*DISCLAIMER: This is a fictional story of the Mock Trial competition held on January 24, 2024 at the Sonora CourtHouse, in Sonora, CA. The following article was submitted to the Union Democrat in a county article writing competition and our very own Bella Wickman won first place.

The CEO of a billion dollar medical technology corporation was murdered in cold blood. Who had the most to gain? Who had the means and the motive?
Sunshine Medical Components (SMC) created a new product called the ForeverFlex5000, which is an artificial joint replacement. The CEO of Sunshine Medical Components, Kieran Sunshine, and lawyer Tobie Clark, planned to give their presentation on ForeverFlex to the board on July 17th, 2023. On January 3rd, Kiernan received test results showing numerous bacterial infections in trial patients, due to the metal in ForeverFlex. January 19th Tobie filed a rush handling request for the product. On July 15th, they checked into the Bells Hotel for the board meeting, with a champagne saber Cark had previously purchased. Witnesses reported later hearing the two arguing.
The next morning an employee, Gerri Moayed, arrived at Kieran’s suite to find him dead. Detective Perren located the champagne saber towards the right of Kieran’s body with four finger prints, one of which belonged to Clark. Dr. K.C Vasquez later named the saber as the murder weapon. A partial shoe print on the right side of Kieran’s body was also discovered
Witness interviews along with physical and circumstantial evidence led towards Tobie Clark’s arrest on August 3.
The trial of People v.s Clark began with a pretrial motion to expunge the geofence evidence, in which cell phones provide their pinged locations to create a virtual perimeter. Geofence technology can be unreliable, especially where the Bells Hotel had multiple floors and the virtual perimeter would place the Clark in the same place regardless of the floor he was on. Judge Kreig ruled in the prosecution’s favor of keeping the evidence in the case.
The first witness, Detective Perren, arrived on the scene and located a shoe print on the carpet. He noted that Clark had a pair of the shoes in the same size, however three other witnesses owned a pair as well.
The only connecting evidence Detective Perren found was a scarf matching a fiber found on the crime scene. The rest of Clark’s clothes worn the day of Kieran’s death had already been dry cleaned.
The second witness, Gerri Moayed, served as a personal counselor of the murder victim. He became aware of Kieran’s worries regarding ForeverFlex and discovered that Tobie convinced Kieran to lie to the board. According to Maoyed, the morning before the board presentation, Kieran told Tobie his plans to be honest about ForeverFlex’s issues.
The oldest of the Sunshine siblings, Emari, was called to the stand, where she recalled the event of Clark attempting to expedite ForeverFlex results. Emari also complained about Kieran’s methods of running SMC and wasn’t happy that her brother received CEO position in their father’s will. In fact, Emari testified that she visited Kieran in his room with her complaints and said the amount of money he was spending was “ridiculous.” Emari was also questioned about her shoes that matched the print found on the carpet near Kieran’s body, but she claimed to have lost them.
Clark’s lawyers explained that he did not know about ForeverFlex’s issues until the morning of the meeting, when Kieran told him in his hotel room.
Forensic pathologist, Dr. Turner examined Clark and his professional opinion led him to believe that Clark’s former shoulder injury had left him too weak to possess enough force to kill Kieran Sunshine. Dr. Vasquez, who testified as a prosecution witness, disagreed about Clark’s shoulder injury being so great as to rule him out as Kieran’s killer.
Tobie Clark took the stand to testify his perspective of events. He explained that SMC had decided to announce ForeverFlex at the Bells Hotel, so he bought the celebratory saber. He claimed that when Moayed heard Clark arguing in Kieran’s room, he had lost his temper at the staff, not Kieran. Clark stated that after he had learned the truth about ForeverFlex and Kieran’s plans to be honest with the board, he decided to leave the meeting. He stated that he dry cleaned his clothes because he was, “trying to keep busy instead of thinking about everything.” Clark noted that he donated the shoes that matched the print found near Kieran’s body and later testified that he had nothing to gain from Kieran’s death. Presently, Clark was being tried for murder, his career was at stake, and he had lost a friend. What motive did Clark have?
Under oath, Aryan Sunshine agreed that Emari had the most to gain from Kieran’s death, since he now owned more than half of the company and received the CEO position.
Judge Kreig noted that most of the circumstantial evidence had a reasonable explanation. Both men had the scarf at one point, so it made sense the same fiber would be found on them. Clark’s prints were found on the Saber, since he bought it and gave it to Kieran. With proven reasonable doubt Judge Kreig ruled Tobie Clark not guilty.