February 13
Courtroom No. 1
1:15 PM
Cotoli Morix
"It's all a matter of what I explained a few minutes ago, Mr. Guiy," I began. "The blood could not have been the victim's. There are many pieces of evidence to show this fact."
"Then go on and explain, you stupid lawyer!" Mr. Guiy fumed. "We're not all as smart as you are! You're acting so high and mighty!"
"I can tell he's getting flustered. I doubt that anybody would behave this way if they were calm," Lily whispered to me. "Now all that's left to do is show him what you're made of, Mr. Morix!"
I nodded and looked at Mr. Guiy again. "You see, I told the court a few minutes ago that Mr. Burke's hands could not have had the victim's blood on them. If he had stabbed her, the backsplash would be a lot more than just getting on his hands. It would be all over his clothes unless he had something to cover himself up with to keep the blood from getting on him. However, nothing like that was found at the scene of the murder, which throws that option right out the window," I explained.
"You don't need to go and repeat what you just said. It just makes us all feel stupid," Mr. Guiy told me with a roll of his eyes. "What are you even on about at this point anyways?"
"If nothing of that sort was found at the scene of the crime, then the possibility of that being the case for anyone is also ruled out. That means that Ms. Willows cannot be the killer since nothing was found to cover up any killers from the blood splash!" I exclaimed, pointing at Mr. Guiy.
The gallery burst into a sudden chatter. I couldn't help but smirk to myself at how well this was going. Normally, none of my cases were this clean. It took ages to get a not guilty verdict, though I always got there eventually.
Judge Frost slammed down his gavel twice, which silenced all the onlookers. "Order!" he cried out. "This court will have order!"
"The stab wound in the victim's chest was caused by a knife. That knife was never removed, which means that the amount of blood would be limited after the wound was inflicted," Prosecutor Shield declared. "And also, I wish to say something really quick about the blood backsplash you mentioned..."
"Go on," I told him. I wasn't entirely sure what he was going to say, but I was going to have to find a way to work with it if I wanted to get Anton out of jail.
"Even if the backsplash was limited, some blood would have gotten onto the killer's clothes. No large cloth was found at the scene of the crime, though there was something I found a little bit odd about the crime scene," Prosecutor Shield began.
"And what would that be?" I questioned. I hadn't seen anything too out of order at the scene when I had looked over it the day before, but perhaps there was a chance that I had missed something.
"A scrap of white cloth was found inside the car in the back seat of the vehicle. It looked to have been badly burned, from what I could tell. However, I spoke to the younger sister of the victim yesterday. Her name is Cassidy Rinko," Prosecutor Shield began.
Upon his saying her name, my thoughts were cast back to her. I had known Cassidy as long as I had known Venus, so about two years. She was a fragile girl, so I was sure that Venus' passing had upset her greatly. I hadn't yet spoken to her, so I would need to do that after the trial had ended.
"Being so closely related to the victim, Cassidy knew what her sister had been wearing. She told me when I asked. She had been wearing a dark jacket with a pink, orange, and violet tye-dye shirt. She also had on jeans and black socks with dark boots on," Prosecutor Shield continued to say.
"How is this at all related to the case?!" Mr. Guiy shouted. "It sounds like you're just listing off random facts about the dead girl!"
"These facts are in no way random. The one thing that you'll notice about her clothing is that all of it is nowhere near being white. That begs the question of where the white fabric scrap in the car come from," Prosecutor Shield said.
"That fabric must have been used by the killer as a cover from the blood splash!" Lily exclaimed.
"It would also explain why the killer set the car on fire in the first place. It's rare for a killer to do something like that unless they were getting rid of evidence of some sort," I murmured. "Was there anything of note on this piece of fabric?"
"There was a tag on it, for one. It was for a man's shirt, the size being extra large. A speck of blood was found on the corner. I believe that it is the victim's blood from when she was attacked. I wasn't entirely sure what it meant before, but it seems much clearer now," Prosecutor Shield told the court.
"An extra large shirt would never fit the defendant. He's much too small. It would be much too baggy to effectively cover his chest area from the blood, which is where a lot of it would go if he had stabbed the victim. He's shorter than her, so the stab from the chest on the victim would just have the blood ending up in his hair, and that wouldn't help at all. Plus as was already mentioned, he is much too short to effectively stab the victim anyways, who is almost a foot taller than him," I said. "However, if this witness were to wear that size of shirt, things would work out much better for him."
"Like you mentioned, it would explain why the car was burned earlier as well," Lily told me. "It works out pretty well if you want my two cents on the matter!"
"Ms. Willows could not have committed the crime either. She's roughly the size of the defendant, so the same logic applies to her as well," I declared next.
"So what you're saying is that this witness must have committed the crime?" Judge Frost asked. "Blood would have gotten all over the killer after they stabbed the victim, and as far as we know, a large shirt was used to cover up by the killer. The shirt was then thrown into the back seat of the car and the vehicle was set on fire. The defendant could not have done it due to his small size and not fitting the shirt size mentioned by Prosecutor Shield earlier."
I nodded. "That's the gist of it. Plus, Ms. Willows mentioned during her testimony that Mr. Guiy here grabbed her hand, cut it open, and threatened her into staying quiet about what had happened. I wouldn't be too surprised if she had also seen him set the car on fire. He's looking incredibly suspicious at the moment," I said.
"Perhaps we should have Ms. Willows return to the stand and testify about what she saw regarding Mr. Guiy at the scene of the murder," Judge Frost suggested. "Are there any objections?"
"The prosecution has no objections, Your Honor," Prosecutor Shield told him with a shake of his head.
"The defense has no objections either," Lily chirped in.
"In that case, Ms. Willows, if you would please do the honor of returning to the stand," Judge Frost said.
Ms. Willows was standing there a few seconds later rubbing her wrist and looking around the courtroom nervously. Mr. Guiy passed her on his way back to his seat. Ms. Willows gulped upon passing him.
"We would like you to testify about what you saw regarding the burning of the vehicle the victim was found in," Judge Frost told her. "You can do that, can you not?"
Ms. Willows nodded solemnly. "Yes," she responded. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was scared out of her mind. I wanted to soothe her and tell her that everything would be alright, but that didn't seem like it was going to happen while we were still in the courtroom.
"Begin your testimony, Ms. Willows," the judge instructed, to which Ms. Willows nodded once again.
~ Witness Testimony ~
~ The Killer and the Burning Car ~
- "When I got outside after getting the call from Venus, I saw a man crouched over a lighter."
- "He held it up to the tail end of the car, near the exhaust pipe. The fire was all over the car in an instant."
- "I couldn't entirely tell if the killer had blood on his clothes, but he reeked of blood for sure..."
- "He grabbed my arm and told me to be quiet about what I had seen if I ever wanted to live another day... Then he cut it open..."
- "Now that we're here in court, I am sure that he was the other witness. He was wearing a black hoodie."
- "He left not long after, but before he went, he threw me to the ground and dropped the hoodie at my side..."
- "He picked it up before leaving. Mr. Burke appeared minutes later, followed by Mr. Guiy, who pretended to have found the scene and called the police."
I thought through Ms. Willows' testimony for a moment once she had finished. I didn't see any direct contradictions, nothing glaring or anything, but there was something I wanted to ask about. I'd have to do it during the cross-examination.
"I don't see anything that seems like a contradiction," Lily hissed from beside me.
"Maybe not, but there is something that we need to ask her. I'm sure that it will help us to prove who really committed the crime," I told her. "No need to worry."
"If you're done whispering, defense, it's time for the cross-examination," said Prosecutor Shield.
"I'll be getting right on that," I told him. "If you would just go on and repeat your testimony, Ms. Willows."
"Certainly," she nodded.
~ Cross-Examination ~
~ The Killer and the Burning Car ~
- "When I got outside after getting the call from Venus, I saw a man crouched over a lighter."
- "He held it up to the tail end of the car, near the exhaust pipe. The fire was all over the car in an instant."
- "I couldn't entirely tell if the killer had blood on his clothes, but he reeked of blood for sure..."
- "He grabbed my arm and told me to be quiet about what I had seen if I ever wanted to live another day... Then he cut it open..."
- "Now that we're here in court, I am sure that he was the other witness. He was wearing a black hoodie."
- "He left not long after, but before he went, he threw me to the ground and dropped the hoodie at my side..."
"Hold it!"
"Why do you think he dropped the hoodie at your side?" I questioned Ms. Willows.
"I don't really know... It was right next to my face when I was down on the pavement, so I could smell it. It smelled of sweat, but not really blood. It was black, I know that much," Ms. Willows replied.
"Why is that so important, Mr. Morix?" Lily asked me. "You look like you have something up your sleeve, I just don't know what."
"She said that the hoodie was black and that it smelled like sweat, but not really blood. That means that the killer had something like that on him at the time. I doubt anybody would leave something like that at home, as the best thing they could do to watch over something from a crime scene would be go have it with them at all times. Further, it looks to me that Mr. Guiy is wearing a black hoodie right now. Doesn't that come off as a little bit suspicious to you?" I asked of Lily, turning to face her.
"He was already pretty suspicious, but I get what you mean. It just seems to further prove our assumptions that he has something to do with this case and its killer," Lily said from my side. "If he is the one who did this, then... I just have one question."
"And what would that be?" I questioned, tilting my head to the side ever so slightly.
"If the hoodie was on the ground, which is what Ms. Willows was focused on in her haze, the what about the shirt?" Lily asked. "She didn't mention the shirt at all, which means that we're out of luck as far as figuring out where it went goes."
I faced Ms. Willows once again. "Did you happen to see what happened to the shirt this man you encountered was wearing?" I crossed my arms as I spoke, lost in thought.
"No... But I did mention that he smelled of blood, didn't I? The hoodie didn't have that same smell on it at all, but at the same time, I know there was blood on him," she answered. She had begun twirling her hair over one finger, staring down at her toes as if they were the most interesting things to exist all of a sudden.
"Are you implying that you think this blood smell came from the shirt that the killer was likely wearing beneath the hoodie?" I asked.
She nodded slowly. "Yes... I can't think of any other explanation for all this... But I can't really say how the shirt got into the back seat of the car. I apologize for that much," she said softly.
"Would you add a statement about not knowing how the shirt got into the car to your testimony?" I asked her.
"Um... Alright..." she stammered. I saw Prosecutor Shield shoot me an odd look, but I ignored him. I was getting an idea as to what I needed to do in order to solve this mess, so I didn't need to pay much attention to his stares.
- "I don't really how the bloody shirt could have gotten into the car though... All the doors to the vehicle were closed except the driver's seat..."
"Objection!"
"You may not know how the shirt got into the car, but I think I might have a bit of an idea," I smirked to myself. "I'm sure that it will become clear once you all take a look at the photo of the crime scene. If you look closely, you can see that the skylight window is open. If somebody had good enough aim, they could easily have gotten a shirt into the back seat of the car from the ground by shooting it through that window. Mr. Guiy told us that he was a physical education teacher, so it wouldn't be a stretch to say that he could easily make that shot with basketball experience!" I exclaimed. "In other words, it just solidifies the idea that Mr. Guiy must have committed the crime!"
It only took a few seconds for the courtroom to burst into a wild chatter once again. I couldn't help but smirk to myself. This was going perfectly. If things kept going this way, Anton would be out of prison in no time! The sooner he was released, the sooner we could all go home and relax as if this whole ordeal had never happened. It would be impossible to pretend that was the case due to Venus being gone, but I was more focused on freeing Anton. My grief could wait another few hours.
Judge Frost hit his gavel down on the bench before him. The people in the room immediately fell silent in favor of listening to the older man. "Order in the court!" he yelled.
In the blink of an eye, Mr. Guiy had appeared at the witness stand. He pushed Ms. Willows out of the way, which caused her to trip and fall to the ground. She rubbed her knee while glaring at him. He didn't even give her a second glance, focusing instead on what was going on around him. "You can't listen to her! For all you know, she's lying! What's the point in listening to her when you don't have any proof she's being honest?! Where's your proof, you stupid lawyer?! If were expected to listen to her, why should we if you don't have any evidence of her honesty?! It seems like a set up to make me look guilty when I couldn't have committed the crime! Why would I kill a teenaged girl?! It makes no sense!" Mr. Guiy yelled angrily. I wasn't his biggest fan, so maybe I was a bit biased, but he seemed to be grasping at straws by how, begging the court to stay on his side and not think of him as a man guilty of murder.
"Mr. Guiy!" came the snap of Judge Frost. "You were not called to the witness stand! You have no right to speak at the moment!"
"What's his problem?" Lily asked from next to me. She dashed over to Ms. Willows after she had finished her question and reached out her hand before helping Ms. Willows to her feet.
The dark-haired girl smiled shyly her way once she was standing once again. "Thanks..." Ms. Willows whispered. Lily winked at her and shot her a grin before returning to my side. Ms. Willows, on the other hand, returned to her seat in the witness area near the prosecution's bench on the opposing side of the courtroom.
"Give me one more chance to prove my innocence! I swear I'll do it right this time!" Mr. Guiy cried desperately. "Please!"
"Are there any objections to this?" Judge Frost asked, looking to me and Prosecutor Shield.
"The defense has no objections," I responded with a simple nod.
"The prosecution doesn't object either," Prosecutor Shield said. "But be warned, Mr. Guiy... If we catch you lying again, we will not be so forgiving. The judge wouldn't hesitate to hold you in contempt of court, I am sure. Isn't that right, Your Honor?"
The judge shook his head. "No. I believe that you have lied too many times to this court. I will not tolerate any further lies, Mr. Guiy. Do you understand?" the judge asked. His face was surprisingly dark. I hadn't seen it that way in quite some time. It had been at least a few months since he had grown this angry with a witness. He was normally a relatively kind old man that many people respected, but when he got mad, he was most certainly someone to be feared if you were there when someone crossed the line.
"Alright. I won't lie anymore. I swear this time," Mr. Guiy said to him, nodding furiously. I could still see some sweat on his forehead despite his promise of honesty. He was nervous about something, and I got the feeling it had something to do with the knife buried in Venus' chest.
"Then you may begin your testimony," the judge told him with a nod.
~ Witness Testimony ~
~ I Didn't Do It ~
-"You can't really think I killed that girl! That's ridiculous! There was no reason for her to die if she was just a kid!"
-"You keep acting like that girl accusing me is credible, but I really don't think so! Words are just words unless you have physical evidence to back it up!"
-"Where's your proof I killed that girl, huh?! You don't have any, that's right! If you did, you would have shown it already!"
-"If you're going to say that I did it, you're going to need a motive, evidence, and testimony! You can't just take one of those and call it good!"
-"Unless you have all of those things, then you're going to have to let me go since I didn't kill her! But you really don't, do you?!"
"He's saying that he couldn't have done it since we can't prove he did with motive and evidence... But... That really can't be true, can it?" Lily asked me from her place next to me.
"I believe that Mr. Guiy is guilty just like most people in this court do. I find it hard to believe that he didn't do it since at this point, he's just saying that he couldn't have done it since we don't have proof. That seems like a desperate move to me," I told her.
"But... Can we even prove that he did it? So far, I haven't seen anything that we could use to prove definitively that he committed the crime... At the very least, we don't seem to have any evidence on us of his guilt, and that's not a good sign..." Lily murmured.
I glanced up at Mr. Guiy and searched him from top to bottom. I wasn't going to let it show to Lily, but she was right. We did seem to be lacking that final piece of evidence to really seal the deal... There had to be something that we were missing, something that could prove once and for all that Mr. Guiy was the one who killed her...
That was when it clicked. There was one piece of evidence that we had been missing this whole time... I was positive that if we just looked over the basics of the case, it would be obvious what happened to it. If we knew where it was, we could have someone sent to get it and prove that Mr. Guiy was involved...
Ms. Willows had mentioned that Mr. Guiy had cut her hand open. If that was really the case, then that meant that he must have used some sort of weapon, likely a knife. A switchblade would be small enough to hide in one's pocket, especially if the pockets were as large as Mr. Guiy's... The knife that Venus was killed with was still in her chest when the body was found. That meant that nobody had taken it out. It showed no signs of having been removed and replaced, as nobody would be able to make the same stab twice in a row perfectly. Plus, Ms. Willows had mentioned that the knife had cut her hand after the car was set on fire, which means that anybody who tried to put it back into Venus if they had removed it to cut her hand would get burned. The knife had stayed there until the body was found.
That meant there was another knife used to cut her hand. If it was a switchblade, it would have been small enough to hide in somebody's pocket, which meant they could easily escape with it. I had been sure that no other knives were found at the crime scene, which could mean only one thing as for the fate of the knife.
I continued to look Mr. Guiy from top to bottom until my eyes settled on his bag. Everything was starting to click into place regarding this case. The only thing left to do was cross-examine Mr. Guiy and prove where the second knife was!
"Mr. Morix, if you wouldn't mind, it's time to begin the cross-examination," Judge Frost told me.
"I'll be right on it, Your Honor," I said with a nod. It was time to end this.
~ Cross-Examination ~
~ I Didn't Do It ~
-"You can't really think I killed that girl! That's ridiculous! There was no reason for her to die if she was just a kid!"
-"You keep acting like that girl accusing me is credible, but I really don't think so! Words are just words unless you have physical evidence to back it up!"
-"Where's your proof I killed that girl, huh?! You don't have any, that's right! If you did, you would have shown it already!"
-"If you're going to say that I did it, you're going to need a motive, evidence, and testimony! You can't just take one of those and call it good!"
-"Unless you have all of those things, then you're going to have to let me go since I didn't kill her! But you really don't, do you?!"
"Objection!"
"I'm afraid this is where your gambit comes to an end, Mr. Guiy," I told the man with a smirk. "I have but one question for you, which should prove who committed this crime."
"And what would that be?" Mr. Guiy asked. Sweat dripped down the side of his temple.
"What's is that bag of yours?" I questioned, pointing to the duffle bag strapped over his shoulder. "I don't think we've seen you open it this entire trial..."
"It just had some weights in it. I was planning on going to the gym after I was finished here," Mr. Guiy responded simply. "Why do you need to know anyways? What's it to you?"
"I was thinking a moment ago about Ms. Willows' testimony. She stated that her hand was cut open by a knife after the car was set on fire. This means that it would have been impossible for the killer to take the knife from the chest of the victim, cut her hand, and put it back. They would end up horribly burned in the process, which would only make them look more guilty," I explained. "That leaves us wondering about what happened to this second knife."
"Do you have any theories as to where it went, Mr. Morix?" Judge Frost asked.
"As a matter of fact, I do," I responded. "I believe that the killer took it with them since no other knives were found at the scene of the crime. It would make sense if the killer still had it on them, as that evidence is far too incriminating and far too important to just leave somewhere. If we were able to find this knife, we'd be able to test it for fingerprints and show who did it. We'd be positive as to if it was the one if traces of Ms. Willows' blood were found on it."
"You think that this witness has the knife, don't you?" Prosecutor Shield asked. "It would make sense... If you really only have weights in your bag, witness, I'm sure you wouldn't mind us looking through it to make sure that no knife is found, perhaps, on an inside pocket..."
"Y-You haven't even thought up a motive for me to commit the crime yet! You need that if you want to find me guilty! I told you, to find somebody guilty of a crime, you need motive, testimony, and evidence! Where's your damn motive?! Until you have that, no bags are getting searched and no innocent verdicts are going to be handed down for the blonde kid In the defendant's seat!"
"I'm sure that a motive will be no problem for Mr. Morix here," Prosecutor Shield told him before looking my way. "Go on. Tell him about the motive behind this case. I seems rather simple to figure out."
I nodded. "As a matter of fact, you would be right. The motive given by the prosecution at the start of this trial is universal. He mentioned an online forum saying that the victim had potential to be Oracle. People were growing suspicious of her involvement in cases that had to do with Oracle and figured that she was the one behind all of this. It isn't hard to look up online. You can find it easily if you know what you're looking for. If the defendant can be suspected of committing this crime since he saw the forum and thought that the victim was the Oracle of the Law, that can apply to you as well," I told him. "Many people are after Oracle, saying that they're a criminal and thinking they should die. How do we know that you don't think that yourself?"
"That motive could apply to literally anybody in this courtroom! Don't act like you're being all smart just because you repeated what the prosecution said earlier!" Mr. Guiy yelled.
I shook my head. "Don't be fooled, Mr. Guiy. There is quite the difference between you and everybody else in this courtroom. Nobody else in here has been proven to have been present at the scene of the murder when the crime took place. Nobody else in this courtroom is under suspicion of holding the knife used to cut the witness' hand open. Nobody else in this courtroom was accused of murder by the aforementioned witness. You, however, most certainly fit these criteria. With this motive for murder, the testimony of Ms. Willows, a witness, accusing you, and the physical evidence of you potentially having a knife on your body right now, I've done all you want me to. Now, I have everything that I need to accuse you of the murder of Venus Rinko!" I cried out, pointing at him.
The gallery exploded into conversation once more. Judge Frost had to beat his gavel against his podium three times to get the onlookers silent this time around. "Order in the court! I will have order now or else this trial will go into recess!" he yelled out in anger.
"If that won't be enough for you, however, Mr. Guiy, I will be glad to explain the crime in detail if that is what you require. As of now, it seems painfully clear who committed this crime, but I'd be happy to recap what happened yesterday when Ms. Rinko was brutally murdered," I told him.
"Just for the sake of clarity, go right on and do so, Mr. Morix," Prosecutor Shield instructed of me. "The court could use it, I believe." The judge nodded his agreement from his place above us.
I nodded and smirked to myself, pushing a little bit of my hair out of my face. "Gladly."
I ended up getting two updates out this week. Wow.
I was on a plane for roughly seven hours between Saturday and today, so I ended up typing roughly 6.5k words. I finished this chapter and got started on the next one, the finale to case one.
The killer seems a bit obvious in this one, but it's a first case, so this isn't anything unusual for Ace Attorney. It'll be much more subtle in the future, I promise. But hey, at least I didn't straight up show you the killer like the first cases in AA1, 2, 5, and 6 did with the introduction cutscene. I guess that's kinda cool.
I'm hyped to get this story rolling honestly. It's going to be a blast. I can already tell. I'm going to try and get out two updates per week over the summer, so that's pretty cool. Speaking of updates, next week has this case's finale chapter and the next support thing for Demon of Desire. I swear, I'll get back to Evolution Adventure soon. I promise.
That's it from me for now. I'll see you guys around! I hope you enjoyed!
~Digital