Posts tagged "homicide"

Homicide cases are often filled with many viewpoints on how the alleged murderer should be punished. A homicide case in Titusville, Florida is no exception. A man faces charges after murdering two men and seriously injuring a third in early September. This man allegedly crawled over to his neighbors' houses with a gun and shot the three neighbors mentioned above.

While the case's prosecutors may seek the death penalty for the man if he is convicted, the man's family and attorney attest the man has struggled with mental health issues. The man allegedly suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. According to one report, his family explained that there had been issues in the neighborhood for a while, but that night he just snapped.

A young Florida man was sentenced recently for his involvement in a fatal hazing event. Last fall, the Florida A&M University band was headed to Orlando for a band trip. On the bus, band members were hazing other band members as part of a marching band ritual.

A 26-year-old band member died from hemorrhagic shock which resulted from "blunt force trauma" incurred on the chartered bus. The young man sentenced recently is one of 12 former members of the marching band who was charged in the band member's death. This young man is the first to be sentenced.

A Jacksonville teenager was involved in a fatal car accident almost a year ago. The 16-year-old reportedly fled from police and then collided with another vehicle, killing the driver. The teenager was tried as an adult and received a 15-year prison sentence for "vehicular homicide, fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement officer and grand theft auto."

When teenagers face criminal charges, they may be tried as a juvenile or as an adult. If the teenager had been tried as a juvenile, he would have faced a maximum prison sentence of four years. The maximum sentence for an adult was 35 years. Reports do not clarify why the teenager was tried as an adult instead of as a juvenile.

A 41-year-old woman has turned herself in to Jacksonville police officers, who arrested her on homicide charges. She is accused of killing her 46-year-old boyfriend during an argument early last week.

Police say the incident occurred on Pierce Street in the early morning. The woman and her live-in boyfriend had been drinking that day, and eventually they got into a verbal argument. The argument grew heated, and according to a witness, became physical.

Many Floridians are probably familiar with the gut-wrenching feeling one gets after realizing a horrible mistake has been made. This was likely the case for a Connecticut father recently when his son died.

The Connecticut man received a phone call late at night from a neighbor who suspected a burglar was outside her house. The man grabbed his gun and went outside to look into the situation. He saw a shiny item in the masked person's hand and fired his gun, killing the person in the mask. The man later learned the masked person was his teenage son.

When a juvenile is charged with a crime, questions regarding appropriate punishments often arise. Such is the case for a 13 year-old Florida boy facing charges of homicide and sexual abuse. He allegedly murdered his 2-year-old half-brother and sexually abused his 5-year-old half-brother.

Now, a Florida judge and jury must decide what an appropriate punishment for the boy is. Florida could try him as an adult, which could result in a life sentence. However, the United States Supreme Court decided this year that "it is unconstitutional for juvenile offenders to get mandatory life sentences without parole."

Floridians are likely familiar with courts sometimes needing to take a person's mental state into account during sentencing. Sometimes people are not sentenced for a crime because the court determines they were not mentally aware of their actions. Determining a person's competency to be tried for alleged crimes is not always a black and white issue though. One Wisconsin man's situation demonstrates this.

The man allegedly killed a woman nearly two years ago. However, he has had a variety of mental health issues. Because of this, the man does not believe he is competent to be tried for the woman's murder. A psychologist who examined him states he is competent. The man contested the psychologist's declaration. According to a report, the man will have a contested competency hearing in October.

Life can end very suddenly. It is shocking to hear that a young child has died. People likely wonder what circumstances led to the death after it is revealed. When officials investigate a death that is allegedly a homicide, investigating all pieces of evidence is important.

A man from Brunswick, Georgia was sentenced to life in prison this week for ending the life of his girlfriend's 17 month-old daughter. The man reportedly beat the girl's head against the floor in 2009, causing severe injuries. She was taken to the hospital, where she died the following day after her mother consented to turn off life support.

Learning of anyone who has been wrongfully convicted of a crime and served time for another person's wrongdoing is difficult. Earlier this month it was reported that five people convicted of murder 17 years ago are innocent. Four men and one woman were tried in 1995 for a Senegalese cabdriver's death and found guilty by a jury, though all claimed they were not guilty.

The prosecutors' case relied upon a theory that the cabdriver's murder was a cover-up for stealing a significant sum of money from a passenger in the cab. The theory also stated that the cabdriver's murder was related to that of a woman two days later. Five people were convicted of the cabdriver's murder, though only three of those five were also convicted of the woman's murder.

Many of us here in Florida are watching the case of 13-year-old Cristian Fernandez closely. The boy is the youngest person ever to face murder charges as an adult in Jacksonville. If convicted, he may spend the rest of his life in prison.

The boy is accused of killing his 2-year-old half brother by shoving him into a bookshelf. He also stands accused of sexually molesting his 5-year-old half brother. The boys' mother is also accused of aggravated manslaughter of a child and felony child abuse related to the death of the 2-year-old. Cristian Fernandez's case may have been wrought with constitutional issues from the beginning. Just this week it was revealed that a state expert believes that he did not understand his rights before police interrogated him.

Until the situation regarding the FAMU marching band came up last year, most people would have thought that there was no danger in someone wanting to be a member of the band. There are dangers associated with being on the football team, and there have been cases of dangerous incidents of violence among fraternities and sororities.

Now, the case against various Florida A&M band members suggests that bands also participate in the dangerous hazing rituals that plague the Greek systems on certain campuses. Last November, a 26-year-old student and band member died after a football game in Orlando. Several of his fellow band mates are blamed for the death, though they are not charged with murder, a point that doesn't sit well with the victim's parents.

The DUI manslaughter case of a high-profile polo mogul in Florida won't quickly come to an end. As we have mentioned in various posts on this criminal defense blog, the DUI homicide defendant accused and convicted of killing a motorist in a drunk driving accident in 2010 is challenging his recent conviction.

A jury found the defendant guilty of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide, but the defendant and his defense team didn't take that verdict as the end of the fight for justice. A motion for a retrial was filed based on the suspicion that jury misconduct contributed to the quick guilty verdicts. A judge denied that motion. Even with that refusal, however, the defense's fight for a retrial does not end.

Our previous post was about the high-profile DUI case involving a polo mogul in Florida. The defendant was charged with DUI manslaughter after an accident in 2010. Just when the public might have believed that the DUI homicide case was over, multiple questions regarding the ethics of the trial came up, with the defense requesting a new trial.

We previously covered how the jurors of the criminal trial were brought in for interviews in order for the judge to determine whether any misconduct occurred. One juror claims that he felt pressured into giving a guilty verdict even though he individually felt otherwise, and now another juror's story about his process creates further worry.

In the past, we have followed the high-profile case of the polo mogul who was charged with DUI manslaughter in Florida. He was involved in a DUI accident that led to the death of a 23-year-old in 2010 and been in the limelight ever since.

Our past post covered how the defendant was convicted of the criminal charge late in March. The case, however, has not concluded because of the vigilant fight from the defense. The team challenged the trial process that led to the guilty verdict, and now a new reported detail about the trial continues to fuel the defense's quest to get a new, fair trial.

Emotion and logic. Both help us make decisions in our everyday lives and are extremely valuable. When it comes to the criminal justice system, however, one of those is more valuable than the other. Reasoning runs the court system, as it should.

Can you imagine how chaotic it would be if arrests, trials and sentencing were governed by emotion? The quest for the truth might be forgotten and overrun by people's desperation to hold someone accountable for alleged crimes. Emotion did play a role, however, in the lenient sentencing of a Florida DUI manslaughter defendant.

In the past, we have discussed the notorious Florida homicide case of the Polo mogul who was charged with DUI manslaughter following a fatal accident involving a 23-year-old victim. In a prior post, we noted how the defendant and his Florida defense team believed that they couldn't get a fair trial locally. The court denied the defense's request for the relocation of the trial, but the argument regarding location is not over.

Even though the defendant was found guilty last month of DUI manslaughter, his conviction has not stopped him and his team from continuing in their fight for justice. No matter who a defendant is, how much money he makes and what he is charged with, he deserves a fair trial. And the defense just does not believe that the trial went in such a way to allow the defendant the ability to defend his name and future from the serious criminal accusation he faced.

Racial tension is not a distant memory. While circumstances might be improved regarding racial matters, there are certain incidents that can spark renewed worry and outrage that maybe racism is alive in Florida and throughout the country.

The Feb. 26 Florida homicide of a 17-year-old boy has ignited tension within the community, so much so that federal prosecutors and the FBI recently announced their intention to look into the matter as a potential civil rights matter. The boy who was fatally shot in the incident was an African American. The shooter, 28, is Hispanic.

There are health problems that are so serious that patients are willing to consider even controversial and sometimes illegal medical treatments to try to survive. One controversial medical procedure that is yet to be approved in the U.S. is the use of stem cell therapy.

But some are accusing a Florida doctor of moving forward with stem cell treatment related to adult stem cells on his patients. Authorities believe that the illegal treatment is the reason behind at least two patient deaths, the most recent having occurred on Mar. 2. At this point, the doctor is not officially facing any homicide or murder charges.

If you have been accused of a crime, it is extremely imperative that you understand your rights and obligations. A conviction has serious consequences that can affect the rest of your life. A person charged with homicide in Florida faces significant jail time. Florida law defines homicide as the killing of one human being by another. Murder is the unlawful taking of a human life by another human being. There are various forms of homicide, ranging from manslaughter to first degree murder. In a local story, a young man is confronting serious vehicular homicide charges.

Recently, a 16-year-old is charged with vehicle theft, third-degree unintentional murder, vehicular homicide and fleeing police. According to reports, he was driving a stolen Toyota Tundra pickup at high speeds around Beach Boulevard and San Pablo Road. Police chased the boy; however, he allegedly ran a red light and collided into another car. The passenger in the hit vehicle died.

In today's worldwide access to media, can alleged victims or special interest groups taint a local jury pool? Do certain accused defendants attract excessive negative pretrial publicity?

Consider accused DUI defendants. A drunk driving suspect can be held in jail after a mere accusation and well past any reasonable chance to still be under the influence. Yet, many groups offer public humiliation for the accused by way of press releases and internet chatter. The public seems to think that stopping drunk driving rationalizes trial by newspaper and innuendo.