An East Los Angeles-born lawyer said he was found innocent by framed for murder.
Humberto Duran nervously changed weight Friday morning when he stood in court in downtown Los Angeles. But when Judge H. Clay Jacke spoke, Duran began to smile slowly, with what he had been waiting for a long time to hear.
“These facts support the inevitable conclusion that Mr. Duran did not murder Albert Gonzalez, nor did he attempt to murder Ms. Rivera Ortiz because he was not at the crime scene and was innocent.”
“You are actually innocent,” he said.
Duran goes back and hugs his family. And start crying.
The 51-year-old man was a Gang killing in East Los Angeles in 1993. Twenty-four years later, Monica Rivera, the sole witness of the crime, withdrew her story and told Duran’s lawyer that the case began to collapse when she saw Duran shoot 17-year-old Gonzalez when she swore.
Attorneys for California’s innocent Duran advocated a re-examination of the case for seven years. Then in early 2024, they filed a petition asking the judge to overturn the conviction.
Attorneys Megan Baca and Arianna Price said in their 147-page application that the deputies – one of whom was described as Rivera’s cousin – “formed” Duran, targeting prosecution. They said there was no other evidence that Duran had an alibi: he was with his girlfriend and her mother.
In October, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office admitted 10 pages of letters There is evidence of “actual innocence”. One day later, Jacques overturned Duran’s belief.
But the discovery cleared the way for state compensation in the years he was wrongly imprisoned before agreeing to the defense team’s request for Duran to formally announce the innocent – prosecutors want to investigate further. Earlier this month, DA’s office submitted a letter agreeing to the BACA’s request.
“While justice is often arrested, convicted and sentencing, in some cases justice must put aside the conviction.” Artie. Nathan Hochman expressed his gratitude to the court on Friday for his prosecutors and the Duran Defence Team’s hard work.
“It’s great to be here,” he said. “We don’t have too many days like this.”
Duran is the third person since Hochman took office last year.
A week before Christmas in 1993, Duran (at the age of 19) went through his account to his girlfriend’s home on Fraser Avenue in East Los Angeles, where they watched TV at home and quickly headed to Taco Bell. Duran said that at about 1:30 a.m., an older friend from nearby walked home.
When Duran returned to his parents’ home, his sister opened the door and told him the news: A child he knew – Gonzalez – was shot.
After Dongla deputies arrived at the crime scene, Rivera told them that she and Gonzalez had been at his family’s home when they heard someone yelling for his older brother Vidal. According to the department’s case, the teen went to the driveway and saw a young man in a dark hoodie who allegedly told Gonzalez that a man named Beto didn’t like him.
The young man then pulled out his gun and shot Gonzalez fatally. Afterwards, Rivera told deputies that the shooter climbed to the passenger side of Cadillac and waited to leave in nearby alleys.
At first, Rivera told deputies that she didn’t know the shooter or driver’s name, but she said she knew they were members of Rascals Street Gang.
When the detective formally interviewed her three days later, she still mentioned only one shooter. A detective took out the photos he brought to Duran, whom he interviewed, but Rivera said she didn’t see him that night and he was not a killer.
Later that day, one of the detectives – Sgt. Robert Perry introduced Danny Batanero to the case and said Duran may be the suspect, although Rivera excluded him a few hours ago.
Later, Batanero visited Rivera at her family’s home. The two already knew each other, and Rivera later said in a statement sworn that they were cousins.
During the visit, Batanello did not record the conversation, but later wrote in his report that Rivera said there were two shooters, the second one being she “personally called ‘beto’.”
Around midnight, he brought Rivera back to the sheriff’s station for another interview. This time, the teenager said Duran jumped out of the back of Cadillac, shot Gonzalez and pointed the gun at Rivera, after the first man shot Gonzalez. When she told the detective, he threatened her and fled when it didn’t fall off.
The day after Christmas, deputies arrested Duran. With the news of his arrest, others raised the prompt. Peter “Rocky” Paez told investigators that a member of the RASCALS gang who suffered “Spooky” admitted to a killing when he showed up at the party a few hours later.
When the case was tried, Duran’s attorney (the California Bar Association records later rejected for irrelevant “moral submission”), Baka believes it was a “seriously invalid” defense. Baka wrote that he provided no evidence to support Duran’s alibi, and that he was late many times during the trial and the judge despised him.
Last year, former lawyer Donald Ainslie said in a comment last year that “some of the allegations against him” were “absolute fabrication.”
After a week of trial, Duran was convicted. The judge gave him two life imprisonment.
More than 20 years later, the case landed on Baca’s table. She sent a Facebook message to Rivera, and the former star witness backed down.
“I know Beto is innocent,” she Written Swearing in in 2021. “I have been haunting me in the role of sending innocent men to prison for the past 27 years.”
She also vowed that there were two shooters, the second one was not Duran, but a dangerous gang member who would have been sure if the deputies hadn’t “stand” about her naming Duran.
Last year, Batanero told Times that he found Rivera’s story was trustworthy at the time and said that any allegations of his misconduct were “evil attempts…smearing me, and Monica proved the fact of this murder in connection with the gang by his own identity.”
The two detectives involved in the case did not respond or could not comment.
When Duran showed up for parole in the summer of 2022, Baca compiled a parole package that included the evacuation of Rivera. A few months later, he walked out of prison and was a free man.
But Baka still tries to prove his innocence. Now, both the DA’s office and the court agreed that Duran could find money for his time.
“I’m glad this is finally done,” Baka said after the court. “This means Mr. Duran can seek compensation for the Victim Compensation Committee.
