Martin Cowen Attorney

Martin L. Cowen III
Criminal Defense Attorney

Recent and not-so-recent disposed cases
(dates and circumstances altered to protect clients' identity and confidentiality)

Armed Robbery: Not Guilty verdict after jury trial

My client was charged with armed robbery of a convenience store.
My client was a high school student, but legally an adult, and therefore charged as an adult with armed robbery. My client came from a small town to the big city with friends on a school night. A fast food store was robbed and the perpetrators escaped in a car. The police were called and gave chase to a car. The car with three people in it, among them my client, was stopped. All three, including my client, were charged with armed robbery of the convenience story. My client claimed ignorance of the armed robbery.
Fortunately, an off-duty police officer had participated in the high-speed chase in his tow truck. On cross-examination, this witness admitted that he had seen my client lying in the back seat of the car from the elevated view from his tow truck. This testimony corroborated my client's claim that he was asleep in the back seat during the armed robbery. Only two perpetrators had robbed the store.
The jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty.
This case was a win.

Voluntary Manslaughter: Not Guilty verdict after jury trial

My client was charged with shooting a man to death with a shotgun.
My client was the night-time security guard at self-serve storage facility. One night he heard a sound and went to investigate carrying his shotgun. The decedent, who was driving a truck, drove toward my client. My client discharged his shotgun and the driver of the truck was shot and killed. Because of the circumstances, the State charged my client with voluntary manslaughter rather than with murder. During the trial, the expert from the State crime lab was testifying about the process of death of the decedent. My client fainted in his chair in front of the jury because of the graphic and gory testimony. The expert, a medical doctor, came down from the witness chair and revived my client in the jury's presence. The doctor noticed a bump on my client's forehead and warned my client that the bump might be cancer and that my client ought to have the bump looked at by a specialist.
The jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty.
This case was a win.

Murder: Not Guilty verdict after jury trial

My client was charged with stabbing his father-in-law to death.
The defense was self-defense. During the trial, the prosecuting attorney contested my client's claims about the details of the fight between my client and the decedent. Among the details was my client's claim that he dropped the fish gutting knife that had killed the decedent onto a chair and that the knife stuck into the chair and pierced the plastic cushion of the chair. During closing argument, the prosecutor demonstrated the dropping of the knife into the chair, hoping to show that what my client claimed could not possibily have happened. The prosecutor dropped the knife onto the chair in the presence of the jury. The knife hit the chair in exactly the same spot and fell as described by my client. The prosecutor commented to the jury: "Well, I guess it could have happened like that."
The jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty.
This case was a win.

Federal Court case: pled to binding sentence

Our client was charged with using a computer to solicit a minor.
Sentencing in Federal Court is complex and requires a lawyer who understands the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. I have participated in three seminars in 2007 on this subject. The guidelines are modified every year and annual participation in guidelines training is essential for the Federal criminal defense lawyer.
These computer crimes involving minors are extremely serious having mandatory, Draconian penalties. An unsucessful jury trial might result in a sentence of more than 20 years for a first offense. We negotiated a binding plea deal so that the client knew, prior to undergoing a presentence investigation and prior to sentencing, exactly what his sentence would be. Certain charges were dismissed and the government agreed not to prosecute our client for alleged crimes in another jurisdiction.
The management of this extremely serious case was successful.
I spend 55 hours on this case.

State Court DUI case: reduced to reckless driving on defense motions

My client was charged with DUI.
After being arrested on a traffic offense, my client was charged with DUI. She plead guilty without a lawyer. Thirty days later she learned that her driver's license had been suspended. She hired me. We filed a motion to withdraw her guilty plea. We prepared a motion to suppress and a motion in limine. These were good motions on the particular facts of this case. Upon negotiation with the prosecutor, the DUI was reduced to reckless driving and my client's privilege to drive was restored.

This case was a win.
I spent 40 hours on this case. Had this case been on an hourly rate rather than a flat rate, the fee would have been $10,000.

State Court Racketeering case: dismissed on defense motions

My client was charged with racketeering.
After being arrested on a traffic offense, my client learned that he had been indicted for racketeering for acts that had occurred over five years earlier. My client, a person of good character, stayed in jail for many days. I was retained on a weekend. I visited my client in jail on Sunday evening of the weekend I was retained. Bail was set Monday morning. My client was released after being processed. After examining the case, several defenses became apparent all arising from the late filing of the indictment by the state. I filed several motions addressing these defenses. There were 18 defendants. No other defendants filed similar motions. When the motions came on for a hearing, I told the court that I thought my motions were good and that if the court would hear me first, 15 of the 18 cases would be dismissed. The court heard my argument and granted my motions dismissing my client's case and 14 of the co-defendants. The state elected not to appeal.
This case was a win.
I spent 75 hours on this case. Had this case been on an hourly rate rather than a flat rate, the fee would have been $18,750.

State Court Aggravated Battery: favorable plea after 2 days of jury trial

My client was charged with aggravated battery.
I was retained in this case days before arraignment. My client had been in jail for 18 months awaiting trial. He was also in jail on a parole violation arising out of this charge. His parole discharge date was one year hence, so our judgment was that a plea to one year to serve concurrent would be a good deal. At arraignment the plea offer was 10 years to serve. My client had three prior felonies. We began to aggressively prepare for trial. Trial preparation focused on the alleged victim. She had many court records in two counties that we searched so our investigations were very productive. A request for her criminal history from the state records yielded three prior arrests, all of which related to the victim's alleged acts of aggression upon other boyfriends! Of course, this information was as valuable as gold, since my client contended that he had acted in self-defense, among other defenses. At the pretrial conference, the DA reduced the recommendation to 5 years to serve. The trial judge cautioned us that if we went to trial and were convicted, my client, as a recidivist, would have to be sentenced to 20 years, the maximum penalty. The judge was legally entitled to probate all (no chance) or part (slim chance) of the 20 year prison sentence, but any prison sentence would have to be served day for day as parole would not be available to my client as a recidivist. We continued to prepare for trial. By the time of trial we had 10 witnesses lined up for the defense, including four police officers. After two days of jury trial, the state presented only two witnesses, the alleged victim and the investigating police officer. Before our final defense witnesses (from our total of 10) were called, the district attorney accepted our offer of 1 year to serve followed by 4 years probation.
I count this case as a win, though it would have been nice to get a "not guilty" verdict from the jury. The risk, though, of 20 years to serve without possibility of parole was not worth taking a chance on the jury given the plea offer.
I spent 101 hours on this case. Had this case been on an hourly rate rather than a flat rate, the fee would have been $25,250.