Caine wins DV trial

Sedi Caine won a trial Aug. 2, 2024, for a client accused of assaulting his adult granddaughter.

The client was charged in Clark County District Court with assault in the fourth-degree domestic violence, a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail. He was arrested last year after his wife called 911 on Thanksgiving and said he was fighting with family and had hit their granddaughter in the face.

Caine, who was assisted at trial by Nicholas Saraceno, argued their client had acted in self-defense.

At the trial, jurors heard that the client, 68, had been hospitalized shortly before Thanksgiving and family members were concerned that he was drinking. They poured out his alcohol and tried to stop him from driving to a store to buy more.

His granddaughter, 24, testified that her grandfather had followed her around the living room and hit her “an uncountable amount of times” in the head. She also said she hit him with an umbrella and admitted to pushing him away from her.

The client and his wife divorced after this incident, but her testimony was helpful for the defense. She told the jury she saw both her daughter – who the state did not call as a witness – and her granddaughter hold her husband down and hit him.

Contrary to what she told the 911 dispatcher, she said she never saw her granddaughter get punched.

The client did not testify, but the deputy prosecuting attorney played footage from an officer’s body worn camera so jurors could hear what he had told the officer on the day of the incident.

During closing argument, Caine said the prosecution had not provided enough evidence to prove that the client had not been acting in self-defense. She focused on the fact that the alleged victim’s claim that she’d been hit multiple times was not supported by visible injuries and said the inconsistent testimony from witnesses did not support a conviction.

Jurors deliberated less than an hour before returning the not-guilty verdict.