Acro

Ken "Acro" Dingling was an acrobat whose legs were paralyzed during an accident six months prior to the events of Turnabout Big Top, when he testified against Max Galactica in the murder of Russell Berry.

Early life
When Ken Dingling and his younger brother Sean were children, they were abandoned by their parents. Russell Berry, the ringmaster of the Berry Big Circus, took them in and later employed them as acrobats. They became known as Acro and Bat, respectively.

Accident
Six months before Turnabout Big Top, Bat made a bet with the ringmaster's daughter Regina Berry and put his head into a lion's mouth. Due to pepper spray on Bat's scarf, the lion sneezed and accidentally bit Bat's head, sending him into a coma. Acro tried to save Bat, paralyzing his legs in the process. Although the incident had been entirely accidental, Regina never seemed to grasp the seriousness of what had happened and moved on. Acro never forgave Regina for this and plotted to kill her.

Murder
One day, Acro planted a note into Regina's pocket, anonymously telling her to meet him in the courtyard and that he had evidence against her. He placed a box containing a bottle of pepper (the "evidence" from the incident) in the courtyard and waited for the sound of Regina trying to lift the box so that he could throw a bust of Max Galactica out of his window onto her head, killing her. He would reel the bust back in using a rope tied around it. However, Regina had had no idea what the note was about and had posted the note on the circus kitchen. Russell had found this note and gone to the courtyard in her stead, dressed as Galactica. Acro could not see very far down outside his window due to his confinement to a wheelchair, so he had no idea that he would kill Russell. When the bust hit Russell, Galactica's cape latched onto the bust as Acro pulled the bust back up. Moe witnessed the bust with the cape in the darkness and believed it was Galactica. Thus, Galactica was put on trial for the murder.

Conviction
During the investigation of Russell's death, Dick Gumshoe asked Miles Edgeworth, who was abroad at the time, for advice as to how to catch the real criminal. Edgeworth told him to order a surprise search of Acro's room; this forced Acro to hide the bust under his wheelchair, which was covered with a blanket. In the courtroom, Galactica's defense attorney, Phoenix Wright, figured out that the bust, the murder weapon, was under the blanket, and Acro confessed to the crime.

It is implied that Acro was not given the death penalty, as Edgeworth tells Gumshoe to "go easy on him".

Name origins

 * "Acro" and "Bat" combine to form the word "acrobat". "Dingling" is a combination of the "Ringling Bros" and "Dangling". "Kinoshita" is the name of a real Japanese circus. "Loche" is similar to "cloche" (Meaning "bell" in French), which may be a reference to "dingling".
 * Acro has a monkey named Money (Rusa in Japanese, which is the word for "monkey" spelled backwards) who likes to steal shiny things.