05/09/2026
Three years ago, I was honored to represent a young man who was facing extremely serious charges of home invasion aggravated assault and use of a firearm. The facts were horrible 5–6-armed individuals breaking into the home of a jeweler presumably to commit an armed robbery. We fought hard for our client and even though the evidence was not very strong the jury ultimately convicted our client who ended up with a 20-year sentence. Fortunately the client and his family were able to convince The Steel Law Firm of the merits of his appeal and Brian Steel entered the case as appellate counsel. Brian began working on the appeal immediately, contacting me directly regarding issues at trial and for appeal. Brian worked tirelessly, filing no less than four amended motions for new trial. When the day finally came for the motion for new trial, Brian was able to win without firing a shot! The state conceded that the only evidence linking the client to the alleged criminal activity was clearly hearsay that we had properly objected to at trial. As trial counsel you hate that your actions at trial may be questioned on appeal and certainly no one wants to be ineffective, but I was prepared if needed to testify truthfully to any errors that I may have committed. I was taught that your duty to your client does not end at the verdict and that if you made mistakes at trial you have to own them. For three years my client has been in prison, and I have carried that burden along with his family. We are forever thankful to Brian and his firm for all the work they did to procure a new trial for this client. When Brian told me the state was conceding that they had made the error in asking the court to admit evidence that was so clearly hearsay that even I (a guy who barely passed evidence in law school) knew it; I said at one point I was literally screaming OBJECTION! In typical quick-witted fashion Brian said "they heard you". So many emotions from shock and awe to gratitude for what Brian did, it was an absolute pleasure to work with him, and we could not have asked for a better result. But the struggle is real and the fight continues, our client is still in custody and has been separated from his family for far too long. However, as the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King was fond of saying" the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." We just have some more bending to do!
