Let’s support bringing justice to Antonio and José

Justice for Antonio and Jose: Help us ensure that they receive a fair review of what they are accused of

“The events that unfolded linked two groups of young people on opposite sides of a block in Highland Park, Los Angeles on November 8, 1996. They were friendly acquaintances, some who would see each other in the neighborhood from time to time, never knowing how their lives would be forever bound by a broken system.

Antonio (22) and Jose (17) left their home that evening not knowing they were never returning home, and that the infamously corrupt Los Angeles Police CRASH Unit, with a long departmental history of racial profiling, would frame them for a murder they neither committed nor had knowledge of. Detectives excitably narrowed in on Antonio's brother, Daniel, during the interrogation, who was murdered years prior.

A fourteen-year-old boy went to visit his friends that evening not knowing it would be his last and that his senseless murder would be unavenged in favor of a quick and “easy” prosecution.

Despite physical evidence and eyewitnesses pointing in other directions, Antonio and Jose were convicted to 29 years to life in prison. Jose was alleged to be the shooter, and Antonio was the accomplice.

Antonio and Jose had eight alibis and nine exculpatory witnesses. Witnesses consisted of the surviving victims, the deceased victim's friend, the mother of a coerced witness, passersby, and neighbors from different vantage points who corroborate the true events of the crime and exculpate them. Police failed to document many as witnesses; the defense only called one witness and an alibi to testify. LAPD displayed racial profiling and tunnel vision, ignoring relevant leads.

The area was not canvassed for the suspects, and potential suspects and persons of interest were never interviewed. The suggestive lineup consisted of Antonio who was the tallest and only bald one among two, the rest were of average stature ranging from 5'8-5'10.

During the trial, exculpatory evidence was held.

911 dispatch audio and initial interviews of tampered witnesses that pointed to other perpetrators were not presented to the jury.

LAPD tampered with two girls who witnessed the aftermath, as the suspects began to flee. CRASH detectives coerced them to falsify events based on circumstantial evidence found unrelated to Antonio and Jose, or the crime.

The two young women were pressured by police to testify to events that could be easily verified to have occurred. Their testimonies contradicted each other (and witnesses' accounts), with one saying that her friend did not witness the events.

CRASH detectives falsified police reports and committed serious perjury during the preliminary hearing to bound the case to trial. During the trial, the detectives and prosecutors willingly presented falsified evidence and withheld exculpatory evidence.

Antonio and Jose both tested negative for gunshot residue and the fingerprints analysis on the spent casings were held by the prosecution despite testimony confirming they were examined. Ballistic evidence showed that two .380 handguns were used, three spent casings and fragments came from one, and the other fragment and casing came from a second handgun, contradicting police and prosecution argument, that the shorter suspect approached the victim and shot him with a .380, and that a taller suspect appeared minutes later and brandished a shotgun. The surviving victims and other witnesses told police that two suspects arrived together and that only one was armed with a handgun, the shorter suspect shot the victim and they both fled immediately.

The new evidence is 911 dispatch audio with two recorded calls that reveal materially exculpatory evidence. Additionally, it is believed that the female caller identified as Lydia, who said she was not a witness, is the coerced witness who is identified as Lylene in her police interviews. Lylene testified that she called 911 and alerted them to the second suspect approaching mid-call, minutes after the first suspect fled, this version of a 911 call does not exist. The female caller disproves her coerced testimony, corroborating exculpatory witness accounts. “