“Ms. Goodwin’s phone, you ask? What about her phone? Well, Ms. Broden left out the part about Ms. Goodwin buying a new phone the next day, which tells you she didn’t have it the night of the murder—because it had already been stolen by Mr. Trofino. Of course, she just thought she lost it. You’ll hear Ms. Goodwin’s husband testify that his wife didn’t have the phone that night—that it was lost before the text was sent. And the ID by that homeless guy? Oh, what homeless guy? That’s right, Ms. Broden also didn’t tell you that her star witness, Mr. Franklin Pearse, is a homeless man. Here’s another thing she left out of her opening statement: Mr. Pearse’s description of the murderer’s stature exactly matches Mr. Trofino’s.”

LeMarcus lets his accusations sink in. The silence as is as powerful as his argument.

“In a murder case, to know the who is really a function of learning why they did it,” LeMarcus says. “But in her opening, Ms. Broden didn’t tell you the why. Why would Ms. Goodwin want to kill her lover, her work partner, her best friend? Ms. Broden didn’t tell you why because there is no reason that Dana Goodwin would do such a thing. But I’ll tell you why Richard Trofino killed his wife. He found out about the affair. He found out that his wife was in love with someone else—and that someone else was a woman. And for someone like Mr. Trofino—a mover and a shaker in this city—that was something that he could not abide.

“The only reason—the only reason—that Ms. Goodwin is on trial here is because Ms. Wright’s phone was found,” LeMarcus continues, now nearly shouting. “The prosecution claims that she just ‘forgot’ it at home when she went out into the park. Lucky break for them, they say, and bad luck for Dana Goodwin. But I don’t believe in lucky breaks, not in a murder case. And neither should any of you. The reason Lauren Wright’s phone was not found on her dead body was because, after he murdered his wife, Richard Trofino took his wife’s phone out of her pocket and brought it home to make sure that there would be evidence pointing to Dana Goodwin. After all, who doesn’t take their phone with them after receiving a text to meet? And it’s that phone—and that phone alone—that links Dana Goodwin to the murder. Without it, well . . . Richard Trofino might as well be sitting at the defense table for murder.”

It’s good theater, no doubt about that. The jurors are on the edge of their seats, hanging on LeMarcus’s every word.