Chapter 1356: I Disagreed
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Gu Nianzhi smiled calmly. “Excuse me, defendant, do you still remember what you said the last time you were a witness in Bai Jinyi’s case? Huh? Why did you turn your back on your own mother?”
Her mind racing, Luo Jialan was flabbergasted.
What did she say?
She didn’t seem to remember clearly…
Gu Nianzhi didn’t allow Luo Jialan time to organize her words. She immediately added, “You saw Bai Jinyi kill your mother with your own eyes, but you turned your back on her because you knew your mother kept your birth certificate. ——You didn’t want others to know your real ident.i.ty, so you used your birth certificate as an excuse!”
Cai Shengnan saw that Luo Jialan was emotionally unstable, so she quickly stood up and said, “Objection. The prosecution has no evidence to prove that my client’s birth certificate has anything to do with this matter. It’s all her subjective conjecture.”
Gu Nianzhi completely ignored Cai Shengnan and continued speaking quickly without waiting for the judge to make a judgment.
” … from this, we know that in order to conceal her real ident.i.ty, Luo Jialan was willing to leave her biological mother to die. Of course, she also had the same motive to kill the person who knew about this. — How could anyone believe that she would let another person go when she was willing to sacrifice her biological mother’s life to protect this secret? Another person she had always hated?”
Gu Nianzhi turned to point at Song Jinning, “And Mrs. Song Jinning was the person that Luo Jialan hated to the core. She hated her. Because of Mrs. Song Jinning, she had lost her father, Huo Guanyuan. Because of Ms. Song Jinning, her mother had also died an unnatural death. When she accidentally learned from Bai Jinyi that Song Jinning was also someone who knew about her past, she started harboring the desire to kill her. That was the most normal outcome.”
Luo Jialan’s plump lips trembled, and her face was as pale as a sheet of white paper.
Cai Shengnan frowned and said loudly, “Objection! The prosecution is overthinking things! Just because… just because my client doesn’t like Ms. Song Jinning, we can’t say that she had the motive to kill her.”
Gu Nianzhi raised her head and said calmly, “I’m proving that the defendant, Luo Jialan, had a criminal motive.”
“What is the criminal motive? The criminal motive is the internal motive for the criminal to commit the crime, and the trigger that provoked her to commit the crime.”
“According to the law, there are two conditions for forming the criminal motive: one is the internal condition, which is the internal psychological factor; the other is the external condition, which is the external incentive. ”
“Generally speaking, there are three reasons to form a criminal motive: money, s.e.xual desire, and the aggressive desire of the antisocial personality.
“People die for money, and birds die for food. Killing for money is one of the most common criminal motives
“The second is s.e.xual desire. Killing for the sake of possessing or getting close to other women and men is also one of the most common criminal motives.
“The third motive is anti-social aggression. This includes a lot of things, such as revenge, jealousy, fear, and so on.”
Her sharp gaze serious and cold, Gu Nianzhi looked at Luo Jialan again.
“And Luo Jialan had almost all of these three motives.”
“First of all, Huo Guanyuan left behind a huge trust fund. In the absence of a will, she was the first in line to inherit. If people found out that she wasn’t related to Huo Guanyuan by blood, even if he adopted her through marriage, they would criticize her. It was even possible that the Huo family would fight with her for the inheritance. She had to put an end to that possibility. She didn’t want people to know that she wasn’t related to Huo Guanyuan by blood. ——That was her seeking money.
“Second of all, the long-term hatred, unease, and fear distorted the defendant Luo Jialan’s psychology. It was a psychological factor that caused her to torture and mistreat Ms. Song Jinning. She had taken on the heavy responsibility of taking care of Song Jinning, and was now in a position to directly torture and kill her.”
“The psychological factor and the external condition were both consistent. They prove that the defendant, Luo Jialan, had the criminal motive to intentionally kill Ms. Song Jinning.”
Gu Nianzhi played the video of Luo Jialan taking the stand during Bai Jinyi’s last trial. It could be said that she had actually intended to kill Song Jinning.
In reality, when she had accused Bai Jinyi, she had already had enough evidence to accuse Luo Jialan. However, Grandfather Huo had suddenly appeared to protect Luo Jialan and had even taken her to the Xie family manor in Europe to “recuperate”, so she had no choice but to temporarily suppress the subsequent case.
Gu Nianzhi now knew why Grandfather Huo had done this.
However, Grandfather Huo couldn’t save Luo Jialan now, and couldn’t possibly come to her rescue again.
Besides, the truth about Huo Guanyuan’s will had already been revealed. Grandfather Huo didn’t need to protect Luo Jialan as a s.h.i.+eld anymore.
“Now that we have a motive, let’s look at her criminal conduct.”
Gu Nianzhi typed out the other PowerPoint slides.
“Everyone, please take a look. This is the psychological diagnosis of Ms. Song Jinning during the Bai Jinyi case last year, and the professional attending physician’s diagnosis of Ms. Song Jinning’s physical health.”
“From these two diagnoses, it can be seen that after Luo Jialan took care of Song Jinning for ten years, her mental and physical health dropped sharply.
“Here is a physical examination report, which was presented ten years ago. At that time, although Song Jinning was also delirious, all the signs of her body were very normal, even exceeding the average health of ordinary people.
“Ten years later, whether it was her weight, heart rate, blood pressure, or her immune ability, they all dropped to a near-death state.
“This kind of situation didn’t even need to continue for another ten years. In another one to two years, Song Jinning would have died from the overall deterioration of her health.
“Also, for mental patients, their mental state can greatly affect their physical condition. This had been proven by the academic community. Song Jinning’s mental state, under long-term environmental pressure and psychological hints, had the potential to develop into depression.”
Speaking up to this point, Gu Nianzhi looked at Luo Jialan again. “What is depression? Depression is the mental illness with the highest suicide rate. Luo Jialan, you forced a mental patient who was already delirious to nearly develop depression, and now you’re saying you didn’t try to kill her on purpose?!”
“You don’t have to stab someone with a knife to kill them on purpose.”
“There are plenty of knives that can kill without spilling blood.”
Gu Nianzhi used the PowerPoint to show the dark and crowded style of Song Jinning’s attic room, the way Song Jinning had been treated over the years, the way she had been fed, dressed, taken care of, and the way she had kept Song Jinning isolated from the rest of the world. All of these showed the sinister motives of the mastermind behind all of this.
“All of this was your setup, all of it at your behest. And you’re saying that you had no intention of killing Ms. Song Jinning?!”
Gu Nianzhi was very aggressive. She explained and reasoned from level to level, and with the help of the evidence, she had unknowingly convinced many people in the courtroom.
Even the judge, who had been impa.s.sive the whole time, nodded slightly.
Gu Nianzhi smiled slightly and nodded to the people in the courtroom. “That’s all. Thank you, your honor, for giving me the opportunity to seek justice for Ms. Song Jinning. Thank you, everyone.”
The judge looked at Cai Shengnan. “The defendant’s lawyer, do you agree with the prosecution’s allegations?”
Cai Shengnan took a deep breath and thought that it was time for her to go on stage.
She stood up and said calmly, “I disagree.”