Category: Violent Crime

Today, especially in Los Angeles county, gun use is taboo when it comes to criminal cases because so many people are being injured and killed related to guns.  There is a strict policy both at the District Attorney’s office, which prosecutes felonies and at the City Attorney’s office, which prosecutes misdemeanors related to guns. The City Attorney has special gun prosecutors that all they do is prosecute misdemeanor cases where guns are involved.  This gives you an idea of how seriously they take the use of firearms in criminal cases. Even at the felony level, if someone is charged related to… Read More

More and more, people are being charged with California Penal Code 664/187 attempted murder in Los Angeles County and surrounding counties.  If you or a loved one is charged with attempted murder, you want to get the best attorney you can find. Because, if it’s attempted premeditated murder, you or your loved one is facing 15 to life at a minimum. This means if you go to jury trial and lose, the judge must give you at least a sentence of 15 to life. So, with these kinds of things on the line, you need the best defense attorney you… Read More

Murder is the most serious crime known to man, and if you or a loved one is charged with murder, you want to get the best attorney possible. So, I thought I’d give some information regarding what I perceive as the best murder defense attorney since I’ve been handling murder cases now for 30 years. In California, murder charges can be filed in various forms discussed below. Under Penal Code 187 PC, second-degree murder is a willful act but not deliberate, and there was no premeditation.  For example, firing a weapon in the direction of a crowd of people and… Read More

Review of California Penal Code 664/187 Attempted Murder Laws and Best Defenses California Penal Code 664/187 PC describes the crime of attempted murder as when someone has an intent to kill another person, takes a direct step to kill them, but the victim survives. In other words, the intended crime of murder was not completed, but an attempted murder charge must include the crucial element of an intent to kill. Just like Penal Code 187 PC murder charges, PC 664/187 attempted murder is divided into two-degrees. There is a “first-degree attempted murder” where the alleged offense was premeditated and willful.… Read More

I love being able to post about dismissals because it really shows you that not every single case that the prosecutors file and the police investigate is a good case.  I just had a case in the LAX Airport Court. The client was charged with kidnapping and it really just wasn’t a good case. But, it’s one of those situations where if you fight the government, if you fight the prosecutors and you lose, your client goes to prison for life. That’s the bad thing about some of the kidnapping charge. California Penal Code Section 209 PC is the one… Read More

Why are Home Invasion Robberies Treated Different than Regular Robberies in California? Obviously, anytime someone is going into somebody else’s home that’s a real concern for prosecutors, judges and law enforcement.  They all view things from an eye that the victim in the case could be them. In other words, they don’t want people going into other people’s homes committing violence against them, robbing them, holding their family hostage, kidnapping them — these are the types of things that end up happening when somebody commits a home invasion robbery.  That’s why these robberies are a different twist than a normal… Read More

What do Juries Look for in Determining Guilt or Innocence in a California Penal Code 187 Murder Case? As you might guess, when a jury deliberates whether somebody is guilty of a murder, they’re going to look at the evidence.  They’re going to look at what the prosecutors present.  Are there any eye-witnesses?  Is there any video evidence?  Is there any admissions by the defendant?  Is there any DNA evidence?  Is there any fingerprint evidence? To give readers a better understanding of what exactly juries look for in order to determine whether a defendant is guilty or innocent in a… Read More

What’s the difference? This is a good question because I have found myself over the course of the last twenty-five years in defending murder cases arguing that this was a voluntary manslaughter situation instead of a murder situation.  A lot of times, you’re talking about one big difference — the amount of time that a person is facing in custody if they get convicted of a murder charges versus a voluntary manslaughter charge. For voluntary manslaughter under California Penal Code 192(a), you’re usually looking at a maximum of eleven years in prison; whereas, for  murder charge, under California Penal Code… Read More

There’s a lot of great bodily injury allegations being alleged all over Los Angeles county.  These GBI allegations have a lot more teeth than they used to.  Now, if you get hit with a great bodily injury allegation it’s a strike.  It makes the crime that it attaches to, to a violent felony so the person has to serve 85% of that crime. So, great bodily injury, or GBI, is not a crime in and of itself.  It’s an allegation that goes along with a crime.  So, under California Penal Code Section 12022.7, it basically adds an extra three years… Read More

When someone is charged with attempted murder, they really start looking around and scrambling to try to find an attorney and try to find some solutions to their problem.  A lot of times they’re in custody so it’s left to their family to do the ground work and the leg work for them to figure out what the best way is to handle their attempted murder case in Los Angeles county. The biggest problem with most of the attempted murder cases that I’ve seen over the last twenty-five years of practicing criminal defense in LA is that they’re usually charged… Read More