Doubt over murder rap – but still jailed 25 yrs. later
THE WITNESS for the prosecution changed the story two years ago that got a Brooklyn man sent away for double murder — but inmate Earl Jefferson is still fighting for his freedom.
Jefferson, 44, is about halfway through serving a sentence of 50 years to life in the March 27, 1991, killings of Ronnie Fisher and Eric Starling at Pacific St. and Kingston Ave. in Crown Heights.
New court filings suggest Jefferson should never have been behind bars. A week before the murders, the Crown Heights man was shot twice in the leg and his friend Curtis Regis was killed.
Jefferson suffered proximal sciatic nerve damage, an unstable left ankle and the inability to move his left leg, according to papers filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court last week. Five days later after he was shot, Jefferson hobbled out of Kings County Hospital on crutches and with a cast on his leg. The following day, Fisher and Starling were killed.
Fisher’s cousin Michael Gaylord, who was present at the shooting, pointed out Jefferson as the gunman.
Despite a half-dozen alibi witnesses and Jefferson’s medical records, the jury relied on Gaylord’s testimony to convict.
Twenty-five years later, Jefferson’s attorney Darren Fields has filed a motion requesting a judge to order a hearing that may result in a new trial or an exoneration.
“We will review the motion,” said a spokesman for the district attorney’s office.
At the time of the 1992 trial, several pieces of evidence regarding Jefferson’s case were not turned over to the defense — including grand jury minutes in which a co-defendant’s case was dismissed and testimony from another witness who identified different shooters.
Gaylord recanted his testimony to Fields and told the DA’s conviction review unit that he made a mistake.
“Since the trial, I . . . realize I made a grave mistake in wrongfully identifying Earl Jefferson as one of the shooters,” he said in a sworn affidavit in 2014, in which he explained he felt pressure at the time.
“I want proper justice Brooklyn for my cousin and friend, but I don’t want the continued injustice of an innocent man,” said Gaylord.
During Jefferson’s stay at Sullivan Correctional Facility, he made several failed motions to overturn his conviction. He also earned an associate’s degree in humanities.
To date, the conviction review unit, which exonerated 21 convicts in the two years District Attorney Kenneth Thompson held office, has not made a decision about Jefferson’s case. Thompson died Oct. 9.