Juan Martinez has a new case to prosecute. The State vs Bryan Hulsey - murder of Anthony Holly.

Link: Facebook page for the Bryan Hulsey Trial

Death Penalty case.

 Anthony Holly

Prosecutor Juan Martinez

Allan Kustok Trial Date to be Set in November

http://orlandpark.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/kustok-trial-date-to-be-set-in-november

Attorneys were instructed to come to court Wednesday morning ready to set a firm date for Allan Kustok’s murder trial, but no date was set and the can was kicked to next month.

Judge John Hynes was very specific about what he wanted from defense and prosecuting attorneys at Allan Kustok’s last court hearing on Thursday, a firm trial date.

But as has been the case for several of the previous hearings, no specific date was set for the murder case to go to trial. Allan Kustok is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of his wife Anita “Jeanie” Kustok.

Defense attorney Ernie DiBenedetto said Thursday that he and Kustok’s other attorneys, Rick Beuke and Steven Rueckert, are “making progress on narrowing down availability.”

Hynes said Thursday that he is anxious to get this trial underway. At the Oct. 10 hearing, prosecutors asked for a January court date, while defense attorneys requested February instead.

“This case is over three years old,” Hynes said on Oct. 10. “I have indicated repeatedly that this case is to be finished this year. If not in December, than it has to be January.”

Previously, the trial was tentatively set for a December start, but prosecutors asked to have it pushed back, because of a conflict with an expert slated to testify.

The case has been in the court system for over three years without a trial.

Kustok is scheduled to be in court again on Nov. 21 for attorneys to set a trial date.

Tim Lambesis - Murder for hire plot.

Link : Nancy Grace discussing Tim Lambesis

Tim Lambesis will face a jury on March 11, 2014 for allegedly hiring a hitman to kill his estranged wife.  

During a brief appearance on Wednesday, he pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of solicitation of murder.  

A readiness conference is scheduled for January 15th, 2014.

Lambesis hired an undercover cop posing as a hitman to kill his wife, Meggan Lambesis.  

Listen to Nancy Grace discussing the reasons Lambesis gave for hiring the hitman.

Martin MacNeill - Confessions during "pillow talk" of more murders?

http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20131114/NEWS21/311140027/Utah-murder-case-has-Camden-ties?nclick_check=1

A Utah doctor convicted Sunday of drowning his wife in a bathtub has ties to South Jersey, where a court record alleges he killed his brother in a similar way.

A defense attorney for Dr. Martin MacNeill, however, describes the claim as a “fabrication” by one of the doctor’s mistresses.

MacNeill, a 57-year-old native of Camden, was found guilty of his wife’s April 2007 murder. Authorities claimed the doctor drugged Michele MacNeill, causing her to drown in the tub, so he could continue an affair.

Defense attorneys said the former beauty queen, whose body was found by a 6-year-old daughter, died from a heart ailment. Authorities initially believed the 50-year-old mother of eight died from natural causes. Two of her adult daughters eventually prevailed on authorities to investigate the case.

An allegation of a similar crime in New Jersey came from one of two women having extramarital affairs with the doctor. The woman, Anna Osborne, told a psychiatrist in January 2006 that MacNeill had described killing a brother and attempting to murder his mother, according to Chief Jeff Robinson of the Utah County Attorney’s Office.

According to a statement prepared by Robinson, MacNeill told Osborne “he killed his brother, Rufus Roy MacNeill, who repeatedly attempted suicide for attention, and had become an embarrassment ...

“Martin told her he found his brother in the tub with both of his wrists bleeding, and that he pushed his brother’s head under the water, drowning him.”

Robinson said his office “confirmed Rufus Roy MacNeill was found dead in a tub while the family lived in New Jersey.”

 

Robinson’s 57-page statement, prepared in advance of MacNeill’s arrest, does not say when the brother’s death occurred. But Osborne alleged Rufus Roy MacNeill was only one of Martin MacNeill’s targets.

“She told her psychiatrist that Martin told her he attempted to kill his mother when he was young, but his sister called 911 and revived her,” the statement said.

'A fabrication'

Susanne Gustin, an attorney for Martin MacNeill, offered a different account.

“This is a fabrication by Martin’s mistress,” she said Wednesday. “Martin’s brother died of a drug overdose. 

He was found sitting on the toilet with a needle in his leg.

“Martin was in California at the time.”

The Camden County Prosecutor’s Office had no details on Rufus Roy MacNeill’s death.

“We have not been notified by Utah authorities at this point in time,” said spokesman Jason Laughlin.

Tim Lambesis - Tentative trial date set in murder-for-hire case.

http://loudwire.com/as-i-lay-dying-tim-lambesis-not-guilty-plea-murder-for-hire-arraignment/

As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis made a brief appearance in a Vista, Calif., courtroom Wednesday (Nov. 13) where he learned that a tentative trial date has been set for March 2014 on charges that he plotted to have his estranged wife murdered.

According to Lambgoat, the singer reportedly entered the courtroom for approximately a minute where he reaffirmed his earlier “not guilty” plea to the felony solicitation of murder charge. While there, a Jan. 15 date was set for a readiness conference where the defense and prosecutor will see if they are able to resolve the case before it goes to trial.

Should the two sides not meet an agreement (essentially a plea bargain), the trial will proceed as scheduled. A tentative March 11 date was mentioned as a possibility for the start of the trial, though nothing is set in stone as of yet.

Lambesis was taken into custody on May 7 after allegedly soliciting an undercover police officer to murder his estranged wife. Approximately three weeks later, Lambesis was freed from jail on $2 million bail (of which he actually had to pay $160,000) and he was ordered to house arrest ever since.

The singer’s legal team has argued that steroids had an effect on the singer’s judgment and that there may have been some impropriety on the behalf of the police in the arrest.

Richard Chrisman - Judge denies request to toss ex-Phoenix police officer’s assault verdict.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/20131113judge-denies-request-toss-ex-phoenix-police-officers-assault-verdict-brk.html

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Warren Granville on Wednesday listened patiently as a defense attorney representing former Phoenix police Officer Richard Chrisman detailed the alleged misconduct the prosecutor committed throughout Chrisman’s murder trial.

Chrisman’s attorney, Craig Mehrens, was making the allegations about Deputy County Attorney Juan Martinez in an effort to secure a new trial for his client, who was convicted of aggravated assault during a trial this summer, and the beneficiary of a hung jury on murder and animal-cruelty counts.

But about halfway through the sparsely attended hearing in a downtown Phoenix courtroom, Granville posed the question that framed the entire hearing.

“We are getting a new trial,” Granville said. “Isn’t that a sufficient remedy?”

When the 45-minute hearing was complete, Granville denied Chrisman’s request to vacate the aggravated assault verdict and penciled in a new trial date for early next year. Chrisman is set to be sentenced Dec. 20 on the aggravated assault count, which carries a range of 5 to 15 years in prison.

A jury found Chrisman guilty of aggravated assault in September for putting his gun to the head of 29-year-old Danny Frank Rodriguez shortly after Chrisman and his partner entered Rodriguez’s South Phoenix home while answering a domestic violence call in October 2010.

The jury reached an impasse when it came to the question of whether Chrisman committed second-degree murder when he shot Rodriguez twice in the chest, and whether he committed animal cruelty when he killed Rodriguez’s pitbull-mix, Junior, during the altercation that ensued in Rodriguez’s living room.

The testimony of Chrisman’s partner on the call, Officer Sergio Virgillo, was crucial in convicting Chrisman because he told the jury Rodriguez posed no threat, despite Virgillo’s own attempts to deploy his Taser at the methamphetamine user. Virgillo also told jurors he had successfully de-escalated the situation when Chrisman drew his weapon, and that Rodriguez was backing away from Chrisman with his hands in the air when he was shot.

Mehrens told Granville on Wednesday that Martinez was purposefully misleading throughout the trial — in his sharing of relevant documents, when he played coy about the witnesses he planned on calling, and when he made misleading statements to the jury — and pleaded with the judge to put a stop to Martinez’s “pattern of misconduct” so it will not continue in other trials.

Martinez characterized Mehrens statements as “ad hominem attacks on the prosecutor” and reminded Granville that whatever misconduct he might have been accused of in other proceedings, it has nothing to do with the Chrisman case.

Granville said many of the issues Mehrens raised actually dealt with the charges the jury could not agree on and not with the aggravated assault.

Granville gave Chrisman a Jan. 27 trial date for the second-degree murder and animal cruelty allegations, though the date could change depending on Martinez’s schedule with other trials.