VAN BUREN COUNTY (WKZO AM/FM) — A 24-year-old Van Buren County man who is serving 25 to 38-years in prison for allegedly molesting a 12-year-old niece will get a new trial after the State Supreme Court agreed that his defense attorney not only didn’t help him at trial, but may have actually hurt his case.
The conviction of Jose Garcia-Mandujano has been vacated.
His new Attorney, John Burhans told the Justices that not only wasn’t the fact that there was no physical evidence of rape ever presented to the jury, but they never heard that they both lived in a mobile home with so many other family members that such assaults would have been noticed.
There were other mitigating factors that the Justices apparently found convincing.
Garcia-Mandujano has already served four years of the sentence. It will be up to the Van Buren County Prosecutor to decide whether to retry the case.
You can see the oral arguments presented to the Justices. View the video.
