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. He also serves as the final villain of Ace Attorney 1

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.

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

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.

Phoenix Wright eventually came up with a clever plan to cause Gant to implicate himself for the murder.

Personality
On the surface, 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. When upset, he would create a long and ominous pause in the room while he simply stared at whoever upset him.

Beneath the surface however, he was cold-hearted, clever, ruthless and calculating. Gant was openly selfish; he knew exactly how to go about getting something he wanted and wouldn't do anything unless it benefited him in some way.

Gant had a big organ in his office. According to Dick Gumshoe, when he played the organ the sound was very loud, so much so that it could sometimes be heard throughout the building. If one of his subordinates made a mistake, Gant would 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.

Gant 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).

Name

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


 * His French surname Damien, is an equivalent of "Damon".


 * "Damon" may be intented to resemble "Daemon" or "Demon", to provide an air of evil.


 * "Damon" is also a first name derived from a Greek myth, although the Damon in said myth is a man who is 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".

Development

 * Character designer Kazuya Nuri's favorite character is Gant, who was modeled after Zeus, the king of the 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.