Puerto Ricans accused of killing beauty queen get new trial
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – A judge on Wednesday ordered a new trial for three men who challenged their murder conviction under a new law that allows convicted criminals to request DNA analyses on certain types of evidence.
The three men have served 20 years in prison after being convicted in 1995 of killing a local beauty queen. The men, Jose Caro, Nelson Ruiz and Nelson Ortiz, have repeatedly denied involvement and alleged that they were set up.
Attorneys with Puerto Rico’s Interamerican University Innocence Project in January challenged the men’s conviction under the new law. They said DNA evidence was not properly analyzed and noted that a witness who placed the men at the scene has since retracted his testimony, saying he lied.
The judge set bail for Caro at $7,000 and for Ruiz and Ortiz at $5,000 each. The ruling is the first of its kind in response to a law Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla signed in December. The law states that requests can apply only to new evidence, to state evidence that was never analyzed or to evidence that was analyzed but whose results were questioned.
The men are scheduled to appear in court on Friday for a preliminary hearing.
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