San Francisco prosecutors abandoned a double-murder case Thursday against a 19-year-old Daly City man in connection with a pair of slayings outside a Sunset District pizzeria, saying a key witness now insists authorities have the wrong man.Matthew Owyang had been held since April 1 in the March 29 slayings of Jason de la Cruz, 31, and Derek Butch, 23. The two were shot to death outside a pizza parlor on Irving Street near 19th Avenue where de la Cruz, a manager at a Verizon Wireless store, was treating his sales team.
Assistant District Attorney George Butterworth told a judge Thursday that he was "not comfortable" pursuing the case against Owyang. He left court without comment.
The dismissal followed three days of testimony at a preliminary hearing in which several friends of Owyang who were in the suspected getaway car testified that Owyang was not the killer. No independent witness who testified could positively identify him as the gunman, although two said he resembled the shooter.
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