Nearly two decades after being sentenced to death for a string of brutal killings, a notorious California gang leader has been granted a new trial after the state's Supreme Court ruled a juror was improperly removed during his 2007 trial.
Timothy McGhee, now 51, was the feared leader of the Toonerville gang in Atwater Village during the late 1990s and early 2000s, according to NBC Los Angeles.
Authorities linked him to at least nine murders—ruthless crimes that included shooting a teenager for sharing his nickname, killing a homeless man who may have witnessed the act, and executing individuals suspected of cooperating with police.
Captured in 2003 after landing on the U.S. Marshals Most Wanted list, McGhee was convicted of three murders and four attempted murders in 2007 and sentenced to death in 2009.
On Thursday, the California Supreme Court overturned McGhee's convictions, citing the wrongful dismissal of a juror who had expressed skepticism about prosecution witnesses. Fellow jurors accused Juror No. 5 of being biased and irrational, but the high court determined he was legitimately weighing the credibility of witness testimony, many of whom were gang members or had received deals.
Justice Goodwin Liu noted the removal was an abuse of discretion, stating the record did not support claims the juror was incapable of fulfilling his duty.
McGhee remains incarcerated at Kern Valley State Prison, where he is also serving a life sentence under California's three-strikes law. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office is now reviewing the ruling and weighing whether to retry the case.
