On Thursday, the judge unsealed the letter, which said that other people who had been in the parking lot that night had previously committed similar crimes using handguns. They fled before authorities arrived, wrote Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. John Spillane.
The newly discovered evidence, Spillane wrote, suggests that O’Keefe “may have been killed by gang members during a robbery.”
The letter did not name the possible suspects, citing the ongoing inquiry, but said a 17-year-old woman was in a rented Chevy Malibu in the parking lot that night with at least two others. A documented gang member, she went on to be convicted of possession of a firearm and was later arrested for throwing bleach in her boyfriend’s face, the letter said.
In 2015, she was accused of more violence: stabbing a boyfriend. She was charged with attempted murder but convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, and was sentenced to five years in prison.
An 18-year-old gang member who was with her in the car on the night of O’Keefe’s killing committed a home invasion robbery and carjacking just months later, according to the letter. He was caught after stealing a Mustang. At the time of his arrest, he was wearing an earring with a white stone that was similar to others O’Keefe was wearing the night she was killed.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-jennings-factually-innocent-20170105-story.html