Darian Adams Testimonial


Dear Sir/Madam:

My name is Darian Adams, and in 2018 I was smart enough to hire Brad MacFee to be my attorney. At the time I met Brad, I was sitting in Central Booking, being held without bail and accused of committing 2 separate armed robberies on the night of April 9, 2018.

There were so many strange things about my case that didn’t add up that I figured the State would just dismiss my case, but they didn’t. While Brad agreed with me that this was a case that could and should be beat, he also said that things could get difficult if the 2 victims that were robbed came into court and pointed me out as the robber, as they had already done on the night of April 9. Brad pointed out that one eyewitness, if believed, is more than enough to get a defendant convicted, so 2 could possibly present a problem.

With that, Brad prepared for the trial. He met with me periodically while I waited and kept me updated regarding the process and how he planned to attack the case. Still, he said that there are certain aspects of a trial that can’t be accounted for. Among these were if the witnesses would show up? If the cops would be well-prepared? How would our jury look? Would my own witnesses come through for me? Would I testify in my own defense? These were some of the questions, he told me, the answers to which we may not have until after the trial had already started.

On February 13, 2019 I finally was able to get a trial court and we were sent to trial before Judge Yolanda Tanner. Brad told me in advance not to expect any rulings in our favor from this Judge, and sure enough, we didn’t get any. Regardless, by the end of the first day the jury had been selected and we were ready to start trial on Thursday.

On Thursday morning the prosecutor and Brad gave their opening statements. I thought Brad’s was good. He told the jury that the case was going to be about reasonable doubt, but more importantly, about their ability to use their common sense in evaluating the evidence. He told them that there was too much about the case that simply didn’t make sense, and once they recognize this fact they would have no choice but to acquit me of all 20 charges I was facing. The prosecutor then called the first victim to the stand and, sure enough he pointed at me and said that I had been one of the two guys that had robbed him. On cross-examination, Brad asked him why, on the night of the robbery, he failed to tell the police that I had a beard? He asked why he failed to tell the police that I had a gray hoodie on? He asked why assuming that the police found his money on me that night, had they failed to return it to him? (because they didn’t find his money on me). He picked apart other small inconsistencies between the story he gave on the night of the robbery and his testimony on the stand, but they added up and ultimately made his identification somewhat sketchy.

The last witness on Thursday was one of the detectives that responded on the night of the robbery. The key thing that Brad did with her is direct her to my booking photo and force her to acknowledge that on the night i was arrested, I had a full beard that hadn’t been described by either of the victims. He also got her to testify that they found no money on me that came from either of the victims, nor did they find the gun or the knife that the victims said the robbers used.

On Friday morning, the prosecutor put on another officer, and he didn’t do any better than the first one. Finally, the second victim testified and, like the first, he said that I was one of the 2 guys that robbed him. Brad treated him much like the first victim, with the exception that he was able to get this guy to admit that the spot where I was arrested was no more than 40 feet from the spot where he had been robbed. He literally said that from his doorstep where he was robbed, he could see where I was arrested. This was critical because it meant that, if I was the robber, I would’ve stayed practically at the exact spot where I had committed the crime and waited for the cops to show up, rather than getting out of the area, which would have made no sense.

With no more witnesses to call the state rested its’ case and, while I was originally planning to testify in my own defense, Brad advised me that it wouldn’t be necessary as there was no way this jury was going to convict me. With that the judge gave the jury an hour to deliberate on Friday, and when they didn’t reach a verdict they came back on Monday and met for about a half an hour before finding me not guilty on everything.

I guess there are many good defense lawyers in Baltimore City, but Brad has got to be one of the best. I can’t think of a single mistake he made during my trial, and he actually had the jury laughing during his closing argument. To be honest, while it was possible that they could have convicted me, and if they had, there is no doubt this Judge would’ve given me 20 years, I wasn’t really worried when they came in with the verdict. Brad had already told me that trials are very serious, and laughing juries generally don’t convict people. The day we met for the first time at Central Booking he told me he would beat this case at trial, and 7 months later he put his money where his mouth is and did just that.

I’ll probably need a lawyer again, and when I do I will hire Brad immediately. If you have a legal problem, you should too.

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Darian Adams
(signature on file)