Jofama Coleman, serving a life sentence for a murder he did not commit, carefully avoided calendars. It was too painful for him to watch the months and then the years go by while he was deprived of his freedom and separated from his young daughter.
“One of the ways I managed to get through the moment was that I didn’t even think about the days. Every day was the same,” he said, recalling periods when his birthday passed without him noticing.
On Thursday, Coleman sat in the front row of a Sacramento courtroom as the official tally of his time behind bars was read: 6,481 days. The state Victims Compensation Board then voted to translate those nearly 18 years into a payment to Coleman of $907,340, under a law that gives exonerees $140 for each day of wrongful imprisonment.
“My situation either makes you bitter or better,” Coleman said smiling to the board, adding, “Even though I went through some very difficult times, I think I triumphed in the end.”
Thursday's hearing also approved compensation for two other men. Ronald Velasquez Jr. and Abraham Villalobos were wrongly convicted of murdering a teenager in Downey in 2000. The man believed to be the actual killer was killed the year after the killing, information that came to light in a reinvestigation of the case in recent years. Both men were found not guilty at a hearing in March in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Ronald Velasquez Jr., left, with attorney John Hanusz, after his exoneration in March.
(John Hanusz)
Velasquez, who spent 23 years in prison, received $1.2 million, while Villalobos, who spent more than 15 years in prison, will receive $788,060. He was deported to Mexico after his release. His attorney, Joseph Trigilio of Loyola Law School’s Project for the Innocent, said at the hearing: “This brings him some measure of justice.”
Velasquez said in an interview that he was grateful for the money, but added: “Is it fair? It’s not giving me back the family members I lost, the time I lost with my family, all the things I missed.”
Those exonerated do not have to pay state or federal taxes on the compensation. Nor does it prevent them from filing civil lawsuits against authorities for mishandling investigations.
Coleman was convicted of the drive-by shooting of a teenager in South Los Angeles in 2003. As The Times reported earlier this year, he worked for years in the Corcoran prison library to prove his innocence and later received help from a volunteer, a schoolteacher from Topanga Canyon. Their work led to the exonerations of both Coleman and another man convicted in the killing, Abel Soto.
The board previously awarded Soto $909,720.
Coleman, 41, was jailed for 19 years but did not receive pay for the full period because he was also serving time for an unrelated assault charge.
He is enrolled at the University of California, Riverside, and plans to become an advocate for the wrongfully convicted. His daughter, Jocelyne, born after his arrest, is also a college student. He said he hopes to use the money to support her, buy a house and replace the breakdown-prone 1988 Corvette he has been driving since his release.
While she appreciates the compensation, which is not available in many states, Coleman said it “certainly falls short. I lost a lot, you know? And, I mean, I still have to live with the pain of what I went through.”
