What is Jose Baez's Net Worth?
Jose Baez is an American trial lawyer who has a net worth of $1 million. Jose Baez is best known as the defense attorney who shot to fame after successfully defending accused child killer Casey Anthony in what was referred to as the case of the century. He went on to represent National Football League star Aaron Hernandez when he was accused of committing three murders, as well as film mogul Harvey Weinstein who was accused of multiple accounts of sexual harassment, assault, and rape. Baez typically represents clients involved in high-profile cases.
Early Years
Jose Baez was born on September 17, 1970, in New York, New York. Of Puerto Rican heritage, he and his three siblings were raised in a single-parent household run by his mother. He attended Homestead High School – a public school in Homestead, Florida – but quit during his ninth year. Before the age of 18, he had already become a husband and a father. He obtained his General Equivalency Diploma and enlisted in the United States Navy, where he trained as an intelligence analyst.
After serving three years in the Navy, he enrolled at Miami-Dade Community College then Florida State University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. He went on to study at St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami Gardens, Florida, from which he earned a Doctor of Law degree in 1997.
The Casey Anthony Trial
Acting as primarily a criminal defense attorney, Jose Baez tried a handful of cases that concerned crimes such as kidnapping and murder before he became the famed defender of Casey Anthony. In what was referred to as the trial of the century, 22-year-old Orlando native Casey Anthony was accused of murdering her three-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony, in June of 2008. After Casey's parents noticed a putrid odor in their daughter's car, her mother, Cindy Anthony, contacted the police to alert them of her concern – she hadn't seen her granddaughter for several weeks, and Casey had been telling her the child was with a nanny named Zanny. Casey then wove a complicated story concerning her daughter allegedly being kidnapped by Zanny the nanny. Her behavior during the months her daughter was missing – entering a hot body contest at a local bar, shopping, and enjoying movies with her boyfriend – didn't strike many people as normal, and Casey soon became one of the most hated women in America.
On December 11, 2008, Caylee's skeletal remains were found taped into a laundry bag in a wooded area not far from the home Casey shared with her parents. Charged with first-degree murder, she pleaded not guilty, and Baez came on board to hammer that notion home. Despite Casey being caught in a multitude of lies, the jury found her not guilty of aggravated manslaughter of a child, aggravated child abuse, and the three counts of first-degree murder she was charged with. She was found guilty only of providing false information to law enforcement and was sentenced to $4,000 in fines and four years in the county jail. Credited for the time she had already spent behind bars, she was released back into society ten days after her sentencing.
Baez became a celebrity during the trial. With American author Peter Golenbock, he wrote a book about the case called "Presumed Guilty" which was released on July 3, 2012 and quickly became a New York Times Bestseller.
(Photo by Joe Burbank-Pool/Getty Images)
The Sedwick and Hernandez Cases
In 2013, Jose Baez became the defense attorney in the Rebecca Sedwick case. Twelve-year-old Sedwick – a seventh-grade student at Crystal Lake Middle School in Lakeland, Florida, had committed suicide by jumping off a tower at a concrete plant. A search of her cell phone showed that she had received messages from two other minors, stating things such as "You seriously deserve to die" and "Drink bleach and die." The messages were believed to be the result of jealousy over a boy. After Sedwick's mother charged that the messages were the direct cause of her daughter's death, Baez defended one of the two minors who were accused of aggravated stalking. Due to a lack of evidence, the charge was later dropped.
Baez defended Aaron Hernandez, an American professional NFL football player after he was alleged to have murdered Odin Lloyd – another NFL player – in 2013. Found guilty on the charge of first-degree murder, Hernandez was already sentenced to life in prison without parole when he was charged with the 2012 double homicide of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado. He was acquitted on the double murder charge in April 2017 and, only five days later, was found hanging in his cell, the result of an apparent suicide. At the time of his death, Baez had been working to appeal his conviction in the murder of Lloyd and didn't believe Hernandez had killed himself. In 2018, Baez wrote a book about the case titled "Unnecessary Roughness."
Jose Baez /Joe Burbank-Pool/Getty Images
The Weinstein and Husel Cases
American film producer Harvey Weinstein – who was accused by more than a dozen women of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape – hired Jose Baez to defend him against the allegations. After being found guilty of two felony counts, he was sentenced in 2020 to serve 23 years in prison. The following year, he was found guilty of three additional charges and was sentenced to an additional 16 years in prison. In April 2024, his first conviction was overturned, and a new trial was ordered to take place at a later date. While in prison at Riker's Island, Weinstein was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer and began undergoing treatments.
Baez defended Dr. William Husel, who was charged with 14 counts of murder after he prescribed excessive amounts of the opioid fentanyl to his terminally ill patients. On April 20, 2022, Husel was found not guilty on all counts.
Teaching
Despite being a high school dropout, Jose Baez has joined the faculty at Harvard Law School where he teaches classes on trial techniques.
Accolades
Jose Baez was named Lawyer of the Year by LawyersUSA magazine in 2011. The National Trial Lawyers Association named him one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers annually from 2011 to 2014.
