Innocent Man Jailed 16 Years Gets Apology

Sixteen years after a jury called him a killer and a judge sentenced him to prison, a former Tustin Marine corporal stood in a Santa Ana courtroom Thursday and wept as he was declared a free and innocent man.

Apologizing for a justice system’s grave error, Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert Fitzgerald told 38-year-old Kevin Lee Green that he hoped the second half of his life would somehow make up for the lost time.

Green was sentenced to 15 years to life in November 1980 for a bludgeoning attack on his wife that led to the stillbirth of the child she was carrying. Green has always maintained his innocence.

Today, prosecutors and police are expected to announce that they have filed charges against a suspect in that crime and five other murders. Sources said Thursday that the suspect to be named is the so-called “bludgeon killer,” a mystery attacker who stalked Orange County women in the late 1970s.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Mel Jensen, who recommended Green be freed, also rose Thursday in court to offer Green an apology on behalf of the Orange County district attorney’s office. The apologies were made as detectives from the Tustin Police Department, the agency that initially arrested the one-time corporal, looked on.

Green, 22 at the time of his conviction, was found guilty of second-degree murder for the unborn baby’s death and attempted murder of his 21-year-old wife, Dianna D’Aiello.

D’Aiello suffered amnesia after the attack, but later took the stand, identifying her husband as the attacker. She later divorced Green.

Green said he was not home when the attack occurred, but, after the verdict, a juror told The Times that his story “just wasn’t believable.”

Times staff writer Thao Hua contributed to this story.