After falling from the public’s good opinion, Charlie Martin, a reality TV star, poured deadly oxalic acid into opponent Rob Armstrong’s breathing mask during an underwater challenge. Armstrong took off the poisoned mask underwater in a state of delirium and died of asphyxiation. Now, Martin faces charges of first-degree murder.

Clark University’s Mock Trial club brought this messy fictional case to life at The American Mock Trial Association Regional Tournament on the weekend of Feb. 14. They faced other colleges such as Tufts University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They placed 11th out of 26 teams, earning them an honorable mention.

In addition, four team members received individual awards, marking an extremely successful competition for the club. Uddipto Nandi, Noah Hart and Caleb Howard all achieved Outstanding Witness awards, and Morgan Vail received an Outstanding Attorney award.

“I think it was our most successful overall year in a long time,” said Louis Rosenberg, Vice President and captain of the B team. “We did amazing. It was really fun, and it felt really good knowing how good we did.”

The club was split into two teams; each one had three attorneys and three witnesses. Both teams practiced tirelessly and in collaboration with the other. “We kind of made magic,” Eloise Sax said. “It’s kind of a good thing to know that you have a safety net and have trust in your teammates.”

Morgan Vail, winner of the Outstanding Attorney award, said, “Some of the Mock Trial weekends have been the happiest I’ve been doing extracurricular. The sense of accomplishment is really, really strong.”

To defend alleged first-degree murderer Charlie Martin, the defense decided to play it as a negligent homicide to get the fictional character a lighter sentence, as the production team of the reality show could have prevented the death. However, after more details came out when the case was updated after invitationals, it became harder to prove it was merely a negligent homicide.

Robin Whitestone, who played Charlie Martin, says, “You kind of have to believe in your own innocence to play the character realistically, but then case changes came out and I was like ‘No! Why’d you do that?”

After more evidence supported the fact that Charlie Martin murdered Rob Armstrong, including a confession and images of the poison used with labels clearly saying ‘dangerous,’ both teams had to change course.

Whitestone extrapolates on how they played Charlie Martin to promote his own innocence after such revealing evidence. “We had to come up with creative solutions to try to make me seem as kind of meek and stupid and manipulable as possible.”

Mock Trial exists as a combination of debate, writing, teamwork, and acting. Therefore, as a member of the team, Sax said, “you just have to go at it with a lot of energy while still making yourself credible and still put on a good performance.”

The Clark Mock Trial team is especially adept at this. Noah Hart, playing an expert witness, used character choices to his advantage, earning the Outstanding Witness award in his first year competing. He ran out the clock against the opposite defense attorney, marking one of his proudest moments at the competition.

“I had sort of played him as this very arrogant doctor… He’s going to launch into lectures, and not explain any of the smaller details about what he’s talking about,” Hart continues. “One of the judges said I played a perfect, arrogant asshole.”

The team is on a high, and they hope to continue the energy in the years to come.

President of the club and captain of the A team, Basai Hundessa, says next year, “my primary objective is to have fun, but losing is not fun.” She says she will continue to push her teammates to continue improving as a collective unit. “Before we have fun, we have to be prepared.”

Coach Steven Kennedy, an adjunct professor in Political Science and the School of Business, continues the positive sentiment. “I’m just amazed… If you don’t have a good team, you don’t win awards… it’s been great to watch and be a part of it, so the future looks really bright for the team.”