Craig Coley Wiki – Craig Coley Biography
Craig Coley was convicted in 1980 of raping and killing his ex-girlfriend, Rhonda Wicht, 24, and suffocating their 4-year-old son Donnie on November 11, 1978. Coley, who maintained his innocence In the beginning, was arrested the same day as the murders, and detectives never considered another suspect.
Simi Valley Police Detective Mike Bender came across the case in 1989 and began taking another look, noticing several red flags: the Ventura County Star reported. He continued to investigate, even after his retirement, assisting Coley with his appeals and petitions. A California man who spent nearly four decades in prison for two murders he did not commit has offered a $ 50,000 reward for evidence leading to the conviction of the real killers.
Craig Coley Age
Craig Coley is 74 years old.
Craig Coley Killing His ex-Girlfriend
Bender also told Simi Valley Deputy Chief David Livingstone, now Chief of Police, about his findings, including flimsy evidence used for a conviction. Livingstone reopened the investigation in 2016. An unsolved case detective located the missing evidence in the case and ran a DNA test, unavailable during Coley’s trial, and found that the DNA in the evidence belonged to an unknown donor and not Coley. In addition, investigators discredited the testimony of a witness who claimed to have seen Coley at the crime scene.
In a report issued on the new investigation, current and former officers wrote that they believed the detective investigating the Wicht murders “had mishandled the investigation or framed Mr. Coley.” the Los Angeles Times reported. One prosecutor said the original detectives appeared to be suffering from “tunnel vision” and decided too quickly that Coley was guilty.
Finally, in November 2017, Coley was exonerated and released, and then-Governor Jerry Brown issued a full pardon. as reported by CrimeOnline. The following year, he was awarded $ 2 million by the California Victims Compensation Board, and the lawsuits against Ventura County and Simi Valley were settled for more than $ 22 million over the next two years, eventually closing to late last year, VC Star said.
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Investigators turned their attention to the Golden State Killer as a suspect in the Wicht murders, but when Joseph James DeAngelo Jr was arrested for the crimes, DNA evidence removed him as a suspect. as CrimeOnline previously reported.
With all the court cases resolved and his life renewed, Coley decided to offer his own money to find the killers.
“Your family deserves a relief for this”, Coley told KNSD. Bender, now Coley’s best friend, agrees. I want to know the truth,” he said. “I would like a true confession. I think everyone needs that closure to know what really happened to them. ”