More than 600 California inmates have been released from prison under reforms to how unwitting accomplices can be charged in killings, a state analysis found.
Neko Wilson wasn’t present when Gary and Sandra DeBartolo were brutally killed in their Central Valley home in 2009. Still, Fresno County prosecutors alleged he was culpable for their murders because he had helped plan the botched robbery.
According to a first-of-its-kind analysis by the Office of the State Public Defender, at least 602 people in California detention facilities had their prison sentences reduced between 2019 and 2022 as a result of the two laws. That erased an estimated 11,353 years from their combined terms and saved taxpayers between $94 million and $1.2 billion in prison costs.
Both sides gave rough estimates for how many people might be released as a result of the changes and over how long of a period. The true numbers would depend on a host of factors, including individual district attorneys’ willingness to go along with inmates’ requests for resentencing or fight them in court.Some prosecutors did fight, in part by arguing that the laws were unconstitutional. The state’s highest courts rejected that idea, allowing the laws to stand.
The laws make it relatively easy for people convicted of felony murder to petition for resentencing, without requiring them to prove they are eligible for such relief. Instead, the legal burden is on prosecutors to prove they are not eligible, Brown said. She was living at the time with her then-boyfriend, Ian Inserra. A friend named Kyle Miller was also staying at their home. Prosecutors allege that one night, Miller and Inserra went to Miller’s family home to rob Capen, who was Miller’s uncle, and that Miller fatally shot Capen.
A.J. acted as a decoy in an armed robbery committed by her boyfriend in downtown San Francisco in 2005. On the day of the murders, prosecutors alleged, Wilson was in his car alone waiting nearby when his five co-conspirators drove to the DeBartolos’ home and two — Leroy Johnson and Jose Reyes — went inside. They alleged Johnson slit the couple’s throats before he and Reyes fled.
Wilson pleaded guilty to robbery and was released on time served. The three other defendants who were outside at the time of the DeBartolos’ murders have also been released early thanks to the law. Johnson and Reyes remain in custody.
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