Case LK03

Case LK03 is the official name for the incident in which Quintia Ronin was murdered.

Case Outline
Victim: Quintia Ronin

Cause of Death: Stab wound straight through the heart

Defendant: Maximus Ronin

Defense: Decima

Prosecutor: Astaroth Sinclair

Verdict: Not Guilty

The Murder
Between the hours of nine and ten o'clock at night, the lawyer Quintia Ronin was murdered in her cabin aboard the Council's space station headquarters. The only person to enter the room during that time was Maximus Ronin, the victim's nephew. He was photographed on CCTV entering the room at 9:22pm and exiting it again at 9:38, carrying a large suitcase on wheels. This suitcase was examined after Maximus's arrest and Quintia's body was found in there. Other evidence that pointed to Maximus's guilt was his fingerprints on the murder weapon and a witness who told the court of an argument that Marcus had had with his aunt the day before the murder. Everything seemed to point to Maximus's guilt.

The Climax
Decima was able to prove conclusively that none of the evidence that linked Maximus to the crime was genuine.

1) The body was planted in the suitcase because Decima uncovered a CCTV image of Maximus opening the suitcase a few minutes after exiting the room and it had held computer equipment inside.

2) The fingerprints on the murder weapon were from when Maximus had been handed it to inspect the day before; CCTV backed this up.

3) The witness had been lying about what the argument had been about and he admitted this when Decima pressed him for every single detail he could recall, claiming that someone had forced him to lie.

Decima then asked for the CCTV footage for BEFORE the murder. It showed Raul Settle entering Quintia's room before 9pm, and he didn't exit until after 10pm. Faced with this and the fact that the image showed him wearing gloves so that he wouldn't leave any fingerprints, Raul broke down and told the court the truth.

The Full Story
Raul Settle was a dirty prosecutor who blackmailed people into forging evidence so that he could win trials and maintain his perfect record. He gained this information through his older brother, Inga Settle, whom he paid for his efforts.

He happened to find out that Quintia Ronin was keeping tabs on him and had talked to many of the people he had blackmailed, drawing the truth from them while promising to help them. Unwilling to lose his perfect record and reputation, Raul tried to get her to back off but she refused.

On the night of the murder, Raul had gone to Quintia's room and hidden. After her nephew had come and gone to pick up the computer equipment, he stabbed her and hid her body inside the room, managing to get it out of the room the next day during the scheduled CCTV blackout, hiding it in Maximus's suitcase in order to frame him.

The Resolution
Maximus Ronin was found not guilty of the murder of his aunt.

Unfortunately, Raul Settle managed to escape court. Just as he was about to be arrested, his brother Inga caused a distraction by shooting both the judge and the prosecutor, allowing Raul and himself to escape in the ensuing chaos.