Late one Saturday night in February 2008, St. Louis police Officer Timothy Ragsdale received a call that a man named Curtis Williams had reported an assault at 3945 Cook. Ragsdale went to the address and discovered that the three-story building was no longer a single-family residence but a boardinghouse.

He went room to room, but nobody acknowledged knowing a resident named Williams nor anything about an assault. Ragsdale returned to his patrol car and was about to leave when Williams walked up to the car. He had blood on his sleeves. He spoke in an agitated manner.

He said he had been in his room when a woman from a room down the hall knocked on his door and asked for a cigarette. He said he turned her down, and a few minutes later, her husband came to his door and accused him of being disrespectful.

Williams said that shortly thereafter, the husband returned with another man and they kicked his door open, entered the room and punched and kicked him. Williams said they left but returned a few minutes later with the woman and forced their way into his room again. The men attacked him, knocked him down, and the woman then grabbed his wallet and emptied it of about $260. The three left, and Williams went to a nearby liquor store to call police.

Ragsdale and Williams went back into the house, and up to the second floor where Williams lived. There were four rooms, or apartments, on the floor. All shared a common bathroom.

The door to one of the rooms was open and Williams identified a man and woman inside as the husband and wife who had attacked him. Their names were Michael Mitchell and Jacqueline Brown-Mitchell. When Ragsdale went into the room to question the couple, he found a second man lying on his back behind the couch. His name was Eric Mingo. Williams identified him as the second attacker.

Williams later said a Sony PlayStation was missing, apparently taken when he went to the liquor store to call the police.

The three alleged assailants were charged with second-degree robbery and first-degree burglary. The two men were also charged with third-degree assault. They went to trial this week.

The defendants' version of events was outlined in an opening statement by Brad Kessler. He told the jury that Williams had a history of being rude to Brown-Mitchell. That had been the basis of the fight, which was strictly between Mitchell and Williams. Mingo, who was visiting, was passed out behind the couch, exactly where Ragsdale later found him. The robbery and the missing PlayStation were bogus accusations. Police searched the defendants and the room and found nothing.

If you are a connoisseur of the courts, you might be wondering, "How does a guy renting a room in a boardinghouse afford Brad Kessler?"

At the time of the incident, Mitchell and Mingo were working as laborers for a small remodeling company. Originally, the owner was going to pay for their legal representation, but then his business went south. He had to lay off the two and back out of the deal. But the lawyers figured they might as well see the case through. Kessler represented Mitchell. David Bruns represented Brown-Mitchell. Charles Teschner represented Mingo.

The lead prosecutor was Steven Capizzi. He was assisted by Tommy Taylor. During his days at St. Louis University's law school, Capizzi took a class in trial advocacy taught by Kessler and Bruns.

Capizzi's case depended almost entirely on Williams. Also, the state had some photographs the police had taken at the boardinghouse. The most important ones showed that the door to Williams' room had been damaged, which was consistent with his version of events.

The defense attorneys dismissed that damage. Who knows when it occurred? The boardinghouse wasn't exactly a five-star hotel. Also, the defense made much of the fact that the police hadn't found the money that was supposedly stolen, nor the PlayStation.

Finally, they attacked Williams' credibility. He had a record — domestic assault and child endangerment. He was on parole at the time of the incident. They banged away at discrepancies in his story. He told the police the second attack occurred in his room. He told the jury it occurred in the hallway.

Mitchell testified. He's 49. No convictions. He testified that Williams came to his door and complained about the noise, and that led to a fight in the hallway. He admitted punching Williams. In so doing, he was pretty much confessing to the third-degree assault, but that charge, unlike burglary and robbery, is a misdemeanor. Overall, I thought he did well.

Then again, I liked Mitchell and Mingo. "This was a 30-second drunken brawl," Mitchell told me during a break. He said he had been drinking a concoction of white wine and whiskey. He also said his life had hit the skids since getting arrested and then laid off. He said he had been sleeping in doorways and had only recently gotten into the Harbor Light. Mingo seemed like a good fellow, too. "This is all crazy," he said.

So I was hoping reasonable doubt might carry them through, but the jury, presumably swayed by the photos, found everybody guilty of everything. The verdict surprised me, and I felt bad for Mitchell and Mingo, but even as I was rooting for them, I had been wondering: If Mitchell's story were true, and Mingo was passed out behind the couch during the brief fight in the hallway, then how did Williams know to invent a second assailant?