Pie metaphor fails to save insurance agency robber from jail

Lawyer representing the accused may have bitten off more than he could chew with this argument

Pie metaphor fails to save insurance agency robber from jail

Insurance News

By Lyle Adriano

A Bryan, Texas, man was convicted earlier this week after being accused of robbing two insurance agency employees two years ago, despite a valiant – and slightly oddball – effort by his lawyer.

Brodniey Charles Ray, 27, and another unidentified suspect “stormed into” a Safenet office with a “gun blazing” on September 09, 2015. According to Assistant District Attorney John Brick, the two took money, purses and cell phones from the insurance company and the two employees working that day – about $7,000 worth of items was taken from the office and over $800 in cash was stolen.

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Ray was charged with two counts of aggravated robbery and faces between 25 years and life in prison due to prior felony convictions, The Eagle reported.

During the hearing, Mark Maltsberger, the attorney representing Ray, used an unorthodox pie metaphor to describe how prosecutors had not met their burden of proof after he had challenged them the previous week.

“They responded by feeding you crumbs and trying to convince you it tasted like pumpkin pie,” Maltsberger told the jury Monday.

Maltsberger turned the jury’s attention to a Ruger BB gun which looks like the real deal, found several blocks from the insurance office within an hour of the robbery that day. The lawyer argued that the BB gun’s presence is a possible indicator of another potential suspect.

Prosecutors, however, said another man had discarded the toy gun when police approached him. The man threw away the BB gun out of fear that he would get in trouble, because he had been released on bond for another crime.

The authorities had found a 9mm Ruger handgun magazine clip at the insurance office, though the BB gun had a BB magazine loaded inside of it. Maltsberger maintained that gun owners could carry more than one magazine on them when they are armed.

Assistant District Attorney Philip McLemore, in his closing speech, reasoned that it made no sense to load a magazine with real bullets into a BB gun.

“Just go in with a BB gun,” said McLemore in his statement.

Maltsberger claimed that inconsistencies in eyewitness accounts of the color of the robbers’ getaway car meant that information should be discounted by the jury when deciding a verdict.

“Take your eyewitness testimony, ladies and gentlemen, and spit it out. That ain’t pumpkin pie,” he said.


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