Man freed after 41 years in prison. OC prosecutors admit their office failed to turn over evidence

A judge this week ordered the release of a man who has spent the last 41 years in prison in a case marked by prosecutorial misconduct, the latest fallout in the long-running Orange County “jailhouse snitch” scandal.

Guy Scott, who’s now 69 with gray hair and a wiry mustache, wiped away tears and pressed his hands together in gratitude as the judge announced that he would reduce the charges against Scott from murder to manslaughter. That means Scott, who was patched into the O.C. courtroom via teleconference from Corcoran state prison, has more than served his sentence and will be released in the coming days.

“This is a true second chance,” said Scott Sanders, the man’s lawyer.

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Sanders is the former O.C. public defender who, a decade ago, first uncovered the county’s secret jailhouse informant program, now known as the “snitch scandal.” Since then, close to 60 convictions, including Scott’s, have been reduced or overturned, and the O.C. District Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Department have fought to recover their reputation and implement reforms.

After the hearing this week, Sanders commended Orange County prosecutors’ efforts to unearth and share the long-hidden evidence that led to Scott’s imminent release from prison.

“They ultimately did the right thing,” he told LAist.

How we got here

Larry Miner was killed in his apartment in 1981 while three men were staying with him. Two of the men, Scott and Peter McDonald, were convicted of the murder, while a third, Robert Neary, became an informant for prosecutors and was given immunity in exchange for his testimony.

New evidence suggests Neary lied to put increasing blame on Scott for Miner’s death, and to downplay his own role. But some of that evidence was initially hidden from Scott’s lawyers. Earlier this year, though, the evidence was discovered by an O.C. prosecutor and turned over to Scott’s new lawyer, Sanders.

If that evidence had initially been given to Scott’s lawyers, he “would have been acquitted 41 years ago,” Sanders wrote in a recent court filing.

Ultimately, both sides agreed to reduce the charges against Scott from first-degree murder to the much-less-serious voluntary manslaughter. That charge carries a sentence of up to 11 years in prison, meaning Scott has spent at least an extra three decades behind bars.

“It’s the most rewarding part of this job when justice finally gets delivered,” Sanders said, “but it’s also brutal that it took this long. He cannot get those years back.”

The start of the 'snitch scandal'

Assistant public defender Scott Sanders, at right, surfaced evidence of a secret, unconstitutional jailhouse informant program.

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Mark Boster

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Getty Images

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In 2014, Sanders, who worked for the O.C. Public Defender’s Office at the time, was defending Scott Dekraai, the man accused of gunning down eight people at a Seal Beach salon several years earlier. And it was then that Sanders discovered evidence of a secret jailhouse informant program in Orange County.

Subsequently, a string of judges — and the U.S. Department of Justice — determined the informant program violated defendants’ constitutional right to due process in two ways:

• One, by having informants or “snitches” question defendants behind bars without them knowing their words could be used against them in court, and without their lawyer present; and
• Two, by not turning over evidence about those informants to defendants. 

The misconduct now known as "the snitch scandal" happened under Tony Rackauckas, the previous district attorney.

Even as evidence of the scandal mounted, Rackauckas repeatedly denied the existence of a secret informant program. He lost his re-election bid in 2018 to current District Attorney Todd Spitzer, who has implemented reforms and pledged not to tolerate cheating among prosecutors.

Coincidentally, Rackauckas was the prosecutor handling Scott’s case at the time and served as a witness in several phases of Scott’s trial. The discovery of misconduct in the use of informants in Scott’s case suggests the problem extends back “at least thirty years earlier” than the period investigated by the federal Department of Justice,” Sanders wrote in a recent court filing. “No single individual bears more responsibility for what has occurred — and what remains hidden — than Rackauckas,” Sanders wrote.

After this week’s resentencing hearing, Sanders told LAist that Scott’s decades-long wrongful imprisonment “may be the worst [of the snitch scandal] in terms of life sacrificed.”

Scott plans to move into a sober living home in Northern California as soon as he’s released.

“I cannot put enough words into how much I appreciate you,” Scott told Sanders and his colleagues at the hearing.