CH 205

Most people were easily persuaded as long as one wasn’t being unreasonable.

While Gu Yan didn’t speak at length nor did he deliberately colour his words with emotion, there were some who did listen to him and acted accordingly. 

Thus concluded the opening statements. The emotions in the courtroom roused by Lawyer Gaunt had calmed, and they were even more rational than before the start of the trial.

This actually wasn’t indicative that bias had been completely eliminated, but it didn’t completely stack in the prosecution’s favour.

“I’ve crossed paths with Gaunt in court before.” In the area where the First-Class Lawyers were sitting, one of the bigwigs commented in a low voice, “He isn’t that skilled at building a good defence, but his true talent lies in arousing emotion. This makes him near invincible in certain cases. He’s a perfect fit for this case, because there is an emotional aspect that he can play to. If he seizes the momentum at the start, it will be troublesome to deal with him later. The fire that he fanned up was dampened by the defence lawyer just earlier, but I bet that he’ll go at it again next round.”

As expected, Gaunt went for a slow but dramatic build-up. 

He first released a few insignificant pieces of evidence, which shared a common feature—they were on the periphery, and while they didn’t directly show the defendants abusing the victims, there wasn’t room for rebuttal either.

Therefore, after the evidence was released, every time it was the defence lawyers’ turn to speak, Dane would prattle a couple of sentences, but Gu Yan, a no-nonsense type of guy, always dropped a “I have no questions” and that was that.

This tempo of questioning imparted this sense that the prosecution’s evidence was solid and well-founded. Look, from the start of the trial up to now, the defence lawyers had nothing to say to the several rounds of evidence.

And thus, the gallery started to buzz with discussion again.

Even Dane couldn’t help but cast a few glances at Gu Yan, though it was difficult to tell whether he was more thankful that the other was giving him more space to play or more out of desperation for him to open his mouth of gold.

Otherwise, should the prosecution dominate the momentum, any defence they made would be worth shit.

Seeing that it was about time, Gaunt took the opportunity to whisk out a video.

In the video, night had only just set in. The time was marked as 9 p.m. on October 12, depicting an abandoned warehouse at the western side of Emerald Valley in the northern hemisphere of Planet Helan. 

This was one of the crime scenes of the Elderly Bobblehead case. It contained a total of twenty-three victims who were abducted between mid to late September and confined there.

They were one of the earliest victims, but due to the remote location, they had become among the latest to be discovered, only successfully rescued a month later.

The video was recorded by the police force during the rescue.

Gu Yan at the defence table and Yan Suizhi in the gallery had both watched it in its entirety. 

When those elderly people were released from their cages, their expressions were heartbreakingly lost, as if they had been wrapped in darkness for so long that they had lost awareness of their surroundings.

They didn’t know if the people who came were good or bad. Their instincts had them recoiling, scrambling around for hiding places, even shoving and kicking away their rescuers.

It took a long time before they were put on stretchers, and when they were, they suddenly quietened down, curling into a fetal position, their arms covering their heads. This could have been the only position that they were able to protect themselves.

When they first watched the video, Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan both felt uncomfortable. Anyone who watched it would share the same sentiment. 

Thus, it was obvious why Gaunt would choose to present this video to the court now.

It was just as that First-Class Lawyer had said; he had a flair and penchant for appealing to emotion.

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Ktf gfjrbc kts Xjeca kjcafv ab qea bea atlr nlvfb kjr yfmjerf tf kjr vfjv mfgajlc atja Xe Tjc kbeivc’a rabq tlw.

He knew that Gu Yan was in the running to become a First-Class Lawyer and was further embroiled in some scandals as of late. To put it bluntly, what Gu Yan urgently needed to demonstrate now was not his ability to defend in court but to play to the crowd.

Therefore, Gaunt bet that in this court trial, Gu Yan wouldn’t do anything that would be viewed negatively by the public.

Would Gu Yan stop him from playing a video that aligned so neatly with the sentiments of the general populace? 

There was absolutely no way.

Maybe Gu Yan would try to regain some ground in the cross-examination afterwards, but in this round, he could only suck it up; there was no way for him to lodge an objection.

That was Gaunt’s thought process.

When the video was cast onto the holographic screen, Gaunt gave a few seconds’ pause. 

When the lens stabilised, the audio became crisp, and it was possible for everyone to hear the elderlies’ groans and whimpers, Gaunt opened his mouth to introduce the clip.

Little did he expect that before he could utter a single word, from the defence table, Gu Yan suddenly raised his hand.

The judge looked across.

Gu Yan said with an icy calm tone, “Objection, Your Honour. The emotional impact of the video substantially outweighs its probative value. I move to have it excluded from evidence.” 

Gaunt, “…” Fuck.

The judge paused, then nodded. “May the jury please leave the court.”

All the jurors were departed by their numbers from a side door into the jury room.

The jury box was vacated so that the jurors’ judgement would not be emotionally biased by this video, and only after was the paused video allowed to resume. 

The video was sped through. After it ended, the judge deliberated before saying to Gu Yan, “I must admit, you’re right.”

Thus, the video was excluded from evidence. The jury was invited to return to the jury box, not watching any of it.

Lawyer Gaunt had a mouthful of blood caught in his chest cavity.

He silently swallowed this mouthful of blood back down and called up an expert witness. 

It was the crime scene investigator.

“Oz Gerold.”

Gerold nodded, “That’s me.”

“You conducted the evidence collection at this warehouse on the west side of Emerald Valley, which is Crime Scene 7 of this case, is that correct?” 

“Yes. In fact, I conducted the preliminary evidence collection for every crime scene of this case.” Gerold said, then amended carefully, “Those that were documented subsequently are not under my purview.”

“I understand.” Gaunt said, “Just from what you’ve observed, then, can you describe the scene to us?”

Gerold, “It was dark, damp. Poorly ventilated. Anyone enclosed there would easily lose their minds after a certain length of time. Of course, I am not saying that the mental state of the victims in these cases were caused by environmental factors.”

Gaunt said encouragingly, “We understand. Please carry on.” 

“In that kind of environment, fungal activity is extremely high and open wounds are prone to infection. But the bright side of this is that the environment also preserves forensic evidence well. Across every scene, there are 7 that have been attributed to Defendant Chia, while the number attributed to Defendant Lee is… 115 in total.”

Everyone in the courtroom, “…”

Even the judge’s face looked a bit stiff.

Lawyer Dane kept his eyes from darting to Gu Yan, thanking the heavens that that client wasn’t his. 

But Gu Yan simply lowered his eyes to glance at the report with nary a ripple in his composure.

Gaunt seized the initiative once more. He waited for everyone in the courtroom to digest this number before proceeding to ask, “What trace evidence is there? Can you describe them?”

“They largely consist of footprints. There’s a small amount of fibre and skin tissue, as well as blood that stained one area.” Gerold said, “Most of it was found on Crime Scene 7, and we can deduce the defendant’s attitude and behaviour from footwear path reconstruction.”

Lawyer Gaunt helpfully projected the footwear path reconstruction at Crime Scene 7 on the holographic screen. 

Gerold nodded. “Thank you. This is the defendant’s path as reconstructed from the footwear impressions on the crime scene. We can see that the defendant circled basically every cage on Crime Scene 7. That attitude is almost as though he’s… admiring the victims.”

In actuality, the defence lawyer could raise an objection to such a statement due to its speculative nature, but the prosecution and the forensic specialist himself knew the rules backwards and forwards, so they didn’t go overboard, choosing to leave it at that.

Not leaving anyone the opportunity to object.

Lawyer Dane’s expression twisted slightly, but it soon recovered. 

Because the right to pose questions was now in his hands.

Dane’s purpose was clear-cut. He intended to push the responsibility for as many problems as possible onto Horace Lee.

He said to Gerold, “I don’t have many questions, just two.”

Gerold nodded, “Ask away.” 

“To whom do the fibres, skin tissue, and blood stains that you found at the scene belong?”

Gerold said, “Horace Lee.”

Dane, “So, who does this audacious path reconstruction—let me clarify, the footprints circling the cages—belong to?”

Gerold said, “Horace Lee.” 

Dane raised his eyebrows, nodded, and said, “I have no further questions, thank you.”

With that, he sat back down.

The judge looked at Gu Yan. “You may begin your cross-examination.”

Gu Yan flicked to a page in the report, then looked up and said to Gerold, “I don’t have many questions, either.” 

Gerold gave a start, seeming not to expect Gu Yan to say this. He was all ready to field a flood of questions.

“With regards to the footwear impressions left behind by my client on the crime scene, do you have a time frame?”

Nodding, Gerold said, “It can be determined that they were left on the day of the crime itself, because during that time period, it was rainy in the region of Crime Scene 7. The traces left behind would therefore be different.”

Gu Yan nodded. “Are you able to narrow the time frame down to the minutes?” 

Gerold had just opened his mouth to speak when Gu Yan supplemented, “Solely based on the footwear impressions.”

Gerold silently shut his mouth. He thought about it and said, “It can only be established that the crime occurred during the rainstorm, but I can’t narrow it down to the minute.”

Gu Yan projected the forensic report onto the holographic screen for everyone to see, then marked out a line and said, “The forensic report shows that the skin tissue and blood stain left by my client at Crime Scene 7 were because a caged victim abruptly attacked while delirious. Is my description accurate?”

Gerold nodded, “Pretty much.” 

“Then, can I assume that—” Gu Yan’s voice was cold and rational. “The evidence left behind at Crime Scene 7 can only prove one thing. That is, the victims had already been mistreated, and at a certain moment after their mental states started to deteriorate, my client, Horace Lee, was present at the scene.”

Before Gerold could answer, Lawyer Gaunt leapt to his feet, saying, “There is other evidence that proves that Horace Lee was at the scene even earlier than that.”

Gu Yan slid him a sidelong look. “Other evidence can be discussed at a later time. There’s no hurry. I only need Mr Gerold to give me a yes or no answer to my earlier question.”

The subtext beneath these words was: Please shut up. 

Gaunt’s complexion was foul, but under the weight of the judge’s gaze, he was forced to take a seat.

Gerold was silent for a moment. Then, he nodded at Gu Yan. “Yes, from this evidence alone, it can be taken that way.”