Brian W. Wice

On Feb 26, 2026, the Court of Criminal Appeals decided to accept my petition for review after nearly 8 months of stress-filled waiting and anxiety. Not only did the court grant review, which occurs in less than 7% of cases, but they agreed to hear oral arguments, indicating additional interest in a c...ase legal experts say could justify significant expansion of digital surveillance powers. On this same day, Brian Wice addressed a letter to me telling me he'd agreed to represent me pro bono, with my previous counsel’s permission. Brian claimed I was getting the deal of a lifetime and boasted about being one of the best -- if not the best -- appellate lawyers in the area of criminal appeals, alleging no one was in a better position than him to "bring home the W". What followed, however, was one disappointment after the other. Brian hired on his pal Stephen Aslett, and together they crafted a brief, on my behalf, that completely undermined the first of two grounds the court granted review of my case for. Having noted this, I requested Brian not file any other documents prior to my review. In response, Brian said he doesn't permit clients to review drafts of his work prior to filing and claimed decisions about what to include in briefs were exclusively up to him and his team. On May 11, 2026, I received a copy of the State's response to Brian and Stephen's brief, where the State adopted Brian and Stephen's arguments and, as a result, asserted my ground one error should be dismissed. The State went on to argue, for the first time in nearly 5 years of litigation, that my ground two error was unpreserved. In a call with Stephen, he admitted he and Brian had a strong disagreement about how to proceed with the case. Cowardly, Brian decided to withdraw instead of continuing to advocate for me. Stephen then alerted me of his fear of losing credibility if he chose to do anything other than concede my ground two error was unpreserved. When I finally received a copy of Stephen's reply, weeks after it had already been filed, it was apparent my deal of a lifetime was a hoax. Upon review of my pretrial, trial, and appellate records I learned that Brian and Stephen simply failed to properly argue my ground one error and that my ground two error was most certainly preserved. But by this point Brian and Stephen became unresponsive. In Brian's motion to withdraw he, for the first time, changed his tune about who my lead counsel was, saying, now, it was Stephen all along, placing blame on him for the case's disintegration. During that prior call with Stephen, he had much to say about Brian's “big ego,” my previous appellate counsel's old age and her need to retire, and claimed Brian only brought him on the case so he'd do all the work and Brian could receive all the credit. I've now been forced to file a motion requesting that Brian, Stephen, and my prior appellate counsel be removed from my case. What's next to come, I will soon find out. Moral of the story: Steer clear of any self-described "bulldog" attorneys named Brian Wice or Stephen Aslett who claim to be "the best" and "the real deal", respectively. For reasons never to be disclosed, they will catch and attempt to kill your case. /s/ Jamin Stocker