A Mobile County man who was featured on the First 48 a year before his murder trial has been found not guilty, and his attorneys say there will likely be a lawsuit over how he was portrayed in the program. The show follows Mobile Police homicide detectives in the first 48 hours of murder investigations and gives viewers unprecedented access to crime scenes. Robert Abrams was featured in Episode 11, Season 22, which has been pulled off A&E's website. It aired last January and shows detectives arresting Abrams for murder after he shot Manchella Allen at the Cookies n Cream strip club in Theodore. Abrams missed the show because he was locked up in Mobile Metro Jail awaiting trial.
"It really was aggravating because everybody kept telling me about it, but I can't see it and it's about me. Ain't nobody had nothing good to say," said Abrams.
"What were people telling you about it?" asked NBC 15's Andrea Ramey.
"That I'm going to prison for a long time," replied Abrams.
That turned out not to be the case. Last week his defense attorneys argued the shooting was in self-defense, and a jury found him not guilty. He showed us a video of him hugging his 8-year-old daughter as he left the jail Thursday. He had hadn't seen her in almost two years.
"The evidence that was presented at trial was very different than what was presented on the First 48," said defense attorney Megan Allgood.
Allgood says the First 48 did not show the knife Allen had on him or the surveillance video of him charging at Abrams in the club.
"They're not showing you all the facts," said Allgood.
"The way that the First 48 portrayed my client was in a damning way. It put his name, his likeness out there as something that was both inappropriate and untruthful," said defense attorney Christine Hernandez.
Hernandez says they are now looking at taking legal action and are working on the parties that will be named in a lawsuit. Hernandez says episodes that air before people are convicted taint potential jurors, and they have to be extra vigilant to make sure people haven't watched episodes that feature their clients.
"It causes jury selection to take hours and hours longer than what it really should," said Hernandez.
"It really does affect our clients Constitutional right to a fair trial," said Allgood.
Abrams says he's grateful he had a fair trial and is now looking to the future with his daughter.
"You can't make up time. But I'm just glad to be around each other again," said Abrams.
There have been similar issues in other cities the First 48 features. According to news reports, Dallas and Miami have paid settlements to people over how they were portrayed.