Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney/Episode 5: Rise from the Ashes/Day 4 - Trial Latter 2

The judge calls Lana to the stand and has her testify about her relationship with Gant.

Gant & The Fabrication: Cross-examination
Press Lana's 4th statement. Lana says she arranged the crime scene, because she was the first to get there. She saw the knife from the Prosecutor's Trophy inside Neil's body. But didn't he die from accidentally stumbling into the suit of armor? Lana stands by her statement that Darke killed Neil. But if that's true, then what happened to Darke's knife? Lana says it was lying on the ground. The judge has Lana add what she did after she found the crime scene.
 * "I broke off the tip of Darke's knife, planted it inside the wound, then moved the body."

She did what? Press on that statement. You are then given a choice of questions to ask. Ask "Why did you move the body?". She adds the answer in her testimony.
 * "The pieces of the jar that shattered during the events threatened my plan."

Present the Unstable Jar on that statement. The name could only have been written on the jar before it was shattered. Yet it was broken in the struggle! The judge has Lana testify on Phoenix's claim.

Jar & Message in Blood: Cross-examination
On Lana's 4th statement, present the Unstable Jar. There was still one piece left that Lana didn't wipe off, and that piece was found in Gant's locker. When Lana hears this, she is stunned, just as you hoped. Since she testified to gathering every last piece, that means Gant's piece must have been collected before Lana got there. If that is true, then Gant was the first person at the scene, not Lana!

What was Gant doing there? Why was he hiding this for two years? Edgeworth says that he helped Lana protect Ema. Lana still denies it, and scolds Phoenix for telling foul lies. Hearing this, Phoenix gets suspicious. What if this is what Gant is planning?

Phoenix then tells Lana to testify once more, saying that if Gant fabricated the evidence before Lana got there, then Ema's involvement may also be a lie. Lana is scared, but with Edgeworth's encouragement, she finally agrees to tell the truth.

Lana's Testimony: Actual Crime Scene
Lana has proof that she saw Neil on the armor, she had taken a picture, which she sent to Phoenix this morning. But you don't recall ever receiving the photo, although she did give something to you.

Check the Evidence Law Book. Turn it to the back of the cover and examine it. You'll find the picture inside. Lana was right, she did see Neil on the armor's sword. Ema sees something stunning. A piece of cloth from Neil's vest had been removed. This could be the Strip of Cloth you found in Gant's safe earlier! You begin the cross-examination.

Actual Crime Scene: Cross-examination
"Hold it!"

Gant, out of nowhere, comes to the stand as you start. Edgeworth tells Gant he has already forfeit his chance to make further statements. Gant says he doesn't have to, as he claims you have the evidence that says who the real murderer is. You have a choice to present it or not. The Strip of Cloth has Ema's handprint on it, and you don't want to yet finger her as the murderer, so choose "Cannot show evidence". Choosing otherwise and presenting the cloth will lead to an automatic "Game Over"

Solving the case
When the court realizes that Gant hid evidence in his safe, Gant decides to come clean. He was at the scene before Lana, and saw the opportunity to control Lana. He knew she would come to him for aid, so he helped her conceal her sister's involvement after hiding two of the pieces of evidence from the scene. He put the evidence in his safe as insurance, in case something in his plan went awry down the road.

To insure that he would never get fingered for the crime, he kept the most legible piece of the broken jar, although he hadn't counted on Lana wiping off the other pieces. Edgeworth wants to know how they can believe he didn't just forge Ema's name on the jar along with everything else. That's why he kept the other piece of evidence — the Strip of Cloth. Gant knows you have it, and the judge asks you again to present it, so choose "Show evidence", then present the Strip of Cloth. When asked who the fingerprints belong to, present Ema Skye's profile.

Before you regret this, however, Phoenix finds a contradiction on the cloth. You should probably catch it by now as well. When asked to show the contradiction, present Lana's Picture. Blood is splattered everywhere on Neil's chest, even on the spot the piece of cloth should have been. If the piece of cloth was there, blood would have gotten on it. However, there's no blood on the cloth! The fingerprints prove that Ema shoved Neil, but the cloth must have been cut off before he was impaled, or it would be covered in blood.

Gant was there before Lana, and he also admitted to cutting out the Strip of Cloth, and arranging the scene a little. When Gant arrived on the scene he lifted Neil's body and impaled it, then wrote Ema's name on the jar in the victim's blood and shattered it. Leaving behind the clues led Lana to believe her sister was responsible, which set her up to be blackmailed.

It looks like it's finally over, but Gant persists. He accuses you of presenting illegal evidence, which can't be used to convict a suspect. Gant says that when you concealed the Strip of Cloth the first time he asked you to present it, it became illegal evidence.

When asked if you admit to purposefully concealing evidence, say "I did not". It is true that you refused to present the cloth at one point, but it's because you "couldn't", not that you "didn't". When asked to prove that the evidence isn't illegal, present the Evidence Law book.

There are two certain rules in this book:
 * 1) No evidence shall be shown without the approval of the Police Department. Two years ago, Gant cut off the cloth from Neil's vest because it was decisive evidence, and hid it in his safe. It is obvious that he didn't have Gant's approval to show it, until Gant admitted that he had removed the Strip of Cloth.
 * 2) Unregistered evidence must be relevant to the case in trial. When Gant first wanted you to present the cloth, it was impossible for you to prove its relevance to the case. Until Lana's Picture was presented, there was no way for Phoenix to present the evidence.

Hearing this, Gant finally gives in to your claim. Not only that, he also explains what he was doing in the current case. Jake Marshall never let SL-9 go, and continued to investigate behind his back, first recruiting Starr, then Goodman. Gant also reveals the reason he killed Goodman — Goodman wanted Gant to reopen the SL-9 case, and he wanted to bring some evidence out for Marshall.

Lana takes the stand again. Phoenix explains to Lana that Ema did nothing wrong, and Gant betrayed her trust. She no longer has a reason to stay silent, and will reveal everything from the time she and Gant forged evidence, up until today. Poor Phoenix didn't get her out of all the trouble… but Lana believes that one day Phoenix will make it to the top. She thanks both Phoenix and Edgeworth for their diligence. Unfortunately, she's still an accomplice to Damon Gant's crimes, and as such, a trial for those crimes are to be set for a later date.

Strange, though, Lana is still smiling. She's just happy to finally be freed from the chains of her past.

Lana Skye is found...



What really happened
It all started two years ago. Joe Darke, a businessman, was driving home when he met with an unfortunate accident. He ran into a pedestrian, killing him. Darke panicked, and killed a man who witnessed the hit and run. He then killed a woman who witnessed that killing. He then killed a child, who witnessed that third killing, and as he buried the bodies, he killed a jogger that caught him.

Darke seemingly left all evidences hidden, and it looked like he would get away with it. However, he was overridden with guilt and eventually turned himself in. Thus the trial of the "Joe Darke Killings" began.

His trial involved a team of investigators (Jake Marshall, Angel Starr, and Bruce Goodman, with Neil Marshall as the case's prosecutor) led by Damon Gant and Lana Skye, who were very famous back then. The team was very desperate for answers and couldn't obtain good enough evidence to find Darke Guilty.

One night, the team took him for questioning at the Police Department. During the questioning, however, a terrible storm caused a blackout in the building. Darke took this advantage and ran off. Neil followed, carrying the broken knife from the Prosecutor's Trophy he'd received at a ceremony earlier that day.

The chase led to Lana and Gant's office. There, Ema Skye was waiting for her sister Lana, so they could have dinner. Just then, Darke barged in, noticed Ema, and was about to make her his next victim. Before he could do so, however, Neil entered the office and they both fought a short battle on Gant's side.

Neil eventually gained the upper hand, and as he lifted his knife, a bolt of lightning left an image that would haunt Ema for years to come. Seeing someone about to be stabbed, Ema panicked, and, assuming the one holding the knife (Neil) was Darke, pushed Neil aside. Darke and Neil were knocked unconscious when Ema pushed them, and Ema passed out from shock. Right before she lost consciousness, another flash of lighting illuminated the jar sitting on one of Gant's shelves.

Shortly afterward, Gant arrived at the scene. He saw two men and a girl lying unconscious. Gant took advantage of the opportunity to cut off the piece of Neil's vest with Ema's handprint on it. He then did the unthinkable, lifting Neil's body and impaling it on the sword carried by a nearby suit of armor, killing him, with lots of blood spilling onto his chest. Gant then wrote Ema's name on the jar with Neil's blood. He broke the jar, and took the piece with the most legible part of Ema's name, and hid it in his locker with the cloth.

Shortly afterwards, Lana came in, and seeing the crime scene (unaware that it had changed), was horrified to find that Ema may have killed Neil. Being Ema's sister, Lana asked Gant to cover this up, and promised him she would do anything he asked. Gant started by telling Lana to arrange the crime scene. Lana wiped Ema's name off the jar fragments, broke off the tip of Darke's blade and placed it in Neil's wound (after taking his body off the armor), and moved the unconscious bodies to her side of the office. By doing this, Darke would be sure to get the Guilty verdict.

Neil was the prosecutor of the case, so Lana took the forged evidence to Miles Edgeworth, who replaced Neil. Edgeworth was unaware that the decisive evidence he was given was forged, the real evidence haven been taken away by Gant.

Before the trial, Ema was too affected to talk about the crime, so she drew a picture of the events on the back of the evidence list and gave it to Goodman. Gant, however, got to it first and took the half of the picture that could identify on which side of the office the murder took place. Without any evidence to the contrary, Darke, framed for the murder of Neil, was found Guilty and was sentenced to death.

Gant and Lana, for different reasons, didn't want the detectives to investigate further. Since they were suspicious of what happened, Gant fired Angel and demoted Jake to patrolman. Goodman however, was able to keep his position, because firing or demoting him as well would have left the commissioners very suspicious.

The detectives were persistent however. They knew something was up. The decisive evidence they presented did not fit what they had at all, which hurt the three. Jake was the one suffering the most, since his brother had died. The trio decided to investigate behind Gant's back.

Gant, who had been promoted Chief of Police thanks to the trial, promoted Lana to become the Chief Prosecutor so he could control the Prosecutor's Office through her. Lana did just about anything Gant told her to do to protect Ema from going to jail, no matter how cruel and harsh it may have been. Lana developed a very cold personality since.

The "Joe Darke Killings" case was closed and was then known as the infamous "SL-9 Incident".

Two years later...
It was the morning of evidence transferrals, when the Police Department and the Prosecutor's Office got together for an awards ceremony, before transferring evidence from two year old cases down in the vaults, never to be seen again.

Bruce Goodman's ID was stolen (by Jake Marshall) that day, so he went to the Police Chief to fill out a missing item report. Gant then went with Goodman to the Evidence Room and they used his ID card to get in.

In the Evidence Room, Goodman asked Gant to reopen the SL-9 case so the evidence wouldn't be lost forever. He also said he wanted to take some of the evidence to Jake Marshall. Hearing this, Gant panicked, took Joe Darke's knife, and stabbed Goodman with it, killing him instantly.

Gant realized he was in trouble, so he grabbed what he could out of Goodman's evidence locker in a rush, and put Goodman's body inside the trunk of Miles Edgeworth's car. He left behind pieces of the broken jar and a rubber glove was caught between the locking sensor and the door, so it didn't close all the way. Then, he took a screwdriver from a random old case, and told Edgeworth himself to take it to his office. Wondering why, Edgeworth drove his car back to the Underground Parking Lot of the Prosecutor's Office, unknowingly carrying Goodman's body with him! Gant then contacted Lana Skye and told her to go to the Parking Lot and dispose of the body. Lana obeyed and walked to the Parking Lot.

Meanwhile, police officer Mike Meekins was assigned to protect the Blue Badger that day. He moved the cardboard figure to the Evidence Room, unknowingly covering a handprint Gant had left.

Jake Marshall stole Goodman's ID Card on the morning of the crime, because that day was his last chance to get at the evidence for the SL-9 case. He took Goodman's clothing and went to the Evidence Room just after the ceremony (where Edgeworth won the Prosecutor's Trophy). He opened Goodman's locker, only to find nearly all the evidence was gone. He was then startled by Meekins, who was retrieving the Blue Badger from the room. Meekins, not recognizing Marshall, asked for his ID card. Fearing his cover would be blown, Marshall pulled out his knife instead. They fought a short battle, with Marshall the victor. Meekins' blood was splattered all over his disguise, so he threw the coat inside his locker to hide what happened.

Since Marshall was a security patrolman, he was aware of the camera in the Evidence Room, and he managed to leave the room undetected.

Around the same time, Lana got to the Underground Parking Lot and opened up the trunk of Edgeworth's car to find Goodman's lifeless body. She had to get rid of Darke's knife so that the SL-9 case wouldn't be brought back up, so she took Edgeworth's knife, which she found in his trunk, and stabbed the corpse in the same place Gant had stabbed him. She then took Darke's knife, wrapped it in her scarf, and put it inside the car's exhaust pipe. Lana then called Ema to tell her to dispose of the evidence in her muffler.

Angel Starr noticed the "crime" and captured the moment with her camera. Angel then proceeded to arrest Lana, who decided to pin herself for the crime, as speaking out would spell certain doom for Ema.

Epilogue
Now sit back as you enjoy the ending. At some point, you are given an opportunity to show something. Present the Evidence List, and when given the chance, yell "Objection!".

During the Credits, you'll notice that the green grid is on the touch screen. However, instead of finding fingerprints, you'll find pictures!

After the credits, you are given another book to check. Examine the back cover for a cute photo.

Congratulations, you have just completed the Nintendo DS version of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney!