Minnesota man is free after 16 years in prison for murder that prosecutors say he didn't commit

MINNEAPOLIS -- A Minnesota man was released from prison after serving 16 years for a murder he did not commit, a local prosecutor announced on Tuesday.

Jurors in 2009 found Edgar Barrientos-Quintana guilty of killing 18-year-old Jesse Mickelson in a drive-by shooting. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. But after a three-year investigation, Attorney General Keith Ellison’s Conviction Review Unit in August released a damning report of Minneapolis police’s original investigation that also cited evidence supporting Barrientos-Quintana’s alibi.

A judge approved Barrientos-Quintana's release last week.

“Nothing can give Mr. Barrientos-Quintana back those 16 years, and for that, we are so sorry," Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement on Tuesday. “Our hearts are also with the family of Jesse Mickelson over their irreparable loss. When the criminal legal system does not function ethically, it causes significant harm.”

In a Wednesday ruling vacating Barrientos-Quintana's convictions and ordering his release, state court Judge John McBride found that Barrientos-Quintana did not receive a fair trial.

Barrientos-Quintana’s attorney failed to effectively represent him and prosecutors didn't disclose favorable evidence, Moriarty said. Investigators also used coercive lineup tactics and interrogation tactics, resulting in unreliable eyewitness identifications, she added.

Security footage captured Barrientos-Quintana at a grocery story shortly before the shooting, and the attorney general’s office pointed to phone records not presented at trial that placed him at his girlfriend’s suburban apartment shortly after the shooting. The Conviction Review Unit determined that he could not have traveled to and from the crime scene in that time.

The reviewers also cast blame on police, who showed an old photo of Barrientos-Quintana with a shaved head to eyewitnesses who had described the suspect as being bald. Security footage showed Barrientos-Quintana had short, dark hair at the time of the shooting.

Barrientos-Quintana last month asked McBride to vacate his conviction based on Ellison's report. In September, Moriarty revealed that Mickelson’s sisters believed Barrientos-Quintana to be innocent and supported his release.