Kimberly Long

Years Served: 7

“This is one of those classic cases where the person who finds the dead person ends up becoming a suspect,” said Justin Brooks, Director of the California Innocence Project. “Her case was paper thin when it went to trial, and now when you consider what we know since then, it’s absolutely a certainty that she’s innocent.”

In the early morning of October 6, 2003, Kimberly Long arrived home and discovered her boyfriend bludgeoned to death in the couple’s living room. Blood was everywhere. She immediately called 911. Responding paramedics arrived and determined her boyfriend, Oswaldo “Ozzy” Conde, had been dead for quite some time. His skin was an ashen color, and his body was cool to the touch and in the beginning stages of decomposition.

Kimberly was taken to the Corona Police Department and interviewed. She had last seen Ozzy around 11:00 p.m. the night before when they had gotten into an argument. Kimberly had stormed off and left with her friend Jeff Dills. Because Kimberly admitted that she and Ozzy had argued, law enforcement polygraphed her. She passed the test.

Ozzy really had no enemies, although both he and Kimberly had been having problems with their respective exes. A polygraph of Ozzy’s ex-girlfriend came back inconclusive. And, initially, those close to Ozzy thought his ex-girlfriend was behind the murder, commenting, “You know we never thought that it would actually go this far, sure, we had our disagreements but I thought that was because of a difference in our astrology signs. But it has committed this horrible act. I mean, it makes sense, I mean, the way she is. It took, I’m sure it was her. I mean, I’m positive. There’s nobody else . . . she was gonna kill him all the time. I mean, it’s only obvious you know.”

Two days later, Jeff Dills told law enforcement that on the evening of Ozzy’s death he dropped Kimberly off at 1:20 a.m., 49 minutes before the 911 call came in. Officers believed Jeff and, as such, could not ignore the gaping hole in Kimberly’s timeline. Nor could they focus on Ozzy’s ex as a suspect anymore because, if Ozzy’s ex committed the crime, the 49-minute window would be inexplicable.

Kimberly insisted that Jeff was wrong and that he must have been mistaken on the time. Unbeknownst to her, Jeff was a suspect in the case and, at the same time, had offered to help law enforcement in the investigation. He died before he could be thoroughly questioned about his statement. Yet, the case against Kimberly proceeded to trial.

The first jury hung, nine in favor of acquittal. The second jury, who took a break from deliberations to celebrate Christmas, returned a guilty verdict. The alternate jurors lamented to trial Judge Patrick F. Magers that the evidence was by no means enough to prove Kimberly killed Ozzy. Judge Magers, known to be a prosecutor-friendly judge, agreed. Although he gave Kimberly a life sentence, he stated, “To make a perfectly clear record in this matter, if this was a court trial, if the Court would have heard the evidence in this case, I would have found the defendant not guilty. I would have found that the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. That is my trial court decision in this case. Obviously, it was not a court trial. It was a jury trial.”

Judge Magers was not the only judge to have a problem with Kimberly’s conviction. During the appeals process a federal district court judge commented, “It is unfortunate that petitioner’s conviction largely hinged on the preliminary hearing testimony of a witness who died before trial.” A federal appeals court judge commented, “I have grave doubts about whether the State has convicted the right person in this case. Those doubts stem from the fact that it would have been virtually impossible for the defendant to commit the crime and eliminate all traces of her involvement even if she had arrived home at 1:20 a.m., as the State contends.”

Kimberly appeared before Judge Magers again, 11 years later. This time, she had conclusive proof of her innocence – forensic pathology evidence that Ozzy died long before 1:20 a.m., forensic evidence that the perpetrator would have had blood on them and, yet, she did not, and the presence of unknown male DNA at the crime scene.

Kimberly also presented evidence of third-party motive. Ozzy had obtained a restraining order against his ex-girlfriend who had, in the months leading up to his murder, made increasingly harassing and threatening phone calls. She, at one point, threatened to “slash” both Ozzy’s and Kimberly’s throats. She also came to Kimberly and Ozzy’s house, put glue in the keyholes of the house and wrote “deadbeat” and “asshole” in permanent marker on Ozzy’s white truck. Ozzy’s ex wrote a letter to Kimberly claiming, “I will always get the laugh in the end.” In the victim’s own words, he said of his ex, “She said that my girlfriend [Kimberly] is going to get it and for me to watch my back and she is not going to let me see my son.” He elaborated, “She hates my girlfriend [Kimberly] & [sic] she is going to ruin our lives.” In the request for a restraining order, Ozzy also requested orders regarding custody and visitation of his child.

Based on this evidence, Judge Magers reversed Kimberly’s conviction, but the DA appealed. Kimberly was released on bail while she waits to hear from the California Supreme Court who will decide whether or not she will be retried.

In a unanimous decision on November 30, 2020, the California Supreme Court once and for all tossed out Kim Long’s murder conviction, agreeing with the trial court that the result of the trial would have been different had the jury heard about a time of death analysis.  In its decision, the court wrote, “The [trial] court ruled that expert testimony estimating time of death before [Kim] arrived home ‘could reasonably raise a reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors’ and ‘could be fatal to the People’s case.’ Applying our independent judgment, we agree.”

On April 22, 2021, the Riverside District Attorney formally dismissed all charges resulting in Kimberly’s full exoneration.