BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — An appeals court has overturned the murder and robbery convictions of one of two men found guilty in a shooting at a Lamont gas station in 2016 that killed a father and son.
In Thursday’s ruling from the 5th District Court of Appeal, Judge Donald R. Franson Jr. wrote the trial court was wrong in allowing the jury to hear statements Jim Langston made to detectives before being read his Miranda rights.
“During Langston’s first interview, the detectives who questioned him did not provide Miranda warnings until over two hours into the interview, elicited a confession of his involvement in the underlying crimes in that prewarning period and then, after the warnings, re-interrogated him about the same facts,” wrote Franson, part of a three-judge panel that examined the appeal.
The 47-year-old Langston, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole, will eventually be transported for a hearing in Superior Court, and prosecutors will decide whether to retry him.