Plea Bargaining In Exchange For Testimony

Man admits running over girlfriend's head

Armando Charles ended his murder trial Thursday by pleading guilty in exchange for a 50-year sentence for running over his girlfriend's head last August.

Had Charles, 51, not accepted the plea bargain, he could have faced life in prison if the jury hearing testimony this week had found him guilty.

Prosecutor Kathy Cunningham said she was surprised to see Charles accept the plea. He had been adamant for a trial, she said.

“It was a great result,” Cunningham said. “He was ready to accept responsibility.”

Charles' attorney, Lawrence Souza , could not be reached for comment.

Co-prosecutor Michael de Leon said Charles initially rejected the plea bargain before the case went to trial Monday but reconsidered as the trial progressed.

Thursday's sudden conclusion came after state District Judge Sid Harle called for a break in the testimony on Wednesday. Some jurors were getting sick from the graphic autopsy and crime scene photos, which Cunningham said were some of the most gruesome she had ever seen.

The body of Diana Conde , 44, was found on the side of New Laredo Highway with a partially flattened head, according to a Bexar County's Medical Examiner's Office report. Authorities said Charles ran over Conde after the two argued on the night of Aug. 14.

Conde, who was driving Charles home, slapped Charles, stopped the car and exited, and Charles, after a few minutes, took the wheel and struck Conde, prosecutors said. According to police reports, the marks in the grass made it appear Charles deliberately aimed at her head as she lay in the grass on the side of the road.

Authorities couldn't say why or how Conde became either incapacitated or knocked unconscious, de Leon said, but there were no injuries on her arms and hands, indicating she did not react to the approaching car. She was in just her bra and underwear with a nightgown not far away.

Charles will have to serve at least half the sentence and will be 76 by the time he's eligible for parole. Cunningham said her office would contest any parole attempt.

“I think he's done,” she said.

ConvinceMe - Plea bargaining in exchange for testimony is unjust

That sosunds good in theory, but the reality is that too many innocent people wind up in prison because they couldn't afford a competant attorney. Also a lot of guilty people get off with a slap on the wrist because they were willing to implicate someone else in the crime.

You would be surprised how many innocent women get railroaded because their husbands are dealing drugs behind their backs and let the wives take the rap.

Plea bargaining alllows for an individual to decide one's own fate, free from cruel and unusual punishment that can be enforced by the state. At the point where that occurs, then the state no longer becomes a government of justice, but an institution of revenge, willing to unfairly treat any individual as long as the satisfaction of repent is gained.


True, but that still doesn't address how plea bargaining is unjust. Unqualified attorneys to a person choosing their punishment has no link whatsoever. In fact an unqualified attorney does nothing more but to promote the government sector of society, because at the point where a criminal can't afford a defender, then the government appoints one, and thus becomes all to their benefit because only the government has the option of choosing the lawyer, and his skill level in the justice system. In other words, if the gov. knows he's a horrible attorney, then it will appoint him as the defense because it knows that the probability of conviction will be thus promoted.

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