Thirteen years after a California Supreme sentenced a native of Long Beach, California, Cole Wilkins, to 16 years to life imprisonment, he is a free man. He received the news of his freedom on Tuesday, March 10th, while sitting in Harbor Justice Center, Newport Beach.

Wilkins was serving the sentence of a second-degree murder conviction for causing the accident that killed a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy, David Piquette. The accident occurred in July 2006 on the 91 Freeway in Anaheim.

The police report at the time showed that Piquette was driving to work when a stove fell off the pickup truck Wilkins was driving. The latter had stolen the item and other household goods from a construction site in Riverside County.

The deceased tried to avoid the stove and ended up crashing his car into a cement truck. He died at the scene of the accident from his wounds, and other motorists alerted Wilkins to the accident he set in motion.

The man was later arrested, charged and convicted of first-degree murder. It was reduced to second-degree murder, and in January, a three-person panel of 4th District Court of Appeal, sitting in Santa Ana, set aside the conviction as the evidence of the case did not support it.

Wilkins attorney, Sara Ross, with the Orange County Public Defender Office, uncovered new evidence that led to the decision. It turned out that a California Highway Patrol supervisor destroyed the original field report of the case that seemed to blame the deceased for the accident.

Wilkins was retried for manslaughter and sentenced to four years. The court then considered the number of years the man has spent in prison and released him on parole.

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