"Jury acquits man tried for murder after fatal 2020 drive-by shooting" -WBRZ
My client was charged with 2nd degree murder and staring down the barrel of a mandatory life without parole sentence if convicted. The State had 2 eyewitnesses who say they saw my client shoot the victim. They also had cell phone mapping that purported to put my client at the scene of the shooting at the time of the shooting. This contradicted my Client's statement's to police that he was home all day on the day of the shooting. After 6 days of Trial, I successfully discredited the eyewitness testimony and called into question the reliability of the cell phone mapping software. After only 72 minutes of deliberation, the Jury returned a NOT GUILTY verdict. My client went home to his family that night.
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"In re-trial of fatal drive by, Baton Rouge man not guilty"-theadvocate.com
This is another article from the above not guilty murder verdict.
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"Expert weighs in after rare back-to-back murder acquittals in Baton Rouge court"-WBRZ"
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“Claiming self-defense, man pleads guilty to drug charge in shooting, gets probation” - theadvocate.com
This Client was arrested for attempted second degree murder. After we did an investigation, it became apparent that my Client acted out of self-defense. We presented our findings to the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office who then issued an arrest warrant for the alleged victim. After many court dates and negotiation with the District Attorney, they dropped all the violent felonies and let him plead to Distribution of Marijuana, a non-violent felony, under Article 893 with probation. No jail time. This was the best possible outcome for my Client because once he completes probation, he will be eligible to file an expungement to clear his criminal history.
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"Suspect in drive-by killing has spent 2½ years awaiting trial. Here's why his bond was reduced" - theadvocate.com
I got involved in this case a month before his trial. We were on day 4 of the trial when one of the State's witnesses made a highly prejudicial, inappropriate remark about my client in front of the jury. We asked for and were granted a mistrial. The problem was my client had to remain in jail because he could still not afford to bond out. I made the argument to the judge why my client should get a bond reduction. She agreed to lower the bond to an amount the family could afford.
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"Baton Rouge Man Facing Murder Case Challenges Key Witnesses" -theadvocate.com
This article illustrates importance of pretrial motions. My goal in filing and arguing pretrial motions, in this case and in all cases, is basically to get in evidence that helps my client, and keep out evidence that hurts my client, so long as my argument is backed by the law. Getting a ruling on a pretrial motion ahead of trial puts the DA on notice that they can't mention evidence to a jury when a judge has previously ruled that evidence inadmissible.
In my opinion, this is better than arguing over evidence "during" a trial. In that case, a typical scenario is: legally questionable evidence is heard by the jury, the defense attorney objects, the judge upholds the objection, and instructs the jury to disregard the inadmissible evidence. But there's a saying, "you can't unring the bell." Which means once a jury has heard something, it's hard to just completely forget and disregard what they heard despite being admonished by the judge.
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