For the 1,600 hours of work two Santa Rosa lawyers say they put into a 1991 murder case, they each got $5,000 — proceeds from the sale of a used truck. Their client, found guilty of first-degree murder for putting a rifle shot into the back of her husband’s head, got 29 years to life in prison.
Had Irene Giampaoli been acquitted, defense attorneys Paul Neuer and Harold Spaulding would have received $30,000 from the murder victim’s $250,000 life insurance policy. But no acquittal, no indemnity for Giampaoli. No indemnity, no lawyer fees.
