Claire Ashford was never charged. She testified for four hours and Tolliver went at her hard enough that Reyes objected eleven times, and she held.

Afterward, in the corridor, I asked Marisol Reyes to make sure Miss Ashford was told the verdict directly, by a person, before it went out to the press.

Reyes looked at me. “That’s not usually something we do for a defense-adjacent witness,” she said.

“I know.”

She made a note anyway.

I have not seen Claire Ashford since. I don’t expect to. There is no version of that friendship and neither of us went looking for one.