The suspect in the murder of a Twentynine Palms man Monday night had been released from prison early and was on probation under California’s prison realignment plan, known as AB109. Police suspect Raymond Burney, 51, of Twentynine Palms, of shooting and killing a still-unidentified Twentynine Palms man about 9:40 Monday night in the 6300 block of Palmview Avenue. In April 2011, Burney accepted a plea bargain sentence of four years in exchange for a guilty plea to possession of cocaine base for sales. As a result of California Assembly Bill 109, Burney would serve about two years in county jail before being released on supervised probation. Under AB 109, prisoners with non-violent, non-sexual and non-serious convictions serve reduced sentences in county jails and are placed on supervised probation, as part of the state’s attempt to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to lower its prison population by 30,000 inmates. Raymond Burney was arraigned in Joshua Tree Superior Court Thursday and is being held in the West Valley Detention Center on $1,550,000 bail.
