Weapons Charges

After many setbacks, Lil Wayne was sentenced and received one year in prison for a weapons crime.

In January 2008, Wayne’s tour bus was stopped and searched at a border patrol checkpoint near Yuma. Boarder patrol agents found a quarter-pound of marijuana, an ounce of cocaine, 41 grams of Ecstasy, and an unlicensed handgun. The case against Wayne had been held up because of the rapper’s insistence that the charges be reduced to misdemeanors, making plea negotiations difficult. If his bus had been searched more to the east, perhaps criminal lawyers in Arkansas could have successfully reduced the charges.

At this time, Lil Wayne apparently has a stockpile of material set to be released while he is incarcerated, lest his fans forget about him while he is locked up.

So many artists have made songs up about the infamous couple Bonnie and Clyde like as Beyonce & Jay Z.  These has even been films on this couple.  But what really happened?  An Austin criminal attorney would find some of these old school high profile criminal cases interesting.  Take a trip into the past and learn about criminal cases that took place in Texas like the notorious love affair of Bonnie and Clyde and the Texas Cadet Murder Case.

Beyonce (Bonnie) & Jay Z(Clyde)

Notorious Bonnie and Clyde
Did you know that one of the most notorious criminal couples met in Texas?  Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow met in 1930.  The star-crossed criminals, ages 19 and 21 respectively, went on a three year crime spree until their death at the hands of FBI agents in 1934.  Between the both of them, Bonnie and Clyde murdered at least 13 people, and were involved in numerous robberies, burglaries, car thefts, and kidnapping.

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

The Texas Cadet Murder Case
Two bright Texas students, Diane Zamora and David Graham, were arrested for the murder of 16 year old sophomore Adrianne Jones of Manfield High School in Tarrant County.

In 1995, Zamora was jealous of a sexual encounter she thought Graham had with Jones.  She ordered Graham to kill Jones.  Although the body was found soon after the murder, the couple’s involvement was not discovered until Zamora boasted to fellow students at the Naval Academy in Annapolis that she was responsible for someone’s death.  The students reported the murder to their superiors and that started the ball rolling and the couple was arrested shortly thereafter.  At the time, Graham was a cadet at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, and both had very promising futures.  Both Zamora and Graham were charged with capital murder and in need of a criminal defense lawyer.

T.I. may be getting handed a “get out of jail free” card.  Well sort off?  Maybe.  Hip Hop recording artist T.I. pleaded guilty to illegal firearm possession charges in May.  It seems that the artist must have a solid criminal defense attorney.  And by solid, I mean he may be released early to a halfway house to finish his sentence in January 2010.

Hip-Hop Artist T.I.

Edmond Ross, who is a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson explained that it is not a rarity for inmates to serve the last part of their sentence in a halfway house in order to help them ease their way back into life outside of prison.

If T.I. gets cut a break he’s still not quite done making up for his mistakes.  His March 2008 plea deal included the following stipulations:

• 1,500 hours of community service speaking to at-risk youth
• $100,000 fine
• A year of house arrest after prison
• 2 years probation

T.I. was arrested at the end of the 2007 BET Hip-Hop Awards.  He was attempting to acquire silencers and machine guns from his bodyguard who had made purchases from undercover officers.