A week later, the arrest of Harris was reported on the Internet.
With the exposure of everything about him, more insight about the New Coast project was exposed.
All press reports were written by Daphne Aldrich alone.
The whole topic was spread in City N again in an instant.
The leader of the press also praised her, “Yeah, good job. You really did a good job in manage to report
both the case of Steve Billings and the follow-up of the arrest of Harris.”
In the other end of the phone, Daphne smiled at his compliments, “Thank you, boss. The trial of Steve’s
case is about to start. I’ll continue to do my job first.”
“Okay. When the verdict comes out, notify me immediately. Let’s see if we can get another headline
today.”
“OK.”
Hanging up the phone, Daphne took a deep breath, turned around and walked into the courthouse.
She had just entered the hall when she saw Donald and the Prosecutor coming from the other side.
Donald, wearing a nicely tailored suit and gold-rimmed glasses, holding a briefcase in his hand, was
whispering something to the prosecutor.
Seeing this, a smile gradually appeared on Daphne’s face. She’d better not disturb his work.
She retracted her gaze and was about to turn around when Mr. Shawn looked over and said, “Daphne.”
Daphne turned around and saw Donald strode toward her.
Donald said, “The trial is about to start. Where are you going?”
Daphne pointed to the vending machine next to her, “I’m going to buy a bottle of water.”
Donald followed the direction of her finger, strode over, bought a bottle of water, unscrewed the bottle
cap and handed it to her, “How is your article? Have you prepared it?”
Daphne took the water and said with a smile, “The article is ready. We’ll see what outcome Mr. Shawn
will bring to the case today.”
Knowing that she was trying to get some information from him again, Donald slightly smiled and
lowered his voice a little, “What I can tell you now is that the prosecution will charge Steve with
domestic violence for death. But unfortunately, they will find out that he is not guilty for the charge.”
Hearing this, Daphne was a little startled.
She murmured, “What do you mean by he’s not guilty for domestic violence to death...”
Donald said, “You’re very smart. You’ll understand in the trial afterwards.”
With that said, Donald glanced at the time, “You should have to re-prepare your news report. You can
still finish the article if you want to deliver it after the trial.”
After he finished speaking, he stepped back with a smile on his face, then turned around and left.
Daphne looked at the half-opened bottle in front of her. Something suddenly flashed through her mind.
The information from the office had always been domestic violence, and she always felt that it’s the
correct direction of investigation. Steve, a savage baster, must have done such a thing, but...
He was the only one that know how his wife died.
And Donald must have gotten some more important clues from his conversation with Steve or the
investigation or even evidence collection that she didn’t know.
This subtle clue could have not even been discovered by the police.
Steve’s wife died in the process of domestic violence from him, but she was not killed by domestic
violence, so there was only one possibility…
She suicided because she couldn’t stand it!
So, Mr. Shawn would succeed in this case, because the prosecution charged Steve with intentional
homicide. But he wasn’t guilty for murder or homicide.
No wonder Steve wasn’t panic at all when she went to interview Steve. She now realized his reason.
Thinking of this, Daphne hurried forward.
The prosecutor looked at her back and said to Donald, “She is a reporter from City N Press, isn’t she? I
have seen her for a few times. Do you know her?”
An extremely bright smile appeared on Donald’s face, “Well, I do know her. She’s my girlfriend.”
The prosecutor sighed, “Well, that’s surprising. You are such a playboy. How dare you find a reporter
working on reporting affair? Aren’t you afraid of being exposed in the future?”
Donald said helplessly, “What are you thinking about? She is a good girl. I’m not that asshole.”
“It’s hard to tell,” The prosecutor said. “Otherwise, tell me how will you defense him? I’ll believe that
you’re not an asshole.”
Donald straighten his face a little, “You’ll know in a while.”
The prosecutor pouted and said nothing.
Donald and his family were not short of money. So he would not take bribes to defend for some cases
that he didn’t even know whether his client was a bastard or not.
So when he took Steve’s case this time, the whole business industry was shocked.
No one knew what he was thinking.
Ten minutes later, the trial officially began.
Steve sat in the courtroom, listening to the prosecutor’s accusation against him, seeing the prosecutor
lay out all the evidences and call up the witnesses.
Every testimony and evidence directly proved that Steve committed domestic violence to his wife
several times when she was still alive.
These evidences were irrefutable, so Steve and Donald made no objection from beginning to end.
Until finally the judge asked, “Does the defendant have anything to say?”
Donald closed the documents in front of him, got up and said, “We refute all the accusation charged by
the prosecution. The fatal injury of the deceased was...”
The following words were all his statements about the specific cause of Steve’s wife’s death. He then
listed the forensic report, which corroborated the authenticity of his point of view.
The prosecution obviously did not expect that he would defend his client from this perspective and
ignoring domestic violence itself.
The prosecution said, “My dear Presiding Judge, I disagree with the defendant’s point of view. No
matter what the fatal injury of the deceased was, it was all caused by this domestic violence, which also
led to indirect death...”
Donald said, “Objection, my dear prosecution. What you are accusing is intentional homicide. So, the
accusation is not convicted.”
The atmosphere was tense in the court. Daphne sat in the auditorium, busy re-stating her script.
Steve watched the trial as it goes. A smile slowly appeared at the corners of his mouth.
Donald continued, “It is true that the actions of my client are indeed abhorrent, but it is the society that
should be blamed. Why does the lady remain reluctant to speak up after being bullied? Why did she
eventually suicide, giving up her young and precious life?”
“So, when dealing with domestic violence crimes, should we consider how we convict based on reality,
rather than simple fines and warnings. For example, my client is famous and rich. If our sentence is
effective to him, everyone presence and I won’t need to stand here anymore.”
Hearing his following words, Steve’s expression slowly stiffened.
The prosecutor was silent for a long time before saying, “I have nothing to say.”
They were in the wrong direction from the beginning.
The Presiding Judge said, “The prosecution’s accusation of the defendant Steve for intentional
homicide is not convicted. In view of the special circumstances of the case, the prosecution is allowed
to re-gather the evidence, submit the new accusation. And the trial will continue at another day.”
Offstage, Daphne finished writing the press release at the same time and send it to the office.
This way, there is absolutely no chance for Steve to turn over the case again.
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