Inside the Courtroom With Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes

Behind the closed doors are whispers, gestures and a daily rhythm, plus two court artists, numbered tickets and some true-crime fans.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Three days a week, Adriana Kratzmann, an administrator, opens the door at 8:30 a.m. to Courtroom 4 of the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse.

Journalists and spectators present her with numbered paper tickets that they get from security guards at the building entrance. Once Ms. Kratzmann checks their tickets, they stream into the beige-walled room, jostling for a place on five long wooden benches and a single, prized row of cushioned chairs.

Then from a door on the east side of the windowless room, Elizabeth Holmes walks in.