PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In his 2025 filing overturning the conviction, Pueblo District Court Judge Thomas Flesher noted that Barnes' false confession was the only evidence linking Lyn-Darr to the scene. He also wrote that psychologist Dr. Richard Leo — a prominent national expert on false confessions — testified during the hearing that the length of the interrogation, as well as sleep deprivation, strongly correlate with the risk of false confessions. Leo also testified that the contamination of a defendant's statements by investigators is present in almost all false confession cases, and the contamination in Lyn-Darr's case was "pretty extensive."
-----------
PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Importantly, there is no evidence placing Barnes at the scene," Flesher wrote. "There is no DNA or fingerprint evidence connecting him to the scene. And everything about the crime that he described in his confession was either provided to him by (PCSO), is uncorroborated by any other evidence, or is actually contradicted by other evidence. "As the People acknowledge, Mr. Barnes received information from law enforcement and expanded on it with demonstrably false details." Wilkerson also told Lyn-Darr's counsel during an interview at the Colorado State Penitentiary that Lyn-Darr was not present at the scene, and neither were Barnes nor co-defendant Brandon Armijo. Wilkerson allegedly said he was the only one there and that he never intended to make Lyn-Darr aware of any criminal activity he was a part of."
———————————————————
STORY: "Colorado woman wrongfully convicted of murder seeks $800,000 from state," by Reporter Justin Reutter, published by The Pueblo Chieftain, on May 1, 2026.
SUB-HEADING: "Woman wrongfully convicted of 2009 murder in Pueblo seeks compensation."
- (SUMMARY): "A Colorado woman is seeking $830,000 in compensation after her 2012 murder conviction was overturned.
- Her conviction was thrown out after a co-defendant testified that his confession implicating her was coerced by investigators.
- The actual killer in the case has stated that the woman was not present at the scene of the crime.
- If successful, she would be only the fourth person in Colorado history to receive restitution for a wrongful conviction."
GIST: "A woman is seeking $830,000 in compensation from the state of Colorado after her 2012 conviction for a Pueblo murder was thrown out in 2025.
Acacia Lyn-Darr, 47, was convicted of the murder of Robert Piserchio and spent nearly 12 years in prison before her exoneration.
She was connected to the case after accepting checks that were stolen from the victim's house by Aaron Wilkerson, the real killer in the case.
"In 2012, (Lyn-Darr) was wrongly convicted of a crime she did not commit: the brutal killing of a man in Pueblo County in his home during a robbery," Lyn-Darr's attorneys at the Johnson & Klein law firm wrote in a news release.
"These crimes were committed by a man named Aaron Wilkerson, acting alone. He later gave Ms. (Lyn-Darr) some checks he had stolen from the victim’s home — without telling her where they had come from — and that is what led detectives to focus on her."
Boyfriend's false confession led to Lyn-Darr's conviction
A Pueblo jury convicted Lyn-Darr based on the testimony of her then-boyfriend, Matthew Barnes, who confessed after several hours of interrogation to killing Piserchio and claimed Lyn-Darr had participated in the attack.
During an eight-hour interrogation, Barnes maintained his innocence until approximately four hours in, when the recording device stopped recording for no explicable reason for about 30 minutes, according to Lyn-Darr's petition. The camera came back on as Barnes gave his confession, but the moment he switched from maintaining his innocence to "admitting his guilt" was not caught on camera.
"At the time he was interrogated by the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office, Mr. Barnes was high on methamphetamine and severely sleep deprived. Even so, for several hours of his lengthy interrogation, Mr. Barnes maintained his own innocence and repeatedly offered to take a lie-detector test to show that he had had nothing to do with the murder," Lyn-Darr's attorneys wrote in the release.
During the second recorded part of Barnes' interrogation, he attempted to provide details of what happened, but did not know the details as he was not there. Pueblo County Sheriff's Office investigators provided him with details, including photographs of the crime scene, to get him to modify his account to match the physical evidence.
For example, when Barnes said he did not believe anything had been used to bind the victim's hands or feet, the investigators told him, "Think hard, duct tape."
In another instance, Barnes said that a golf club caused a head injury to Piserchio. However, then-Sgt. John Pannunzio, who retired from the sheriff's office in 2015, redirected Barnes to a pot/planter, saying, "You said you didn't know if someone threw this pot back at him or he fell into it."
Barnes echoed that back to Pannunzio, saying the pot could have caused a head injury that would have left blood in a photo.
In August 2010, Barnes told his attorney the confession was false and he had not been at the scene of the murder. However, to avoid facing life in prison, Barnes agreed to testify against Lyn-Darr and plead guilty to second-degree murder for a sentence of 30 years in prison.
Barnes refused for several years to testify that he had given false testimony, telling Lyn-Darr's counsel that the deputy district attorneys assigned to the case had threatened that testifying differently than he did during Lyn-Darr's trial would result in him being charged with first-degree murder, as well as perjury for the false testimony.
However, in 2024, he agreed to testify at Lyn-Darr's post-conviction hearing. He testified that detectives had told him that his codefendants, including Lyn-Darr, had implicated him, causing resentment toward them and a willingness to implicate them.
Why Acacia Lyn-Darr's conviction was vacated
Lyn-Darr's conviction was vacated in February 2025 after a co-defendant in the case testified that his 2009 confession and subsequent plea deal to testify against Lyn-Darr were coerced.
The Pueblo District Court granted Lyn-Darr a new trial, but the 10th Judicial District Attorney's Office later dismissed the criminal case.
In his 2025 filing overturning the conviction, Pueblo District Court Judge Thomas Flesher noted that Barnes' false confession was the only evidence linking Lyn-Darr to the scene. He also wrote that psychologist Dr. Richard Leo — a prominent national expert on false confessions — testified during the hearing that the length of the interrogation, as well as sleep deprivation, strongly correlate with the risk of false confessions.
Leo also testified that the contamination of a defendant's statements by investigators is present in almost all false confession cases, and the contamination in Lyn-Darr's case was "pretty extensive."
"Importantly, there is no evidence placing Barnes at the scene," Flesher wrote. "There is no DNA or fingerprint evidence connecting him to the scene. And everything about the crime that he described in his confession was either provided to him by (PCSO), is uncorroborated by any other evidence, or is actually contradicted by other evidence.
"As the People acknowledge, Mr. Barnes received information from law enforcement and expanded on it with demonstrably false details."
Wilkerson also told Lyn-Darr's counsel during an interview at the Colorado State Penitentiary that Lyn-Darr was not present at the scene, and neither were Barnes nor co-defendant Brandon Armijo. Wilkerson allegedly said he was the only one there and that he never intended to make Lyn-Darr aware of any criminal activity he was a part of.
Meanwhile, Barnes remains in prison, but he too has filed for post-conviction relief and his case has been reopened.
Lyn-Darr seeks compensation under 2013 Colorado law
Now, Lyn-Darr is seeking compensation under a seldom-used 2013 state law that allows exonerated individuals to seek payment of up to $70,000 for each year they're incarcerated for a false conviction. The law also allows payment for legal fees and a tuition waiver at state universities.
If neither Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser nor the district attorney’s office objects to Lyn-Darr's request, then the court will order compensation.
"Ms. (Lyn-Darr) spent more than 11 years in prison for crimes she did not commit,” said her attorney, Eric Klein. “We hope the Attorney General and the District Attorney’s Office will help remedy the injustice Ms. (Lyn-Darr) suffered by agreeing that she should receive appropriate compensation under state law.”
The law firm's release stated that Lynn-Darr currently works more than full-time hours at two jobs, so if she receives compensation, she would "embrace the opportunity to attend college to help her rebuild her life after her lengthy ordeal in prison."
If granted, Lyn-Darr would only be the fourth person in Colorado history to receive restitution under the 2013 law.
Weiser has not yet determined whether his office will oppose Lyn-Darr's petition for relief, spokesman Lawrence Pacheco told the Chieftain, but the attorney general does oppose two other pending compensation claims made by Traci Lundstrom and Clayton Hood.
In both cases, Weiser argues that the plaintiffs did not prove that they were factually innocent, meaning that they did not commit the actions that led to their arrest, as reported by the Denver Post.
Robert Dewey, who was wrongfully convicted in 1996 of murder and rape in the death of 19-year-old Jacie Taylor in Palisade before being cleared by DNA evidence in 2012 and set free after nearly 18 years in prison, was the first to receive compensation under the Colorado Exoneration Act, according to the Denver Post. He was paid nearly $1.2 million between 2013 and 2017, according to judicial records. His case inspired the law.
Clarence Moses-El, who was wrongly convicted of a 1987 rape in Denver and sentenced to 48 years in prison, received $1.9 million in 2019 after spending 28 years incarcerated. His conviction was tossed in 2015, and he was acquitted during a second trial in 2016.
The last person to receive compensation was Anthony Fitts, who received $46,000 in 2020 after spending eight months in prison after pleading guilty to a 2017 sexual assault. The conviction was reversed after his accuser recanted her claim of sexual assault and testified that the claim was consensual, the Denver Post reported."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.denverpost.com/2026/04/29/colorado-exoneration-act-wrongful-conviction-acadia-lyn-darr/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."Lawyer Radha Natarajan: Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true
