Teen Baseball Star’s Robbery Conviction Reversed : Justice: Kenya Hunt’s life crumbled when he was found guilty of the two stickups. But now the district attorney’s office is having him set free, saying it may have tried the wrong man.

It was stunning news when Oceanside High School baseball star Kenya Hunt was arrested last January in the armed robbery of a gas station in Escondido and, 10 minutes later, a pizza shop in Vista.

The 18-year-old Hunt professed his innocence, and everyone who knew him assumed justice would be done. After all, here was a kid, clean-cut and decent, who would sooner be the peacemaker on campus than the troublemaker, and whose future in professional sports looked promising. Everyone said so: his coaches, his friends, his teammates, his family.

But, in August, a North County jury convicted Hunt of the two stick-ups. After all, jurors said, eyewitnesses identified Hunt in a couple of police line-ups.

Then, on Wednesday--just two days before he was to be sentenced for up to 13 years, 8 months in state prison--Hunt was suddenly ordered released.

Based on a new development, the district attorney’s office had second thoughts about his guilt. And so Hunt was declared a free man, an oops in the criminal justice system that took him to the brink of prison.

“We haven’t exonerated Mr. Hunt as a result of our investigation,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Greg Walden. “But, as a result of our own exhaustive investigation, we have cast a doubt on whether Mr. Hunt is or is not the responsible person. As a result of that, it was our ethical obligation to dismiss the charges.”

A close call, said his defense attorney, John Jimenez.

A public defender, Jimenez had shaken his head in disbelief when his client was convicted. Sure, some of my clients are guilty, he thought, but this guy really is innocent. The night of the robberies, he was home in bed, asleep, exhausted from a day of baseball practice.

He was railroaded, Jimenez insisted. He was the only man in a photo line-up who was again shown to witnesses in a live line-up, so of course they fingered him, he said. Why else would he be the only one of five suspects shown twice to witnesses?

During the time he was convicted, the world of Kenya Hunt began to crumble. Because of the trial, Hunt--an explosive batter who alternated between the pitcher’s mound and first base--already missed the spring baseball season at Palomar Community College in San Marcos, where he had recently enrolled.

And what would come of his future with the Montreal Expos, who already had drafted him, this convict, this purported thug who would point a gun at two clerks for a paltry $130?

All the while, Hunt insisted he was innocent. The day he was convicted, he told a newspaper reporter, “If I did it, I would stand up to it like a man. I would never have cost my parents all this money and trouble.”

But, on Wednesday, his life began to change back to the way it was. Superior Court Judge Morgan Lester ordered Hunt released from jail after the district attorney’s office conceded it was no longer sure it had the right guy.

What turned the case around was a snitch in the County Jail in Vista, someone who got word to the defense attorney that someone still out on the streets was boasting of the two robberies.

Jimenez sent one of his investigators to the man’s apartment in Escondido. The manager described him--and he fit, to a T, the person described in the robberies. Same clothes, same car, same everything. But he wasn’t around.

Jimenez finally tracked down a relative of the new suspect who is now in jail, up in Riverside, for some other robbery, the family member said.

He took his information to the D.A.’s office. The prosecutor and his detective looked into it.

Although they still aren’t convinced that Hunt is innocent, neither are they convinced any more that he’s guilty. Walden said the investigation “is continuing” into the new suspect in Riverside.

Walden said of Hunt, “He in fact may be the guilty party, but there’s enough doubt raised. We’re not in the business of sending people to prison if there’s any doubt. We don’t want to be responsible for sending a person to prison who’s not guilty. We’ve taken the cautious approach.”

And so it was that, Wednesday night, the jail process being as arduous as it is, Hunt was still waiting to get out of jail and head home.

And, from there, to Northern California.

“I’ve advised him, and his friends have, too, to just leave the area altogether and get this behind him,” Jimenez said. “He’s going to go to school in Merced and play ball.

“Ever since he was convicted, his attitude was, ‘God knows I’m innocent, and God will help me out of this situation.’ He had faith in God, and in the system--not just the jury system, but the entire system.”