The lawyers filed papers with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asking a three-judge panel to reverse his conviction and assign the case to a new judge for a retrial, saying the trial judge “imposed a draconian quarter-century sentence on this first-time, non-violent offender” after they contend he hurried the jury into reaching a one-day verdict to cap off a complex four-week trial.

“Sam Bankman-Fried was never presumed innocent. He was presumed guilty — before he was even charged. He was presumed guilty by the media. He was presumed guilty by the FTX debtor estate and its lawyers. He was presumed guilty by federal prosecutors eager for quick headlines. And he was presumed guilty by the judge who presided over his trial,” the lawyers wrote.

They said the passing of time has cast Bankman-Fried in a better light.

“From day one, the prevailing narrative — initially spun by the lawyers who took over FTX, quickly adopted by their contacts at the U.S. Attorney’s Office — was that Bankman-Fried had stolen billions of dollars of customer funds, driven FTX to insolvency, and caused billions in losses,” the attorney said.

“Now, nearly two years later, a very different picture is emerging — one confirming FTX was never insolvent, and in fact had assets worth billions to repay its customers. But the jury at Bankman-Fried’s trial never got to see that picture,” they added.

Bankman-Fried, 32, was convicted last November of fraud and conspiracy a year after his companies collapsed into bankruptcy as investors rushed to withdraw funds. A jury concluded that some of their money had been improperly spent on real estate, investments, celebrity endorsements, political contributions and lavish lifestyles.

At its height, FTX was treated as a pioneer and darling in the emerging cryptocurrency industry, with a Super Bowl advertisement, testimony by Bankman-Fried before Congress and endorsements from celebrities such as quarterback Tom Brady and comedian Larry David.

Bankman-Fried was arrested in December 2022 following his extradition from the Bahamas, just weeks after his company filed for bankruptcy and days after some of his former top executives began cooperating with federal prosecutors. Some of them testified against him at trial.

He initially remained under strict bail conditions at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, but Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in Manhattan revoked his bail shortly before the trial after concluding that Bankman-Fried was trying to influence likely witnesses, including an ex-girlfriend who had served as chief executive at Alameda Research, a crypto hedge fund.

The fallen mogul is serving a 25-year sentence after he was sentenced in March in what a prosecutor once described as one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history.

A prosecutor’s spokesperson declined to comment Friday.

The post Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers claim in an appeal that he was judged too quickly appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Melvin Mario James Landry, 42, of San Jacinto allegedly killed Gilbert Wah in 2020.

A Banning jury deliberated two days in January before deadlocking, after which Riverside County Superior Court Judge Rene Navarro declared a mistrial.

The case was transferred a week ago from the Banning Justice Center to the Riverside Hall of Justice, where Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz began summoning panels of prospective jurors for screening as to their availability and qualifications.

The judge is expected to swear in a panel Monday afternoon, with opening statements possible Tuesday morning.

Landry, who is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail, is charged with murder and sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations.

According to a trial brief filed by the prosecution, on the night of July 23, 2020, Wah, his wife, Octavia Wah, and Landry got together at the victim’s house at 801 S. Camino Los Banos to “drink alcohol and smoke marijuana.”

The defense said in its brief Landry was in the midst of a divorce from his wife, Sylvia Joshua, because “he was caught cheating” on her. He was also suffering depression from the recent death of his mother and was upset that his sister had moved out of the area.

As he, the victim and Octavia Wah drank and smoked long into the night, tensions escalated due to Gilbert Wah’s references to Landry as a “pussy” and “bitch” — demeaning terms used to describe the defendant’s relationship with his wife, according to the prosecution’s brief.

Shortly after 3 a.m. on July 24, Wah became aggressive, slapping Landry across the face, the brief stated.

The defendant did not hit back, but instead went to his Dodge Durango pickup parked in front of the house, grabbed a semiautomatic handgun, then returned to the house and confronted Wah, firing a single shot into his heart, prosecutors allege.

The victim died on the spot.

His wife struck Landry and attempted to stop him from leaving, but he got away from her in his pickup. She called 911, and patrol deputies converged on the location.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Ken Thurm said as personnel were gearing up to begin a search, Landry “returned to the scene and surrendered.”

Court records show the defendant has a prior misdemeanor conviction in Riverside County for driving under the influence. He has a felony conviction in another jurisdiction, but the offense wasn’t listed.

Court papers indicated Wah, too, had a record, including battery on a peace officer in another state, as well as a fraud conviction locally.

The post Jury to be Seated for Retrial of Man Accused of Killing Friend After Slap appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.