A Los Angeles County man will soon be freed from state prison where he spent 12 years after being wrongfully convicted of shooting two men in Lynwood in 2013, prosecutors said Friday.
A judge on Friday granted a joint motion from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and the California Western Innocence & Justice Clinic to toss out two attempted murder convictions against Michael Renteria, 38, who was sentenced to 80 years in prison after he was convicted of carrying out a 2013 drive-by shooting, authorities said. The two victims, who are brothers, were struck but survived.
“Today was a great day for justice. Often when a district attorney says this, he is talking about an arrest, a conviction, a trial victory or a sentence,” Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said in a statement. “But today justice took a different form: setting aside a wrongful conviction and proclaiming a man factually innocent of attempted murder charges brought over a decade before.”
Renteria was also found factually innocent on Friday, according to Hochman. Renteria has spent more than 12 years in prison. While he was convicted of being a felon in possession of a weapon after a 2013 police search of his home turned up two firearms, he is likely to be released as early as Friday evening because he has served more time in prison than the maximum sentence on each weapons charge.
Renteria was convicted in 2015, but pieces of evidence that called his conviction into doubt began coming to light in 2016, according to Hochman. The district attorney declined to elaborate on the evidence that led to Renteria’s release, citing an ongoing investigation that could result in a prosecution of the real gunman.
Hochman called Renteria’s conviction a case of mistaken identity. While a witness did testify that Renteria opened fire on both victims, police did not recover the weapon used in the shooting or have any forensic evidence linking him to the crime, Hochman said.
The case was initially investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. An agency spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amy Kimpel, the executive director of the California Western Innocence & Justice Clinic, described the shooting as a “tragedy” but said “the law enforcement response compounded that tragedy.” Renteria, she said, is focused on “picking up the pieces” of his life. She asked the media not to contact his family.
“We have nothing more than to apologize,” Hochman said Friday. “Apologize to him that we couldn’t have gotten to this day sooner.”
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