Alexander Torres spent more than 20 years in prison for a murder that he did not commit. He landed there despite shaky witness testimony, the fact that he was wearing a cast at the time that would have made pulling a trigger unlikely, and multiple people saying he was at his mother’s birthday party at the time.
On Tuesday morning, Torres was awarded $14 million as the L.A. County Board of Supervisors settled his federal civil lawsuit.
The supervisors voted, 5-0, to authorize restitution for the 45-year-old after a judge found he was factually innocent in April 2022.
The settlement also comes after Torres along with the California Innocence Project, former L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón and his office’s Conviction Integrity Unit pushed for a new judicial review in 2021.
Amy Kimpel is an associate law professor and executive director of the California Western Innocence & Justice Clinic, formerly known as the California Innocence Project. She emailed The Times to say she was pleased to hear about the settlement.
“Mr. Torres was locked up for the entirety of his 20s and 30s — years most of us devote to building a career and a family,” she said. “Money can’t give that time back to Mr. Torres, but it can ease the struggles associated with reentering society and mitigate the harm caused to Mr. Torres by 20 years of wrongful incarceration.”
She added that his triumph reaffirmed the commitment of the clinic’s staff to fight injustice.
Torres received an official apology from Gascón at a news conference on June 1, 2022, in which the former district attorney said it was important that we “hold ourselves accountable and the system accountable.”
Torres was arrested Jan. 18, 2001, in the shooting death of Martin “Casper” Guitron on Dec. 31, just hours before midnight.
Two witnesses identified Torres in the slaying, but each was shaky in their own way.
The first witness said Torres and Guitron didn’t know each other (they, in fact, had a long history) and only identified Torres after several rounds of questioning from Los Angeles County sheriff’s homicide investigators.
The second witness later admitted he picked Torres from a photo lineup because he bore a close resemblance to the actual shooter.
Investigators claimed in a summary corrective action plan shared by the supervisors that Torres did not provide “a consistent alibi.” However, Torres maintained he was celebrating the new year at his mother’s house in Paramount.
Several family members vouched that Torres was at the celebration, which was also a birthday party for his mother.
At that event, Torres was also wearing a cast that would have made pulling a trigger unlikely.
Torres was found guilty of second-degree murder June 12, 2001, and was sentenced to 40 years to life in state prison.
That sentence was vacated by a judge in October 2021. Torres and Gascón then filed a joint motion that month for a finding of factual innocence, which was granted in April 2022.
That finding cleared Torres’ record.
Torres filed a lawsuit against L.A. County on Oct. 13, 2022, claiming the Sheriff’s Department and its detectives failed to disclose exculpatory evidence.
Homicide detectives were blasted in the summary corrective action plan over a variety of “key and critical issues.”
Detectives’ questions regarding the photo line-up were deemed too suggestive, while the two witnesses were not separated, allowing for potential influence.
Although homicide detectives said they turned in their notes on the case to the prosecutor and defense counsel, neither the district attorney’s file nor that of the Sheriff’s Department contained proof the files were shared.
The two detectives were said to have ignored new information that pointed to another suspect after Torres was convicted.
