Pasadena Trial Attorney Tom R Medrano Obtains Not Guilty Verdicts

Pasadena Trial Attorney Tom R. Medrano Obtains NOT GUILTY VERDICTS On Three (3) Criminal Charges Of Assault With A Deadly Weapon While Personally Inflicting Great Bodily Injury On Several Security Guards Following A Bar Melee In Alhambra’s Fashionable “Club District”

Robert Tony Paul Estrada was found “NOT GUILTY” on all three (3) criminal charges of Assault with a Deadly Weapon While Personally Inflicting Great Bodily Injury on several individuals following a two week jury trial in Alhambra Courthouse on Thursday, December 18, 2014.

Mr. Estrada and his family and friends of 20 people, including numerous married couples were attending his birthday party at the now closed Blitz Ultimate Lounge on July 22, 2012 when a bar fight ensued. Several security guards were injured in the melee immediately outside the club after one security guard forcibly removed Mr. Estrada’s, then 20 year old brother, by choking him out. Another security was kicked in the face, subsequently losing vision in his left eye. A patron, smoking a cigarette, standing five feet outside the club’s front door, witnessed the entire melee. The Alhambra police responded to the scene. An unknown person rushed up to two Alhambra police officers who were then on foot and pointed out Mr. Estrada and the two other individuals he was walking with, and said “those guys just beat up a security guard.”

Mr. Estrada was immediately detained along with the two individuals, both cousins, less than one block away from the Blitz Club. Mr. Estrada’s younger brother then walked up and was also detained. The patron witness told the police that he could identify the person who kicked the security guard in the face. The patron witness was driven in a police car a short distance to see if he could identify any of the four people then being detained by the police. The patron pointed out Mr. Estrada as the person responsible for kicking the security guard in the face resulting in the loss of vision to his left eye. Mr. Estrada was arrested and subsequently charged by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office with two criminal charges of assault with a deadly weapon while personally inflicting great bodily injury.

Immediately before the jury trial began, Mr. Estrada turned down the prosecutor’s offer of 12 years in state prison with a then exposure of 16 years in state prison. In the middle of the jury trial, the prosecution added another count of assault with a deadly weapon while personally inflicting great bodily injury on another security guard. Mr. Estrada’s total prison exposure was thereby increased to 24 years in state prison.

Trial Attorney Tom R. Medrano argued that this was a case of false identification. The jury agreed and returned a verdict of NOT GUILTY on all three criminal charges. Upon hearing the jury’s verdict in open court, Mr. Estrada immediately broke down crying under the stress of the 2-1/2 year ordeal, having gone through three other attorneys before retaining Mr. Medrano upon the advice of civil attorney Thomas O’Leary. Mr. Estrada hugged his attorney and exclaimed, “thank you Mr. Medrano, you gave me back my life.” If Mr. Estrada had been convicted, he would have spent over 20 years in state prison for a crime he did not commit.

Mr. Estrada, with his 3-1/2 year old son Robert Jr. in one arm and his other arm wrapped around his wife’s shoulder, walked away from the Alhambra Courthouse with tears still streaming down his face, grateful that his nightmare had ended.