Cristina Gutierrez Picked Up An Attempted Murder Case 11 Days Before Adnan’s Second Trial

As we noted on Monday’s episode of the Undisclosed Podcast, during her representation of Adnan, Cristina Gutierrez was involved in eight murder cases in five different jurisdictions. In addition to these cases, Gutirrez was also involved in an attempted murder case.

I know this because there is another misplaced file in the defense files. In between Adnan’s trials, Gutierrez sent her law student/clerk to prison to interview Adnan and a new client on January 15, 2000 (11 days before Adnan’s second trial).  The resulting memos from both cases are in the defense files.

There aren’t many details about this other case, but what I do know is that the client was arrested on December 31, 1999. It was New Year’s Eve, and the client was in possession of a .44 Smith & Wesson Magnum. The gun was unregistered, which caused him to walk away briskly when a police officer approached him. There was then an altercation, which involved another police officer shooting at the client, but missing.

Despite there being seemingly no evidence that the client fired his gun, he was charged with attempted murder as well as possession of an unregistered firearm and first and second degree assault. Ultimately, on July 12, 2000, the client pleaded guilty to the lesser offenses in exchange for the attempted murder charge being dropped.

I wish I had additional details about the case, but nonetheless it is interesting to see that Gutierrez was juggling yet another serious case at the same time she was representing Adnan.

-CM