Popular Categories

Various factors deliver ‘not guilty’ verdict





“The jury gets to hear other things you don’t get in the initial reports.”

Attorney Stephen C. Barrera was explaining possible factors in the “not guilty” verdict in an April 24-27 jury trial of Robert Azevedo.

Barrera and Attorney Brian Powers defended Azevedo against charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against a police officer, and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, after a September 2015 event. Three people, including Azevedo, were injured and four vehicles damaged.

Barrera told the Wilson County News in a May 24 interview that Azevedo’s physical condition at the time of the 2015 event probably figured heavily in the jury’s verdict.

According to contemporary accounts, Azevedo left the Wilson County Justice Center in his truck after a sheriff’s deputy tried to arrest him on a misdemeanor warrant.

At the time this happened, Acevedo had a tracheotomy in his throat and pins in his face because of a previous accident.

“It made some of the [prosecution’s] theory unlikely to have occurred,” Barrera said. “Some things alleged weren’t really possible, due to his situation.”

He acknowledged the other two people injured when Azevedo allegedly tried to elude arrest and sped off in his truck.

“He felt terrible,” the attorney said. “We felt terrible, [but] our basic contention was that Robert was not in control of the vehicle at the time.”

Azevedo’s truck, which the sheriff’s office had impounded following the incident, was not available as evidence at the trial.

“There was a finance issue with the vehicle,” Barrera said. “It got misclassified.”

The truck was apparently identified as a forfeiture, rather than as evidence. Because Azevedo owed money on the truck that he couldn’t pay, the finance company repossessed it and auctioned it, according to Barrera.

He doubts the truck would have had any bearing on the jury’s decision.

“A lot depended on Azevedo’s physical condition,” Barrera said. “He was in a poor physical condition at the time all this happened.

“The jury didn’t think he could do all the things he was accused of. Ultimately, this is what it came down to.”

Barrera noted that a defendant found not guilty has a right to request, within a limited period of time, that his court record be expunged, and Azevedo has done so.

gripps@wcn-online.com