Testimony wraps up in David Copperfield trial

Testimony concluded Friday in a civil trial over a fall at a David Copperfield performance, but jurors likely will not start weighing evidence for about two weeks.

British tourist Gavin Cox claims he suffered a traumatic brain injury after participating in the “Lucky #13” illusion in November 2013.

Toward the end of more than two weeks of statements from witnesses, including three days of testimony from the magician, a woman told jurors on Friday morning that she fell in a similar manner to Cox about nine years earlier.

She said she snapped a picture with Copperfield after her fall, but the magician said during the trial that he could not recall anyone having been injured during the performance before Cox.

Defense experts described Cox’s fall as a trip, rather than a slip, a key legal distinction, saying that he caused his own fall.

Attorneys are expected to start closing arguments May 23, after a break in the trial.

The tourist’s lawyers have argued that parts of the resort were under construction when he volunteered for the illusion, in which audience members appear to vanish from an elevated stage. In reality, they’re guided out of the resort by stagehands. A dumpster along the escape route had been placed near the area where Cox fell.

Two other women also testified that they had fallen while taking part in the show.

Copperfield said he did not learn of Cox’s injury until about a year later, when he sued. The magician swapped out the trick for another one about a year after that.

Cox, 58, suffered a dislocated shoulder after he slipped in a section of the resort that was under construction at the time, and his lawyers have called the vanishing act “an accident waiting to happen.”

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.