With the official mock trial season starting, The Iowa High School Mock Trial Association has released the 2024 case for this year’s contest — State of Iowa V. Cary Roberts. The case follows Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter Cary Roberts as he navigates legal troubles throughout his rocky life. Roberts gets himself involved in a bar fight, where former friend Andrew Fezzik dies as a result of injuries and intoxication. Roberts is then accused of second-degree murder. Throughout this case, the Mock Trial prosecution team concurs that Fezzik was brutally and unjustly murdered, and the defense team is trying to prove that Roberts’ actions were a result of self-defense.
In this case, West’s Mock Trial club is split into two teams, Gold and Green. Jessica Li ’24 and Reem Kirja ’25 captain the Gold team, and the Green team’s captains are Titan Ross ’26 and Jasmine Tsang ’26. Additionally, Waylon Houchins-Witt ’25 is the team manager, and Holden Rebich ’25 is the witness captain.
Attorneys for the Gold team include Houchins-Witt, Rawan Babiker ’25, Marie Stier ’25, Jack Moreland ’24 and Bashir Eltyeb ’25. Sidney Tranel ’25, Benjamin Kleiman ’24 and Allison Reed ’25 are witnesses.
Attorneys for the Green team are Minna Abdalla ’26, Waad Dafalla ’26, Alice Gooblar-Perovic ’27, Aahana Gupta ’27 and Aiden Zhang ’27. Witnesses include Abdalla, Dafalla, Gooblar-Perovic, Henry Gildbertson-White ’27, Franny Jordan ’26 and Sudarshan Kasturirangan ’26.
After working on their parts, West’s Mock Trial team will travel down to The Hyatt Regency Coralville Hotel & Conference Center to compete at regionals March 21.
