Two years ago, serial killer
Joe Darke was put to death for a string of murders. But was it a fair
trial?
(Contributed by Johnny Law - Ace Attorney)
Date: February 21st, 2015
Defense Attorney: Unknown
Prosecutor: Neil Marshall /
Miles Edgeworth
Defendant: Joe Darke
Victim: (Edward Jones, Edith Kirby, Jeb Bates, Jason Knight, and
Rachael Moss) /Neil Marshall
COD: Stabbed in the back / one car crash victim, several others
unspecified.
MW: Unspecified / A suit of armor .
Guilty: Joe Darke / Damon Gant
SL-9 began with a lethal car accident involving an unknown driver and a
businessman known as Joe Darke. Darke was scared out of his wits,
and to cover-up his involvement, he killed a witness that saw the
accident, which in turn started a chain of murders that Darke himself was
responsible for. In response, the police formed a special
investigations team consisting of Detectives Bruce Goodman, Jake Marshall,
and "Cough-Up Queen" Angel Starr, with Lana Skye and Damon Gant
supervising. Eventually, the now-infamous Darke grew feelings of guilt and
turned himself in. During a questioning initiated by Neil Marshall, the
prosecutor for the case, and Gant, a thunderstorm knocked out the
electricity in the police department, allowing Darke to flee the
interrogation room.
Darke made his way to Gant and Lana's office, intent on hiding. Once he
got there, he found that someone else was at the scene; Lana's younger
sister, Ema Skye. Darke, thinking that Ema had seen too much, attempted to
murder her, but Neil managed to subdue Darke with a piece of the
Prosecutor of the Year award, which he had received earlier in the day.
Ema, confused, shoved the person who she perceived to be Darke - in
actuality, Neil - into the wall, upon which he lost consciousness. After
that, Ema herself lost consciousness, and Gant arrived on the scene not
long afterwards.
Thinking he could use the situation to his advantage, Gant cut out a piece
of Neil's vest, upon which was Ema's handprint, and proceeded to lift the
unconscious Prosecutor up, and impaled him on the suit of armor's sword.
Gant then used Neil's blood to write out Ema's name on one of his clay
pots, then smashed the pot on the floor, breaking it, and hid away the
most legible part of Ema's name, along with the piece of vest he had cut
out earlier. He then left the scene to wait for someone else. That someone
was Lana. Upon seeing the scene, she believed that her sister Ema had
shoved Neil onto the sword and killed him.
First, she wiped off almost all of the blood from the broken pieces of the
pot. She then asked for Gant's help to re-arrange the scene (which Gant
had already done) and removed Neil's body from the sword. They then laid
Neil's body on top of Darke, and broke the tip off of Darke's switchblade
knife. Lana buried the tip into the fatal wound, and stuck the knife in
the wound so that the handle was pointing out. Lana then contacted the
other officers, and Darke was arrested for the murder of Neil Marshall.
During investigation, Ema drew a picture on a piece of paper (the back of
the SL-9 evidence list), depicting a part of the struggle between Darke
and Neil, and handed it to Goodman. However, Gant managed to get his hands
on the list and tore it in half, keeping half of the list for himself, and
the other half was given to the prosecution. In court, Miles Edgeworth,
taking over for Neil as prosecutor, used the forged evidence, including
the tip of the switchblade knife, to convict Darke. Darke was sentenced to
death for his crimes.
The verdict only benefited one man: Damon Gant. Upon the resolution of the
SL-9 case, Gant was made the District Chief of Police, for having
contributed to solving such an important case. Utilizing his newfound
power, he transferred Lana Skye to the Prosecutor's Office as Chief
Prosecutor. Gant then reminded Lana of the "incriminating" evidence he had
against her sister, Ema (Lana, of course, had no way of knowing the
evidence was forged). For the next two years Gant would hold that
evidence over her head as a means of blackmail, getting her to manipulate
more cases.
The results of SL-9 never sat
well with the other detectives. Gant feared they would make their disquiet
public: as a result, Starr was fired, and Jake was demoted to patrolman
level. Goodman kept his position, because it would have been too
suspicious for all three detectives to be removed from their jobs. Two
years later, when the evidence from SL-9 was due to be transferred out,
Goodman was killed, starting PW:AA Case 5.
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