Accessory after the Fact to Murder Conviction Reversed

May 14, 2013

OUTCOME: Conviction Reversed

My client was convicted in federal district for Accessory after the Fact to Murder. One of the things the prosecutor had to prove was that my client knew the person was dead or dying at the time he re ... ndered assistance to the shooter. Here, the evidence was that the victim was sitting in the passenger seat of a car. The car was running and the driver was behind the well of the car. My client knocked on the passenger side window and asked the passenger to put down the window. He didn't and the shooter then approached the car and shot two times through the window and the car then immediately speed away, giving my client no time to see if the passenger was even hit or, if hit, that it was a fatal wound. The judge denied the motion for judgment of acquittal but the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the judge's order on grounds that "even construing the evidence in a light most favorable to the government, no rational fact-finder could have found that Appellant Caballero Fernandez knew that Ibarra was dead or dying during the relevant time period." A copy of the court's decision can be found at http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Unpublished/114284.U.pdf