Prosecutor: ‘The system failed’ man ‘wrongfully convicted’ of murder
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When jurors convicted Edgar Barrientos-Quintana with the 2008 murder of teenager Jesse Mickelson, they didn’t know police had apparently coerced juvenile witnesses into pinning the south Minneapolis shooting on him.
They didn’t know police had shown witnesses a misleading photo of Barrientos-Quintana in lineups — which matched a bald description of the shooter — even though Barrientos-Quintana had a full head of hair that day.
They didn’t hear key evidence that corroborated Barrientos-Quintana’s alibi, bolstering his claim that he couldn’t have been at the scene of the crime.
“The legal system failed Mr. Barrientos-Quintana,” said Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty on Monday, joining calls for his innocence. “Our legal system also failed Jesse’s family, who almost 16 years later, must again wonder who killed their loved one.”
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Following a review of Barrientos-Quintana’s case, which included the aforementioned evidence, Moriarty announced she’s prepared to dismiss his charges — if the court vacates his conviction.
Last month, the Attorney General’s Conviction Review Unit released the findings of a three-year renewed investigation — ultimately concluding “a confluence of errors made by criminal justice system actors resulted in a wrongful conviction.” That includes “deficient performance” from Barrientos-Quintana’s defense.
Moriarty said after reviewing that report, she agrees. She blames Hennepin County prosecutors at the time and Minneapolis Police Department investigators for ignoring obvious evidence and failing to follow best practices.
Sarah Wolf sat in the audience of that announcement, reflecting on the day she read Barrientos-Quintana’s petition for post-conviction relief — which was filed following the CRU investigation. In 2009, she was sitting among the jury that convicted him.
“I made it to page 31 of 117 before I broke down in tears,” she said. “I realized I, along with 11 other people, had sent a man to prison for a crime he hadn’t committed. It was so obvious to me a third of the way through that he didn’t do this.”
She said she would have fought for his innocence, then, if she had known the information apparent now. Just a month ago, she was still checking the corrections department website to see his location. She wanted to make sure he was still in prison.
“I get angry at the police for making such quick decisions and for not following the evidence that was there. And they made a decision to go after Edgar,” Wolf said. “He and I are not that far apart in age, and everything I’ve accomplished in the last 15 years, he could have been doing the same things.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said after the CRU released its report, he ordered a review of the case file and is confident investigators acted “with the utmost integrity and professionalism.” Speaking to the press, O’Hara said he’s concerned a “convicted killer” will be set free based on a reinterpretation of old evidence rather than new facts.
Wolf said two-thirds of the jury deliberations revolved around the credibility of one juvenile’s eyewitness testimony — but at the time, the jury was not advised that accomplice testimony required additional corroboration.
“And we continued to go back and forth and back and forth,” Wolf said. “Do we believe him? Do we not believe him?”
No physical evidence tied Barrientos-Quintana to the shooting. Nationwide, eyewitness misidentification has contributed to approximately 70 percent of wrongful convictions later exonerated through DNA, the Innocence Project reports.
As Moriarty called the conviction a “grievous injustice,” four of Mickelson’s sisters stood behind her, including Christina Rosebear, Mickelson’s eldest sister.
Rosebear said it was difficult to bring the report to her family’s attention, who have been healing for years. Her sister watched Mickelson die, she said. Her mother, who died in January, had already died in a way, Rosebear said, after Mickelson was shot in 2008.
They wanted to believe her brother’s murderer had been convicted.
Still, Rosebear said, “I don’t want anybody who wasn’t guilty of the crime to spend any more time than they need to because that’s 15 years they can’t get back.”
She said she had already forgiven Barrientos-Quintana, even before she believed in his innocence. She released her anger, after holding onto it for years. Now, she hopes Barrientos-Quintana can be released as soon as possible.
“Hopefully the person that did it changed their life for the better,” she said.
Moriarty says after the judge makes a decision, her office intends to reach out to the Minneapolis Police Department to ensure that what she believes is a wrongful conviction will never happen again. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office has its own Conviction Integrity Unit, which is in its early stages.