Greetings, folks, and welcome to the Puzzlemaster’s Court!
(Please note that this game is restricted to the 12 who signed up in this thread. Feel free to participate, but know that your votes may not be counted, and you may not be in the running for the prize.)
*****THE RULES*****
In this game, you chosen twelve will be presented with a case. Your job is to vote upon whether or not the person on trial should be sent to the slammer. The rules are as follows:
1. Unlike the Puzzlemaster’s Mysteries, you will all be working together here.
2. Questions may not be asked to me (or at least, you can ask all you like, but I won’t answer), but open discussion is allowed and encouraged.
3. Since you’re working together, you do, however, have the power of the vote! Votes on evidence or clues may be changed, but if ever you choose to make the final vote of guilty/not guilty, it is permanent and cannot be revoked.
4. Your final guilty/not guilty verdict may be presented at any time you please, so long as you can back it up per rule 6. You will not be informed whether you were correct or not until everybody has voted and a ruling has been handed down to the defendant.
5. Please put your votes in bold.
6. There are three prizes, two being a choice of game from my trading list, the third being Toonstruck, generously donated by Austrobogulator. One of my games will be distributed randomly among the correct voters, the other will be handed out by my judgement on who has the most puzzling power (you can still potentially win a prize even if you vote incorrectly!). To add SOME sense of competition, the first person to vote correctly will win Toonstruck.
“But, Zeogold!” you cry. “Couldn’t I just guess randomly and have a 50/50 shot at winning?” Ah, here’s the catch: Not only must you vote correctly, but you must also properly explain your REASONING to me via PM, and that has to be correct as well. Only THEN do you get the game and become our big winner. You are also allowed to win for somebody else, if you so desire.

The game is held in a series of rounds, known as “court days”. Note that this is NOT a literal 24-hour-period. It is determined by clues (known as “evidence” to keep with the court theme) asked for, each one causing the day to pass. The object of the game is to solve the case in as few days as possible. For each Puzzlemaster’s Court game (there will be more in the future if you guys enjoy this one), I will post the challenge number for those of you who want to push yourselves. This is the minimum number of days required to solve the case.
On each day, you (the jury) will vote on a piece of evidence to view. This will advance the day. I will only present the evidence once all jurors have voted (only exception to this is if the voting is dragged down by one or more inactive members or if there is a clear majority). I will keep track of votes. The game officially ends when all voters have decided on their guilty/not guilty vote, and the verdict will be handed down to the defendant.

*****THE JURORS AND THEIR VOTES*****
DAY 1
1. Emachine9643 - Evidence Secured in Field
2. agentcarr16 - Evidence from Car
3. ZFR - Laundry Analysis, Defense Witness
4. gamefood - ABSENT FROM COURT
5. sunshinecorp - Evidence from Defendant's House
6. madth3 - Evidence from Defendant's House
7. Habanerose - Evidence from Car
8. mikopotato - Evidence from Car
9. popperik - Evidence from Defendant's House
10. Austrobogulator - Evidence from Defendant's House
11. 011284mm - Evidence from Defendant's House
12. bler144 - Evidence Secured in Field

Tally:
5 votes for the evidence from Endre Whitemane's house
3 votes for the evidence from the car
2 votes for the evidence in the field
1 vote for the laundry analysis and witness for the defense

Votes to move on to the next day:
7 votes were reached. Gamefood was counted as absent from court and things moved on.

DAY 2
1. Emachine9643 - Evidence Secured in Field
2. agentcarr16 - Evidence from Car
3. ZFR - Laundry Analysis, Defense Witness
4. gamefood - GIVING UP POSITION TO ASHWALD
5. sunshinecorp - Evidence Secured in Field
6. madth3 - Evidence Secured in Field
7. Habanerose - Evidence Secured in Field
8. mikopotato - Evidence Secured in Field
9. popperik - Evidence Secured in Field
10. Austrobogulator - Evidence Secured in Field
11. 011284mm - Evidence Secured in Field
12. bler144 - Evidence Secured in Field

Tally:
9 votes for the evidence in the field
1 vote for the evidence from the car
1 vote for the laundry analysis and witness for the defense

DAY 3
1. Emachine9643 - Evidence from Car
2. agentcarr16 - Laundry Analysis, Defense Witness
3. ZFR - Laundry Analysis, Defense Witness
4. ashwald - Laundry Analysis, Defense Witness
5. sunshinecorp - Laundry Analysis, Defense Witness
6. madth3 - Evidence from Car
7. Habanerose - Laundry Analysis, Defense Witness
8. mikopotato - Evidence from Car
9. popperik - Laundry Analysis, Defense Witness
10. Austrobogulator -Laundry Analysis, Defense Witness
11. 011284mm - Laundry Analysis, Defense Witness
12. bler144 - Laundry Analysis, Defense Witness

Tally:
9 votes for the laundry analysis and witness for the defense
3 votes for the evidence from the car

DAY 4
1. Emachine9643 - Prosecution Exhibit C, Autopsy Report
2. agentcarr16 - Evidence from Car
3. ZFR - Evidence from Car
4. ashwald - Prosecution Exhibit C, Autopsy Report
5. sunshinecorp - Prosecution Exhibit C, Autopsy Report
6. madth3 - Evidence from Car
7. Habanerose - Evidence from Car
8. mikopotato - Evidence from Car
9. popperik - VOTING WITH MAJORITY - Evidence from Car
10. Austrobogulator - Prosecution Exhibit C, Autopsy Report
11. 011284mm - Evidence from Car
12. bler144 - Evidence from Car

Tally:
8 votes for the evidence from the car
4 votes for the autopsy report

DAY 5
1. Emachine9643 - ADVANCE!
2. agentcarr16 - Move along!
3. ZFR - Ready to continue!
4. ashwald - Commence the ending!
5. sunshinecorp - Prepared for the autopsy!
6. madth3 - GAVE VERDICT
7. Habanerose - ALREADY GIVEN VERDICT
8. mikopotato - Ready for the final day!
9. popperik - ALREADY GIVEN VERDICT
10. Austrobogulator - Let's do this thing!
11. 011284mm - Move it along!
12. bler144 - ALREADY GIVEN VERDICT

*****THE CASE*****
At 9:08 P.M., a silent alarm rang at Acme Security Co., sending an armed guard to the midtown branch of the First National Bank. When he arrived on the scene, the guard discovered masked men scooping $20 bills out of the ATMs. One of the burglars physically attacked the guard, getting his mask torn off in the fight and revealing his face to the bank’s security cameras.
Somehow, the guard managed to pull his gun and shoot, hitting the adversary squarely in the chest. The other burglar dropped the money and scrambled to the aid of his bleeding partner. He dragged his injured friend into a light-colored car hidden in the nearby alley and both of them escaped.
About seven miles away (around 11 kilometers for you non-American folks), a pair of workmen from the water department had just finished restoring service to a rural neighborhood. “The water was off for about an hour,” the technician later told the police. “We got it running at about 8:55, then stopped for coffee. We were just heading back when Moe spotted this guy in a field. It was a full moon and we could see he was dragging something through the weeds. We pulled over to see if he needed help. And then we saw the body. He was dragging this dead, bloody body. The guy was little and didn’t have a gun. So Jim held him while I phoned the cops. That was around 9:25.”
“We arrived at 9:31” Officer Morel explained. “The man identified himself as Endre Whitemane. The body had a bullet in the chest, but Mr. Whitemane didn’t have any explanation to offer. He invited us into his house. Mr. Whitemane, as it happens, lives right beside the field. The house was furnished nicely, but was kind of messy. He said his wife had recently left him, run off with some traveling salesman. He seemed more preoccupied with telling us about his domestic situation than about this body. We were there for maybe ten minutes. Just before we took him in, the washing machine timer went off. We went with him to check it and saw the clothes in the washer were kind of dingy, like they’d been sitting in dirty water. We advised him not to touch them, just in case there might be evidence. We then read him his rights.”
When the case came to trial, Whitemane stood accused of robbery, not murder. The corpse he had been dragging through the field was identified as the late Jeremy Oaks, a career criminal with a history of burglary and larceny. Computer-enhanced stills from the surveillance cameras identified him as the unmasked burglar shot by the security guard. A still of the other robber remained unhelpful. Although the masked image did resemble Whitemane in general size and build, it also resembled hundreds of other local men.

ALL RISE!
Bring in the defendant!
In the defendant's chair, we have:
Endre Whitemane
A bear hunter from way up north, people say he's a bit grouchy because he HATES kids playing on his lawn. He's really a very sweet and gentle fellow, though.
Why, last year he even donated 5 dollars to the injured Viking bear hunters fund!
He claims that he would never, ever do a thing like this, and that he'd much rather go shoot a big ole' bear.

Defense:
"My client has absolutely no criminal record. He has lived in this town for eight years, held the same job for seven, and was married to the same woman for twelve. Although the Whitemanes were not a particularly sociable couple, Mr. Whitemane has been known to be a law-abiding man with the patience of a saint. He was at home the entire night in question, watching TV and doing his laundry.
True, Mr. Whitemane is not willing to tell us how he happened across Jeremy Oaks or why he was dragging the body through the field behind his house. But it is not the Defense’s job to establish Endre Whitemane’s innocence. Rather, it is the Prosecution’s job to establish his guilt, something they will be unable to do."

*****JURY'S JUDGEMENT*****
1. Emachine9643 - Not Guilty, Day 6, #5
2. agentcarr16 - Not Guilty, Day 6, #3
3. ZFR - Not Guilty, Day 6, #1
4. ashwald - Not Guilty, Day 6, #7
5. sunshinecorp - Guilty, Day 6
6. madth3 - Guilty, Day 5
7. Habanerose - Not Guilty, Day 3
8. mikopotato - Not Guilty, Day 6, #4
9. popperik - Not Guilty, Day 4
10. Austrobogulator - Not Guilty, Day 6, #6
11. 011284mm - Not Guilty, Day 6, #2
12. bler144 - Not Guilty, Day 2

*****AVAILABLE CLUES*****

Puzzlemaster's challenge:
Solve the mystery by day 3.

DAY 1
Puzzlemaster's thoughts:
I'm at a loss. If Whitemane is so innocent, then why won't he explain his incriminating behavior?

Evidence revealed: Evidence from Defendant's House
Defense: "Did you examine the house for clothing?"
Investigating officer: "Yes, and we found nothing resembling the light-colored jumpsuit worn by the masked perpetrator."
Defense: "Would you expect the perpetrator's clothing to have blood on it?"
Investigating officer: "Yes, Jeremy Oaks was bleeding heartily. The other man would certainly have gotten it on himself."
Defense: "And did you find any blood at all in Mr. Whitemane's house?"
Investigating officer: "We did."
Defense: "What? You did?!"
Investigating officer: "Yes. We ran over the entire house with phosphorescent light, designed to reveal the smallest traces of blood. We found blood residue on the floor of the laundry room and the kitchen and trailing out into the field."

DAY 2
Puzzlemaster's thoughts:
Well, there's something the defense never saw coming. Was something being dragged in...or out?

Evidence revealed: Evidence Secured in Field
Officer: "The field covers about two acres . Bordering the field on two adjacent sides is a road that swings around. On the third side is the Whitemane house and on the fourth is an abandoned well with a patch of woods behind it. The tall weeds left good impressions. It was easy to spot the path of trampled weeds. It appeared that a body had been dragged from the road into the middle of the field. We found the body about midway along that path. It was face-up, the feet pointing toward the road."
Prosecution Cross-Examination: "What makes you think the path had been made by the dragged body?"
Officer: "We found blood and fibers along the entire path. They all match those of Jeremy Oaks.

DAY 3
Puzzlemaster's thoughts:
Today's the challenge day! I wonder who else will be brave enough to try to beat the challenge and cast their final vote?

Evidence revealed: Laundry Analysis, Defense Witness
The Defense introduces a chemist who analyzed the dirty clothing in Endre Whitemane's washing machine.

Chemist: "I started by comparing the dirt in the washer to soil samples from the field."
Defense: "And the result?"
Chemist: "No match."
Defense: "Were you ever able to match the dirt samples from the clothes?"
Chemist: "As a matter of fact, yes. I discovered from the county that there had been a water main break that evening. When the water was turned back on at 8:55, it ran dirty for the first several minutes. If Mr. Whitemane had started the wash cycle at 8:55 or soon after, he would have filled the machine with that dirty water. The samples match perfectly."

DAY 4
Puzzlemaster's thoughts:
Now, there's an interesting one. Whitemane was dragging a "dead, bloody body", yet the washing machine was turned on at 8:55? Why was the blood still on the corpse at 9:25?

Evidence revealed: Evidence from Car
Defense: "Officer, please describe the car that was parked by the field."
Officer: "It was a tan Toyota registered to the defendant. It was parked on the road beside the path of trodden-down weeds. The Toyota's trunk was open and inside was a shovel. No dirt was visible on the shovel or in the trunk; so, we assumed the implement had not been used recently.
Prosecution: "Was Mr. Whitemane's car searched for blood, fiber, hair, dirt, and the like?"
Officer: "Yes, it was."
Prosecution: "And the results?"
Officer: "There was no blood of any kind. No dirt or vegetation. We did find several hairs matching the defendant's and fibers matching his clothes. Also, several unidentified hairs and fibers. But we found nothing at all matching the late Mr. Oaks.

DAY 5
Puzzlemaster's thoughts:
Oak's hairs and fibers weren't in the trunk? Interesting. But why would he be dragging the body around? I mean, he could claim he just found it, but why's he acting so dodgy about it all? I think I see what's going on...

Evidence revealed: Prosecution Exhibit C, Autopsy Report
The Puzzlemaster received the autopsy report from the prosecution and began to read aloud:
"Cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the chest. The bullet entered the thorax cavity between the third and fourth ribs, causing a collapsed lung and piercing the septum wall between the left and right ventricles. Death occurred between five to ten minutes."
Prosecution: "Was the bullet in Mr. Oaks fired from the handgun belonging to the security guard?"
Defense: "Objection! The medical examiner is not a ballistics expert, and neither is the Puzzlemaster."

DAY 6
Puzzlemaster's thoughts:
Really, the only incriminating evidence I'm seeing here is the blood found in the house. Everything else only seems to give Whitemane an alibi. I'm positive that I know what happened now.

Endre Whitemane was found to be not guilty of robbery, but was quickly arrested for murder once the Puzzlemaster's police officer showed up. Earlier, based upon his personal suspicions, he asked the bailiff to send out a cop to search the well. The body of Doris Whitemane, the defendant's wife, turned up.
After being faced with the discovery of his wife, Endre Whitemane broke down and confessed. Two weeks before he had been arrested dragging Jeremy Oak's body, Endre had an extreme domestic quarrel, snapped, and killed his wife. He dumped the body into the well and made up the story about her running off with a salesman. Since she had no family and few friends, everybody readily believed this tale.
On the night of the robbery, Mr. Whitemane was in the laundry room when he happened to look out his window. By the light of the full moon, he could see a man drag a body into the field, dumping it only a few dozen yards from the well. Fearing that the man's body was bound to be discovered, Endre panicked. He knew that once the body was found, the police would make a thorough search and find Doris in the process.
He had no choice. He had to move the body. If it were found anywhere else, the police would have no reason to scour this field, and Doris could rest in bloody, beaten peace. Unfortunately for him, the county workers saw him in the moonlight just as he began to drag the burglar's body to his car. IT was, of course, preferable to be convicted of bank robbery than of murder, so Whitemane said nothing to incriminate himself.
In his confession, he described the bank robber's getaway car and the man he saw depositing the body in the field. Jeremy Oak's cousin was soon arrested on robbery charges.

This should definitely have been called 'Twelve Angry Goglodytes'.

I considered it, but I decided on my title since I plan on it being a series.

jury duty.

RECESS!!!!

Do we get a uniform?

I find it unlikely that Evidence from Defendant's House will be unhelpful. If it has been labeled as evidence, and it was found in his house, I already fear that he is more involved in this that he claims. Let us see that.

Slept in, woke up, and found myself here on a jury panel. Must've been a pretty deep sleep.

Don't suppose we can get the bailiff to bring us breakfast, or pizza or something?

A bit confused on one point - while I see a mention of the light-colored getaway car, I don't see later in the description where that was found. How do we have access to the evidence from it?

The bailiff will deliver pizza cut into puzzle-shaped slices presently.
The guard, after being knocked down and dazed a bit, was able to chase after them and see the car, but wasn't fast enough to catch up or stop them from leaving.

Did the police ever found the stolen car?

Assuming that there's evidence from the car, it's safe to say yes.