Kimberly Long's Struggle To Prove Her Innocence In The Slaying Of Her Boyfriend

Maggie Clancy
Updated February 17, 2021

On the evening of October 5, 2003, California emergency room nurse Kimberly Long got into an argument with her boyfriend Oswaldo (Ozzy) Conde. The two had been drinking throughout the day, and after things got heated, Long left her and Conde's shared home to go cool down. When she returned to her home later in the evening, she found that her door was unlocked. She entered her home and found Conde slumped over, already deceased.

Conflicting evidence and ineffective counsel landed Long in prison for seven years, promptingย the California Innocence Project to take on her case.

  • On October 5, 2003, Couple Ozzy Conde And Kimberly Long Got Into An Argument

    According to Long, she and boyfriend Ozzy Conde got into an argument late at night on October 5, 2003. The two had been bar-hopping with their friend Jeff Dills earlier in the evening. They returned home at around 11 pm, which is when Long says the argument started. According to Long, Conde was not happy with the way she was acting in public:

    I think Ozzy said I was running around at the bar we were at; I wasn't paying attention to him, and I was talking to everybody else, and I think that's what the argument started out as. By the time we got home, I was really agitated and just wanted him out of the house. I said a bunch of horrible things and told him to get out. I think the argument was about me being drunk and a flirt.

  • Jeff Dills Said Long Hit Conde During The Fight

    Friend Jeff Dills spoke to investigators and told them more about the couple's fight, saying:

    She started hitting him with her helmet... she had her helmet and her purse... and she swung at him a couple times and he just went like this [covered himself in defense]. She hit him on the shoulder and stuff. He had a big motorcycle jacket on so I know it wasn't bothering him, you know? And he was just trying to calm her down.

    He told investigators that she only hit him in the face "one time" and that's when he "stepped in between them. Because she hit him in the face and I saw his expression change like, 'I might hit you back.'" Dills then claims he broke up the fight and told the couple to either finish it inside or get some space from one another. He said if they didn't do this, he would call the cops. Long then went with Dills to cool off. 

  • Long Spent The Evening At A Friendโ€™s House And Returned Home To Find Conde Bloodied And Not Conscious

    In order to cool off from their fight, Long decided to go hang out with Jeff Dills. She left the house she shared with Conde, where Dills said the argument was happening, and went with Dills. Dills dropped Long back off at her shared home with Conde, although the time is not exact. Long claims Dills dropped her off at 2:00 am, but Dills remembered dropping her off at 1:30 am. Unfortunately, Dills perished in a motorcycle accident shortly after Conde's demise, so investigators were not able to confirm the time discrepancy with him.

    When she returned, something felt off. She recounted the evening to the Coachella Valley Independent, saying:

    I remember walking through the door, and it was unlocked when I came in. I saw a light on in the back. I kicked off my shoes, and I saw Ozzy on the couch, and I called his name... I walked over to the light to turn it on, and when I did that, I turned around, and I saw a big blood stain on the couch. I saw him and I realized that something went wrong...

    I thought maybe he had gotten into a fight. I don't remember what I did first, to be honest. I think I ran outside and tried to get Jeff. I ran through the house, and I can't really remember. I do remember that I got real close and I looked at him, and I realized with what I saw, there was nothing I could do to help him.

  • Long Accused One Of Condeโ€™s Ex-Girlfriends, Who Had Allegedly Sent Her A Threatening Letter
    Video: YouTube

    Long Accused One Of Condeโ€™s Ex-Girlfriends, Who Had Allegedly Sent Her A Threatening Letter

    As authorities started questioning potential suspects, including Long, the then-emergency room nurse believed she knew who the real culprit was: one of Conde's exes, Shiana Lovejoy. Lovejoy shared a child with Conde, and the two dated up until late 2001 or early 2002.

    Long alleged that Lovejoy sent her a malicious letter meant to intimidate Long. According to Long, the letter alleged that Lovejoy had relations with Conde while Long and he were dating. Long told authorities that neighbors had seen "two men" sent by Lovejoy "outside her house" a month before Conde's demise. Friends of Conde told the California Innocence Project that Lovejoy could easily be the offender:

    You know we never thought that it would actually go this far, but it has. I mean, it makes sense, I mean, the way she is. It took, I'm sure it was her. I mean, I'm positive. There's nobody else... she was gonna [end] him all the time. I mean, it's only obvious you know.

  • Long Passed A Lie Detector Test, But Authorities Were Still Suspicious

    Since Long admitted to having an argument with Conde hours before his demise, authorities had no choice but to consider Long a suspect. When Long was brought in for questioning, they administered a polygraph test. Long passed the polygraph test when she claimed innocence. Police apprehended her in the clothes she claims she had been wearing out that night, and there wasn't a drop of blood on them.

    Still, authorities were suspicious of Long, especially after the couple's friend, Jeff Dills, told them that Long had hit Conde in the shoulder during their heated argument earlier in the evening.

  • Long Lied To Police About Her Relations With Dills

    After Long and Conde got into an argument at their front door, Long left with Jeff Dills to cool down. Originally, she told police that the two just hung out, but later, she revealed that she and Dills were intimate. The two went back to Dills's residence, where they got into the spa. According to Dills, Long continued to complain about Conde and how he was not carrying his share financially. 

    According to the case's statement of facts, Long ended the encounter "abruptly" and lied, saying that her ex-husband was supposed to swing by and drop off her kids. Dills said that as she was preparing to leave, Long mentioned that she could "kick [Ozzy's] a**."

  • Long's Public Defense Believed Her Ex-Husband Could Also Be A Suspect

    Eric Keen, who acted as Long's public defender in the immediate aftermath of the incident, believes that Long's ex-husband, Joe Bugarski, could be a suspect. During the first trial, Keen pointed out that a stereo went missing from Long and Conde's shared home while Conde was being targeted, suggesting someone else was present. 

    According to ABC News, Long started dating Conde when she and Bugarski were still married. As their marriage dissolved, Long kicked Bugarski out of their shared home, and Conde moved in. Keen, along with other defenders of Long's innocence, believed that this could serve as motive for Bugarski.

  • Long's First Trial Ended With A Hung Jury, But The Jury At Her Second Trial Found Her Guilty

    Kimberly Long's first trial started at the beginning of February 2005, and as the trial came to a close, jurors were split. The prosecution painted Long as a party girl with a temper and questioned why she didn't try to administer first aid when she first found Conde, citing her profession as an emergency room nurse. Public defender Eric Keen reiterated that Long's ex-husband had a history of verbal threats and that he used to live in Long's home, making him a potential suspect. 

    The jury was torn. After three days of deliberation, they were deadlocked. Nine jurors were in favor of acquittal, while three wanted to convict Long. The court was forced to declare a mistrial. Judge Patrick F. Magers put Long on a $100,000 bond and ordered her not to have any contact with any attorneys or witnesses who were part of the case. He even said that he would have found her not guilty, had this not been a juried case:

    To make a perfectly clear record in this matter, if this was a court trial, if the Court would have heard the evidence in this case, I would have found the defendant not guilty. I would have found that the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. That is my trial court decision in this case. Obviously, it was not a court trial. It was a jury trial.

  • The Prosecution Claimed Long Hit Conde With A Club-Like Object, But No Such Object Was Ever Found

    Ozzy Conde perished after being hit in the head, but no weapon - or evidence directly linking Long to any such object - was found by authorities. Forensic scientists were able to determine that Conde had been hit between three and eight times, and he may have been asleep at the time. Prosecutor Gerald Fineman believed Long was responsible for Conde's demise, citing her growing frustration with him - despite the fact that no weapon was found and her clothes were clean. 

    "She was upset because she wasn't living the dream lifestyle she wanted to live," Fineman said, suggesting this was motive enough for her to take her boyfriend's life. 

  • The Jury Based Their Verdict On A 40-Minute Discrepancy In Longโ€™s Timeline

    In December 2005, Long was tried again, and this time, the prosecutor was able to convince the jury of her guilt due to timeline discrepancies.

    Jeff Dills claimed he dropped Long off at her home around 1:30 am, roughly 40 minutes before Long made the 911 call. He was one of the case's key witnesses, and unfortunately, he perished in a motorcycle accident before Long's trial took place. Other witnesses, like Long's neighbors, presented conflicting timelines. One said that they heard Dills's loud motorcycle exhaust leave just minutes before Long entered her home and ran out crying. Public defender Eric Keen presented a timeline that placed a different offender, such as a jealous ex or a burglar, at the scene. 

    "She doesn’t call the police until 2:09 in the morning and... she tells them she just walked in the door... The point that (the jury) focused on was... that all her statements didn't match the timeline," prosecutor Gerald Fineman explained. Long was convicted. 

  •  Long Was Imprisoned For Seven Years Before The California Innocence Project Found Her Case
    Video: YouTube

    Long Was Imprisoned For Seven Years Before The California Innocence Project Found Her Case

    Long started serving her sentence in March 2009. She originally failed to turn herself in after all her appeal processes had been exhausted; she turned herself in to police 10 days late. Soon after, the California Innocence Project took on her case in hopes of exonerating her. The organization cited a lack of evidence, saying that Long's case was an example of "wrong place, wrong time." Justin Brooks, the Director of the California Innocence Project, explained:

    This is one of those classic cases where the person who finds the dead person ends up becoming a suspect. Her case was paper thin when it went to trial, and now when you consider what we know since then, it's absolutely a certainty that she's innocent.

    Long was released in 2016, and she compared her time in prison to "torture," since she had to be separated from her children as they grew up:

    I'm a mom, so anybody else who's a mom, who misses out on that time, like they get it. They understand that one day is too long but seven years and three months? That's torture, and it's wrong.

  • The CIP Enlisted Two Time-Of-Death Experts Who Validated Long's Timeline

    The California Innocence Project enlisted two time-of-death experts to take a closer look at Conde's demise. Dr. Harry James Bonnell, who had worked as chief medical examiner in San Diego, determined that Conde's "time of death is more consistent with 11:00 pm."

    He also said that the state of Conde when paramedics arrived suggested early stages of decomposition, meaning he had perished sometime before Long returned home.

    Dr. Zhongxue Hua also testified, saying that Conde passed "long before 1:20 am," given the rate of decomposition. 

  • Long Was Finally Released In 2016
    Video: YouTube

    Long Was Finally Released In 2016

    In June 2016, Long was released. Judge Patrick F. Magers overturned Long's conviction due to her ineffective counsel argument. Her original defender, Eric Keen, had neglected to prove that she had not changed her clothes during the night - which would have likely had some blood on it if she was responsible - and to provide forensic evidence determining the time of Conde's demise. 

    In February 2018, the California DA announced that it would appeal her release. However, in November 2020, the California Supreme Court upheld her release.