On October 29, 1983, a 10-year-old boy, identified as D.L., and his mother went to the Door, a non-denominational church near the Southgate Shopping Center in Tucson, Arizona. While his mother was at church, the boy walked over to a carnival in the mall. A Black man offered him $5 to help take down a tent. D.L. accepted, but was instead abducted from the carnival by the man.
The boy later reported that he was taken to a vacant house where he was sexually assaulted for one to two hours. The man drove him back to the carnival, where he found his mother and reported what had occurred. He was taken to a hospital, where a rape kit was taken and his clothing was placed into evidence..
D.L., who was Hispanic, said the man was middle-aged, had greasy black hair mixed with gray hair, and his right eye was defective.
On November 7, 1983, police created a photographic array that included a photograph of 30-year-old Larry Youngblood, who had a cataract in his left eye. The other photographs in the lineup had been altered so that their right eyes had been blacked out. Although Youngblood had no gray hair and his left eye was the defective one, not the right as the boy had initially said, D.L. picked him as the attacker.
On December 9, 1983, police arrested Youngblood. He was charged with sexual assault, child molesting and kidnapping.
In February 1985, Youngblood went to trial in Pima County Superior Court. It was the second trial—his first had ended in a mistrial when the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
D.L. identified him as the attacker. D.L. testified that Youngblood took him to an empty house where Youngblood assaulted him for one to two hours, then took him back to the carnival. The boy said that his attacker drove a white mid-sized car with torn upholstery covered by a blanket.
The prosecution presented evidence showing that when police went to the home of Youngblood’s girlfriend, they found a 1964 white Chrysler Imperial with a torn interior. D.L. identified the blanket in the car as the one he saw when he was abducted.
The police improperly stored the rape kit and it had degraded. By the time any forensic tests were attempted, 15 months had passed and the results were inconclusive.
Expert witnesses for the defense at trial stated that, had the evidence been stored correctly, test results might have demonstrated Youngblood’s innocence.
On February 8, 1985, Youngblood was convicted of child molestation, sexual assault, and kidnapping. He was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison.
Youngblood appealed his conviction, claiming the destruction of potentially exculpatory evidence violated his due process rights, and in October 1986, the Arizona Court of Appeals set aside his conviction.
He was released from prison while the prosecution appealed. When the Arizona Supreme Court denied the prosecution’s request to appeal, the prosecution then filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court. The petition was granted and the U.S. Supreme Court took the case.
In November 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the lower court's ruling, and his conviction was reinstated. The Court ruled that the degradation of the evidence was not due to malicious intent on the part of law enforcement.
Youngblood remained free as the case made its way through the Arizona appellate court system a second time. In January 1990, the Arizona Court of Appeals again vacated his convictions, ruling that defendants had more protections under the Arizona Constitution than the U.S. Constitution.
But on January 7, 1993, the Arizona Supreme Court reinstated Youngblood’s conviction, and he returned to prison.
In 1998, Youngblood was released on parole but was sent back to prison in 1999 for failing to register his new address, as required by Arizona’s sex-offender law.
In 2000, upon request from Youngblood’s attorney, the boy’s clothing was submitted for DNA testing. The Tucson Police Crime Laboratory performed the tests and reported that the results excluded Youngblood.
On August 8, 2000, his convictions were vacated, the charges were dismissed and he was released from prison.
Shortly thereafter, the DNA profile from the evidence was entered into the FBI Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). In early 2001, the unidentified DNA was identified as the DNA profile of Walter Cruise, who was blind in one eye and then in a Texas prison on a cocaine conviction. In August 2002, Cruise, who had two prior child sex convictions in Texas, pled guilty to the attack on D.L. and was sentenced to 24 years in prison.
In 2007, Youngblood died without receiving any compensation.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 03-12-2026
