A decades-old robbery conviction against a man who spent more than 18 years behind bars has been dismissed after prosecutors in Southern California said they no longer had confidence in the case.
Guy Miles' conviction stemmed from a June 1998 armed robbery at a Fidelity Financial Services office in Orange County.
According to the Orange County District Attorney's Office and The Innocence Center, two employees were closing the Fullerton business when two men, later identified as Jason Steward and Harold Bailey, knocked on the door and said they were there to make a payment.
Once inside, Bailey pulled out a handgun while Steward was armed with a shotgun, The Innocence Center said.
The pair stole $1,410 in cash and $4,138 in personal checks before fleeing in a getaway vehicle driven by Bernard Teamer, according to the organization.
Investigators initially had only general descriptions of the robbers, though a gardening glove left at the scene became part of the evidence. Teamer was later identified as the getaway driver, providing investigators with a lead.
The Innocence Center alleges problems emerged as detectives prepared photo lineups for the two employees who witnessed the robbery.
One employee selected Miles from a photo lineup that the organization said was flawed. The second employee later identified Miles after a detective told her an arrest had been made, according to The Innocence Center.
At Miles' trial, the first employee initially could not positively identify him but changed her position after speaking with the prosecutor, the organization said. The second employee also identified Miles, though she noted a difference in his weight.
The prosecution's case relied in part on those eyewitness identifications.
Miles, meanwhile, maintained he was in Las Vegas when the robbery occurred.
His defense presented testimony from his father, mother, 12-year-old son, a Las Vegas neighbor and the manager of his apartment complex, all of whom supported his alibi.
According to the OCDA's office, the witnesses testified that Miles returned to Las Vegas early on June 29, 1998, after picking up his son from his parents' home in Carson the previous night and remained there throughout the day.
The Innocence Center said Miles' defense also presented scientific research regarding the reliability of eyewitness identifications, along with DNA evidence that did not match him.
After five days of deliberations, a jury convicted Miles of two counts of robbery and a firearm-related charge. Steward and Bailey remained at large at the time, according to The Innocence Center.
Though The Innocence Center maintains Miles was not among the three men who committed the robbery, he was convicted in 1999 and sentenced under California's Three Strikes law to 75 years to life in prison.
Years later, the case began to unravel.
In 2010, Miles filed a habeas corpus petition with assistance from attorneys at The Innocence Center, citing third-party culpability, false eyewitness testimony and actual innocence.
The petition included declarations from three co-defendants who confessed to the robbery and said Miles had no involvement. The confessions came after the statute of limitations had expired.
An Orange County Superior Court judge denied the petition.
Miles then sought relief from an appellate court, resulting in evidentiary hearings in 2013 and 2016. Miles and two of his co-defendants again testified that he was not involved in the robbery, according to prosecutors.
On Jan. 19, 2017, the California Court of Appeal reversed Miles' conviction after finding the new, credible confessions likely would have changed the outcome of his trial, according to The Innocence Center.
The appeals court vacated all three counts under a provision of California law allowing relief based on new evidence that likely would have altered the verdict. The ruling stopped short of making a finding of factual innocence.
Despite the reversal, Miles still faced the possibility of being retried and receiving another life sentence.
The DA's office offered him a plea agreement, which he accepted. Miles was ultimately released with credit for time served after spending more than 18 years in custody.
The California Victim Compensation Board later awarded Miles nearly $1 million for what it described as the harm he suffered after being wrongfully imprisoned for 6,895 days. The California Attorney General concurred with the award, prosecutors said.
The case received another review after OCDA Todd Spitzer established the office's Conviction Integrity Unit after taking office in 2019.
Following its review of the evidence, the unit, working with The Innocence Center, asked that Miles' remaining guilty plea to two counts of second-degree robbery and a firearm-related sentencing enhancement be vacated.
Prosecutors said they had lost confidence in the conviction.
"Justice exists only when the quest for truth never ends," Spitzer said in a statement. "We have an absolute obligation to continue to seek the truth and ensure that we can continue to have confidence in our convictions."
Spitzer said prosecutors wield immense power over a person's freedom and have an ongoing responsibility to correct cases when evidence shows the justice system failed.
"While the conviction of Guy Miles did not occur on my watch, I am proud to say that the decision to move to have it dismissed did," he said.
Miles said the dismissal marked the end of a fight he had waged for decades.
"I always knew the truth," he said. "I just needed the system to catch up to it. Today it finally did."
Miles said he was grateful to those who fought on his behalf but wished his father had lived to see the conviction dismissed.
Audrey McGinn, a senior staff attorney for The Innocence Center, said problems with the eyewitness identification process were at the heart of the case.
"Although Guy came home in 2018, he still lived under the shadow of this wrongful conviction," McGinn said. "All the while, the hallmark of this case stared back at us: a flawed eyewitness identification procedure that never should have led to a conviction."
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.