Superior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke said he found that Juan Rayford and Dupree Glass were “not” involved in the Jan. 2, 2004, shooting, ordering that their conviction be vacated on the last count against them — shooting at an inhabited dwelling.
Outside court, attorney Annee Della Donna told reporters, “Today in Los Angeles Superior Court, a groundbreaking ruling occurred. Judge Jacke ruled that Juan Rayford and Dupree Glass were actually innocent of the crime that they were alleged to have committed in 2004. … They are now free. Everything has been overturned. This was a huge miscarriage of justice.”
Glass, now 36, and Rayford, now 37, were initially sentenced to 11 consecutive life prison terms plus 220 years. They were freed from state prison just before Halloween 2020 after a state appeals court panel’s ruling vacated their convictions on 11 counts of attempted murder.
They were sentenced in November 2020 to time already served behind bars on the remaining count of shooting at an inhabited dwelling, but their attorney vowed to seek to have them declared factually innocent of that charge. Della Donna and colleague Eric Dubin represented the two in a court proceeding in which Della Donna said, “The real shooter in this case took the stand and testified and confessed to the shooting.” That man is behind bars in a separate murder case, she said.
“Today, I feel really happy, grateful, because I’ve been vindicated from all charges,” Rayford said.
Glass said, “I’m not big for words, but today is a wonderful day. Twenty years we’ve been living this nightmare. It’s finally over.”
Glass’ father and sister said they were grateful for the judge’s decision.
“I really appreciate it that these boys came home,” Mark Glass said. “I prayed on it, prayed on it, knew it would happen because they were innocent. They were good kids. … They were teenagers.”
Glass’ older sister, Tiffany Walker, said, “Today means so much to our families. Our lives were changed back in 2004 and there was so much taken away from them that they could not get back … We know they were innocent from the very beginning, but no one would listen and that no one was L.A. County.”
The judge tentatively set May 16 for another court date and ordered attorneys to “meet and confer about this case.”
Della Donna told reporters, “The district attorney requested a future hearing to see whether or not the district attorney wants to recharge them on some other false crime. We have no idea what that is, but back tucked in my office I have a letter from the Los Angeles district attorney, where they said that they would not charge them with any other crime. So I’m going to pull that letter out and that hearing is going to be taken off calendar. We’re done.”
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office could not be reached for immediate comment.
Previous related story: Two men released from prison, sentenced to time served
G. Bush says
Then, there’s “A bird in the hand is worth 2 bushes, no, uh can’t fool me again.”
Johaness says
By next week they will be back
Tim Scott says
Could be. Hard to develop life skills with seventeen years in custody for crimes they didn’t commit.
The real question is, WTF is wrong with you? These guys did seventeen years for crimes they didn’t commit, and you seem to have no regrets about the gross failure of our justice system that destroyed two lives.
East Palmdale's Most....A National Treasure says
That’s what struck me also. Ben Franklin said something like “Better that ten guilty men go free, than one innocent man is wrongly incarcerated”,
Johaness: Read the “Count of Monte Cristo”.
G. Bush says
Then, there’s “A bird in the hand is worth 2 bushes, no, uh can’t fool me again.”
Engineer Bill says
They’ve already been out almost 2 and a half years. So far, so good.
Johaness says
They will go out and drip their seed on any willing soul sister who will then produce some more hoodie boys. It is bringing down the race. It is exactly what the white man planned. “They will destroy themselves if we let them. Give them some more rope.”
Johaness says
The judge was a sucker
Johaness says
The guy who confessed to the shooting is telling a lie. He is taking the fall because he has already fallen into a hole called “murderer” it is the oldest trick in the book. The judge was a sucker! The defense attorney is a competitor in the game called “the legal system” where you win not by telling the truth but by seeing who you can fool to win the game. The defense attorney fooled the judge and so the defense attorney gets 1 point.