CALIFORNIA — A man wrongfully imprisoned for 38 years has reached a $25 million settlement with the state. Court documents released Monday show Maurice Hastings, 72, finalized the settlement in August.
The award is believed to be the largest wrongful conviction settlement in California’s history.
“No amount of money could ever restore the 38 years of my life that were stolen from me. But this settlement is a welcome end to a very long road, and I look forward to moving on with my life,” Hastings said.
Hastings spent nearly four decades behind bars before his conviction was vacated in 2022, after DNA evidence proved the biological material found at the crime scene did not match him.
Arrested for carjacking, rape, and the murder
In 1984, Hastings was arrested for carjacking, rape, and the murder of Roberta Wydermyer, as well as the attempted murder of her husband and a friend.
On June 19, 1983, Roberta Wydermyer left her Los Angeles home in a white Cadillac but never arrived at her destination. That morning, her wallet and checkbook were found discarded, with cash and her calling card missing.
Later, her husband, Billy Wydermyer, and friend, George Pinson, spotted her Cadillac driven by a young Black male in an “LAPD” cap. When they pursued, the driver opened fire, wounding Billy.
The next day, the Cadillac was found burned in Inglewood, and Roberta’s body was discovered in the trunk. She had been fatally shot in the head with the same caliber weapon used in the earlier shooting.
In the following month, 31 calls were made nationwide with her stolen calling card, traced to 30-year-old Hastings. Although Billy Wydermyer and Pinson initially failed to identify him in a photo lineup, both later pointed to him after police staged a new array with hats.
No physical evidence tied Hastings to the crime. His defense presented an alibi, claiming he was at an out-of-town birthday party, and argued he had only received the stolen card from a family friend.
Denied DNA testing
Hastings was convicted in 1988 after a second trial. The first had ended in a hung jury. In 2000 and 2011, he sought DNA testing but was denied.
He always maintained his innocence. In 2021, Hastings asked the DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit to review his case, and DNA tests cleared him. The following year, at age 69, his conviction was vacated at the joint request of prosecutors and his attorneys.
Lawsuit claims law enforcement framed Hastings
A lawsuit filed by Hastings accused several law enforcement officials, including officers with the Inglewood Police Department and a Los Angeles County District Attorney investigator, of misconduct in framing him.
“The Inglewood Police Department arrested the true perpetrator, [Kenneth] Packnett, for multiple car thefts only two weeks after the carjacking and murder. Although Packnett was arrested with the murder weapon and some of Roberta’s jewelry, the Inglewood PD never charged him with any crimes against the Wydermyers and released him,” court documents state.
Hastings said Inglewood detectives Grant Price and Russell Enyeart, and LADA investigator George Clark, ignored Packnett and built the case against him instead.
Packnett went on to commit numerous crimes, including sexual assaults, before dying in prison in 2020 while serving another sentence.
In 2023, a judge formally declared Hastings “factually innocent.” Such rulings are rare in California, granted only when evidence conclusively proves the person did not commit the crime.
