Jailhouse records soon proved Sanders right, embroiling the district attorney’s office and Sheriff’s Department in a national scandal.
The defense attorney alleged that Orange County sheriff’s deputies planted a prolific snitch and reputed Mexican Mafia shot-caller in Dekraai’s cell, and covered up their illegal acts. In 2014, Sanders started asking questions while representing Scott Dekraai, who’d confessed to killing eight people in a Seal Beach hair salon in 2011. The overturning of Smith’s case came years after the Orange County informant scandal broke into the public eye. How a major investigation into Orange County jail informants ended with a whimperĪfter a four-year investigation into the Orange County Sheriff’s Department ended with no explanation and no criminal charges in 2019, law enforcement officials and attorneys have begun to speak about some of the limits - and shortcomings - of the California attorney general’s office review of the case. Prickett recused himself from overseeing the case because he’d endorsed Baytieh’s run for judge. Shortly after Smith was granted a new trial, Judge Gregg L. Sanders and Ross alleged information about Smith obtained by the informants was withheld from defense attorneys in 2010. Tony Rackauckas’ electoral loss to Spitzer in 2018. That case, along with Baytieh’s conduct, came under increasing scrutiny after a scandal in Orange County over prosecutors’ use of jailhouse informants became a major factor in longtime Dist. Superior Court Judge Patrick Donahue granted Smith a new trial, a move that came amid hearings requested by assistant public defenders Scott Sanders and Sara Ross over whether Smith’s constitutional rights were violated when he was allegedly targeted by jailhouse informants.
29, 2010.īut the conviction was overturned in August when O.C. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Nov. He claimed his blood was found because he was there the night before the killing and had nicked himself with a small knife while cutting marijuana, prosecutors said at the time. Smith was Haugen’s friend since high school and denied killing him. The DNA was matched to blood at Haugen’s apartment, the district attorney’s office said at the time. The case stayed cold until 2009, when Smith submitted DNA after an unrelated arrest in Nevada.
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