Houston, Texas Criminal Attorneys

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.

Larry Brinkin, who used to work for the Human Rights Commission of San Francisco, entered into a plea deal agreement on his child pornography charges.

The plea deal saw a second charge of child pornography distribution dropped against the 67-year-old Brinkin.

Under the plea deal, Brinkin will spend six months behind bars and another six months of house arrest. Afterwhich, he will undergo probation for four years.

Brinkin, who is a staunch supporter of the LGBT advocacy, will also be entered in the list of sexual offender and is ordered to go through therapy.

Randall Knox, an attorney in San Francisco, said that Brinkin has been deeply sorry for what he has done and has fully understood the damage that child pornography can inflict on victims.

J. Kevin Kelley was handed a six-year prison sentence for his involvement in the Cuyahoga corruption case, considered as one of the biggest in the county.

Kelley was the first defendant to offer his cooperation to the FBI who was investigating the corruption issue.

He admitted to being the one who collects and pays off the bribes to county officials.

During his sentencing, Kelley issued an apology to his family as well as the taxpayers of Cuyahoga County.

Kelley has also been ordered to pay restitution of about $700,000.

Kelley's cooperation ensured the cooperation of other defendants in the case and the conviction of several people involved in the corruption.

Cleveland defense attorney John Gibbons said there is no excuse for Kelley's involvement in the corruption, however, his cooperation is the best way for him to make amends.

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.

Willie C. Jones will be spending the rest of his life in jail with no chance of parole after the jury convicted him for the death of his daughter.

Before her death, four-year-old Tyasia Phillips, who incurred a head wound, had been connected to a life support after she was severely beaten and burned by the man whom she called dad.

Jones had alleged that his daughter had injured her head when she tried to escape from him.

Augusta attorney Katrell Nash, defending for Jones, appealed to the jury to consider the likelihood that the little girl had gotten the head wound while playing with other kids.

At first, Jones had denied hurting his daughter but later admitted to the crime saying that he had beaten her for her insolence.