22-Year-Old Warehouse Worker Found Not Guilty on Multiple Charges at Trial

Recently, a 22-year-old warehouse employee found himself facing criminal charges for strangulation (a level 6 felony) and battery (a class A misdemeanor) after a family dispute. In addition to these charges, he was already serving a community corrections sentence for a prior conviction. With a possible ten-year suspended sentence over his head, in addition to potential incarceration and other penalties, he knew he needed the help of a skilled Indianapolis criminal defense lawyer. This is what brought him to Hessler Law.

As attorney Sean Hessler began working on the client’s case, the prosecutor working on the strangulation charge wanted to negotiate a deal, as there were weaknesses in that case. The attorney prosecution the client’s violation of their community sentence, however, wanted attorney Hessler’s client to serve six years in prison because they were charged with a new crime while still serving a previous conviction’s sentence.

The client maintained his innocence, and as such, criminal attorney Hessler prepared a defense on his behalf and proceeded to trial. Here, attorney Hessler argued that the alleged victim in the case was the aggressor during the dispute, and that his client tried to disengage from the situation before it escalated. During a deposition, the alleged victim alluded to the fact that this claim may be true, and that she may have started the fight. After further testimony, the judge believed that the state did not prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. As such, the client was found not guilty.

The outcome of an individual case depends on a variety of factors unique to that case. Case results do not guarantee or predict a similar result in any similar or future case.