#550 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Oscar Eagle

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts

True Crime

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On March 14, 1998, 16-year-old Benjamin Urias was shot in the Pico-Union neighborhood in Los Angeles, CA. The shot was not fatal, but Urias was hospitalized for two days. Urius was member of the 18th Street Gang, and told investigators that the shooter walked with a limp and shouted “Burlington Locos,” the name of another Los Angeles gang. Four days before the shooting, Oscar Eagle turned 18 years old. And two days before that, Eagle was shot in the leg. He was walking with a limp, and the since disgraced CRASH Unit targeted Eagle. A corrupted photo lineup and identification, coupled with egregiously ineffective counsel resulted in Eagle’s conviction for attempted first-degree murder. He was sentenced to 25 years to life.

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Wrongful Conviction with Lauren Bright Pacheco is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	On March 8th, 1998, 17-year-old Oscar Eagle was shot in the leg in Los Angeles'
0:10.0	Pico Union neighborhood. Six days later, 16-year-old Benjamin Ureas was also shot,
0:17.0	a non-fatal wound that police believed was in retaliation for Oscar's shooting.
0:24.1	Soon, police arrested Oscar Eagle, but the charges were dropped when Eurias failed to appear in court.
0:32.8	Then something changed.
0:34.9	Urius suddenly became confident that Oscar was the shooter,
0:39.9	even though he'd always said the gunman had run to and from the car.
0:45.5	But with Oscar's debilitating leg injury, could he really have done that?
0:51.6	This is wrongful conviction.
0:55.0	The Fox Foundation is proud to support this episode of wrongful conviction and the work of
1:05.0	after innocence, a nonprofit that helps hundreds of people nationwide rebuild their lives
1:10.0	after wrongful incarceration.
1:11.6	Each year, innocent people are released after spending years behind bars for crimes they didn't commit.
1:17.6	Nearly all of them leave prison with nothing more than the clothes on their backs,
1:21.6	with no help or compensation from the state as they face the steep challenges of rebuilding their lives after wrongful imprisonment.
1:30.3	After Innocence is changing that. After Innocence helps exoneries get and make good use of essential services like healthcare, dental care, mental health support, legal aid, financial counseling, and more.
1:43.3	Since 2016, they've brought that help to more
1:47.1	than 800 exoneries across 46 states, working tirelessly to ensure that no one released after
1:54.5	wrongful incarceration is left behind. Learn more at after-innocence.org and join after- Innocence to support exoneries as they rebuild their lives.
2:14.2	Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. I'm your host, Lauren Bright Pacheco, and I'm so glad to be back for another season.
2:21.4	And we're starting off in Los Angeles in the late 1990s, a time to find by gang hysteria and the sweeping mass incarceration that followed.
2:31.3	Joining me today is someone who lived through it as a kid, Oscar Eagle.
	...

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