WITNESS STATEMENTS - Prosecution witness: Cody Ward

My name is Cody Ward and I live at 42 Chimel Road in Driftwood City. I am 17 years old, and I graduated from Driftwood City High School in August of 2002, after completing summer school.

I took Larry Molina's Honors English Literature course in the spring of 2002. Both Anne Marcus and Beck Martin were also in the class. I had studied hard all semester, because I had applied to a number of schools and I awaited hearing about scholarship information. Among the colleges 1 had been accepted to was Empire University, which honored scholarships from the Distinguished Writers Foundation. I knew that in the past, the top three grades on the honors literature exam received these scholarships and received honors at the graduation ceremony too. My older brother had received the award two years ago, and my sister received the award last year. I really felt like 1 had to follow in their footsteps. The whole atmosphere of the class was competitive. The students compared their quiz and essay grades with each other. It was intimidating. I know I am a good student, but I still felt the pressure.

Maybe that explains why I agreed with Beck to cheat on the exam. Beck had a school volunteer service job working in the English department and snooped around to find the extra keys to Molina's cabinets. One day, probably in early May, Beck came up to me after school and showed me a copy of Molina's exam. There were multiple choice and essay questions. I could not believe my eyes. Beck was angry that there were no answers written on it, but told me that the questions gave us an opportunity to prepare in advance. At first, I told Beck to put the exarn back. I had already been caught the year before for plagiarism. I had learned my lesson, or so I thought, but Beck was insistent, telling me that I had to go along with it because now I knew too much. I guess I ought not blame Beck. It was my stupid decision to go ahead with Beck's plan.

So, we prepared our answers before the exam and did very well. I suppose we were pretty bold, because on June 7, we started talking about it in the hall at school. BecK was handing me the prepared exam and telling me to get rid of it. I said it was not my job to do that, when Anne Marcus came over to us and grabbed the exam paper. She looked at it and then at us and said, "I can't believe this! You guys cheated." We pleaded with her to keep it quiet and give us the paper back, but she refused. She said she was going to tell Dean Okita about it on Monday if we did not turn ourselves in by then. Then she stuffed the papers in her backpack and threw the backpack into her locker right there. She locked it up and walked away. I felt like we were doomed.

On Sunday, June 9. Beck asked me to drive us down to Ballena Beach to talk with Anne. I thought that would be a complete waste of time, because I knew Anne would not change her mind. But I had nothing else to do, and Beck insisted that we go. On the way there. Beck talked about Anne and became more and more agitated. Beck called Anne a "backstabber" for threatening to turn us in. I was afraid of getting in trouble, but I could see that Anne risked getting in trouble for not turning us in. I asked Beck what good it would do to talk to Anne, but Beck would not listen to me.

When we arrived, we hiked up the ridge of the rock face where Anne was climbing. We waited for a couple of minutes, and when Anne reached the ridge. Beck just snapped, Anne was standing there, gathering up the rope when Beck lunged forward and grabbed Anne's collar. Beck muttered something and made a noise. Then I saw Anne swinging her arms, like she was trying to keep her balance. She yelled and had this terrified look on her face. Before I could do anything, Beck let go of her collar, and the two of them stood there for a few seconds. Anne did not move. Beck dusted off her shoulder and said, "We don't want you to get hurt, do we?" Then Anne coiled up her rope and said she wanted to leave.

Beck mentioned the exam to her. Beck said, "Let's go talk about this at the cove." Anne did not say anything, but just stared at Beck. They started walking together in the direction of the cove, and I followed. I had second thoughts at this point about trying to convince Anne. She seemed determined to turn us in. But before I knew it, the two of them started screaming at each other. I am not sure who screamed first, but it startled me. Beck's face turned red, and Beck grabbed Anne's arm. Anne tried to get out of Beck's grip, but could not do it. So Anne just punched Beck in the shoulder and screamed, "Let me go!" By this time, we were at the tip of the promontory where the trail curved around toward the cove. The two of them would not stop screaming at each other. Beck let go of her arm, but slood there on the ridge between her and me. Beck then pushed her shoulder, and she pushed back. I said, "This is a total waste of time, Beck." I told them I was going back to my car, rather than watch them beat each other up. They ignored me and walked toward the cove. I turned and headed back lo my car. I walked slowly, being careful on the rocky trail.

When I got back, the clock on my dashboard said it was 7:50. I sat in the car and turned on the radio. I only got out of the car to go to the reslroom once or twice over the next hour or so while I waited for Beck. It was very dark when Beck finally showed up at the car at 9:00 p.m. I asked where Anne was. Beck said, "At least I got one more day out of her." I assumed this meant that Anne was not going to tell on us. That seemed odd because the two of them had been fighting so fiercely. Beck seemed angry, and we argued. Beck accused me of ditching them on the ridge, and I accused Beck of keeping me waiting for so long. We got in the car, and I drove us back to the city. On the way back, I turned on my car's interior lights to look for something and I noticed a small spot on inside of Beck's right wrist. It looked like dried blood-1 did not think anything of it at the time. We did not talk at all during the ride home. Beck still seemed angry and ignored me. I was also fed up with Beck. That kid was always getting me in trouble.

I arrived at school the next day at 11:00 after my doctor's appointment. A little later, the dean announced Anne's death. I was shocked and I almost fainted. Just after lunch, around 1:15,1 got a note to come to Dean Okita's office. There I saw Officer Kripke and Okita, and then Okita left the room. The officer talked with me for a few minutes and told me that Anne had turned us in for cheating. I thought I had my college plans all wrapped up, but at that moment I realized my plans were destroyed. I explained that Beck and I had been with Anne at the beach the night before. I told the officer about Beck and Anne's fight, and that Beck was with her for a long time alone. I remembered the strange stain on Beck's wrist, and I told the officer about it and that it looked like dried blood. Then the officer thanked me and let me go back to class.