Naomi testified next, explaining the money flow without demanding that jurors become accountants. She used charts to show how payments left county accounts under emergency contracting descriptions and arrived in businesses linked to the participants. She traced dates and bank records, distinguishing ordinary vendor income from transfers that coincided with undocumented equipment movements. Under cross-examination, she acknowledged several entries that remained uncertain and explained why those entries had been excluded from the amount the government claimed it could prove. Her willingness to identify the limits of the calculation made the documented transactions more difficult to dismiss.
Keller took the stand later in the week. He admitted his own role before describing Mercer's instructions, and the defense attorney questioned him sharply about the benefits he hoped to receive by cooperating. Keller did not deny that he wanted a lesser sentence. He also could not deny the payments into his account or the nighttime warehouse entries on his patrol logs. When he described the morning of the stop, he looked directly at the jury instead of toward Mercer.
"The sheriff wanted to know what was in the SUV," Keller said. "We had been told somebody was carrying records from the warehouse. I didn't know the driver was FBI. I knew we didn't have a warrant, and I knew I hadn't seen her do anything that would justify opening the back."
"Then why did you assist?" the prosecutor asked.
Keller swallowed. "Because I'd gotten used to doing what he wanted, and I'd already done things I couldn't explain."
The defense tried to show that Keller was exaggerating Mercer's role to save himself. In response, prosecutors introduced documents showing that several relevant security exemptions bore Mercer's approval and that money had moved into a business interest he had not disclosed. The evidence did not require the jurors to like Keller or trust him without question. It allowed them to compare his account with facts recorded before he knew the investigation would reach him. Simone watched that comparison matter more than any emotional declaration he could have made.
When Price testified, the courtroom was quiet enough for him to hear a chair creak near the back. He described the discrepancies in warehouse logs, the meeting in Mercer's office, and the roadside exchange. His body-camera recording was admitted for the issues the judge had approved, and parts of it were played without alteration. The jurors heard Simone ask about a warrant, Price suggest calling in the search, and Mercer order Keller to open the locked liftgate. They saw the FBI coat come into view and watched Mercer's expression change.
The defense asked whether Price had been frustrated with the sheriff before the stop. He acknowledged that he had been concerned about records but had no personal feud with Mercer. Asked whether he had received any benefit for coming forward, Price said he had received additional interviews, a difficult administrative review, and many months of worrying about his future. There was a brief silence, and the lawyer moved to another question.