A man convicted of attempted murder in the United States has been found not guilty and released after spending 33 years in prison, the Los Angeles County prosecutor announced Thursday.
Daniel Saldana, 55, was convicted in 1990 of shooting into a car carrying six teenagers leaving a high school football game in Baldwin Park, east of Los Angeles, on the west coast of the United States. Two students were injured but survived.
Saldana, one of three men charged with the attack, was 22 at the time of the shooting and worked full-time as a construction worker. He was one of three men charged with the attack.
Convicted of six counts of attempted murder and one count of shooting at an occupied vehicle, Saldana was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison.
In a press conference Thursday with prosecutor George Gascón, Saldana said he was grateful to be released.
“It’s a struggle waking up every day knowing you’re innocent and being locked up in a cell,” he added.
Gascón’s office began investigating in February after another convict told authorities during a 2017 parole hearing that Saldana “was not involved in the shooting in any way, nor was he present during the incident,” the attorney said. .
A former deputy district attorney was at the hearing “but apparently did nothing” and did not share the information with Saldana or the attorney, as required by law, Gascón said.
That led to Saldana spending another six years in prison, until the case was reopened and he was found not guilty, Gascón said, apologizing.
Source: TSF
