A Brooklyn man wrongly imprisoned for 19 years based on a sketchy photo array identification was due in court Thursday for a hearing to set him free, the Brooklyn District Attorney announced.
Sheldon Thomas, 35, was expected to appear after an investigation by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Conviction Review Unit determined he was wrongfully convicted for the Christmas Eve 2004 killing of a 14-year-old boy, said DA Eric Gonzalez.
Authorities discovered Thomas was busted and imprisoned despite the ID from a set of photos that did not include one of him, with an NYPD detective also admitting that he falsely testified Thomas was in the array shown to a witness.
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,” said Gonzalez.
He was one of three alleged gang members arrested for killing teenager Anderson Bercy and wounding a second person in East Flatbush. The shooters fled the scene in a white car, with a witness identifying the other two men but not Thomas, authorities said.
According to the district attorney, Thomas was arrested despite the bad identification and his claims of innocence. A detective in the case said an anonymous tip led investigators to Thomas, adding that the defendant actually told police the photo shown to witnesses was not him.
But a Brooklyn judge nevertheless ruled there was probable cause to arrest Thomas based on information from “unknown callers” and his resemblance to the other Sheldon Thomas, according to Gonzalez.
One of the officers involved in the case was later disciplined by the police Internal Affairs Bureau, while charges against one co-defendant dropped and a second suspect who allegedly threatened the victims two days before the shooting acquitted at trial.
The new investigation found Thomas “was denied due process at every stage, making his conviction fundamentally unfair.” He was convicted of murder, attempted murder and other charges before a sentence of 25 years to life was imposed.
The CRU decision found “the errors undermined the integrity of the entire judicial process and the defendant’s resulting conviction,” adding the case cannot be retried and calling for the dismissal of the underlying indictment.
A hearing in the case was set for Thursday afternoon. The dismissal would be the 34th conviction vacated following re-investigations by the unit, although the victim’s aunt questioned the decision by prosecutors.
“That’s so unfortunate,” said Edelyne Bercy, 58, to the Daily News. “That’s really unfortunate … The mother and father handled the court. I don’t know. Justice has to be done somehow.”
She recalled her nephew, shot one block from home, died on the steps outside his home. The victim was born in Haiti and immigrated to New York with his family to find a better life.
“We come for opportunities, to get education,” said the aunt. “I was so shocked when he died. It’s something I will never, never forget.”
But Gonzalez made it clear the case against Thomas was deeply flawed and put the wrong man behind bars.
The prosecution was “compromised from the very start by grave errors and lack of probable cause to arrest Mr. Thomas,” said Gonzalez. “He was further deprived of his due process rights when the prosecution proceeded even after the erroneous identification came to light.”