Man has murder conviction overturned after 18 years behind bars
After nearly 20 years in prison, a man was exonerated and released from custody on Wednesday for a wrongful murder conviction connected to a killing in 2005.
Stephen Patterson, who has spent more than half of his life behind bars, was exonerated after Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan granted a joint petition from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and Michael Semanchik, the executive director of The Innocence Center.
The petition requested that Patterson's wrongful conviction and 50-years to life sentence be set aside and that a factual innocence finding be made after citing an investigation from the DA's Conviction Integrity Unit that "identified the true perpetrators of the shooting."
"You have been exonerated, Mr. Patterson," Judge Ryan said on Wednesday during a press conference.
Patterson also spoke at the press conference.
"This was a long time coming," he said. "My life was given back to me."
He said that he looks forward to spending time with his family, including his mother, who hired the private investigator that looked into the case after her son's conviction for the 2005 murder.
Patterson was convicted of first-degree murder and gun allegations in 2007 for his alleged connection to the April 15, 2005 shooting of Yair Oliva, 15. The incident happened as the teen stood outside of an apartment complex near 68th Street and Parmalee Avenue after some sort of verbal dispute between him, several other people and a man who is believed to be a gang member, the petition said.
He was sentenced to 50 years to life in state prison, despite saying he knew nothing about the shooting when he was arrested in 2006. Patterson told detectives that he was home when the shooting happened and that he came outside after hearing police in the area, the petition says.
The "sole eyewitness identification" of Patterson made nearly two months after the crime "appears unreliable in retrospect," according to the petition, which also noted that there was no actual physical evidence presented at the trial that connected Patterson to the shooting.
Attorneys also said that multiple witnesses who were interviewed after Patterson's conviction, one of which included one of the two men who was standing with the victim at the time of the shooting, said that he was not involved. Many other witnesses saw the perpetrators running from the area at the same time that they saw Patterson standing in his front yard.
Semanchik said that after the hearing, there was evidence that existed that would have spared Patterson from spending nearly 20 years behind bars. He lauded the DA and the Conviction Integrity Unit for their investigation which led them to realize that "Stephen was wrongfully convicted" and that the evidence pointed in another direction to the "two true suspects."
District Attorney George Gascón spoke at the press conference, extending his sympathies to the family and vowing that his office will work to make sure that those who are responsible for the teen's death will face justice.
It is the thirteenth exoneration during Gascón's tenure.
