Khoa Trinh
Criminal Law – Boyne
Mock Trial Extra Credit
My role in the mock trial competition was S. Phillips, the prosecutor’s witness. I was a
toxicologist and expert witness regarding my toxicology report. The case involves a female
defendant who had allegedly consume alcohol, marijuana, and ecstasy before crashing her
car and killing two passengers in it. She is charged with the offense of vehicular manslaughter.
I believe this is essentially involuntary manslaughter using a vehicle. The focus of this trial was
on the evidence of the actus rea, with each side arguing whether the conduct occurred or not.
Because the mens rea is only recklessness or negligence, simply proving that she was the one
driving is the main point of persuasion. The defendant adamantly denies that she was driving
during the incident, and because of that she didn’t even commit any wrong that resulted to
their deaths. She was reckless in her use of drugs but per the charge of reckless murder, she
maintains no involvement. The prosecution used my testimony to assert that the defendant
had traces of marijuana and ecstasy in her system the morning after the accident. The
defense attempted to discredit or fault the evidence by questioning the validity of my findings
and the conclusions from them. If the prosecution was successful (we never found out who
won), then they successfully argued that the defendant had at the very least negligently
chose to consume alcohol, chose to consume marijuana, chose to consume ecstasy, chose to
drive the car while under the heavy influence, and as a result killed the passengers on board.