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Willie Joe Gonzales was sentenced to life in prison in Colorado after he was convicted of murdering a two-year-old girl in El Paso County. But now, 22 years later, a new scientific understanding of the case has led to his exoneration and release.
A lot has changed in Colorado in the last 22 years. Gonzales is now trying to adjust to his new fast paced life.
“Everybody’s in such a rush to go wherever,” Gonzales shared.
In many ways, Gonzales is still stuck in 2003, when things were slower and simpler for him.
“I just went to work, worked on cars,” he said.
CBS
But July of that year, everything fell apart. Gonzales says one day he was watching his girlfriend’s kids, but when he stepped out into the garage for a minute without them, he heard a loud noise in the house. He says when he ran inside, he found the two-year-old girl in his care badly injured. Gonzales believes that she fell down a flight of stairs.
The girl later died, and one month later Gonzales was arrested, accused of murdering the girl. The coroner said he didn’t think the toddler could sustain the injuries she did by simply falling and was likely struck or pushed. Gonzales says he thought it was all a big mistake.
“I figured it’s going to work out, and I know what happened. I know what went down that day. I’ll be okay,” he explained.
But Gonzales was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2005.
He said, “I remember getting down the hallway with one of the deputies, and I just, I couldn’t even walk.”
Gonzales says he lost faith in the criminal justice system but always pushed to prove his innocence. Then, four years ago, he met Lakewood attorney Rachel Oliver and her team. She and her team reopened his case and had a new forensic investigator look at it.
“It was like, okay, let’s dig into this to see if it was possible,” said Oliver.
With the advantage of new science, they were able to determine that the girl could have died by falling down the stairs. In fact, at a hearing in Nov. 2025, the original coroner agreed on the stand that, looking at the case with new research, he probably now wouldn’t call the girls’ death a homicide as he did back then.
“To actually hear those words come out of his mouth, I couldn’t even believe it,” said Gonzales.
Willie Joe Gonzales 
After 22 years, Gonzales is out of prison and with his family.
He pleaded guilty to negligence and was given credit for time served. Gonzales says he did not fight to have the entire case overturned because he has lost faith in the system. He has a job and is moving on with his life, he says. Gonzales wants to go to school and give back to the community.
Even though he has been given a second chance, Gonzales and Oliver say there are lots of people convicted of child murder based on incomplete science, like he was. Gonzales wants them to keep hope alive and fight to prove their innocence.
“Don’t stop. Don’t stop. Like, keep pushing even though you might not have the faith in the system,” he said.
CBS Colorado did reach out to the family of the little girl who was killed to see what they thought about Gonzales’ release. As of the time of this story’s publishing, they have not yet provided a response.
