Carmona was arrested in Costa Mesa, California, just days after his 16th birthday; he had no prior criminal record and steadfastly maintained his innocence.
[3] Starting several months after Carmona's October 1998 conviction, it was Nadia Maria Davis, an attorney and activist, who first took on and brought attention to his plight.
Los Angeles Times columnist Dana Parsons wrote a series of columns that raised questions about the evidence and argued for a new trial.
He also traveled with his mother, a paralegal, to Sacramento to meet with groups like the California Innocence Project, which seeks to free wrongfully convicted inmates in the state's prison system.
[2] In the months leading up to his death, Carmona had been dividing his time between advocating on behalf of wrongfully convicted inmates in the California prison system and taking firefighting classes at Santa Ana College.