Minnesota man freed after 16 years behind bars for a murder prosecutors say he didn’t commit

By Maria Aguilar Prieto, CNN

(CNN) — After serving 16 years behind bars, a Minnesota man was released from prison after a judge vacated his murder conviction for a crime prosecutors say he didn’t commit.

Edgar Barrientos-Quintana was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2009 after he was found guilty of killing 18-year-old Jesse Mickelson in a drive-by shooting in Minneapolis.

In August, a conviction review unit under Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office released a damning report that found various faults in the case against Barrientos-Quintana.

State court Judge John McBride vacated Barrientos-Quintana’s conviction and ordered his release last week. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, more than a decade after charging him, dismissed all the charges on Tuesday.

“Nothing can give Mr. Barrientos-Quintana those 16 years back, and for that, we are so sorry,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said during a news conference Tuesday. “When the criminal system does not function ethically, it causes significant harm.”

The National Registry of Exonerations has recorded 3,614 exonerations since 1989. Just last year, 153 exonerations were recorded by the registry, 84% of which were persons of color.

Exonerations of wrongful convictions have come as a result of mistaken eyewitnesses, police and prosecutors’ misconduct and inadequate legal defense, according to the Equal Justice Initiative.

CNN previously reported misconduct by government officials has contributed to 54% of false convictions of defendants who were later exonerated in the past three decades, with police misconduct being a factor in 35% of such cases.

The judge, in the court order vacating the conviction, concluded Barrientos-Quintana did not receive a fair trial because prosecutors didn’t disclose all exculpatory evidence and his own attorneys didn’t effectively represent him.

Barrientos-Quintana expressed gratitude to his legal team and family and said he never lost hope of getting out.

“You know it was going to happen, just system’s too slow,” Barrientos-Quintana said at the news conference. “Happy to be out here, man. Best week, it’s the best weekend. And more to come.”

Reality television, an unreliable star witness and questionable photo lineup techniques

According to court documents, prosecutors in Barrientos-Quintana’s case failed or refused to turn over evidence “favorable and material to the defense” as required by law.

Prosecutors failed to disclose a crew from the reality television program “The First 48” was embedded with Sgts. Christopher Gaiters and Robert Dale, the lead investigators on the case. Producers gave Dale a scripted statement to read to the cameras, and the program showed the order of events in a nonchronological order, the court documents say.

Had this been revealed, both sergeants could have been impeached, according to legal documents. Instead, prosecutors decided not to call Dale to testify in hopes of “avoiding cross-examination that would have been damaging to their case.”

Marcelo “Sharky” Hernandez was the prosecution’s star witness. He claimed to have been in the shooter’s car, but his story and timeline of events were inconsistent, court documents say.

Prosecutors also failed to mention multiple witnesses had named Hernandez as Mickelson’s potential shooter before trial. This would have been “highly exculpatory” for Barrientos-Quintana, according to McBride.

During his testimony, Gaiters said nobody had identified anyone other than Barrientos-Quintana as the possible shooter, and the prosecution did not attempt to correct the record to show the truth.

Gaiters currently serves as the Minneapolis Police Department’s assistant chief of community trust.

The attorney general report also found the Minneapolis Police Department’s investigation violated its own protocols and best practices for photo identification lineups.

Photo lineup procedures were conducted by investigators who were already convinced of Barrientos-Quintana’s culpability, the report says, and they used tactics to suggest he was the main suspect.

Eyewitnesses described the shooter as a bald or shaved-headed Hispanic male, with facial hair and bushy eyebrows. Though Barrientos-Quintana had “a thick head of hair” the night of the shooting, according to Moriarty, Minneapolis police used an outdated photo of Barrientos-Quintana with a shaved head in their lineup.

The report noted there was evidence to back up Barriento-Quintana’s alibi. Security footage from 33 minutes before the shooting placed him at a grocery store across town, and phone records corroborated his story that he was at his girlfriend’s house right after the shooting, leaving him with little time to get to and from the crime site.

Barrientos-Quintana’s guilty conviction came down to two factors: the testimony of Marcelo “Sharky” Hernandez and eyewitness identifications. According to court documents, both were shaky at best. The defense council’s failure to argue against the prosecution’s case is also to blame, according to McBride.

Barrientos-Quintana’s release comes 11 years after his current defense attorney, Julie Jonas, started working on his case.

“He lost his freedom and his family lost a son, father, brother, uncle and nephew. It was a tragedy,” said Jonas in a statement obtained by CNN. “But watching Edgar reunite with over 22 of his family members as he left the prison, while other inmates cheered for him in the background, was a truly joyous moment for all of us.”

As for his plans now that he is a free man, Barrientos-Quintana said quality time with his loved ones is at the top of the list.

“Spending time with my family, I think that’s the best thing I can ask for,” Barrientos-Quintana told CNN. “They were there for me from the beginning, and they’re always going to be there for me.”

Barrientos-Quintana has not discussed the possibility of filing a civil suit, Jonas told CNN. Lawsuits following exonerations are often difficult to win due to governmental immunity protections.

He is eligible for state compensation under a 2014 Minnesota law. However, the process to receive those funds is lengthy, involving multiple steps before the legislature can approve any awards, explained Jonas.

The Great North Innocence Project, the non-profit organization where Jonas began investigating Barrientos-Quintana’s wrongful conviction over a decade ago, has set up a GoFundMe to help him rebuild his life following release from prison.

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