Houston, TX Attorneys, Lawyers and Law Firms

The bail application of Conrad Barret, who is charged with a hate crime, was denied, something that Barret's lawyer said they have been expecting.

Houston criminal attorney George Parnham said that according to the judge, his 27-year-old client might avoid a criminal conviction. He also poses as a danger to the public.

Barret was charged after he attacked an old, black man; filmed the act and showed it to someone, who turned out to be an arson investigator.

Barrett is looking at more than a 10-year prison term and a fine of more than $200,000 should he get convicted.

Lonnie Jones Jr. will be imprisoned for 40 years after a jury convicted him for hitting his girlfriend several times in the face when she refused to hand him money for drugs.

Willis Smith, a defense attorney with an office in Houston, asked for the minimum—a 25-year sentence for Jones but the judge thought otherwise.

Jones was eligible to be sentenced to life imprisonment because of his previous convictions which also included assault.

Brett Ligon, the district attorney, said that the sentence has made the community a safer place as Jones has been violently violating the laws of Texas.

Franceso Colorado Cessa, convicted of laundering money for the Zetas, is facing new charges for trying to bribe the judge who had sentenced him.

Charged along with Cessa are his son, Francisco Colorado Cessa Jr. and Ramon Segura Flores, his associate in the business.

The three allegedly conspired to hand more than a million dollars in an attempt for Judge Sam Sparks to give Cessa a lesser sentence.

Just hours before the bribery charges were filed, Sparks had handed Cessa the maximum prison term for laundering money for the drug cartel, which had him buying and selling racehorses.

Mike DeGeurin, a defense attorney from Houston who is representing the three, did not comment regarding the bribery charges.

The three accused have yet to enter a plea.

A life in prison will be the next step for Mona Nelson who was convicted of abducting and murdering Jonathan Foster, 12, a day before Christmas in 2010.

Foster's body was found in a burned state, enfolded by a carpet and dumped on a ditch.

Nelson admitted having emptied the contents of a thrash can on the ditch but that she had not known that it had also contained Foster's remains.

According to Allen Tanner, Houston defense attorney, Nelson had told the judge she was innocent after the verdict was read.

The prosecutors took no chances in building a solid case against Nelson but they stop short of asking for a death penalty.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.