Man who pleaded guilty may be innocent

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - A man has served six years in prison for a double murder that he pleaded guilty to several years ago.

But federal investigators have conducted their own case and named three other men in the brutal murders. The man now in prison could go free, if new evidence shows he was not the killer.

Nelson and Miguel Camacho were shot to death in their Niagara Street apartment in Buffalo in 2004. A man named Josue Ortiz confessed to the murders and went to prison for the crimes.

Federal investigators now believe three other men, including the refuted leader of the notorious 7th Street Gang in Buffalo, Efrain Hidalgo, killed the brothers in cold blood.

U.S. Attorney William Hochul said, "The findings of the grand jury that the people responsible for the murder of Nelson and Miguel Camacho, are in fact, Mr. Misael Montaldo, Mr. Efrain Hidalgo, and Mr. Brandon Jonas."

That poses a real problem now for the criminal justice system.  

News 4 has obtained an e-mail from Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita to Ortiz's lawyer John Nuchereno stating: "...information that might tend to exonerate Mr. Ortiz has been uncovered and/or developed. I will keep you advised...should (D.A.'s Office) discover any credible evidence that tends to exonerate your client."

Sedita said, "We take this case as serious as a heart attack, and we're looking at it as hard and as serious as we can, and as quickly as we can."

But at least one attorney, Kevin Spitler, who is representing Montalvo, is saying, "I find it a very curious situation that the government has moved to implicate three defendants in a capital murder case, when someone else is already in custody serving prison time for those murders."

Hochul said the federal investigation is completely separate from the earlier probe.

"Our investigators and our Assistant U.S. Attorneys continue to investigate and follow the facts wherever they led," he said.

Sedita has already met with Ortiz's lawyer, who could make a motion to set aside the verdict against his client.