[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again episode 3.] “They say you don’t hear the bullet that gets you. Always thought that sounded like a bunch of bullsh-t to me,” the Punisher (Jon Bernthal) once told Daredevil (Charlie Cox). But that’s what happened in Tuesday’s “The Hollow of His Hand” episode of Daredevil: Born Again, which brought Hector Ayala’s (Kamar De Los Reyes) trial to a tragic close. As his lawyer, Matt Murdock defended Hector from dirty cop Officer Powell (Hamish Allan-Headley) in and out of the courtroom, eventually clearing Hector of charges in the case accusing the Good Samaritan of killing Powell’s partner, Officer Kel Shanahan (Jefferson Cox).
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Forced to expose Hector’s secret identity as the vigilante White Tiger to prove his client’s innocence, Matt had witnesses testify to Hector’s acts of selfless heroism. Acts like pulling a couple from the wreckage of a burning car, saving a young woman from a knife-wielding attacker, and multiple police reports crediting the alleged “cop killer” with aiding officers.
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In each instance, Hector testified he put himself in harm’s way because “it’s the right thing to do.” Although the matter of the People v. Hector Ayala ended with a jury finding Hector not guilty of manslaughter and murder in the first and second degrees, and Hector walking away a free man, he was sentenced to death by a gun-toting vigilante who lured the White Tiger into a trap and shot the hero in the head, killing him instantly. The disguised gunman then disappeared into the darkness, revealing a white skull spray-painted on his chest: the mark of the Punisher.
It was a gut-wrenching twist on Hector’s fate from the comics, where White Tiger suffered an even more tragic ending in the pages of 2003’s Daredevil #40 from writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Terry Dodson. In a three-issue arc that happened in the middle of Matt’s own legal troubles, Luke Cage and Danny Rand asked Murdock to represent White Tiger after he was wrongfully accused of killing a police officer while breaking up a pawn shop robbery in the Bronx.
White Tiger: Super Hero Cop Killer?
Initially wary of the media circus surrounding the case of an accused superhero cop killer, Matt accepted Hector’s case when he used his heightened senses to determine that he was telling the truth while protesting his innocence during a meeting at Ryker’s Island.
As Luke Cage and Iron Fist tracked down the gangbangers responsible for the murder of police officer Scott Perkins, Matt and his partner, Foggy Nelson, defended Hector against dogged D.A. prosecutor Paul Delacourt in what was dubbed “the trial of the century.”
Delacourt argued that Hector, while dressed as the White Tiger, shot and killed Officer Perkins over a stolen TV set as he attempted to rob Uncle’s Pawn Shop. Hector was found at the scene of the crime covered in the victim’s blood, but Nelson and Murdock argued there was no physical or forensic evidence that Hector fired the murder weapon.
Hector was innocent of the crime of which he was accused, something that Matt knew to be true but was tasked with proving in court. Delacourt anticipated that the defense would tell the jury of the White Tiger’s heroic acts during his stint as a costumed vigilante, and so a painted a picture of a self-made vigilante with disregard for life and the law.
Matt argued before the jury that Hector is a hero and family man who never committed a crime, and instead selflessly acted as a hero protecting his neighborhood of the Bronx. As for the prosecutor’s claims that this hero would suddenly decide to murder a police officer over a used television set, Matt countered that it was fiction. The truth, Matt told the jury:
“Hector, as the White Tiger, tried to stop a robbery. He tried to keep his neighborhood safe from those who would prey on it. A robbery he soon discovered had already turned into murder. The gunshot he heard that brought him down to the pawn shop was the one that killed Officer Perkins. It happened before Hector got there.”
Matt went on to state that Hector was momentarily overpowered by the young criminals who escaped the crime scene, leaving the responding police officers to find the aftermath. “He was arrested on conjecture,” Matt said of his client. “Not on fact. Not on forensic evidence. But on coincidence and guesswork. There is no evidence that Hector fired the murder weapon. Because he did not.” Instead, Matt argued that, like Officer Perkins, his client was a victim, and innocent of the crimes he stood accused of.
While being cross-examined, responding officer Robert Snipes testified that he did not see Hector Ayala shoot Officer Perkins, nor did he witness Hector attack or move to harm the officer. It was stated for the record that Officer Perkins’ prints were the only fingerprints on the murder weapon, and that while fibers from the White Tiger costume weren’t found on the victim’s body, blood samples taken from the blood-stained costume proved to be an exact match for Officer Perkins’ blood. There was no gunshot residue on Hector’s White Tiger gloves or any other evidence suggesting he ever fired a weapon. An expert testified that Hector’s footprint was found in a pool of blood, but the defense argued that was the result of Hector’s struggle with the suspects.
As Nelson and Murdock poked holes in the prosecution’s case over the lack of forensic evidence, Matt told Hector to remain calm under examination from the prosecutor. The defense called multiple witnesses to testify on Hector’s behalf: Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, investigator Jessica Jones, Heroes for Hire Luke Cage and Danny Rand, Robert Diamond of the Sons of the Tiger, and Doctor Stephen Strange, consulting expert on the mystical, abilities-enhancing amulet that grants its wearer the superhuman powers of the White Tiger.
Nelson and Murdock had Hector take the stand to testify about what happened that night in the Bronx. He was moved to tears while stating his innocence, and broke down under the prosecutor’s accusations that Hector committed the crime due to financial and marital problems with his soon to be ex-wife. Delacourt pressed Hector over his personal life and accused the “third rate superhero wannabe” of a superiority complex that compelled him to take whatever he wanted, whether that be pawn shop merchandise or an officer’s life.
In Daredevil #40, Delacourt’s closing remarks painted Hector Ayala as a murderer and cop killer who failed his family and failed as a costumed vigilante whose dire financial situation led him to steal and murder. Although Delacourt told the jury that the prosecution provided motive and cause, his remarks were colored by an anti-vigilante sentiment.
The People of New York v. Hector Ayala: The Verdict
Matt made the case for Hector Ayala: he was not on trial for being a vigilante, he was on trial for the murder of Officer Perkins. “This trial is about one thing and one thing only — one man’s declaration of innocence against the heinous crimes he has been accused of,” Matt told the court. “Hector did not murder Officer Perkins. Hector did not pick up a gun and shoot Officer Perkins in the face. And for all the prosecution’s song and dance… they never proved he did. They never put the gun in his hand because it never happened.” It was argued that Hector was on trial for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, and in a final plea to the jury, Matt urged them to imagine what it would be like to be arrested and jailed for a crime they did not commit.
“I want you to imagine a prosecutor yelling in your face. Picking away at your homelife, trying desperately to paint a picture of you that fits his needs — not because he has evidence of your guilt, no. Just so he can win. Hector has been punished these last few months — punished. For nothing. Let an innocent man go back into his life. Let him go back to the productive life he led. Let him rebuild what we have already taken away from him. And let our heroes, as human and flawed as we all are, feel free to walk among us.”
The jury deliberated much shorter a time than they should have, and the verdict came back: Hector Ayala, guilty as charged.
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Before he could be remanded back into custody for sentencing, Hector attacked a bailiff, took his gun, and fled the courtroom. He escaped to the courthouse steps, where Hector was gunned down by the police. The trial of the White Tiger — like Hector’s life — ended tragically.
In the final pages of Daredevil #40, Matt suited up as Daredevil and found the accomplice of Officer Perkins’ killer, who had overdosed on drugs and died. The teenage accomplice confessed to being an accessory to the crime and handed himself over to the police, but there would be no justice for Hector Ayala.
New episodes of Marvel’s Daredevil: Born Again air Tuesdays on Disney+.
