Additional Info
Charge: 1st Degree Reckless Homicide. Client was accused as a result of a “Cold Case” stemming from an unsolved homicide investigation from 1990. The defendant and the victim knew each other well and she was like a mother to him. The state attempted to introduce numerous “other acts” including 1) that he sexually assaulted 3 different woman by abducting a choking them and placing his knee in their backs, 2) that he was convicted of 1st degree intentional homicide in 1994 in the strangulation death of another neighbor, 3) that he was seen outside the victims home by a drainpipe around the time of death and had been seen using that to access that victim’s apartment in the past, and 4) that after being informed that the police were taking fingernail clippings of various suspects, he picked up a fingernail file and began cleaning his fingernails. The court allowed one of the sexual assaults and the nail cleaning to be admitted. John’s DNA expert threw into doubt the possibility that John’s client committed the crime in question. Thus, the argument became a simple “reasonable doubt” argument about the viability of their theory and the credibility of their witnesses – particularly the ones on the “other acts.”
Venue: Milwaukee County
Result: Not Guilty
