CASSOPOLIS — A jury given 15 minutes to deliberate voted 11-1 Friday to convict “Ima Helper” (Deputy Sheriff MaKenzie Kreiner) of premeditated first-degree murder for killing reality television impresario Simon Jowell.

The mock trial at the real Law and Courts Building capped the week-long Cass County Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) Jr. Academy sponsored by Southwestern Michigan College Educational Talent Search program at SMC June 27-July 1 for students in grades 6-8.

Students enrolled in the CSI Jr. Academy learn techniques and tools used to solve a crime, such as evidence handling, fingerprinting, soil, blood and trace analysis, crime scene sketching and tool and dental impressions.

The final day students tie it all together with a trial before real attorneys and court personnel — in fact, defense attorney Robert LaBre was led away in handcuffs after guns came out in an outburst over the verdict unfavorable to Helper.

Leading the prosecution team was Assistant Prosecutor Tiffiny Vohwinkle.

Hearing testimony and fighting a losing battle to keep control of her courtroom given the number of hand-held sound effect devices floating around which variously played snatches of “Dragnet” or “Charge” was former prosecutor Leigh Feldman, the Juvenile Division attorney/referee as Judy Justice, although one of the more colorful witnesses, Terri McCraner of the Prosecutor’s Office, is convinced the slender jurist is actually Nancy Grace and the camera packs on extra pounds.

Real Judge Susan Dobrich watched some of the proceedings from the benches.

One rowdy spectator has to be removed because she insists the judge wait while she take a cell phone call.

The 33 junior detectives include Sabrina Baird, Veronica Disse, Shaun Elliott, Cade Stevenson, Ian Daly, Chante Williams, Adin Williams, Leigh Ann Walker, Ashley Steele, Christianna Schommer, Jewelianna Robison, Lauren Ridenour, Elizabeth Neuerburg, Edward Mozader, Kalli Mead, MaKayla McKenzie, Nick Labadie, Kyra Kuriata, Jack Kison, Logan Huycke, Tyler Heflin, Hailee Green, Kourtney Glaser, Raven Garritano, Gabrielle Evans, Lyric Diaz, Amber Butrick, Dominic Butler, Mary Bonomo, Sarrah Blumka, Coral Bidelman, Michelle Baldwin and Kasondra Carter.

Gabrielle Evans is appointed bailiff to assist Deputy Ken Cox in maintaining order in court.

Jack Kison gives the people’s opening statement to jurors, who include Bob Cochrane and Sandi Hoger of the Council on Aging, laying out what the evidence will show about a crime occurring in Dowagiac on July 29, 2011.

The deceased will be found clutching in his cold, dead hands what the prosecution alleges is a strand of Helper’s hair. Their theory is that denied a TV show of her own while four others got them, in a “fit of emotional rage,” she confronted him and put a bullet through his heart with a .40-caliber gun.

Kison promises that he and his colleagues will prove Helper’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, although defense team spokeswoman Hailee Green stands ready to muddy the waters by arguing that Jowell slashed at her with a knife and fearful for her life in the face of his attack, Helper acted in self-defense.

Other extenuating circumstances are that Jowell was a candidate for a fatal heart attack anyway after consuming too many energy drinks and toxic mushroom soup.

“If anyone else wants to sit in the corner, keep that up,” Judge Justice warns.

Dowagiac Officer Jim Kusa played the witness who showed Ima show to shoot. “I knew she was mad,” he testified, “but I didn’t think she’d go that far. I would have tried to stop her.” He said she felt she needed a gun for protection.

Spectators across the courtroom crack up at one of the student’s “objection — too many objections.”
They get nowhere with the judge, who early on decided, “I’m just going to overrule everything today.”

Amy Anderson of ETS portrays Dr. Rig R. Mortis, the county medical examiner who has to be cuffed.

Detective Phil Small answers the question of what rocker Ted Nugent would look like in drag with an outfit that combines camouflage pants and hat and hiking boots with a frilly frock and too much makeup.

His character, Nate/Natalie Nature, a gung-ho environmentalist, is confused about gender.
He found the tainted mushrooms witness Vidalia Onion put in the soup Jowell consumed.

“She makes toothpaste out of onions,” Nature, who’s getting his own show, too, tells the court.
The prosecution rests at 2:43.

Helper takes the stand in her own defense and promptly announces that she’s now going by a different name, J.Lo. She’s out on bond “for conjugal visits,” she bats her eyes at Kusa’s character.

Helper, who claims to teach autistic children at a senior center to tug at the jury’s heartstrings, recalls that Simon was not his normal self, stumbling around, choking and “acting weird.”

“Bam! He came at me, pulling my hair and he cut me,” she asserts, unfurling a long bandage to show the literally green gangrenous scar on her arm.

The defendant maintains that Simon was her BFF and loved him, only shooting him in self-defense.

Cross-examined by prosecutors, Helper allows that she had always dreamed of having her own TV show. “Who doesn’t?” She added, “I’ll get my shot,” without a trace of irony. She acknowledges that Kusa’s character has feelings for her.

She withheld information during an earlier interview, she admits, because “you guys are kind of scary.”
The defense rests.

Closing arguments stress that Helper has no criminal record or history of lying and wouldn’t intentionally hurt a fly, and that Jowell likely would have died anyway from a heart attack.

Judge Justice instructs the panel on the law as it applies to this case and advises jurors to consider all evidence before deciding who and what to believe.

Helper is to be presumed innocent unless the prosecution proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

They must prove elements of premeditated murder and not have acted on impulse.