Clearwater Criminal Defense Law Blog

Last December, a Pasco County jury failed to reach a verdict in the murder trial of John Ditullio, Jr. Ditullio and his criminal defense attorneys from the Law Offices of Bjorn Bruvand will return to court on September 27th for a second trial on charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder. Ditullio faces the death penalty if found guilty of first-degree murder.Today, a judge ruled again that Ditullio can once again hire a makeup artist at the state's expense to cover several tattoos including his swastika tattoo during trial.As at the first trial, the defense team will be allowed to...

Kevin McMahon, client of  was convicted of racketeering four years ago but was recently sentenced to time served and five years of probation as a result of substantial cooperation with investigators. Because of the information McMahon provided, he is now participating in the federal witness protection program. McMahon testified in New York against John A. Gotti, son of the infamous Gambino crime family boss. He also provided information on hit man Charles Carneglia, formerly a very close friend. McMohon ultimately gave authorities information on dozens of other...

Pharmacists Satender Singh and Rajnish Mehta were sentenced to probation on Friday in a federal health insurance fraud case prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's office in Tampa. Both Singh and Mehta previously pleaded guilty and received credit for cooperating with the investigation into federal health insurance fraud. The investigation is believed to be on-going and now includes numerous physicians.Singh admittedly stole more than $99,000 from Tricare, the military health insurance program, and Medicaid. He was sentenced to five years of probation after pleading guilty to making false...

On Thursday, a Pinellas County jury convicted Cordaro Hardin of first-degree murder in the 2007 shooting deaths of two St. Petersburg men. The penalty phase of the capital murder trial occurred on Friday. The jury declined to recommend that Hardin by sentenced to death, instead recommending the only other alternative sentence - life in prison. Hardin himself communicated to the jury through the song he wrote. From the witness stand, Hardin sang, "God, I need a little assistance, will you be with me? By my side when I leave here, where do I go from here?" Hardin was represented by Tampa Bay...