- "I will not stand for this, Your Honor. You know, I have the utmost respect for your court, but not for these speculative, antagonising questions. The point of this hearing was to present evidence against Mr. Lahey not me. If that's not the case, then please charge me with my husband's murder, though I'm guessing that hasn't happened due to lack of evidence. Instead, your strategy has been to attack me with accusations and insinuations making it very clear that this is not a preliminary hearing, but a witch-hunt. And I did not put my hand on this court's Bible to be burnt at the stake, and especially by a petty, foolish, amateur prosecutor who doesn't deserve mine or anyone else in this court's respect!"
- —Annalise during her cross by Sinclair
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Lahey was the case surrounding the murder charge brought against Nate after Annalise had Frank frame him for Sam's murder. Annalise framed Nate in order to give the police a suspect so they would stop looking into her. It also allowed her to control the case and stay in the loop, even moreso after she had Nate fire Trent Stockton and hire Eve Rothlo.
Case[]
Sam's body is found[]
On December 31 2014, Sam's body was found. This came 19 days after he was murdered on night of the bonfire. Rebecca was the first to find out after seeing the news on her laptop and showing Wes. The group then met up later that night to discuss what to do because it meant the police would be opening a murder investigation. Laurel called Frank, who told them to do nothing and stop calling people because the calls they make can be used as evidence against them. Later, a police officer came to the Keating house to inform Annalise that Sam was dead and Hannah was there too.
The next day, Nate called Annalise on a burner phone and told her the police want to question him again. Annalise told him not to talk to them. Claire Bryce stopped Annalise on campus and noted she wasn't grieving in a typical fashion. When she arrived to class, she departed from the syllabus to touch on the 5th amendment to communicate with Laurel, Connor, Wes and Michaela indirectly. Meanwhile Hannah went to the police department and saw pictures of Sam's dead, charred up body and insisted they look into Annalise and said she'd testify to whatever was needed for the police to get a warrant. The next day, detective Bryce was in the process of getting a warrant to search the house and a hearing was being held for it. Annalise sent Bonnie on her behalf, and she lost. Hannah testified to a violent altercation between Sam and Annalise at during a paperweight was thrown at him and Bonnie was unsuccessful in discrediting her.
Later the police arrived at the Keating house to carry out a search warrant for evidence linking Annalise to the murder of her husband. The search turned up nothing but it amplified the pressure felt by everyone. That night Annalise and Nate had a phone call where he told her the police were testing the soil and foliage found with Sam's remains to find out where his body was burnt. The following evening Bonnie confronted Annalise about knowing what happened to Sam and how she wouldn't get away with it if she kept avoiding the police. She also said she shouldn't let the Keating 5 destroy her, because it was them, not her. This prompted her to call Frank over and give him Sam's ring. She instructed him to sneak into Nate's apartment and transfer one of his fingerprints to the ring and then plant it in the woods behind the campus. ("She's a Murderer")
Nate is framed[]
The next day detective Bryce shows up at Annalise's house and tells her they found evidence in the woods and need to speak with her, so she goes back to the police station with them. They reveal that they found Sam's ring in the woods and it had Nate's fingerprint on it. At the same time Nate was arrested and the group found out via the news on Rebecca's laptop again. ("She's a Murderer")
Later, the police called Rebecca in for questioning because they saw she called Nate the night Sam went missing. She lied in her interrogation and said Nate asked her to plant evidence in the Keating house and she said no, so he found another way. That night, Michaela flirted with A.D.A Orrin Driver at a bar and he revealed what Rebecca really said in her interrogation, so she told Wes, Connor and Laurel. Annalise then went to Nate in an interrogation room and slipped him a note telling him to fire his lawyer and call a number, later revealed to be Eve Rothlo. ("Mama's Here Now")
Nate getting out on bail[]
The next day Nate had his first bail hearing. He was being represented by Trent Stockton, who failed to get him out on bail. Bonnie and Frank stood watch at the back and then told Annalise what happened, saying judge Clarice Redding was ruling against bail to punish Nate for what his arrest was doing to the image of the police. After this Annalise began her defense in the murder of Father Bernard case. That night she had Frank put in a word at the jail to have Nate beaten in his cell because she thought that would get him out on bail but the following morning Bonnie informed her he only got moved to solitary instead. Annalise then came up with another plan, to have Asher make conversation with the judge whilst Frank took pictures and forwarded them to Nate's attorney. Later, Trent presented these pictures to judge Redding who recused herself because of the conflict of interest. That night. Nate was released on bail. ("The Night Lila Died")
Annalise lies to the prosecution[]
Emily Sinclair comes to the house to arrange Annalise giving a statement for the prosecution. Later, they meet at her office and go over Annalise's initial statement to detectives, but she adds a small detail; that Nate followed her back home from his apartment. When she pulled up to her house, Sam was about to leave town and started to get aggressive with Annalise so Nate held him back whilst she got indoors. Emily was taken aback by her claim that there was a physical altercation between the two men as Annalise had never stated this previously. Later she met with Nate and he understood what she was trying to achieve, a physical altercation would explain why Nate's fingerprint was on Sam's ring and cast reasonable doubt on the claim that he murdered Sam. ("It's All My Fault")
Eve defends Nate[]
Some time later Eve comes to the house to find out why Annalise wanted her to represent Nate. Annalise refused to tell her anything, so she met with Nate. Nate told Eve that Annalise framed him so she left. Annalise met her at her hotel to try and stop her but it didn't work. Later Annalise went back to Eve's apartment and came clean that she framed Nate because she's protecting Sam's killer. Eve ends up taking Nate's case as a result. ("It's Time to Move On")
A few days later Annalise and Eve meet in a car to discuss the case. Annalise asked if Nate was going to lie on the stand and say he fought with Sam the night he went missing. Eve refused to tell her anything. Later in the preliminary hearing, Sinclair brought up that Eve and Annalise had a long-standing relationship with each other and it could be viewed as a conflict of interest. Judge Pruitt waived the conflict so after a recess Annalise was called to the stand. Sinclair said she would be treated as a hostile witness, meaning she may be unwilling to tell the truth and openly antagonistic. She asked many questions that Annalise didn't like answering back to back and it got to a point where Sinclair flat-out said there was a lot of indicators that proved she helped Nate kill Sam, causing Annalise to lash out (quote at top of page).
The hearing continued the following day where Annalise testified she believed Nate killed Sam. After, Eve tried to convince Nate to testify to the physical altercation but he refused to do it and then threatened to tell the judge that Annalise framed him and Eve was in on it. Eve met Annalise in the restroom to tell her Nate wouldn't lie when Sinclair came in and ended the conversation. Back in court, Eve decided to put it all on Annalise. She even accused her of planting Nate's fingerprint on Sam's ring, This caused an argument between the two later on.
Case dismissed[]
The next day the judge had a decision and court was in session. The judge said that too much time was spent discussing Annalise and if she played a bigger role in Sam's death. She continued that Sinclair suggested that Annalise, her own witness, was a liar. Finally concluding that there wasn't enough evidence to proceed to trial and declaring Nate a free man. Nobody else was ever arrested or faced charges specifically for Sam's murder, but his death was a significant part of The Final Trial. ("She's Dying")
See also[]
Trivia[]
- The case number was 09682
Appearances[]
| Season 1 | |||||||||||
| "Pilot" | "It's All Her Fault" | "Smile, or Go to Jail" | "Let's Get to Scooping" | ||||||||
| "We're Not Friends" | "Freakin' Whack-a-Mole" | "He Deserved to Die" | "He Has a Wife" | ||||||||
| "Kill Me, Kill Me, Kill Me" | "Hello Raskolnikov" | "Best Christmas Ever" | "She's a Murderer" | ||||||||
| "Mama's Here Now" | "The Night Lila Died" | "It's All My Fault" |
| Season 2 | |||||||||||
| "It's Time to Move On" | "She's Dying" | "It's Called the Octopus" | "Skanks Get Shanked" | ||||||||
| "Meet Bonnie" | "Two Birds, One Millstone" | "I Want You to Die" | "Hi, I'm Philip" | ||||||||
| "What Did We Do?" | "What Happened to You, Annalise?" | "She Hates Us" | "It's a Trap" | ||||||||
| "Something Bad Happened" | "There's My Baby" | "Anna Mae" |