Court Case: The Sandoval Case

Every case starts with an alleged crime. In the Sandoval case, the crime was murder. Sandoval was soon put into the system after he was arrested. After the arrest, Sandoval would have been book and then gone to his first appearance hearing where he is informed that he was getting charged with first-degree murder. Next would be the preliminary hearing where the defense would have received an arraignment, formally charging the suspect of the crime and asking what his plea is. Some states do not have a preliminary hearing system so they would use a grand jury system. The defendant can plea guilty, not guilty or no contest. The prosecution must establish probable cause to the judge by showing that a crime occurred and that the accused cause that
An attorney can not make decisions for you but a seasons defense attorney would generally know how the prosecutor is in terms of flexibility in plea bargaining. Plea bargaining is where the prosecutor would recommend a lesser sentence or even lower the charges against you in exchange for a guilty plea. In some cases, it may be smart to wait until all the evidence is on the table before making a deal, but the extent of their deal will only go as far as the evidence, the severity of the crime and criminal history. The general goal for plea bargaining is to quickly resolve the case while also obtaining a guilty plea for a lesser sentence. The court would also decide whether or not the suspect would be eligible for bail. Next is the pre-trial hearing. The pre-trial is used to handle specific issues with the case and typically involve the judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, the defendant and sometimes other involved parties like Officer Gassman, an officer testifying for the trial. Pre-trial motions can be filed by both the prosecutor and the defense and their purpose is to better increase their chances of success for the
Since the prosecution holds the burden of proof, they go first. When the prosecution examines a witness, they ask a chain of questions that that emphasize the elements of the crime and establish proof beyond a reasonable doubt. For the Sandoval case, their goals were to prove that he went back to the scene of the crime with intent to harm or kill, that he was capable of killing and that he did kill the victim. When Sandoval did take the stand, he was forced to answer questions that showed that he had no real reason to go back unless it was motivated through revenge and gave reasons why he would want to get revenge. I think a really effective witness was the paramedic that treated the victim. I thought it was a nice use of the witness because he mentioned details on the stabbing which brought to light that the victim appeared to have more offensive wounds. A strong point was made when the prosecutor mentioned that if it were a self-defense altercation then the victim would most likely have slash-like wounds instead of stab-like wounds. By far I think the worst witness for the prosecution would have been Officer Gassman. He did not submit adequate reports which I believe had a significant impact on the case. With respect to the prosecutions examinations, the defense got to cross-examine the witnesses. His goal was to show that the