Hi, my name is Ralph Maiolino III, Esq. I am a former prosecutor and now a criminal defense attorney at Smith and Eulo, and I work out of our HQ in Orlando, FL.
I’ve been tasked to discuss with you, dear reader, a quite grim & the most unfortunate of cases. It involves a 23-year-old Polk County man, who is alleged to have gunned down and killed his father and then shot his mother, grievously wounding her, on a Saturday evening in his hometown of scenic Bartow, FL. He is alleged to have committed patricide & attempted matricide after his 63-year-old father became increasingly hostile towards his life choices and aggressively told him to “get a job” and “stop playing video games all day”. It is further alleged that he confessed.
It should be self-apparent that the accused is a deeply mentally disturbed person. The key to defending him here will be securing a psychiatric doctor to evaluate him for his sanity & provide an expert opinion & diagnosis. If the expert report showed he was legally insane, we would begin a full-throated insanity defense. If he was merely in a fit of lunacy or some manic episode but not insane, we would use the diagnosis to try to have his confession thrown out of court due to him not being able to make an intelligent waiver of his Miranda Rights.
If neither worked, a last-ditch effort would be a stand-your-ground/self-defense claim proposing that his father’s hostility towards his lifestyle had caused the accused to feel threatened, attacked, and fearful of serious bodily harm or to his livelihood and needed to respond with deadly force to stop the threat. It would be a horrific & nonsensical argument to make, but even people accused of horrific & nonsensical crimes are entitled to raise a defense against them. We might consider a motion for a change of venue, too, due to the bad press he has gotten and the Polk Sheriff, who is notorious for publicly commenting on cases & disseminating negative news stories about the people he’s arrested. There may be legitimate questions about his ability to have a fair trial in Polk Co.
The best thing he could do to defend himself, however, would be to immediately call his skilled trial attorneys at Smith & Eulo to get to work attacking the charges & defending his case.
If you or your loved one are being accused of committing a crime, you should consult with one of our Criminal Defense Attorneys, don’t hesitate to call us at 352-WIN-4YOU We are available 24/7 and we offer payment plans.