A man who spent more than 18 years behind bars was freed Thursday after prosecutors vacated his murder conviction because of incorrect witness identification and shoddy police work, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.
Sheldon Thomas, 35, was one of three alleged gang members charged with killing 14-year-old Anderson Bercy and wounding another person Dec. 24, 2004, in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, prosecutors said in a statement.
“The evidence indicated that two guns were used and that the shooters were inside a white car. A witness initially identified two men she knew, who did not include defendant Thomas, as being in the car,” the statement said.
Thomas “was arrested based on a witness identification of a different person with the same name — a mistake that was first concealed and then explained away during the proceedings.”
In court Thursday afternoon, Thomas’ lawyers and prosecutors joined in their support for vacating the conviction.
Thomas, who wore a dark suit, thanked the judge and “the most high, heavenly father,” for guiding him throughout the ordeal.
Thomas, who was 17 when he was arrested, said he thought many times in his cell how he would respond if he were ever freed.
“I would think of this moment and replay conversations I would have with myself,” Thomas said. “Right now, I’m speechless.”
But, Thomas did, in fact, find words. He spoke about what vacating his conviction would mean to Bercy’s relatives.
“I would also like to extend my condolences to the victim’s family,” Thomas said. “I believe that since my incarceration, they have been under the impression that they were given justice for their son and come to find out today, and all this time, they really had the wrong person that was convicted for killing their son. … And it’s not just my life that was ripped apart by … the miscarriage of justice. It was them as well.”
The investigation into Thomas’ case was handled by the office’s Conviction Review Unit, prosecutors said.
They indicated there was poor detective work in the case because a case detective asked to unseal the defendant’s prior arrest so he could use his picture in a photo array. The prior case involved the defendant pointing an inoperable gun at officers and resisting arrest, prosecutors said.
“Before that request was completed, detectives obtained a photo of another Sheldon Thomas from a police database,” prosecutors said. “They showed an array with that photo to the witness, who identified the wrong Thomas as being in the car with 90 percent certainty. Based on her identification, the detectives went to the defendant’s address — not to the address of the Sheldon Thomas whose photo the witness had identified — and arrested him.”
Gonzalez, who was in court Thursday, said in a statement: “We must strive to ensure fairness and integrity in every case and have the courage to correct mistakes of the past.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
