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District Court - Courtroom No. 4
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Bombed Courtroom
Linked locations Courtroom No. 5
Locations in District Court
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3rd Floor LobbyCourtroom No. 3Defendant Lobby No. 2Defendant Lobby No. 1Hallway (District Court)Courtyard (District Court)Courtyard (District Court)RestroomCourthouse
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One of at least nine courtrooms in the Los Angeles District Court, Courtroom No. 4, held eleven known official trials. It was reduced to ruins after a bomb was detonated during one of the last of these trials, but was repaired within five months.

Trials[]

Betrayal & suicide[]

Main article: Turnabout Beginnings

In February 2013, Sergeant Valerie Hawthorne was murdered. The suspect was a recently escaped prison inmate, Terry Fawles. This would be Mia Fey's first trial of her law career. During the trial, Dahlia Hawthorne, under the alias of Melissa Foster, testified to the court that Fawles had committed the murder. At the time, the two were "dating." They both shared a vial of poison, and vowed whoever lost faith in the other would drink the poison. However, this was used as insurance for Dahlia, so that Fawles would commit suicide if he thought her as a threat. When Fawles realized that Dahlia was testifying against him, he drank the poison and died on the stand, just as Mia Fey was proving his innocence.

A bombing & a murder[]

Main article: Turnabout Countdown

In December 2027, police detective Candice Arme was scheduled to give testimony for the trial of Solomon Starbuck. Her working partner Ted Tonate was in charge of transporting the HH-3000 time bomb, which was to be presented as evidence later that day. For an unspecified amount of time, Tonate had been utilizing his job to steal bombs he transported, sell them on the black market, and replace them with home-made ones he had crafted himself. However, Arme caught him trying to steal the HH-3000 and confronted him before the trial. Flustered, Tonate grabbed the bomb and fatally struck Arme with it.

An international spy known only as the phantom took this opportunity to steal the remote activation device for the bomb. He intended to use it to destroy a capsule that had been submitted for evidence. The capsule contained a moon rock that had been stained with his blood during the UR-1 Incident, which would reveal his identity. Tonate noticed the theft but ignored it to deal with the cleanup job that he had just given himself.

While Tonate wasn't looking, Arme wrote Tonate's ID number, "L10015R", on the floor in her blood, her dying message revealing her killer. In a panic, Tonate hid Arme's corpse in his bomb transport case, trusting that no one would open it because a bomb was inside, and moved the case over the bloody message to hide it. During the trial, Tonate heard the bomb's beeping countdown noise and warned the courtroom, allowing everyone to escape safely. The resulting explosion blew the ceiling open, toppled the support columns, and reduced large portions of the courtroom to rubble. Starbuck's attorney, Apollo Justice, was also injured in the explosion, protecting Juniper Woods from falling debris.

Having the privilege of being the first one on the scene, Tonate extracted Arme's body from his case and placed it near the entrance to the courtroom, wiping some of her blood on a nearby piece of rubble so as to create a fake cause of death and crime scene. Woods was put on trial for the bombing, with Phoenix Wright as the presiding defense attorney. During the trial, Justice went back to the courtroom ruins with Woods to find her cough medicine. Woods was eventually called back to Courtroom No. 5, leaving Justice alone to investigate. However, Tonate struck him from behind, knocking him unconscious. He then moved the transport case again and modified Arme's message with Justice's blood, so that it read "WOODS" instead of "L10015R" (the "R" having been destroyed in the explosion).

When trial proceedings were suspended until the next day, Wright went to fetch Justice only to find him sprawled in the ruined courtroom. During trial the next day, prosecutor Gaspen Payne indicted Woods on the charge of Justice's assault, as well as the bombing. Tonate took the stand to give testimony, and Wright exposed him through cross-examination, delivering the final blow by opening Tonate's transport case and discovering traces of Arme's blood. Tonate was arrested on suspicion of the murder and the bombing, and the real culprit of the bombing remained at large.

Catching a phantom[]

Main article: Turnabout for Tomorrow

The day after Woods's trial, Wright picked up Justice's case and investigated the murder of Clay Terran, which was the focus of Starbuck's trial. Although he won the trial, it resulted in Athena Cykes being arrested for the murder. Meanwhile, Aura Blackquill took desperate measures to save her brother Simon, who had been convicted for the UR-1 Incident - the murder of Athena's mother Metis - and whose execution date was in two days. She used her authority as a Cosmos Space Center robot researcher to take control of the Center's robots and use them to take 15 hostages, demanding that the police hand over Athena, who she believed was the real killer.

Wright counter-proposed that a retrial be held, and Aura agreed to this. She gave Wright and Detective Bobby Fulbright one hour to arrange the retrial. However, a panicked Fulbright reported that a retrial would not be possible, as all usable courtrooms were busy. Wright proposed they use the ruined Courtroom No. 4, and was shocked to learn that Athena, not Simon, would be his client. Nonetheless, Wright defied the odds and showed that the phantom had been behind Metis's murder.

The presiding judge was about to declare Athena innocent, but Apollo Justice entered the courtroom and said that he had incriminating evidence against the defendant for Terran's murder. However, Wright's logic revealed a different culprit, the same person who had killed Metis, and suspicion fell upon Bobby Fulbright of being this "phantom". Fulbright tried to worm out of his position, first by trying to prove Athena's guilt, and then by claiming that he was an undercover investigator who had simply been blackmailed into playing the part of the phantom's minion. However, Chief Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth eventually took the stand and revealed that the Fulbright on the stand was an imposter, and an unidentified body found a year prior had been found to possess the fingerprints of the real Fulbright. Wright then found pieces of the moon rock that the phantom had tried to destroy, and used it to tie "Fulbright" to the phantom once and for all.

The phantom proceeded to break down on the stand while questioning his real identity. He was then shot by an unknown sniper located in one of the buildings surrounding the courthouse, though the injury was not fatal. The phantom was placed under the custody and protection of the prosecutor's office.

Sometime before May of the next year, the courtroom was rebuilt, and was ready for use.

Layout while damaged[]

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