Criminal defense · Houston
Law Office of Gilbert G. Sawtelle IV, PLLC
Sawtelle Law is the trial practice of Gilbert G. Sawtelle IV, a former Chief Prosecutor at the Harris County District Attorney's Office. He defends people charged in the kinds of cases he used to prosecute.
Why it matters
Murder cases, as lead counsel
Chief of the 208th and 209th District Courts for more than two years, on felony dockets of about a thousand cases. He tried murder cases himself and supervised two to three other prosecutors.
He co-wrote the manual
Co-author of Mental Health Law for Prosecutors, on competency, sanity, specialty courts, and civil commitments.
He keeps the file
You meet with Mr. Sawtelle. The lawyer on the phone is the lawyer in court.
Practice Areas
Sawtelle Law defends felony and misdemeanor charges of every kind in Houston and Harris County, with the exception of sex offenses — and takes on select civil litigation.
Incompetency, insanity, and specialty courts. More than three years in the DA's Mental Health Division, and a co-author of the prosecutors' manual on this law.
First-degree through state-jail felonies, including the range of charges on the thousand-case dockets he supervised.
Murder, aggravated assault, and aggravated robbery — including murder cases he tried as lead counsel.
Drug possession and driving while intoxicated — charge types that filled the felony dockets he ran.
Select civil matters, handled with the same trial preparation he brings to every criminal case.
The Record
13+
Years in criminal court
From the Harris County District Attorney's Office to this defense practice.
50+
Jury trials
As lead trial attorney or as a supervising attorney.
29
Cases dismissed
In the last three months. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Experience
The posts he held at the Harris County District Attorney's Office. This office does not publish verdicts from those years.
More than three years at the Harris County District Attorney's Office, on high-profile felony cases involving incompetency or insanity — murder, arson, aggravated robbery, and aggravated assault. He worked in the Competency Restoration Docket, Felony Mental Health Court, Change Through Intervention Court, and S.T.A.R. (Success Through Addiction Recovery) Court. He gave numerous presentations and trainings, locally and statewide, to prosecutors, law enforcement, and mental health professionals. He co-authored Mental Health Law for Prosecutors and still advises prosecutors in other jurisdictions on competency and sanity, which is part of why he knows how those questions get decided.
Harris County District Attorney's Office. Chief of the 208th District Court and the 209th District Court for more than two years. He oversaw felony dockets of about 1,000 pending cases — murder, aggravated robbery, theft, family violence, organized crime, drug possession, gun possession, and driving while intoxicated — supervised two to three younger prosecutors in their trial cases, and personally handled and tried murder cases as lead trial counsel.
More than four years at the Harris County District Attorney's Office. He worked with homicide detectives at the Houston Police Department and the Harris County Sheriff's Office, pediatric child-abuse physicians at Texas Children's Hospital and Memorial Hermann Children's Hospital, and CPS investigators, from the investigation through jury trial. He handled cases in which a child died from abuse or neglect, including capital murder, felony murder, and injury to a child causing serious bodily injury or death. He also spoke with local news outlets about that work.
Professional highlights
Statewide CLE on mental health defenses.
He has taught statewide trainings on child death cases for law enforcement officers and attorneys through the Texas District & County Attorneys Association (TDCAA) and TCOLE.
Talks at Vernon State Hospital and Kerrville State Hospital on insanity and civil commitments.
Training on child fatality investigations and prosecutions.
Training on child fatality investigations and prosecutions.
Training on child fatality investigations and prosecutions.
Publication
He co-authored Mental Health Law for Prosecutors, published by the Texas District & County Attorneys Association (TDCAA). It covers investigating mental-health cases, competency, sanity, specialty courts, and civil commitments. He continues to consult with prosecutors in other jurisdictions on cases with competency and sanity issues.
On camera
Local news outlets interviewed him while he was at the district attorney's office. Sawtelle Law does not publish other people's cases, or results from them, on this site.
Sawtelle Law
Most defense lawyers learn a prosecutor's file from the outside. Gilbert Sawtelle spent years inside the Harris County District Attorney's Office — as a felony chief in the trial bureau, as chief of the Child Fatality Section, and as a prosecutor in the Mental Health Division. He co-authored Mental Health Law for Prosecutors, a book on mental health in criminal justice.
Sawtelle Law is the defense practice he opened after that career. The work is knowing which facts an office treats as enough to try, how a mental-health issue actually changes a case, and what was never there to begin with. He does not rest that on a list of old convictions.
Contact
Arrests do not wait for business hours, and neither do the decisions that follow. Consultations are with Mr. Sawtelle directly — Law Office of Gilbert G. Sawtelle IV, PLLC.
Telephone
(713) 855-9701Calls answered 9 AM – 5 PM Central, Monday–Friday. After hours, please email.
Principal Office
1221 Studewood Street, Ste. 120, Houston, TX 77008