The judge shook his head at Dustin's display. "I am having enough of this pointless popstar posing and pontificating poppycock! Sit down before I'm forced to throw not only my book but everything I have at your handsome mug!"

"Yikes," Mina said, cringing visibly. "He earned an enormous amount of angry alliterative adjectives!"

Surprisingly, Dustin sat down and was compliant (for now.) For a sleazy blackmailer and murdered, Mina observed, he sure didn't have much tact. "Hopefully, that'll give me an opening," she thought.

"Ms. Prosecutor," Judge Mentle said, gesturing to Ashley. "You may state your client's case."

"Ooh Ms." Ashley gushed before growing quite haughty. "At least we have a judge who respects a lady's marital status."

"Exactly!" Mentle smirked. "My six ex wives demanded to be called Ms. too."

"Never mind," Ashley said, her shoulders slumping. "Let me begin by giving you a glimpse into my victim's sordid life. Let me just say that she was a victim clearly before she was cruelly murdered by this honey glazed ham in a tuxedo!"

Janie Lila Stabs stepped forward and added. "To accompany my sister's sad story, I would like to direct your attention to this professional violinist I hired to play a sad music along with it."

Mina glimpsed in the front row, and sure enough, there was an attractive blonde violinist sitting with her bow drawn across her stringed instrument, ready to play.

"Objection!" Mina cried out. "Your honor…don't you believe adding sad violin music is embellishing the victims story?"

Judge Mentle rubbed his gruff, silver 'billy-goatee' as Mina had dubbed it. "Overruled," he decreed with a bang of his gavel. "It's not pop music so I'm fine with it. Besides, classical musicians are underpaid these days."

Mina could offer little more but a sigh. "At least this is a victory for the musicians union."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

And as the unbelievably sorrowful violin playing filled the air, Ashley unraveled the yarn of Whitney Stabs and her sordid tale. She told of everything from Whitney being explored at a young age to make sexual pop music, to her cruel unyielding relationship with Dustin, to her meltdown and ensuing conservatorship that left her unable to control her own destiny. As the violin droned on, many eyes were moist, including some of the teenyboppers who had come to support Dustin.

All the whole, Ashley's emerald eyes locked onto to Mina like a homing missile ready to be launched and decimate the defense with a character witness statement alone.

"And to conclude," Ashley grinned with her sharp teeth visible. "All of this and more can be founded in Whitney"s memoir, You're Poison."

Janie added. "Which can be purchased off of Stabstans.net for 19.95$"

Ashley strutted around the courtroom as she spoke. "This memoir highlights everything, including the defendant's severe treatment of her…said in her own words. When you look at it like that, Whitney is testifying against her own murderer from the grave!"

For poor Mina, the room was spiraling much like her own case. She was drowning in a tidal wave of hard truth without a lifeline. She looked at Dustin who had a dark sneer plastered to his face. He took his hand and slid it across his neck, indicating he'd do the same to Divine.

Even the crotchety old judge seemed absolutely floored by this display from the prosecution. "Great Scott! Whoever he is! I'm sure the jury alone could sentence the modern music industry to death with a character statement like that alone…and then we could bring back blues rock! And great AOR music like Twyx!"

The judge was so thrilled with bringing back cheesy radio rock, he almost forgot about Mina. At the last second, he added, "I don't suspect the defense girl has any objections…and if she does, I'm sure they're absolutely insensitive!"

All tearing eyes were on Mina and she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She thought long and hard about what to say. Suddenly, the words of her mentor Raven entered her head along with his amusing visage.

"Heya kiddo! Just wanted to say one thing to ya!" the dapper birdlike man in a purple suit said. "When the prosecutor builds such an insurmountable case against ya, I use a trick I call being Stark Raven Mad! Say something so completely out of left field that they are forced to debate the merits of your statement."

Raven flashed her a thumbs up in a white glove. "When in doubt, freak em out! And I freaked my way to the top, baby!"

Mina opened her eyes. Almost immediately, she knew what to say that was totally "delulu" but also intriguing.

"I do have an objection," she said calmly. "Now Ashley, when you say that Ms. Stabs condemned Dustin with a testimony from the grave,are you sure she didn't have a ghostwriter?"