Apologies for the delay in updating, but I've been busy with my personal life. Plus, I've been working on other stories that I plan to upload soon.
But first, let's get back to the story.
August 11, 1976, 11:16 AM
District Court
Prosecutor's Lobby
"Everything is going as I've planned," Manfred thought to himself. "I'm confident that my witness will prove the defendant's guilt without a doubt." He walked towards his witness sitting on the lobby's couch.
"Is it time for me to testify?" Asked the young man with brown and wearing a red jacket.
"Not yet, Mr. Storen," Manfred replied to Storen. "We have a half hour before court reconvenes, and we will spend it perfecting your testimony. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Mr. Prosecutor." Storen replied.
"Very well. Let's begin." And with that, the two of them began going over Storen's testimony, attempting to perfect so that Grossberg would be unable to find a flaw with it.
August 11, 1976, 11:46 AM
District Court
Courtroom No. 5
The Judge banged his gavel his gavel down. "Court will now reconvene." He said. "Mr. Von Karma, please present your witness to the court."
"Fine," Manfred said. "Take that! I call a local man who works at the grocery store who saw the crime. Get in here, now!" With those words, Storen walked into the court and got onto the witness stand.
"Witness, state your name and occupation," Manfred said.
"My name is Adam Storen, sir. I work at the local grocery sort as a bagger."
"Now witness, at 12:10 last night you witness the defendant murdering his girlfriend. Is that correct?" Manfred asked.
Storen nodded his head. "Yes sir."
"Witness, testify to the court about what you saw,' Manfred commanded Storen to do.
"Understood." Storen replied.
Witness Testimony: What I Witnessed
"Last night, I was walking to my house"
"Suddenly, I saw a woman enter a house"
"I decided to go look in the house"
"Suddenly, I saw the defendant shoot that lady in the heart!"
"I ran to find a phone booth to call the police"
"Hmmmm…" The Judge was thinking over what he just heard. He nodded his head. "Sounds like a very solid testimony to me. Mr. Grossberg, you may begin your cross-examination."
Cross Examination: What I Witnessed
"Last Night, I was walking to my house"
"Hold it!" Grossberg said. "You walked home? Does that mean you don't own a car, witness?"
"No, I don't."Storen replied. "I mean, I would like to get one, but I don't have enough money, so…"
"Objection!" Manfred said, interrupting the testimony. "What does it matter if the witness is so poor that he can't even buy a car? That has no bearing on this case. Objection sustained. "
"Wait a minute!" The Judge exclaimed. "I'm the one who's supposed to…"
"Sustained!" Manfred yelled.
"Y-y-yes sir!" The Judge said, giving in to Manfred once again." "C-continue with your testimony, witness!"
"Suddenly, I saw a woman enter a house"
"Hold it!" Grossberg cried. "I find it strange that you would notice a woman entering a house. That seems like a normal everyday occurrence to me."
"Well…" Storen was nervous again. "I guess your right."
Then why did you notice the victim entering the house?" Grossberg asked.
"Um…," Storen said while blushing. "Because… well, she was really pretty and-"
"Objection!" Manfred wagged his finger. "That question has nothing to do with the testimony, Your Honor! What does it matter if the witness noticed the victim because he was smitten with her? I demand this question be stricken from the record"
The Judge nodded his head. "I agree. Witness, continue with your testimony."
"That was close," Manfred thought. "I can't let the court know why Storen was really there. It would make him suspicious in the eyes of the court."
"I decided to go look in the house."
"Hold it!" Grossberg said. "Why did you do that?"
"Well…" Storen was blushing again. "I was hoping to talk to her when she got out of the house."
"Why?" Grossberg asked.
"Objection!" Manfred snapped his fingers. "He already explained why! He was smitten with her, so he wanted to ask her out. Am I correct!"
"Y-yeah, that's it!" Storen nodded his head eagerly, going along with Manfred's lie "Anyway…"
"Suddenly, I saw the defendant shoot that lady in the heart!"
"Hold it!" Grossberg said. "How did you see this happen, witness?"
"What do you mean, how did I see it?" Storen asked. "The door was open, so I could see in."
"Oh, really?" Grossberg said, smirking. "Your Honor! I wish for that to be added to the testimony."
The Judge nodded his head. "Very well. Mr. Storen, add that last statement to the testimony."
"Sure, why not?" Storen replied.
"The door was left open, so I could see everything."
"Objection!" Grossberg said. "I'm afraid that's impossible, witness."
"Huh? What is?" Storen asked.
"You couldn't have seen the crime through the door because of this!" Grossberg presented the notes about the broken door that Manfred made. "When the police arrived at the scene of the crime, they had to break the door down. Why? Because it was locked until the police arrived, that's why."
"Arghhhhhhh!" Storen screamed in shock. The audience was starting to get noisy, and the Judge had to bang his gavel down to quiet them.
"Why that's true! Witness! How do you explain this contradiction?"
"Um, well, you see…"At this point, Storen, who was already a very nervous person, was too nervous to come up with an answer. "It was left open when….When the murdered escaped. Yeah, that's what happened! He ran away from the crime scene."
"Fool! Stop adding information! You're ruining my perfect trial!" Manfred was starting to sweat nervously as how his witness was starting to screw his plans.
Grossberg shook his head. "I'm sorry witness, but that's impossible."
"W-what?" Storen said.
"This evidence proves that it was impossible for my client, Mr. Aploe, to have escaped! Take that!" Grossberg presented the bullet. "John Aploe was shot by the victim and passed out from blood loss! It was impossible for him to escape!"
"Argggggggh!" Storen screamed out again. There's was more shouting from the audience.
"Order! Order! Orderrrr!" The Judge was banging his gavel down. "Witness! What's going on here?"
"Objection!" Manfred was getting desperate. "This has nothing to do with the testimony, Your Honor!"
The Judge shook his head. "No, I don't think so. The witness has a huge contradiction in his testimony, which cannot be explained. We must-"
"Hold it!"
Everyone turned their eyes on Storen. "Wait a minute, Your Honor! I can explain what happened.
"Yes, witness?" The Judge asked.
"I'm sorry about all this. I… I was confused, Your Honor." Storen replied. "The truth is… I saw it through the window?"
"The window? The Judge asked. "But why did you lie and say that you saw it through the door?"
"I… I didn't mean too," Storen replied. "Its jut that I was confused, that's all."
"Confused?" Grossberg replied in shook. "How can you be so confused as to forget where you saw the crime?"
"Objection!" Manfred wagged his finger. "It's not so hard to imagine that the witness is confused if you take a look at this." He produced some papers out for the court.
"What are those?" The Judge said as he took a look at them. "These appear to be… Medical papers?"
"According to his medical files," Manfred began to explain, "When Mr. Storen gets nervous and stressed, he tends to get confused and mix up events in his memories."
"Hmmm…" The Judge was reading these notes carefully. "It appears to be true. The witness's memory does tend to get confused under stress. Very well. I will accept this explanation for now. Storen's Medical Papers added to the Court Record.
The Judge banged his gavel "Witness, you mentioned something about noting the victim, am I correct?"
"Y-yeah?" Storen replied.
"Testify to the court about why you would notice the witness," The Judge said.
Witness Testimony: Noticing The Victim
" I was walking back home when I noticed her."
"I was terrified because I saw her gun in her pocket."
"I thought she may be up to something bad, so I looked through the window of the house she went into."
"I looked through the window and saw everything I described before."
The Judge nodded his head. "I hope this testimony is more concrete then your last one. You may begin your cross-examination, Mr. Grossberg.
Cross Examination: Noticing The Victim
" I was walking back home when I noticed her."
"I was terrified because I saw her gun in her pocket."
"Hold it!" Grossberg said. "What do you mean you were terrified?"
"Objection!" Manfred snapped his fingers. "If you would read the medical papers I brought out, you would understand why the witness was terrified!"
Grossberg took out the medical papers and read theme. "What's this? The witness has… Hoplophobia?
"The witness has a horrible fear of guns, Your Honor," Manfred began to explain. "So when he saw that gun he was clearly terrified."
"That seems plausible," The Judge said. Storen's Medical Papers updated in the Court Record.
"Continue with your testimony, witness." Manfred ordered.
"I thought she may be up to something bad, so I looked through the window of the house she went into."
"Hold it!" Grossberg yelled. "That's why you looked through the window?"
"Yeah," Storen replied. "I mean, you don' regular people just walking with guns with them, do you?"
"That is true," The Judge said. "You wouldn't expect to see someone with a gun with them walking in the streets."
"Which explains why my witness committed the unlawful act of peeking through the window and saw the crime, Your Honor." Manfred replied.
"So, to be clear, you had never met the victim before?" Grossberg asked. "You were just worried?"
"Of course I didn't know her," Storen replied. "Why would I hang out with a florist anyway?"
At that point, Grossberg's face lit up. "Really?" He asked. "Your Honor! I wish for that last statement to be added to the testimony."
"Very well," The Judge said. "Witness, add that last statement to the testimony."
"Why do I have a feeling that something is going to go wrong for me in a minute?" Manfred thought.
"I didn't even know who that florist was, anyway."
"Objection!" Grossberg slammed his palms on the bench. "Witness, you claim to have never met the victim before, am I correct?"
"Yeah," Storen replied. 'What about it?"
"It's simple," Grossberg replied. "If you had never met the witness before… then how did you know that she was a florist?"
"Gaccck!" Storen screamed.
"Objection!" Manfred yelled. "That has nothing to do with the testimony!"
"Objection!" Grossberg pointed his finger at Manfred. "The witness testified that he never knew the victim! If he really didn't know her, how did he knew what her profession was?"
"Argh!" Manfred slammed his bench in anger as the audience began yelling.
The Judge slammed his gavel down. "Order! Order! Witness! Explain yourself! Did you know who the victim was?"
"…" Storen was silent. "Yes… yes I know who she was. I knew her because… she used to be my girlfriend."
'What?" The Judge yelled
"My hemorrhoids are in pain again!" Grossberg cried.
"Yeah, we dated for a few weeks… but we broke up when I learned her secret." Sotren muttdered
"What secret?" Grossberg asked.
"She was working for the Cadaverini's." Storen explained.
"Wh-what?" The Judge said. He had to bang his gavel down to quiet a rowdy audience. "The victim was wokring with the infamous mob syndicate known as the Cadaverini"s? Is this true, witness?"
"Yes," Store replied sadly. "She told me she joined them because she wanted to make more money than being a florist. I tried to talk her out of it, but… She left me. And what's worse, she left me for some other guy. That's why when I saw her, I sped into the house she went into. I wanted to know if she was till working with them and was still doing jobs for them. I thought If I could catch her in the act I could try to stop her and convince her to leave the Cadaverini's forever."
"But why did you keep all of this a secret?" Grossberg asked.
"Well that prosecutor over there told me not to mention it if I wasn't asked," Storen explained, resulting in a huge uproar in the audience and the Judge banging his gavel in an attempt to restore order.
"Order! Order! Order!" The Judge was screaming. "M-Mr. von Karma! What have you done?"
Manfred had been watching silently, observing what was going on in the trial, before at last speaking. "I've done nothing wrong, Your Honor."
"B-But!" The Judge exclaimed, "You had your witness conceal information from his testimony!"
Manfred wagged his finger. "Conceal information? Poppycock! I simply thought that the witness personal history with the defendant had nothing to do with the case."
"Objection!" Grossberg yelled. "Mr. von Karma, I don't believe that for a minute. If the defendant was close to the victim, it's possible he's lying in his testimony as revenge for whom he believes to be the killer, or he's simply remembering wrong."
"Objection!" Manfred snapped his fingers. "If you're going to claim that the witness memory is wrong, then provide some evidence!"
"Take that!" Grossberg presented Storen's medical papers to the court. "According to these medical papers, the witness memory is confused when under stress. Therefore!" He pointed his finger at Manfred. "Its not hard to imagine that the stress of losing someone he loved would affect the witness memory!"
"Agh!" Manfred flinched
"Hmm…" The Judge said. "That is a possibility. It could be the stress of losing someone he was once in love may be affecting his memory."
"Or it could something else," Grossberg said, tapping his chin in thought. "Perhaps he is simply lying because, in his anger, he murdered his former love and wants to hide what really happened that night."
"Wait a minute!" The Judge exclaimed. "Are you accusing the witness of being the murder?"
Grossberg nodded his head. "I am. I accuse this witness of being the murderer!"
"W-W_WHAT?" Storen screamed in such shock that it looked like he was going to faint.
"Objection!" Manfred screamed. "This is ridiculous! Why would you accuse this man of being the killer?"
"Objection!" Grossberg said. "Before you call my theory ridiculous, let me explain my logic to you, Mr. von Karma!"
Argument: Grossberg's Logic
"Adam Storen killed his girlfriend."
"His reason for doing so was revenge for breaking his heart when they ended their relationship."
"When Ms. Groven entered my client's house, Mr. Storen forced her to bring him inside the house."
"The three had an argument, and Storen took out a knife and stabbed his girlfriend."
"There was a struggle, of course, and John Aploe was shot in the process."
"Then Storen escaped through the door and called the police to frame my client as the killer."
"Interesting logic, the Judge said. "Mr. von Karma, you may begin your rebuttal, but be warned. The court will not accept any needless pressing. If you have a problem with Mr. Grossberg's logic, then you will only present one piece of evidence. Understood?"
"Understood." Manfred said. "Besides, the contradiction is quite obvious."
Rebuttal: Grossberg's Logic
"Adam Storen killed his girlfriend."
"His reason for doing so was revenge for breaking his heart when they ended their relationship."
"When Ms. Groven entered my client's house, Mr. Storen forced her to bring him inside the house."
"The three had an argument, and Storen took out a knife and stabbed his girlfriend."
"There was a struggle, of course, and John Aploe was shot in the process."
"Then Storen escaped through the door and called the police to frame my client as the killer."
"Objection!" Manfred wagged his finger. "That is impossible. As previously stated, the door was locked from the inside until the police arrived. Therefore, it is impossible for the witness to have escaped from the door!"
"ARGHH!" Grossberg screamed. "My hemorrhoids feel like they've blasted off on a rocket!"
The audience started to get rowdy again, and the Judge had to bang his gavel down a few more times to stop the chatter.
"B-But!" Grossberg stammered, "He may have escaped through the window!"
"Objection!" Manfred said, "That's impossible. The entire house was investigated, and we examined everything, including the window, and the only prints found on it were the victim's!"
"My hemorrhoids feel like they're blasting off again!" Grossberg screamed.
The Judge banged his gavel down. "Hmm… I agree that the evidence shows that the witness cannot be the killer. However! The witness has enough contradictions in his testimony to leave doubt on what he actually saw. Therefore, at this time, I cannot pronounce a verdict. So then the trail will be-"
"Objection!" Manfred wagged his finger. "Don't suspend the trial yet, Your Honor. There's still one person left who can testify as to what happened." It's a long shot if this will work, but it's the only chance I have left to win the trial today, Manfred thought.
"W-What?" The Judge asked. "Who is this last person who can testify, Mr. von Karma?"
"Take that!" Manfred presented the profile of John Apole to the court. "I call forth John Aploe as the final witness!"
"The defendant?" The Judge asked. "Well, very well then. However, I feel it is time for a recess. We will have a 30 minute recess. Understood?"
"Y-yes, Your Honor." Grossberg said in a defeated tone of voice. Manfred said nothing.
"Very well. Court is now adjourned for recess!" The Judge slammed his gavel down.
Court Record
Evidence
Prosecutor's Badge: Proof of my profession. However, I find it more fashionable to keep it in my pocket.
Knife: The murder weapon, belonging to the defendant. Has no fingerprints and is covered in blood.
Autopsy Report: Cause of death: Single knife stab to the heart. Estimated Time of Death: 12:10-12:15.
Broken Door: The front door leading into the defendant's house. Was locked during the murder and wasn't opened until several police officers broke the door down.
Bloody Gloves: A pair of gloves that was found on the defendants hands. Covered in the victim's blood.
Victim's Gun: A .35 pistol belonging to the victim. Was taken to the crime scene by the victim for unknown reasons.
Bullet: A single bullet found in the defendant. Proof that there was a struggle of some sort between the defendant and the victim.
Storen's Medical Papers:Patient's memory is affected when under high amounts of strress, and is often remember things incorrectly. Also has a highly devolped case of holophoiba.
Profiles
Manfred von Karma, Age 24, Male : Me. This is my first case as a prosecutor.
Damon Gant, Age 25, Male: The detective for this case. Very cheerful, tends to laugh a lot.
Adam Storen, Age 21, Male: A man who works at a local grocery store and my witness to the crime. Claims to have seen the victim enter the defendants house before the murder. Also use to date the victim until recently.
Eve Groven, Age 22, Female: The victim for this case and the defendant's girlfriend and the witness' ex-girlfriend. Used to be a florist and worked for the Cadaverini's when she was alive. Was found dead in the defendant's house.
John Aploe, Age 24, Male: A local fruit vendor, and the defendant for this case. Accused of his killing his girlfriend.
Marvin Grossberg, Age 24, Male: The defense attorney for this trial and a rookie. Often complains about his hemorrhoids.
A/N: Ugh. I hated writing this chapter. I kept rewriting it because I was never satisfied with how it would turn out in the end. In fact, I'm still not totally satisfied with how this chapter turned out. I honestly think this the weakest chapter I have written so far. Speaking of rewrites, this case actually went under a massive rewriting during the second chapter, but I'll get to that next chapter.
Speaking of Manfred, I'm going to introduce his future wife in a future case, but I don't know what to call her. I would appreciate it if someone would leave an idea for her name in a review, and I would prefer it if her last name wasn't Von Karma because they aren't married yet.
This was my first time writing an OC, and I don't think I did very well Adam Storen and his personality. I'll try and work on that later. Speaking of characters, I plan on adding more characters from the AA series, like Edgeworth, Franziska, Kristoph, and several other characters from the series, both important main characters and minor characters that you wouldn't expect to see in this fic. You can leave a request in a review if you want to see a certain character in the story. The only rule is that because I plan for this fic to take place from the start of Manfred's career and end a few years before the events of PW:AA, you cannot request characters that Manfred hadn't yet met until Turnabout Goodbyes, so Phoenix will not be in the fic. I may put him in the epilogue, though.
In other news, I'm trying to expand my writing, and I'm currently working on an Apollo/Vera fic. It's one of my favorite AA pairings, and I'm disappointed by the lack of fics on the pairing, so I've decided to give a go at this pairing and see if I can write a romance fic. If it turns out okay, then I will start writing more romance fics not only for Ace Attorney, but for Sonic the Hedgehog and the Legend of Zelda as well.
Wow, that was a long Author's Note. Anyway, read and review!