By Daniel Borunda
El Paso Times
EL PASO, Texas — Three men convicted of murders they didn’t commit were the guest speakers at a gathering Monday evening in support of Daniel Villegas, an El Pasoan in prison for a double-homicide he said he didn’t commit.
The event had been planned to coincide with the first day of an evidentiary hearing seeking to prove that Villegas is innocent, but the hearing was postponed until June 21 after the district attorney’s office asked for time to review the case.
Villegas was 16 years old when he claims an El Paso police detective forced him to confess to the shooting of Armando “Mando” Lazo and Bobby England in 1993. Villegas is 34 now and serving a life sentence.
District Attorney Jaime Esparza prosecuted the case and has said that the jury decided the validity of the confession.
“Daniel has not lost faith and with your support and prayers, Daniel soon will be with his family,” defense lawyer Joe Spencer told about 40 of Villegas’ relatives and supporters at the gathering on the top floor of the DoubleTree Hotel.
Chris Ochoa and Alejandro Hernandez, both of El Paso, and Juan Roberto Melendez, who was freed from death row in Florida, served more than a decade in prison each before their convictions were dropped.
Ochoa had signed a confession and pleaded guilty to murder and rape of a pizza restaurant worker in Austin in 1988. DNA evidence eventually freed Ochoa, who is now a lawyer in Wisconsin.
“I don’t lend my name in support of many cases,” Ochoa said. “Daniel’s story really touched me because Daniel was wronged.”
The “Free Daniel Villegas” movement is spearheaded and funded by contractor John Mimbela Sr., a friend of the Villegas family.
“Somebody like John is a pioneer in ending wrongful convictions,” said Hernandez, whose conviction was overturned after nearly 13 years in prison.
Juan Roberto Melendez was on Florida’s death row for a 1983 murder. Melendez was incarcerated for 17 years, eight months and a day until the confession of the real killer surfaced, he said.
“I was not saved by the system,” Melendez said. “I was saved despite the system. I was saved by the grace of God.”
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