Courtroom No. 4

The Ruined Courtroom No. 4

One of at least nine courtrooms in the Los Angeles District Court, Courtroom No. 4 held eight known trials, but was reduced to ruins after a bomb was detonated during a trial. Despite this, one further trial was held in its remains.

Trials

• Trial of Terry Fawles for the murder of Valerie Hawthorne
• Trial of Will Powers for the murder of Jack Hammer
• Trial of Wocky Kitaki for the murder of Pal Meraktis
• Trial of Damian Tenma for the murder of Rex Kyubi
• Trial of Juniper Woods for the murder of Constance Courte
• Trial of Orla Shipley for the murder of Jack Shipley
• Trial of Sasha Buckler for the murder of Jack Shipley
• Trial of Solomon Starbuck for the murder of Clay Terran* (courtroom destroyed during trial)
• Trial of Athena Cykes for the murders of Metis Cykes and Clay Terran* (unofficial trial held in the courtroom ruins)

A bombing and a murder

Main article: Turnabout Countdown

During the trial of Solomon Starbuck, a police detective named Candice Arme was scheduled to give testimony. Her working partner Ted Tonate was in charge of transporting the HH-3300 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-3300 and confronted him. Flustered, Tonate grabbed the bomb and killed Arme with it. He hid Arme's corpse in his bomb transport case, trusting the public's superstition that it was unsafe to go near any bomb, armed or otherwise. However, a mystery thief stole the remote activation device for the bomb. During the trial, Tonate heard the bomb's beeping countdown noise and warned the courtroom, allowing everyone to escape safely. Having the privilege of being the first one on the scene, he 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. Juniper Woods was put on trial for the bombing, with Phoenix Wright as the presiding defense attorney. When trial proceedings were suspended until the next day, Wright and company went to fetch Apollo Justice, a rookie lawyer at their agency, only to find him sprawled in the ruined courtroom, having been knocked unconscious. 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 logical 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 of Arme and the bombing, although the real culprit of the bombing escaped.

Catching a phantom

Main articles: UR-1 Incident and Turnabout for Tomorrow

In 2020, a budding prosecutor by the name of Simon Blackquill went to visit his mentor Metis Cykes, who worked as a psychologist at the Cosmos Space Center. Upon arriving at the center, he first tried the psychology lab, but upon finding it empty, next tried the robotics lab next door. When he opened the door, he saw a frightening spectacle: Metis' young daughter Athena Cykes, who was covered in blood, was standing watch over her mother's dead body, which was lying in the robot disassembly chair. Upon hearing Athena say, "Something's wrong with Mom, so I'm taking her apart to fix her", Blackquill panicked, believing Athena had killed her own mother. He dismantled a robot who had witnessed the crime and stuffed the robot parts in a rolling case. He then carried Athena and the case out of the lab. Blackquill stood trial for the crime and, due to a repetitive guilty plea, was found guilty and incarcerated.

Seven years later, with Blackquill's execution date fast approaching, his sister Aura Blackquill took desperate measures. She used her authority as a Space Center robot researcher to take control of the Center robots and use them to take 15 hostages, holding a UR-1 retrial as ransom. She gave defense attorney Phoenix Wright and justice-obsessed detective Bobby Fulbright one hour to arrange a retrial. However, a panicked Fulbright reported back to Wright and said that a retrial would not be possible, as all courtrooms were busy. Wright, however, had an epiphany and suggested that they use the ruined Courtroom No. 4. Wright was shocked to learn, however, that he would be proving, not Blackquill's innocence, but Cykes' innocence.

During the following trial, Wright uncovered the fact that Blackquill had been chasing an international spy known only as "the phantom" since before the Metis Cykes murder case. Wright presented the radical theory that this phantom had been the one to murder Metis. Against astronomical odds, Wright proved that the phantom had indeed been the one to murder Metis. However, both prosecution and defense were at a loss as to who the phantom was. The presiding judge was about to declare Cykes innocent, but Apollo Justice burst into the courtroom and said he had incriminating evidence against Cykes in a case that was very much in the present day. Wright had, just a few days prior, proven Solomon Starbuck innocent of the murder of Clay Terran, but Justice asserted that Cykes, not Starbuck, was the culprit. During the ensuing trial, a high degree of suspicion fell upon Bobby Fulbright of being the phantom. Chief Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth took the stand and revealed that an unidentified body found in 2026 was found to posess the fingerprints of the actual Fulbright. Fulbright tried to worm out of his position by claiming that he was an "undercover investigator" who had simply been blackmailed into playing the part of the Phantom's minion, but Wright and Cykes used a moon rock which had been stained with the Phantom's blood in 2020 to prove that Fulbright was, indeed, the phantom.