Son found not guilty of threatening to kill mother

At the time of his arrest in February, Kauffman’s 30-year-old client was living with his mother. She called 911 to report that he had called her from a pay phone outside of a grocery store and, while they were arguing about money, had yelled, “if you don't give me my money you tomorrow, I will kill you. I will seriously kill you "     

However, the mother’s phone calls to 911 didn’t sound as though she had just been threatened, Kauffman argued to jurors. She called 911 three times about the one phone call with her son, and only during the last call did she claim that her son threatened to kill her. In her first call, she even told the dispatcher, “This is not an emergency.” Why wouldn’t she mention the death threat first? Kauffman asked. 

Her client may have been rude, mean and childish, but that’s not a good reason to call 911, Kauffman told jurors.

Her client testified that he was upset with his mother and he called her crude names but denied making any threats.

The client’s father testified for the defense, saying he’d paid that month’s rent for his son, the mother wasn’t owned any money and he’d also given the mother money to give to the son. 

Kauffman’s client has prior criminal convictions, which the jury did not hear about as Kauffman successfully argued that hearing about her client’s past misdeeds would be overly prejudicial and deny him the right to a fair trial. 

A conviction would have carried a maximum sentence of one year in jail.