By Jordan Smith
Jacque Wilson was in his car heading home from a softball game
on a late August evening when his phone rang. It was his friend Kate
Chatfield: She told him California Senate Bill 1437 had finally passed
and was headed to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk. “And I’m driving, and I just
break down crying,” Wilson told The Intercept.
The new law would dramatically redefine use of the state’s archaic
felony murder rule in criminal prosecutions. It would also mean that
Wilson’s younger brother Neko might finally be coming home after more
than nine years behind bars awaiting trial for a grisly crime that he
insists he played no part in.
Neko Wilson was one of six people charged with the robbery-murder of
Gary and Sandra DeBartolo, who had an illicit marijuana grow operation
inside their Fresno County home. The state alleged that Neko and the
others planned to steal the dope and whatever cash was in the house. But
that plot apparently went sideways. Minutes after two of the accused
conspirators, Leroy Johnson and Jose Reyes, entered the DeBartolos’ home
on the morning of July 22, 2009, the couple was killed, their throats
slashed. After a high-speed chase, police caught up with the getaway
car.
Neko was not at the DeBartolos’ house that day, and he wasn’t in the
getaway car. Still, he was arrested and charged with the couple’s
murder. Prosecutors announced that they would seek the death penalty for
Neko under the felony murder rule.
Click here for the full article.
Source: The Intercept_
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