Account established to benefit Ontario man whose conviction was overturned

ONTARIO - An Upland schoolteacher has established a bank account to benefit a man recently released from prison after a federal judge overturned his attempted-murder conviction.

Though Rafael Madrigal calls freedom after nine years "unbelievable," his family has been hurting financially since the death of his father in January.

Only two days after he returned to his Ontario home this month, Madrigal, a married father of three, was notified that his family must vacate their home of 15 years by Nov. 8 because they failed to keep up with mortgage payments and ownership of the property changed hands.

After learning of Madrigal's financial hardships, a middle school teacher who once taught Madrigal's oldest son set out to establish a bank account for people to donate to Madrigal's family.

Wanda Fonda, a history teacher at Grace Yokley Middle School in Ontario, established the account last week and deposited the first $100.

"If everybody just donates just a little bit to help them out it could help them stay in their home," said Fonda, 57. "And this happened through no fault of his own."

Madrigal, 34, was convicted of attempted murder based on eyewitness testimony that he was involved in a July 2000 drive-by shooting in East Los Angeles.

In overturning the conviction, a federal judge faulted Madrigal's trial attorney for failing to sufficiently prove Madrigal's seemingly ironclad alibi: he was at work at a Rancho Cucamonga factory at the time of the shooting.

Madrigal is free on bail pending the resolution of his case. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office hasn't announced yet whether it will seek to retry Madrigal.

While Madrigal was in custody, his wife and three children lived at his parents' home in Ontario.

With the recent death of Madrigal's father, who Madrigal called the "breadwinner" and "heart and soul of the family," the family was unable to keep up with mortgage payments.

Madrigal's wife was recently laid off from her job at a school in El Monte, and Madrigal said his efforts to find work have been fruitless.

"I've been looking, but I'm pretty sure you know how the job thing is going right now," he said.

Madrigal said he explained his family's circumstances - including his recent release from prison and the death of his father - to the company now in possession of his home.

It apparently failed to win him any sympathy, and Madrigal is now eyeing rental properties in Ontario, where his children attended public schools for nearly his entire period of incarceration.

"Their whole thing was they're running a business," Madrigal said.

The Daily Bulletin has received about a half-dozen phone calls from people who said they wanted to help Madrigal's family after reading an account of Madrigal's case.

"There's still a lot of good people in this world," Madrigal said.

Madrigal said he was "speechless for the first five minutes" when he met Fonda last week.

"I saw her two days ago in the bank when she was going through the whole process," Madrigal said in an interview Friday. "I couldn't thank her enough."

"Even the smallest of help would be worth millions," Madrigal said.

How to donate to Rafael Madrigal

A bank account in Madrigal's name has been opened at the south Ontario branch of Chase Bank. The account number is 9424851594.

Information: Luna at (909) 773-1723, ext. 3, or contact Fonda at (909) 635-8801.