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© 1997 The Dallas Morning News All Rights Reserved

Associated Press,

 

Man may get new trial in beating, burning case:

Conviction reversed in attack on homeless person.

The Dallas Morning News, 03-02-1997, pp 32A.

AUSTIN - An appeals court has reversed the conviction of one of three Austin men sentenced to prison in the beating and burning a homeless man in 1995.

The ruling by the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals means John Reina Jr., who has spent two years in prison, could get a new trial. Mr. Reina, 21, was sentenced to 99 years in prison for organized crime and attempted murder in the Jan. 10, 1995, attack on Ricardo Davila, 37.

"We find the jury's verdict manifestly unjust in the face of the overwhelming evidence that Reina was unaware of any criminal assault, " Chief Justice Jimmy Carroll wrote in the court's opinion, issued last week.

Since his August 1995 trial, Mr. Reina has maintained that he stayed in his car that night, unaware his two friends had beaten Mr. Davila, doused him with lighter fluid and set him on fire.

The ruling is an unusual move for the appeals court, which reverses only a small fraction of the cases presented to it each year. Even rarer is the reversal of a jury decision on grounds that there was not enough evidence to merit conviction.

In Mr. Reina's case, the court wrote, "We are compelled to conclude that this case is an exception to the general rule."

Mr. Reina, in prison at the Ferguson Unit north of Huntsville, could not be reached for comment.

"I'm so excited, I can't even read it," his mother, Ruth, said as she looked at the 12-page document outside the state office building where she works.

David Reynolds, Mr. Reina's appeals lawyer, said he's ready for another trial.

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle on Saturday did not return calls by The Associated Press seeking comment.

Mr. Earle can ask the court to reconsider its ruling and can appeal the decision to the state Court of Criminal Appeals. If those fail, he can schedule a new trial or dismiss the charges.

Mr. Davila, who remembers little of the attack, survived and underwent a string of painful surgeries for his burns and broken bones.

A witness told police he saw two men - whom he later identified as Paul Michael Brown, 22, and Charlie Carlson, 16 - beating Mr. Davila while a third man sat in a car in an apartment complex parking lot next to a store.

Mr. Reina, then 19, was arrested with his friends, Mr. Brown and Mr. Carlson. Mr. Reina and Mr. Carlson were convicted together, and both received 99-year sentences.

Mr. Brown received a 50-year sentence in a plea bargain and cannot appeal his conviction.

 

© 1997 The Dallas Morning News All Rights Reserved

Associated Press, Man may get new trial in beating, burning case: Convictionreversed in attack on homeless person. , The Dallas Morning News, 03-02-1997, pp 32A.