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The Courtroom Trial

The kids were out of school for the day, the house was still a mess, but Marnie had no time to clean it right now. Her eldest son had his courtroom trial today, and she desperately wanted to be there to support him. Since there was no way to pay for babysitting, all the kids were getting drug along, and Marnie just PRAYED that they would behave.

Benji sat nervously next to his lawyer, who seemed to be almost as nervous as he was. Certainly this wasn't his first courtroom trial... or was it?? The slick prosecutor sat at the table across from them, grinning from ear to ear, obviously at home in the courtroom, and ready for what came next.

The Malones sat behind Benji's side of the courtroom, and Marnie threatened each and every one of them that if they misbehaved, they would most certainly pay for it later. (Behind them is Cade Yeagar, Shaylee's old boyfriend.)

In his chambers, Judge Max Melvin took a deep breath and readied himself for the trial.

Out in the courtroom, the selected jurors sat in their seats: (from closest to farthest, randomly picked townies) Farhan Balderas (yes, Colin's Dad), Akira Kibo, Jade Rosa, and a very pregnant Siobhan Fyres.

And on the other side of the courtroom: Mariah Andrews, Eric Lewis, Marisol Gerard, and Theodore Lemus.

Back in their holding cell, sat the Kleptos (without Benji), sitting in silence watched by a stony-faced cop. Also outside the courtroom was Scott Barrier, ready to testify.

Finally, things started to get underway. "ALL RISE!" And the judge walked in regally.

Benji, his lawyer (Nikolai Deolssantos) and the prosecutor, Michael Roman, all stood and listened to the judge quietly.

After opening arguments, the first witness called for the prosecution was Scott Barrier, the Chief of Police, the one who'd done most of the investigating in this case. He made his way to the witness box, sat down, and was sworn in.

The prosecutor started in on questioning him, and going through all the details of the case.

Benji tried to pay attention, but so much of the terms just went way over his head.

The Chief of Police seemed right at home in a courtroom, and the case against the Kleptos - Benji in particular - seemed rock-solid.

Michael Roman had not come cheap, either, because he was animated, knowledgeable, and even entertaining. He made the details of the case fall into place seemingly without effort.

After setting down the case details, Benji's lawyer moved up to cross-examine. His inexperience was obvious. He asked a few questions, but didn't seem to be able to put any doubt in anyone's mind.

The trial crept along at a snail's pace for Benji, with people from the alarm company being prominent witnesses, as well as Londyn Burt, who, after all, was the Kleptos' connection to the alarm codes. Somehow, she seemed to have switched sides. Benji wondered what they'd said to her to get her to switch.

Finally, it was the defense's turn. The first witness called was Shaylee. Benji cringed obviously with how very pregnant she was. How could he have missed this?

Upon being sworn in, Shaylee sat uncomfortably, and smiled towards Benji. Wait, no.. she was looking behind him? Benji twisted around and - for the first time, noticed his nemesis in the audience. Gritting his teeth, he tried to pay attention.

The court reporter typed away while Shaylee was introduced, and Nikolai started in on his questioning.

The more the questioning went on, the more nervous Benji got. Every answer seemed to tighten the noose around his neck further.

Shaylee seemed unconcerned, and - to Benji's knowledge, she hadn't even looked his way once. Shaylee related the details of the night, emphasizing that Benji had planned everything, and everyone else was just along for the ride. How was this "helping" the case, Benji wondered blackly.

By the time Nikolai returned to the table, Benji noticed even his lawyer was sweating this. The other Kleptos all testified "for" Benji, and the only real information that was shared was that Benji was at fault.

Even Rita, who had been the one to physically take the violin, seemed perfectly willing to point the finger at Benji.

The jury was dismissed to the deliberation room, and the only thing left for everyone else was to wait.

Inside the room, it was clear. Benji was the guilty party, everyone else was just "along for the ride". Deliberations lasted only a half hour before they had a unanimous decision.

They filed back into the courtroom, all heading for their seats quietly.

The jury foreman - none other than Colin's estranged Dad - stood up to read the verdict.

Guilty. Of Felony Larceny. Grand Theft. Whatever you call it, it sounded terrible. They had tried to argue that there was no intention of taking more than a few things, the violin wasn't a target until Rita had taken it on the spur of the moment.. but their entire defense crumbled.

The first thing Benji did was throw his hands in the air.

Nikolai cringed, feeling horribly at fault. It had, indeed, been his first trial, one that the rest of the public defender's office hadn't wanted to touch with a ten foot pole.

Benji turned and yelled at his lawyer, swearing that he never wanted to see him again.

Sentencing was scheduled for the next day, and Marnie did not have a good feeling about it. In fact, she didn't even plan to attend. It was clear her oldest was going to jail for quite a while. So much for hoping he could help her situation.

Bonus shots:

An overhead, out of character shot of what the screen looked like while working on these shots...

I'm sure some of you are going to ask how in the world I managed to get this trial in pictures. I assure you, it was a LOT of work. almost 40 sims all under my control, and I built the courtroom. (It's on my gallery in the Generic Municipal Center lot). I had MANY more pictures, but only chose the best ones. And I went for a general description, simply because I know very little about courtroom procedure, and what I do know - let's just say it's from the internet... so please, give me some latitude here. This is fiction, after all. I'm hoping these shots will also explain why this post took me two days to write!

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