Stroudsburg, PA Attorneys, Lawyers and Law Firms

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.

William Walker was handed a minimum of 24 years and a maximum of 60 years in prison after admitting to rape charges.

Walker submitted a guilty plea to allegations that he raped four women who are disabled in a span of 12 days in 2012.

The judge said Walker is a danger to society and rehabilitating him may not help.

Philadelphia criminal defense lawyer Catherine Berryman said Walker was abused while growing up.

Theft charges against Subhanna Beyah were dropped after her victim, New York Giants' Shaun Rogers, refused to cooperate with the authorities.

Jonathan Meltz, Beyah's lawyer in Miami, could not be contacted to comment on the issue.

Miami prosecutors believed that Beyah did to Rogers what she did to two other men, wherein she drugged them before stealing their valuables.

According to the police, Rogers had met Beyah at the nightclub of the hotel where he was staying.

Together with another couple, they had gone up to his room where he went to sleep while the others were partying. Before he went to sleep, he put his jewelry inside a safe in the room. When he woke up, Beyah was already gone and so was his jewelry worth almost $500,000.

Rogers had told the prosecution that he was not willing to cooperate during the one time he spoke with them.

Despite the failure of the theft charges to prosper, the prosecution instead will go ahead with charging Beyah for violating her probation wherein she is looking at a 20-year prison sentence if convicted.

Ken Anderson, the former District Attorney of Williamson County, was meted with a 10-day jail term after the judge accepted his no-contest plea for the charge of contempt of court.

The charge steamed from the wrongful conviction of Michael Morton who was found guilty for the murder of his wife in 1986 and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

However, in 2011, Morton's conviction was overturned using DNA as proof that he did not kill his wife.

In the light of that development, Anderson, who had prosecuted Morton's case, was scrutinized and was determined to have erred when he withheld evidence which would have been beneficial for Morton's defense.

Aside from the short jail stay, Anderson will also have to give up his license as a lawyer and as part of the plea bargain, he will also be disbarred for five years.

Austin attorney Eric Nichols, however, pointed out that there will be no conviction for Anderson on any criminal charge.

Morton, for his part, said he is more than happy with the result because all he wanted was for Anderson not to practice law anymore to prevent what happened to him from happening to anyone else again.

Anderson was also fined and made to do community service.

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.