May have set a record this week...

[JR4AU]

Yesterday the jurors arrived in court, and qualification started at 9am.  By 10:45 I had my jury struck.  I presented my case for Murder, and rested the state's case at 2:30pm, after an hour and a half lunch break.  The defense rested put on their case, and we adjourned at 3:30 yesterday because one of the defense witnesses wasn't available until this morning.  We started at 9am, the defense rested at 10:15, arguments, jury instructions, and guilty of murder verdict returned at 11:15 after 28 minutes of deliberations.

BOOM! 

 

PS  The fact that he shot the victim in front of three witnesses, and gave a full confession to the investigator, his wife, and the shrink that evaluated him probably aided me slightly.  Hey Auburn will count a W when they beat Utah State and Samford, so I'm counting this one!   

[Snaggletiger]

Yesterday the jurors arrived in court, and qualification started at 9am.  By 10:45 I had my jury struck.  I presented my case for Murder, and rested the state's case at 2:30pm, after an hour and a half lunch break.  The defense rested put on their case, and we adjourned at 3:30 yesterday because one of the defense witnesses wasn't available until this morning.  We started at 9am, the defense rested at 10:15, arguments, jury instructions, and guilty of murder verdict returned at 11:15 after 28 minutes of deliberations.

BOOM! 

 

PS  The fact that he shot the victim in front of three witnesses, and gave a full confession to the investigator, his wife, and the shrink that evaluated him probably aided me slightly.  Hey Auburn will count a W when they beat Utah State and Samford, so I'm counting this one!   

Congrats.  After you made your opening statement, did defense counsel walk up to the jury and say:

"Everything he just said, is bullshit.....thank you."

[GH2001]

Yesterday the jurors arrived in court, and qualification started at 9am.  By 10:45 I had my jury struck.  I presented my case for Murder, and rested the state's case at 2:30pm, after an hour and a half lunch break.  The defense rested put on their case, and we adjourned at 3:30 yesterday because one of the defense witnesses wasn't available until this morning.  We started at 9am, the defense rested at 10:15, arguments, jury instructions, and guilty of murder verdict returned at 11:15 after 28 minutes of deliberations.

BOOM! 

 

PS  The fact that he shot the victim in front of three witnesses, and gave a full confession to the investigator, his wife, and the shrink that evaluated him probably aided me slightly.  Hey Auburn will count a W when they beat Utah State and Samford, so I'm counting this one!   

It started at 9 and the defense rested slightly after 10?? The fuck....

That 28 mins was still longer than our 15 mins back in June.

[JR4AU]

It started at 9 and the defense rested slightly after 10?? The fuck....

That 28 mins was still longer than our 15 mins back in June.

The last defense witness was probably the prosecution's best witness.  Shrink with impeccable credentials that did the mental eval.  In no uncertain terms he stated he had no serious mental disease or defect, and plainly shot the victim out of revenge. 

IME, when the case is this big a slam dunk, (and I've never had one that was THIS much of one, and probably never will again), jurors will simply sit and wait a while to make everybody think they really deliberated hard.   

[Snaggletiger]

The last defense witness was probably the prosecution's best witness.  Shrink with impeccable credentials that did the mental eval.  In no uncertain terms he stated he had no serious mental disease or defect, and plainly shot the victim out of revenge. 

IME, when the case is this big a slam dunk, (and I've never had one that was THIS much of one, and probably never will again), jurors will simply sit and wait a while to make everybody think they really deliberated hard.

They weren't deliberating.  One of them had to take a massive mawonga dump.

[JR4AU]

They weren't deliberating.  One of them had to take a massive mawonga dump.

One of them did have that "fresh off the shitter" grin.

BTW, one of my jurors showed up today in flip flops, cut off Crimson/White/Gray BDU pants, and a T-shirt with the sleeves cut out revealing all his skin art.

[Snaggletiger]

One of them did have that "fresh off the shitter" grin.

BTW, one of my jurors showed up today in flip flops, cut off Crimson/White/Gray BDU pants, and a T-shirt with the sleeves cut out revealing all his skin art.

Last jury term I had, this attorney shows up in a Bama tie you could see all the way across the room.  I was talking to another guy and said, no way he's trying a case today.  Nope, he was just there to have the Judge approve a settlement.   

[Tiger Wench]

Was this a capital offense?  Sounds like it should have been.  And if it was?  IMO, you can't count it unless the bad guy was marched out behind the courthouse and hung from a tree limb until dead.  Then it would be a total slam dunk.

That's Texas justice - a fair trial followed by lunch and a good hanging.

Good job, man.

[JR4AU]

Was this a capital offense?  Sounds like it should have been.  And if it was?  IMO, you can't count it unless the bad guy was marched out behind the courthouse and hung from a tree limb until dead.  Then it would be a total slam dunk.

That's Texas justice - a fair trial followed by lunch and a good hanging.

Good job, man.

Nope  not capital.  Just plain old murder.

[Tiger Wench]

Nope  not capital.  Just plain old murder.

Was it heat of the moment revenge or serious premeditation?  Wouldn't premeditation make it capital?  Or is that also subjective?  I am really interested in the answer - not splitting hairs.  Please to be explaining...

[JR4AU]

Was it heat of the moment revenge or serious premeditation?  Wouldn't premeditation make it capital?  Or is that also subjective?  I am really interested in the answer - not splitting hairs.  Please to be explaining...

There's no "premeditation" in the law.  Intent to kill...it can be formed in the blink of an eye, or studied about and planned.  Certain aggravating factors must attend the murder to make it capital.  Murder of 2 or more people, murder during kidnapping or robbery for example. 

In this case, victim and defendant were co-workers.  Vic got Def. fired for stealing copper off the job, Def retrieved a gun from his car, went back and in his own words "Killed that mother fucking bitch...burned him down".  Then he called his wife to tell her, and waited on the cops to show up.   

[AU_Tiger_2000]

Had the guy not heard of just pleading guilty?  Did he just go through the trial just so he could have two more days out of jail?

[JR4AU]

Had the guy not heard of just pleading guilty?  Did he just go through the trial just so he could have two more days out of jail?

He's crazy, though not in the legal sense.  He was in jail...never made bond.  He literally just wanted to waste everybody's time best I could tell.   He turned down an offer to plead and get 35 years.  The DOC calculates a life sentence at 33 years.  Now, with pre-sentence investigation...if we turn up 3 prior felonies, instead of the 2 we know for sure about, he's looking at Life Without, and we believe we've found more.