Murder Charges Dropped Against Teen

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – A suspect who has been jailed since 2010 on suspicion of helping murder his girlfriend will be set free Wednesday after physical evidence recovered at the scene of the crime showed he was not involved.

Prosecutors dropped all charges against Tyler Espinosa, who is now an adult but was 17 when police charged him with the killing of his 17-year-old girlfriend, Rebecca Layson.

Layson's body was found in a wooded area of Van Maren Park in Citrus Heights in February 2010. Investigators determined the victim had been raped before being killed, and Espinosa was arrested along with another suspect, Anton Johnson, after he reportedly gave police inconsistent statements.

Defense attorney Kate Carlson said prosecutors had no choice but to dismiss the charges after the evidence pointed away from Espinosa's involvement.

"The combination with the forensic evidence and the physical evidence were enough to convince the D.A.'s office of what I've known for months," Carlson said.

Espinosa's family wept with joy Wednesday when the charges were finally dropped.

"We knew that he had to be innocent and he was telling us that he was innocent," said Espinosa's grandmother, Rose Smith.

Johnson is still in jail as the lone suspect in Layson's murder.