[29 October 3070; Der Anker] Bayern, Ludwigshafen -- A string of witnesses led off the defense's case today in the trial of Hardwick Meissner, 64, painting a portrait of a man driven mad with grief and despair after the combat deaths of all three of his sons over the course of the past decade.
Meissner, accused of second-degree murder in the death of ComStar Adept Francisco Correia, appeared visibly shaken during much of the testimony of his friends, family and co-workers and had to be physically supported by his attorney during one particularly emotional line of questioning. When asked about the recent death of Meissner's youngest son, Michael, during the Word of Blake attack on Donegal, the accused's neighbor Emilie Fields recounted how he appeared to enter a trance-like state upon the delivery of the news. "Hardy became numb, he shut down," Ms. Fields testified. "I didn't even see him for almost a week after."
Further witnesses were called to describe how the accused retreated from family and friends and sank into a deep depression and self-imposed isolation that lasted nearly a month. "We finally managed to coax him out," testified Meissner's sister-in-law, Georgetta Puglia, "but he wasn't the same Hardy we'd always known. He'd changed, died inside or something. He was very angry."
Hardwick Meissner, a fifteen-year resident of Bayern, is charged with the shooting death of Adept Correia in April of this year. Correia was killed during a public demonstration in front of the Bayern hyperpulse generator station when a point-blank burst from a needler pistol shredded his heart and lungs. Though the chaos of the demonstration impeded police investigation for the first few days after Correia's death, a number of witnesses soon came forward to identify Meissner as the shooter. The prosecution is arguing that Meissner shot Adept Correia out of revenge for his son's death, the news of which had been reported to him by the victim two months prior to the demonstration. Witnesses report that Meissner blamed ComStar for the current Word of Blake war against the Inner Sphere and had become an active participant in anti-ComStar protests on Ludwigshafen.
The defendant suffered the loss of his other two sons during the FedCom Civil War. The eldest, Jeremy, served with the Sixth Donegal Guards and was killed during the Jade Falcon assault on Kikuyu in 3064. Tobias Meissner, a corporal with the 36th Lyran Guards, died on Hesperus II in 3065.
The trial resumes tomorrow with the defense expected to call Meissner's brother to the stand.
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For more information on this trial, you may access the following files: HBHS-136, JHS70-91, FCCWSB-115, and FCCWSB-146. Thank you for using Der Anker's newswire. Have a nice day.