A Successful March

March was a busy and successful month at the Law Office of James L. Spies, as Mr. Spies had two separate second degree murder trials.

In early March, Mr. Spies tried a case that resulted in a hung jury in October of 2021. Despite eyewitness testimony that his client shot the victim at close range multiple times in the chest, the jury nonetheless convicted his client of the lesser charged of Voluntary Manslaughter. Rather than facing 50 years in prison, his client is now facing 20 years – a significant difference!

During the last week of March, Mr. Spies tried the high-profile case involving the death of Captain Christopher Arnold of the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s office. The State charged Captain Arnold’s son with Murder in the Second Degree. The jury convicted him of the lesser offense of Involuntary Manslaughter. The end result is likely to be a sentence of time served for the 31 months his client sat in jail during the COVID-19 pandemic waiting for his case to proceed to trial!

While not every case results in an outright acquittal, securing a lesser charge at trial often means the difference between years in prison and freedom. Mr. Spies’ 27 years of trial experience and 100+ jury trials is reflected in his aggressive defense of every client, and the results he obtains in court.