A California judge on Monday exonerated a man convicted of three rapes after DNA testing linked the attacks to a serial rapist wanted for more than three dozen assaults spanning nearly two decades.
Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan ordered the release of Luis Vargas, who has been in prison for 16 years, reported USA Today. He was not released immediately, but was released by the end of Monday.
DNA tests found that the crimes Vargas was convicted of were actually committed by the notorious "Teardrop Rapist," who earned the moniker due to the teardrop tattoo under his eye. The "Teardrop Rapist" is on the FBI's most wanted list and has been linked by DNA to 11 crimes and is suspected of committing 35 in total across the Los Angeles area, the Innocence Project said.
Back in 1999, Vargas was linked to the crimes by witnesses because he had a similar tattoo, reported the Los Angeles Times. At the time of his conviction, Vargas proclaimed his innocence.
"You can sentence me to all the years you want," he warned a judge in 1999, "but as far as I'm concerned...that individual that really did these crimes might really be raping someone out there."
These words proved to haunt the L.A.'s criminal justice system, since even as Vargas was serving his 55-year sentence, rapes fitting the "Teardrop Rapist's" M.O. were still being committed, eventually prompting detectives to post a plea on Facebook earlier this year asking the community for help finding him.
Despite there being similarities in the descriptions of the teardrop tattoo and both being described as a "light-skinned Hispanic man between 40 and 55 years old," there was little else to go on in retrospect, reported MSNBC.
It was revealed that the victims who "positively" identified Vargas at the trial had been as certain of their identifications during earlier lineups. Prosecutors also noted a discrepancy in the victims' discriptions: Two victims said their attacker had two teardrops tattooed near his left eye, but Vargas has only one.
Officials said there was even some evidence that the rapist may have had the tattoo removed.
In the wake of Vargas' release, a cloud of uncertainty still lingers over the case. Vargas, who was born in Mexico, but was a legal resident at the time of his arrest, had his green card revoked when he was convicted in 1999. As such, there is an immigration hold on him, which may lead to his deportation.
