Pozzo: "It has stopped me on a personal level to contemplate whether I did anything wrong."
TEMECULA, California (CNN) -- The man who successfully defended Alejandro Avila against child molestation charges last year says he's "shocked" to learn his former client has been charged in 5-year-old Samantha Runnion's killing.
"It has thrown my entire world off course," John Pozza told CNN's Charles Feldman Thursday.
Pozza was Alejandro Avila's lawyer in a sexual molestation case involving the two daughters of a woman with whom Avila was romantically involved. Avila was charged with a number of lewd acts against children under the age of 14, but was acquitted in January 2001.
Charges against Avila
1. Murder
2. Forcible lewd act upon a child
3. Forcible lewd act upon a child
4. Kidnapping
Now, Avila faces first-degree murder charges in the kidnapping and killing of Samantha, who was abducted July 15 outside her Orange County, California, home -- and Pozza says the case has given him much to think about in regard to his legal career.
"It has stopped me on a personal level to contemplate whether I did anything wrong. ... And then I have to step back and throw myself back into my professional side in which, that is my job," Pozza said.
Pozza established a successful law practice in Temecula eight years ago. He recalls the 2001 case against Avila as "an extremely difficult trial" that lasted five days. The jury deliberated a day and a half before coming back with a not guilty verdict against Avila.
"Quite frankly, I was surprised," Pozza said.
"A lot of the evidence that the prosecution or the police had gathered would give one the impression that there was evidence of guilt there, and certainly it would be our job as his defense team to look very closely at that evidence," he said.
Pozza said Avila broke down and started crying upon hearing the verdict.
"Quite frankly I thought that that was the last time I would see or hear from him," Pozza said.
Pozza said his office has received a number of e-mail threats and harassing phone calls since Avila was arrested July 19. Asked if he regretted defending the suspect, Pozza said, "I took an oath, and there was certainly nothing that would indicate Mr. Avila was capable of doing this. And really, at the time, there was no way for me to know this."
Paul Dickerson, the prosecutor who tried the case in 2001, has been said to be devastated about his failure to persuade the jury of Avila's guilt. But Samantha's mother, Erin Runnion, said it was not Dickerson's fault.
"I blame every juror who let him go, every juror who sat on that trial and believed this man over those little girls."
—Erin Runnion
Samantha's mother
"I think I heard the Riverside district attorney's office, the D.A. was saying that he has to live with this for the rest of his life because of the acquittal. And he doesn't have to live with this. He did the best job he could," she told CNN's "Larry King Live" on Thursday.
Pozza described Dickerson as "an excellent trial attorney," and said he understood what he was going through on a personal level.
"Paul was doing his job. ... I wouldn't even say that he lost and I won. Basically, we argued the facts and the evidence and submitted it to a jury where 12 individual people in the community made a decision, and it was an individual decision," Pozza said.
Runnion said she blames the jury voting to acquit Avila.
"I blame every juror who let him go, every juror who sat on that trial and believed this man over those little girls. I will never understand. And that is why he was out. And that is why his sickness was allowed to do this," Runnion said.