After 20 years in prison, man to be set free after witnesses recant testimony in murder

Jack Leonard
LA Times
March 15, 2011 | 11:51 am

Francisco Carrillo, 36, smiles while seated between attorneys Ellen Eggers, left, and Linda Starr after hearing the judge's decision to overturn his conviction at the Compton Courthouse on Monday.

A man who has spent 20 years behind bars for a murder he insists he did not commit is expected to be released from Los Angeles County Jail on Tuesday after several witnesses recanted their identification of him as the killer in a drive-by shooting.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge overturned the conviction of Francisco “Franky” Carrillo, 37, on Monday afternoon, finding that the recantations and other evidence undermined his conviction for the 1991 killing.

Judge Paul A. Bacigalupo made the decision after listening to more than a week of testimony from the witnesses and watching a dramatic reconstruction of the crime scene that raised questions about what the witnesses could have seen on the evening of the shooting.

“Franky is going to have some life and some freedom, but he lost so much,” said Linda Starr, the legal director of the Northern California Innocence Project, which worked on the case. “It took far too long.”

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