Homicide Defense
Gary A. Farrell is an Experienced Homicide Defense Attorney
In criminal law, the stakes are never higher than when the police are investigating a case involving the wrongful or suspicious death of another person or persons. Under the laws of the state of New York, a range of charges may be brought in homicide cases:
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Murder in the First Degree
Murder in the Second Degree
Manslaughter in the First Degree
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Manslaughter in the Second Degree
Criminally Negligent Homicide
Vehicular Manslaughter
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If you or a loved one are under investigation for murder, manslaughter, or criminally negligent homicide, or think you might be, this is no time to gamble. Move quickly to hire an experienced criminal lawyer to protect your rights and provide you with the strong defense that you deserve. With more than 20 years of experience, Gary A. Farrell represents clients against all levels of state or federal charges of homicide. Gary Farrell also accepts state and federal appeals. A former Senior Trial Attorney in the Kings County Homicide Division and former Deputy Bureau Chief of Investigations, attorney Gary Farrell knows the ropes. He is committed to getting you the best possible result. Gary Farrell has a strong track record of providing successful representation to people who need - or may need - a criminal defense attorney. Here are just a few Mr. Farrell's notable cases:
Pressured into a False Confession: Case Dismissed
In this case, Mr. Farrell's client was a 28-year old man, a conscientious employee of a kosher food plant. Accused by the police of murder in the second degree, the young man faced 25 years to life. The police said he was guilty of strangling his sister to death but no evidence connected him to the murder except for a written statement that he made to the police after 17 hours of interrogation. In the statement, which he wrote out but refused to sign, he admitted to killing his sister because she played the TV too loud. Although his intelligence was perfectly normal, the young man did have a disability that had autistic features. He told defense attorney Gary Farrell that he was coerced into making the incriminating statement during the hours-long interrogation by a total of six detectives. The man had no criminal record and his mother, who was also the mother of the deceased, insisted that her children never fought. Mr. Farrell conducted a thorough investigation, which led to another suspect. He called in a psychologist who confirmed that young man's confession was not made voluntarily, an assessment with which the District Attorney's own psychologist agreed. Mr. Farrell convinced the DA's office to request a dismissal of the case, which it agreed to do. Judge Reichbach promptly granted the motion to dismiss, telling the defendant, "You are actually innocent of this crime." As a result of his false arrest and malicious prosecution, Mr. Farrell's client sued, and reached a settlement with, the New York Police Department.
Read more about this story, "Considering the Crime, Not the Suspect" in the New York Times and "Autistic Brooklyn man, wrongly imprisoned after coerced slay confession, gets $340G settlement" in the New York Daily News.
Charged with Murder: Acquitted in Two Hours
This case was the sad story of three young school friends who went different ways in life. Two of them became street criminals, committing numerous, sometimes violent, crimes. After a few years on the street, the body of one of the two partners in crime was found in a tenement hallway. He had been shot to death at age 23. The third boy had grown up and become a hard working, law-abiding citizen. He did not want his wife and daughters to live in the dangerous neighborhood where he grew up, so he took a job in Florida. He had been living and working in Florida for three years when a NYPD detective showed up at his home and told him that he was a suspect in the murder of his childhood friend. He had no record, he was a hard working family man, and now he was facing second-degree murder charges. He was brought back to New York to stand trial. And who turned out to be the prosecution's star witness? His old childhood friend, who claimed he had seen Gary's client in the hallway after hearing the shots on the night of the murder. Defense attorney Gary Farrell was able to destroy the credibility of the supposed witness. During an aggressive cross-examination, Mr. Farrell exposed the man's long criminal record, his three felony convictions and membership in a violent gang. After the two-week trial, it took the jury less than two hours to acquit Mr. Farrell's client. The young man cried tears of joy, and several members of the jury hugged and congratulated him and his family after his victory in court.
Read more about this story, "Brooklyn Man Free of Ghost of Murdered Childhood Friend" in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
Four Eyewitnesses: But the Jury Acquits
In this case, a young man was accused of shooting an acquaintance multiple times with a handgun. Let's concede from the get-go that Gary's client, Leroy S., did not have a sterling reputation. A prior conviction for manslaughter was not at all helpful, and Leroy did not deny that he knew the victim in this murder case. But he vehemently denied he had committed the murder, and maintained that he knew who the killer actually was. His future did not look good when three witnesses picked him out of a police lineup and swore they saw him fire the fatal shots. Their statements, however, were inconsistent with that of a fourth witness, an off-duty policeman from Maryland. The policeman, who was closest to the scene when the homicide occurred, said Leroy was not the shooter. Because of the eyewitnesses' inconsistent statements, lighting was a big issue in this case. In the photos taken by the Crime Scene Investigators (CSI) team, night looked like day. But Gary Farrell was able to show the jury more realistic photos taken by his own investigator. These confirmed Gary's assertion that without CSI's powerful lighting and flash equipment the street is one of the darkest in the Brooklyn neighborhood where the crime took place. Gary made the jury see and feel what it was like to be on that dark street that night, and how hard it would have been to make out the shooter's features in any detail. Gary Farrell further strengthened Leroy's case by showing that the DNA on the murder weapon pointed to someone else. Gary's investigative work also showed that Leroy's cell phone was in use several miles from the scene at the very moment when the crime took place. The Sprint technician's testimony to this fact was most helpful to Gary's client. Within a mere two hours, the jury acquitted Leroy S. of all charges. As a result of Gary Farrell's complete undoing of the DA's case, his client now has a multi-million dollar lawsuit pending for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment.
These are just a few examples of Gary's success in bringing about favorable results in the most serious and initially bleak looking cases. Caring and responsive, Gary Farrell understands how urgent your matter is to you. He welcomes your inquiry 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Reach him at 212-822-1434 or on his cell 646-431-8332. Se habla español.
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