Courtroom Confrontation IV: Juror Sumiko Kobayashi

Chronology
‹ The Séance's Double Locked Room Mystery Case	List of Episodes	White Day of Betrayal ›

Episode 606-607 (Int. Episode {{{int-episode}}})
Information
Title:	Courtroom Confrontation IV: Juror Sumiko Kobayashi
Japanese title:	法廷の対決IV 裁判員小林澄子 (Hōtei no Taiketsu Fō: Saiban'in Kobayashi Sumiko)
Original airdate:	February 19, 2011 (Part 1) February 26, 2011 (Part 2)
Broadcast rating:	10,00% 9,50%
Filler case:	#186
Season:	20
Manga source:	TV Original
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Sumiko Kobayashi Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri Eri Kisaki Ai Haibara Detective Boys Reiko Kujo Midori Kuriyama Ryujiro Uematsu Sasaki Presiding judge
Case solved by:	Kogoro Mouri (via Conan)
Next Conan's Hint:	Painting (Part 1) Vase (Part 2)
Staff
Director:	Koujin Ochi
Screenplay:	Yutaka Kaneko
Storyboard:	Seiki Taichu
Episode director:	606 Shigeru Yamazaki 607 Akira Yoshimura
Animation director:	606 Akio Kawamura, Miharu Nagano 607 Nobuyuki Iwai, Kenichi Otomo
Music
Opening song:	tear drops
Closing song:	Jūgoya Crisis ~ Kimi ni Aitai ~

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Sumiko Kobayashi Eri Kisaki Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri Ai Haibara Genta Kojima Ayumi Yoshida Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Reiko Kujo Midori Kuriyama Sasaki Presiding judge Ryujiro Uematsu

Gadgets

Gadgets
Voice-Changing Bowtie Stun-Gun Wristwatch Button Speaker

Case

Situation

Part 1

A murder case court is in session in which Toshio Iwamatsu is suspected of having killed Tadashi Ishigaki after burglarizing his home office.

Murder
	Location: Iwamatsu's money-lending home office Victim: Tadashi Ishigaki Cause of death: Stab wound Suspects: Toshio Iwamatsu

While Iwamatsu admits the break-in, he vehemently denies the murder, even though a slip-up suggests that he might have been acquainted with Ishigaki. The case heralds yet another confrontation between Eri Kisaki, as Iwamatsu's attorney, and Reiko Kujo as the prosecutor. In addition, Sumiko Kobayashi has been selected as one of the jurors. Although nervous, she keeps the court's confidence and refuses to devulge any details to the pestering Detective Boys members Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Genta.

At first the trial appears to be inconclusive, as there is no practical evidence of Iwamatsu being guilty of the murder. However, on a crime scene photo Kobayashi-sensei notices that the picture in Ishigaki's office - a rather odd piece of art of which a copy is also hanging in the Teitan Elementary principal's office - is actually situated pointing upside down. Intrigued, Conan, Ran, and Kogoro investigate the scene, along with Kujo-sensei, and on the back of the painting they discover bloodstains and an IOU for a large sum of money made out to Iwamatsu, which would provide a motive for murder. But Conan notices two more peculiarities: the imprint of a vase on a nearby cabinet, but with the vase gone, and the strange nervousness of Ishigaki's housekeeper, Yukie Hara.

People

Toshio Iwamatsu
	35 years old Defendant

Tadashi Ishigaki
	Victim (stabbed) Moneylender

Yukie Hara
	66 years old Housekeeper

Toru Tsukano
	46 years old Victim's brother-in-law

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

The real culprit was Toru Tsukano. His original plan was to steal the land deed that his late sister (Ishigaki's wife) had left him, but which Ishigaki had taken after he had caught Tsukano embezzling money from his company. Ishigaki caught him while looking through the painting and threatened to press charges, so Tsukano ended up killing him. He found the deed on the back of the painting, which Ishigaki used as a secret hiding place for his most important documents.

Right after Ishigaki was killed, however, Iwamatsu came, so Tsukano hung the painting up again (failing to notice in his haste that it was now upside down) and hid behind the door. Iwamatsu recoiled in shock upon finding the corpse and accidentally knocked the vase onto the floor, and Tsukano took advantage of it by hiding the knife inside. When Iwamatsu had fled the scene and the housekeeper, who had heard Iwamatsu hitting the ground, rushed to the crime scene, Tsukano decided to pretend that he had just arrived, and checked the victim so that he would have an excuse for the blood on his hands.

After Mrs. Hara had left to call the police and the ambulance, Tsukano took the vase to the garbage collection site outside, hoping that it would get collected and disappear. But unfortunately it didn't, so he decided to take the knife and the gloves out of it and throw it in the park pool. But while removing the murder weapon from the vase, he left blooded fingerprints inside, which became the crucial evidence about him being the culprit.

See also

• Season 20