Terry Fawles

"Diego Armando"

- No, no, no... You've got it all wrong! Today, YOU'RE the finest! After all, it took an amazing amount of guts to take this case! Imagine... An escaped death row convict for a first client!

Terry Fawles was a felon who was sentenced to death for the murder of Dahlia Hawthorne, then tried for the murder of Valerie Hawthorne five years later. The trial for Valerie's murder is notable for being the first trial of Mia Fey as a defense attorney and Miles Edgeworth as a prosecutor.

Seduction
When Terry Fawles was 20 years old, he worked as a tutor. He fell in love with one of his students, the 14-year-old Dahlia Hawthorne. His devotion to her was so great that they buried a vial of poison under a tree near Hazakura Temple and vowed to each other that whoever lost faith in the other would drink the poison. However, Dahlia did not truly reciprocate Fawles's love, instead manipulating him for her purposes. The poison under the tree was her insurance against Fawles, in that he would unthinkingly commit suicide as soon as he became a danger to her.

The fake kidnapping
Later, Dahlia and her stepsister, detective Valerie Hawthorne, planned a fake kidnapping with Fawles involved. They stole a raw diamond from the Hawthornes' father and held Dahlia for ransom, which the three planned to split between them. They met at Dusky Bridge, but events did not go as Fawles was led to believe. Valerie shot Fawles in the arm and then Dahlia jumped off the bridge and into Eagle River. Fawles was betrayed to the police, being blamed for Dahlia's murder (though she survived and hid by Valerie). Based on Valerie's testimony, he was convicted and sentenced to death. The confused Terry Fawles was placed in solitary confinement, wondering why Valerie had betrayed him.

Escape and recapture

 * Main article: Turnabout Beginnings

Five years later, Fawles escaped police custody and phoned Valerie to meet her at Dusky Bridge, so that he could confront her about the betrayal; he just wanted to know why she had done it. He told Valerie to wear a white scarf for identification, as he had forgotten what she looked like. He stole a young couple's car while they were waiting at a red light, and drove up Eagle Mountain. Fawles left his car near Dusky Bridge at 4:00 p.m., went back to the temple to retrieve the vial of poison he and Dahlia had buried, and returned to Dusky Bridge at 4:30. However, the woman he thought was Valerie was, in fact, Dahlia, whom Valerie had told about the call. Dahlia had killed the real Valerie to protect herself. She told Fawles simply that someone had to take the fall for the kidnapping. Fawles left with that answer, only to be arrested at a police checkpoint that detective Dick Gumshoe had set up at the base of Eagle Mountain.

Trial and death
Although Fawles insisted on his innocence, most of the lawyers that looked at his case rejected it as a lost cause. He was already an escaped death row convict, and on top of that, his claims about what had happened were unreliable. However, rookie attorney Mia Fey saw the honesty in his eyes and childlike voice, and so she took his case, with Diego Armando as her co-counsel. During the trial, the woman that Fawles had met on Dusky Bridge stood on the witness stand and testified against him. Fey's cross-examination revealed her to be Dahlia Hawthorne, and because of this final betrayal, Fawles drank the vial. Fey eventually called him to the witness stand to testify about who he had really met on the bridge, but he insisted that he had met Valerie, not Dahlia. Fawles then succumbed to the poison and died on the stand. Dahlia left the courtroom, cleared of her actions. It would be another year until Fey brought her to justice.

Personality
"Terry Fawles"

- ...Ugh. I din't do nuttin'! I din't kill nobody!

Terry Fawles was a trusting and loyal man, but also rather simple and easily worried with a naïve view of romance. Unfortunately for Fawles, these traits made it perfect for Dahlia Hawthorne to manipulate him. He was also described as having a childlike voice and, despite having been Dahlia's tutor, spoke in broken and rather simple English.

Name

 * For his Japanese name, the pronunciation of "Michiru Onamida" (尾並田美散), combined with the kanji in "Michiru", makes "beautifully falling tears".


 * "Terry Fawles" has a roughly similar pronunciation to "tears fall", referencing his Japanese name, or "there he falls".


 * "Fawles" is a homophone of the word "falls", as in a "fall guy". He could be considered the fall guy in the plan between Dahlia and Valerie. It is also similar-sounding to "false" or "flaws". This may be a reference to the "little lies" that he told during his second trial. It also sounds roughly like "flawless", as he was arrested for a murder he didn't commit.


 * His name in the French version, "Régis Florimet", could be a reference to the famous Fleury-Mérogis prison in France, which is the largest prison in Europe.