It shouldn't be a surprise that there were plenty of surprises when the latest chapter of the Chris Lane murder case unfolded in a southern Oklahoma courthouse.
Since the tragic killing there has been a steady flow of twists and turns.
A two-day preliminary hearing concluded on Wednesday when Judge Jerry Herberger ordered Chancey Luna, 16, and Michael Jones, 18, to stand trial for the first-degree murder of Mr Lane, the 22-year-old Australian baseballer who was shot in the back and left to die in a Duncan, Oklahoma street last August.
Judge Herberger's decision wasn't one of the surprises.
It is rare for the murder-accused at a preliminary hearing, the equivalent of an Australian committal hearing, not to move on to a trial.
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What was a surprise came when Luna's veteran, two-man legal team, cousins Jim and Howard Berry, walked out of the Stephens County courtroom waving court papers.
"You should see this," Howard Berry said with a smile.
The Berrys just discovered they had their own legal problems.
They had been hit with contempt of court charges for talking to reporters after the first day of the preliminary hearing.
Weeks ago Judge Herberger placed a gag order on lawyers, prosecutors and law enforcement from discussing the case outside the courtroom.
"In my more than 50 years practising law, I have never had contempt charges," the Oklahoma City-based Howard Berry, holding the charge sheet, said.
Stephens County District-Attorney Jason Hicks declined to discuss the contempt charges.
Other surprises at the preliminary hearing included evidence that wasn't raised.
In the days after Mr Lane was murdered Duncan police chief Danny Ford told the media Jones had confessed Mr Lane was shot because they were "bored" and wanted to kill someone "for the fun of it".
This alleged confession, which turned Mr Lane's murder into a global story and led to US President Barack Obama's office issuing a statement, was not mentioned at the preliminary hearing.
The biggest surprise was the revelation the youngest member of the trio accused of the murder, James Edwards, who recently turned 16, had become the prosecution's star witness.
The first inkling Edwards had turned on his co-accused came when he wasn't sitting alongside Luna and Jones on the first day of the hearing.
Mr Hicks called him as the second witness and it was Edwards' testimony, labelled by Jim Berry as lacking credibility, on which the prosecution hung most of its case.
Turning one defendant against the others is not a surprise, but the anointment of Edwards as the prosecution's key witness was unexpected, particularly after Jones had supposedly squealed first.
Just four days after Mr Lane's death Mr Hicks, during Edwards' first court appearance, cast him as anything but a prosecution ally.
Mr Hicks told the court during the August 20 bail hearing the then-15-year-old Edwards danced and joked around as the trio was being booked into Stephens County Jail on the day of Mr Lane's murder.
"I believe he is a threat to the community," Mr Hicks said of Edwards.
"He thinks this was a joke."
Edwards is scheduled to have his preliminary hearing in May and he remains charged as an adult with first-degree murder which, if he's convicted, carries a maximum sentence of life in jail without parole.
No plea deal has been struck but Edwards told the court he is hoping by testifying the murder count will be dropped, he will be charged with accessory after the fact and will be considered a "youthful offender" rather than an adult and avoid serving jail time.
Edwards' testimony was also surprising because instead of putting a noose around his mates' necks, it added weight to the Berrys' theory Mr Lane's killing was not premeditated, but was an accident and therefore not first-degree murder.
Edwards testified when Luna and Jones picked him up on the afternoon of August 16 they didn't discuss a plan to shoot Mr Lane or any other person.
He said he was rolling a marijuana joint on top of his laptop when the car suddenly swerved and then Luna unexpectedly fired a .22 revolver from the back seat of Jones' Ford Focus hitting Mr Lane, who was jogging on the right-hand side of the road.
Jones, who was driving, sped away and they didn't talk about the shooting until they stopped in the car park of a Mexican restaurant, Edwards said.
"Mr Luna said, 'I thought there were supposed to be blanks in the gun'," Edwards testified.
"Mr Jones said, 'I'm sorry. Yeah I know'."
In his closing remarks Mr Hicks pointed to that exchange between Luna and Jones.
It was said loudly so Edwards could hear it, but Mr Hicks said Luna and Jones then went to the front of the car, opened the bonnet, and had a conversation Edwards could not hear.
"I find it curious that (the blanks) statement was made out loud," Mr Hicks said.
The biggest surprise of all will be what deal, if any, Mr Hicks offers Edwards.
