What did I do? I walked into a drugstore to look for some mints, and then I walked out. What was wrong with that? I didn't kill Mr. Nesbitt.
In the young adult novel Monster, the black teenager Steve Harmon is accused of being an accomplice to a robbery in Harlem. Though he isn't one of the men who killed the shop owner, the prosecution claims he was acting as a lookout. According to their version of events, he came out of the store just before the robbery to signal to the two robbers that the store was empty.
Steve claims, however, that he was scouting for film locations for his new film. Unfortunately, his alibi is difficult to prove, as he was by himself. The only thing he can prove is that he is a member of a film club.
In the end, his lawyer gets him acquitted, first by making sure "the law works for you as well as against you, and to make you a human being in the eyes of the jury," and, second, by proving that Steve did not receive a cut of the money and that he hadn't even spoken to the two robbers, Ellis and Richard Evans, for months.
Later on in the novel, Steve Harmon takes the witness stand to testify and the prosecuting attorney, Sandra Petrocelli, asks him several questions regarding his involvement in the robbery and murder of Aguinaldo Nesbitt. When Petrocelli asks if Steve was in the drugstore the day of the robbery, Steve testifies that he was not. Petrocelli then asks Steve where he was at on the day of the robbery if he wasn’t in the store. Steve says that he doesn’t know exactly where he was at while the robbery was happening, but he does remember walking around his neighborhood taking mental notes of places he’d like to film for an upcoming school project. Steve also mentions that he was planning on doing a film about his neighborhood over the holidays. The jury ends up believing Steve’s alibi because he has a reputation as a good student who enjoys making films in his high school.
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