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| “ | No, I don't think I will. I don't take orders from you. I'm the don, Luciano. Not you. | „ |
| ~ Fransisco Mendirez to Carlo Luciano |
Fransisco Mendirez is the secondary antagonist of Ace Attorney: Conflict of Interest. After having his uncle Michael Rivales killed by Sir Gallante after figuring out his plot behind Carlo Luciano's falsified death, he took over as the crime boss. After also targeting Carlo Luciano, he soon found himself subject to a scheme that would serve as the main conflict of the entire game. He serves as the defendant under the name "Allen Yossarain" in the final case, Turnabout into the Unknown.
History[]
Prior to the events of Conflict of Interest, he served as the caporegime of his uncle's mob business. One day he and Carlo Luciano plotted together to destroy the mob competition and wipe out the Cadaverinis. When Michael Rivales caught Luciano in the act, he ordered Mendirez to kill him. As a result, he, Luciano, Nathen Togamera, and Kristoph Gavin all collaborated on a plan to fake Luciano's death. He and Luciano met at a diner where they briefly met Pearl Fey who was running away to be set up as a phantom scapegoat and sent her away. They then swapped Luciano with a dead body double and had Salim Kushari witness the crime. Mendirez wasng him defeat Luciano. arrested and Togamera did his part to secure the situation to his favor.
When it came time for the trial, Gavin managed to set up the situation in order to make Mendirez's testimony more credible which was important for their plan. Mendirez then blatantly fabricated his testimony in front of the prosecutors in order to provoke them into poking out the holes. Unfortunately for Obadiah Williamson and Steven Jameson by doing so, they made his testimony even more credible by incriminating the phantom child suspect for the murder. In the end Salim Kushari was falsely convicted for the murder making their plan successful. The case would be known as the MN-6 Incident.
Mendirez would go on to hire Sir Gallante in order to eliminate other members of the Rivales family in order to gain power. Sir Gallante managed to kill at least 18 people in the process while Mendirez helped with the financing and plans for the murders.
In The Rogue Turnabout, Rivales eventually found out that Luciano was alive. In order to save his own skin, he sent out Sir Gallante once more in order to target Rivales and Luciano. Sir Gallante managed to only kill Michael Rivales before he was arrested and taken into police custody. With Luciano alive, Luciano would go on to plot many misdeeds against Mendirez in order to destroy his reign as the leader of the family. When Mendirez became the leader, he had several heinous crimes framed against him as a result of this.
In Turnabout into the Unknown, Steven Jameson wanted to speak with Mendirez only for Gladys Porter to start chasing him. With Jameson alone, he was eventually brutally beaten to death by Luciano and buried underground alongside another body of a victim he killed a month prior. Mendirez was arrested for both murders as a result with no attorney willing to help him forcing Williamson to grab Phoenix Wright to defend him under his codename "Allen Yossarian". He didn't meet Phoenix Wright until the trial day in which he decided to not cooperate with him much to the latter's disdain. Even when he was met in the detention center after the trial or even the day after that before the trial, he did little to help Wright. When Wright learned who he truly was he decided to "confess" that he was Luciano's killer. With this Wright decided to quit his defense which would've left Mendirez with no hope for an acquittal. Despite his plea for help, it was too little too late to get Wright on his side again. Trucy decided to convince Wright to at least consider giving him a fair defense in which he reluctantly obliged.
Wanting to see things through, Mendirez made some effort to help Phoenix Wright which the latter wasn't going to give him the benefit of the doubt anymore. After Wright and Williamson figured out that the culprit was after the bottle from MN-6, Mendirez was called back to the stand to testify about Jameson's murder. Despite Wright calling him out on the hit on Maya despite him saying he wasn't planning on silencing anyone over MN-6, he truthfully denied it. Phoenix Wright eventually caught on and realized that someone else was framing him for everything. With this Wright was able to piece together that Luciano was the one framing him for everything. Upon acknowledging it, Mendirez pointed Dreisan as the true identity behind Luciano. Luciano was then called to the stand which initiated a final showdown between him and everyone. After his guilt was proven, Luciano tried to kill Phoenix Wright only to be stopped by Mendirez who held him in place to prevent him from shooting anyone. Luciano told Wright that Mendirez was too crazy to listen to virtuous reason, but Mendirez decided that it wasn't his place to claim victory. He decided to spare Luciano and merely deck him in the face, allowing him to receive due justice in the court system. After Williamson left, Von Karma took over and told him he'll incentivize his cooperation by lowering his prison sentence. Mendirez decided to go with it and end the Rivales clan as it would be counterproductive to continue his scheme. He tried to apologize to Phoenix Wright for unnecessarily bringing him into his mess but decided it would be best to just move on as it was all over.
In the alternate route however, Mendirez remained uncooperative to Phoenix Wright due to the latter's villainous nature forcing Wright to do everything himself. In this route, he decides not to spare Luciano and snap his neck only for him to be shot by Luciano in the process. He died in front of everyone only for Wright to coldheartedly say he won't lose sleep over it.
Personality[]
Fransisco Mendirez is a power-hungry person who wanted to take over as the leader of the Rivales Family. He would go through any lengths in doing so even have a rivaling family killed to strengthen the mob along with high-ranking members assassinated in order to climb the ranks. Unlike Sir Gallante who was in the plot for vigilantism, Mendirez was in it to gain power in the mob. He's also cowardly, even going so far to attempt to have Luciano and finally have his uncle killed after the plot was exposed. However, this proved to be his downfall in the end. He's also uncooperative, unwilling to talk with his attorney in order to help him uncover the truth. However, he can accept defeat when he realizes there's nothing left for him, allowing himself to end the Rivales family after the plot was publicly exposed which would put him in danger. Despite his self-serving and pragmatic nature, Mendirez can show slight remorse for bringing innocent people like Phoenix Wright and others to his mess even making an effort to apologize and thank Wright for helping him defeat Luciano.