Witness missing, so man sprung in ’07 slay
AFTER SPENDING nine years in jail, a Brooklyn man accused of murder walked out of court a free man this week because prosecutors couldn’t find a key witness, the Daily News has learned.
Randolph Williams was initially convicted in 2008 of the Williamsburg murder of 36-year-old Vincent Hill. Last year, Williams successfully appealed and was granted a retrial.
Now, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Alan Marrus has moved to dismiss the case entirely.
“We understand why the district attorney felt compelled to retry the case but there is every indication that Randy didn’t do this and those who did say he did were lying,” said Williams’ attorney Michael Farkas.
“There’s troubling indication that those lies were precipitated by overly aggressive police tactics which have so often been shown to be the cause of false statements and testimony,” said Farkas.
The prosecutors declined to comment on the dismissal.
According to Farkas, Williams had an alibi — he said he was 15 miles away in Coney Island with his girlfriend when Hill was fatally shot in February 2007.
During the first trial, two witnesses, one of whom was also injured in the shooting, said they didn’t see the shooter and did not identify Williams. But a female neighbor testified to the grand jury and gave audiotaped statements saying she heard Williams’ voice and saw his face.
She never took the stand — prosecutors said they believed she was intimated by associates of Williams and was too scared to testify. During a pretrial hearing with the scared witness in 2008, Williams was removed from the courtroom and allowed to listen to the testimony from a holding cell.
The trial judge decided that Williams “procured the witness’ unavailability,” and allowed prosecutors to use her audio and grand jury testimony instead, according to court documents — preventing the defense from cross-examining her.
Farkas said the woman claimed she was threatened by police to point out Williams or face drug conspiracy charges and eviction.
“There has been a false narrative that witnesses were threatened to testify y in favor of Randy y or not at all, this simply isn’t true. Indeed there is strong evidence that they were reluctant due to their own lies and police misconduct,” said Farkas.
Despite his alibi, Williams, then 23, was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life.
The Appellate Division decided in January 2015 that since Williams was not physically in court during the hearing and the judge made a decision days later, he did not receive a fair trial. The decision threw out the conviction and ordered a new trial.
During the retrial this month, Judge Marrus moved to dismiss the indictment when the same frightened witness went missing.
One of the victims testified last week and gave testimony that was consistent with the first trial — he said he didn’t see who shot him.
Williams, now 31, was released from court Tuesday evening to his family.
“Randy Williams is an innocent man who tragically wasted nine years of his life in prison,” said Farkas.
Williams is planning to sue the state and file a federal civil rights lawsuit charging police misconduct, Farkas said.