Lawrence Williams out of jail after two years when Rikers con fesses up to armed robbery
Lawrence Williams at Brooklyn Supreme Court, where he was released after serving two years at an upstate prison for an armed robbery that a Rikers Island inmate later confessed to.
A BROOKLYN man who spent two years upstate for an armed robbery was sprung from prison Monday after another man confessed to the crime.
Lawrence Williams, 36, was convicted of assault and robbery in the April 2008 shooting of Alberto Ortiz. He received a 10-year sentence, but his family went on a mission to exonerate him, eventually getting a statement from the real shooter, records show.
“The defendant is probably innocent,” prosecutor John O’Mara, chief of the Conviction Integrity Unit at the district attorney’s office, said in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
O’Mara’s unit, which received a letter from Williams, was established about a year ago to review allegations of wrongful convictions. It is the first case it found credible, sources said.
Using Facebook, Williams’ family tracked down a Rikers Island inmate named Taevon Hutchinson, whose DNA was found at the scene, according to court papers.
He gave numerous accounts, eventually confessing this February to being the gunman.
The defense alleged that police were not fully forthcoming in their testimony at Williams’ trial.
“The people have substantiated (Hutchinson’s) assertion that the police did, in fact, locate him and speak to him before trial, contrary to the police testimony at trial,” according to a defense motion to set aside the conviction.
Williams, who had a long rap sheet, including 15 arrests dating to 2003, had his sentence suspended and walked out a free man. Another hearing was set to fully clear him.
Wearing green prison-issued overalls, he smiled to family members in court and was then whisked through a side exit without making a comment.
“He’s been through enough,” a court officer said.
oyaniv@nydailynews.com
Twitter.com/NYDNBklynCt
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...armed-robbery-article-1.1066334#ixzz1syDJ0Ow0
Lawrence Williams at Brooklyn Supreme Court, where he was released after serving two years at an upstate prison for an armed robbery that a Rikers Island inmate later confessed to.
A BROOKLYN man who spent two years upstate for an armed robbery was sprung from prison Monday after another man confessed to the crime.
Lawrence Williams, 36, was convicted of assault and robbery in the April 2008 shooting of Alberto Ortiz. He received a 10-year sentence, but his family went on a mission to exonerate him, eventually getting a statement from the real shooter, records show.
“The defendant is probably innocent,” prosecutor John O’Mara, chief of the Conviction Integrity Unit at the district attorney’s office, said in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
O’Mara’s unit, which received a letter from Williams, was established about a year ago to review allegations of wrongful convictions. It is the first case it found credible, sources said.
Using Facebook, Williams’ family tracked down a Rikers Island inmate named Taevon Hutchinson, whose DNA was found at the scene, according to court papers.
He gave numerous accounts, eventually confessing this February to being the gunman.
The defense alleged that police were not fully forthcoming in their testimony at Williams’ trial.
“The people have substantiated (Hutchinson’s) assertion that the police did, in fact, locate him and speak to him before trial, contrary to the police testimony at trial,” according to a defense motion to set aside the conviction.
Williams, who had a long rap sheet, including 15 arrests dating to 2003, had his sentence suspended and walked out a free man. Another hearing was set to fully clear him.
Wearing green prison-issued overalls, he smiled to family members in court and was then whisked through a side exit without making a comment.
“He’s been through enough,” a court officer said.
oyaniv@nydailynews.com
Twitter.com/NYDNBklynCt
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...armed-robbery-article-1.1066334#ixzz1syDJ0Ow0
