My attorney, Efrain Sain, from Farmers Branch, very poorly represented me in the case in court. In all honesty, it appeared as if he was working against me, rather than on my side. When he appeared at court, he was wearing what appeared to be some worn out khakis, dirty shoes, and a sloppy shirt. It looked more like someone requiring defense himself than an attorney.
1. I was having my doubts about whether or not Mr. Sain could handle the case due to his apparent lack of interest in discussing it with me. Finally, I just showed up at his office to ask him if he felt this was a good case for him, or if I should get another attorney. He assured me, that he was very excited about this case, and he believed that I the defendant was innocent, and assured me he wanted the case. He was not prepared for the case at the time
2. He swayed my witness, Linda Kiel, the woman in the vehicle with me to "act as a hostile witness" against me. She told me this after the trial when she and I had gone swimming at the club she belongs to. She told me that he told her he
Believed it would look better in the case if she conveyed we were not friends anymore. I was not made aware of this by Mr. Sain at any time, before or after the trial.
3. When we arrived at trial, he was not prepared at all. It was then that he asked me if I could provide any notes on the case. He appeared to just be starting to write notes on how he was going to go forward. This is when I knew that he had not prepared anything until the actual trail date.
4. During the case, I would write him notes on issues I felt needed to be addressed, and he just disregarded them. These were issues involving false claims made by the prosecution, and events that occurred during the incident that were not being disclosed.
5. During every break of the case, Mr. Sain would spend his time flirting with the prosecuting attorney. When the judge would announce break, he would usually head right over to her table, and talk about how he was a saxophone player. My family and I shocked by his lack of attention to discuss any issues with me during break, but would rather go over to talk with her.
7. At the beginning of the trial, the judge stated that neither prosecuting nor defendant is allowed to meet with witnesses during breaks. Every break, my family and I had witnessed the prosecutor's client with all his witnesses' together meeting in the hallway. I told my lawyer that I thought it should be mentioned to the judge, and he just said "nah".
8. At the end of the case the prosecution approached the jury with her rendition. She was fluent, and acted like she knew what she was doing. When Efrain Sian went up, he took some memory cards up with him, which he clumsily read through, and even lost his place in the middle of his closing statement, excused himself in order to find composure. It was a total embarrassment,
9. At the end of the trial, my lawyer immediately stated he does not do appeals, and persuaded us that we should not try and appeal because we would not win anyway.
All of the prosecution's witnesses were related (i.e., husband, wife, mother, and wifes ex-husband). They of course shared the same story. When the one witness they had that was not related went on the stand, his story was not consistent with the others, but more similar to mine. I highly emphasized this to my attorney during trial, but he shook his head and did not address it all. I personally felt this was detrimental in the case.
I lost the case because of his incompetence. This has cost me an incredible loss, to include my job, because he never did prepare for the case.
Mark, Irving, TX
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