Damon Gant

"Damon Gant"

- You know, we should all go swimming together sometime! Jolly!

Damon Gant was the eccentric District Chief of Police of the Los Angeles district police department from the conviction of Joe Darke in the SL-9 Incident until the events leading to the SL-9 Incident's resolution.

Detective career
Prior to the SL-9 Incident, Damon Gant was the Chief Detective of the Los Angeles district. He and partner Lana Skye became known as the "Legendary Duo" for their services to law enforcement. Gant himself also called himself the "crime computer", taking great pride in his ability to figure crimes out.

SL-9 Incident

 * Main article: SL-9 Incident

Gant's and Skye's final case together was the SL-9 Incident, in which Joe Darke killed several people. They were in charge of the investigation, with detectives Bruce Goodman, Jake Marshall, and Angel Starr also involved in the case. Prosecutor Neil Marshall, Jake's brother, was to prosecute Darke. However, their evidence was lacking, not enough to force a conviction.

Neil's death
Gant and Neil were questioning Darke about his crimes when a power outage occurred. Darke fled the room and ran into the joint office of Gant and Skye, where he found Skye's sister Ema. Neil fought Darke in the room, and Gant eventually found all three occupants unconscious. By this time, he was determined to convict Darke, and seeing a chance to use the situation to his advantage, he cut a piece of cloth from Neil's vest with Ema's handprint on it, picked up the unconscious prosecutor, and impaled him on the sword of a suit of armor by Gant's desk. He proceeded to write the name "Ema" with the victim's blood on a nearby jar and broke it to create a fake clue. Lana arrived later and saw the crime scene. Gant told Lana to rearrange the crime scene to make it look like Darke had killed Neil; Lana complied because she believed Ema had accidentally killed Neil. Gant hid two items in his safe for "insurance" purposes: a piece of the jar with part of Ema's name on it and the piece of cloth with Ema's handprint.

Trial
Gant and Lana presented their phony evidence to Miles Edgeworth, who had become the prosecutor for the SL-9 case to replace Neil. Darke was sentenced to death for his crimes, and Gant became Chief of Police and arranged for Lana to be Chief Prosecutor so that he could control her and the DA's Office. To make sure that the investigation team stayed quiet about the evidence, Chief Gant fired Angel Starr and demoted Jake to patrolman level. He let Goodman keep his position to draw away suspicion of his actions. For the next two years, Damon Gant blackmailed Lana Skye to keep control of the city's law enforcement.

The past resurfaces

 * Main article: Rise from the Ashes

"Damon Gant"

- There are only three people I look out for: Me, Myself and I.

One day, when the evidence from the SL-9 Incident was to be moved, Jake Marshall convinced Bruce Goodman to push for the reopening of the SL-9 case. Goodman approached Gant about the subject in the evidence room. Panicked, Gant killed Goodman with Darke's knife. He quickly tried to clean up the crime scene and enlisted the help of Lana Skye and Miles Edgeworth.

Skye was to wait in the parking garage of the prosecutor's office to help Gant move the body. Gant put the body into the trunk of Edgeworth's car, and then told an oblivious Edgeworth to transfer a blue screwdriver from the evidence room to another location so that the body would be moved away from the crime scene. Skye was supposed to take away the body from the trunk. Gant also told Lana to stab Goodman with Edgeworth's knife to throw the scent off further. However, Angel Starr caught Lana in the stabbing act; she became the prime suspect in Goodman's murder.

Gant first appeared in Lana's trial to submit Lana's scarf to the court, which contained Darke's knife. He also revealed that another detective had been killed in the police department. Lana's lawyer, Phoenix Wright, used his evidence to deduce that this detective was Bruce Goodman. It was later revealed that the "murder" that had occurred in the police department had merely been a violent encounter between Jake Marshall and another officer.

Gant later found that Wright had broken into his office with the help of detective Dick Gumshoe, who Gant quickly fired. However, Wright had already broken into his safe. He then convinced Lana to fire Wright and take the guilty verdict, but prosecutor Miles Edgeworth refused to allow Lana to accept a guilty verdict without due proof, ignoring Gant's threats to him. In response to Edgeworth's treachery and Wright's actions, Gant had Ema testify about the murder and, with the evidence that Wright had taken from his safe, the conclusion was reached that Ema had killed Neil Marshall.

Moment of truth
Wright had the court call Gant himself to the stand. Gant tried to deny Wright's various claims, but Wright found holes in his testimony. Desperate, Gant invoked his power as Chief of Police to relinquish his right to testify, and he threatened Lana into testifying against herself, but Wright found holes in her testimony as well. Gant then tried to force Wright to present the piece of cloth from Neil's vest, thereby implicating Ema, but Wright came up with a clever plan to cause Gant to implicate himself for the murder, and he denied that he had such evidence. Gant insisted that Wright had the cloth; Wright asked him whether he had intentionally cut a piece of cloth from Neil's vest, and Gant admitted to doing so. Wright then presented the cloth at this time, noting that there was no blood on the cloth, which proved decisively that Gant was the real killer on both counts. Wright then justified the legality of withholding the cloth by arguing that it had been impossible to prove that the cloth was relevant to the case until Gant had admitted to cutting it out.

Gant then had a long, almost hysterical, laugh and finally admitted his guilt. The judge asked what had happened to the once noble Gant, but was told that he now had Wright and Edgeworth to uphold justice. Gant then warned Edgeworth that he would soon understand why he had gone vigilante, and that they were not very different.

Personality
"Damon Gant"

- Tell me, Worthy. What are you doing in court? You despise criminals. I can feel it. You and me... we're the same. One day you'll understand. If you want to take them on alone... you'll figure out what's needed!

Gant was usually jovial and, although he was seen as a bit eccentric, he was a respected leader of the police force. He would make up pet names for various people, such as "Wrighto" for Wright, "Worthy" for Edgeworth, and "Udgey" for the judge. Gant had a habit of playing with his hair when he was mulling something over and clapping whilst laughing when amused. Gant also liked swimming and would often suggest communal swimming sessions between himself and others, at one point suggesting that Wright, Edgeworth, the judge and himself should all go swimming together at some point. When upset, he would create a long and ominous pause in the room while he simply stared at whoever had upset him.

Gant had a large organ in his office. According to Dick Gumshoe, when he played the organ the sound was so loud that it could sometimes be heard throughout the building. If one of his subordinates made a mistake, Gant would call them to his office and subject them to a song on his organ. The experience often temporarily deafened the unlucky victim. Phoenix Wright once asked why Gant himself was not deafened, to which Gumshoe replied, with a smile, that Gant didn't listen to anyone else anyway, although Wright said that wasn't the point.

While Gant started off as an upstanding investigator and a model for all to follow, his job changed him. He desired the convictions of his suspects, the court's approval of the fruits of his labor, but when the system was about to fail him in the case of Joe Darke, he became jaded and took matters into his own hands. The qualities that made Gant an excellent investigator also made him a cold, calculating and manipulative criminal. Gant became openly selfish, and he knew exactly how to go about getting something he wanted and wouldn't do anything unless it benefited him in some way.

Gant was convinced that all of his machinations and manipulations were ultimately for the good of everyone, and he would go to any lengths to ensure conviction. By controlling both the police and the prosecutors, he could ensure that he could deliver justice to criminals, even if that meant cheating the system. Nonetheless, he kept his original jovial personality as a sort of façade. Ironically, the person who presumably replaced him as police chief was not without his biases as well, allowing a friend to do what he wanted to assist in, or disrupt, a murder investigation. When Gant's murders were exposed, he seemed to have a change of heart, inspired by the dedication that Wright and Edgeworth had shown to finding the truth, and confident in leaving the law in their hands.

Name

 * The kanji in his Japanese name (巌徒 海慈 (Kaiji Ganto)) may come from an old Chinese saying along the lines of: "You can pick on the mountains, but don't pick on the sea [because the sea is merciless]".


 * "Damon" may be a play on "daemon" or "demon" in reference to his unpleasant nature. It is also a first name derived from a Greek myth, although the Damon in said myth is a man who was willing to sacrifice himself for his friend, unlike Damon Gant who only cares about himself.


 * "Gant" is probably a reference to his Japanese family name, though "gant" is also French for "glove", like the black ones that Gant wears.


 * By replacing the "a"s in his name with "e"s, it becomes "demon gent".


 * His French given name "Damien" means "daemon".

Development

 * Gant is character designer Kazuya Nuri's favorite character. He was modeled after Zeus, the king of the Ancient Greek gods. One of Gant's breakdown animations, during which he looks like he is being electrocuted, may be a reference to Zeus's association with lightning. Gant's fringe also resembles a lightning bolt, although this is more obvious in earlier character designs.


 * Gant's character was modelled on the staff's image of a television presenter according to Shu Takumi.


 * The design on the clasp of Gant's tie, as well as the buttons on his jacket, also appears on the clasp of Jake Marshall's poncho and the badges on the police hats of Mike Meekins and Dustin Prince. Judging from its use, this may be the symbol for the Ace Attorney universe's Los Angeles police force. Considering that the game was developed in Japan, it is perhaps unsurprising that the symbol is also reminiscent of a simplistic version of the badge on the hats of the Japanese police.


 * Several similarities between Gant and Apollo Justice have been noted in their concept artwork. Such similarities also tend to appear between family members, but in this case the only proven connection is that they are the most prominent new characters in the games in which they appear. This suggests that Kazuya Nuri simply used similar concepts for his "star" characters.


 * Near the end of his breakdown, Gant claps once every 2 frames, or 30 times a second. This means that, if the medium being used to play the game uses frame skipping, not all of the claps are shown.