Suit over bad rap in ’90 tourist slay
A MAN CONVICTED and then cleared a quarter-century later in the notorious subway slaying of a Utah tourist is back in the court system — this time to sue the city.
Johnny Hincapie, now 45, left prison a free man in October 2015 after a court tossed his conviction. He had been found guilty in the 1990 stabbing of Utah resident Brian Watkins, 22. The killing on a subway platform horrified the nation and became one of the city’s record 2,245 homicides that year.
The Manhattan district attorney decided in 2017 not to retry Hincapie (photo below), citing the death of a witness and a sketchy lineup. They said the decision was not indicative of Hincapie’s innocence.
Watkins, of Provo, Utah, was in the city for the U.S. Open. He was defending his parents from an attempted robbery in the subway station at W. 53rd St. and Seventh Ave. when he was knifed.
Hincapie’s Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit, filed Thursday, says he was “coerced” into confessing.