Just before 11:30 p.m. on December 18, 1993, 17-year-old Albert Gonzalez was shot at least three times near the driveway of his house in the East Los Angeles section of Los Angeles County, California. He died early the next day at a nearby hospital.
Because the shooting took place outside the city of Los Angeles, officers with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) investigated the crime. They arrived a few minutes after receiving the 911 call and found six .380 caliber shell casings, two spent bullets, and bloodstains in the driveway.
Monica Rivera, who was 17 years old and a friend of Gonzalez’s, witnessed the shooting. She spoke briefly with deputies that night and said that there had been a single shooter, whom she believed to be a member of the Rascals gang. Rivera also spoke that night with Gonzalez’s brother, Vidal, who was at the hospital while doctors tried to save Albert’s life.
According to police reports, Rivera told Vidal that the shooter wore a nylon stocking over his head and wore a sweater with a hood. She also was said to have told him that “a guy named ‘Beto’ had a problem with Albert and Vidal.”
Vidal relayed his conversation with Rivera to sheriff’s deputies, stating that he was “uncertain” about the details but that he knew someone with the nickname of Beto: 19-year-old Humberto Duran. (As a later court filing would note, Beto is a common nickname for Hispanic men.) Vidal said the shooting might have been in retaliation for a shooting two years earlier, where a young man named Hector was killed outside Garfield High School.
Deputies ran Duran’s name through a state database, which showed arrests for drug possession and burglary.
On December 21, Sergeant Robert Perry and Detective Ruben Bejarano interviewed Rivera. They spoke with her for 90 minutes before recording a 40-minute “re-interview” at 10:30 a.m.
In the recorded statement, Rivera said there was a single shooter: a young, thin Hispanic man, about 5’8 to 5’10”, wearing a blue hoodie, and that he had first asked for Vidal. Rivera said that although the man wore a nylon stocking over his face, she could see a thin mustache and his bad complexion.
Rivera told the LASD detectives that she had seen two individuals in a Cadillac waiting for the shooter; she did not say that either person got out of the car. She also told the investigators that Duran was not the shooter, and she did not see him at the crime scene. When Perry mentioned Duran’s name, Rivera said he could have been in the Cadillac, but she did not see him. Later, Perry showed Rivera a mugshot of Duran.
After the interview ended, Perry discussed the case with Deputy Daniel Batanero, telling him that Duran was still a suspect. Batanero was close with Rivera’s family; at the time, he believed himself to be a distant relative. That night, Batanero went to Rivera’s house and interviewed her in the presence of seven family members. Batanero took no notes and didn’t record the conversation. In a later memo, he would say that it was during this interview that Rivera first implicated Duran in the shooting.
After the family gathering broke up, Batanero and Rivera returned to the sheriff’s office in East Los Angeles, where Perry and Bejarano re-interviewed her. A few hours later, at 1:15 a.m. on December 22, Rivera returned again to the interview room. She now said that she had told the deputies the truth “except toward the ending.” She said that Duran had been in the back of the Cadillac, but she had been afraid to name him. She said that the first shooter had shot Gonzalez four times, but that Duran had gotten out of the car and tried to shoot her. A week later, she identified Duran from a photo array.
Also on December 22, 1993, deputies arrested Edward Vargas, a member of the Rascals gang, after they saw an Astra pistol in his waistband. Vargas told the deputies two accounts of how he got the gun; either someone had given him the weapon, or he had found it in a paper bag on the ground.
Vargas was initially charged with unlawful possession of a weapon. After a forensic firearm examiner said test rounds fired from the pistol were consistent with the shell casings and bullets found at the crime scene, deputies charged Vargas with murder.
On December 26, 1993, Duran and his friend, Charles Baty, went to Rivera’s neighborhood after hearing rumors that Rivera was telling people Duran shot somebody. Duran spoke with Rivera’s stepfather, Wesley Colbert, who said she was not home. Duran gave Colbert a note with his name and telephone number and asked that Rivera contact him. Colbert called the deputies. They arrested Duran that day and charged him with witness intimidation.
After his arrest, on December 27, Duran gave a statement to Perry and Bejarano. He said he believed that Rivera’s actions of spreading rumors about him could be “dangerous” for him and might interfere with his plans to attend college and join the Marines. Duran also told the officers that he had briefly dated Rivera a year earlier but that they had broken up, based in part on Rivera’s promiscuity.
Duran told the officers he was worried about being set up for a crime he didn’t do. He denied belonging to the Rascals, based in the Maravilla neighborhood, or another gang, called the Stoners. Duran said he used to belong to a group called Kaos, which was a party crew. Duran’s records showed no indication he was in a gang, and he didn’t have any tattoos that indicated gang membership. Despite this lack of evidence, Perry wrote in his report that Duran admitted to “being an associate of the ‘Maravilla’ street gang.”
Sheriff’s detectives interviewed Vargas on December 27. He admitted to being a Rascals gang member and said he didn’t know Duran or a member of Rascals who was called “Beto.”
Two days later, on December 29, a young man named Peter Paez told sheriff’s detectives that a Rascals gang member named David Villalobos had confessed to shooting Gonzalez. In a recorded statement, Paez said that when Villalobos made his confession, he was wearing a thermal shirt and a hoodie, which was consistent with Rivera’s description of the shooter. Paez also said that Villalobos told him that he killed Gonzalez to avenge “Hector’s” death.
Paez, who was facing a robbery charge, said he was a founding member of the Rascals. In the recorded interview, Paez also said he met Duran for the first time that morning when they were both in court and that Duran was not a member of the Rascals. The sheriff’s report said the opposite, that Paez called Duran his “homie” and that he was in the Rascals.
Duran was arrested on January 6, 1994, and charged with first-degree murder of Gonzalez and attempted murder of Rivera.
Sheriff’s investigators interviewed Villalobos on January 12, 1994, and told him about Paez’s statement. Villalobos denied involvement with the murder. The investigators then re-interviewed Paez. Now, he said he didn’t know Villalobos or Vargas. Perry called Paez a “lying snitch.” Worried about his safety, Paez left town.
Baty went to the sheriff’s office on January 18, 1994, to give an alibi for Duran. He said that Duran was not in a gang, and he described their activities on the night of December 18, which included hanging out at a friend’s house, going to Taco Bell, and then leaving after 1 a.m. Baty said he walked Duran home, in part because Duran believed a sheriff’s deputy was harassing him and his public defender had told him not to be out on the streets alone.
Baty’s statement, recorded in an officer’s notes, did not make it into the formal police report. (Baty later said that the officers beat him and threatened to throw him in jail if he remained in East Los Angeles. Baty left California and did not testify at Duran’s trial.)
Duran and Vargas had their arraignment on May 12, 1994, in Los Angeles County Superior Court. (Duran would later say that this was the first time he met Vargas.) Donald Ainslie represented Duran. Deputy District Attorney Adam London represented the state in the arraignment, although not at trial. (London had previously prosecuted Duran’s brother, Javier, in an unrelated murder case. Javier was acquitted. London would be disbarred in 2011 for ethics violations.)
During the arraignment, Bejarano testified that Rivera had first implicated Duran in her initial interview on December 21, 1993. But Rivera had only said Duran could have been in the Cadillac; she didn’t actually see him.
Throughout the late summer and fall of 1994, Ainslie kept asking for delays. The trial began on December 2. On December 8, the judge held Ainslie in contempt and sanctioned him because of his habitual tardiness.
Rivera failed to show up in court on the trial’s first day. Batanero brought her in under a warrant on December 5. Her testimony differed from her initial accounts to investigators. Now, the second person came from the front passenger’s seat. She said this man wore a nylon stocking, but she could see his head was shaved (Duran’s head was not shaved at the time.)
Rivera also testified that “Beto” had his own gun and shot Gonzalez in the leg and then pointed the gun at her and pulled the trigger. The weapon did not fire, she said, and Duran told her “Don’t tell [be]cause I know who you are.”
Rivera said she knew Duran but had never dated him or had sex with him. She testified first that Duran was only a member of a party crew, but then testified he was affiliated with the Rascals. She also said she had seen Duran and Vargas hanging out together.
Vidal Gonzalez said that his sister had quickly mentioned Duran as a person who might be involved in the shooting. He said that he and Duran had an altercation two years prior to the shooting, because they were in rival party crews. He said he never saw Duran in the Maravilla neighborhood or associating with Rascals members.
Colbert testified that Duran approached his house on December 26, 1993, He said that Rivera was inside the house when Duran showed up, but later testified that she said that Duran was “the guy that was in the shooting.” According to Colbert, Duran said, “Monica’s been saying some things that ain’t cool, and I came by here to straighten it out.” He said that Duran did not make any threats.
Batanero testified about his interactions with Rivera after the shooting. He was unclear in his testimony about when he first learned of Duran’s name and who relayed that information to him. He testified that he had five previous interactions with Duran prior to the shooting.
Batanero also testified about the interview at Rivera’s house, where her family participated. This led to confusion and mistakes, he said. A cousin had said that the first shooter identified himself as “Speedy,” which was Vargas’s nickname. At the station, Batanero told the detectives that Rivera had said this, and she corrected him. Still, Batanero said, his memo repeated the mistake. He said: “It is quite possible that there are some inaccuracies in [the memo] … I did not take notes. It was not a taped interview.”
Perry testified about the investigation and about how Duran became a suspect. He initially said that Vidal was the first person to mention Duran’s possible involvement. But he later said the first time he heard Duran’s name was after Batanero interviewed Rivera on December 21, 1993. But that was a day after Perry had run a computerized records search on Duran. Perry said he ran the report because the initial report mentioned the shooter referencing a man named “Beto” seeking revenge. He testified that “Beto’s a nickname in Spanish. I’m half Hispanic. I know a lot of Betos.”
Perry testified that Rivera placed Duran in the back of the Cadillac in her first interview. But after reviewing his report, which did not include this information, he said this was wrong and that Rivera was “pretty much guessing” through her interview.
During cross-examination, Ainslie asked Perry whether Duran had any gang associations. Perry said that he believed Duran might belong to the Rascals, Stoners or Kaos. The judge called a sidebar and objected to the questioning, as it was introducing hearsay evidence.
Dale Higashi, a criminalist in the firearms identification section of the sheriff’s department, testified about the shell casings and the bullets found at the crime scene. He said that he compared this evidence to test rounds fired from the Astra pistol seized from Vargas. He said he had “one hundred percent certainty” that the shell casings and bullets collected from the crime scene, as well as the bullet recovered from the Coroner’s Office were all fired from the Astra.
Ainslie only called one witness, Yvette Zamora, a friend of Rivera’s and acquaintance of Duran’s. Zamora said that Rivera and Duran had dated. In 1993, Zamora testified, Rivera said she was pregnant with Duran’s child and later terminated the pregnancy. Zamora also testified that she knew Duran was a member of the Kaos party crew but wasn’t a member of the Rascals. A witness called by Vargas’s attorney also testified that Rivera had told her about dating Duran, becoming pregnant, and having an abortion in the summer of 1993.
On rebuttal, the state recalled Bejareno. He testified that Duran told him in his interview on December 27, 1993, that he and Rivera had only a casual relationship and never actually dated. Ainslie had not listened to the full recording of the interview, so he did not impeach Bejareno. He also didn’t ask the court to play the entire recording, which would have provided additional details about Duran’s relationship with Rivera.
During her closing argument, the prosecutor misstated some of the evidence in the case. She said that Rivera had never said there were two guns. The prosecutor said Rivera testified consistently but also that her inconsistencies were based on fear and actually evidence of her credibility. If Rivera was “like a machine and spit out identical information every single time she spoke…that [would] kind of raise an eyebrow,” the prosecutor said.
The jury convicted Vargas and Duran on all charges on December 15, 1994. Prior to sentencing, Ainslie moved for a new trial. He said he had discovered new alibi evidence: the mother of one of Duran’s friends said that Duran had been with her daughter from 6 p.m. on December 18 until about 1:30 a.m. on December 19, when Baty arrived to walk Duran home. In addition, Ainslie said he had two additional witnesses who would testify about the prior relationship between Rivera and Duran.
The state argued this was not new evidence. It could have been found with diligence if Ainslie had worked the case. The judge denied Ainslie’s motion and then sentenced Duran to two consecutive life sentences in prison.
Duran appealed his conviction, but it was affirmed by California’s Second District Court of Appeal on July 9, 1996.
Duran suffered greatly in prison. He was shot by a guard during a prison riot, stabbed, and beaten. His injuries left him with seizures and the need for a permanent catheter.
In 2011, Rivera recanted her testimony to Duran’s cousin, and a year later she recanted to his sister. She would later write: “I told them that l wanted to tell the truth about Beto not being involved in Albert’s murder. I really wanted and tried to come forward then and do the right thing then, but I just couldn’t.”
In 2017, according to the Los Angeles Times, Duran contacted Loyola Law School’s Project for the Innocent. Megan Baca, at the time an investigator with the project, reached out to Rivera on Facebook, and the two women began talking about the case. Eventually, Rivera went public with her recantation.
In a 15-page affidavit dated March 8, 2021, Rivera wrote: “I know Beto is innocent. I didn’t tell the truth when I testified at his trial and said that he was involved in Albert’s killing. My role in sending an innocent man to prison has haunted me for the past 27 years.”
Rivera said that two men shot Gonzalez and that one of the men did mention the name “Beto.” She knew a lot of young men with that nickname, and the second man wasn’t Duran.
I recognized the second shooter from around the Maravilla projects,” she said. “I had heard rumors that he was high ranking, dangerous, and a very active gang member. I could have and would have identified him to the cops if the cops hadn’t insisted that I name [Duran].”
Rivera said the sheriff’s detectives pressured her to place Duran at the scene and then name him as the second shooter. She said they threatened to place her in jail. Rivera said she finally cooperated because she was exhausted and scared of the second shooter.
In the affidavit, Rivera said that the recorded interview was incomplete; the detectives had stopped and started the machine, omitting the sections where they yelled and treated her aggressively. (A later report by a forensic audio examiner hired by Duran’s attorneys said the recording was filled with starts and stops.)
Rivera also said that she did not believe Duran tried to intimidate her when he stopped by the house. She said she watched from the window as Duran talked to her stepfather. The sheriff’s detectives had told Rivera’s family not to let her speak with anyone.
“I really wanted to go outside and talk to him and tell him what was going on,” Rivera said. “I have always thought that if I would have had the chance to speak to him that day, it wouldn’t have turned out the way it did.”
Based in part on Rivera’s recantation, Duran was paroled from prison in January 2023. A year later, on January 9, 2024, Baca and Arianna Price, both with California Innocence Advocates, filed a state petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The petition noted Rivera’s recantation but also said that Duran’s conviction was marred by poor investigative practices and official misconduct. These included:
-- Witness tampering by LASD detectives to pressure Rivera to name Duran as the shooter. The petition said the detectives threatened Rivera and asked leading questions. They also showed Rivera a single photo of Duran early in the investigation.
-- Witness tampering with Baty, Duran’s potential alibi witness. Baty said he returned from his interview with a black eye and warning to leave town. According to the petition, the detectives also tampered with Paez, who had initially named another man as the second shooter. After detectives exposed Paez to potential gang retribution, he changed his statement.
-- Failing to investigate Duran’s alibi or his purported gang ties. Duran’s filing included a report from a gang expert that said there was a clear delineation between the party crews and the gangs, and that Vargas, in the Rascals, would not have committed a serious crime with Duran, who was only a member of a party crew.
-- Failing to include information from Baty’s interview in the final police report and failing to disclose to Ainslie the officer’s handwritten notes from this interview, which the petition said was exculpatory evidence.
-- A history of purported misconduct by Batanero, who was said to be one of the founding members of the Banditos gang run out of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. “Members of the Banditos used intimidation and violence against community members and withheld exculpatory and impeachment evidence long before Monica was pressured and threatened into implicating an innocent man,” the petition said.
The petition also said Ainslie failed his client. He didn’t file any pre-trial motions, including any motion to sever Duran’s trial from Vargas’s, or adequately investigate the case, as evidenced by a lack of any discovery material Ainslie provided to the prosecution. Crucially, the petition said, Ainslie didn’t investigate Duran’s relationship with Rivera, dig into his alibi, or retain an expert witness to testify about the distinctions between party crews and gangs.
In addition, the petition said, Ainslie failed to cross-examine Batanero about his purported gang involvement and the complaints filed against him for abuse of his power.
Equally important, while representing Duran, Ainslie took on a client named Oscar Avila, who was also charged with murder. Without Duran’s consent, the petition said, Ainslie listed Duran as a potential witness in Avila’s case. Duran said he told Ainslie he didn’t know Avila and had nothing to say at trial. This conflict of interest, the petition said, created a dangerous situation for Duran, who would later say, “When some guys at Wayside jail found out I was on the witness list for Avil[a]’s trial, they must have thought I was being a snitch because a bunch of guys jumped me and beat me up.”
Ainslie was disbarred in 1997 for ethical violations.
In a response filed on October 17, 2024, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office agreed that Duran’s conviction should be thrown out. The response did not address the petition’s claims of misconduct or investigative problems but said that Ainslie had failed to adequately represent Duran and that there was new evidence of innocence, which included Rivera’s recantation and statements from seven persons who were Rascals members at the time of the shooting. Each said that Duran was not in the Rascals and that Vargas wouldn’t have hung out with him, much less commit a crime together.
“The question is not whether it can be determined with certainty that a declarant is telling the truth,” the response said. “Rather, the assessment is whether the new evidence is ‘sufficiently credible’ and material that it more likely than not would have caused reasonable doubt in the mind of at least one juror. Here, Respondent concedes that, with this combination of new evidence, Petitioner has met that burden.”
Judge H. Clay Jacke II granted the petition on October 22, 2024, vacating Duran’s conviction and then dismissing the case.
On October 30, 2024, Baca filed a petition asking for a finding of factual innocence. On April 18, 2025, Judge Jacke granted that motion.
“I am happy this is finally done,” Baca told the Times. “This means that Mr. Duran can seek compensation from the Victim Compensation Board for every day he was wrongfully incarcerated. But more importantly, his name is cleared and the truth is out.”
– Ken Otterbourg
Posting Date: 05-20-2025
Last Update Date: 05-20-2025
