State v Francis Gilmore - indictments

State v Francis Gilmore

MARCH, 2024 (Strafford Superior Court, Dover, NH)

Our firm's two partners Kevin O'Keefe and James Reis secured not guilty verdicts on all charges against Mr. Gilmore. If convicted, he faced life in prison. We picked a jury 6 years to the day from the allegations which were based on events that happened on March 3rd and
4th of 2018. The dates became important at trial.

Our client was indicted in October of 2019 on two counts of death resulting, for having his girlfriend deliver drugs to the home of the
two decedents. Death resulting is an offense punishable by up to life in prison in New Hampshire. It is extremely important to have an experienced New Hampshire criminal defense attorney because most accused of this crime are held without bail pending trial. Thankfully, this client was free on personal recognizance bail.

Voir dire and jury selection in this case was critical as always in criminal cases. Critical issues with jurors arose both during selection and the trial including excusing jurors from service who were previously empaneled.

One of the decedents (#1) was a longtime friend of our client, and the other decedent (#2) was #1’s mother. Since he was
indicted, he had been supervised on pretrial release with an ankle monitor. In that 4 ½ year period, he got married, had a daughter,
worked consistently in his chosen field, and basically turned his entire life around. Trial was repeatedly continued for a variety of reasons,
including COVID.

We took this case over in May of 2023 when a conflict arose at the Public Defenders’ office. Prior counsel did some great litigation regarding a witness (E.L.) who was with #1about 12 hours before client’s girlfriend delivered the alleged deadly drugs to the home. E.L. and #1 both had drugs on them, and they shared a little bit with each other. In other words, the drugs that caused the death of the two decedents could have come from a variety of other sources. E.L. had a valid 5th amendment claim, the State would not grant E.L. immunity, and the Court would not dismiss the case.

Our jury selection was scheduled for March 4, 2024, six years to the daythat the statute of limitations ran out on potential charges relating to
E.L. The statute of limitations on most felonies in New Hampshire is 6 years, so as one can imagine, this issue rarely arises in trial.

The State thought that E.L. was effectively shut down, and they did not wish to grant E.L. immunity, because his testimony was at odds with their theory of the case. Attorney O'Keefe noticed this early on, but we did not want to flag the issue prematurely.

We won the Rule 403 and 404(b) motions in limine that mattered most. Motions in limine are pre-trial motions that empower the judge to admit, preclude, or admit partial evidence in advance of trial. Certain in limine rulings may become moot at trial if one party "opens the door" to other evidence being admissible.

The bulk of the defense revolved around the State's inadequate investigation, the police jumping to conclusions, seized evidence (including other drugs from unknown sources) that was never sent to the lab, and lots of expert testimony on both sides about what did go to the lab. These experts included the Chief Medical Examiner and multiple forensic toxicologists.

When E.L. finally took the stand, he stood his ground on cross examination, saying that “you remember the last time
you saw your friend.”

The jury was out for a little over an hour before returning two not guilty verdicts for our client. He had about 20 family members in court with him, so there were lots of tears and hugs to go around.

His first name is Francis, but he goes by Fran. After the verdict, he used one of his familiar catchphrases to describe how he was feeling:
“Frantastic.”