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The defense knew an insurmountable quantum of evidence pointed directly to Ross—the fake
IDs, Ross’s old friend Richard Bates from Austin testifying against him, the tens of millions of dollars
found on Ross’s laptop, and Jared testifying that he had worked for Ross as an undercover employee.
People in the courtroom could see that in the case of United States of America v. Ross William
Ulbricht, one side was clearly winning.
After three weeks of trial, the closing arguments were presented.
“His conduct was brazenly illegal; he knew perfectly well what he was doing the whole time,”
Serrin Turner, the prosecutor, bellowed as he paced in front of the jury. “He built it. He grew it. He
operated it from top to bottom until the very end.” As he spoke, Serrin grew more exasperated by the
defense Ross had given.
“He thinks he can pull one over on you—” Serrin thundered to the jury.
“Objection!” Ross’s lawyer tried to interject.
“—and then there is the defendant’s attempt to explain away mountains of evidence on his
computer,” Serrin continued, ignoring the defense lawyer. “It’s a hacker.”
“Objection!!”
“It’s a virus,” Serrin ridiculed. “It’s ludicrous. There were no little elves that put all of that
evidence on the defendant’s computer.” He finally concluded, peering at the men and women of the
jury: “He knew perfectly well what he was doing the whole time, and you should find him guilty on
all counts.”
When it was the defense’s turn, Dratel stood up, vexed by Serrin’s speech.
“One of the fundamental principles in this case is that DPR and Mr. Ulbricht cannot be the same
person,” Dratel began. “Saving those chats, does that sound like DPR? You have to actually enable
the chats to be saved.” He went on, noting that the Dread Pirate Roberts would never have made such
a silly mistake: “Keeping a journal like that and then saving it on your laptop? A little too
convenient.”
He pointed to the evidence found on the laptop and said it had been put there by someone else. It
was the real Dread Pirate Roberts, who knew the Feds were closing in, and while Ross was in the
library downloading a TV show onto his laptop, the real DPR placed the chat logs and other evidence
on his computer. “There are a lot of blinking neon signs in this case that have been created to
incriminate Mr. Ulbricht,” he shrieked. “It is not the same person.”
Dratel argued skillfully that in November 2011 Ross had given the site away. A site that he,
regretfully, had started. That Ross had then left for Australia to start his life anew and get away from
the monster he had birthed. “The Internet is not what it seems; you can create an entire fiction.”
Finally Dratel asserted that the government in no way had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that
Ross Ulbricht was the Dread Pirate Roberts. “I’m confident . . . in deliberations, you will reach only
one conclusion: Ross Ulbricht is not guilty on every count in the indictment.”