Ronald Velasquez Jr., who has spent the final 23 years in jail, wiped tears from his eyes as a Los Angeles Superior Courtroom choose learn the order that made him a free man.
Velasquez, his household and a former hard-charging Pasadena police detective had for many years maintained that Velasquez and one other man, Abraham Villalobos, have been harmless of the 2000 killing of a young person in Downey.
On Wednesday, Choose William C. Ryan declared the boys factually harmless, wiping out their homicide convictions.
New investigations by the district legal professional’s workplace and the previous detective turned non-public eye, who labored professional bono, uncovered the precise killer and the occasions that occurred on Sept. 2, 2000.
In October 2021, Velasquez was discovered responsible of first-degree homicide within the dying of teenager Michael Roybal and sentenced to 50 years to life in jail. Villalobos, discovered responsible of second-degree homicide, was sentenced to fifteen years.
Investigators later discovered that Villalobos was not even current when the 16-year-old was shot to dying.
Velasquez, who was 18 on the time of the capturing, was on the doorstep of the Downey residence however knew nothing of one other man’s plan to kill Roybal, based on a habeas corpus movement.
That man, Sergio “Silent” Torres, would later confess to certainly one of his family members that he killed Roybal, based on court docket filings searching for Velasquez’s launch. Torres died a 12 months later in a drive-by capturing, court docket paperwork say.
Through the years, appeals have been filed and rejected till, from his jail cell in Could 2021, Velasquez filed a request for the Los Angeles County district legal professional’s Conviction Integrity Unit to evaluate the proof in his case. The request coincided with county prosecutors stepping up efforts to look at doubtful convictions. Lawyer John Hanusz, a well known federal prison protection lawyer, joined the hassle final 12 months.
“There was overwhelming proof of innocence,” Hanusz stated. “The Conviction Integrity Unit and the D.A.’s workplace have been receptive and listened to our proof presentation.”
Hanusz stated Velasquez’s household had labored tirelessly for 20 years to reveal his innocence, however their “pleas for justice fell on deaf ears.”
It was the professional bono work of Dana Orent that cracked the case, the legal professional stated. The Pasadena police detective turned non-public investigator had championed Velasquez’s trigger for 20 years.
“The proof was questionable at finest,” Hanusz stated, “and as soon as Dana Orent chipped away at it, the reality was revealed.”
Orent, in sworn court docket testimony, stated it was certainly one of a handful of instances he had labored on over time the place he had “absolute perception” within the innocence of these convicted.
District legal professional’s investigators quickly discovered proof to help what Orent had uncovered.
Velasquez, a member of the Brown Nation gang, was at a celebration with Canine Patch gang member Torres and two different males who had been smoking methamphetamine. The group went to an residence advanced to select up a girl to occasion, and alongside the best way, Torres additionally picked up a handgun.
It was about 3 a.m. when the group arrived on the Deming Avenue residence. Velasquez received out and headed as much as the second-floor abode the place the girl was meant to be ready. Torres unexpectedly adopted him. When Torres noticed Roybal on the door, he thought {the teenager} was from a rival gang and shot him twice within the chest.
Velasquez in his innocence declare acknowledged that he had no concept that Torres was going to shoot anybody, and he stated that Villalobos was by no means there. Roybal was taken to the hospital and pronounced useless.
Orent throughout his investigation discovered proof that was later verified by D.A. investigators involving the 2 different males within the automobile that day. They stated they heard gunshots and that, after Torres and Velasquez ran again to the automobile, Velasquez was yelling at Torres for capturing the sufferer. Torres bragged that he had shot a “Tuna Fish,” a reference to the Tortilla Flats gang. Velasquez, based on the boys, advised Torres that Roybal was not a gang member. Torres then aimed his gun on the automobile’s floorboard and fired.
Each males echoed Velasquez in saying that Villalobos was by no means there.
The one eyewitness to the killing initially acknowledged she couldn’t see who had dedicated the crime. However at trial, she recognized Velasquez because the shooter.
Cellphone data confirmed Torres known as the girl within the Downey residence six instances after the capturing. Based on the movement for factual innocence, he threatened her and her mom and advised them to not cooperate with authorities.
”The sample, instances and content material of the calls made after the capturing is powerful circumstantial proof of Torres’ guilt,” the movement acknowledged.
Additional digging by Orent in 2017 revealed that Torres had confessed his crime to an uncle. The relative stated that Torres had a .25-caliber handgun that he dismantled and destroyed. The uncle, suspicious, confronted him, and Torres stated he had killed “the idiot from Tortilla Flats.”
Torres was killed in an October 2001 drive-by capturing and was underneath investigation for an additional slaying on the time of his dying, court docket paperwork say.
Within the movement for factual innocence, attorneys stated Torres and Villalobos appeared very a lot alike in 2000, which was the explanation Villalobos was accused of being on the scene of the killing.
Villalobos was launched from a California jail in 2015. He wasn’t a U.S. citizen, in order a convicted violent felon, he was deported to Mexico. Because the prison case unraveled final 12 months, the Loyola Venture for the Harmless got here on board to signify him. On Wednesday, his relations listened because the choose set the report straight.
Joe Trigilio, govt director of Venture for the Harmless, stated he was impressed “by the tenacious work of Mr. Velasquez Jr.’s lawyer John Hanusz and investigator Dana Orent.”
On Wednesday, Velasquez thanked God, his household and supporters. “When you could have been the place I’ve been,” he stated, “it at all times a 50-50 shot, however I held to my religion.”
Greater than 290 individuals have been exonerated of assorted prices in California since 1989 and greater than 3,400 nationwide. With Ryan’s ruling Wednesday, greater than 100 individuals convicted of homicide have seen their convictions wiped away, based on the Nationwide Registry of Exonerations.
