Man jailed for murder to be released after 34 years - because the sister of sole witness says testimony was a lie 

  • Kash Delano Register, 53, was accused of killing Jack Sasson in LA
  • Brenda Anderson testified she had seen Register carrying out the murder
  • Her sister told police she was lying, but they defense was not told
  • Over three decades later Register was finally vindicated

By Jill Reilly

PUBLISHED: 06:02 EST, 8 November 2013 | UPDATED: 16:02 EST, 8 November 2013

A man jailed for murder is to be released after 34 years - because the sister of the sole witness said her testimony was a lie.

Brenda Anderson testified in 1979 that Kash Delano Register, 53, had shot dead her elderly neighbor Jack Sasson at his West Los Angeles home. 

But more than three decades later Anderson's sister Sharon took the stand and said the account was a lie.

Vindicated: Kash Delano Register, surrounded by his legal team at the Superior Court in Los Angeles, sobs as he is released 34 years after he was jailed for murder

Vindicated: Kash Delano Register, surrounded by lawyers at the Superior Court in Los Angeles, sobs as he is released 34 years after he was jailed for murder - because the sole witness' sister said her testimony was a lie

Yesterday a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge threw out the murder conviction.

Brenda Anderson, then 19, had told police she saw Register gun down Sasson in his carport from her window - Sasson's girlfriend she said was with him at the time of the shooting, reported the LA Times.

 

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His release came after another of Anderson's sisters Sheila Vanderkam, typed Register's name into a convict website search in 2011 and was horrified to discover he was still in jail due in part to her sister's testimony.

She tracked down Register's attorney and told him her sister's eyewitness testimony was untrue something she and Sharon Anderson had tried to tell police in 1979.

.'He made it very clear to me, without actually saying anything, that I was to stay out of it'

Sheila Vanderkam

According to Vanderkam, at the time of the shooting, her sisters had just hidden a package of Avon products they had stolen from a neighbor.

Sharon Anderson said they heard shots, but they could not get a clear look at the shooter because they were too far away.

Court papers said at trial none of the seven fingerprints found on Sasson's car matched Register's.

Police never recovered the murder weapon - they did seize a pair of pinstriped pants from Register's closet, which had a speck of blood smaller than a pencil eraser.

Overcome: Register's mother, Wilma Register, pictured centre, wept uncontrollably as her son was released

Overcome: Register's mother, Wilma Register, pictured centre, wept uncontrollably as her son was released

But the blood type, O, matched bath Sasson and Register.

Vanderkam worked at the same LAPD station as the detectives investigating the shooting and claimed she tried to tell one of them that Brenda Anderson had lied.

'The detective placed his finger over his mouth (like a shush sound) and just stared at me,' she said in her declaration. 'He made it very clear to me, without actually saying anything, that I was to stay out of it.'

Her sister Sharon also told police that they had they wrong man - even when police threatened to lock her up for the stolen Avon package, she did not relent,

But police and prosecutors never disclosed what Sharon Anderson said to the defense, Register's attorneys said. She did not testify during his trial.

Register who had refused to admit guilt during his parole hearings, put his head on the table as the ruling was made yesterday while his mother wept.

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This made me cry.

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Who would lie about this?!!!! Put her in jail see how she likes it!!

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How could any walking breathing person with a soul lie and slow this to happen to another human being. ?

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$50K for each year--he's set for life, but he'd rather have his life back...

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Boy thanksgiving is going to be awkward

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This man deserves every penny he will be awarded, but can you really pay someone for taking 34 years of their life?! And how many more people are in prison suffering the same circumstances as this man?! Just a tragedy!

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Thank god he didn't go for shawshank redemption mode when he was in the prison. Blessed him and his family. They got their family member back.

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Just like that classic movie....To Kill a Mockingbird....hope this guy can make the most of his freedom....xx

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Attorneys who deliberately withhold exculpatory evidence should be prosecuted for obstruction of justice.

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This terrible, despite the good ending. He's lost most of his adulthood in jail from 19 to 53 years old. The real miscarriage of justice is that they will likely not pursue charges against the woman who lied and put him there, or investigate the claims of police who may have been complicit.

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