Anthony S., 1434089, on April 7, 2015 his murder trial resulted in a Hung jury and later and settled for nine years instead of the life without the possibility of parole sentence that the prosecution was seeking

This was the "U-Haul Murder Trial," as the press called it, Addison's client was the only one of the six co-defendants that has gone home, The other five co-defendants were convicted of charges that resulted in life without the possibility of Parole (LWOPP) There was a hung jury on Addison's client's portion on the case, the case then resolved for a kidnapping charge
Addison's client is now home

- Charges: Murder (Penal Code § 187(a)), with an allegation that the murder was committed at the direction of, for the benefit of, or in association with a criminal street gang (Penal Code § 186.22(b)(1)), with four special circumstances alleged, killing while lying in wait (Penal Code § 190.2(a)(15)), murder during a kidnapping (Penal Code § 190.2(a)(17)), murder with torture (Penal Code § 190.2(a)(18)) and killing while an active participant in a street gang to further the activities of the gang (Penal Code § 190.2(a)(22)), if A.J. was convicted of first-degree murder and any one of an alleged special circumstances was found true, the judge would have had to sentence him to live life in prison without the possibility of parole.
- Exposure: A.J. was facing life in prison without the possibility of parole (LWOPP).
- Outcome: There was a hung jury; the case was then settled for dismissal of the first-degree murder charge in exchange for a no-contest plea to kidnapping with a gang allegation and possession of drugs in the jail with nine years in prison. A.J. is home now.
This was a particularly long and grueling murder trial. The press dubbed the case "The U-Haul Murder Trial" because the decedent's body was discovered in an abandoned U-Haul truck with his blood dripping out of the back of the truck. There were originally 13 co-defendants, not all of which were charged with murder. The plea negotiations parred it down to six co-defendants, all charged with murder, all with special circumstances that included torture and gang murder. All six defendants were facing LWOPP sentences. It was largest number of co-defendants in a murder trial ever in Santa Barbara County, and probably the state. There wasn't a courtroom in the county large enough for the trial. The largest courtroom in the county is at the Juvenile Court in Santa Maria, however it didn't have a jury box because juveniles do not have a right to a jury trial. The courtroom was modified by having a jury box built in it. However, even that was far too small for jury selection because of the several hundreds of prospective jurors would need to be called.
In a one defendant non-life sentence exposure case, the typical jury trial, there are a total of twenty pre-emptory challenges allowed, and typically a panel of 80 to 100 prospective jurors are called, depending on the type of case. In this case there were 140 pre-emptory challenges allowed. Many hundreds of potential jurors were called in. The courts rented a warehouse on the Santa Maria Fairgrounds to conduct the jury selection. Normally jury trials go four days a week, or even three days a week, so the judge can conduct other court business, that also allows the lawyers to work on the trial on the non-trial days as well, however this trial was specially assigned to a retired judge so the trial went five days a week, starting at 8:00 a.m. with a half hour lunch break and two fifteen minutes breaks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, the trial was run on the same schedule that fast food workers experience, the lawyers had to scramble to handle their other matters, and had to work non-stop because of the lack of normal "down time," which isn't actually down time, it's time used for the trial. After 79 court days of trial, on a five days a week schedule held over several months, the jury came back with verdicts.
The district attorney's theory was that the decedent was a drug dealer, and that he had been scamming customers as well as not paying "taxes" to the Mexican Mafia. The district attorney believed that a co-defendant with the nickname (they said gang moniker) of Crazy Ray, had recruited a group to "check" (impose a punishment) on the decedent for both ripping off customers and for not paying a portion of his proceeds to the Mexican Mafia. The believed that the group then tortured the decedent to death, rented a U-Haul, put his body in the U-Haul and abandoned it. The incident occurred at a house that didn't belong to any of the people in the group with Crazy Ray. The house belonged to two people that testified as witnesses for the prosecution, Angel "Buddha" Escobar and his sister Marissa Escobar, who were put in the witness protection program. That means that the government paid to set the witnesses up with new lives in exchange for their snitch testimony. What the defense presented was that Crazy Ray and his group were at the house, but they had left and that it was in fact the district attorney's two witnesses that had killed the decedent, and that after the fact they called upon Crazy Ray to help with the aftermath. The defense was that he may have helped after the fact, but neither he nor anyone in his group did the killing. The defense that was presented was that various members of the group had come and gone from the house, but none were there when the murder occurred.
The jury found the other five co-defendants guilty and found at least one special circumstance true, which meant that they all would have mandatory LWOPP sentences. But that wasn't the case for A.J. It was a hung jury on all counts for A.J. It looked like A.J. and Addison were going to have to do the trial again. The risk was getting the same LWOPP sentence that his co-defendants got, but the potential gain was to maybe go home after a second trial. In the end A.J. resolved the case for a plea to kidnapping and nine years in prison, but it had taken so long to get to trial that he had almost half of that already served. A.J. is home now. He's the only one of the six that's home.
This is from when Addison was on television defending his client

This is the team of defense lawyers, the families called them "The real dream team"

This is one of the slides that Addison used in his closing argument

These are some photos taken by the press during the trial




This is A.J. and Addison after the trial

This is the press from when Addison won the trial




Here you can follow the press from the beginning of the case to the end







































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































