Meet the courtroom artist who sketched MJ, LiLo and Paris Hilton

LONDON - Hollywood courtroom artist Mona Shafer Edwards has spent the last three decades in the company of celebrities, murderers and rapists using her artistic skills to bring trials to life.

And now her drawings have been collected into a compendium of her life’s work in the courts of Los Angeles called Captured! Inside The World Of Celebrity Trials.

Recording moments such as Paris Hilton’s sentencing for parole violation in 2007, to Steven Spielberg’s appearance in the witness stand in 1998 as he testified against his stalker, Mona’s sketches have kept her centuries-old art alive.

“I have been there during some of the pivotal trials in recent American legal history,” the Daily Mail quoted Edwards as saying.

From the high drama of Michael Jackson’s ultimately successful legal defence to the lows of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton’s convictions, Mona has encountered all the media drama the court can offer.

“Winona Ryder’s conviction for her theft at Saks Fifth Avenue in Los Angeles in 2002 was marked by the shock that this young looking girl had committed these obvious offences,” said Mona.

“Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan were overall quite dignified during their court appearances and that is something that is important to convey.

“My responsibility when in court is to respect the element in which I am a participant.

“I uphold the gravity of the proceedings and never forget that I am there to historically record the day’s events, without opinion or preference,” she added. (ANI)