Middle River, MD Attorneys, Lawyers and Law Firms

The jury returned a guilty verdict against Rudy Kurniawan, a star wine collector, for faking vintage wines, which he apparently just manufactured from his home.

Kurniawan was convicted for fraud and is looking at a massive 40-year sentence.

Kurniawan was once known as among the top five collectors of wine in the world.

Prosecutors accused Kurniawan of earning millions from selling and auctioning fake vintage wines.

Found in the home that Kurniawan shared with his mother were unlabeled bottles and labels of Burgundy and Bordeaux wines.

Suspicions against Kurniawan started during an auction in 2008 wherein he offered to sell Domaine Ponsot wines.

But it wasn't until a 2012 wine auction in London that Kurniawan was arrested.

Los Angeles criminal lawyer Jerome Mooney, defending for Kurniawan, said his client was not trying to defraud people. Instead, all he wanted was to belong.

Richard Thomas may only be 16 years old but he will be facing the charges filed against him as an adult.

Thomas is facing several charges including "hate crime" after he set another teenager, Luke "Sasha" Fleischman, 18, on fire.

Both were riding on a bus when the incident happened with Fleischman wearing a skirt.

Fleischman's parents said their son does not identify himself either as a male or female.

According to police, Thomas had told them he set Fleischman on fire because he is homophobic.

San Francisco defense attorney Michael Cardoza said his client, Thomas, if convicted would be facing a longer sentence because of the hate crime charge.

A murder conviction will have Mark Anthony Garcia spending 20 years in prison for the death of Michael Angelo Morales.

Morales was shot to death outside a nightclub in 2008.

Garcia's first murder trial ended in a mistrial but he was not so lucky in the second trial.

Albert Acevedo, a defense attorney in San Antonio, said that his client, Garcia, was not the killer.

Instead he was the one who tried to stop another man, Hector Lozano, from shooting Morales.

Lozano is still awaiting for his own trial.

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.

Jeannette Silvia is looking at a life in prison after a jury found her guilty of murdering Michael Ramirez.

The body of 59-year-old Ramirez was found inside a motel room paid for by Silvia and her ex-boyfriend, Joseph Santos-Torres, who is also charged in connection with Ramirez's death.

Evidence presented in trial showed that Ramirez had paid Silvia for sex then a few days later, Ramirez was made to go to the motel where he was found dead.

Sarah Christensen and Phil Dubois, Colorado Springs defense attorneys, downplayed their client, Silvia's participation in the murder, saying that it was Santos-Torres who killed Ramirez and all she did was helped him escape as he had asked.

The jury, however, did not buy it.

Santos-Torres himself is awaiting trial.