SAN JOSE — A man serving a 105-year prison sentence for a string of violent 2008 gang attacks became a free man this week, when prosecutors dismissed his charges on the eve of a third trial spurred by a scolding appellate ruling last year that threw out his conviction because it improperly hinged on rap songs to brand him a gang member.
Hugo Alexander Chavez, 43, was released from Santa Clara County jail late Wednesday after serving 13 years in jail and prison, during which his first trial ended with a hung jury tilted in favor of acquitting him and his second trial led to a decades-long prison term issued in 2019.
Hugo Alexander Chavez, who was serving a 105-year prison sentence, reflects on his life after being free from prison as he looks on at the Silicon Valley De-Bug in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, July 25, 2025. Prosecutors dropped his case in a lengthy court journey that included a mistrial. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
“Throughout this whole time fighting, deep down in my heart, I knew it was going to happen. The whole case was just extraordinary,” Chavez said in an interview Friday. “Right now, I feel extremely overwhelmed. It’s just been nonstop love and affection from my loved ones that missed me and I missed them. And just a lot of catching up, right? Just filling in that gap, and just getting some closure.”
Chavez was headed to trial again this month before the district attorney’s office dropped murder and attempted murder charges. He had considerable legal momentum behind him this time around, most notably with a December ruling by the Sixth District Court of Appeal that vacated his conviction and sentence.
The strong rebuke of his criminal case, Chavez said, left him speechless as he sat in prison reading the ruling issued the day after Christmas.
“I didn’t know how to feel and what to feel at the time, it was very shocking to me,” he said. “It took me a moment for it to sink in, and for me to realize that it was happening.”
The Sixth District ruling found that extensive mention of Chavez’s role in producing rap songs with lyrics promoting gang life — which he did not write — unfairly pushed a jury toward finding him guilty. The ruling noted that the lyrics evidence took on disproportional significance in a trial where “the evidence of Chavez’s guilt was not overwhelming” and with state prosecutors conceding Chavez’s gang affiliations were thin at best.
Appellate judges also pointed to, as Chavez’s attorneys had done repeatedly, the fact that the only direct evidence against him was the unverified testimony of a sole witness who had serious credibility issues, his own storied criminal past and is currently wanted on an active arrest warrant.
“This case presents the rare circumstances under which reversal is warranted: The evidence against Chavez was not strong; the contents of the lyrics were extremely inflammatory; and the prosecution’s frequent references to them compel the conclusion that it is reasonably probable the outcome of the trial would have been more favorable to Chavez in the absence of the error,” the appellate ruling reads.
Stuart Kirchick, an attorney who represented Chavez at trial, had asked the county Superior Court to throw out the latest re-filed charges, arguing in a trial brief that his prosecution has been so riddled with racial bias — reflected most visibly in citation of the rap songs, a tactic that has since been curtailed by the state Legislature — and “outrageous government misconduct” that a full case dismissal was the only just remedy.
The district attorney’s office said its decision to dismiss Chavez’s case was based in part on the challenges of trying to prove a case that would rely on memories of crimes that occurred 17 years ago.
“Factors like the age of the case, unavailability of witnesses, and the appeals court ruling made it problematic, if not impossible, to try this case at this time,” the office said in a statement. “We are disappointed — but determined to hold those who commit gang violence in our community accountable.”
Chavez was first indicted in 2012 for murder and attempted murder charges after being accused of driving two other men who were hunting for rival gang members and ended up stabbing and shooting two men on March 28, 2008. Jurors deadlocked at the end of the first trial in 2016, then another jury found him guilty of the charges in the 2018 retrial.
During the appellate process, both the Sixth District court and the state Attorney General’s Office acknowledged “the weak state of the other evidence” against Chavez, an engineer with no felony history past and passive ties to San Jose gangs by way of growing up with gang members.
Chavez had built a recording studio in his grandmother’s back yard, and produced rap beats for friends who espoused gang messaging and lyrics over the music. The appellate court ruled the “danger of undue prejudice substantially outweighed any probative value the lyrics had,” and that “the trial court’s wholesale admission of the lyrics constituted an abuse of discretion.” The court added that the citation of the lyrics in closing arguments created a scenario where jurors could not easily know they were not allowed to consider them “as evidence that Chavez had a violent character.”
In another Bay Area case in 2022, murder convictions for two men were overturned by a Contra Costa County Superior Court judge who ruled that the citation of defendants’ rap lyrics and videos “more likely than not triggered the jury’s implicit racial bias against African American men and was in violation of” the Racial Justice Act.
Hugo Alexander Chavez receives a hug from Veronica Flores a longtime friend and former coworker outside the Santa Clara County Main Jail in San Jose on July 23, 2025, following his release from custody after 13 years of jail and prison incarceration. (Photo by Daniel Zapien/ Silicon Valley De-Bug)
Chavez said his first two days of unrestricted freedom have been a whirlwind, reuniting with friends and family, and finally getting to meaningfully connect with his daughter, who was born right around the time he was first jailed. He’s also remembering the loved ones who passed away while he was incarcerated, including his brother and grandmother.
“I’m just taking it one day at a time,” he said.
But he also is actively looking ahead. While in prison, he became a legal advocate for his fellow inmates, and helped form the nonprofit A System Down, which was founded by Rudy Cuevas, his former cellmate in county jail. He also advocated for criminal justice reform, including the Racial Justice Act, with the help of Silicon Valley De-Bug, the South Bay civil-rights group that has long supported incarcerated people and their families.
He plans to continue that advocacy while he gets back on his feet: “I think out of all this negative stuff that happened in my life, obviously, (let’s) build something positive out of it.”
“What I could tell other people is just never lose hope,” he added. “If you’re innocent, you know, never give up and just keep working hard to tell the truth.”
