In clashing closing arguments, Zambrano and Ye’s lawyer, Andrew Cherkasky, offered starkly different interpretations of the evidence. “I hurt my back and have been taking it easy,” Saxon wrote in one message to Ye shown on a screen in court. “My back is so fucked,” Saxon wrote in a separate message to Censori. He admitted he hired Saxon to execute his vision for the Ando house but did not elaborate. “I’m not asking for sympathy, or a free pass, though I aspire to earn your forgiveness,” Ye wrote in the apology published Jan. 26.