00:00The Theranos trial is heating up. After three months, the prosecution rested its case today.
00:05And this afternoon, the defense made a huge splash, calling Elizabeth Holmes to the stand.
00:10She explained how Theranos started from humble beginnings.
00:14And if you're wondering, her voice has not changed. It is a deep baritone still.
00:19NBC Bay Area Scott Budman was inside the courtroom as Holmes took the stand.
00:24So, Scott, legal analysts say this is a risky move.
00:27It was. It was a risky move, Jessica and Audrey. And it was a surprise move.
00:34This is what everyone's been waiting for for 11 weeks now, but what nobody expected at the very end on a Friday.
00:41But instead, with about an hour left of court for the whole week, they suddenly called Elizabeth Holmes to the stand.
00:47She walked up, took off her mask. The first time, by the way, that anyone in the courtroom saw her without a mask in 11 weeks.
00:54She introduced herself and talked about the early origin story of Theranos.
00:59She talked about how the original name was Real Time Cures.
01:02She talked about how she got some of the original money from her parents.
01:06Now, remember, Holmes dropped out of Stanford at 19.
01:09So she testified that some of the money that her parents had saved for college actually went towards the company.
01:15She then started hiring people and, most importantly, meeting investors, those investors who would fund the company from the very beginning all the way up until the bitter end.
01:26She was very poised. And like you said, her voice did not change.
01:30It was the same tone that we've gotten used to all these years.
01:34One note, this was her team talking to her, the defense team.
01:40And they took the whole hour, certainly no cross-examination today.
01:44They want the jury to have a poised Holmes, a Holmes who smiled at the jury and made eye contact with the jury and told a positive story as they go for the weekend.
01:55We won't hear any cross-examine until sometime into next week.
01:58Scott, quick question here. So the jury saw her today, but the voice is the same, but the look is so different.
02:05We're accustomed to seeing Holmes of Theranos in the black turtleneck and the stark clothing, and now she's had a much more warm, inviting look.
02:13How did the jury, how do you think it all played with the jury?
02:18It seemed to play well with the jury.
02:20A lot of people in court, and obviously we weren't allowed to talk to jurors,
02:24but a lot of people in court noticed for the last three months exactly what you just said, Jessica,
02:30that she's adopted a different look and that she comes across very friendly.
02:34She still makes eye contact with the jurors, even with the mask on.
02:38So it's not that much of a surprise when she took the stand that she felt somehow personable to them.
02:44And I think that's the goal, to try to humanize her and make her personable to the jury,
02:49as opposed to the very severe CEO that people saw in years past.
02:55Now, did she, you know, refute any of the things?
02:58We've had so many witnesses on the stand talking about how, you know,
03:02she convinced them that the Theranos machines worked, that they had a military contract.
03:07Did she talk about any of those things and rebut any of those things?
03:10That did not come up yet.
03:14Again, I think the defense just wanted to talk about the origin story
03:18and sort of introduce the new Elizabeth Holmes to the jury before they went home for their weekend.
03:25Obviously, it's a risky move, like you said at the top, because of the cross-examination
03:29that will bring in all of those things that Holmes told investors and others that turned out not to be true.
03:36There's a lot more to go in her testimony.
03:38A lot more for sure. All right. Thank you very much, Scott.
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