A Bronx man who got a chance at freedom after successfully appealing his life sentence from a 2000 homicide was shot to death outside Woodlawn Cemetery Saturday, the Daily News has learned.
Devon Millington, 45, was shot in the head just outside the cemetery near Jerome and Bainbridge Aves. in the Norwood section of the Bronx about 5:45 a.m. Saturday. Police have made no arrests in his killing.
Millington was just 23 when he and two buddies went drinking and got high at the former Bill and Bob’s Sports Bar in the Wakefield neighborhood of the Bronx on July 20, 2000. About 2 a.m., the trio decided to rob bartender Everard “Erik” Gerrald and fatally shot him, according to court filings.
The shooting and robbery happened just at closing time. One of Millington’s accomplices, Michael Suarez, put a gun on the bar and when Gerrald said, “You got to be kidding me,” Millington grabbed the gun and shot Gerrald, court papers say. Millington then went toward the back of the bar and fired two more shots at the bartender.
The trio split the $2,000 they stole, according to court records.
Confronted with his own videotaped statements and Suarez’s testimony, Millington was convicted at trial of first-degree murder in January 2002 and sentenced to life without parole.
He appealed the verdict and the sentence, arguing his lawyer never explained the maximum sentence he could face, telling him instead that he could face 25 years to life.
When prosecutors offered him a plea deal of 18 years to life, he rejected the offer, after his lawyer, John Nicholas Iannuzzi, advised him, “18 to life, 25 to life, what’s the difference?” according to court documents.
Manhattan Federal Court Judge Lorna Schofield ordered prosecution to re-extend that 18-years-to-life offer in 2015 and Millington was released to lifetime parole in July 2019.
Iannuzzi said he testified on Millington’s behalf in his federal appeal since he always considered the conviction to be a “tremendous miscarriage of justice.”
The veteran lawyer said he devoted a chapter of his memoir to the trial. He said the judge wouldn’t allow the jury to consider whether the suspects and victim were drunk as mitigating factors.
“He should never had been convicted in the first place. He never intended a murder,” Iannuzzi said. “He was a very nice young man. Mild, delightful young man. Basically what had happened was that he went out with some fellas and they all got drunk and got carried away. He wasn’t a violent guy.”
Iannuzzi said he would always think about Millington whenever he drove on the Taconic Parkway near Green Haven Correctional Facility but he didn’t realize his old client had been released.
“What a shame,” he said of Millington’s killing.
One of Millington’s friends mourned his death on Facebook Sunday, saying Millington had been living on the straight and narrow since his release.
“I miss you bro. It does not seem real,” Umaruboi Harvey wrote, referring to Millington by the nickname “Boog.” “For all those who know Boog he came out from a life bid and became a law abiding citizen very positive. Someone still took his life, s— crazy, Beautiful soul gone (too) soon, again! When will it stop!”
In an odd twist, Gerrald was the last person to see a Yonkers man who went drinking at Bill and Bob’s Sports Bar before he went missing in 1998. Daniel Gerard Ryan, then 24, has never been found.
After Gerrald’s killing, his brother, Andre Gerrald, told authorities his family wanted Millington to serve life without parole.
“My brother always helped out our family. I cannot speak, we are still very deeply hurt. My mother’s life has been destroyed,” he said in a statement included in Millington’s pre-sentencing report. “We do not want him paroled. He should serve his full sentence.”
Andre Gerrald said he didn’t know about Millington’s death when contacted by The News Sunday. He declined comment.