Austin, Texas Criminal Attorneys

A sentence of life imprisonment looms for Darius Lovings after the jury found him liable for the death of William Ervin in 2012.

Court heard that Lovings had shot Ervin when the latter stopped to help him while he was pretending to have car trouble.

Austin criminal lawyer Jon Evans had asked the jury to consider that mental health issues have been at play during the incident.

Lovings had told the police after his arrest that he had heard voices.

Aside from Ervin's death, Lovings is also facing charges of robbery and attempted murder.

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.

A jury found Thomas Trent Atkinson, a man tagged by prosecutors as a pimp, guilty of murdering Alejandro "Alex" Hernandez Jr. and is facing life imprisonment.

Court heard that Hernandez had picked up a sex worker but had later dropped her off when they couldn't agree on her fee.

Hernandez was later found dead. He was beaten and had a gunshot wound on his back.

The jury believed in the witness, the same sex worker whom Hernandez picked up, who said that she had seen Atkinson shoot Hernandez.

Atkinson's lawyer, Keith Lauerman, a criminal attorney in Austin, tried to discredit the woman but prosecutors said her claims were not baseless.

They added that she did not hide who she was to the jurors even admitting her love for Atkinson.

Nicholas Colunga will be spending 14 years in jail for hitting Kylie Doniak while driving intoxicated.

Doniak was among the pedestrians whom Colunga hit when he ignored a red light.

Aside from Doniak, two others were also injured in the incident for which Colunga was also convicted.

The judge ordered for Colunga to serve the sentences of his two other convictions simultaneously.

He also received more than $2,000 fine for all three convictions.

Prosecutors had wanted Colunga to be handed the maximum penalties for all charges but Amber Vasquez Bode, Austin defense attorney representing Colunga, told jurors that a longer stay in prison would make offenders more dangerous once they go back into society.

Aisling Brady McCarthy, a nanny from Ireland, will have to await her murder trial in jail after she was denied bail.

McCarthy is accused of the death of Remah Sabir, a one-year-old girl who had suffered a head trauma while under her care. She was brought in to the hospital and died two days later.

However, McCarthy may get a reprieve after the judge got frustrated with the prosecutors' delay in handing over medical proof which could prove critical for her defense.

David Meier, a criminal attorney in Boston defending for McCarthy, said that the evidence they were asking for is necessary to the case.

McCarthy's defense said they are not ready to go to trial in April because of the delay.

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.

A plea deal agreement has Broderick Kenyo Smith admitting to manslaughter instead of capital murder in the death of Arlando Maurice Pritchett in 2012.

The plea agreement will have Smith serving just a year in jail for a split sentence of 10 years.

His jail stay will be followed with probation for three years.

Should Smith violate his probation, he could be made to serve the rest of his 10-year sentence.

According to the police, Pritchett had an argument with a cab driver prior to his shooting while Smith admitted that he had been driving a cab during the time of the incident.

Birmingham defense attorney Charles Salvagio said Smith had shot Pritchett because the latter had robbed him.

After 18 months in prison, Monsignor William Lynn, may be released when he was granted bail following the reversal of his conviction.

Lynn, who served as a secretary for clergy at the Philadelphia archdiocese, will have to give up his passport. He will also be made to wear an electronic device for monitoring.

The Roman Catholic official was sentenced to between three to six years after he was convicted for endangering an abuse victim of a priest.

However, appeal judges reversed Lynn's conviction because the child-endangerment law which he was accused of violating did not apply to him.

Following the reversal, Lynn's defense lawyers asked for his release which the prosecution opposed during the bail hearing claiming that the priest is a flight risk.

However, Philadelphia defense attorney Thomas Bergstrom said that Lynn would never run away from conviction.

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.