Trial (October 25, 2027)

Trial (October 25, 2027) V · T · F
Trial data
Courtroom No.	4
Presiding judge	Judge
Defense team	Athena Cykes Apollo Justice
Prosecutor	Simon Blackquill
Defendant	Juniper Woods
Charge	Murder of Constance Courte
Verdict	See Trial (October 26, 2027)
Trial witnesses	Bobby Fulbright* (not cross-examined) Myriam Scuttlebutt Robin Newman Hugh O'Conner

9:47 a.m.

Athena Cykes was nervous for her first trial as defense team leader. Though Phoenix Wright and Apollo Justice assured her, Aristotle Means asked her whether playing fairly was worth the risk of losing the trial, warning that she would learn the error of her ways soon enough.

Preliminaries

10:00 a.m.

In court, Bobby Fulbright briefed everyone on the case. The awl was confirmed to have the victim's blood and the defendant's fingerprints on it. Moreover, Myriam Scuttlebutt's tape recorder had recorded a faint female voice saying, "You're a goner!" The mock trial participants were the only members of the school who had not been in the Lecture Hall during the mock trial. This meant that Juniper Woods was the only plausible suspect.

"Cross-Examining Scuttlebutt"

Myriam Scuttlebutt was called to the stand. She claimed that her script had been chosen in place of Woods's, and this had sparked her murderous rage. Cykes pressed Scuttlebutt's statements until the witness's claims were clearly established. The allegation was that the killer had intentionally aped the mock trial script, and that the similarities were not coincidental. However, Cykes pointed out that it would have been irrational for Woods to act in such a way that she was the only plausible culprit.

Scuttlebutt, however, testified that she had snuck into Woods's dressing room right before the mock trial. She had seen someone in Woods's concert stage costume, but when Scuttlebutt asked what she was doing, she had fled. Scuttlebutt had given chase until she discovered the body. Cykes pounced on this and pointed out that Scuttlebutt no longer had an alibi, but the witness replied that she had been in an "undercover reporter class" on the night of the murder.

Scuttlebutt's photo of the costumed figure.

Blackquill moved to end the cross-examination if this kind of outburst was all that Cykes was going to make. However, Justice stepped in and pointed out that Scuttlebutt should have had a photo of the body, but she did not. Scuttlebutt had, however, caught a photo of the figure who had taken her to the body, albeit the face was hidden. Nonetheless, Justice had provided sufficient grounds to cross-examine the witness further.

After thanking Justice for the save, Cykes pointed out that the stage costume was supposed to have glowing stars on it, but the costume worn by the mysterious figure was plain blue. Since no other blue costumes existed, the natural conclusion was that the figure had worn the costume inside out, which Woods would not have done. At this, Blackquill submitted a photo of the costume in the dark. He explained that Woods had painted the inside with fluorescent paint and hung it inside-out on a mannequin to dry.

The Themis Herald article showing fluorescent paint on Newman's hand.

Justice noticed what looked like handprints in the photo and wondered what it meant. Cykes perused the court record and found her answer in the Themis Herald article. A photo showed Robin Newman's hand glowing in the dark while a spotlight was on Woods. Newman was called to the stand.

"Cross-Examining Newman"

Newman claimed to have gone to see Woods in her dressing room. The mannequin had suddenly started falling and Newman had caught it, explaining the handprints. Cykes brought out her Mood Matrix for this testimony and noticed that Newman exhibited joy when talking about the costume. Newman seemed angered by the implications and said that the mannequin had fallen forward. However, the handprints consisted only of the thumbs and the base of the palms. This suggested that Newman had adjusted the costume while wearing it.

Newman admitted to wearing the costume, but Cykes noticed that Newman had felt not just excitement, but sadness as well. Newman replied that it was because the costume did not make the alleged manly hothead pretty like Woods. "Something" was getting in the way. Cykes noticed that Newman's anger was directed at the braces. Newman apparently wanted to take off the braces, but in some sense could not, because they were a symbol of masculinity. Cykes realized the monumental secret behind all of this behavior: Robin Newman was really a girl!

Newman removed her braces and admitted to being a girl. Cykes told the court that this changed the significance of the tape recording, as it implicated Newman just as much as it implicated Woods. Blackquill held his ground, pointing out that Woods was still the only one alive with access to the script. Cykes remembered her conversation with Woods the previous day, and suggested that Woods had leaked the script to Newman to ensure that she won the mock trial. To prove this, Cykes pointed out that the victim's outfit was supposed to be a red one from the prosecutor course. When the photo showed Courte wearing a green sweat suit, Newman had been thrown off, suggesting that she was privy to the script's details. The prosecution's assertion that the killer was someone who knew the contents of the script implicated Newman as well.

Newman countered that Courte had written a note to herself about various details of the case. Since there was only one copy of the script, Courte had a note written for convenience so she could prepare the props required, such as the crime scene photo. Newman had taken photographs of the note in question to gain an advantage in the mock trial. Nonetheless, it was the prosecution's argument that was in trouble here, since Woods was no longer the only one who could have been privy to the details of the mock trial.

"Cross-Examining O'Conner"

In response, Blackquill called Hugh O'Conner to the stand, threatening him with some kind of secret to make him testify against Woods. O'Conner testified that he had seen Woods after a period of meditation, at 7:15. Blackquill explained that the recorder had recorded the female voice at 7:10. Cykes asked what he was doing on the day of the murder, and O'Conner replied that he had been meditating the whole day, and had not talked to anyone until the final bell at 7:00. However, Cykes presented Courte's planner, which indicated a meeting with O'Conner planned for that day. O'Conner pointed out that the recording was of a female voice, but Cykes asserted that the voice really belonged to Courte. Cykes claimed that the voice was really shouting O'Conner's full name, scolding him for something that he had done wrong.

Woods with Professor Courte shortly before the murder.

Blackquill, however, still had one last piece of evidence to present. A photo of Courte and Woods together preparing for the mock trial showed a clock on the wall reading 7:05, five minutes before Courte's death! Blackquill had had this evidence the whole time, even while Cykes was picking apart his other arguments. Justice wondered whether Blackquill had done this intentionally to demoralize Cykes. Regardless, the judge was about to give his verdict, and there was nothing that he or Cykes could do to stop it.

However, Newman suddenly confessed to the murder. While everybody scrambled to figure out what was going on, Woods also confessed, followed by O'Conner. It seemed that the three were willing to implicate themselves to save the others. The judge could not, in good conscience, hand down a verdict with this development. Cykes was as surprised as anyone else, but she was relieved to find that she would be given another day to sort out the case.