Junior Jake Heisler placed fifth out of 48 witnesses as the MSMS Mock Trial Team competed against 15 other high schools from across Mississippi in a state competition held in Jackson the weekend of March 1.

Annually, the Mississippi Bar Association releases a faux case for competitors to comb through and argue the innocence or guiltiness of a fictional defendant. Teams prepare to argue on both sides of the case and must utilize one of their team members as a witness.

Heisler said there were unique challenges to the witness role.

“The Bar Association sends out a witness report when they send out their case. You have to decipher their personality and memorize all the facts that are in there,” Heisler said. “I was playing an old guy in my witness statement, and he was pretty grumpy.” 

Heisler said there were obstacles related to the team’s small size. Without a lot of participants, many members had to multitask in the competition. 

“Every single witness on the team had to play two witnesses. That’s not typical. We also didn’t have a timekeeper, so I had to play two witnesses and a timekeeper,” Heisler said. 

As Mock Trial comes to an end for the year, Co-President Jose Brevil said the team’s individual and collaborative success. 

“We placed in the regional competition, and we had several people win outstanding attorneys and outstanding witness awards. We also went down to the state [competition] in Jackson,” Brevil said. 

Heisler said the work the team must do next year to capitalize on the recent strong performances. 

“I’m proud of us making it all the way to state [competition]. We got our case in October [but] didn’t start until late January. We need to prepare better next year,” Heisler said.