Not Guilty by Insanity Verdict in a homicide case where Client murdered his roommate at a hospital
The Client murdered his roommate at the Psych Ward of a hospital by slashing his neck. Client is a paranoid schizophrenic and had been there on a 5150 hold. After a Jury found him guilty of 2nd degree murder, Abdres Rico called two psychiatrists as defense witnesses in the sanity phase, and he was found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity.
Convinced Jury to reject an Attempted Murder charge and instead convict Client of Attempted Involuntary Manslaughter, which carried fewer years in prison
The Client got into an argument with his upstairs neighbor over a noise dispute. The victim insulted and threatened the Client so he went into his apartment, retrieved a gun and shot the victim multiple times in the legs and abdominal area. Client informed Mr. Rico that as a child he witnessed the Death Squads in El Salvador shoot his father. At his trial Mr. Rico called a psychiatrist who testified that the Client suffers from PTSD and that the PTSD made the Client misperceive the danger presented to him and made him overreact to the danger by shooting the victim. The Imperfect Self Defense argument was successful and Client was found guilty of Attempted Involuntary Manslaughter instead of Attempted Murder. This avoided years of time for the Client.