Anthony S., 1434089, Hung jury on April 7, 2015
and settled for nine years

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 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





"All but Solis were convicted of murder. A mistrial was declared against him."
"Solis will serve at least 85 percent of a nine-year sentence, two years of which he has already served in the Santa Barbara County Jail while awaiting trial, meaning he will serve a little more than five and a half years in state prison."
"'It's difficult for somebody to not settle for nine years when they're looking at life without parole,' Steele said."
Below are the newspaper articles on A.J.'s outcome

This is an internet article regarding Addison's client's sentencing after What the press called the "U-Haul Murder Trial,"
Addison's client is the only one of the six co-defendants that is home now.


This is the internet version of the above article




This is another article about Addison's client being sentenced to nine years after trial
All of the other co-defendants at the trial received Life without the possibility of parole



This is an article about the other five co-defendants being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole






This is the Santa Maria Times article about the outcome of the case
Addison's client is the one that was not convicted




"'It's difficult for somebody to not settle a case . . . when they're looking at life without parole,' Mr. Steele said."
"Mr. Solis will be sentenced to nine years in prison but will receive two years off for time served and is only required to serve 85 percent of his sentence. He could be free in fewer than six years."

This is the internet version of the Above Article




This is the Santa Barbara News-Press article about the outcome of the trial
Addison's client is the one client that was not convicted



This is another article about the outcome of the case





This is the internet version of the above article



This is an internet article on the verdicts, Addison's client was the only one that was not convicted







This was the first Noozhawk article of the day
They posted the second article, above, after the verdicts were read





This is an article About jury deliberations




This is the internet version of the above article



This is another television article




This is another television article






This is an article from when the jury was sent out to deliberate




This is an article about the defense closing arguments



This is the internet version of the above article






This is article about Addison's closing argument




This is the internet version of the above article


This is another internet article same day


This is another television article



This is an article about one of the other defendants taking the witness stand




This is the internet version of the above article






This article shows how the six defense attorneys worked together





This was a television news story about Addison's client testifying at the trial
ON this day there were two updates in the same daY









This is the press following the trial closely




This is the internet version of the above article





This is an internet article following the progress of the trial




This is the internet version of the above article






This is another article about Addison's client taking the witness stand during the "U-Haul Murder Trial"





The prosecution had rested, now it was the defense's turn, Addison started with a defense gang expert


The Press followed the case so closely that there were daily television updates
ON This day there were four updates throughout the day




















This is an article from the prosecution rested their case




This is an internet article from when the prosecution rested their case and the defense could start their case





This is an article about when the prosecution had finished their case and it was the defense's turn to present evidence








This is the internet version of the above article





ThE article about the Defense Attorneys Questioning the police officers involved in the case








This is the internet version of the above article




This is an article about the "gang detective's" testimony









This is an internet article tracking the progress of the trial at Week Seven









This is a television news article showing how closely the press was following the case
Addison is in the middle of the photo between his client Ray Maldonado



This is another article about the defense attorneys questioning the police officers involved in the case






This is another Television article




This is another television article
The trial was watched so closely by the press that there were two posting on the same day









This is an article about the defense attorneys questioning the forensic pathologist










This is the internet version of the above article





This is another Television article






This is another Television article




This is an article about a Hearing that happened during the trial




This is the internet version of the above article





This is an article about a hearing once the trial had started












This is a television article from the same day





This is an article about opening statements in the "U-Haul murder trial"












This is the internet version of the above article





This is another article about opening statements in the "U-Haul Murder trial"








This is an article about the evidence phase of the "U-Haul Murder" trial starting






This is an article about jury selection in the case







This is another Article about Jury selection









This is the internet version of the above article




This is an article where the press was watching the case very closely










This is the internet version of the above article



This is an article about jury selection finally beginning in this case







This is the internet version of the above article




This is another article about the lengthy jury selection in this case



This is the internet version of the above article




This is an article about the beginning of Jury selection in what the Press called "The U-Haul Trial"


This is another article about jury selection











This is the internet version of the above article




This is another article about jury selection










This is another article about the litigation battle before the trial started








This is the internet version of the above article






This is an article about jury selection



This is an article about Addison's second change of venue motion in the "U-Haul Murder" case


This is another article about Addison's second change of venue Motion




This is the internet version of the above article






This is another internet article regarding the second change of venue motion




This is an article about the "U-Haul murder" case Pre-trial motions



This article is about one of the co-defendants, but Addison is mentioned




This is the internet version of the above article




This is an article from near the beginning of the "U-Haul Murder" Trial


The Press followed the case very closely, even routine continuances were covered
This is another article about the same subject as above






This is the internet version of the Above Article








This is another article about the case




This is another internet Article about Addison's First change of venue motion in the "U-Haul Murder" case






This is another article about the change of venue motion



This is the internet version of the above article






This is another Article About the first change of venue motion






This is another article from Addison's first change of venue motion in the "U-Haul Murder" case






This is another article about the case









This is another article about the case









This is the internet version of the above article






This is another article about the case



Of the original eleven co-defendants only six went to trial



This is another article about the case






This is the internet Version of the above article






These articles from when the case started actually moving forward























These are articles from when the district attorney decided to not seek the death penalty


This is one of the earlier articles about the case


