A man was wrongfully convicted, Centre County DA says. He’s a step closer to being released
.JPG "The Centre County Courthouse on Oct. 23, 2019.")
A California man who the Centre County district attorney’s office said is wrongfully serving time in state prison for a firearms conviction is one step closer to being released.
The state Superior Court vacated Andre Aina’s conviction Tuesday, clearing the path for the county district attorney’s office to request an emergency hearing so he can be released.
“We have a moral and legal duty to (ensure) that people who have been wrongfully convicted and imprisoned are exonerated,” Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna said Tuesday in a statement. “A prosecutor’s role is to seek justice — not convictions — and the only just result in Mr. Aina’s case is to vacate the conviction and send him home.”
Cantorna took office in January 2018, about two years after Aina’s conviction.
Aina was pulled over for a traffic violation in April 2015 while driving along Interstate 80 in Boggs Township. State police at Rockview searched his vehicle and found a SKS rifle, stun gun, rolling papers and marijuana.
He faced several charges, including one felony count of carrying a firearm without a license. That charge requires the barrel of the firearm to be less than 16 inches or an overall length of less than 26 inches.
No evidence about the length of the firearm was presented by the county district attorney’s office at Aina’s November 2015 bench trial. Instead, the only evidence presented was a photograph without any measurements.
Aina was found guilty of the firearms charge and he was sentenced in December 2015 to three to six years in state prison. He later appealed his conviction.
Centre County Assistant District Attorney Matt Metzger reviewed Aina’s claims, went to a gun shop to measure a similar firearm and concluded that Aina’s most serious conviction was invalid.
“Not only was there insufficient evidence to convict Aina of firearms not to be carried without a license, but the Commonwealth believes that he is innocent of the offense as well,” retired Senior Superior Court Judge Dan Pellegrini wrote in a 12-page decision on behalf of a three-judge panel.
Aina, 27, is detained at Houtzdale state prison in Clearfield County.
His mother, Yaneth Calixto, said she spoke with her son daily and visited him at the prison at least twice a month until recent visitor restrictions due to the new coronavirus.
If he is released, the plan is for Aina to operate the business his mother started in Virginia about two years ago, Calixto said.
“The judges and lawyers, they didn’t do their jobs. You have to leave it to two things: God and the law,” Calixto said. “Of course, we are upset, but we are not resentful because things happen. It wasn’t handled the correct way and it wasted five years of his life.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 3:01 PM.