Texas Board of Legal Specialization certified criminal defense and criminal appellate attorney Jacob Blizzard of Blizzard and Zimmerman Attorneys was mentioned on the Troublemakers podcast, episode 63 – Arrested in Texas.
Host Dylan Krasinski is joined by Los Angeles comedian Randy Valerio.
On the podcast Valerio praises Jacob for getting felony possession charges against him dropped after Valerio was arrested during a traffic stop in west Texas.
It doesn’t involve marijuana, but it involves chocolate bars.
Here’s a LINK to the clip to learn more.
Listen to the full Troublemakers podcast episode is here: https://anchor.fm/s/53a67784/podcast/rss
We followed up with attorney Jacob Blizzard and got his reaction to the video and Randy’s case.
Here is a transcript of Jacob’s response:
“I got arrested in West Texas in Abilene Texas for class two felony drug possession.”
Hey guys my name is Jacob blizzard. Recently saw the podcast “The Troublemakers” and featuring old client of mine Randy Valerio. Interesting there you know he talks about getting a class two felony in Texas well. Well, felonies in Texas are not classified quite that way but he got it mostly right. And that there are generally classifications of first, second, third degree felonies and state jail felonies, so that would be a range of punishment two to 20 years in prison for this particular drug possession.
“I got pulled over for speeding it’s like uh “you know I smell pot in the car” I’m like “no you don’t”. He goes what ?”No you don’t it’s a brand new car I haven’t smoked weed in it yet.”
In Texas you can get probable cause to search a vehicle after a traffic stop if you have some sort of articulable suspicion that a crime is being committed, suspicion to detain a person then you have probable cause to search their vehicle can come from something like the smell of marijuana.
So, it can be really difficult to challenge what an officer says about that and so here you know Randy’s saying “Oh, I gotta, I had a brand new car so obviously it didn’t it doesn’t smell like marijuana”. But you know that police officer is going to search his vehicle regardless.
“Got a bag it was in my trunk . Yeah and in the bag it was six chocolate bars. He’s like all right this is like a misdemeanor. I’ll write you a ticket. Goes to his car and comes back say “Can you turn around?” I’m like, why? He’s like I have to arrest you. Like why?
He’s like “it’s too much weed. I’m like, what are you talking about? It’s six chocolate bars. He’s like “well if you read on the labels it’s like a thousand milligrams in each bar”. So, it became it became a class two felony.”
Yeah so crazy thing right you think marijuana you know it’s practically legal in many states across the United States. Well, it’s not legal in Texas, one. But two, really what Randy was actually dealing with here is the THC concentrate that comes from marijuana because it wasn’t marijuana packaged in marijuana form. It was the oil taken from marijuana and put into, you know an edible, you know a chocolate bar of some sort. Even so, the state would use the added material the chocolate or whatever’s there with it also as a part of the substance you know because they can’t necessarily differentiate between what’s chocolate what’s THC and then over 4 grams to 200 grams is going to be that second degree felony range.
So that’s what Randy’s looking at. He’s got six chocolate bars weighed out at six grams, you’re over the four grams. You’re in that second degree felony range.
“I need the best lawyer in Dallas. I call them up he goes “you don’t want to hire me.” I’m like why not?” It’s because if my big money ass goes out to Abilene and shows up in court they’re going to stick it to you just to stick it to me.” But you know I’ll tell you there are a lot of lawyers that do come out to the Abilene area from other places like Dallas Fort Worth and they they practice successfully out here you know. Maybe that’s more the Dallas lawyer didn’t want to come , you know in a sense, because he knows that. Right? He knows the idea that local counsels who you really want…somebody’s familiar with it…who’s going to do a good job out there in the Abilene area.
“If the local guy hunts pheasant with the hillbilly judge.”
Exactly. He references the the hillbilly judge. Right. So for me you know I don’t hunt pheasant. Right? And I don’t hunt pheasant with any hillbilly judges. I don’t hunt with any judges. But I think it speaks to the idea, right, that it’s good to know your audience. So he found me.
“That guy. A guy named Jacob Lizard.”
This is funny because this is something that’s happened to me my whole life right? My parents named me Jacob BLIZZARD I guess not thinking about it. My mom says because you know she always thought of it as Jacob Austin Blizzard, it’s my middle name included. But you know Jacob Blizzard people forget there’s a “B” in there right? Because the b’s run together B and B next to each other…just sound like Jacob and then lizard and so you know here I am Jacob Lizard out here practicing law in west Texas.
“I’m asking sure this is the guy. He’s like “you got a guy off a double murder last week.” I’m like that sounds like the guy”.
I think what Randy’s referencing here is actually I represented a gentleman named Damien Cate shortly before I represented Randy. And basically I think the confusion is it wasn’t a double murder in the sense that two people were murdered. It was a maybe a thought of as a double murder in the sense that there were two people who were accused of committing the murder of one person. In our trial we got what I thought was the right result. We got a not guilty verdict. I thought it was the right result. I thought that Justice was done there. And so you know people think of you know quote “getting somebody off of double murder or capital murder” whatever, you know I think of it as doing good advocacy so that the truth can be brought forward.
“Thank God I got it tossed. Dude.”
And so right, Randy’s story has a happy ending right? Happy ending at that time when things were going on. We were able to get a good result for Randy based on a lot of things. But I’m happy that he’s been able to move on. But criminal cases can certainly be taxing and hard. But it’s always great when you come out the other side having either learned something and moved on forward from it or you know if you’re wrongfully accused obviously to be able to walk away from that have the right thing happen.
