A man who was charged with murdering a member of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe of Nevada was set free on Monday after the FBI lost a key piece of evidence.

John Wesley Whittington was set to go to trial for killing David J. Flores, 22, on the reservation But the FBI lost the t-shirt he wrote the night of the June 2002 incident, prompting authorities to drop the murder charges.

Whittington was instead sentenced to 27 months for possession of a firearm. But since he already served the time waiting for his murder trial, a federal judge had to let him go.

Whittington was not Paiute but lived on the reservation, The Las Vegas Sun reports.

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Lost evidence leads to reduced charge in Las Vegas tribe slaying (The Las Vegas Sun 3/15)