Murder & Serious Felony Defense in Texas
By John Green / The Law Offices of John Green, PLLC
There are criminal cases where very little can responsibly be said before the evidence is understood.
A murder case is one of them.
The accusation is serious. The investigation may have begun long before an arrest. Detectives may have interviewed witnesses, obtained search warrants, collected phones and digital evidence, processed physical evidence, reviewed surveillance video, requested forensic testing, and developed a theory of what happened before the accused person ever sees the inside of a courtroom.
That gives the State a head start.
It does not give the State the final word.
In a serious felony case, the defense has to build its own understanding of what happened.
The Law Offices of John Green represents people accused of murder and other serious felony offenses throughout Central Texas.
John Green began his career prosecuting criminal cases for the State. He now represents people accused by the State.
In cases this serious, that work begins with the evidence.
Murder Under Texas Law
Texas Penal Code § 19.02 defines murder in several different ways.
A person can be accused of murder for intentionally or knowingly causing the death of another person.
But that is not the only conduct covered by the statute.
Section 19.02 also addresses circumstances in which a person intends to cause serious bodily injury and commits an act clearly dangerous to human life that causes death.
The statute also contains a form of felony murder involving certain deaths occurring during the commission or attempted commission of another felony.
Texas law additionally contains a provision addressing certain deaths resulting from the manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance in Penalty Group 1-B.
These distinctions matter.
“Murder” is the name of the charge. It is not a substitute for identifying exactly what the State is required to prove.
Except as otherwise provided by the statute, murder under Texas Penal Code § 19.02 is a first-degree felony.
Capital Murder Is a Separate Offense
Texas Penal Code § 19.03 defines capital murder.
Capital murder is not simply another name for a particularly serious murder allegation.
The statute requires murder as defined by Texas Penal Code § 19.02(b)(1) together with one or more additional circumstances specified by § 19.03.
Those circumstances can include, among others, certain allegations involving the murder of a peace officer or firefighter, murder committed during specified felony offenses, murder for remuneration, multiple murders, and certain murders involving children.
The precise statutory allegation matters.
So does the evidence the State intends to use to prove it.
A defense should begin with the indictment, the applicable statute, and the evidence—not merely the label “capital murder.”
The Investigation Usually Started Before the Defense Did
In many criminal cases, law enforcement begins building the State’s evidence immediately.
In a homicide investigation, that process can be extensive.
A scene may be secured and photographed.
Physical evidence may be collected.
Search warrants may be obtained.
Phones may be seized.
Digital accounts may be examined.
Surveillance footage may be located.
Vehicles may be processed.
Firearms or other objects may be submitted for testing.
Autopsy findings may become evidence.
Witnesses may be interviewed more than once.
Investigators may create timelines from phone records, location information, messages, video, financial records, or other sources.
By the time an arrest occurs, investigators may believe they understand what happened.
The defense does not have to inherit that conclusion.
The defense has to examine how it was reached.
Start With the State’s Theory
A serious criminal case usually has a theory.
The prosecution may contend that the accused intentionally caused a death.
It may contend that the accused intended serious bodily injury.
It may rely on another felony as part of a felony-murder theory.
It may rely heavily on statements from one or more witnesses.
It may argue that digital evidence establishes motive, preparation, location, or identity.
It may rely on forensic evidence.
Or it may attempt to construct its case from many smaller pieces of circumstantial evidence.
Before deciding how to defend the case, the defense has to understand what the prosecution is actually alleging.
Then the work becomes more specific:
What supports that theory?
What contradicts it?
What does the evidence establish?
And what has the State assumed?
Intent Can Be One of the Central Issues
What a person intended can matter enormously in a homicide prosecution.
Intent is rarely something that can simply be photographed or placed into an evidence bag.
The State may attempt to establish a person’s mental state through conduct, statements, circumstances, physical evidence, communications, the nature of an alleged act, events occurring before or after the death, or other evidence.
The defense has to examine those same facts.
What happened immediately before the incident?
What was happening during it?
What did the accused person know?
What did witnesses actually observe?
What does the physical evidence show?
Do later statements accurately describe what occurred?
Does the evidence support the mental state alleged by the State?
A death and criminal responsibility for murder are not interchangeable concepts.
The State must prove the offense it charged.
Self-Defense Can Change the Entire Case
A case involving a death does not necessarily begin and end with the question of who caused it.
Texas law recognizes justification defenses.
Texas Penal Code § 9.31 addresses the use of force in self-defense. Section 9.32 addresses circumstances in which deadly force may be justified in defense of a person.
Under § 9.32, the use of deadly force can be justified in specified circumstances when the actor would be justified in using force under § 9.31 and reasonably believes deadly force is immediately necessary to protect against another person’s use or attempted use of unlawful deadly force or to prevent certain specified violent offenses.
Texas law also addresses the defense of another person under Penal Code § 9.33.
Whether any justification applies depends on the evidence and the particular circumstances.
The questions may include:
Who initiated the confrontation?
Was unlawful force being used or attempted?
Was deadly force being used or threatened?
What did the accused person reasonably believe was happening?
What information was available to that person at the time?
How quickly did the events unfold?
What do the witnesses say?
What does the physical evidence show?
What happened immediately before the use of force?
The fact that a person intentionally used force does not necessarily answer whether the use of that force was criminal.
Forensic Evidence Has to Be Understood, Not Merely Received
Serious felony cases can involve scientific and technical evidence.
That may include DNA analysis, firearms examination, fingerprints, toxicology, pathology, digital forensics, location information, medical evidence, or other specialized material.
A laboratory report may appear authoritative.
That does not mean the defense’s work is finished when the report arrives.
The questions depend on the evidence.
What was tested?
What was not tested?
How was the evidence collected?
How was it preserved?
What does the analyst’s conclusion actually mean?
What are the limitations of the testing?
Does the conclusion answer the question the prosecution claims it answers?
Does another qualified expert need to evaluate the material?
Expert evidence should be understood before it is accepted.
The Autopsy Is Evidence. It Is Not the Entire Case.
In a homicide investigation, an autopsy may provide important evidence concerning the cause and manner of death, injuries, toxicology, and other medical findings.
Those findings can be central to the prosecution or the defense.
But an autopsy does not necessarily answer every legal question in the case.
Medical findings have to be considered alongside witness accounts, physical evidence, timelines, video, statements, forensic evidence, and the circumstances surrounding the death.
When the medical evidence matters to a disputed issue, the defense may need to understand not only the conclusion but also how that conclusion was reached.
Digital Evidence Can Reconstruct a Life in Extraordinary Detail
Modern criminal investigations can involve an enormous amount of digital information.
Phones contain messages, photographs, videos, internet activity, application data, and other records.
Other sources may contain location information, surveillance footage, social-media activity, financial records, vehicle information, or communications involving multiple people.
That information can be valuable.
It can also be incomplete or misunderstood when removed from context.
A message can mean something different when the messages before and after it are read.
A location record may require technical interpretation.
A screenshot may not contain the entire conversation.
A timestamp may matter.
The identity of the person actually using a device may matter.
Digital evidence can create a timeline. The defense still has to determine whether the timeline is accurate.
Witnesses Have to Be Evaluated Individually
Some serious felony prosecutions depend heavily on witness testimony.
The number of witnesses does not necessarily determine the strength of the evidence.
The questions are more specific.
What did the witness actually observe?
What did the witness hear from someone else?
When did the witness first provide the information?
Has the account changed?
Does the account fit the physical evidence?
Was the witness able to perceive what they claim to have perceived?
Does the witness have a relationship with anyone involved?
Is there evidence that corroborates the account?
Is there evidence that contradicts it?
Credibility is not determined by automatically believing a witness.
It is also not determined by automatically accusing the witness of lying.
The testimony has to be tested against the rest of the case.
Statements by the Accused Can Become Central Evidence
What a person says before, during, or after an investigation can become an important part of a serious felony prosecution.
That can include statements to police.
It can also include text messages, recorded calls, social-media communications, statements to friends or family, jail communications, or other conversations obtained during the investigation.
The defense may need to examine the circumstances under which a statement was obtained, whether constitutional or statutory issues exist, what was actually said, and whether the State’s interpretation is supported by the complete context.
A few words quoted in a report may look different when the entire recording or conversation is reviewed.
Search Warrants Can Shape the Evidence
Serious investigations frequently involve search warrants.
A warrant may authorize law enforcement to search a residence, vehicle, phone, digital account, or other location or property.
The resulting search may produce evidence that becomes central to the prosecution.
The existence of a warrant does not make legal review unnecessary.
Depending on the case, the defense may need to examine the affidavit used to obtain the warrant, the scope of the warrant, the manner in which it was executed, and the evidence obtained from the search.
The constitutional issues depend on the actual facts.
Evidence does not become immune from scrutiny because it was obtained during a serious investigation.
Experts May Be Part of the Defense
There are cases where a lawyer can evaluate the central evidence without outside technical assistance.
There are other cases where that would be inadequate.
A serious felony prosecution may require consultation with or testimony from qualified professionals in areas such as forensic pathology, toxicology, firearms examination, DNA, digital forensics, medicine, accident reconstruction, psychology, or another specialized field relevant to the evidence.
The purpose is not to hire an expert merely because the State has one.
The purpose is to understand the evidence well enough to determine whether specialized knowledge is necessary to evaluate, challenge, explain, or contextualize it.
The right expert is determined by the evidence—not by a checklist.
Trial Preparation Cannot Begin at the End
A serious felony case may resolve without a jury trial.
It may not.
The defense should not wait until negotiations fail to begin understanding how the case would actually be tried.
Witnesses have to be identified and evaluated.
Exhibits have to be understood.
Expert issues have to be developed.
Legal questions have to be researched.
The State’s theory has to be tested.
Potential defenses have to be investigated.
And the lawyer has to understand how the individual pieces of evidence fit together before asking a jury to understand them.
Trial preparation is not what happens after the strategy fails. It is part of the strategy.
The Defense Does Not Need to Accept the State’s Vocabulary
Words matter in a serious criminal case.
An investigative report may describe conduct as “execution-style.”
A witness may describe someone as “aggressive.”
A prosecutor may characterize a communication as a “threat.”
An investigator may describe conduct as evidence of “consciousness of guilt.”
Those descriptions may ultimately be supported by the evidence.
They may not be.
The defense should separate characterization from fact.
What actually happened?
What was actually said?
What can actually be observed?
What conclusion is being drawn from it?
An adjective is not evidence.
What Happens After a Murder Arrest in Texas?
A murder prosecution can move differently from a routine criminal case.
There may be significant issues involving bail and conditions of release.
There may be extensive discovery.
The evidence can include thousands of pages of records, hours of recordings, forensic materials, digital extractions, photographs, expert reports, and other information.
Additional investigation may be necessary.
Experts may need to be consulted.
Legal motions may need to be researched and litigated.
The defense may need to develop evidence the State did not collect.
And throughout that process, decisions have to be made about how the case should ultimately be resolved.
There is no responsible shortcut through that work.
Should I Talk to the Police If I Am Under Investigation?
Someone can become the subject of a serious criminal investigation before being arrested.
Investigators may ask for an interview.
They may describe the conversation as an opportunity to explain what happened.
They may say they simply want to hear the person’s side.
Whether to give a statement in a serious criminal investigation is a consequential legal decision.
It should not be made simply because an investigator requests an interview.
If you know or believe you are being investigated for a serious felony, speak with a lawyer before deciding whether to speak with law enforcement.
Serious Felony Defense Requires an Independent Case
The prosecution has investigators.
It has law-enforcement agencies.
It can obtain warrants.
It can request forensic testing.
It can subpoena records.
It can call witnesses.
It has the resources of the State behind the accusation.
The defense cannot control how the investigation began.
It can control whether the State’s conclusions are simply accepted.
That requires obtaining the evidence, understanding the evidence, identifying what is missing, developing the relevant law, consulting experts when necessary, investigating viable defenses, and preparing for the possibility that the State will have to prove its allegations in court.
The State has its case. The defense has to build its own.
Murder & Serious Felony Defense in Central Texas
The Law Offices of John Green is based in San Marcos.
John represents people accused of serious criminal offenses throughout Central Texas, including cases in Hays County, Guadalupe County, and Comal County.
That includes cases arising in and around San Marcos, New Braunfels, Seguin, and the surrounding communities.
John began his legal career as a prosecutor in Guadalupe County.
He has evaluated criminal evidence from the State’s side of the courtroom.
Today, his responsibility is different.
It is to examine what the State has built, determine what the evidence actually establishes, identify what the prosecution may have overlooked or misunderstood, and prepare the defense around the individual case.
In a serious felony prosecution, there is no substitute for doing that work.
Accused of Murder or a Serious Felony?
A serious accusation calls for serious preparation.
Not slogans.
Not assumptions.
Not promises about an outcome before the evidence has even been reviewed.
The starting point is understanding what the State alleges, what evidence exists, what remains unknown, and what needs to happen next.
Start with the case. Build the defense from there.
The Law Offices of John Green, PLLC
San Marcos, Texas
Criminal Defense Throughout Central Texas
Law Offices of John Green 