Not so fast: Freed child killer jailed
WELCOME BACK, convict.
The family of an 8-year-old Bronx girl raped and murdered in 1975 broke out in applause when the man who spent nearly 40 years in prison for killing her was thrown back in jail after an appeals court overturned the decision that led to his release last year.
“We’re good now!” victim Karen Smith’s brother James Smith, 51, screamed proudly after David Bryant was ordered back into custody on Tuesday. “Told you he’d be going to jail!”
Bryant, 58, was freed last year when a judge ruled his defense had been inadequate.
“The great thing about this was seeing them put the handcuffs on him once again,” said Karen’s other brother, Keith Smith, 53. “When we walk away from here we will still have heavy hearts over what happened to our sister. It’s still a tough day for us, but it’s also a great day for us.”
Bryant was convicted in 1976 of stabbing Karen Smith to death. He spent 38 years in prison until Judge Seth Marvin declared last year Bryant’s attorney had botched the defense, and the jurist ordered him freed.
On June 19, an appellate court overturned Marvin’s decision, demanding the convicted killer be thrown back in prison.
“(Bryant) stands before you as a rapist and a murderer of an 8-year-old girl,” Assistant District Attorney Adam Oustatcher said on Tuesday.
Bryant’s first attorney, Paul Auerbach, didn’t test for his client’s blood type or consult with a specialist in body fluids. Cops found a semen stain on Karen Smith’s clothes with type O blood; Bryant has type B blood.
Still, several witnesses put Bryant at the scene. The then-18-year-old also confessed to the crime, an admission his new attorney Paul Casteleiro claims was coerced. “Hopefully this injustice will be cured,” Casteleiro
said.