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A man sentenced to life in prison for murder will get another trial because a courtroom stenographer accidentally erased the records of his previous trial, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.
Randy Chaviano, 26, was convicted of second-degree murder and armed drug dealing in 2009. An appeals court threw his life sentence out last week because there were no court records of the trial, according to the newspaper.
Chaviano and his lawyer Israel Encinosa appealed the case because they believed that a Medical Examiner did not properly testify and that there was not enough evidence to show Chaviano’s Hialeah duplex was the scene of the crime.
But lawyers could only find records of a pretrial hearing and closing arguments. The stenographer erased the bulk of the records, according to the Sentinel.
“The overturning of a murder conviction always means terrible pain for the victim’s family and frustration for prosecutors and police officers,” Miami-Dade State Attorney’s spokesman Ed Griffith told the Sentinel.
The stenographer was fired for erasing the court records. The Sentinel said the stenographer recorded the proceedings digitally and then her computer got a virus. She could not be reached for comment by the Sentinel.
Chaviano was convicted of fatally shooting Carlos Acosta in 2005 when Acosta came to his home to buy drugs. Encinosa said that Chaviano acted in self-defense and planted the gun on Acosta because he was nervous, the Sentinel said.
“I think I can win it this time. It was an injustice that was done. When somebody comes to your house, you should be able to defend yourself,” Encinosa said to the Sentinel.
Article source: http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Murder-Trial-Records-Erased-Killer-Gets-New-Trial-136672168.html
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