Wrongfully Convicted Man of 1983 Long Beach Murder Set to Receive $3 Million Settlement

A man who spent 37 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted for a murder and robbery in Long Beach in 1983 is set to receive a $3 million settlement from Los Angeles County. The County Claims Board has recommended the settlement, following a lawsuit filed by Samuel Bonner, aged 62, whose conviction was overturned in 2019 due to prosecutorial misconduct.

Samuel Bonner’s attorney, Andrew M. Stein, did not comment on the pending settlement. Bonner, now a truck driver living in California’s Central Valley, was unavailable for comment. He has been free since 2019, when his release was ordered by Superior Court Judge Daniel Lowenthal, who later declared him factually innocent.

The incident leading to Bonner’s case occurred on November 11, 1982, when he agreed to give a ride to an acquaintance named Watson Allison to Rose Park in Long Beach. They were meeting with Leonard Polk, according to court records. An undercover police officer began following Bonner’s gray Ford as it seemed suspicious. The officer witnessed Allison conversing with Polk while the vehicle was idling at an intersection. Polk and Allison then proceeded into a nearby apartment, while Bonner remained in the vehicle and drove away.

About 15 minutes later, the undercover officer and two residents observed Allison leaving the apartment multiple times, carrying items and placing them in Polk’s car before driving off alone. Neighbors later discovered Polk’s dead body in his apartment.

Bonner and Allison were arrested for the robbery and murder. While Allison was believed to be the gunman, Bonner was charged under the state’s felony murder rule, which allows prosecutors to charge someone with murder if they were involved in a felony resulting in a homicide.

Police searched Bonner’s vehicle and home but found no evidence connecting him to Polk’s apartment. The trials for Bonner and Allison were conducted separately. Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Kurt Seifert presented different theories about the killing and the gunman’s identity in each trial.

During Bonner’s trial, Seifert relied on testimony from a jailhouse informant known as Michael Hayes, whose real name was Charles Jones. Two Long Beach police detectives had coerced Hayes, who was awaiting trial for two homicides, to falsely testify that Bonner had confessed to him about killing Polk. A lawsuit filed against the Long Beach police alleged this misconduct.

As part of a deal to testify in Bonner’s case and two others, Hayes had one of his homicide charges reduced to manslaughter, receiving a four-year prison sentence. However, Bonner and his attorney were never informed about Hayes’ true name, full criminal history, or the benefits he received for testifying.

In a ruling on a motion related to Bonner’s civil suit against the former Long Beach detectives, U.S. District Court Judge Christina A. Snyder stated, “To the contrary, the prosecution knowingly allowed Mr. Hayes to lie about his name, convictions, and benefits on the stand.”

Bonner was represented at trial by Ron Slick, a defense lawyer known as “Dr. Death” due to his representation of capital murder defendants who have been sentenced to death. Slick refused to allow Bonner to testify during the trial and presented no witnesses in Bonner’s defense, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Seifert dropped the capital murder charge against Bonner, who was convicted of robbery and felony murder. Allison received a death sentence, which was later overturned, and he was resentenced in 2012 to 25 years to life.