Facebook photo leads to mistrial in murder case

8:49 AM, Sep 13, 2012   |    comments
Getty Images
  • Share
  • Email
  • Print
  • - A A A +
  • FILED UNDER

First Coast News Apps

Get the FCN APPS

- Weather: Android | iPhoneiPad
- News: AndroidiPhone | Mobile Web
- Political Florida: Android | iPhone/iPad
  Windows Phone | Mobile Web

- Deal Chicken: Android | iPhone | Mobile Web

 

MIAMI -- A lawyer posted a photo of her client's leopard-print underwear on her Facebook page, prompting a South Florida judge to declare a mistrial in a murder case.
    
The Miami Herald reports 31-year-old public defender Anya Cintron Stern was fired Wednesday.
    
According to the newspaper Stern snapped a photo of the underwear with her cell phone as corrections officers inspected a bag of clothing Fermin Recaide's family had brought for him to wear to the trial. Officials say the caption suggested the family believed it was "proper attire for trial."
    
But someone saw the photo and reported it to Miami-Dade Judge Leon Firtel, who declared a mistrial.
    
Recaide is accused of fatally stabbing his girlfriend in 2010.
    
The judge must assign a new lawyer and set a new trial date.

Associated Press