Carlos Gómez: Alex Trujillo

Quotes 

• Alex Trujillo : It's common sense, Your Honor, either the safe was already open which constitutes criminal negligence, or the child knew how to open it which constitutes criminal negligence.

  Judge William Otis : Mr. Weller?

  Rex Weller : Approximately a million Americans own this type of gun safe, it's easy to open in an emergency, yet the locking mechanism has over a thousand possible combinations, referring to Defense Exhibit 2. With the court's indulgence we'd like to perform a demonstration.

  Judge William Otis : What kind of demonstration?

  Rex Weller : I'd like to ask my co-counsel, Miss Holt, who does not know the combination of this lock, to try and open this safe.

  Alex Trujillo : And are we really supposed to believe Mr. Weller hasn't imparted this information to Miss Holt?

  Rex Weller : Miss Holt and I haven't imparted anything to one another for a day and a half, Your Honor.

  Judge William Otis : Pick someone else.

  Rex Weller : If your bailiff would agree. Thanks, push any three buttons in any order.

  Alex Trujillo : Your Honor, I only have so many *hours* I'm allowed to be in court.

  Judge William Otis : You have two minutes, Mr. Weller.

  Rex Weller : Your Honor?

  Judge William Otis : Two.

  Rex Weller : Your Honor, this is a safe, it's not a piggy bank.

  Judge William Otis : You asked for the demonstration, Mr. Weller.

  Rex Weller : Then let me just explain a theory we are relying on. Any home security firm will tell you that out of the hundreds of thousands of alarm codes available to their clients, most choose from less than a few dozen different patterns. If you choose spatially you pick the four corners, if you choose by a number, it's your wife's birthday, and if it's an abort code, you use the name of your dog. But, with a gun safe, you need a combination you can open in the dark and in a high stress situation. When presented with only five buttons, 65% of people will choose 3 of them. 50% of those will choose either 1, 3 and 5, or 5, 3 and 1. After that there's only about a dozen combinations that the majority of people choose.

  [looks to the bailiff, everybody looks and sees the safe is open] 

  Judge William Otis : How long has that been open?

  Bailiff : I wasn't sure I was supposed to interrupt.

  Alex Trujillo : Your Honor, we have no way of knowing if...

  Rex Weller : I believe I still have another minute.

  Judge William Otis : Yes you do.

  Rex Weller : Your Honor, I had no idea whether that was going to happen or not. Your bailiff could've sat there for an hour punching all the wrong combinations, but he didn't, Your Honor, he did what any child could do. That's our reasonable theory, our client relied on this being a safe, it turned out to be a piggy bank.

  Alex Trujillo : Your Honor, we haven't heard testimony, he could've just made up those statistics, we have no way of knowing...

  Judge William Otis : What, Mr. Trujillo? The safe opened, don't pretend like it's nothing.

  Alex Trujillo : She chose the safe, Your Honor, and the combination.

  Judge William Otis : The law requires that she keeps the gun in a safe, not that the safe be impenetrable. And although I find this demonstration very disturbing, I can't say that had I been a gun owner, I would not have made the exact same mistake. I find no negligence here, the case is dismissed in the interest of justice.