On Thursday September 5, 2013, a twelve member jury unanimously found Vaughn Robichaux Not Guilty in a trial held in Judge Arthur Hunter’s courtroom. Mr. Robicheaux was acquitted of the attempted second degree murder of his lifelong friend Christopher Thomas on August 10 2007.
The victim Christopher Thomas was shot once in the back of his head at close range at the corner of Athis and Painters streets in New Orleans and left to die.
The New Orleans District Attorney’s Office accused Robichaux of attempting to kill Thomas because Mr. Thomas was thought to be a police informant. At trial the evidence demonstrated that Mr . Robichaux was at work at the Coca Cola Plant in Jefferson Parish at the time of the incident and could not have committed the crime.
The state relied on the testimony of two eye witnesses to obtain a conviction, one was the victim who claimed that his friend shot him after a heated confrontation, and the second witness was a carpenter who had been working near the site of the incident. The states second witness testified that he had seen Robichaux gun down Thomas from a distance of about ten feet and that he was one hundred percent sure that Robichaux was the perpetrator in the case. Under careful cross examination Attorney Martin E. Regan Jr., was able to establish that the identification by the states witness of his client had been mistaken. Regan said that this was a textbook case of how honest witness can get the identification of a person wrong during a heated event. Regan said the witnesses “were simply and honestly wrong.” Regan was able to establish that Robichaux had not been the shooter and that state had the wrong man. Regan was able to establish beyond a reasonable doubt, that this was a case of mistaken identification and that Mr. Robichaux did not in fact commit the crime with which he had been charged. Read more here…
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/09/after_nearly_
pleading_guiltyn.html#incart_river
About Martin E. Regan, Jr.
Year after year, Martin E. Regan Jr., the firm’s senior partner, has dedicated tireless efforts on behalf of the accused and produce wins for clients that a less determined advocate would have thought hopeless. Martin E. Regan Jr.’s ability to tackle and win tough criminal cases has resulted in verdicts of acquittal in many highly publicized trials.