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Israel Fuentes

Other Montgomery, TX Exonerations

On January 8, 2013, police in Conroe, Texas arrested 19-year-old Israel Fuentes and accused him of selling cocaine to an undercover officer on October 22, 2012.

Without waiting for a crime lab analysis, Fuentes pled guilty on April 11, 2013 in Montgomery County Criminal District Court and was sentenced to five years in prison. His deferred adjudication on a prior assault conviction was revoked and he was given an additional five-year sentence to be served concurrently with the drug charge sentence.

In May 2013, the police crime laboratory tested the substance that police said Fuentes sold them and it tested negative for the presence of drugs. The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office notified the judge in Fuentes’ case and attorney Jarrod Walker was appointed to file a petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

The trial court judge granted the petition and Fuentes was released on May 20, 2013. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued the writ and dismissed the charge on June 26, 2013.

– Maurice Possley


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Posting Date: 6/30/2013
State:Texas
County:Montgomery
Most Serious Crime:Drug Possession or Sale
Additional Convictions:
Reported Crime Date:2012
Convicted:2013
Exonerated:2013
Sentence:5 years
Race/Ethnicity:Hispanic
Sex:Male
Age at the date of reported crime:19
Contributing Factors:
Did DNA evidence contribute to the exoneration?:No