A judge has dismissed the murder charges of the alleged Los Angeles Skid Row killer who killed 10 homeless men in the 1970s, ending a 40-year legal battle.
Bobby Joe Maxwell, now 68, was jailed in 1979 accused of being the serial killer.
Los Angeles Judge Larry Fidler dismissed all charges against Maxwell following a request from prosecutors on Friday because he only has six months to live.
Maxwell suffered a heart attack last December and has been comatose ever since. Officials say he will likely never recover.
Bobby Joe Maxwell, suspected Los Angeles Skid Row killer who killed 10 homeless men in the 1970s and sentenced to life in prison without parole, has had all murder charges against him dismissed as he only has six months to live, Maxwell pictured above in 1979
His sister Rosie Harmon burst into tears upon hearing the news that comes nearly four decades after his imprisonment. She called her mother following the hearing.
‘While Mr. Maxwell was hospitalized, there were sheriffs sitting with him 24/7 and she had to get permission as to when she could come and visit from the sheriff,’ Maxwell’s attorney Pierpont Laidley said.
‘Now he is a free man, she’ll be able to visit just like any other visitors,’ Laidley said.
In the 1980s Maxwell was convicted of two killings of homeless men on LA’s infamous Skid Row.
The appeals court overturned his convictions decades later after it found that he was the victim of a notorious jailhouse snitch, who committed perjury in his two convictions.
Court documents show the appeals court called the case’s jailhouse informant, Sidney Storch, a ‘habitual liar.’
The case against Maxwell appeared thin until Storch emerged.
The only physical evidence, the appeals court said, was a palm print found on a bench in an area Maxwell frequented.
Storch, who was Maxwell’s cellmate for three weeks, read about the print in news accounts and said he asked Maxwell about it.
He claimed that Maxwell confessed he had made a mistake failing to wear gloves during the stabbings. Maxwell denied making the comment.
In 2013, prosecutors refiled five murder charges against him.
After Maxwell’s heart attack and it was confirmed that he was unlikely to regain his health, prosecutors moved to dismiss charges.
He will continue to receive acute medical care at the hospital once he’s released from custody.
Deputy District Attorney Robert Grace says the dismissal is a ‘compassionate release’, stressing that there was no finding of Maxwell’s guilt or innocence.
If he recovers, prosecutors will seek to refile the charges.
Maxwell’s attorneys said they are absolutely ready to prove his innocence.
‘Mr. Maxwell has always insisted that he was innocent, and has fought to prove his innocence for forty years,’ another of Maxwell’s lawyers, Frederick Alschuler, said.