In court, Prosecutor Eric Chastain questions Sheriff Ed Jackson about the discovery of Chase Andrews’s body, noting no footprints, fingerprints, or vehicle tracks and implying evidence was destroyed. When Chastain hints that red fibers tie Kya Clark to the scene, the judge sustains a defense objection to the leading question.

On cross-examination, Tom Milton challenges the sheriff’s “expert” conclusion about erased footprints, asking for proof of any cover-up marks, which the sheriff lacks. Milton explains how rising groundwater in the marsh can wipe tracks and presents tide tables showing low tide around midnight, when Chase would have made prints that later vanished. Kya Clark subtly nods. Pressed, Sheriff Jackson concedes that the absence of footprints does not prove a crime.

Milton then highlights the lack of Kya’s fingerprints or hair anywhere on the tower and reminds the jury that the coroner found no evidence placing Kya near Chase that night. Sheriff Jackson admits there is no evidence Kya was on the fire tower.

Finally, Milton establishes that grates on the tower were often left open by kids and introduces Jackson’s own prior written request to the U.S. Forest Service, three months before the fall, warning the grates were dangerous and could lead to injury or death. The defense rests the cross with the tower’s known hazards and lack of forensic links, reframing the incident as a foreseeable accident and strengthening reasonable doubt.