Attorney charged with plot to kill witness against him in barratry case

First he was indicted for barratry, but now a Corpus Christi attorney has been arrested for trying to have a witness in that barratry case killed.

Paul Andrews, 57, was arrested for criminal solicitation of capital murder on Aug. 20.

Andrews, who practices in Corpus Christi and has an office in San Antonio, was indicted in May in Bexar County for felony barratry.

As the Southeast Texas Record previously reported, Andrews and his law partner, Keith Gould, 52, allegedly paid employees in their San Antonio office to illegally solicit clients.

According to the San Antonio Express News, an informant told investigators that Andrews talked to him about having a witness in the barratry cases killed. The informant met with Andrews again, and the plan was confirmed.

With the assistance of the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, the Texas Rangers arrested Andrews in Corpus Christi.

Solicitation of capital murder is punishable by up to 99 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Andrews and Gould have been involved in numerous civil suits alleging barratry. In one, former manager of the Andrews and Gould office in San Antonio, Maryann Uribe, claims the attorneys tried to force her to illegally solicit personal injury cases. Uribe’s lawyer is Bill Edwards of Corpus Christi.

In an odd twist, Edwards was sued twice in 2013 for committing barratry by using a local barbershop as a place to solicit cases. The plaintiffs filing suit against Edwards had none other than Gould and Andrews as their attorneys.

In a May article in the San Antonio Express News, Edwards said the suits  against him are fictitious and “totally revenge motivated.”