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Lombardo Palacios

Los Angeles County Exonerations
https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/PublishingImages/Lombardo_Palacios.jpg
At 10:20 p.m. on March 28, 2007, 42-year-old Hector Flores was shot to death in the parking lot of a dollar store in the West Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. His fiancée, 45-year-old Lenette Benkiran was shot in the shoulder.

Police interviewed Benkiran at the hospital. She said that she and Flores had driven to a parking lot near the store to deliver some food to a friend who was homeless. After making the delivery, Benkiran said, she saw a white car, maybe a Honda, in the parking lot. A Hispanic male in the front passenger seat waved them over, and Flores drove up in his SUV. Benkiran said the passenger in the sedan mentioned something about “White Fence,” an apparent reference to a long-established gang in Los Angeles. Flores told the people in the other car that he was a former member of the Latin Kings, then began to drive away.

According to Benkiran, Flores quickly yelled, “Get down, Mamacita,” and pushed her head down. Benkiran said she looked over at the other car and saw the passenger in the rear seat holding a gun. She heard five shots and felt the pain in her shoulder.

Benkiran described the car’s driver as a Hispanic woman, 22-25 years old, with brown hair in a ponytail. She described the front passenger as a Hispanic man, 25 years old, heavyset with a shaved head, wearing wire glasses. She described the rear passenger as a short Hispanic man, about 18-20 years old, with short brown hair.

In her second interview, on March 29, Benkiran gave descriptions of the assailants consistent with her first statement. She said the car was either a Honda or Toyota, with tinted windows, a small spoiler on the trunk, and some yellow tape on the right rear passenger door.

On April 11, police showed Benkiran an 11-page book with 62 photos of purported members of the White Fence gang. Benkiran identified 20-year-old Charlotte Pleytez as the driver of the car, telling officers she was “99 percent” sure of her selection. She also identified another man, known as S.J., as being the front-seat passenger. (She would also select him from a photo lineup on April 19.) Pleytez was one of only two women in the book, and the first female photo that Benkiran encountered when she viewed the photos.

On April 27, Pleytez was shown a photo lineup that included 15-year-old Lombardo Palacios. She said that she was “99 percent sure” that he was the shooter.

Two other women, Elizabeth Enciso and Janet Yi, had witnessed the shooting while they were at Enciso’s car in the dollar store’s parking lot.

Enciso selected Pleytez from a photo lineup on April 19. She wrote: “I Elizabeth Enciso was able to view six photos and photo #6 [Pleytez] stood out the most. One of the features that I noticed were the subject’s eyebrows. Some facial features as well.” She viewed a lineup that included other potential suspects, including S.J., but did not make any identifications. Enciso selected Palacios from a photo lineup on May 22. She wrote: “The picture that stood out the most was picture number 5. The skin tone stood out and his nose.” Yi selected Pleytez from a photo lineup on April 19. She wrote: “I picked #6 because of her slender face and her black hair [past] shoulder length. She had a lighter Latina comple[xion].”

Yi selected Palacios from a lineup on May 21, writing: “He had a slender face and his nose was prominent. Also, his chin was pointy. He resembles the suspect that I saw that night.”

During the investigation, the police interviewed Joseph Henry, known as “Liquor Store Joe.” He said he bought crack cocaine from Flores, making his arrangements from the pay telephone in the parking lot, and that he had seen Flores on the night of the shooting. Benkiran confirmed that Flores received a call from Henry at around 10 p.m.

Separately, a gang detective passed on a tip that he had heard that the shooter was “Baron,” the nickname for a man named R.N., and that another man, B.R., was with him.

Police arrested Pleytez on May 30, 2007. She was two months pregnant and denied any involvement in the shooting.

During an interview with Detectives Vicki Bynum and Christopher Gable, Pleytez said she had hung out with White Fence members to “fit in,” but that stopped when she moved to the Hollywood area. “I must have a twin or something,” she said.

The officers kept pressing. Pleytez said: “"I didn't direct this. I didn't do anything. You guys want me to lie and say that I was there when I wasn’t.” She then asked for an attorney and the interview stopped.

Palacios was also arrested on May 30. During a search of his house, police found a “W” belt buckle, which indicated his membership in the White Fence gang, and a drawing of a White Fence member with a gun in his hand. As with their search of Pleytez’s house, officers found no evidence connecting Palacios to the shooting.

Bynum and Detective Tom Small read Palacios his Miranda rights and then interviewed him for three hours. The officers first discussed Palacios’s membership in White Fence and then asked him about “running around” with Charlotte Pleytez.

“Who’s Charlotte?” Pleytez asked.

“I already know what you did,” Bynum said.

Palacios repeatedly said he was innocent.

After an hour, the detectives left the room. Palacios broke down, asked for God’s help, and said that he “did nothing.” The detectives returned. Bynum falsely said that Pleytez had blamed Palacios for the shooting. (A 2024 law now prohibits California police from lying to juvenile suspects. A 2021 law requires juvenile suspects to speak with an attorney before the start of a custodial interview.)

Palacios said, “How can I say I was there if I know nothing.” Small said he needed to be honest.

Slowly, Palacios began to place himself at the scene. Bynum told him he was “doing good.” Palacios said that he “took off” when he saw what was about to happen, and that the others were blaming him because he left.

As the interview continued, Palacios stumbled over the details of his alleged involvement and the crime itself. He said the victims had been walking, and Bynum asked him if he was sure about that. Palacios offered few details about the victims.

Bynum said Palacios needed to be totally honest and acknowledge he had a gun in his hand. She suggested that he was ordered to shoot Flores and Benkiran.

“I didn’t even pull the trigger,” he said. Bynum responded, “Maybe you didn’t even realize you pulled the trigger.”

“I didn’t hit anyone,” Palacios said.

“I know you didn’t mean to shoot anyone,” Bynum said.

Palacios said he shot the gun in the air but didn’t hit anyone. Small said that Palacios walked up to the car. Palacios said the people were outside the car. “Are you sure?” Small asked.

Palacios said he fired twice. Small again asked him, “Are we sure? Maybe you lost count.”

Eventually, the interview ended. The detectives left. Alone in the room, Palacios repeated, “I didn’t do nothing.”

A two-day preliminary hearing began on October 23, 2007. Benkiran testified about the shooting and identified Palacios as the shooter and Pleytez as the driver. She said she had “every confidence in the world” about her identifications. “I know who I saw, and I’ll never forget their faces,” she said.

Enciso was asked at the hearing if she saw the two suspects in the courtroom. She said Palacios “looked like” the shooter and Pleytez looked like the driver, but she was not 100 percent certain. Yi also identified Pleytez and Palacios. Yi also testified that she had told an investigator for the defense that she was only 60 percent sure of her identification of Pleytez.

Their joint trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court began nearly two years later, on September 21, 2009.

Benkiran identified Palacios and Pleytez and testified that she was “100 percent sure” that they were the shooter and driver. She also testified that she had poor eyesight, requiring tri-focal glasses, and that she had only briefly seen the shooter’s face as he ran up to their car. Benkiran also testified that she had used drugs in the 24 hours preceding the murder.

To shore up Benkiran’s identification, the state also introduced a supplement Gable wrote two years after his 2007 report on Benkiran’s initial identification of Pleytez. He wrote that Benkiran had said, “Everything about [Pleytez’s] face was similar to the girl who was driving. The only difference was that on the night of the shooting, the girl had red tint in her hair.” This bolstered a separate police report that Pleytez’s hair at the time of the murder had a reddish tint.

Enciso testified that Pleytez looked like the driver, but she was not sure. She testified that she had identified Palacios from police photos but due to the passage of time she was no longer confident that he was the shooter.

Yi’s courtroom identifications of Palacios and Pleytez were also tentative. She said she was “pretty sure” Palacios was the shooter and “60 percent sure” Pleytez was the driver, as she had only seen the driver’s profile.

Officer Darin Flores testified as an expert witness about the White Fence gang. He said the gang made money by selling drugs and used violence to ensure that other dealers didn’t encroach on its territory. He said the penalty for selling drugs in the gang’s turf without the gang’s approval could include death.

Prosecutors also introduced the drawing found in Palacios’s room, which was said to depict the life of a White Fence gang member, including a picture of a girl on top of large pile of marijuana.

Pleytez testified in her own defense. She denied any involvement in the shooting and said she did not know Palacios. She acknowledged being a member of the White Fence gang and said that her hair had been tinted red.

Carla Campos, Pleytez’s mother, testified that the police had harassed her family in the past and that she had complained about the harassment. By the time of the trial, Pleytez had given birth to her daughter, who was being raised by Campos.

Dr. Kathy Pezdek, a cognitive scientist at Claremont Graduate University, testified as a defense expert on memory and eyewitness identification. She said eyewitness identifications could be impaired by poor lighting, distance, and the time of exposure to a stranger’s face. She also said eyewitnesses often focused on the weapons, rather than faces, and that there was a weak relationship between the accuracy of eyewitness identifications and the witness’s confidence in the identification.

Palacios did not testify, and the state did not introduce his videotaped statement as evidence.

The jury convicted Palacios and Pleytez of first-degree murder, with gang and firearm enhancements, on October 6, 2009. It acquitted them on the charge of attempted murder. They were each sentenced on January 22, 2010, to 50 years to life in prison.

Palacios told Judge Charlaine Olmedo: “I’m innocent, Miss. This is unfair. It wasn’t even me.”

Palacios and Pleytez appealed. Pleytez argued that Benkiran’s initial identification was unreliable because there were only two women in the photo book. Palacios argued that Judge Olmedo improperly excluded a toxicology report that found evidence of cocaine in Flores’s blood. He said that could have been used to impeach Benkiran’s testimony about her limited drug use and the credibility of her identification.

A three-judge panel from California’s Second District Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions on July 19, 2011. The court said that although the identification procedures used by the police were suggestive, Benkiran’s selection was reliable based on the totality of Benkiran’s observation of the shooting. It rejected Palacios’s arguments, writing that Flores’s apparent drug use had no bearing on whether Benkiran saw what she said she saw.

In 2021, Nicolas Tomas, then a law student at Loyola Law School and now an attorney at Constangy, Brooks, heard about Pleytez’s case after asking a friend who was also a prisoner at Central California Women’s Facility if she knew of anyone who might be innocent. Tomas contacted Pleytez, and she put him in touch with Palacios.

After researching their convictions, Tomas took their case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Conviction Review Unit (CRU) in November 2022.

Separately, Pleytez’s family had hired John Brown, a private investigator, to work on the case. The team representing both Palacios and Pleytez eventually expanded to include attorney Matthew Lombard, and attorneys Ellen Eggers and Megan Baca, with California Innocence Advocates.

On October 17, 2024, attorneys for Pleytez and Palacios joined with the district attorney’s office in submitting a state petition for a writ of habeas corpus, asking the court to vacate the convictions. The public version of the petition, which is heavily redacted, said a reinvestigation had identified the real perpetrators and that Palacios and Pleytez were factually innocent of the crime.

On December 20, 2024, Judge William Ryan granted the petition, and the state dismissed the charges that day. Both Palacios and Pleytez were released from prison.

At the time the petition was filed, George Gascon was district attorney, but he lost to Nathan Hochman in November, who took office in December. Hochman said he also would seek a finding of actual innocence. At a news conference, Hochman, said, “I owe a heartfelt apology to you, Mr. Palacios, and to you, Ms. Pleytez, for what you’ve gone through, for the suffering you’ve endured.”

But Hochman also said in a statement that “There is no evidence to suggest that any of the investigating officers, responding officers, or prosecutors involved in the case acted inappropriately, unethically, or illegally in performing their duties in the investigation and prosecution of this case given the applicable case law and state of the evidence at that time.”

Pleytez, whose daughter is now 17 years old, told the news website, LAist.com, “I'm so grateful for the system that exonerated us, but I worry still about the system that convicted us in the first place.”

According to Tomas, Palacios had an opportunity to seek resentencing, based on his age at the time of the crime. But Palacios balked, because of a requirement to write a statement of remorse. “At one point I thought there was no God,” Palacios said. “I’m the living proof that he exists. He made a miracle happen to me and my family.”

Palacios was an immigrant from Guatemala. Pleytez was from El Salvador. Brown told the Los Angeles Times that both were from poor families without the means to adequately fight the charges against them. “The absolute powerlessness of the defendants and their families created the perfect storm of where there were no guardrails,” he said. “Nobody heard them. Nobody listened.”

– Ken Otterbourg

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Posting Date: 2/3/2025
Last Updated: 2/3/2025
State:California
County:Los Angeles
Most Serious Crime:Murder
Additional Convictions:
Reported Crime Date:2007
Convicted:2009
Exonerated:2024
Sentence:50 to Life
Race/Ethnicity:Hispanic
Sex:Male
Age at the date of reported crime:15
Contributing Factors:Mistaken Witness ID, False Confession, False or Misleading Forensic Evidence
Did DNA evidence contribute to the exoneration?:No