When Henry Newman, 66, was sentenced to 21 years for inadvertently killing his son Alex, he was unaware the court used erroneous documents to give him a longer sentence for voluntary manslaughter.
Newman claims this evidence consists of two court cases attributed to him, which did not actually occur. These established him as being on probation at the time of the hearing, which caused his sentence to be longer than it otherwise would have been. The court also overlooked an important ballistics report that was favorable to his case.
On July 3, 2004, Newman got into a heated discussion with his son over the care of his granddaughter, Kilexia. Newman said he and Alex were discussing injuries Kilexia had allegedly sustained at her other great grandparents’ house.
“Alex was being verbally abusive to me. He would drive away and come back. He repeated this process about three or four times,” Newman said he shot at the back of his son’s vehicle while it was still parked in front of his house, hoping that it would coerce him into leaving.
“I aimed directly over the right rear tire, and the bullet traveled to the left through everything and hit my son,” Newman said. “When Alex got to the end of the street, he was dead at the wheel.”
“I killed my son, Alex Newman, but it was unintentional. Forensic Ballistic expert Lawrence L. Baggett proved what I had confessed to in his report,” Newman said.
Baggett’s report concluded that a person, who is not familiar with the general power and penetration capabilities of a firearm, might assume that the steel fender of a vehicle would be sufficient to stop a bullet.
“Mr. Baggett’s report was concealed from me. My public defender, Carolyn Disabatino, didn’t bring it out in court,” said Newman. “I got it in 2009, four years after my sentencing, when I put in a request for my entire case file.”
In his interview with San Quentin News, Newman produced two sets of minute order transcripts from the Long Beach Superior Court in California. One set of transcripts, case number 1LL04524, places him in a 13-month superior court trial for a misdemeanor at 8:30 a.m. The second set of transcripts, case number 9LL10915, puts him in a one-day hearing, on the same day, also at 8:30 a.m.
But neither of these case numbers correspond with Newman’s actual hearing.
“The only court hearing I actually appeared in on that day was my arraignment case, and my judge was Arthur Jean Jr. in case number NA061974,” he said. “And all three different cases are dated for the same day—July 7, 2004.”
Newman insists that his voluntary manslaughter sentence is based on this erroneous evidence. Newman said the court used case number 1LL04524 to place him on a two-year summary probation.
“That’s not true, because for case number 1LL04524, I was never in any courtroom to be placed on summary probation,” he explained. “Nor was I ever represented by Deputy Pubic Defender William B. Clark in any court hearing. Yet the court’s minute orders reflect that all this took place.”
During his sentencing hearing, Newman tried to inform Judge Jean Jr. of the fraudulent information regarding the phantom hearings.
“I said, ‘your Honor, I wasn’t aware,’ then he quickly interrupted me, saying, ‘the court finds a factor in aggravation that you were on probation at the time and that you did unsatisfactorily on probation.’”
Newman explained that he tried a second time to inform the court, but his efforts were rejected again.
“The judge immediately pronounced sentence, saying, ‘this court chooses the high base term of 10 years with respect to the gun allegation and is to be served consecutively to the 11 year term for a 21 year term.’”
Prior to his conviction, Newman says the closest he ever got to the legal system was in his role as community activist for his neighborhood.
“I spearheaded a campaign to make a McDonald’s restaurant they were closing into a Long Beach Police Substation,” Newman said. “I met frequently with Long Beach Police Chief Anthony Batts to discuss the plan.”
Newman has now been in prison for nine years.
