Criminal defense team gets acquittal in bucket of chicken case

Crimes of passion are often cited as a reason for committing a murder. But rarely, if ever, has the passion been for a bucket of chicken. A Hudson County jury acquitted a New Jersey man of homicide and manslaughter charges allegedly resulting from an argument over chicken. The criminal defense used a number of inconsistencies in witness testimony to show reasonable doubt of the defendant’s involvement.

The incident happened in 2007 when the defendant went to the victim’s home with a bucket of chicken. Someone took a piece of the chicken from the bucket, and the defendant became enraged and pulled out a gun. The victim asked the defendant to leave his home.

After that, the facts become confusing. One witness testified that she saw the defendant shoot the victim, but on cross-examination, the defense showed that the same witness had told the police that she didn’t really see anything. The defense also presented another witness who said that the defendant had already left the home when a shot was fired. Another witness testified that she was with the victim when he was shot. The officer who responded to the scene at the time of the murder testified that the witness told him that she was not there at the time of the shooting.

The 27-year-old New Jersey man had faced up to thirty years in prison on the homicide charge alone. He had also been charged with manslaughter and weapons violations. The acquittal is a good example of how a criminal defense team can use conflicting testimony to mount a successful defense geared toward achieving the desired result, in this case a jury verdict of not guilty on all charges.

Source: The Jersey Journal, “Jersey City man acquitted of all charges in ‘fried chicken murder’ case,” Aug. 9, 2012