The State Verses Derek Morgan Ch 51

When they arrived at the courthouse Mia and Hotch headed on inside the court room to wait on the guards to bring in Derek, they decided that they would discuss a few things while they were waiting. Mia glanced up when the guards came through the door with a cuffed span Derek, they walked him over to the table before they uncuffed him, he blew out a deep breath as he sat down between his two lawyers.

Mia leaned in and said, "just so you know, you entire family wanted to be character witnesses for you but decided that might not be a good deal, it would look like they were trying to just butter up the jury". Derek said, "if you didn't use my family, who did you get to be my character witnesses?", Hotch grinned and said, "just wait, they'll be here in a few minutes", Derek nodded his head and sat there wondering just who they got on such short notice to testify on his behalf.

The team minus Reid and Shane of course were sitting in the back of the courtroom, they sat talking about how they hoped that today went good for Derek and that he would be found not guilty. Their attention was pulled to the front of the room when the bailiff said, "all stand, honorable Cindy Appleton presiding", they watched as she walked from her chambers to take a seat behind the bench and said, "you may be seated".

She looked at both parties and said, "is the defense ready to continue?", Hotch said, "we are your honor", she nodded her head and watched Hotch as he said, "we would like to call to the stand Dr. Chyna McGill to the stand". After being sworn in Hotch had asked her what her position was to which she replied, "I am a psychologist at Mercy General Hospital here in Virginia".

Hotch then asked her what her job consisted of and she went into great detail talking about how she studied mental states, perceptual states, cognitive, emotional and social processes and how behavior of individuals relate to each other and their environment. When she was asked how somebody who had been drugged with LSC and Mescaline would be effected cognitively and emotionally she went into great detail again emphasizing that when a person is drugged especially with a hallucogenics that they are rarely able to distinguish reality from fantasy or dreams.

Hotch had also asked her why would drugs stay longer in some peoples systems compared to others and she said that each person is different so the rate that the drugs are absorbed into the body is different, like for example some one might absorb a drug in 24 hours yet with the same drug to another person it could take 72 hours or longer to absorb which meant that the person would be unable to tell what was real and what wasn't.

Scott didn't bother to cross examine her because he knew that she'd proven the point that Hotch and Mia had wanted her too so he knew that it was useless to try to do anything now. When her testimony was over Cindy said, "you may step down", she nodded her head and then stood up and walked back to her seat, the judge then said, "you may call your next witness", Hotch said, "we call bomb squad officer Connor Franks to the stand" .

Derek smiled when he saw his old friend walk up to be sworn in, once he was seated Hotch had asked him to please describe Derek's character, what kind of person is he?", Connor said, "Derek Morgan is an amazing man, he never thinks of himself, always worries about other people and will go out of his way to help anybody and everybody".

Hotch had then asked if in his opinion could Derek ever kill anybody if it wasn't a life or death situation to which Connor quickly said, "no way, in my opinion there is no way that he would hurt somebody much less kill somebody if it wasn't a life of death situation", Scott said, "objection", Cindy said, "on what grounds?", Scott said, "the witness is giving his personal opinion of the agent Morgan".

Cindy said, "he's a character witness that's what they do, they give their opinion of a persons character and that is what he's doing", she shook her head and said, "please sit down and stop embarrassing yourself". Scott sat down and blew out a deep breath, he couldn't believe he did that, that he made himself and the state look incompetent.

When Connor was done the judge said, "thank you sir you may step down", Connor smiled and then got up and walked by Derek and headed back to sit down in his seat so the trial could continue. The judge said, "do you have any other witnesses?", Mia said, yes mam, we have one more character witness and then the defendant will also be testifying" to which the judge nodded her head and waited for the next witness to be called.

Hotch said, "we would like to call James Barfield to the stand", when Derek heard that name he wanted to cry, he'd missed that young man so much and when he saw his smiling face tears streamed down his cheeks. After James was sworn in and had a seat Hotch asked him to please describe what kind of person Derek was".

ames said, "when I grew up Derek, he, well he was my mentor, I don't know what I would have done without him and his help", Hotch said, "do you think he is an evil or mean spirited person?", James laughed and said ,"Derek, oh mercy no, he's a great guy, he always stands up for what he believes and he's always there to help those in need and I am so glad that he was there for me".

Derek sat smiling at James, he'd grown up to be an amazing young man that Derek was proud to call fried, James went into great detail about how he grew up without a father and how Derek stepped in to help not only him but his mother too. When his testimony was over the judge smiled and thanked him and said, "you may step down.

As James walked by Derek he smiled and winked, ohhhhhhh how Derek wanted to talk to both of his character witnesses and get caught up because it felt like forever since he'd seen either man.

At the BAU Shane said, "yessssss, tell me who's the man, that's me, that's me, I'm the man", Reid turned and looked at him and said, "did you do it?", he said, "I did, never doubt me Spencer". Reid grinned and said, "now that you have access, let's see what we can see" and the two men sat there watching Robert, Robin and Charles eating dinner, they also watched Olivia as she served the dinner before joining them at the table.

Reid said, "okay, now that we can see the kitchen, let's see what other rooms have cameras in them", Shane said, "well they have like 15 cameras set up all around the inside of the house and the grounds surrounding the house. They went slowly through each camera and then when they got to the final one Shane said, "it's really dark here, what is this, a basement, no, no wait it's a root cellar".

Reid said, "can you pan around and see what you can find?", Shane nodded his head and started moving the camera around, they couldn't see very much, what they could see was what looked like a bed and somebody sitting on that bed. Reid said, "can you get a better look at the person on the bed?", Shane said, "let me try this" and hit a few keys and they both gasped at who they saw.

Reid and Shane both smiled and said in unison, "Penelope"