Miss-Delectable
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http://www.wroctv.com/news/story.asp?id=23551&r=l
The lawyer for a Rochester woman who is deaf, convicted of killing a man who deaf, in front of witnesses who were also deaf, will try and get a break for his client Wednesday when she faces sentencing. The aim is to possibly keep her out of prison.
Last September, in the driveway of a home on Fernwood Avenue on the city's northeast side, 22-year-old Theresa Vargas stabbed her housemate --Johnnie Frazier, while trying to prevent him from taking her car and her boyfriend to a Wilkins Street home, where Frazier had claimed he'd been robbed. Vargas didn't want her boyfriend getting into trouble according to her attorney John Parrinello.
"So she grabbed the keys and jumped in the car and the person who ended up stabbed to death tried to get at her in the car," says Parrinello.
A struggle ensued in the driveway according to witness testimony, and Parrinello assorts his client, who was pinned against the car by Frasier, picked up the butcher knife he'd brought with him, and lashed out, puncturing his chest.
"So she had great fear in her mind that he would wrestle the knife from her and stab her!"
Though he acquitted her of murder at a non-jury trial, Judge Frank Geraci did find Vargas guilty of first degree manslaughter, for which she must at least serve 5 years, unless Parrinello can convince him to reduce the conviction to manslaughter second, for which one she could get as little as probation.
In his eyes she deserves a break.
"If that is not successful obviously we'll file a notice of appeal and hopefully a court of review will agree with me."
You can appeal a conviction on almost any grounds, and while most major convictions are appealed, relatively few are reversed. Still, Parrinello notes that in this unique case, police used interpreters to conduct their investigation, before more interpreters were used during trial testimony and he wonders if everything was interpreted correctly. And those are among the grounds upon which he may appeal, if and when the time comes.
The lawyer for a Rochester woman who is deaf, convicted of killing a man who deaf, in front of witnesses who were also deaf, will try and get a break for his client Wednesday when she faces sentencing. The aim is to possibly keep her out of prison.
Last September, in the driveway of a home on Fernwood Avenue on the city's northeast side, 22-year-old Theresa Vargas stabbed her housemate --Johnnie Frazier, while trying to prevent him from taking her car and her boyfriend to a Wilkins Street home, where Frazier had claimed he'd been robbed. Vargas didn't want her boyfriend getting into trouble according to her attorney John Parrinello.
"So she grabbed the keys and jumped in the car and the person who ended up stabbed to death tried to get at her in the car," says Parrinello.
A struggle ensued in the driveway according to witness testimony, and Parrinello assorts his client, who was pinned against the car by Frasier, picked up the butcher knife he'd brought with him, and lashed out, puncturing his chest.
"So she had great fear in her mind that he would wrestle the knife from her and stab her!"
Though he acquitted her of murder at a non-jury trial, Judge Frank Geraci did find Vargas guilty of first degree manslaughter, for which she must at least serve 5 years, unless Parrinello can convince him to reduce the conviction to manslaughter second, for which one she could get as little as probation.
In his eyes she deserves a break.
"If that is not successful obviously we'll file a notice of appeal and hopefully a court of review will agree with me."
You can appeal a conviction on almost any grounds, and while most major convictions are appealed, relatively few are reversed. Still, Parrinello notes that in this unique case, police used interpreters to conduct their investigation, before more interpreters were used during trial testimony and he wonders if everything was interpreted correctly. And those are among the grounds upon which he may appeal, if and when the time comes.