Phoenix takes his first case as a criminal defense lawyer to defend his long time friend, Larry Butz, in the murder of Cindy Stone.

Date:  August 3rd, 2016
Defense Attorney:  Phoenix Wright
Prosecutor:  Winston Payne
Defendant:  Larry Butz
Victim:  Cindy Stone
COD:  Blood loss due to blunt force trauma to the back of her head.
MW:  A statue clock
Guilty:  Frank Sahwit
 

Day 1:

Phoenix arrives in court on August 3rd, 2016 to defend his old friend Larry Butz on a murder charge.  The victim, Cindy Stone, was struck in the back of the head with a blunt object and died from the resulting blood loss.  Linking Larry to the case is the fact that he's the victim's ex girlfriend, and also that he was witness leaving the scene of the crime.

Larry takes the stand first.  He admits to having been at Cindy's apartment but that she was perfectly alive (alive enough to dump him).  Then the witness, Frank Sahwit, takes the stand.

Frank's testimony is full of holes.  He claims to have seen Larry leaving the scene of the crime at 1:00 pm when Cindy's time of death was after 4:00 pm, and that he knew the murder weapon was a clock.  After much pressing and evidence presentation Phoenix proves that in order to know that the murder weapon was a clock and not a statue Frank would have had to held it.  This places him at the crime scene.

Cindy had just returned home the day before from overseas, and had not yet reset her clock to the current time, as Phoenix proves when he asks the Judge to have the clock say its time.  This shows that when Frank held the clock and heard the time, it was actually 4:00 pm.  So not only was he at the scene, but at the scene exactly when the murder was committed.

Frank collapses and is arrested for the murder of Cindy Stone, and Larry Butz is acquitted and cleared of all charges. 

Thinking the apartment would be empty for a while, Sahwit broke in and went for the valuables.  But Cindy arrived home from shopping, surprising him in the hall.  In desperation Sahwit grabbed the closest object he could find (a statue clock in the shape of The Thinker) and bashed her over the head.  When he hit her, the clock was jarred into speaking the time (1:00 pm).  Cindy died soon afterwards.

Realizing he was in trouble, Sahwit decided to place the blame on the man he'd seen leave the apartment earlier (Larry).  But the power in the apartment was out, so he had to leave to find a phone to call the police from.

He was brought in for questioning, and implicated Larry in the murder of Cindy Stone.