Chicago, Illinois: Pedro Carbera is likely ruing the day that he told a judge he was innocent after accepting a plea bargain that would have seen him serve 6 years in prison – his protestations cost him an extra 21 years.
In 2004, Cabrera would have been sentenced to six years in return for his guilty plea to robbing a husband and wife at knife-point. The Chicago Sun reports that on seeing the deal that prosecutors had made with the four-time felon, Judge Leo Holt remarked:
You can’t imagine how lucky you are. It boggles my mind.
At that point Cabrera explained that he was really innocent. Then things became ethically cloudy.
Holt withdrew the deal, explaining:
You don’t have a right to cause me to disgrace myself and the criminal justice system by accepting a plea of guilty from you when you are, in fact, not guilty.
Cabrera explained that he could not beat the charges at trial, but Holt was unmoved. After being found guilty at the jury trial that followed, Holt sentenced him to 27 years. A subsequent appeal in which Cabrera represented himself was unsuccessful.
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Yes, big mouth indeed.
Yes, big mouth indeed.
Yes, big mouth indeed.