Case Results – Anne Marie Mancuso
McKEESPORT MAN AQUITTED OF 1ST DEGREE MURDER BY JURY
March, 2022
Our client was charged in connection with two separate homicide cases when he first came to our office. Ms. Mancuso was able to get the first case dismissed by the government during the pre-trial phase of the criminal process. The second case went to a jury trial with the lead charge of 1st degree murder. The defense argued that human error and insufficient evidence led to her client being charged, and reasonable doubt was overwhelming. The jury agreed after only three hours of deliberation and returned a verdict of Not Guilty as to all charges.
NORTH SIDE MAN FOUND NOT GUILTY BY JURY OF GUN CHARGES
August, 2019
A gun in the car that our client was driving – facts common to our law firm. Because of the serious penalties involved in a charge of possession of a firearm, our client took his case to a jury to decide. Ms. Mancuso fought the cops and the parole agent witnesses during a trial that lasted approximately two days. After arguing that her client did not intend to possess the firearm, the jury agreed, finding him not guilty of all counts.
JURY ACQUITS ON CHARGES OF RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT
September, 2018
Our client was facing many serious sexual assault charges. At trial, Attorney Mancuso was able to effectively challenge the physical evidence recovered at the scene and cast serious doubt on the version of events as described by the accuser.
Following a 3-day jury trial, an emotional not-guilty verdict was returned as to all sex-related charges.
JURY RETURNS A NOT GUILTY VERDICT AS TO FIREARM CHARGES
March, 2018
After finding a gun under the passenger seat of a vehicle occupied by her client, Ms. Mancuso argued to a jury that more is required than mere proximity to an item to convict a person of crime. The jury agreed and found her client not guilty of all gun related charges.
HOMICIDE CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST NORTH SIDE MAN
2017
This case arose out of a shooting that occurred in 2016 in the city of Pittsburgh. There was one witness who claimed Ms. Mancuso’s client shot her family member while standing on a porch in front of her home. The Commonwealth asserted phone record evidence that was contested by the defense. After a pre-trial motion hearing in which the witness was challenged regarding her inconsistent story and unreliable identification, the case was dismissed.
MAN ACQUITTED OF ATTEMPTED HOMICIDE BY A JURY
March, 2016
Our client was charged with Attempted Homicide, Aggravated Assault, Carrying a Firearm without a License, Gun Charges, Reckless Endangerment, Possession of a Controlled Substance and Firing into an Occupied Structure and was acquitted by a jury of every charge. In a rush to charge a suspect, our client was mis-identified as a shooter involved in a late-night incident in North Versailles. The identification of our client was aggressively attacked throughout the trial. Additionally, the science of gun shot residue was tested and challenged by the defense. Ms. Mancuso achieved a full acquittal for her client after a week-long trial.
JURY ACQUITS MAN OF MOST SERIOUS CHARGES
August, 2015
Following two and a half days of deliberation, an Allegheny County jury acquitted Ms. Mancuso’s client of the most serious charges alleged against him including, robbery, kidnapping, criminal conspiracy to commit homicide, and criminal solicitation of homicide.
The defense argued to the jury that the victim’s story didn’t add up. The video surveillance did not show physical force or aggressive behavior and further, shows the one of the accused robbers hand the victim back his ATM card and a receipt for the transaction. “Is that a robbery?” defense counsel asked the jury in closing arguments. “Does a robber hand you back what is supposed to be stolen from you along with a receipt that documents the transaction? I submit to you, ladies and gentlemen, that doesn’t make sense. And when something doesn’t make sense, it’s usually because it’s not true.”
JURY FINDS MAN NOT GUILTY OF INDECENT ASSAULT
2015
This case arose from a work place incident in which the accuser claimed that Ms. Mancuso’s client touched her inappropriately. Our client adamantly denied any wrong-doing. Asserting his total and complete innocence, the case proceeded to a jury trial. Multiple character witnesses testified on behalf of the defense, explaining to the jury that such an allegation was in total contradiction to our client’s good and decent reputation in the community. Additionally, the defense was able to illustrate the accuser’s bias and motive to fabricate the accusations made against our client.
The jury returned a not guilty verdict as to the single charge of indecent assault following a short deliberation.
JUDGE ACQUITS MAN OF ROBBERY AND FIREARM CHARGE FOLLOWING A NON-JURY TRIAL
February, 2015
At trial, Ms. Mancuso argued that the Commonwealth’s evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that our client was aware that a robbery had occurred and/or that he had any involvement with such criminal acts. Further, she argued that the firearm in question could not be definitively linked to our client and that the controlling case law required the judge to find our client Not Guilty.
JURY FINDS MAN NOT GUILTY OF RAPE
February, 2015
Our client was a 45-year-old man charged with rape with no prior sex-related offenses of any kind. From the outset, our client wanted a trial and maintained his complete innocence. Attorney Mancuso argued to the jury that a sexual encounter did – in fact – occur; however that the same was consented to by the victim.
An Allegheny County jury acquitted him of the single charge of rape after a few hours of deliberation.
McKEESPORT MAN ACQUITTED BY A JURY OF ATTEMPTED HOMICIDE
February, 2015
Ms. Mancuso was appointed to represent a young man facing multiple serious charges in connection with a 2012 shooting. Although our client had no prior criminal history, he was accused of attempted homicide, assault of a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault, multiple firearm violations, robbery, burglary and criminal conspiracy.
From the beginning, our defense was that our client had been misidentified and that the reliability of the eyewitnesses, including police officers at the scene, was in serious question. In addition, Ms. Mancuso presented DNA evidence at trial that had been gathered from the crime scene from two individuals – neither sample matched the DNA of our client. Following a 4-day jury trial, the jury sided with the defense finding our client Not Guilty of all charges.
MAN WHO WAS SHOT BY POLICE IN SOUTHSIDE CHASE ACQUITTED OF 27 CHARGES
October 15, 2014
An Allegheny County jury acquitted a man represented by Attorney Mancuso of more than two-dozen charges that arose from a police chase in the Southside section of the City of Pittsburgh that ended in police gunfire.
The pursuit began when Mancuso’s client allegedly ran a red light in Homestead and failed to stop when police attempted to pull him over. The vehicle continued into Southside around 2:00 a.m. as bars were letting out. At or around 13th Street, multiple officers opened fire into the vehicle striking both the client and his mother, the front seat passenger of the vehicle. Another bullet grazed a pedestrian. Multiple shots were also fired into an unrelated vehicle. Two weeks after the shooting, then-city police Chief Nate Harper issued an order prohibiting officers from firing into a moving vehicle “unless there are shots being fired from that vehicle.” At trial, officers testified that they were in fear of the approaching vehicle.
Ms. Mancuso’s client faced 13 felony counts of aggravated assault and 14 counts of recklessly endangering another person but argued that such charges were unsubstantiated by the evidence, the jury of 9 men and 3 women agreed.
WILKINSBURG MAN FOUND NOT GUILTY IN ALLEGED DRUG ROBBERY AND ATTEMPTED HOMICIDE
November 25, 2013
Attorney Mancuso was appointed to represent a 30-year-old man accused of attempted homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, and carrying a firearm without a license.
This was a textbook self-defense case. Mancuso argued that the alleged victim and her client provided similar accounts of what occurred to the jury – except for one large discrepancy – who the robbery target was. The defense maintained that it was the defendant who was the actual victim of an attempted armed robbery and that during a struggle to disarm the alleged victim, he was injured. After deliberating for less than 30 minutes, the jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty as to all charges.
HILL DISTRICT MAN ACQUITTED BY JURY OF AGGRAVATED ASSAULT
2012
Attorney Mancuso was represented a young man accused of an aggravated assault with no prior record. The defense argued that our client acted in self-defense. After a jury trial, he was acquitted of all charges
JURY RETURNS ACQUITTAL REGARDING HOMESTEAD FIREARM CHARGES
2012
A classic constructive possession case – Ms. Mancuso’s client was charged with the possession of a firearm that was found in a vehicle after a traffic stop by police. He was one of two other passengers in the vehicle in question. The case proceeded to a jury trial before the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County. Following a short trial, the jury acted quickly in returning a verdict of not guilty as to all charges.