Framed man to be freed

SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- After spending nine months in a San Jose, Calif., jail for a murder he did not commit, Rick Reinhardt was to be freed Thursday.

Reinhardt was accused of killing 48-year-old Peter Bianco, who was shot dead and left under a car cover in his garage for days. Police arrested his friend Reinhardt after finding the apparent murder weapon under his mattress.

Tuesday, authorities admitted Reinhardt had been right all along about being framed.

Separately, Robert Mays was jailed, charged with killing Bianco in his home and then framing Reinhardt, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

"In my 28 years in this office," Deputy District Attorney Richard Titus said, "I have never seen a case as convoluted as this one, where one fellow attempted to frame another man for a crime he committed, and it almost worked."

Reinhardt was exonerated thanks to a public defender who believed her client's claims of innocence, and enlisted police cooperation to solve the case.

Bianco was a construction worker and an alleged methamphetamine dealer. Police say Mays, 48, killed Bianco during a botched robbery.