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Two men released from prison, sentenced to time served

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Juan Marichal Rayford and Dupree Antoine Glass were 17 and 18, respectively, at the time of the shooting, had no prior criminal records and were arrested at a high school football game in 2004, according to their attorney. [Images via Change.org]
LOS ANGELES – Two men who spent 16 years in state prison for a 2004 shooting in Lancaster for which their attorney says they were falsely accused were sentenced Friday to time already served behind bars.

Dupree Antoine Glass and Juan Marichal Rayford — who were serving 11 consecutive life prison sentences — were freed from state prison just prior to Halloween after a state appeals court panel’s ruling in June vacated their convictions on 11 counts of attempted murder stemming from the Jan. 2, 2004, shooting.

Their attorney, Annee Della Donna, said after the hearing that there is “overwhelming evidence of their innocence” in the shooting, in which no one was seriously injured.

She said she plans to file a motion seeking to have the two declared factually innocent of the only charge that remained against them — shooting at an inhabited dwelling — after the appellate court panel’s ruling. But she said she will likely wait until District Attorney-elect George Gascon is sworn into office to give him the opportunity to look into the case and “right a wrong.”

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said last month that it was opting against retrying the two on the attempted murder charges “based on the state of the evidence” along with a recent California Supreme Court ruling similar case in which jurors were instructed under the same legal theory.

Glass, now 34, and Rayford, now 35, were 17 and 18, respectively, at the time of the shooting, had no prior criminal records and were arrested at a high school football game, according to their attorney.

“We lost for so many years … Finally, we won big,” she said, noting that she’s worked “pro bono” — without pay — on the case for nearly a decade after hearing about it from a retired Los Angeles police lieutenant who was hired as a private investigator by Rayford’s family. “This is the hardest case I’ve ever worked on, and I’ve worked on some tough cases.”

Nearly three dozen law students from UC Irvine also worked on the case, with a handful in court for the latest hearing.

Della Donna said she thinks the case’s outcome will provide “a little bit of hope in the future of the justice system” and show that “we can make a difference.”

Hours after the hearing, Rayford said, “I am doing great. Honestly, I am a free man and that’s the best thing ever … I’m just grateful right now.”

Rayford — who was arrested with Glass at a high school basketball game — said he wants to be cleared of the crime.

“I want my name to be clean because your name is who you are in this world. I just want my name back,” he said.

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22 comments for "Two men released from prison, sentenced to time served"

  2. According to the Appeal – they were not found innocent of crimes committed – They were at a party with known associates/friends when an altercation caused them to leave to bring back alleged gang associates to fight a person who had already left the area. Originally they were charged under “Killzone” statutes for attempting mass harm. The appeal was that they were not attempting mass harm after firing in the air and at the house and hitting two people. Their sentence was lessened to time served due to the non “Killzone” appeal rather than they did not commit the shootings and gun charges.

    From the appeal documents:
    “the Court held that the evidence supported a reasonable alternative that Glass and Rayford did not intend to kill everyone in front of the house but instead acted with conscious disregard of the risk of serious injury to those people. For instance, Glass stood directly in front of Sheila but did not fire at her — instead directing his fire toward the front window. Rayford fired into the air, at least initially. Further, the eight bullets recovered from the house were not aimed at a specific area but hit all over the house, and there was no evidence that Glass or Rayford aimed at any specific person.”

    • Thats a game changer. Thats valuable info and now I’m enlightened and curious about details etc. Nevertheless, I still disrepect Lancaster detail because they suck.

  4. Cheer up Alby. Have a Snickers. Rich creamy caramel, nuget and peanuts surrounded by sweet chocolate. Life is short and so is this tastey king size delite. Grab yourself one at a participating local retailers.

    • Lol I aint trying to chew the worlds head off. I just find it very important to speak my mind about these injustices with lancaster law. Its guilty untill proven innocent with these hypocritical clowns. If they didnt have their job doing what they do, they would probably be career criminals like a tax agent or something blood-sucking.

  7. Hope in the future of the justice system? “It positively clear” that lancaster coppers are failures to the justice system. There are more people that these idiot pigs have screwed over and prosecuted based off of he said she said. They side with tweekers because I believe they themselves are tweeker lowlives with badges and guns. They’ll never give those men sixteen years back nor acknowledge that they were wrong. Inside of their fat pig brains, they believe that they were doing their job and these pigs sleep good at night. I wish I was god for a day or two so I could make these feckless oinkers prolapse out their pig ears and pigs eyes. It not like they know how to use them anyway but they sure know how to misuse the law like a bunch of jerk offs. These idiots need to find a regular job because they suck at the one they have now.

    • WOW Alby… who pissed in your cheerios! I bet the “Pigs” are the first people you call when your in trouble. People like you scare the SH** out of normal folks.

      • Lancaster didn’t do jack [removed] for me when my life was in danger. I was made out to be the provocater when I was the victim. They are useless and cancerous. No stupid. No. I wont call them. I’ll call California state police or anybody else other than Lancaster “Pigs”whom I have ZERO respect for. Whats scarier is that “normal folks” like probably yourself are more scared of words than physical action. You welcome action with a boner because you lancaster pigs are actionary enough yourselves and yet you’re a chicken gizard when it comes to words. Thats Lancaster Pigotry at its finest. Its people like you that will stur the pot and make normal folks more scared of words than action. For that I congratulate you. You may now jump in the air as high as you can and land headfirst on a pile of cactus.

        • Alby,

          Big words for someone hiding behind an alias. I was trying to say nicely that you are an a**hole and I hope you didn’t reproduce! And by they way if you live within the city limits you can’t call the State Police. Do us all a favor and disappear.

          • No. My city. My choice. Sue me so hard. I might just end up liking it. And its not an alias dummy. Do I need to give you an address so that your balls will grow? Sorry. I think its reached its limit in the gene pool. But I’ll give you my adress anyways…. Ready? If you’re a woman, I strongly believe we can reproduce. Just dont use weapons on me.

  8. Dupree is a good guy. We used to play basket ball together throughout middle school at piute. He deserves justice and pay for the years he lost.