Case Analysis & Investigation Strategies - CRIMINAL & CIVIL


PRINCIPAL AGENT APRIL D. HIGUERA
April Higuera is currently under contract with the El Dorado County, CA, Public Defender. She is also accepting additional civil and criminal cases from private attorneys and citizens, as well as State and Federal apppointments on indegent cases.

SUMMARY OF RELATED WORK EXPERIENCE

ADH Investigation -- March 2001 to present
Private Investigator – pre-trial and post-conviction (including capital/death penalty), criminal & civil

Lassiter, Tidwell & Hildebrand, PLLC, Nashville, TN -- November 1998 to November 2000
Paralegal - business law, criminal & civil litigation

Regal/Synchronal Corporation, New York, NY – August 1990 to August 1992
Paralegal – contracts

MAJOR CASEWORK
The actual cases April Higuera has investigated are too numerous to mention. Below are the cases she considers to be the most comprehensive and consequential cases she has investigated.

California v Joseph Nissensohn
(1st degree murder); 2008; capital; innocence and mitigation investigation; pending

Hope Schreiner v State of Vermont
(2nd degree murder); 2006, 2007, 2008; post-conviction innocence and ineffective assistance of counsel investigation; active

Sedley Alley v United States
(1st degree murder); 2003, 2004, 2006; capital post-conviction innocence investigation; executed 2006 (substantial innocence evidence was uncovered during the investigation, however, counsel did not prevail in court; Innocence Project of NYC undertaking post-execution civil action for DNA testing)

Phillip Workman v United States
(1st degree murder of a police officer); 2004; capital post-conviction innocence investigation; executed 2007

State of Tennessee v Max Roybal
(1st degree murder of Laura Cecere); 2003, 2004; pre-trial innocence investigation; judge acquittal

Derrick Quintero v State of Tennessee
(two counts 1st degree murder); 2001, 2002, 2003; capital post-conviction innocence investigation; disposition unknown

Jon Hall v State of Tennessee
(1st degree murder); 2001, 2002; capital post-conviction innocence and mitigation investigation; state petition denied

State of Tennessee v Max Roybal
(1st degree murder of Karen Anderson); 2001; pre-trial innocence investigation; jury acquittal

Farris Morris v State of Tennessee
(two counts 1st degree murder); 2001; jury composition analysis and juror interviews; state petition denied

United States v Stephen Adams
(conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation for murder) 2001; pre-trial innocence investigation; plea (lesser sentence)

United States v Christopher Smead
(two counts of esp. aggr. rape, kidnapping); 2001; pre-trial investigation; plea (lesser charge)

State of California v Jamal Shakir
(esp. aggr. kidnapping for ransom); 2000; pre-trial investigation and paralegal services; convicted of lesser charge

United States v Jamal Shakir
(44 counts, including homicide, money laundering, drug trafficking, kidnapping); 2000; investigative paralegal services, including organization of over 30,000 pages of discovery documents, develop timelines and document summaries, photograph crime scenes, document retrieval; disposition unknown