SAN JOSE — A person serving a 105-year jail sentence for a string of violent 2008 gang assaults turned a free man this week, when prosecutors dismissed his expenses on the eve of a 3rd trial spurred by a scolding appellate ruling final yr that threw out his conviction as a result of it improperly hinged on rap songs to model him a gang member.
Hugo Alexander Chavez, 43, was launched from Santa Clara County jail late Wednesday after serving 13 years in jail and jail, throughout which his first trial ended with a hung jury tilted in favor of acquitting him and his second trial led to a decades-long jail time period issued in 2019.
Hugo Alexander Chavez, who was serving a 105-year jail sentence, displays on his life after being free from jail as he appears to be like on on the Silicon Valley De-Bug in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, July 25, 2025. Prosecutors dropped his case in a prolonged court docket journey that included a mistrial. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)
“Throughout this whole time fighting, deep down in my heart, I knew it was going to happen. The whole case was just extraordinary,” Chavez stated in an interview Friday. “Right now, I feel extremely overwhelmed. It’s just been nonstop love and affection from my loved ones that missed me and I missed them. And just a lot of catching up, right? Just filling in that gap, and just getting some closure.”
Chavez was headed to trial once more this month earlier than the district legal professional’s workplace dropped homicide and tried homicide expenses. He had appreciable authorized momentum behind him this time round, most notably with a December ruling by the Sixth District Court docket of Attraction that vacated his conviction and sentence.
The sturdy rebuke of his prison case, Chavez stated, left him speechless as he sat in jail studying the ruling issued the day after Christmas.
“I didn’t know how to feel and what to feel at the time, it was very shocking to me,” he stated. “It took me a moment for it to sink in, and for me to realize that it was happening.”
The Sixth District ruling discovered that intensive point out of Chavez’s function in producing rap songs with lyrics selling gang life — which he didn’t write — unfairly pushed a jury towards discovering him responsible. The ruling famous that the lyrics proof took on disproportional significance in a trial the place “the evidence of Chavez’s guilt was not overwhelming” and with state prosecutors conceding Chavez’s gang affiliations had been skinny at greatest.
Appellate judges additionally pointed to, as Chavez’s attorneys had accomplished repeatedly, the truth that the one direct proof in opposition to him was the unverified testimony of a sole witness who had critical credibility points, his personal storied prison previous and is at the moment wished on an energetic arrest warrant.
“This case presents the rare circumstances under which reversal is warranted: The evidence against Chavez was not strong; the contents of the lyrics were extremely inflammatory; and the prosecution’s frequent references to them compel the conclusion that it is reasonably probable the outcome of the trial would have been more favorable to Chavez in the absence of the error,” the appellate ruling reads.
Stuart Kirchick, an legal professional who represented Chavez at trial, had requested the county Superior Court docket to throw out the newest re-filed expenses, arguing in a trial transient that his prosecution has been so riddled with racial bias — mirrored most visibly in quotation of the rap songs, a tactic that has since been curtailed by the state Legislature — and “outrageous government misconduct” {that a} full case dismissal was the one simply treatment.
The district legal professional’s workplace stated its resolution to dismiss Chavez’s case was primarily based partially on the challenges of making an attempt to show a case that may depend on reminiscences of crimes that occurred 17 years in the past.
“Factors like the age of the case, unavailability of witnesses, and the appeals court ruling made it problematic, if not impossible, to try this case at this time,” the workplace stated in an announcement. “We are disappointed — but determined to hold those who commit gang violence in our community accountable.”
Chavez was first indicted in 2012 for homicide and tried homicide expenses after being accused of driving two different males who had been trying to find rival gang members and ended up stabbing and capturing two males on March 28, 2008. Jurors deadlocked on the finish of the primary trial in 2016, then one other jury discovered him responsible of the fees within the 2018 retrial.
In the course of the appellate course of, each the Sixth District court docket and the state Legal professional Normal’s Workplace acknowledged “the weak state of the other evidence” in opposition to Chavez, an engineer with no felony historical past previous and passive ties to San Jose gangs by the use of rising up with gang members.
Chavez had constructed a recording studio in his grandmother’s again yard, and produced rap beats for mates who espoused gang messaging and lyrics over the music. The appellate court docket dominated the “danger of undue prejudice substantially outweighed any probative value the lyrics had,” and that “the trial court’s wholesale admission of the lyrics constituted an abuse of discretion.” The court docket added that the quotation of the lyrics in closing arguments created a state of affairs the place jurors couldn’t simply know they weren’t allowed to think about them “as evidence that Chavez had a violent character.”
In one other Bay Space case in 2022, homicide convictions for 2 males had been overturned by a Contra Costa County Superior Court docket decide who dominated that the quotation of defendants’ rap lyrics and movies “more likely than not triggered the jury’s implicit racial bias against African American men and was in violation of” the Racial Justice Act.
Hugo Alexander Chavez receives a hug from Veronica Flores a longtime good friend and former coworker outdoors the Santa Clara County Major Jail in San Jose on July 23, 2025, following his launch from custody after 13 years of jail and jail incarceration. (Photograph by Daniel Zapien/ Silicon Valley De-Bug)
Chavez stated his first two days of unrestricted freedom have been a whirlwind, reuniting with family and friends, and at last attending to meaningfully join together with his daughter, who was born proper across the time he was first jailed. He’s additionally remembering the family members who handed away whereas he was incarcerated, together with his brother and grandmother.
“I’m just taking it one day at a time,” he stated.
However he is also actively trying forward. Whereas in jail, he turned a authorized advocate for his fellow inmates, and helped kind the nonprofit A System Down, which was based by Rudy Cuevas, his former cellmate in county jail. He additionally advocated for prison justice reform, together with the Racial Justice Act, with the assistance of Silicon Valley De-Bug, the South Bay civil-rights group that has lengthy supported incarcerated individuals and their households.
He plans to proceed that advocacy whereas he will get again on his toes: “I think out of all this negative stuff that happened in my life, obviously, (let’s) build something positive out of it.”
“What I could tell other people is just never lose hope,” he added. “If you’re innocent, you know, never give up and just keep working hard to tell the truth.”
