A man imprisoned 44 years for murder was ordered released Tuesday, Sept. 16, by an Orange County judge after prosecutors recently found exculpatory evidence that might not have been turned over to the trial defense.
At the request of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, Superior Court Judge Lance Jensen reduced prisoner Guy Michael Scott’s 1984 murder conviction to manslaughter, allowing him to be released because he had served much more than the maximum sentence under that charge.
Scott’s new attorney, Scott Sanders, believes his 69-year-old client would have been acquitted altogether if the evidence had been disclosed as required at the time of trial.
“The number of years lost is so painful and beyond tragic,” Sanders said.
Scott, attending a court hearing via video feed from Corcoran state prison, clasped his hands and thanked God and all involved with his release.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement that he refused to accept the win-at-all-costs mentality of prior administrations.
“When it became clear that we couldn’t confirm that any and all evidence involving the use of informants was turned over to the defense, we successfully petitioned the court to allow the defendant to be resentenced in the interest of justice,” Spitzer said.
Sanders, in a motion to the court, accused the initial prosecutor in the case, Tony Rackauckas, of manipulating evidence dealing with jailhouse informants. Rackauckas went on in 1999 to become the county district attorney. It was under his administration that Sanders uncovered in 2014 that prosecutors and deputies were long using jailhouse informants in a way that violated the defendants’ right to counsel.
Rackauckas did not return a voicemail seeking comment.
Centerstage in Scott’s release is a recorded interview with a jailhouse informant that could have been used to impeach the testimony of a key witness. But current prosecutors could not confirm that then-Deputy District Attorney Melvin Jensen (no relation to the judge) gave the recording to the defense during the trial. The defense attorney at the time was John Barnett, widely considered one of the best lawyers in Orange County, making it uncredible that he received the evidence and didn’t use it, Sanders said.
“I’m quite confident we did not get it,” Barnett said Tuesday. “It’s important that these issues get litigated and it’s a long time coming.”
The case began with the killing in May 1981 of Larry Miner, who invited Scott, Peter McDonald and Robert Neary to stay overnight at his Fullerton apartment. The next day, Miner propositioned McDonald, who reacted in anger, said Sanders’ motion. Miner was tied up, beaten, strangled and stabbed.
Scott, McDonald and Neary were arrested, but Rackauckas and a Fullerton police detective persuaded Neary to testify against the other two men, according to the motion. In multiple interviews with police and prosecutors, Neary minimized his own involvement in the killing, eventually saying he was outside the room where the victim was assaulted.
McDonald, portrayed as the main attacker, was convicted of murder, but later released because of health issues. Neary told authorities that he could hear Scott kicking the victim, which became the crucial piece of evidence in Scott’s conviction, Sanders said.
Sanders’ motion details several incidents in which Rackauckas and investigators maneuvered to keep the defense from receiving evidence that could have impeached Neary’s testimony.
First, Rackauckas instructed Fullerton Detective Antonio Hernandez to keep the tape recorder off during their first interview with Neary, the motion says. Rackauckas, who was replaced in the case by Mel Jensen, later testified that, “I didn’t want anybody to have a verbatim account of the entire interview,” according to the motion.
Later, jailhouse informant Craig Lunsford told the detective that Neary bragged about playing “Tic Tac Toe with a knife on (the victim’s) ass,” contradicting Neary’s story that he didn’t touch the victim. Rackauckas allegedly told the detective to delay writing a report on Lunsford’s statement. The report was not written until after Scott’s first preliminary hearing. Lunsford ended up recanting his statement when questioned again, this time by a district attorney’s investigator.
However, another jailhouse informant, David Vogel, later gave a recorded interview to a DA investigator, also saying Neary admitted to stabbing the victim, corroborating Lunsford’s original statement. Rackauckas was off the case by that time. The recording was apparently not disclosed to defense attorney Barnett, who could have used it to discredit Neary’s testimony.
“It would have destroyed Neary’s credibility. Neary was virtually the whole case,” Sanders said.
Scott was convicted of murder and sent to prison. Neary was released without facing trial. Vogel and Lunsford have died.
At Sanders’ urging, prosecutor Kristin Bracic recently searched through evidence in the case and uncovered the recording, which she turned over to Sanders.
“We are immensely grateful to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office for locating and disclosing the informant recording, and for then working with us to achieve this resolution,” Sanders said. “No one was more adamant than Tony Rackauckas that prosecutors never withheld informant evidence. It is now beyond debate that wasn’t true.”
Spitzer unseated Rackauckas in 2018 after running on a campaign to reform the office’s misuse of jailhouse informants.