Colin Warner - Mistaken Witness ID / Perjury / False Confession

Warner, (Hilary) Colins (or Colin); murder; NRE: mistaken witness identification, perjury/false accusation, police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory information, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, witness tampering or misconduct interrogating co-defendant

[501:889]; 2nd Dept. 4/28/86; affirmed

"[Warner's] conviction of second-degree murder was fully supported by the evidence..." S53 "It's been 16 years [as of 2017] since Warner, now 55, was released from the Fishkill Correctional Facility in upstate New York. But that stretch of time is dwarfed by the 21 years he spent locked up for a murder he didn't commit.

"In a shocking case of mistaken identity, institutional racism, and tortuous legalese, Warner was wrongly convicted of the murder of another teenager. Even though the key witness changed his story, Warner had an alibi and the real murderer eventually admitted his guilt, the wrongly accused man was kept behind bars for more than two decades, several of those years in solitary confinement. All the while, Warner's childhood friend, [Carl] King, fought to prove his innocence.

"[O]n April 10, 1980, a 16-year-old named Mario Hamilton was killed with a gunshot to the head on Flatbush Avenue. Two 14-year-olds were interrogated by the cops: Thomas Charlemagne, the only witness to the murder, and Hamilton's brother, Martell. Exhausted after hours of interrogation, Charlemagne picked Warner's mug shot out of the police book. Warner had one prior, nonviolent offense for carrying a switchblade, a charge for which he was still serving three years' probation.

"Warner was arrested based on those two juveniles' statements, despite the lack of evidence tying him to the crime. Warner did not know Hamilton at all.

"King, 17 at the time, had not been with Warner when the murder took place, but he knew who had.

"'Two of my friends were with Colin at the time. They gave that information to the police. They gave statements as to Colin's whereabouts. They knew he was innocent,' King said.

"A second man, 15-year-old Norman Simmonds, was arrested months later for being the driver of the car that was supposed to have been taken before and after killing Hamilton. The two men, who had never met, were tried together two years after Warner was arrested.

"During the trial, Simmonds confessed to Warner that he had really committed the crime.

"But Simmonds refused to tell anyone else that Warner was innocent, and he rejected a plea deal that would have exonerated Warner.

"The first trial ended in a hung jury, with Charlemagne changing his testimony to say that only Simmonds had been the killer in a drive-by shooting of Hamilton. But the second trial resulted in [convictions for] second-degree murder for both, partially due to Charlemagne's initial testimony.

"In his early years in prison, Warner got into fights, unable to control his fury and frustration towards the system's indifference. 'I don't give a f--k about nothing because I'm innocent! You can't treat me like a guilty person!' Warner remembers thinking. He would spend four years in solitary confinement.

"Gradually, he learned to channel his emotions differently, going back to school in the prison system. 'I could not have kept that anger flowing like a river -- it would have destroyed me in prison,' he says.

"Finally, in 2001, King found a young lawyer, William J. Robedee, who believed in Warner's innocence and who joined King in tracking down Simmonds, who had been paroled in 1989, on Long Island.

"Simmonds had previously signed an affidavit in 1991 stating that he had acted alone in the murder, but it was deemed insufficient by the court. [Albert J. Murray].

"King and Robedee, who had just started his private practice after a short stint in the DA's sex crimes unit, persuaded Simmonds to give them a full deposition admitting he had murdered Hamilton alone. After 21 years in prison, King says, it only took 21 days for them to get in front of a judge and free his friend.

"Warner -- who was awarded $2.7 million in 2009 for his wrongful conviction -- moved to Georgia with his wife, Antoinette, and their daughter."

from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"On April 10, 1980, 16-year-old Mario Hamilton was shot in the back of the neck [on a Brooklyn street].

"Thomas Charlemagne, 14, saw the shooting and ran to get Hamilton's 15-year-old brother, Martell. While Mario Hamilton was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Charlemagne and Martell Hamilton went to the 67th Precinct police station.

"They were interviewed separately and with no guardian present for six hours. Charlemagne told police that he saw 18-year-old Colin Warner, a native of Trinidad from Crown Heights, step out of a car and shoot Mario, get back in the car driven by 15-year-old Norman Simmonds and leave the scene.

"The following day, police spoke with Martell Hamilton and showed him a photo lineup, but he did not identify anyone. He told detectives that two days earlier Simmonds had threatened to kill his brother. A detective then placed a photo of Warner alone in front of Martell and Martell said he may have seen him near the scene of the crime."

"Warner and Simmonds went on trial in March 1982. The trial had been delayed because Simmonds disappeared. He was arrested on a charge of robbing a restaurant in February 1982 and so was available to testify.

"At trial, Charlemagne testified that Mario Hamilton was killed by Simmonds in a drive-by shooting -- deviating from his earlier claim that Warner was the gunman who walked up and killed Mario.

"The trial ended in a hung jury...Warner and Simmonds were tried again in May 1982 and were convicted."

"Carl King, a boyhood friend of Warner's from Trinidad who had reconnected with him on a playground in Brooklyn before the shooting, had followed the case and devoted his life to trying to prove Warner's innocence."

"In 1999, King brought the case to the attention of attorney William Robedee, who was struck by Charlemagne's change in his account and the lack of physical evidence tying Warner to the murder. King had located witnesses never called by the defense who said Warner was not at the scene of the crime. Mario Hamilton's brother provided an affidavit saying that he only identified Warner because he was pressured by police.

"Robedee desposed Simmonds, who said under oath that he alone killed Hamilton. Robedee also presented two witnesses who were friends of Simmonds, who said they saw the shooting and that Simmonds acted alone. And Robedee developed evidence from the autopsy findings that demonstrated that the shooting was not the result of a drive-by shooting.

"The [Brooklyn DA's] Office conducted a reinvestgation, which included polygraph tests of witnesses and agreed not to oppose Warner's release.

"Robedee's motion to vacate the conviction was granted on January 31, 2001 and Warner was released on February 1, 2001.

"In 2002, Warner filed a claim with the New York Court of Claims. He settled the claim for $2 million.

"In 2017, Warner was the subject of Crown Heights, a cinematic dramatization of his wrongful conviction. The film was adapted from an episode of a This American Life podcast."

[All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]