In December 2025, 69-year-old Richard Luna was exonerated of a 1982 sexual assault in Ventura County, California, after a federally funded initiative to submit untested sexual assault kits for DNA testing identified the true perpetrator.
The crime occurred on November 8, 1982. A19-year-old woman reported to police that a man had attacked her while she was riding her bicycle in Simi Valley, California. She said the man had raped her.
Several months later, the woman walked into a pizza parlor in Simi Valley and saw a man she believed was her attacker. She followed him outside and copied the license plate number on his vehicle.
On August 30, 1983, police arrested Luna, who was then 26 years old and living in his truck. After the woman identified him in a lineup as her attacker, he was charged with rape.
Luna went to trial in December 1983 in Ventura County Superior Court. The victim identified Luna as her assailant. Luna testified and denied that he attacked her. On December 9, 1983, the jury convicted Luna of forcible rape. He was sentenced to six years in prison and was released on October 29, 1986.
In 2022, the Ventura County Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (VCSAKI) was launched by the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office. The initiative was funded by a $2.5 million grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice and funds provided by Ventura County to test every untested sexual assault kit for the presence of DNA and investigate unsolved cases.
DNA testing was not available at the time that Luna was prosecuted. When the sexual assault kit in Luna’s case was tested, the results excluded Luna. When the DNA profile was submitted to the FBI Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database, the profile was associated with another man.
The Ventura County District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit re-investigated the case. Ultimately Luna, the victim, and the Ventura County Public Defender’s Office were informed of the investigation. Because the statute of limitations had expired, the person whose DNA was identified could not be prosecuted.
On December 11, 2025, Luna, accompanied by public defender Thomas Hartnett, appeared in Ventura County Superior Court before Judge Anthony Sabo where Senior Deputy District Attorney Thomas Frye presented a motion to vacate Luna’s conviction and to dismiss the case.
According to the Ventura County Star newspaper, Luna, who has been required to register as a sex offender in the nearly 40 years since his release, was in tears.
“What happened to me should never have happened,” he said.
Judge Sabo, calling the case a “tragedy,” granted the motion and the case was dismissed. Judge Sabo declared Luna factually innocent and said he would be able to obtain compensation for his time spent in custody.
“There’s no way I can imagine how it feels for you to be wrongly convicted… Justice wasn’t served in 1984, but all I can say for what little it’s worth is justice is being served today," Sabo said, according to the Star.
The DNA testing program is testing evidence from all sexual assaults, even in cases where a conviction had occurred. Of the nearly 2,000 kits tested since 2022, about 24 resulted in a conviction. The kit in Luna’s case was the only one as of December 2025 that did not affirm the original conviction, the Star reported.
Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said in a statement, “While we can’t undo the past, we can use the power of DNA technology to exonerate the wrongfully convicted. This case underscores our responsibility as prosecutors to examine the integrity of our convictions and seek justice on behalf of those who served time for crimes they never committed."
The California Victim Compensation Board awarded Luna $161,980 in 2026.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 12-18-2025
Last Update Date: 08-10-2026
