MINEOLA, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — The Nassau County District Attorney’s office on Monday announced it will seek to retry a Long Island man who had his murder conviction overturned in 2019.
Christopher Ellis, of Hempstead, was sentenced to over 31 years in prison for the murder of Joseph Healy, an assistant football coach at Hofstra University, in 1993.
Ellis was convicted on a number of charges including second-degree murder, two counts of attempted robbery, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of stolen property.
The now 51-year-old maintained his innocence and in 2019, he filed an allegation of wrongful conviction.
The Nassau County Conviction Integrity Unit, part of the district attorney's office, began investigating the allegation and eventually found notes from a detective showing there had been two other suspects in Healy’s murder.
Those notes, which should have been given to Ellis's defense attorney, were never handed over in 1993.
“The Nassau County District Attorney has no basis to believe that the failure to disclose the notes was intentional, or that the prosecutor was even aware of their existence as they were not in the prosecution file,” said Brendan Brosh, the communications director for the Nassau County District Attorney. “The Conviction Integrity Unit was unable to confer with the former prosecutor because he passed away in September 2018.”
However, after reviewing the case, the district attorney’s office has decided to go ahead with a retrial for Ellis.
“While failure to provide the detective's notes requires vacatur of Mr. Ellis' murder conviction, prosecutors have determined, based on a thorough review of the evidence, that retrial is warranted to ensure justice is done,” Brosh said.
During his 1993 trial, Ellis was also convicted of an attempted robbery in Freeport. The conviction relating to those charges has not been disturbed.