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Carrillo ran as a candidate for the California State Assembly. His community involvement has been constant.
Franky Carrillo: 20 Years Behind Bars for a Crime He Didn’ t Commit
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SON OF MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS, CARRILLO WAS AWARDED MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN COMPENSATION AND NOW PROUDLY TELLS HIS STORY OF REDEMPTION
›› BY: PABLO SCARPELLINI | L. A.
At 16, Francisco,“ Franky” Carillo Jr’ s trust in the system proved devastating.“ I was scared and confused, but I trusted that the adults would do the right thing, that they would be able to see the truth,” recalls Carrillo Jr. They didn’ t. In 1992, Carrillo was convicted of the murder of Donald Sarpy in Lynwood, on the outskirts of Los Angeles, and of six counts of attempted homicide. The conviction rested solely on the testimony of six eyewitnesses who, as would be proven years later, had been guided by police to identify him.
There was not a single piece of physical evidence linking him to the crime. He would spend more than two decades in prison before the Los Angeles County
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Superior Court overturned his conviction in 2011, after all the witnesses recanted and two men confessed to being the actual shooters.
HOW DOES ONE
SURVIVE THAT?“ I lived it like being in a waiting room,” he explains, with a calm that is almost unsettling.“ I knew the miracle was going to come. But in the meantime, I couldn’ t stay still.” In prison, he endured through education and personal growth,“ It didn’ t matter to me who the teacher was. Sometimes the learning came from an instructor, and other times it came from inner dialogue, or from other inmates who acted as mentors. I just wanted to be the student.”
When he got out, he wasn’ t surprised.“ When you’ ve spent so long hoping, praying, and working for something, and it finally happens, it doesn’ t surprise you. It’ s a feeling of fulfillment. Of knowing that all the pain, all the suffering, had to happen in order to get here.”
The son of Mexican immigrants— his father a painter, his mother a seamstress— Carrillo speaks about the present moment with a mix of pride and clarity.“ It’ s hard to know who accepts you and who doesn’ t. But I walk into every room as if I belong. Because I do.” He adds:“ I see myself as an ambassador. Whether I’ m at an elegant dinner in a suit or at the store with my kids, I know people are watching me. And I carry myself with all the courtesy and respect I can, because that’ s a reflection of our people.”
About the system that wrongfully convicted him, Carrillo holds no resentment, but he does have a warning.“ What worries me is that we still have two
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
Place of birth: Los Angeles, California.
Background: Son of workingclass Mexican immigrants.
Education: B. A. from Loyola Marymount University( 2016).
Today: Senior advisor at the LA Innocence Project and criminal justice reform activist. Member of the Democratic Party.