Wichita man wrongfully convicted of sex crimes with child could get about $900,000
A 52-year-old man could receive nearly $900,000 in compensation after being wrongfully convicted of sex crimes with an 8-year-old in Wichita more than a decade ago.
Merardo J. Garza Jr., who lived in Wichita when the alleged crime occurred in 2007, was incarcerated for nearly 13.5 years. A jury found him guilty of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and rape before the sentence was vacated in 2020 after the victim recanted her story.
Last week, Sedgwick County District Judge Seth Rundle agreed to the compensation amount and other concessions in Garza’s lawsuit.
In an email, Garza’s attorney, Richard Ney, said Garza plans to do more schooling and occupational training, which are reimbursed under concessions made last week. He said his client is appreciative of the settlement with Kansas, but it can’t take back the time of his life he lost.
“Of course, no amount of money can compensate him for the more than 13 years he spent in prison for a crime he did not commit,” he said, adding the case and other recent wrong-conviction cases in the state “show that, tragically, wrongful convictions are not as rare as we would hope.”
Kansas has been involved in 14 wrongful conviction lawsuits since December 2018, the Kansas Attorney General’s Office said in a news release Tuesday.
Of those, six have reached an agreement and payment has been made or in the process of being paid, five are being litigated in district courts and courts have denied payment in two cases.
Garza’s case is awaiting review by the State Finance Council.
In Kansas, people can be compensated $65,000 for each year they are in jail on a wrongful conviction. Garza spent 4,928 days in a cell, bringing the total to just over $877,000.
Other agreements in last week’s order include:
A certificate of innocence
Records of the conviction and arrest being expunged
Waiver of tuition and fees for attending up to 130 credit hours of post-secondary education
Attorney fees totaling roughly $9,866
Eligibility for counseling
Eligibility to be part of the state healthcare program in 2022 and 2023
Additionally, the order says, if Garza wins any money in a lawsuit against the “state or any political subdivision … related to the same subject” he would have to repay the state for the “sum of the money paid pursuant to this judgment.”
In a 2015 court document, the victim says her sister was actually the one who molested her and that she didn’t speak up for so long because of fear of her sister and feeling ashamed that her allegation sent Garza to prison. Ney provided a court filing that says Garza was asleep on the couch when the girl was molested.
Garza tried repeatedly for years to get a new trial.
It’s unclear if the person accused of the crime has been charged. The AG’s office did not immediately respond to additional questions.
Garza was sentenced in 2008 to a minimum of 25 years in prison, the AG’s office said. His sentence was vacated in November 2020, according to the AG’s office. Kansas prison records show he was released a month later.
