Judge vacates conviction of man serving life sentence

KETCHUM (AP) - A south-central Idaho judge has vacated the conviction and sentence of a 55-year-old man imprisoned since 1985 with a life sentence after determining the state hid significant evidence.

Fifth District Judge Robert J. Elgee also on Tuesday ordered a new trial and set bond at $20,000 for Jaimi Dean Charboneau.

But Elgee delayed for 14 days Charboneau's opportunity to be released on bond after the Idaho Attorney General's Office appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court.

Charboneau was convicted of murder in 1985 for the 1984 killing of Marilyn Arbaugh, his ex-wife, in Jerome County. He was sentenced to death but was later resentenced to life in prison.

The new evidence includes a 1989 letter written by Arbaugh's daughter. Tira Arbaugh, now deceased, wrote that prosecutors told her to lie and conceal evidence, and that she didn't tell the truth when she testified at Charboneau's trial.

The letter was written to the court where Charboneau was convicted but didn't become known to him until 2011.