Sandra Moore

Last night I had to put on a mock trial for one of my classes. Each law student in the class was responsible for bringing one juror and one witness, and I was in a team of two other lawyers. I brought a youth from my branch to be a juror, and Tonya was my witness.

The pretend case we had to present was a murder trial. Arthur Moore, a two-timing businessman, was the victim, and we were the prosecuting lawyers making a case against Moore’s girlfriend Amy Jordan. Tonya played Sandra Moore, Arthur Moore’s wife.

I called up Sandra Moore (Tonya) as my witness and asked her about some things–I won’t bore you with the details. But then on cross examination, the defense attorneys/law students asked Tonya how much her husband (Arthur Moore) was worth. As a result of her husband’s death, Sandra Moore stood to gain $10 million. The defense was trying to throw doubt on our case against Amy Jordan by implicating Arthur Moore’s wife because she stood to gain $10 million from his death.

But even though I’m sure Tonya understood that’s what the defense was getting at, she talked a little about how she didn’t value her husband with money. When the defense got done, the judge asked me if I had some rebuttal questions for the witness. I had just one:

Mrs. Moore, how would you value your husband if he was still alive?

Tonya went on and on about how relationships don’t have monetary value and how her husband was priceless.

It was the perfect answer to strengthen our case, and it was completely improvised. It made us, the prosecution, look really good.

When I was done with the question I slid back into the seat behind the table. One of my co-counsel, another law student, leaned over and asked, “Did you prepare her for that question?”

“No, but she’s my wife.”

It was really awesome to know how much I can depend on Tonya. It’s great that we share those important values. I could say a lot of things about Tonya, but I’ll end with this–she’s priceless.