Whipped Cream Difficulties

Hussein Ali “Mike” Yassine, previously sentenced to 12 years and 7 months in prison for money laundering, has pled guilty to tax fraud.

The maximum term Yassine could get is three years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

Of course, that’s based on Federal sentencing guidelines and it is possible that he will get less time than the maximum term.. I don’t want to speculate on how much he will get; unlike the fairly straightforward case Ken uses as an example, “Mike” Yassine’s case is complicated by his previous conviction, and I suspect also complicated by the “offense level”. (I am assuming the government places a higher severity on cases involving drug dealing, as was alleged against the Yassines, than it does on cases involving whale meat. I’m also assuming the government will argue that “Mike” was the leader of the conspiracy, and not just a flunky.)

It is also unclear, until the judge rules, if “Mike” will serve the tax fraud and money laundering sentences consecutively or concurrently. Heck, at this point, it is unclear if he’ll even be deported after he serves his time:

Yassine, who has a green card, has been contesting the denial of his U.S. naturalization application since 2011. The case, which was on hold during his criminal prosecution, is set for a status conference next week in federal court.

And a couple of other updates that I didn’t post to keep from boring folks:

• “Mike”‘s lawyer wants out, and says that he’s $165,000 in the hole. The lawyer has been asked to provide documentation of what he’s already been paid.
• Brother Mohammed Ali “Steve” Yassine is suing a guy. Apparently, “Steve” had an energy drink company, “Kowabunga Energy LLC”. Dude, what are you: 12?

On August 27, 2011, Javier Benitez Jr. stabbed Octavio Olivarez, severely injuring him. Benitez shot and killed Cynthia Olivarez, Octavio’s wife.

Yesterday, Benitez was found “not guilty by reason of insanity”.

The law defines someone as insane if he or she has a “severe mental disease or defect” and “did not know that his conduct was wrong” at the time of the offense. On Tuesday, prosecutors said psychiatric witness experts had diagnosed Benitez with paranoid schizophrenia, one of the most severe mental disorders fitting the definition.

One of the reasons I find this significant is that insanity verdicts in Travis County are extraordinarily rare.

[State District Court Judge David] Crain, a district court judge for two years who served on the county court bench for more than 20 years, said the last person he remembered who was found not guilty on an insanity defense was Jackson Ngai, a former student acquitted by a jury in 2005 after he stabbed Danielle Martin, 56, his University of Texas piano professor.

Meanwhile, in California, Bobby Joe Maxwell is charged with killing three men. Why is this case interesting? Maxwell was originally charged with the murders back in 1984, but the jury deadlocked on those charges, and two other murder charges. The same jury acquitted Maxwell on three other murder charges, and convicted him of two murders. Maxwell spent a considerable amount of time in prison on those two murder charges, but the convictions were overturned in 2010.

At Maxwell’s original trial, the prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of Sidney Storch, one of a notorious group of jailhouse informants used by Los Angeles authorities in dozens of murder cases in the 1970s and ’80s. Storch told jurors that the defendant had confessed to the killings when they shared a cell in a Los Angeles County jail.
Storch, a career criminal, testified for the prosecution in at least half a dozen trials and received reduced sentences and other considerations for helping secure convictions. Other jailhouse informants said he taught them the art of “booking” fellow inmates in exchange for lighter sentences and other favors. The technique involved gaining access to high-profile defendants, finding information about their cases from newspapers and then contacting authorities to offer to testify against them, alleging that they had confessed.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Storch perjured himself at Maxwell’s trial, and that the DA’s office “failed to disclose to Maxwell’s attorneys Storch’s work as a sophisticated informant who had secured benefits from authorities in exchange for his help.” Storch was charged with perjury, but died before he could be tried.