Case Results
Redding Criminal Defense Case Results
These Redding criminal defense case results are outcomes Jacob Levin has described from his own practice: charges dismissed, not guilty verdicts, and restraining orders denied. Each is summarized without client names or identifying details, and each turned on its own facts, its own evidence, and its own court.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case depends on its own facts and circumstances.
Attorney at Law
How to Read These Redding Criminal Defense Case Results
Every summary below comes from Jacob Levin’s own written accounts of his cases. Names, dates, places and family details have been removed so that no client can be identified.
Read them for what they show about method, not as a forecast. Two of them are not clean wins, and they are included anyway: one murder charge was dismissed but the client resolved the case by pleading to assault, and one attempted murder trial ended in a hung jury, which means the jury could not reach a verdict. That is not an acquittal.
What the list does show is where these outcomes came from: independent investigation, subpoenas, public records requests, independent medical review, and cross-examination prepared in advance. For how a case moves from arrest to trial, see criminal defense.
Charges Dismissed or Dropped Before Trial
In each of these, the defense investigation produced something the prosecution’s file did not contain.
Second-degree murder
The prosecution’s theory tied an alleged assault to an infection and a death weeks later. After months of independent investigation, including the underlying laboratory and autopsy records and an independent forensic pathologist, the defense uncovered evidence that the man died from a heart attack rather than from injuries caused by the alleged assault. The murder charge was dismissed, and the client resolved the case by pleading to assault. Jacob Levin tells the full story in How I Beat a Murder Charge.
Rape, two counts
During the defense investigation, Jacob Levin discovered that the complaining witness had made multiple prior rape accusations against other men, all of which were determined to be unfounded. After public records requests and further development of the defense evidence, the rape charges were dismissed.
Child molestation
The client was charged with molesting multiple children. The defense investigation identified multiple procedural issues and uncovered impeachment evidence involving a parent of some of the children, including prior statements threatening to make a false rape accusation against another person. All charges were dismissed.
Felony communication with a minor
The client was accused of felony communication with a minor for sexual purposes. Subpoenas to multiple providers produced evidence that the minor had been posing as an adult on multiple social media platforms. The charges were dismissed.
Kidnapping and child stealing, four felony counts
The defense presented evidence that the client was the children’s psychological father. At the preliminary hearing, the judge dismissed all four felonies.
Assault and battery
The client was accused of assault and battery with a bat. As part of the defense strategy, the client submitted to a polygraph examination, which supported the client’s innocence. After negotiations with the District Attorney, the charges were dropped.
Trials
Cases that went in front of a jury, or reached the evidence stage of trial, and how they ended.
Possession of drugs for sale and of an illegal firearm
At jury trial, the defense argued that the drugs were for personal use and that the firearm found in the room did not belong to the client. After less than two hours of deliberation, the jury returned a not guilty verdict.
DUI, two counts
At trial, Jacob Levin argued a rising blood alcohol defense: the client’s blood alcohol level was still rising, and the client would have been under the legal limit at the time of driving. The jury returned not guilty verdicts on both DUI counts.
Domestic violence and resisting arrest
Cross-examination of the prosecution’s strangulation witness produced testimony supporting the defense theory that the alleged victim should have shown symptoms if strangulation had occurred. Jacob Levin also drafted and argued a Fourth Amendment jury instruction on the legality of the officers’ conduct. The jury returned not guilty verdicts on all counts.
Possession of a weapon in a penal institution
The item was found in a storage tote bearing the client’s name, in a cell shared by two people. On cross-examination, the officer conceded he had no evidence eliminating the possibility that the item belonged to the other occupant, and agreed there were two reasonable explanations. The defense planned to build its closing around CALCRIM No. 224, California’s circumstantial-evidence jury instruction. Before closing argument, the prosecution moved to dismiss. Full account: How a Prison Weapon Case Ended Before Closing Argument.
Attempted murder
Relying on Penal Code section 1111, Jacob Levin argued that the prosecution’s key witness was an accomplice whose testimony required corroboration. The jury split six to six, resulting in a hung jury.
Restraining Order Hearings
A petition is a request, not a finding. These hearings turned on what the evidence could actually show. For the defense side of these cases, see responding to a DVRO.
Domestic violence and civil harassment petitions, tried together
Jacob Levin represented the respondents in two restraining order cases heard together, one for a domestic violence restraining order and one for a civil harassment restraining order. The defense combined legal research on how appellate courts apply each statute with an investigator’s work that contradicted parts of the petitioning side’s presentation. When the petitioning side finished presenting its evidence, he moved for judgment under Code of Civil Procedure section 631.8, and both petitions were dismissed at the same time. Full account: One Unique Restraining Order Trial.
Restraining order alleging sexual assault
The petition made serious sexual assault allegations. Jacob Levin and his team gathered video evidence and text messages showing continued contact between the parties after the alleged incidents, including messages inconsistent with the account in the petition. After the evidence was presented, the restraining order was denied.
Civil harassment restraining order
The client was accused of abusing the petitioner’s child. Through cross-examination and the evidence presented, Jacob Levin showed that the petitioner had a personal motive to make false accusations, arising from a separate personal dispute. The civil harassment restraining order was denied.
Charges Reduced
Not every good outcome is a dismissal. Sometimes the work changes what the case is about.
Firearm possession, assault with a deadly weapon, and criminal threats
On the firearm allegation, Jacob Levin’s office located old restraining order records from another county proving the client was not legally prohibited from possessing a firearm. The assault with a deadly weapon charge was reduced to misdemeanor disturbing the peace.
What These Outcomes Have in Common
None of them came from the police report alone. Each came from something the defense went and found, or a question the defense asked that nobody else had.
Records subpoenaed from providers. Public records requests. Laboratory and autopsy files read line by line. An independent pathologist. Old records located in another county. A witness asked, on cross-examination, whether any evidence ruled out the other explanation. That is the practical meaning of preparing every case as though a jury will decide it.
Jacob Levin writes about this work in his insights and case notes, and his background is on the about Jacob Levin page. Restraining order cases on both sides are covered under restraining orders, and parenting disputes under child custody. To talk about your own case, contact the office.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case depends on its own facts and circumstances.
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If you have been charged, served, or contacted by an investigator, the sooner a defense begins the more of it there is to build. Consultations are available.
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