The death of Magnifi Gramarye occurred on April 13, 2019. On the 19th, Zak Gramarye was accused of murdering Magnifi, and put on trial. This apparently average trial resulted in Phoenix Wright presenting forged evidence and subsequently being disbarred.
Timeline[]
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| Date | Event type / related incident | Description | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2018 | Death of Magnifi Gramarye | Magnifi Gramarye is hospitalized at General Hospital due to a combination of diabetes and a worsening cancerous tumor. He would remain there until his death. | N/A | |
| April 13, 2019 | Death of Magnifi Gramarye | Magnifi Gramarye dies. | N/A | |
| April 14, 2019 | Death of Magnifi Gramarye & Death of Drew Misham | Kristoph Gavin requests a forged diary page for the Gramarye case from Drew and Vera Misham. He sends a letter with a poisoned stamp to the former and a bottle of poisoned nail polish to the latter. | N/A | |
| April 18, 2019 | Death of Magnifi Gramarye | Zak Gramarye rejects Kristoph Gavin's services after beating him at poker. Gramarye then plays with Phoenix Wright and loses, choosing him as Gavin's replacement. | N/A | |
| April 19, 2019 | Death of Magnifi Gramarye | Trial of Zak Gramarye for the murder of Magnifi Gramarye. Klavier Gavin makes his court debut. Phoenix Wright unwittingly presents forged evidence during the trial, and is subsequently disbarred. Zak disappears from the courtroom before the verdict is read. | N/A | |
| May 3, 2019 | Death of Magnifi Gramarye | Phoenix Wright adopts Trucy Enigmar. Wright & Co. Law Offices is dissolved, and becomes Wright Talent Agency. | Phoenix: It's been two weeks since your father... disappeared. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Capcom. Episode: Turnabout Succession (in English). 2007. |
The poker game[]
| ...Showdown time. |
Phoenix Wright and Shadi Enigmar were playing poker. Enigmar lost; he told Wright that in the long time in which he had played poker, this was the second time he had ever lost, the first being to the man he was accused of killing. Enigmar determined that Wright was the right defense lawyer for him, over a game of cards.
| Phoenix Wright |
| That was how we first met. ...Seven years ago. |
Trial[]
- 9:27 AM, Defendant Lobby No. 2
Phoenix Wright had just been appointed to a new case, having only received the relevant case files the day before. His defendant, Shadi Enigmar, apologized for the short notice. Wright was not sure that he was prepared; he didn't even know exactly what had happened.
Wright complimented the magician's outfit that Enigmar's young daughter was wearing. She claimed that she was doing her first show that day, whatever that meant. The girl then gave Wright what appeared to be a page from someone's diary. She had no idea what the page was for and she had merely been told to give it to Wright, and that it was apparently very important. Enigmar asked about it, but Wright stowed it in his court record to read later.
Wright and Enigmar talked about the logistics of the trial. The prosecutor was new, but he had gained a reputation of being a genius, a "true thoroughbred in the history of the prosecutor's office". Wright scoffed at the notion, having heard the same story every year. Enigmar assured Wright that it would be impossible for him to get a guilty verdict. His daughter Trucy seemed to understand what he was talking about.
Wright's case was on Magnifi Gramarye, a wildly popular magician who had single-handedly revived the magic show industry, until he was shot dead. Enigmar, the accused, was Magnifi's student, and he went by the stage name Zak Gramarye.
First session[]
As the trial began, the judge recognized the prosecutor, Klavier Gavin, as the younger brother of defense attorney Kristoph Gavin. Wright recognized him as the lead singer of the popular music group, the Gavinners. Wright took a dislike to Gavin's rock-star attitude from the get-go. Gavin knew what Wright was thinking, and assured him that he considered his nightly profession a hobby compared to his daily one.
Dick Gumshoe took the stand, determined to best Wright this time, though Gavin quickly shot down the reunion. On April 13, at the General Hospital, Magnifi Gramarye had been asleep in his hospital bed. He had been there for about a year, succumbing to the late stages of liver cancer and chronic diabetes. He had three months left to live. The killer had shot him with a Stage Pistol while he was receiving his regular IV dosage, and then had left quickly. Gumshoe concluded that the case was as simple as they come.
As for why an already dying man would be murdered, Gumshoe testified that Magnifi had sent a letter to Zak a few days earlier, ordering Zak to kill him. The pistol found at the scene was clearly the murder weapon. Gavin presented Magnifi's Letter to the court, which read:
| Magnifi Gramarye |
| To my beloved student, Zak. To you I entrust the task of lowering my life's curtain. Come on the 13th, 11:05 PM. I will ready a gun with which you will shoot, one shot, square in the forehead. You cannot refuse, and we both know the reason why. |
Wright asked about the specific time on the letter. Gavin explained that Magnifi would receive an IV injection from 11:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. every night. Gumshoe insisted that the letter had told Zak to shoot Magnifi, since Zak's pistol had been found at the crime scene, used recently. Wright examined the photo of the crime scene and realized that Zak could have shot something else; a clown doll had also been shot in the forehead. Gavin objected that this didn't necessarily mean anything, and the judge concurred.
Wright asked about the pistol. Gavin confirmed that the bullet's rifling marks matched the pistol. Wright then asked about the pistol's owner. Gumshoe mentioned "Zak & Valant's Quick-Draw Shoot'em", a magic trick between Zak and another of Magnifi's students, Valant Gramarye, in which they would both shoot at a girl, but the girl would not be harmed, and the bullets would hit everything else on stage. The murder weapon was one of the pistols used. When the act was discontinued, Magnifi had held onto the pistols. Each pistol could hold only one bullet at a time, and the pistol in question was empty. No fingerprints were found, probably due to Zak's gloves. Wright realized the contradiction: Zak could have shot only once with the pistol.
Gavin was unfazed. He had a decisive witness to prove his claim. The judge ordered a 15-minute recess to give the witness time to prepare.
Second session[]
- 11:21 AM
Zak refused to talk about why he was compelled to follow Magnifi's instructions, only saying that there were events in his life that he regretted and would forever keep secret. Instead, he explained that he had found Magnifi appearing to be asleep, as well as the two prop pistols from the Quick-Draw Shoot'em. He had hesitated in shooting his mentor and had ended up shooting the clown doll instead. He had then put the pistol that he had used in his pocket and left. Zak also mentioned that this was not the first time Magnifi had made requests Zak couldn't refuse.
Wright wondered whether there was more to the story. Zak replied that Magnifi had opened his eyes after Zak had shot the doll; Magnifi had merely pretended to be sleeping. They had engaged in a five to ten minute discussion before Zak left, but Zak would not talk about the subject of discussion.
Court reconvened. Gavin announced that a bullet had indeed been found inside the clown doll's head. The bullet was definitely from the murder weapon, but further analysis could not be done. Gavin thus called forth his "decisive witness", a phrase that Wright had heard many times before: the defendant's partner, Valant Gramarye.
Valant introduced himself to the court and confirmed that he had been at the crime scene. Valant had also received a letter from Magnifi, almost identical to Zak's:
| Magnifi Gramarye |
| To my beloved student, Valant. To you I entrust the task of lowering my life's curtain. Come on the 13th, 11:20 PM. I will ready a gun with which you will shoot, one shot, square in the forehead. You cannot refuse, and we both know the reason why. |
The judge was puzzled as to why Magnifi would tell both of his students to kill him. Valant implied that they had been coerced into doing so. Wright reminded Valant that he could be the killer just as easily as Zak could, based on the existing evidence. Valant replied that the differing times in which he and Zak had been set to arrive made all the difference as to who the killer was.
Valant testified that he had come to Magnifi's hospital room at the appointed time to find him already dead. Valant asserted that he had shot the doll's forehead and that Zak had shot Magnifi. Valant had then reported the crime. Wright asked about the number of pistols in the room. Valant replied that one pistol had been present, and that he had shot the doll with it. However, Wright pointed out that the same pistol could have been used to just shoot Magnifi, as the one bullet that it could fire had been found in Magnifi's head. Gavin did not relent; he apologized for the mix-up, as he had not known about the other pistol, but he claimed that Valant could prove his testimony.
Valant then testified that the doctor had placed Magnifi's time of death at 11:10 p.m. precisely, which was when Zak had been in the room. Wright wondered about how the time of death was determined. Gavin explained that the doctor had used the IV level in Magnifi's IV bag to determine the time of death, since the Small Syringe had fallen out when Magnifi was shot. Wright pressed further on this development. Valant confirmed that he had noticed the IV bag. He mentioned that the IV liquid's color was his lucky color. Wright replied that Valant's "lucky color", yellow (as Valant was dressed in yellow), had betrayed him this time, as it contradicted the crime photo, which depicted the IV liquid as appearing green. Gavin insisted that the IV liquid was, in fact, yellow, and it only appeared green because of the blue bag. Telling Gavin, "There's no substitute for experience," Wright responded that Valant could only have seen the IV liquid's true color at the crime scene. Wright concluded that Valant had added IV liquid to the bag to throw off the time of death, using Magnifi's syringe. He had then cleaned the syringe, explaining its spotless condition.
Gavin retorted, "Truly, there's no substitute for experience. Nothing blinds one to the truth so effectively." He brought forth Magnifi's Diary, in which Magnifi had written the story of his life during his time at the hospital. Though it did not explain why Magnifi had been coercing his students, the last page had been written just before his death. Magnifi had clearly intended to continue writing if Zak had failed to kill him:
| Magnifi Gramarye |
| ...Tonight's IV is in. Maybe the last. I leave the rest to them. The first should come soon. This journal may end here or it may go on... but not long. That depends on his hand. All that is left to mine is to lay down this pen. |
Wright saw that his opponent had not noticed that there was a page missing, and wondered how Gavin could have missed it. Nonetheless, he had to present evidence now to stay in the game. Gavin warned Wright to rethink his decision to submit more evidence, before it was too late. Gavin also warned Wright that he would not accept the diary itself as decisive evidence.
Wright first referred the court to the last page on the diary, noting that the next page had clearly been ripped out. He then presented the note that he had received from Trucy earlier, claiming that it was the missing page. The torn edge of the page matched exactly with the torn edge of the diary's missing page. The page itself read:
| Magnifi Gramarye |
| It seems Fate's clock will make me wait a little longer. ...At least, only less than ten swift minutes remain. To all those who have supported me in my life's work, I give thanks. Farewell! |
Wright concluded that Magnifi had continued to write in his diary, proving that Valant was the real killer. However, Valant insisted that the page shouldn't have existed.
Just then, Gavin objected. There was a long pause.
| Klavier Gavin |
| Finally. You just couldn't resist, could you, Herr Wright? |
| Phoenix Wright |
| ...Resist what? Presenting solid evidence? |
Gavin suddenly requested that the cross-examination be put on hold to make way for a new witness. Only five minutes would be needed. The judge granted Gavin's request.
Just then, Wright began to realize that he was too quick in presenting suspicious evidence. The ripped-out page was too obvious for Gavin to have missed completely. Wright believed that Gavin must have known all along.
Gavin asked the court's audience to leave to protect the witness's legal integrity. The witness was Drew Misham, a painter who secretly made forgeries. Misham claimed that the diary page was a fake, his own creation. Gavin explained that he had been informed the day before that illegal evidence had been prepared for Zak's trial. Gavin had initiated an investigation and found Misham. Wright insisted that he had not intentionally prepared false evidence, but Gavin wouldn't hear it.
| Klavier Gavin |
| ...Ah, the attorney speaks. Something about this page, I presume. But what is he saying? It makes no sense! ...After all it was you who presented this evidence to us, Phoenix Wright! |
Misham couldn't confirm who had requested the forgery. He explained that most of his clients preferred to remain anonymous, even to him. Misham would create his forgeries, and then he would be sent his payment by mail. As for how Misham knew that this diary page was his work, he explained that he would leave an identifying mark on all of his "works" to avoid confusion.
The judge was shocked beyond belief. Wright had just presented illegal evidence in his court. Wright knew that he had been too careless. The notebook page had been a trap from the very beginning. The judge asked whether Wright wanted to explain his actions, but when asked if the court would hear it, replied that it was unlikely, as forging evidence was a serious crime and presenting forged evidence in court was a serious mistake, a fatal one for an attorney. Gavin went further in claiming that Zak was now proven to be guilty, since his defense relied on forged evidence. Wright objected that Zak should not be held responsible for what his attorney had chosen to do as an individual. However, the judge could not account for this, as Zak could always appeal his case anyway. Gavin noted that, if not for the tip he had received, Wright would have gotten his way with his forged evidence. He had even warned Wright that this would happen.
Before Misham left, he asked Wright for his name. He explained that he had never seen anyone like Wright in his life, and that he would remember him.
The court audience was allowed back into the courtroom. Just as Zak was about receive his verdict, he told the judge that it would be impossible for him to hand down a guilty verdict if the defendant didn't exist. Suddenly, the defendant vanished from the courtroom with a magic trick. The judge gave an order to seal the courtroom exits, but it was too late. The defendant vanished before the pursuing bailiff's eyes, and that was the end of it. No one saw Zak Gramarye again.
