Hard Times gangster Miguel Ayon thinks Orange County's criminal justice system gave him a raw deal.
Ayon, who turns 24 years old today, has convictions for two attempted murders, conspiracy, shooting at an inhabited dwelling, aggravated assault, active participation in a criminal street gang and illegal possession of a gun.
He compiled that rap sheet in 2007 when he was 18 and now he wants his convictions overturned as constitutionally unfair.
But a three-justice panel at the California Court of Appeal in Santa Ana note that the person who convicted Ayon was, well, Ayon.
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The hoodlum approved a guilty plea specifically admitting he tried to kill people for the benefit of Hard Times.
“The above factual statements are true and correct and are the basis for my guilty plea,” reads the documents Ayon signed. “By signing this document, I acknowledge that I read and write the English language and I understand everything written and typed in this document. I declare under penalty of perjury the above is true and correct.”
In exchange for admitting his guilt before trial, Orange County prosecutors dropped multiple counts and agreed with the defendant to send him away to prison for a certain time, an amount approved by Superior Court Judge Craig E. Robison.
The appellate judges this month didn't find any issue that bothered them about the deal and rejected the appeal as meritless.
Upshot: Ayon will continue serving his 26-year punishment at California State Prison in Los Angeles County.
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CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.