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Gilbert Amezquita

Other Texas Cases with Inadequate Legal Defense
In February 1998, a woman was attacked at the Houston, Texas plumbing company where she worked, which was owned by her father. She was badly beaten and remained in a coma for ten days. 
 
The victim initially told police she could not identify her attacker, but after emerging from the coma, she whispered the name “Gilbert.” Twenty days after the attack, the woman picked 20-year-old Gilbert Amezquita out of a photo array. 
 
Amezquita had worked at the plumbing company until shortly before the assault. The woman said she had had a verbal altercation with "Gilbert" two days prior to the assault. 
 
The police recovered scrapings from under the victim’s fingernails, and both the defense and the prosecution requested to delay the trial until DNA testing could be completed, but the judge refused.  The fingernail scrapings were never tested and were destroyed shortly after trial. 
 
In July 1998, a jury convicted Amezquita of aggravated assault and he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
 
After his conviction, Amezquita retained a new attorney who discovered important information that Amezquita’s trial attorney never pursued. The victim’s cell phone was stolen during the attack, and Amezquita’s trial attorney failed to interview the people who were called after the cell phone was stolen. The attorney subsequently admitted that he had done nothing more than review the court file before Amezquita’s trial.
 
Amezquita’s new attorney filed a state habeas corpus petition in 2000 claiming that police reports provided to the defense prior to the trial identified Christine Allen as someone who had used the phone after the assault.
 
In 2002, Christine Allen told a district attorney and his investigator that she borrowed the phone from James Wilder, who had bought it from Alonzo “Gilbert” Guerrero. Wilder confirmed Allen’s story. 
 
Guerrero also worked at the plumbing company and had had an argument with the victim shortly before the attack. In 2003, the trial court recommended that Amezquita receive a new trial. In November 2006, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Amezquita’s conviction and granted him a new trial based on the inadequate investigation by his trial attorney. 
 
Amezquita was released on bail in December 2006 and prosecutors dismissed the charges in February 2007. 
 
In May 2007, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended that Amezquita receive a pardon on the basis of actual innocence. In August 2007, the Governor pardoned Amezquita. In October 2008, Amezquita received a lump sum of $333,333 in state compensation plus a monthly annuity of $2,475.
 
- Stephanie Denzel

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Posting Date:  Before June 2012
Last Updated: 6/27/2016
State:Texas
County:Harris
Most Serious Crime:Assault
Additional Convictions:
Reported Crime Date:1998
Convicted:1998
Exonerated:2007
Sentence:15 years
Race/Ethnicity:Hispanic
Sex:Male
Age at the date of reported crime:20
Contributing Factors:Mistaken Witness ID, Inadequate Legal Defense
Did DNA evidence contribute to the exoneration?:No