A California appeals court has thrown out the murder conviction of a Hemet man who spent more than a decade in prison for the 2010 death of his 3.5-month-old daughter, ruling that the medical testimony used to convict him has since been undermined by newer science. Jason Harley Moore was convicted in 2014 of fatally assaulting his infant daughter, Charlotte, and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison by a Riverside County Superior Court judge.
The California 4th District Court of Appeal ruled 3-0 that it no longer had confidence in the outcome of Moore's trial, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The court found that prosecution expert witnesses presented false evidence at trial claiming a short fall could not have caused Charlotte's fatal injuries, and ruled there was a reasonable probability the trial's outcome would have been different without that testimony. Charlotte had lived with her mother, Laura Morales, and Moore in Hemet's San Jacinto Valley.
Moore called Morales at her workplace in July 2010 to tell her Charlotte was not breathing, according to the Chronicle's reporting by staff writer Bob Egelko. The infant became unresponsive on July 27, 2010, and was first taken to Hemet Valley Medical Center before being airlifted to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where she died two days later on July 29, 2010, per KESQ. Moore was 31 years old at the time of the call.
Conflicting Medical Testimony at Trial
At Moore's 2014 trial, prosecution experts Dr. Mark McCormick and Dr. Mark Massi testified that Charlotte suffered a fractured skull and other brain injuries that were probably inflicted deliberately, with Massi testifying that bleeding in her brain was mainly caused by trauma such as shaking. Dr. Christina Stanley said an examination of Charlotte's brain suggested inflicted head trauma. Massi, notably, found no bruises or other evidence consistent with shaking.
The defense countered with testimony from Dr. Ronald Gabriel, who said Charlotte could have been fatally injured after a short fall from her bed, and Dr. Gregory Reiber, who said short-fall impacts can cause hemorrhage and brain injury while shaking alone does not. The appeals court ultimately found no other injury to Charlotte suggesting abuse, and no evidence Moore had abused her on any other occasion. Morales had portrayed Moore as a devoted stay-at-home father, per the Chronicle's account.
Moore's initial appeal did not go his way. The state appeals court upheld his conviction in 2016, rejecting a defense claim that the trial court had improperly excluded a defense medical expert, according to CaseMine's record of the earlier ruling. That meant Moore served eight additional years in prison before his lawyers filed a habeas corpus motion in 2022 based on new evidence and legal arguments, ultimately leading to this month's reversal.
A Legal Path Built on Shifting Science
Moore was originally prosecuted and sentenced under California Penal Code § 273ab, a statute that mandates 25 years to life for any caregiver assault on a child under eight that results in death, without requiring prosecutors to prove intent to kill. The habeas petition that eventually freed him relied on California Penal Code § 1473, which allows people to petition for a writ of habeas corpus when expert medical or scientific testimony introduced at trial has since been undermined or discredited by subsequent research, according to FindLaw.
The appeals court pointed to changes in medical science since Moore's trial. In clinical guidance published in March 2020, the American Academy of Pediatrics found that short falls can be fatal and that no single injury pattern is unique to abusive head trauma, even though such fatalities remain estimated at fewer than 0.48 deaths per 1 million young children annually, according to guidance summarized by HealthyChildren.org. Despite vacating the conviction, the 4th District Court of Appeal did not declare Moore innocent.
What Happens Next for Moore
The Riverside County District Attorney's Office must now decide whether to request a new trial or drop the case entirely and allow Moore to go free, per the Chronicle. Under California procedure, once a habeas corpus writ vacates a conviction, the local district attorney's office must decide within a set statutory window whether to retry the defendant, offer a plea bargain, or dismiss all charges, according to a legal explainer from Greg Hill & Associates. Riverside County's Sheriff-Coroner's Bureau had conducted the initial forensic evaluation that shaped the original charges against Moore, per CaseMine's case record.
Moore's case is not an isolated one. More than 40 individuals nationwide have been exonerated in cases where convictions rested on shaken baby syndrome or abusive head trauma diagnoses, according to the National Registry of Exonerations as cited by The Appeal. A December 2025 investigative review by NBC News found that roughly two dozen medical experts and officials who once testified for prosecutions in shaken baby cases have since publicly reversed or recanted their opinions, as reported by the Davis Vanguard.
The broader legal reckoning over shaken baby evidence reached a national flashpoint in October 2024, when the Texas high court halted an execution tied to disputed shaken baby syndrome evidence in the case of death row inmate Robert Roberson, a case that galvanized wider legal scrutiny of medical evidence in murder trials nationwide. For now, Moore's fate rests with Riverside County prosecutors, who have yet to say publicly whether they intend to pursue a retrial or close the case for good.
