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Two Men Were Just Sentenced For A 1996 Attempted Murder That Led To The Wrongful Conviction Of Someone Else

   DailyWire.com
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On September 10, 1996, a man was filling up his gas tank in Compton, California when he was approached from behind by another man with a gun. The two had a brief exchange, and the victim was shot in the chest.

He was able to run away but the shooter pursued him, shooting at him several more times. One bullet hit the victim in the back. Injured, he crawled under a nearby SUV for cover, but the shooter found him, shot him one more time, and then fled. Even after all the bullets were fired, the victim was still able to crawl into the gas station and ask the cashier to call the police.

KTLA reported that the victim survived the attack and that a man named Miguel Contreras “was initially arrested and charged in the crime.”

“During his preliminary hearing, however, a witness identified his brother Marco, who was sitting in the audience, as the shooter. Marco Contreras was subsequently charged and convicted with attempted murder,” the outlet reported.

Marco was convicted in 1997 for the attempted murder, which was determined to be a hit ordered on the victim. Marco would spend 20 years in jail before getting released in 2017 after it was finally determined that he was not the shooter.

Marco’s brother, Miguel, pleaded guilty back in the late 90s to being an accessory after the crime. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison. Upon his release, he told police that his brother wasn’t the shooter and identified Antonio Salgado as the real culprit. The Los Angeles Times reported that Miguel helped police determine the shooting was a hit after going undercover.

“In a 2014 interview with investigators, Miguel Contreras said he and Salgado were hired by Garcia to carry out the murder-for-hire plot, according to the newspaper. He maintained that he was just helping out a friend,” KTLA reported.

Marco was finally released in 2017 after spending half his life in prison for a crime he did not commit. On Wednesday, KTLA reported that Salgado, 44, was sentenced to 60 years to life for the crime and another man, Antonio Garcia, 64, was sentenced to 25 years to life. More from KTLA:

Contreras was 41 at the time of his release. He maintained his innocence as he spent half his life behind bars.

The District Attorney’s Habeas Corpus Litigation Team began looking into Contreras’ claims of innocence in 2014 at the request of the Loyola Project for the Innocent. The investigation was reassigned to deputy district attorneys in the Conviction Review Unit of the department in 2015.

The second probe uncovered evidence that led to the arrest and conviction of Salgado and Garcia last February.

As the Times reported, Superior Court Judge William Ryan ruled in 2017 “that Contreras was factually innocent, and Deputy Dist. Atty. Bobby Grace said Tuesday that prosecutors lost faith in Contreras’ conviction, adding that other men have been linked to the crime.”

KTLA reported that the Conviction Review Unit had received more than 1,900 wrongful conviction claims since it was started but just three convictions had been overturned to date.

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