On March 11, 1988, a 6-year-old girl, identified as C.B. was abducted from a playground at a U.S. Naval housing complex in Long Beach, California. She was taken to a house, where she was sexually assaulted,and then was released.
The girl was taken to a hospital, where a rape kit was taken.
Ten hours after she was abducted, the girl and her 4-year-old brother, who was with her when she was abducted, were interviewed by police.
The girl and her brother gave varying descriptions of the man who abducted, though both said the man made her get into a green car.
Five days later, a neighbor told police that on the day of the abduction, she had seen a suspicious looking man in the area. Her description of the man was similar to the description given by C.B. The neighbor said she had seen a green pickup in the area as well.
During the next several weeks, C.B. was interviewed again and was shown a photographic lineup that included the photograph of 37-year-old Leonard McSherry. His photograph was included because he had three previous child molestation convictions as well as a conviction for loitering at a school.
The victim identified McSherry. Several days later, she was shown the same photographic lineup and again identified McSherry. When shown photographs of several vehicles, she identified a photograph of McSherry’s father’s yellow station wagon as the vehicle she rode in after her abduction.
The victim then viewed a live lineup. She did not identify McSherry until she left the viewing room. She told police she had been afraid to identify him while in the viewing room.
On May 17, 1988, police arrested McSherry at the home of his grandparents. During an interrogation, McSherry was asked to provide a detailed description of the interior, including photos or art on the walls, the colors of sheets and blankets on a bed and the color and location of furniture.
The police obtained a search warrant for the home the following day and took photographs. The police said that the victim had provided a description that was consistent with the interior of a bedroom in the house, and that she had looked at a photographic lineup of houses and selected McSherry’s grandparents’ house as the location of the attack.
McSherry was charged with rape, oral copulation, digital penetration, and kidnapping.
In October 1988, he went to trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The victim identified him as her attacker. The neighbor identified McSherry as the suspicious man she saw near the playground.
A forensic analyst testified that although one of the stains found on the victim’s underwear showed Type A blood activity, which excluded McSherry, the result was inconclusive because “based on my experience,” that result could have been due to “bacterial contamination.”
On October 25, 1988, the jury convicted McSherry of all the charges. He was sentenced to 48 years in prison.
In 2001, McSherry obtained a court order for DNA testing of the evidence. The testing excluded McSherry. When the DNA profile from the evidence was submitted to the FBI’s Combined DNA Information System (CODIS), it was identified as the DNA of 59-year-old George Valdespino. By then, Valdespino was serving a prison sentence of 45 years to life for the 1997 kidnapping and molestation of another girl.
When questioned in prison, Valdespino admitted he had kidnapped the 6-year-old from the Naval housing complex in Long Beach and raped her in a motel room.
On December 28, 2001, McSherry’s convictions were vacated, the case was dismissed, and he was released from prison.
McSherry was subsequently awarded $481,000 in compensation from the state of California.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 02-24-2026
