5. Robert Udashen
Robert Udashen served as an assistant defense attorney working alongside Don Crowder.
At just 27 years old and with barely three years of legal experience, Robert Udashen stepped up as the assistant defense attorney alongside Don Crowder. While Crowder was the loud, theatrical face of the defense, Udashen was the quiet mastermind behind the scenes. He handled the spine of the case—the motions, the legal structure, and the careful logic required to make their wild psychological argument actually hold up in court.
Udashen played a massive role in framing Candy’s actions not as cold-blooded murder, but as a total psychological collapse. His calm, methodical precision perfectly balanced Crowder’s showmanship, and together they managed to pull off the seemingly impossible acquittal.
This high-stakes trial essentially launched Udashen’s long and successful career. Built on rigor rather than flashiness, he went on to become a highly respected figure in Texas law. He specialized in appellate and post-conviction work, taught at Southern Methodist University, and eventually ran his own successful practice in Dallas.
As portrayed in HBO’s Love & Death, he was the sharp, young attorney figuring out in real-time how law, psychology, and public opinion can violently collide in a single courtroom.
