A utility knife was a piece of evidence in Apollo Justice and Phoenix Wright's investigation into the murders of Clay Terran and Metis Cykes. Normally kept in a GYAXA toolbox at the Cosmos Space Center, it was used to kill Clay Terran.
The UR-1 Incident[]
- Main article: UR-1 Incident
An international spy known only as "the phantom" broke into the Cosmos Space Center to destroy a psychological report on him created from voice analysis and to sabotage a rocket launch. During his mission, he killed Metis Cykes with a decorative katana.
Just at that moment, Metis's young daughter Athena walked in to show her a picture she had drawn. The phantom tried to kill her as well, only for Athena to stab him in the hand with a nearby utility knife in self-defense, with some of the phantom's blood being splattered on a nearby moon rock sample. He subsequently knocked the child out, but was unable to smuggle the rock out and so resorted to hiding it in the "Hope" Capsule, which was due to go up into space the next day and stay in orbit for seven years.
The murder of Metis Cykes came to be known as the UR-1 Incident, with Simon Blackquill being falsely convicted of her murder.
Seven years later[]
- Main articles: The Cosmic Turnabout & Turnabout for Tomorrow
Seven years later, the phantom returned to the Cosmos Space Center to sabotage another rocket launch. During his new mission, he once again murdered a member of the Center's staff; Clay Terran ran into the spy as he was helping fellow astronaut Solomon Starbuck evacuate from the sabotaged rocket. As he passed out from exhaustion, the phantom stabbed Terran in the chest with the same kind of knife Athena stabbed him with, but not the exact same one from seven years ago.
During the subsequent investigation, Athena (now a defense attorney at the Wright Anything Agency) displayed some unusual behavior, due to her traumatic memories of her mother's death, which Terran's best friend Apollo Justice noticed. As Athena was new to the Agency, Justice was grieving over Terran's death, and Athena was at the Center at the time of the crime, he suspected her being the culprit. Justice wrapped a bandage over his eye to nullify his ability and after the phantom blew up Courtroom No. 4 to destroy the capsule, he began wearing Terran's jacket in memory of his late friend.
During the retrial for Metis's murder, Athena slowly began to remember the truth of what had happened on that traumatic day, and recalled stabbing someone, which left blood on her hands. Although she initially thought she had killed her own mother, Phoenix Wright eventually realized that she could not be the culprit, as only the katana had blood on it's blade. Wright soon revealed the true culprit to be the phantom in the guise of police detective Bobby Fulbright.