Andrew V Jezic

Prior to entering private practice in 2003, DC criminal lawyer Andrew V. Jezic served as a Maryland prosecutor for nearly eight years. During his time as a prosecutor, Mr. Jezic prosecuted some of the most serious felony cases in Montgomery and Anne Arundel counties. Now as a Maryland & DC criminal defense attorney, Mr. Jezic aggressively represents defendants around the state and in Washington, D.C. facing such serious charges as murder, rape and armed robbery. He has handled over 100 jury trials in his career and over 40 homicide cases.

Mr. Jezic has been selected to three of the most prestigious organizations for any trial lawyer, reflecting his reputation as one of the leading criminal defense attorneys in Maryland.  First, Mr. Jezic is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, an invitation-only group of the leading one percent of trial lawyers in each state.  Second, he is a member of the Trial Court Nominating Commission for Montgomery County, which is the final vetting organization for judicial candidates, passing a streamlined list on to the Governor.  Third, Mr. Jezic is a member of the Maryland State Bar’s Criminal Pattern Jury Instruction Committee, which drafts the final language of the official jury instructions given at the end of a criminal trial.

In 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017 Mr Jezic was selected to the very exclusive list of best criminal attorneys by Washingtonian magazine . In 2016, 2017 and 2018, Mr. Jezic was selected as one of 100 best attorneys in all of Maryland by Super Lawyers. Mr. Jezic also has a perfect 10/10 rating on AVVO.

He is a co-author of the widely respected book, Maryland Law of Confessions, first published in 2003 by Thompson/West and now in its fourtheenth edition. Mr. Jezic’s book has been cited or quoted in ten reported opinions by Maryland’s highest and intermediate appellate courts.

Mr. Jezic has won many acquittals and dismissals in high-profile cases. For a small sample of these success stories, please see the link to recent news. In 2010, Mr. Jezic argued two significant criminal cases before Maryland’s highest court. In 2011, the State’s highest Court, on the same day, reversed two other complex cases handled by Mr. Jezic at the trial level, thereby giving Mr. Jezic’s clients a new chance at freedom. The State’s highest Court reversed yet another of Jezic’s cases in 2011, giving his client a new trial in a murder case. Mr. Jezic argued another case before Maryland’s top Court in June, 2012.

In 2010, prosecutors in two separate jurisdictions dismissed the cases against Mr. Jezic’s clients, after the jury in each case had heard Mr. Jezic’s winning cross-examination of the complaining witnesses. Remarkably, yet again in 2012, prosecutors dismissed all murder charges on the third day of a jury trial in Prince Georges County, after the Jezic team’s vigorous investigation and opening defense.

In 2017 Mr. Jezic achieved success for a client in one of the highest profile cases in Montgomery County in decades - in the "Rockville High School Rape" case - guiding his client through a maelstrom of national media attention, including pejorative comments about his client from White House spokesman, Sean Spicer.  Contrary to all expectations and hype, all rape and sex offense charges against Mr. Jezic's client were completely dismissed (See article).

Mr. Jezic's most celebrated case is the successful defense of Gary James Smith, in the "Army-Ranger murder case" - another of the most high-profile cases in Montgomery County in the past several decades.  Mr. Smith was a Sergeant in the Army Rangers, having served in five combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.  He was accused of murdering his fellow Army Ranger, a close friend and roommate in Gaithersburg.   After two lengthy trials, and two appellate reversals, Mr. Smith successfully ended his case with time served and unsupervised probation, eight years after the original arrest.  Mr. Smith now is a law clerk in the law offices of Jezic & Moyse, working on Mr. Jezic's various murder cases. (See many articles from 2006 to 2015, and see hour-long show about Gary Smith on Dr. Oz.).

In 2010 and 2011, Maryland & DC criminal attorney Andrew V. Jezic convinced judges in two separate cases to vacate his clients’ guilty pleas entered with another lawyer, whereby both clients would have been deported after serving lengthy prison sentences. In both cases, Mr. Jezic’s clients were eventually exonerated after jury trials and are now free of any threat of jail or deportation. In one of those cases in 2011, State v. Cuque, the jury acquitted Mr. Jezic’s client of all charges despite having viewed a videotaped confession by the client.

In 2014 Mr. Jezic was a featured speaker for the fourth year in a row at the Alan Goldstein criminal law lecture in Prince George’s County, the premier criminal law seminar for lawyers in Maryland. In 2010 Mr. Jezic was a featured speaker at the annual Law Day seminar in Montgomery County, and was asked to speak at a Cross-Examination Workshop for the Montgomery County Bar’s Criminal Law Section in October, 2008, as well as at the Office of the Public Defender’s state-wide Training Seminar in May, 2008.

Mr. Jezic was one of the featured presenters from 2006-2008 for “Back to Court Night,” a gathering of many of the Circuit and District Court judges and lawyers in Montgomery County. In 2001, he was a featured speaker at the annual convention for all Maryland prosecutors held in Ocean City. He has taught numerous seminars for detectives around the state including the criminal investigators school for the Maryland State Police. As a Maryland & dc criminal attorney Mr. Jezic has taught full semesters at the Law School of American University and also at Montgomery College.

He is the former co-Chair of the Montgomery County Bar Association’s Criminal Law Section. As Chair of the Maryland Hispanic Bar’s Judicial Interviewing Committee for eight years, he was responsible for interviewing all applicants in the state for any judicial vacancy, including the Court of Appeals, Maryland’s highest court. Mr. Jezic was appointed by two Governors from different parties in 2006 and 2007 to be one of five members to serve on the State Board of Elections in Annapolis.

Mr. Jezic is fluent in Spanish.

Please email Mr. Jezic at [email protected] or call him in the office at 240-292-7200.