DA's Office seeks release of former security guard convicted of woman's 2000 slaying

The Los Angeles County District Attoey’s Office will ask a judge today to order a convicted murderer to be released from state prison, after new evidence was uncovered that prosecutors say raises doubts about his conviction for the shooting death of an 18-year-old woman in a Palmdale park-and-ride lot, where he worked as a security guard.

The district attoey’s newly formed Conviction Review Unit is set to ask a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to release 42-year-old Raymond Lee Jeings on his own recognizance while law enforcement completes an active investigation, according to a statement released Wednesday afteoon by the District Attoey’s Office.

Jeings, an Iraq war veteran, was convicted in December 2009 of second-degree murder for the Feb. 22, 2000 shooting death of Antelope Valley College student Michelle O’Keefe. The first two juries to hear the case against him deadlocked in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom and the case was eventually retued to Lancaster, where he was found guilty and sentenced to 40 years to life in state prison.

“My office has been presented with credible new evidence that brings this conviction into question,” District Attoey Jackie Lacey said. “Attoeys assigned to the newly created Conviction Review Unit have examined the evidence and are working with law enforcement persoel to investigate further. In the interest of justice, I am asking the court to release Raymond Jeings on his own recognizance while this investigation continues.”

Upon hearing of the request, defense attoey M. David Houchin -- who represented Jeings in all three of his trials -- said it was “unbelievable.”

“I can’t believe it,” he said, his voice full of emotion.

He said Jeings is at the “top” of a “very short list” of defendants he has represented at trial whom he believes were factually iocent.

O’Keefe was shot four times after she retued to her blue Ford Mustang, which she left at the park-and-ride lot so she could carpool with a friend to a Kid Rock video shoot in Los Angeles, where they worked as paid extras.

Deputy District Attoey Michael Blake told jurors in Jeings’ second trial, “The mistake he made was assuming that she was a prostitute ... Her fatal mistake in this interaction was standing up for herself.”

Jeings’ attoey told jurors there was no direct or physical evidence linking his client to the young woman’s killing.

At his sentencing hearing, Jeings tued toward the O’Keefe family and maintained his iocence.

“I sit here as an iocent man. And I’ve heard you speak on God, and as Christ as my Lord and savior, I will stand before God and this is one sin that I will not be judged for,” he said then.

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In a December 2011 ruling, a three-justice panel from Califoia’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s contention that there was insufficient evidence to permit a rational jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that he murdered O’Keefe.

“In sum, although the evidence against appellant was circumstantial supported by his statements to investigators, we find the prosecution presented a case of sufficient strength that a rational jury could conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant murdered Michelle O’Keefe,” the three-justice panel found.

The Califoia Supreme Court refused in March 2012 to review the case against Jeings.