After serving nearly 20 years in prison for a robbery involving approximately $550, a man has been declared innocent and released on Monday. Prosecutors have now acknowledged that he did not commit the crime.
“It cost me 20 years, but they said they corrected it now. So that’s all that matters. So I’m good with that,” Kenneth Windley, 61, expressed as he exited a Brooklyn courthouse, experiencing freedom for the first time since 2007.
A judge overturned his conviction and dismissed the case entirely at the joint request of prosecutors and Windley’s attorneys. Prosecutors cited new evidence, including confessions from two individuals convicted of similar robberies, which supported Windley’s persistent claim of innocence.
“This case is really a cautionary tale of how things can seem one way but, without careful analysis, not be what it purports to be,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, a Democrat, after shaking Windley’s hand outside the court.
“Had we known what the evidence was, this case should have never happened,” he added, noting that he had privately apologized to Windley.
Windley was apprehended in 2005 after purchasing a stove for his mother using a money order that was later discovered to be stolen.
The money order had been taken from Gerald Ross, 70, by two robbers who followed him home from a bank and post office visit. The assailants subdued Ross and stole money orders, cash, and a bank book from him, according to prosecutors in a report released Monday.
Ross, who routinely obtained money orders for rent and life insurance at that post office, enabled authorities to trace the stolen money order back to Windley, who had provided his personal details when buying the stove at an appliance store.
From the outset, Windley insisted on his innocence, explaining that he had purchased the $542.77 money order at a discounted rate from acquaintances who assured him it was legitimate but claimed they couldn’t use it due to bureaucratic issues.
“He was duped,” said one of Windley’s lawyers, David Shanies, in court on Monday.
Ross identified Windley in a lineup as one of the assailants, leading to Windley’s robbery conviction in 2007. Due to prior felony convictions, he received a sentence of 20 years to life. His appeals were unsuccessful.
Early in the investigation, Windley provided prosecutors with details about the individuals who sold him the money order, including their nicknames and partial legal names. Following his conviction, a friend and private investigators helped identify these men and encouraged them to confess, according to the D.A’s report.
In sworn statements and interviews with representatives from the D.A.’s office, the two men admitted to robbing Ross together, asserting that Windley was not involved. The report described their admissions as “compelling.”
The report does not disclose their names, referring to them only as “Suspect 1” and “Suspect 2.” Both are currently serving time for other robbery convictions, involving similar crimes against older male victims in Brooklyn between 2005 and 2006.
If the jury had been aware of these men’s identities and criminal records, it could have introduced reasonable doubt regarding Windley’s guilt, prosecutors concluded.
No new charges have been filed, as the legal timeframe for prosecution has expired, and Ross has passed away.
Windley, setting off to celebrate with his family on Monday afternoon, expressed no bitterness about his ordeal.
“I’m just going to move on from there,” he said.
