VAN NUYS — The hope of convicted murderer Edward Contreras to walk out of prison a free man were dashed Tuesday when a Superior Court judge denied a petition to set him free.

Contreras, now 40, who has spent the last 15 years behind bars for the 1995 machete murder of Frederick Walker, sat stunned at the news delivered by Superior Court Judge Gregory A. Dohi that he would spend the rest of his life behind those same bars.

“The central argument in the petition is that a convicted man be given a new trial. I’m going to deny that petition,” Dohi told a packed courtroom at Van Nuys Superior Court.

Contreras, dressed in bright orange prison garb, sat motionless beside representatives of the California Innocence Project, which has championed his case for more than half a year.

Dohi praised the California Innocence Project for its “noble work” in seeking justice.

“He was in shock,” Project Director Justin Brooks said after the decision was read. Brooks fought for his client’s release and talked with him after the decision was issued.

“He really thought we were going to win,” Brooks said. “ He talked about what car he was going to be driving, how his mom had fixed up his room ... in the end I just watched him get shuffled onto a bus back to prison.”
Brooks said he plans to review the case for any possible “appealable points.”

On Aug. 11, 1995, Frederick Edward Walker was beaten to death at a backyard barbecue in Santa Clarita, his body then hacked to pieces with a machete and dumped in Bouquet Canyon.

In 1997, Contreras and Scott Taylor were found guilty of murdering Walker and sentenced to life in prison.

Hope that Contreras would get a new trial emerged two years ago, when one of the witnesses at his murder trial — Lisa Garringer, who was 16 at the time — stepped forward to say she lied under oath about Contreras’ involvement in the murder.

The California Innocence Project saw this development as a chance to get the former Canyon Country resident a new trial.

“If false evidence results in a conviction, then that conviction can be reversed,” Brooks explained after Tuesday’s hearing. “We believe that false evidence was introduced at the trial.”

Dohi, in explaining his decision to deny the project’s petition to spring Contreras from prison, said he had to believe seven specific aspects of the case if he was to grant Contreras a new trial.

He said he had to believe:

- Contreras threw no punches in the altercation that preceded Walker’s death.

- Witness Tommy Travelle “planted the seed” in the minds of investigators that two people attacked Walker.

- Homicide investigators “locked in” on the two-attacker theory, ignoring all others.

- Investigators, consciously or sub-consciously, communicated to Garringer that the two-attacker theory was what they wanted to hear.

- Garringer “buckled under pressure” communicated by investigators.

- Taylor also lied about Contreras throwing punches.

- Contreras’ actions following the murder were out of fear and stress.

“These are the things I would have to believe in,” Dohi said.

The judge said he found the investigators credible and does not believe they became “wedded” to the two-attacker theory.

“I don’t think they pressured Miss Garringer,” he said. “I found the investigators credible, They never threatened either of the witnesses.

“In this declaration, that investigators engaged in tactics to bully (the witness) — I don’t believe that happened.”

About Contreras testifying at his own habeas corpus hearing, Dohi said: “I simply didn’t believe him.”
Understanding the reasons behind his decision did nothing to soften its devastating implications.

When the judge rendered his decision, the murder victim’s 23-year-old niece, Amanada Dresser, collapsed into the arms of his weeping mother, Michelle Walker-Dresser.

“I expected he was going to walk,” said the mother, wiping tears from her eyes outside the courtroom.

The lengthy, often graphic six-month hearing forced the Walker family to revisit the trauma of Freddie Walker’s murder.

“My fear was that he would be out on the streets again,” she said. “It was so many years later and I was just getting to the point where I was OK ... then this. And I didn’t get to hear everything the first trial because I was a witness.”

The hearing revisited much of the evidence about Walker being savagely beaten, then butchered.

Delete - Merge UpIn the same courthouse hallway, members of the Contreras family were deeply saddened by news of the judge’s decision, including the convicted man’s mother, Alice, who waved off a chance to talk about the proceedings.

A woman comforting the mother said she had visited Ed Contreras in prison on Christmas Day.

“I think he was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong friends,” she said, reflecting on the day Walker was murdered.

For Deputy District Attorney Juan R. Mejia, justice was served — again.

“I think the truth came out,” he said outside court.  “Judge Dohi gave a very thorough ruling going over all the facts and testimony.

“It was clear to us that he took this very seriously, studied the matter very thoroughly, and I think he came to the right results,” he said. “It was their burden of proof and it came down to the credibility of those witnesses. And I think there was something a little peculiar about their story.”