Jacksonville Criminal Defense Attorney Blog

A former Jacksonville high school teacher pleaded guilty to sexually abusing one of his former students and two counts of unlawful sex with a minor in Duval County. But instead of getting the 15 years in prison he was facing, Leonard Adams Hoffman, was sentenced last week to one year in the Duval County jail,…

Halfway through his own Jacksonville criminal trial where he is accused of attempted murder and facing up to life in prison, a Jacksonville violent crimes suspect changed his mind and opted for a Jacksonville Criminal Defense Attorney. Because of the defendant’s change of heart, the judge said he had no choice but to end the…

A 97-year-old St. Augustine woman has already been declared incompetent to stand trial in the shooting death of her nephew, yet the state wants to keep her in jail until more mental health evaluations can be done. For now, Amanda Stevenson will remain in the St. Johns County jail while she is evaluated again by…

Two family members accused of allowing a convicted sex offender to live in their home and abuse their young daughter are now scheduled to go to trial at the same time as the alleged abuser. The state plans to seat one jury for Christopher Perry, 41, charged with five counts of sexual battery in Jacksonville…

A botched Jacksonville Armed Robbery last week left one suspect dead and the other charged with murder, though he wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger. Two men started threatening employees at a Dollar General store one night last month, with one of them holding the store manager at gunpoint with what police described as…

A University of North Florida student was arrested in Jacksonville last week for filing a false police report after her story about being sexually assaulted in Jacksonville in a recreation center locker room didn’t check out. The woman was charged with filing a false report by the University Police Department, which said several women have…

As much black and white, letter-of-the-law work goes on in the criminal court system, it’s sometimes easy to forget that everyone involved is human. And things happen in people’s lives. That’s evident in a bizarre twist in the case of a 22-year-old Jacksonville man accused of pistol whipping former Jacksonville Jaguar wide receiver Kassim Osgood…

A Jacksonville man sentenced to life in prison for rape while the co-defendant who testified against him got less than a year in Duval County jail was released last week after 25 years behind bars. DNA evidence that questions Billy Joe Holton’s involvement in the case brought some attention to his plight, but a Jacksonville…

A tip from a neighbor led police to a Jacksonville home where they found 36 marijuana plants and other evidence of a grow operation inside the residence. When police arrived, they smelled the odor of burning marijuana, knocked on the door and Derrick Anton Warren let the officers inside, according to a report in the…

Guilty pleas and sentences are now rolling in for the 19 men caught in an undercover, underage sex sting in Clay County and there appear to be few outliers in terms of the punishment. Last week, the tenth defendant in the case was sentenced to seven years in prison. He pleaded guilty to the Clay…