By Rhett Everhart
On Monday, March 19, 2012, the TAHS mock trial team traveled to the trial of accused double murder suspect, Nicholas Horner, to view the opening statements and see the local judicial system in action.
That morning select members of the team who returned the permission slip boarded a van and set out for Altoona at 7:00 a.m.
Once they arrived at the courthouse the members of the team went through courthouse security due to the degree of the case and took their seats.
There were between 30 and 40 people present in the courtroom.
“The mood in the room was very tense because of the subject of the trial. Everybody just seemed uncomfortable,” Mr. Cammarata, mock trial coach and TAHS history teacher, said. “It was defiantly a ‘real’ experience as opposed to the mood at mock trial.”
At 9:00 am the trial began with opening statements.
The witnesses took turns to set the timeline for the events that occurred on the morning of April 6, 2009.
Most of the witnesses were from Holiday Bowl and there was one witness from Subway.
“You could hear the family members tearing up. That I will not forget,” Cammarata said.
After the timeline of the day was set the trial got underway.
The mock trial team stayed for the entire day to observe what a real trial was like and to witness a case with such a big issue.
“I really pulled a lot from that trial,” Johnny Friday, senior, mock trial member, said. “I got to witness lawyers at the top of their game in a real case. I realized that a real trial is different than that of mock trial because the emotions are real, there’s no acting, just raw emotion and hard evidence.”
While at the trial the students gave their full attention to the case presented in front of them comparing how the judicial system actually works to that of mock trial.
“There really was a lot of information that wasn’t on the news, so I found that quite interesting,” Kate Bock, junior, said.
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