Bristol Myers

Attorney-at-Law

Criminal Law Austin, Texas

Blog

The year in review

December 28th, 2010

I had nine jury trials this year, and all but three of them were in felony cases.

I had three “Not Guilty” verdicts:

  • 1) I successfully defended a fellow criminal defense lawyer who kicked his girlfriend in the face and shattered her cheekbone by arguing he did so in self-defense.
  • 2) I successfully defended a woman accused of slapping and choking a neighbor in front of eyewitnesses by aggressively cross-examining those witnesses and getting them to tell stories that didn’t match.
  • 3) I successfully defended a man accused of sexual assault by a female acquaintance, again by way of a solid and persistent cross-examination. I cornered her into admitting she’d had consensual sex with my client on previous occasions and that she’d crawled back into bed with him (both of them naked) after she had supposedly just “gotten away from him” and said “no.”

I had two felony trials that resulted in guilty verdicts but yielded substantially better punishment than the district attorney offered before trial. One case involved a client accused of shooting at his girlfriend and her friends, and the other involved a young man who drove drunk and had a single car accident that ejected his friend from the car and almost killed him.

I tried two misdemeanor DWI cases both involving “good videos” but really high breath tests. In both cases, I was able to negotiate a post-verdict agreement on punishment that was the same or similar to that offered before trial, effectively giving my clients a “free shot” at an acquittal.

Finally, I had two felony trials involving clients who rejected plea offers of 4 and 10 years and who ended up with 7 and 12 years, respectively. Which probably isn’t too bad since they were both facing the potential of life in prison.

Happy New Year!

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