Winston Defense Team Featured in “My Dentist’s Murder Trial” in The New Yorker

Winston & Strawn’s defense team was highlighted in “My Dentist’s Murder Trial,” an article published in the July 3, 2017 issue of The New Yorker. The article recounts the murder trial and acquittal of Winston client Dr. Gilberto Nunez, a dentist in update New York accused of killing Thomas Kolman.

Written by a former patient of Dr. Nunez who attended the proceedings and spoke with Dr. Nunez post-acquittal, the article notes the defense’s introduction of text message evidence that refuted the prosecution’s argument. Contrary to the District Attorney’s suggestion that the decedent and his wife were reconciling, the messages between Dr. Nunez and Linda Kolman painted a picture that the affair was anything but over. According to the author, “[i]n the face of such evidence [put forth by the defense], the dangerously obsessed lover portrayed by the prosecution began to seem more levelheaded.”

Further, at the time of trial, Linda Kolman maintained that Dr. Nunez was guilty, but when the Winston team had her read aloud her own text messages sent to the defendant prior to the death of her husband, “she seemed genuinely surprised by her words. You could hear the puzzled resignation of someone forced to reappraise her version of reality.”

The article also describes the defense’s winning argument as to the introduction of emails that could potentially impugn the character of Thomas Kolman. The judge ultimately ruled that since the prosecution “had emphasized its thoroughness yet had never investigated this lead,” the emails could be mentioned by the defense, which likely led to reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors.