(Oklahoma City – March 5, 2008) Del City’s Christian Heritage Academy defeated Clinton High School in the final round of competition to claim the Oklahoma High School Mock Trial Championship. Christian Heritage Academy will represent Oklahoma in the national competition, to be held in Wilmington, Del., in May.

“Every year, Christian Heritage Academy displays a strong presence in this competition and adds a second state mock trial championship to their history,” said Oklahoma Bar Association President Bill Conger of Oklahoma City. “Its team members presented wonderful arguments and demonstrated excellent reasoning skills. They will do a great job representing our state in the national championship.”

The competition was held Tuesday evening in the Bell Courtroom at the OU Law Center in Norman. The two teams argued a criminal case of first degree murder in which the defendant claims she was acting in self-defense in shooting her abusive husband.

The annual competition is sponsored by the Oklahoma Bar Association Young Lawyers Division and the Oklahoma Bar Foundation. Teams are paired with attorney coaches, who volunteer their time to help prepare the students.

The judges evaluated the students based on their familiarity of the case and the formulation of their arguments. Students received points for each phase of the trial, opening, direct and cross examination, closing argument and how well their witnesses responded.

This year’s winners of the best attorney awards were Ryan Morrisett of Christian Heritage Academy and Jessica Heard of Clinton High School. Amber Box of Christian Heritage Academy and Andrea Jaquez of Clinton were chosen as the top witnesses.

This year’s mock trial team was coached by teacher Jerrid Eischen and its attorney coach was Chris Box. Returning for a fourth year on the team was Amber Box. Third-year team members were Breonna Burns, Joe Crow, Jonathan Irwin and Jennifer Tilly. Second-year team members were Patrick Burroughs and Danielle Killion. New to the team were Addi Ellis, Kerri Jung, Jared Miller, Ryan Morrisett, Taylor Palmer, Kylie Quinn, Danilo Vara, Maddie Williams and Kenny Wooldridge.

Out of the 51 teams that began competing in January, the top finishers are, in third place, Ada High School; fourth, Jenks High School; fifth, Catoosa High School; sixth, Atoka High School; seventh, Holland Hall, Tulsa; and eighth, Broken Arrow High School.

Judge Edward Cunningham served as presiding judge during the contest finals. Scoring judges were Judge Daman Cantrell, Judge Kenneth Dickerson, Judge David B. Lewis, Judge Millie Otey and Judge Dana L. Rasure.

More than 400 judges and attorneys volunteered their time to work with mock trial teams as coaches and to conduct the competitions. Rachel McCombs of Oklahoma City served as chairperson of the Young Lawyers Division Mock Trial Committee.