A. The Crime
On March 12, 2005, at around 3:00 p.m., Richard Hernandez and another man who the police claimed was Manuel Aguirre, walked up to Efren Gutierrez, who was sitting in his SUV in the Center’s parking lot. Hernandez entered the passenger side of the SUV and started to hit Gutierrez. Aguirre stood by the driver’s side window and argued with Gutierrez. Hernandez got out of the car, walked around to the other side, and stood by the other man as Gutierrez put the SUV in reverse. Aguirre shot Gutierrez twice in the head with a black revolver. The SUV drove forward and crashed into a wall. Witnesses said both assailants arrived on bikes, but the shooter abandoned his bike and fled the scene on foot, tossing his button-down shirt into a nearby yard.
The police spoke to multiple witnesses who identified Aguirre and three other photos as “looking something like the shooter.” The two main witnesses were fifteen-year-old Ivonne Flores and her brother Carlos Flores. They heard the shooting as they walked to the park with some friends. Ivonne did not see the shooting because she hid in some bushes when she heard the shots fired. When Ivonne emerged two minutes later, a man bumped into her as he ran away. Ivonne also saw another man riding a bicycle away from the park.
Later that night, Ivonne told her mother and Carlos she thought the man who bumped into her was a boy named “Manny,” but she was not sure. Ivonne met Aguirre several years before through Aguirre’s cousin. However, two days later, Flores repeated this story to the detectives, but changed one crucial detail: she felt ninety percent certain the man who bumped into her was her friend, Priscilla Mendoza’s, brother. During a photo line-up two weeks later, Ivonne picked out pictures of two men with similar eyebrows to the man who bumped into her. One picture was of Aguirre. When the police spoke to Carlos, he selected three pictures, including Aguirre’s, from a photo line-up, and said the men “looked like” the gunman.
B. The Trial
None of the witnesses identified Aguirre at trial. The prosecution argued the witnesses were intimidated to explain the lack of clear identifications presented at trial. The Avenues gang had a history of witness intimidation, and Aguirre had many friends who were Avenues members.
C. The Defense
The defense argued the witness identifications were weak and unreliable. None of the witnesses identified Aguirre as the shooter at trial, and none of them testified they were scared for their safety.
An LAPD DNA analyst testified for the defense. The analyst testified that they tested evidence recovered from the scene. DNA was found on the rubber handlebar grip on the bike the shooter left behind and the LAPD excluded Aguirre as the donor.
D. Present
Aguirre was with his family and friends at his house on the day of the shooting and was there around 2:30 p.m. when he left to go on a walk with friends. On their walk, the boys ran into someone who warned them to avoid the park. All of them have provided declarations stating Aguirre was with them on the day of the shooting and, therefore is innocent.
The Innocence Center lawyers also successfully litigated for post-conviction DNA testing of the handlebar grips from the bicycle and the shirt the shooter left at the scene. Aguirre was excluded as a contributor to the major DNA profile from the shooter’s shirt. We also did more recent testing on the handlebar grips but the DNA mixture was too complex to determine who was riding the bike that day.
The Innocence Center is working on a petition for writ of habeas corpus to present on Aguirre’s behalf.
