Nia testified about the financial records. She described shell companies, false consulting invoices, and personal expenses paid through businesses receiving proceeds from the diverted equipment. The jury saw timelines that placed transactions beside warehouse departures and account deposits. Each chart had underlying documents. When defense counsel suggested she had arranged the data to support a preselected narrative, Nia explained the reconciliation methods and showed the transactions that did not fit the government's original assumptions, including several legitimate services mistakenly flagged during early review.
That answer mattered. It showed that the investigators had corrected themselves rather than hiding inconvenient entries. The jurors were being asked to trust a method, not a performance of certainty.
Keller was more difficult. He admitted his role in opening warehouse gates, creating false reports, accepting payments, and assisting Mercer with the traffic-stop search. He acknowledged that he had initially denied recognizing the warehouse photograph and that he had looked to Mercer for protection when federal agents arrived. He also acknowledged that his cooperation could influence the sentence he faced. Defense counsel pressed each admission, then asked why anyone should believe a man who had spent months lying to employers and investigators.
"You shouldn't believe me just because I say something," Keller answered after a long pause. "You should check it against the paperwork. That's what I should've done before I ever helped them."
Simone sat in the public section behind the prosecution team and watched one juror write the sentence down. She did not know whether the juror considered it honest or calculated. That uncertainty was part of the process. The result belonged to the evidence evaluated by people who had not spent six months living inside the investigation.
When Deputy Price testified, the room was unusually quiet. He described arriving at the roadside scene, activating his body camera, hearing Mercer demand entry into the trunk, and recommending that they verify the legal basis before forcing the lock. The prosecution played the footage, including his own hesitant voice asking the sheriff to slow down.
On cross-examination, defense counsel asked why he had not physically stopped Keller from using the entry tool. Price looked at the lawyer and did not hide behind a polished answer.
"I should have challenged it more firmly," he said. "I was afraid of my supervisor, and I let that fear determine how far I went. That's something I'll have to live with."
"So you didn't prevent the search?"
"No. I recorded it. I objected. I didn't stop it."
The courtroom remained silent as the footage continued. A bright morning image showed the liftgate rising. The hanging field coat turned, and the yellow FBI letters filled the frame. Then Mercer's expression changed. Price did not look at the screen during that moment. He kept his eyes on the witness stand, remembering the feeling of knowing a wrong decision was being made and not having done enough to prevent it.
Simone testified near the end of the prosecution's case. Claire first took her through the broader investigation, the Ridgewell warrant, the evidence transport, and the preexisting basis for identifying Keller. Only then did she ask about Alder Street.