Man released after nearly seven years in jail

After deliberating since June 1, a Riverside County jury found a 58-year-old Thermal man guilty of a lesser crime in a case where the defendant was charged with murder in a traffic collision where his baby died on Highway 74 near Mile Post Marker 89.

He has been incarcerated in the Robert Presley Detention Center since his California Highway Patrol arrest on May 4, 2016, at the collision site. His bail was set at $1.86 million but he was released Monday, June 5, after nearly seven years in jail following the verdict and sentencing.

Marcus Novell Green, 51 at the time, was driving his Porsche and Kristen Leigh Lauer, 25, of Rancho Mirage was his passenger. While the parents, wearing seatbelts, survived the crash, the 5-month-old baby, Armani, who was sitting on her mother’s lap, was thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene.

Green was originally charged on May 6, 2016, with vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, willful harm of a child and inflection of great bodily harm.

But Lauer was not charged until May 4, 2017, and arraigned on Feb. 20, 2019. Her bail was set at $100,000 and she was released on bail. She pleaded guilty in December 2019 to murder and willful child cruelty, and was sentenced to life probation.

The jury found Green not guilty of the district attorney’s charges of murder and willful child cruelty. Instead, he was found guilty of Penal Code Section 273A(A): “Any person who, under circumstances or conditions likely to produce great bodily harm or death, willfully causes or permits any child to suffer, or inflicts thereon unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering, or having the care or custody of any child, willfully causes or permits the person or health of that child to be injured, or willfully causes or permits that child to be placed in a situation where his or her person or health is endangered, shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or in the state prison for two, four, or six years.”

The court sentenced him to 364 days in jail, all of which he has served.