Nearly a Decade Awaiting Trial, Now Freed
A California inmate facing murder charges is being released thanks to a law recently signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.
In the first test of a newly signed law that significantly narrows California’s felony murder rule, a judge today ordered the immediate release of a man who has spent nearly a decade awaiting trial in double murder.
Neko Wilson, now 36, had initially faced the death penalty in connection with the July 2009 murders of Gary and Sandra DeBartolo, a couple killed during a robbery at their home in California’s Central Valley. Prosecutors had accused Wilson, which holds that anyone involved in certain types of serious felonies that result in death can be held as liable as the actual killer.
