A man from New York was wrongfully convicted of murder after a photo of another person with the same name led to him spending more than 18 years in prison.
Sheldon Thomas’s prosecution, now 35, was “compromised from the start by grave errors and a lack of probable cause” to arrest him for the fatal shooting of 14-year-old Anderson Bercy on December 24, 2004, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
Mr Thomas was one of three people charged in the drive-by shooting that killed Anderson and injured another teenager.
“When I was in my cell, I’d think of this moment and replay the conversations I’d have with myself, what I’d say,” Mr Thomas testified in court.
He left the hearing in handcuffs, with his arm around his grandmother and plans for an oxtail dinner.
“When I was in my cell, I would think of this moment and replay the conversations I would have with myself, what I would say,” Mr Thomas said in court.(Photo: DA Eric Gonzalez twitter)
According to DA Eric Gonsalez, ”Sheldon Thomas, 35, was exonerated today after serving over 18 years in prison based on a witness identification of a different person with the same name. This vacatur is part of my continued commitment to correct past injustices in our borough.”
The conviction was deemed “fundamentally unfair.”
Following an investigation, the lead detective in the shooting requested that a prior arrest of Mr Thomas be unsealed for allegedly pointing an inoperable gun at police officers so that detectives could use his image in a photo line-up.
Detectives also obtained a photograph of a different Sheldon Thomas and showed it to a witness who was being questioned about the shooting.
According to the investigation, the witness identified the second Sheldon Thomas as being in the car from which the shots were fired.
According to investigators, detectives went to the home of the first Sheldon Thomas and arrested him based on that identification.
During a pre-trial hearing in June 2006, Detective Robert Reedy admitted on cross-examination that the defendant’s photo had not been in the line-up.
Despite this, the judge determined that there was probable cause to arrest Mr Thomas based on “verified information from unknown callers” and the fact that he allegedly resembled the other Mr Thomas, according to investigators.
Wrongly Convicted Sheldon Thomas Has Been Freed After 18 Years In Prison(Photo: DA Eric Gonzalez twitter)
Sheldon Thomas was convicted of second-degree murder and other charges and sentenced to life in prison for 25 years.
Investigators from the conviction review unit reinterviewed witnesses and discovered that the detectives, particularly Detective Reedy, had harassed Mr Thomas following his previous gun arrest and coached a witness to identify Mr Thomas as one of the shooters because they “were intent on arresting” him.
Detective Reedy was later disciplined after an investigation by the Internal Affairs Bureau. On Thursday, a phone call seeking comment on the re-investigation into the 2004 shooting was answered by a number listed for a Robert Reedy.
Mr Gonzalez called Mr Thomas’s conviction “fundamentally unfair”.
“I am determined to keep doing this important work whenever we find a questionable conviction in Brooklyn,” he said.
An email seeking comment was sent to Mr Thomas’s attorney.
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