Sacramento, California Criminal Attorneys

Donnell Deshawn Stean was cleared of manslaughter charges for the death of Bernard Howard Jr. whom he shot during an altercation.

The jury had found that Stean had only shot Howard in defense.

Howard was found to have more than the legal limit of alcohol in his blood while Stean had tested positive of an ingredient found in marijuana.

Howard was one of the people whom Stean found in his apartment when he went home on the night of Nov. 3. They were drinking and helping out a roommate of Stean's who was moving out.

The group got upset when Stean hit an older man who was also living in the apartment.

Howard had punched Stean, who retaliated by pulling out his gun.

Sacramento defense attorney Alan Whisenand said his client, Stean, had felt threatened by the group thus his actions.

Stean was also cleared of seriously wounding the female roommate's brother during the incident.

Wade Bradford's defense did not convince the jury as they found him guilty in the shooting death of Natalie Allan.

Bradford and Allan had met when Allan worked in one of Bradford's massage parlors. While they were dating, Allan was also dating Kevin Myles, her massage client.

During the trial, the prosecutors told the court that Bradford had shot Allan when she broke up with him and she and Myles had gone to Bradford's place to get her things.

This was countered by Phoenix defense lawyer Jamie Jackson saying that Bradford did not know that he had shot Allan.

According to Jackson, the gun accidentally went off because Myles had suddenly lunged at Bradford.

The jury, however, did not buy this.

Aside from Allan's death, Bradford is also facing charges for the death of another of his former girlfriend, Eleanor Su.

Brian Patrick O'Callaghan is facing murder charges after it has been alleged that he had beaten his adopted son which resulted to the 3-year-old's death.

O'Callaghan is a former marine and a war veteran who now works for the NSA.

The suspicion against O'Callaghan started when police were called to the hospital where the boy was confined.

The boy was suffering from brain hemorrhage and fractures in the skull, injuries consistent with beating.

O'Callaghan had told police investigators that his wife had gone out of town thus he had been caring for the boy.

While under his care, O'Callaghan said the child had hit his shoulder in the shower after falling backwards. The next day, when he went to check on the boy who was napping, he said he noticed mucus coming out of the boy's nose and when he picked him up, the boy started vomiting so he brought him to the hospital.

Steven McCool, a defense lawyer in Washington representing O'Callaghan, is insisting on his client's innocence.

He said the allegations have no basis and that O'Callaghan is disputing that the child suffered several injuries in the head.

Nicholas Christopher Ferro was denied a third trial for the death of Marques Butler in 2009.

Ferro's first trial had ended in a hung jury. In his second trial, he was convicted of murder in the second degree last September.

However, he had asked for a third trial with Miami attorney Carlos Gonzalez pointing out several things, the main of which is that the charges should not have been murder in the second degree because of the scant amount of time that Ferro and Butler have known each other before the incident happened.

According to Ferro's defense, a murder in the second degree charge would require that the perpetrator and victim are familiar with each other thus the need for a time requirement on how long they have known each other basing on the murder laws of Florida.

However, the judge said the amount of time is not required.

With Ferro's demand for a third trial denied, a life imprisonment sentence looms for him.

Neither the prosecution nor the defense got what they wanted when the judge ordered Mitchell Munro Taylor to remain in jail and set the bail at $600,000.

Eric Lindell, the Seattle criminal lawyer defending for Taylor, had asked for a $10,000 bail saying that his client has not been taking his medicines for Asperger's Syndrome.

This was countered by the prosecution, who sought a $1 million bail.

Lindell was jailed when he posted several threatening messages on Seattle Mayor Ed Murray's Facebook page.

He also posted a threat which authorities believed targeted Kshama Sawant, the first socialist to have become a member of the City Council.

David Christopher Cruz was found guilty in the death of an infant, who is still five months shy of turning one years old.

The infant victim, the son of Cruz's girlfriend, was taken off life support a few days after he was brought into the hospital unconscious.

He suffered head injuries, several fractures and had bruises on his body.

Court heard that Cruz was the infant's baby sitter while the mother goes to work.

Cruz told the police that he had hit the baby because he keeps on fussing.

Michael Begovich, a criminal lawyer in San Diego defending for Cruz, said that the baby's mother also has a responsibility in her son's death because she had not consulted a doctor when the baby had an ear infection.