A14 SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2019 S LATIMES.COM
more than 1,600 others have
sought relief, and about 10
convictions have been un-
done to date.
But the reprieve for Bon-
ner that day went far beyond
that. Superior Court Judge
Daniel J. Lowenthal de-
clined to resentence him and
instead ordered him re-
leased, citing misconduct by
a prosecutor who used a
shady jailhouse informant.
Besides the informant’s tes-
timony, he said, there was lit-
tle linking Bonner to the
crime at all.
“That the death penalty
was sought against someone
based on testimony that was
known to be false is horrify-
ing and shocks the con-
science,” the judge said.
::The saga began on Veter-
ans Day 1982, when Leonard
Polk was found inside his
Long Beach apartment in a
pool of blood, severely beat-
en and with two bullets
through the back of his head.
Bonner and an acquaint-
ance, Watson Allison, were
charged with killing Polk
during a robbery, making
both subject to the death
penalty if convicted.
At Bonner’s trial, the
prosecutor at the time, Kurt
Seifert, argued that Bonner
was the gunman, despite a
weak connection to the
crime scene.
An undercover officer
testified that he saw Bonner
and Allison driving around,
Bonner’s 1964 Ford rumbling
and smoking, and thought
they looked suspicious. The
officer began to tail them,
and when the car was idling
at an intersection he ob-
served a bicyclist leaning up
against the car talking with
Allison. The officer then saw
Allison and the bicyclist,
Polk, walk into a nearby
apartment.
Later, a neighbor saw Al-
lison making several trips in
and out of the apartment
carrying property including
a TV set, and then driving
off.
No one saw Bonner go in-
side Polk’s apartment. Au-
thorities did find an envel-
ope in his car addressed to
Allison with Polk’s cross
streets. A speaker found in
Allison’s home — 11 days af-
ter the robbery — was
marked by Bonner’s palm
print. And a fuse found out-
side Polk’s apartment build-
ing matched fuses found in
Bonner’s pocket.
The most conclusive link
to Bonner came from the
testimony of a key witness: A
prolific jailhouse informant
who claimed Bonner con-
fessed to him that he shot
Polk.
Before Bonner’s trial, the
informant, Michael Hayes,
had appeared in court on his
own murder charge. As part
of a deal with prosecutors,
he pleaded guilty to man-
slaughter and was sen-
tenced to four years in state
prison. The leniency was at-
tributed to his cooperation
in several serious cases,
court documents show.
By then, one defendant in
another murder case had al-
ready accused him of lying.
During a preliminary hear-
ing, Hayes testified that he
saw the defendant shoot a
man, then take his jewelry.
“You are lying!” the de-
fendant blurted out, accord-
ing to a transcript of the 1983
proceeding.
The judge tried to stop
the defendant.
“He sits there and lie on
me, just straight out lie on
me like that. Why don’t he
tell the truth?” the defend-
ant said.
Hayes took the stand a
few months later in Bonner’s
trial, which involved just
three days of testimony.
Bonner’s lawyer, Ron Slick,
who was known in legal cir-
cles as Dr. Death because so
many of his clients ended up
on death row, did not call a
single witness in his defense.
Bonner was convicted of
murder and robbery, but the
jury concluded that he was
not the shooter, so Seifert
dropped the death penalty.
At Allison’s trial soon af-
ter, Seifert presented a sepa-
rate panel of jurors with a
different theory, in which Al-
lison was the gunman and
Bonner had a “relatively mi-
nor” role as the wheelman
who never even entered the
apartment. The prosecutor
never brought up Bonner’s
alleged confession.
Allison was convicted
and sentenced to death.
In a deposition decades
later in Allison’s habeas
case, Seifert called his strat-
egy — arguing at Allison’s
trial that Bonner never set
foot in Polk’s apartment — a
“boo-boo” and “the big
oops,” court documents
show. A detective deposed
around the same time said
that, based on the evidence,
he and his partner didn’t
think Bonner killed Polk. He
couldn’t remember if he
formed that conclusion be-
fore or after Bonner’s trial,
or if he relayed it to Seifert,
court documents show.
Allison’s death sentence
was eventually overturned
and he was resentenced in
2012 to 25 years to life, ac-
cording to the Department
of Corrections and Rehabili-
tation. He will come up for
parole again by January.::Nineteen days after his
verdict in 1983, Bonner wrote
a letter to the judge saying he
didn’t get a fair trial. He had
wanted to tell his side of the
story, he wrote, but his attor-
ney didn’t let him testify.
Slick, the attorney, could
not be reached for comment.
Bonner continued his
fight for decades, losing his
appeal and habeas petitions
— once because the paper-
work was filed late. He said
he was found unsuitable for
parole several times because
he wouldn’t accept responsi-
bility for the crime.
“I expressed my empathy
for the family,” Bonner told
The Times recently. “I can’t
say I take back something I
didn’t do.”
The repeated rejection
left him numb, he said, buthe never stopped believing
that one day he’d be free.
In 2002, another case was
overturned because Hayes
lied about a jailhouse con-
fession. As it turned out,
Hayes had been trading in-
formation with authorities
in Kentucky for years, but
they cut him off as an inform-
ant because of repeated dis-
honesty.
Still, Bonner’s case was
never reopened.
A spokeswoman for the
district attorney’s office said
it had no record of receiving
a conviction review request
from Bonner and was not
notified of the two habeas
petitions he filed in Los An-
geles County Superior Court
in recent years. Both peti-
tions were denied by Lowen-
thal, the spokeswoman said.
It wasn’t until January,
when the new felony murder
law went into effect, that
Bonner had a fresh chance
to fight. The law says that
murder charges can be filed
only against people who ac-
tually killed or were a major
participant with reckless in-
difference to human life.
Bonner filed a petition seek-
ing relief, triggering a hear-
ing.
Prosecutors opposed on
constitutional grounds, as
they have done in many
other cases, arguing in court
papers that the new law im-
properly changes voter-
approved crime-fighting ini-
tiatives, including a pro-
position that set stricter
penalties for murder and an-
other that expanded the def-
inition of first-degree mur-
der.
They also argued that be-
cause it’s retroactive, the law
improperly reopens judg-
ments that were final.
Some judges across the
state have agreed, others
have not. Five people have
been released, one was re-
sentenced and four others
are awaiting resentencing,
the district attorney’s office
said.
Nearly 650 petitions have
been denied.A dozen or so of Bonner’s
relatives showed up to his
hearing last month in Long
Beach, anxiously hoping for
good news. His girlfriend
said she noticed the judge
looked over and smiled at
them, which she thought
was a positive sign. She took
a deep breath.
“We’re really hoping,”
Bonner’s sister said.
The judge started the
hearing by saying he was go-
ing to do more than just ad-
dress the constitutionality
of the new law, and instead
ran through the legal history
of Bonner’s case. Lowenthal
said that other than Hayes’
testimony, there was “scant
evidence” that Bonner was
involved in the crime at all.
And Hayes’ lies, he said, be-
gan as soon as he took the
stand, starting with his
name.
“His name is Charles
Jones,” Lowenthal said.
“Everything thereafter ap-
pears to have been a lie as
well.”
Lowenthal then re-
counted the inconsistencies:
Hayes testified that Bonner
said he shot Polk with a.
magnum, but Polk was shot
with a .22-caliber gun.
Hayes testified that Bon-
ner told him he stole money,
but the evidence shows no
money was taken. Hayes tes-
tified that Bonner told him
he woke Polk up and shot
him, but the evidence shows
Allison and Polk had just en-
tered the apartment. Hayes
testified Bonner told him
that he entered Polk’s home
alone, but Allison’s finger-
prints were found inside.
Hayes testified that Bonner
told him he’d shot Polk once,
but Polk had been shot
twice.
Seifert, the original pros-
ecutor, would admit decades
later in a deposition that
when he heard Hayes de-
scribe the gun as a .357 mag-
num, he knew the informant
was lying.
Now retired, Seifert could
not be reached for comment
for this article.Lowenthal also said that
Seifert’s presentation of in-
consistent theories at the
two trials, with no new evi-
dence, violated due process.
“It’s axiomatic that a
prosecutor’s function is not
merely to seek convictions
but also to honor truth,”
Lowenthal said. “Here, that
did not happen.”
The district attorney’s of-
fice said there was no record
that Seifert, whose deposi-
tion came eight years after
he retired, communicated
his concern to a supervisor.
His deposition, conducted
in Allison’s federal case in
which the district attorney’s
office wasn’t a party, did not
trigger a review of Bonner’s
case.
The prosecutor who ap-
peared in court last month
urged Lowenthal to give her
office more time to evaluate
the merits of Bonner’s peti-
tion, setting off a fiery ex-
change.
“You are considering re-
leasing a convicted mur-
derer,” said Deputy Dist.
Atty. Evelis De Garmo, who
did not try the case and was
standing in for a colleague.
“Convicted because of
prosecutorial misconduct,”
Lowenthal replied.
De Garmo said she was
not in a position to respond.
“If that has happened, we
will be the first to concede, as
we have in the past,” she
said. “Justice is important to
us, your honor, as you’ve in-
dicated.”
“Apparently not in this
case,” Lowenthal quipped.
De Garmo said she had
come to court that day pre-
pared only to address the
constitutional argument.
“You have ambushed us,
your honor, by setting it for
one motion and hearing an
entirely different motion,
when we have no docu-
mentation about it.”
Ultimately, Lowenthal
declined to resentence Bon-
ner for the underlying rob-
bery charge, citing “gross
prosecutorial misconduct.”
Judges who have vacatedfelony murder convictions in
other cases have resen-
tenced defendants for what-
ever underlying offense led
to the killing, whether it be a
robbery, assault or other
crime. In one recent case, a
25-years-to-life sentence for
murder was reduced to four
years for the remaining
charge of assault with a fire-
arm.
Instead, Lowenthal dis-
missed both the murder and
robbery charges, and urged
the district attorney’s office
to evaluate whether any
other convictions were “pro-
cured in the same unscrupu-
lous manner.”
De Garmo objected.
“Don’t interrupt me,” the
judge said.
“That is very offensive,”
she said.
“Don’t interrupt me or
you are going to be removed
from court,” he said.
A spokeswoman with the
district attorney’s office said
allegations of prosecutorial
misconduct are taken “ex-
tremely seriously no matter
how old the case,” and noted
that the office is now review-
ing Bonner’s case and other
cases involving the jailhouse
informant.
Lowenthal ordered Bon-
ner released from custody.
Bonner, who turned 57 this
month, showed little emo-
tion at the time. Behind him,
his relatives cheered and ap-
plauded. Some wept; they all
smiled. His sister and his
girlfriend hugged each other
tightly.
“Thank you, Jesus,”
someone said.
Outside the courtroom, a
niece FaceTimed one of
Bonner’s sons.
“Your daddy’s coming
home,” she told him.
Bonner was released
from L.A. County Jail, where
he had been held while
awaiting his court appear-
ances, on July 11, jail records
show. He spent that day with
his sisters in Long Beach,
meeting nieces and nephews
he never got to know. He vis-
ited his kids, including a
daughter who was born just
a month before he was
locked up. She grew up
speaking with him regularly
over the phone and in let-
ters, visiting when she could.
So having him home was
easy.
“We never lost touch,”
said Tomeka Bonner, who
turns 37 in October. “He’s a
really good supporter men-
tally ... and spiritually; he
just wasn’t around phys-
ically.”
Bonner is now continuing
the schooling he started in
prison. He’s enrolled in culi-
nary courses and hopes to
one day open a restaurant.
He’s also interested in a
trucking career, because
“it’ll allow him to travel and
be outdoors and see a lot of
the things he wasn’t able to
see,” Tomeka Bonner said.
“Whatever he wants to
do, I’m behind him 100%,”
she said.
Bonner and his mother
chat at least twice a day:
once to say good morning,
again to say goodnight.
Sometimes they just sit on
the phone, not even ex-
changing words, because
they can.
“I don’t have to wake up
to the control of somebody
else,” Bonner said. “I have
more control of my life now,
which is a good thing.”He always insisted he was innocent
SAMUEL BONNER,right, greets his attorney, Bryan L. Schroeder, before a Superior Court judge vacated his 1982 murder conviction.Photographs by Genaro MolinaLos Angeles TimesBONNER’S FAMILYwaits for his release from Los Angeles County Jail. “Thank you, Jesus,” somebody said.‘A prosecutor’s
function is not
merely to seek
convictions but
also to honor
truth. Here, that
did not happen.’
— Daniel J.
Lowenthal,
Superior Court judge[Bonner,from A1]