Man mistakenly arrested on old murder warrant in Merced County

MERCED, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Merced County Sheriff's Office is explaining how a man was accidentally arrested on an old murder warrant.

A judge found Jacob Logan Tellez factually innocent on murder charges in November. He was accused of killing a teenager during a shooting at a house party in Atwater back in 2013. The district attorney's son, Ethan Morse, was also acquitted after he was accused of being the driver.

But Atwater police just arrested Tellez on that same murder warrant Friday night. He spent one night in jail before authorities confirmed the mistake and released him.

Sheriff Vern Warnke says he has since discovered the warrant was never cleared under the 19-year-old's alias. He said, "When the original arrest had happened, he was booked under his given name of Jacob Logan. The unfortunate part when we released him was that he was released under Jacob Logan, and the officer that was in charge of releasing him had no idea that there was a warrant out for his alias, which was Tellez."

Warnke says he's already taking steps to make sure this same type of problem will not happen again.

Tellez recently filed a claim for damages against Merced County for his previous arrest on murder charges.