Feb. 5, 2014 Santiago High School’s Mock Trial Team participated in its first competition of the season at the Riverside County Court House. Real attorneys scored the performance of both teams as well as their presented arguments which is how a win or loss is calculated. Santiago’s defense team competed against Roosevelt High School’s prosecution team. Although the verdict does not affect the outcome, the judge ruled Santiago’s defendant guilty of drug sells, but not the second charge of second degree murder.

Justin Thompson (11) set off the competition with a successful pretrial argument, which allowed for a portion of evidence to be omitted from court for this round; this motion was in favor of Santiago’s team.

Following, Santiago’s lead defense attorney, Hadassa Jakher (12) and supporting attorneys, Ivan Raspudic (12) and Chase Hamilton (12), presented a case to defend their client. The other team fought back with their own case to try and prove the defendant guilty of both charges. Both schools conducted direct-examinations of their own witnesses, and in return, had the opposing school’s attorneys cross-examine them.

Closing statements presented by Jakher (12) and an attorney from the opposite school closed the trial, ending the first mock trial competition of the year.

Paula Tilton, Santiago’s team supervisor, said, “We went up against a team newer than we are, so I think we did very well going out against a team like that. Everything kind of went as planned.”

In the end, the professional scoring attorneys did not reveal their ratings on the high school team’s presentations. The following day it was released that Santiago had won the round. Their prosecution team will now compete in the second round on Thursday, Feb. 13.