While participating in a dangerous investigation one of Phoenix's co-workers is murdered, and it's up to him to prove Maya Fey innocent.  Phoenix's rival Miles Edgeworth makes his first appearance in this first step towards the truth behind the infamous case DL-6.

Date:  September 5th through 9th, 2016
Defense Attorney:  Phoenix Wright
Prosecutor:  Miles Edgeworth
Defendant:  Maya Fey
Victim:  Mia Fey
COD:  Blunt force trauma to the head
MW:  A statue clock (the thinker)
Guilty:  Redd White
Accomplice:  April May
 

Day 1:

Phoenix returns to the office late one evening, and as soon as he enters knows something is wrong.  He goes into Mia's office and finds that she has been murdered, and a young woman is crying next to her.  The girl passes out, and he moves her to the couch.  He investigates the room and finds a note with the name "Maya" written in blood.  Across the street, a woman in a hotel is screaming and calls the police.

Detective Dick Gumshoe arrives at the scene, and upon learning that the young woman who passed out is actually the "Maya" on the note (and Mia's sister), he arrests her.  Phoenix goes after them to the station, but since visiting hours are over he's unable to speak with Maya until the next day.

Day 2:

Phoenix meets with Maya in the detention center, and she asks him to go to Defense Attorney Marvin Grossberg on her behalf (Mia told her to go to him if she was ever in trouble).  Phoenix agrees, but when he finally gets a hold of the perpetually missing Mr. Grossberg he's turned down.  Grossberg refuses to take the case and insists that no other lawyer would, either.

Phoenix returns to Maya with the news and becomes her lawyer himself.  He gets her cell phone back from Gumshoe (who had confiscated it) and visits the hotel, where he meets April May, the woman who called the police.  She claims she saw the attack take place.  When Phoenix leaves and comes back later she's gone, giving him the opportunity to search her room.  He finds a wiretap in her drawer and takes it as evidence.  (Note: don't ever do that, it's totally illegal >.>)

Day 3:

The trial begins.  The first witness called is Detective Gumshoe, who describes the crime scene and weapon used.  Maya was arrested with the evidence of the bloody note in addition to an eye witness.  Edgeworth is a tough opponent and won't give you an inch.

April May is called to the stand.  Phoenix is able to poke several holes in her testimony, but the most important is when he proves again that April could not have known the murder weapon was a clock and not a statue.  She claims she heard the clock say the time, but Phoenix proves that's not possible by presenting Maya's cell phone.  There is a message on it in which Mia tells her sister the clock's mechanisms have been removed.  The Judge checks and sure enough, they're missing.

The reason April knew it was a clock was because she overheard their conversation, as proved by the wire tap found in her room (which Phoenix presents)  Phoenix tries to make her confess but she says she has an alibi--she was being served coffee in her hotel room just at the time of the murder.

April's alibi, the hotel bellboy, is brought to the stand.  He confirms that he brought her iced coffee right at 9:00 pm when the attack took place.  After much pressing, however, the bellboy reveals that he brought up two glasses.  Someone else was staying with April in the hotel.

Determining that a verdict cannot be reached until this second man is questioned, the Judge calls for court to be adjourned until the next day.

Phoenix visits April in the detention block (she's been arrested for her wiretapping) but she doesn't give him any information.  He goes back to Grossberg, who again is not in, but he does discover a pair of photos on the desk (one of a woman, another a man with purple hair).  Phoenix takes the picture of the man and shows it to the Bellboy, who confirms it's the man who was staying with April at the hotel.  Phoenix confronts April with the photo, who at last confesses that it's Redd White, the head of Bluecorp.

Phoenix visits Bluecorp and meets Redd White, who isn't any help at all.  There is, however, a large painting on the wall that he recognizes as having come from Grossberg's office.  Phoenix returns to Grossberg, and finally pressures the man into talking.  Grossberg admits that he couldn't take Maya's case because Redd has been blackmailing him.  In fact, that's all Bluecorp does: digs up dirt on people to use against them.  Fifteen years ago Grossberg had information about an important case in the media, the DL-6  Incident.  Redd offered him a lot of money for that information, and then turned right around to sell it to the media.  The information leaked made the police look very bad, and Redd threatened to turn Grossberg in for spreading the info, unless he did as he said.  More importantly, the DL-6 was a case of considerable importance to Mia's mother, Misty Fey.

Phoenix returns to Mia's office under Grossberg's suggestion, and discovers in her files that she's been investigating Redd for a long time.  She was digging up information linking him to a recent suicide of a political figure.  Phoenix confronts Redd, who finally agrees to testify in court--against Phoenix.  He calls the prosecutor's office and has Phoenix arrested.

Day 4:

Phoenix decides that he will defend himself in court.  Redd is the first witness called to the stand, claiming that he heard a noise, then looked outside his hotel window with April and saw Phoenix attack Mia.  But there's an inconsistency in his testimony: Redd claims that Mia was running to the left when he saw, but in the day before April claimed she ran to the right.  Phoenix declares that the reason for the contradiction is that Redd had to have been facing Mia during the attack, which would make him the murderer.

When Redd tries to fix his testimony, he mentions that the sound that made him look up in the first place was something falling over--an office lamp.  Phoenix objects, saying he couldn't have seen the lamp from his hotel room, based on the layout of the office.  Redd explains that he saw it a week before the murder took place, when he tapped Mia's phone.

Phoenix runs out of ways to press the witness, and nearly gives up when suddenly he hears Mia's voice telling him not to give up.  He looks beside him, and passes out when he sees Mia there!

Phoenix wakes up in the defense lobby, and learns that Maya is channeling Mia's spirit.  Mia directs his attention to the receipt that Maya's name had been written on in blood.  It was an actually a receipt for the very lamp from Redd's testimony, which was purchased the day before the murder.  Redd couldn't have seen the lamp unless he himself was the murderer.

Phoenix presents this evidence in court, but Edgeworth is still willing to give up the case.  He insists there's still not conclusive evidence that Phoenix didn't kill Mia.  At that point Mia intervenes, and asks the Judge to read off a list of names she's written.  The list includes famous celebrities and politicians, and when she threatens to send it to the media Redd goes berserk and finally confesses.  The blackmailer is done in with blackmail!

Redd White is convicted of the murder of Mia Fey.

Realizing that Mia was a threat, he had his employee, April May, start keeping tabs on her.  April set up a wire tap on Mia's office phone.  They planned the murder together for a week later, and on September 5th Redd entered Mia's office at 9:00 pm.  During the attack a new glass lamp was broken, and Redd killed Mia by hitting her once in the head with a statue clock (the Thinker clock that had been presented as evidence in case 1, State vs Butz).

April, meanwhile, was in a hotel across the street.  She ordered two iced coffees right at 9:00 to serve as her alibi.  Once Redd was out of the office she called the police, and volunteered to testify against Maya Fey as the murderer.