of the car inside the clinic's garage. As attested to by Prosecutor Gavin the previous day, vehicles could be disabled by clogging their tailpipes.

Tiala was finally unable to argue against Justice's logic and admitted to being the shooter. She remembered waking up inside the noodle stand hearing Dr. Meraktis and Wocky arguing. Alarmed that Dr. Meraktis was about to expose everything, she desperately raised her gun and fired through the curtain of the noodle cart. She had escaped from the scene when Stickler had run to use a public phone to call the authorities. Meraktis had left the slippers on her feet, and she had thrown them away after stepping in the spilled paint, leaving them to be found by Justice and Trucy. She then revealed that her request for defense was not because she wanted Wocky acquitted, but because as a rookie attorney, she believed Justice would fail and Wocky would be convicted. With no further deliberation necessary, the judge handed down a verdict of "Not Guilty" for Wocky Kitaki.

Aftermath
Justice and Trucy met in the defendant lobby after the end of the case. Trucy remarked that Wocky was now free to live his life as the gangster he had always desired. Unfortunately, Wocky was not so enthused, still angry over Alita Tiala's confession and seemingly unaware that he had been a mere pawn in her scheme. Winfred Kitaki inserted himself into the discussion, trying to get Wocky to finally wise up, while Wocky continued to admonish his father's change of direction. Justice showed Wocky the medical chart, explaining that his father's need to change lifestyles was for his benefit. With the money raised by their legitimate business ventures, Winfred was able to find a doctor capable of operating on Wocky's heart. Overcome with emotion, Wocky ran out of the courthouse to be alone and Winfred expressed his gratitude to the defense team. Alone again, Trucy encouraged Justice to follow her back to the Wright Anything Agency. Figuring that she was a helpful assistant and that there were still a lot of lingering questions that needed answers (such as Trucy's understanding of Apollo's "Perceive" ability), he agreed, though not without his reservations about Phoenix Wright. Trucy also said she wanted to get their reward of salty noodles from Guy Eldoon and also invited Justice to watch her magic show with Mr. Hat, which was someone Justice had quite enough of during the previous day's trial.