1/18/08

This was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The facts as agreed by both sides were that the defendant and his co-defendants (three others) were found at a Huddle House in a car matching the description of a car previously used during a brutal Kidnapping, Burglary, and Armed Robbery leaving a handful of victims severly injured. The DA argued that the fact the defendant was found in the car meant that he must have had something to do with the crime, especially since the weapons (with DNA of victims) and items from the robbery were found in the car and on one of the co-defendant's person.

We argued that there was only one person involved in the crime from this particular group, the one that had the items on her person. The story as we saw it was that the female was involved with some criminal activity (likely drugs) with one of the victims. When the victim didn't convert that activity to cash in her hand, she needed to send a message and get the money. She picked up some people from FL (the other defendants) to use as a patsy. She brought them up to GA, got them a hotel, gave them drugs to get them high and then got a local crew to do the job. The victim was coerced into IDing one of the other defendants in fear that he would be harmed again (although none of the other defendants knew the victim or his family). This scenario was plausible because none of the evidence in the car was in plain view of the occupants, the only evidence on anybody was on the female, none of the evidence tied our defendant to anything, the account of the robbery did not match a "random hit" as it was very organized and wanted something very specific, and it was clear that there was at least one person involved that wasn't part of the group.

After a trial lasting five days, the jury deliberated for 90 minutes and decided to grant a verdict of not guilty!