Phoenix has, for once in his life, absolutely got this. No winging it, no surprise turnabouts, he came to court totally prepared. It's going to be a straightforward case, no surprises, just an airtight defense...for that other lawyer, anyways. See, the thing is, it's not actually HIS trial. Which is, Phoenix thinks happily to himself in lobby three of the Japanifornian courthouse, pretty damn great. I could really get used to this.
There's no stress about the time crunch to gather evidence, no friends or loved ones in danger from the verdict. He doesn't even have to deal with the uncomfortable cognitive dissonance that would be supporting the prosecution. The police arrested the wrong person, natch, so Phoenix can spill his tale to his heart's content, satisfied that he is helping the defense have a nice easy win. She seems like a good kid, he thinks, having bumped into the woman as she was running around frantically gathering evidence. Probably only a few years older than he was when he started out, but somehow that seems like a lifetime ago. She's got the drive for the job, though, he thinks fondly.
Ms. Patil had spent five minutes grilling him with a ferocity that would have done Mia proud before realizing he was a sympathetic witness for her case. She'd apologized quite politely, too, for the mix up. Phoenix was very understanding. If he had five bucks for every random witness who seemed to want to sabotage his case for no reason, he could afford to buy that fancy tea Edgeworth's always going on about.
Yes-sir-ee, thinks Phoenix, a little guilty to be so cheerful at a trial about how someone, y'know, died, this is gonna be a hoot.
A gavel on the judge's bench calls the trial of State V. Lovelace to order, and Phoenix watches with interest as the facts of the case are laid out without his involvement. Pane is prosecuting, and the fact that Edgeworth has picked this trial to observe (probably thinks he's being subtle about keeping an eye on me, hah) is making the balding man even more nervous than usual.
Ms. Lulabelle Lovelace stands accused of her husband's mistress's murder, which is admittedly a bad look all around. Especially as the two were seen arguing right as they walked outside the meat processing plant where both work. They stepped out the back door, ostensibly for a smoke break but really to keep yelling at each other. The gun went off, and a false arrest was made despite Phoenix's best efforts. Those maybe weren't as strenuous as they could have been, he was still a little bit distracted at that point, but he's sure justice will prevail regardless.
All the evidence against the unfortunate defendant is purely circumstantial, but might easily be made to sway a jury. If, of course, the prosecution had the slightest idea how to do that, or even so much as an ounce of charisma with which to pull it off. Phoenix was maybe taking a bit too much pleasure in the suffering of his fellow man, here, but to be fair Winston Pane was a smear on the good name of lawyers everywhere. Also, so, so annoying, good lord, just the worst, thinks Phoenix. He would rather face off against literally any other prosecutor, and that was really saying a lot. Half of the others wanted to maim and/or murder him, and several of those would act on their impulses.
Given all that, there was more than a little glee to be found in watching the man be verbally torn to shreds by Ms. Patil, lawyer and defender of the innocent. Her righteous fury is not limited to the prosecution, either, as Phoenix's fellow witness quickly finds out. The man, a police officer, had been facing directly away from the crime, and not paying the least bit of attention. He nevertheless insists on giving an almond-butter and swiss-cheese sandwich of a testimony; nuts and filled with holes.
It's possible, Phoenix thinks, that the man actually believes it, even, stress can mess with people's memories. On the other hand, he also seems to be extremely embarrassed to have had a murder happen literally right behind his back, so there's that.
Ms. Patil goes at the guy from both potential angles, and he cracks like an egg after less than ten minutes. She's helped out by the fact that there had been bloodstains on the front of Phoenix and the back of the cop, handily denoting their relative positions. Plus neither was close enough to hear much over the factory machinery, as per the after-the-fact scene report Ema provided. Watching the officer's big bushy mustache go completely limp while his badge pops off and his hat tilts to cover his eyes is extremely amusing. She calls her second witness (him!) to the stand very dramatically, Phoenix approves. He's right there in the audience, but the Judge gives them all a fifteen-minute break anyways to "locate Mr. Wright, and have him brought before the court." Nice of him.
"You're doing great!" he mouths at the newbie on his way out, and gives her a thumbs up. She seems to appreciate it, brightening up a bit. It's hard work arguing with witnesses who seem determined to light the podium on fire with their own burning pants, Phoenix knows.
After a quick snack and/or bathroom break for everybody involved, it's time for Phoenix to take the stand. Edgeworth looks physically pained, and it's honestly a little insulting. This is a straightforward case, there's no way I could mess it up, thinks Phoenix indignantly. Ok, there are actually, like, a dozen ways off the top of my head I could royally screw the whole court, but I'm not GONNA, geeze.
His testimony begins with what he was doing standing in a random parking lot across from a meat-processing plant. Athena had pushed him into a cab with the wrong address for their latest case (on her way out of town for a well-deserved vacation), and he had gotten a bit lost wandering around looking for the right building. He had then happened to see Officer Lies-a-Lot ripping off a parking slip, and then attempting to give the now-slipless car a ticket. Naturally, he had helpfully gone over to see the mistake corrected. There was, at this point in his testimony, a groan from the portion of the audience wearing blue uniforms. Phoenix has a feeling some salary reviews are going to be forthcoming.
Arguing with a cop was not normally a good way to endear oneself to a jury, but nobody likes traffic tickets. Plus, it had been less of an argument and more of an "Objection! That's illegal! And I know Chief Gumshoe!" sort of conversation. Phoenix had been recognized, even, which was always an ego boost. Useful, too, especially in this case, as before the cop had clocked the Lawyer's badge he'd been about ready to make an arrest. On charges of catching an officer with his pants down, presumably. Phoenix had been almost wishing he would, just to see his face when Edgeworth got ahold of him. As it is the back of the unfortunate officer's head is about three degrees from igniting with the burning look he's getting from the stands. Phoenix almost feels bad for the walking perjury charge.
At that point the story changed abruptly from amusing to alarming. Murder could do that. Phoenix has maybe the tiniest bit of hyper-vigilance at times because of, well, a lot of stuff, so he noticed the lady's angry body language right away, even as far off as they were. There's a difference between someone just letting off steam, and someone who might actually be about to try to kill another person. Phoenix really does think he's got the distinction down, after all these years. Which is why his eyes locked immediately on Ms. Harlotta Steele, who was really leaning towards the latter as she followed the accused out of the factory.
Cue the standard murmuring from the peanut gallery, as the Judge calls for order. Yeah, that's right, thinks Phoenix, the victim. Take that! He continues with a straightforward account of how the two women started screaming at each other, while the cop continued to bluster and attempt to convince Phoenix not to rat him out to his superior officers. Ms. Steele, and NOT the defendant, then pulled an antique revolver out of her tacky clutch. Of the two, she was the only one carrying a purse in which might be concealed a weapon, and both were wearing safety gear without pockets or loose flaps that could serve the same purpose, so yes, he was very sure it was her, Winston.
Phoenix admitted to freezing for a brief moment when he first saw the gun, then shouted "Hey, wait!" in a vain attempt to de-escalate from half a basketball court's distance away. The cop had thought he was responding to one of his remarks, apparently, because he failed to turn around. Even after Phoenix stepped out from behind him to approach a little closer to the chain link fence they were both standing by. Even after the first gunshot. In attempting to point the gun at the defendant, the victim had made a tragic mistake. Ms. Steele had fumbled the weapon, spinning it around on her finger, and been dead before she hit the ground.
Ms. Steele's suddenly lax grip had caused the gun to slip from her hand, landing roughly on the asphalt several feet away. It had also caused the old and ill-kept weapon to misfire, letting off a second shot that hit some sort of catch on a nearby vat of byproduct from the meat-processing plant. The resulting giant flood of pig's blood was enough to coat Phoenix from dress-socks to tie-knot, and FINALLY make the cop pull an about face. Honestly, it was only due to the chain-link fence mitigating some of the force that the two men hadn't been knocked down.
Ms. Lovelace, to her credit, had immediately approached the victim to attempt to give medical aid. Phoenix had seen that sort of headshot, though, and knew it was too late to help the woman. As the cop was at last seeming to snap to, Phoenix lifted the relatively unsoiled notebook and small pencil from his breast pocket with an extremely rushed, "can I borrow this? Thanks." The cop had run for the parking lot gate leading to the grisly scene, Phoenix had assumed for the purposes of helping the poor woman. Meanwhile Phoenix, who had heard entirely too many muddled eyewitness accounts, took about half a minute to write down in exhaustive detail exactly what he'd seen. The resulting (surprisingly legible, given the situation) document was entered in the court record under 'bloody note.' An accurate if slightly misleading description of the evidence.
Phoenix had thought (if he had been thinking, honestly looking back he might have been just a little bit in shock) that the first priority after making sure everyone was safe was to make sure no one was unjustly accused of murder. Not that that had really worked out for him. The actual professional had seemed to be on the way, though, and no one was hurt in a way that could be helped. It honestly hadn't occurred to the Lawyer in the moment that the officer, having not seen any of the action, would assume that the closest person to the body was the culprit. It wasn't even a completely out-there theory this time. The officer, who has been looking increasingly like he might start crying, looks a little better at the admission. Phoenix then goes on to mention how the man had completely refused to listen to him at any point afterwards, though, so it's a short-lived relief.
Winston takes a crack at his testimony, then, with some comments he can't say he doesn't agree with at least a bit. It's not so much spotting a contradiction as it is the other lawyer trying to throw doubt in general on the kind of person who would witness a murder and write down an account of it instead of leaping to help. Phoenix winces at the truth of it. He maybe hadn't been dealing with that as well as he thought he had. In response to the accusation that's making Phoenix's spikes droop with guilt, though, a three pronged "OBJECTION!" rings through the courtroom.
Ms. Patil he understands, he's helped her out and it's good of her to stand up for him, plus she must be itching to take Pane down a peg. Edgeworth is more unexpected, he'd have thought the other man would keep his silence for the sake of dignity. The really surprising voice in the trio is the defendant, Ms. Lovelace. The woman declares staunchly that she doesn't blame him, wasn't thinking straight herself, and that she's sure he did the best he could.
Honestly? It really warms his heart. Takes a huge load off his conscience that he didn't notice he'd been carrying. Phoenix hadn't even realized how bad he'd been feeling about what happened until he hears their defense of him. Athena would have been having fits if she wasn't on vacation.
"Sustained!" the Judge declares forcefully in response to the three-part harmony of outrage. "People cannot be prosecuted for having unusual reactions to the shock of witnessing a shooting. Mr. Wright is not on trial here, Mr. Pane, and the morality of his actions is not to be further called into question. This courtroom will not be used as a means to impugn the character of your so-called rivals." Aw, thinks Phoenix, maybe tearing up a bit (but you can't prove it, so there), they really do care.
Winston then tries to object to his testimony on the grounds that Phoenix is biased toward the defense. Phoenix immediately agrees that he is, on account of how the defense is obviously right; Ms. Lovelace is clearly innocent. That objection is not sustained, although Phoenix is warned not to unduly influence the jury, and Ms. Patil heroically holds back her laughter. Her client, meanwhile, is looking at Phoenix a little starry-eyed. To be fair he might have just kept the woman out of jail. Edgeworth has his face hidden in his hands (possibly mortified at the whole to-do), so Phoenix can't read the other man. The Chief Prosecutor's been a little out of sorts about this whole mess, Phoenix will have to be a good friend and check up on him after the trial.
Said trial quickly comes to its proper conclusion, after a quick presentation from Ema regarding bullet angles, ballistics, and the complete lack of fingerprints on the gun from anyone other than the victim. I'd certainly hope she would have gone free even without my testimony, thinks Phoenix, but he knows that's far from a certainty. He breaks out in a wild grin at the announcement of "Not Guilty!" and joins in the clapping as Maggie and Gumshoe throw confetti. Phoenix Wright: Ace Witness, doesn't quite have the same ring to it as his usual moniker, but he thinks that he likes it just fine all the same.
