The people who gathered at Seezoram’s judgment seat assembled after the chief judge of the Nephites was found dead, fulfilling Nephi’s prophecy. Five men had run to the judgment seat to test whether Nephi was a prophet by checking his claim that the chief judge was slain; they found Seezoram fallen to the earth in his blood and were so astonished that they too fell to the ground (Helaman 9:1-5). When the servants raised the cry of murder, the people gathered to the judgment seat and, to their astonishment, saw the five men lying there (Helaman 9:7). Knowing nothing of the crowd that had been at Nephi’s garden, they assumed the five were the murderers struck down by God, and bound them and cast them into prison (Helaman 9:8-9).