Re: Case Advice

[eric@puckettfaraj.com]

I have drawn from federal case sentencing cases and sometimes o can put a package that is persuasive for ca discussions

Vr
E
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-----Original Message-----
From: "Baker LtCol John" <john.baker1@usmc.mil>
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:16:17 
To: Neal Puckett<neal@puckettfaraj.com>
Cc: Faraj Haytham<haytham@puckettfaraj.com>; Eric Montalvo<eric@puckettfaraj.com>
Subject: RE: Case Advice

Wow -- your # is way, way lower than anyone else -- the general consensus is 50-60 or so and try to get a 118(2) plea.  Gittins told me to life w/ parole is a good deal (I won't take that).  The client is not crazy and his mental health issues are pretty low grade, but constant throughout his life.  Spending the day with him and his family today.

See you guys next week!

-----Original Message-----
From: Neal Puckett [mailto:neal@puckettfaraj.com] 
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 8:08
To: Baker LtCol John
Cc: Faraj Haytham; Eric Montalvo
Subject: Re: Case Advice

Wow!  Tough case, Dude.  Gotta make max use of his mental condition, clearly.  I know you know that.  Have had many cases involving this type of mental illness.  They're OK while they're on meds, but they have a high predictability to take themselves OFF the meds and do  more "crazy" stuff, including being a danger to others.
Just had a case reversed because client was found not competent to stand trial and therefore his guilty plea was involuntary.  U.S. v. Sezginalp at NMCCA.  Touchy question about drugs making him competent.
Would just be a WAG to figure a good cap.  I'd say anything over 20 years is too high.
S/f,
Neal


Neal A. Puckett, Esq
LtCol, USMC (Ret)
Puckett & Faraj, PC
Washington DC Metro Area
888.970.0005
www.puckettfaraj.com 


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On Mar 10, 2010, at 5:44 PM, Baker LtCol John wrote:

Gents,

Looking for a sanity check and suggestions for a possible plea offer.  

Forrest Hoover and I represent a Marine charged with premed murder and robbery and the government is, at least pre-32, treating this case a possible capital case (they have already approved a mitigation investigator and forensic psychiatrist and given us a line of accounting for case related travel).  Factually, I don't see this as a capital case.  

Alleged Facts:  

My client (a 3 yr Pvt), while reading the unibomber's manifesto (I can't make that fact up), after a long night of drinking and drug use in the barracks where he was restricted, told a buddy (X) he wanted to kill someone.  The client is then alleged to have run  down from the second floor of his barracks, carrying a large metal spike, across the courtyard, and hit a Marine (who the client did not know) that was sitting in a chair talking on his cell phone over the head with the spike.  He then yells to his buddy X to come help him.  X comes over, sees what appears to be a dead body and takes off for his barracks and wakes up his roommate to tell he just saw my client murder someone. After X leaves, the client at some point hits the victim enough times to literally break every bone in his skull and face and drags and carries the body over a 100 yards across a parking lot and hides it the woods.  The crime scene photos are gruesome.

X and his roommate go to the duty and report this and take the duty to where the body was.  The duty was skeptical until he saw a pool of blood, at which point the duty called 9-1-1.  My client, who returned to his room while X was at the duty hut, comes out of his room, jumps over the balcony on the 2d deck and starts yelling at and chasing X.  The duty yells to my client to stop and return to his room, which he does (the 9-1-1 recording captures all of this).  

PMO arrives on the scene, they eventually enter my client's room where they find my client in the bathroom with self-inflicted wounds to the neck and forearms.  PMO also finds the victim's cell phone in the bathroom.  The client is eventually life flighted to a local hospital and when later questioned by NCIS invokes.  Assume, hypothetically, that the client claims complete amnesia/blackout between a certain point pre-event until waking up at the hospital.

The gov't has a very strong case on the murder ("I want to kill someone", X is basically an eyewitness and X's story is supported by the evidence, and there's forensic evidence out the wazzoo tying my client to the murder).  My defense at this point, is either a complete lack of mental responsibility defense (which my forensic psych says isn't there - as have all other psychs I've talked to) or a partial mental responsibility/lack of proof of pre-med because the client who's life had been spiraling downward over the last six months was so whacked out on drugs and alcohol that he didn't premed the murder.

The gov't have a much weaker case for the robbery - while the client may have taken the phone, the logical explanation is the phone was picked up after the murder and may have been a larceny, not that client formed the intent to steal and then committed the murder.  The robbery charges is critical as it provides the only basis for a capital referral (murder done while committing a robbery).

My mitigation investigators have been hard at work and have the interviews and records to establish that the client has life long mental health issues (suicide attempt in 9th grade, a period of in-patient treatment thereafter, bi-polar diagnosis while in the service, and suicide ideations throughout this year) and has been a chronic substance abuser almost his entire adult life (although the command's SACO records don't support this).  Additionally, the command missed several warning signs that the client was becoming unstable and did not ad sep him after a number of NJPs.  All that being said, the client is not going to seem very sympathetic - he grew up in a middle class family that certainly was dysfunctional but offered the client many of the advantages in life most Marines don't get. Plus he's smart.

The 32, which has been continued since January, is set for mid-April. 

Question -- would you try to seek a deal now and if so, for what cap?  At this point will take any advice (except to bring you onto the case!).

Looking forward to seeing many of you next week.

S/F,

JB
Semper Fi,

LtCol John G. Baker, USMC
Regional Defense Counsel, Eastern Region
762 G Street
PSC Box 20087
Camp Lejeune, NC 28542-0087

Office: (910) 451-5996; Cell: (910) 478-7478; Fax: (910) 451-2293 

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