Firm News

A Gilbert woman faces charges of first-degree murder and possibility of the death penalty for the death of her husband in 2009. The trial has taken many turns amid conflicting statements from the defendant and witnesses. On January 14, 2009, Marissa DeVault’s husband, Dale Harrell, was found in the master bedroom of their home, his face and head severely beaten with a claw hammer. DeVault did not deny bludgeoning her husband’s skull, but claimed she acted in self defense. Marissa

With numerous police misconduct and brutality cases throughout Arizona and the U.S., citizens should know when they are being taken advantage of by the law. A Phoenix police officer with a history of misconduct resigned amid an investigation after he was arrested recently for criminal sexual conduct for having sex with a minor. This was not the first time former officer Justin LaClere has drawn negative attention to himself. In 2010, he pulled over a Valley woman for dim headlights,

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer abolished the state’s Child Protective Services (CPS) minutes before delivering her State of the State address on Monday, Jan. 13. Minutes before delivering what many consider to be her last address, Brewer signed an executive order abolishing the troubled agency. The announcement surprised lawmakers, as did Brewer’s proposal that the agency’s duties should now fall under a new cabinet-level department that would report directly to Brewer. “It is evident that our child welfare system is broken,

The December 2013 trial for the death of a homeless man badly beaten by California police officers in 2011 is making history for being the first murder trial ever to involve a uniformed officer in Orange County. However, two officers involved in the case were found not guilty and freed from their charges by a jury on Jan. 13. Former Orange County officers Manuel Ramos and Jay Cicinelli were accused of beating 37-year-old Kelly Thomas unconscious on the night of

Derek Medina, a 31-year-old Miami man, was recently charged with first-degree murder for shooting his wife multiple times and then posting a photo of her body on Facebook. Medina has entered a not-guilty plea in the case. Medina told investigating officers that he was acting in self-defense when he shot his 26-year-old wife, Jennifer Alfonso, at their Miami home on August 8. According to Medina, Alfonso repeatedly punched Medina in the chest, arm and temple during an argument. Medina claims

New Orleans Police Officer David Warren was found not guilty on the final day of his retrial, Jan. 8, 2013, on civil rights and weapons charges in the shooting and killing of Henry Glover just days after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The highly-charged case offered a glimpse into the alleged corruption of the New Orleans Police Department, the challenges that a new trial brings and still more questions about what happened on that fateful night, just days after the city

Prosecutors in Maricopa County are fighting a Superior Court judge’s ruling to eliminate blood evidence in 11 DUI cases which could affect previous DUI convictions in Scottsdale. Defense attorneys in the 11 aggravated-DUI and extreme-DUI cases argued that defective equipment and lab administrators of the Scottsdale Police Crime Lab did not meet scientific standards to merit or account for the accuracy of the four-year-old blood-testing machine. They also questioned the capability of the lab employees, doubting their ability to detect

The defense attorney of Debra Milke, a woman who has served 23 years in prison for the death of her son and was released from death row last year, claims that retrying Milke in court because of the prosecution’s withholding of evidence in the initial trial would violate her Fifth Amendment rights. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Milke’s case when it was found that the state did not turn over evidence of misconduct by their key witness,

Jeffrey Martinson, who spent nine years in custody for the death of his son in 2004, was released in November after a judge ruled that misconduct by the prosecutor in the case was too much to overcome. The decision has far-reaching implications: Because Martinson’s verdict was overturned with prejudice, he cannot be retried for murder without invoking double jeopardy. And despite an Arizona Court of Appeals ruling in 2012 that the prosecution could re-indict Martinson on different charges, the trial

The Waste Management Phoenix Open golf tournament is approaching and with it, all of the festivities that the tournament brings, including DUIs. The Scottsdale, Arizona stop of the PGA Tour will include four days of golf, large crowds and lots of alcohol. Among the list of major featured sponsors includes Alliance Beverage Distributing Company of Arizona, the largest alcoholic beverage distributor in the state. While the golfers are on the green, police will be on the prowl looking for potential