When COVID struck the United States shutting down courts in March of 2020, Mitch Stone had several criminal defense cases that were set for trial. Some cases were able to be resolved during the partial reopening of the courthouse, but six major cases remained set for trial. All trials were suspended during the first year and a half of COVID. Cases could not be tried because seating a jury required too many people being together for long periods of time in close quarters.
Finally, in the Spring of 2021 the courts began to conduct jury trials. Stone’s six cases were reset for trial. He started by going to trial on a DUI Manslaughter in Duval County. Stone won the case ensuring his client did not go to prison for 15 years. He then tried 5 more cases back to back, including two Federal criminal jury trials one of which was a high profile public corruption case that resulted in the jury finding his client not guilty of the two main charges – conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to extort.
Stone conducted the final trial in November 2022. Stone’s client was charged with a triple vehicular homicide from an accident that occurred during a road rage incident. Stone argued his client was the victim of road rage and that he was reacting to the aggressive driving of the other driver who was provoking him. Despite the fact that his client’s vehicle was involved in the accident, Stone cross examined the witnesses and presented evidence proving that his client could not be held responsible for the deaths of the three people hit by his vehicle.
The trial was condensed from one week into three days to avoid Hurricane Nicole which was heading straight for Florida after the first day of trial. Following deliberations, the jury acquitted Stone’s client of the three counts of vehicular homicide and only found him guilty of reckless driving, a misdemeanor traffic offense.
Mitch Stone has tried over 200 criminal jury trials to verdict in his 30 years of practicing criminal defense. This experience provided him the skills required to go to trial on 6 major cases in such a short span of time and achieve favorable results for his clients.