NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office announced on Friday its move to vacate the conviction of a man – who maintained his innocence during his trial and over the 35 years he served in prison for murder – after an investigation uncovered that the key eyewitness was on crack cocaine at the time of the crime.
Detroy Livingston, 59, was convicted in a 1986 trial for murder, robbery and related counts in relation to a 1982 incident that occurred in a Bedford-Stuyvesant bodega.
On December 11, 1982, four men robbed the bodega of cannabis, fatally shooting Jairam Gangaram and shooting another worker who survived his injuries, the district attorney's office said. The investigation stalled until Livingston and an alleged accomplice were arrested and indicted for the crime in 1986.
Livingston consistently maintained his innocence, even rejecting a plea offer of six to 12 years, and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
He was paroled in April 2021 after serving 35 years.
A reinvestigation into the case was conducted by the District Attorney's Conviction Review Unit (CRU) at the wish of the Gangaram's daughter, who claimed Livingston was innocent, officials said.
Livingston was originally convicted on the testimony of a Tracey Evans, 19 at the time, who claimed to see him shoot the victim and claimed that she saw the alleged accomplice holding cannabis bags with a stamp from the bodega, the district attorney's office said.
The CRU interviewed the eyewitness, who had little recollection of the case, and noted that she "was on crack, hard."
At the time, the woman's testimony stated that she only smoked cannabis.
The CRU investigation analyzed the witness's 10 statements, given both to police and in court, which were inconsistent regarding Livingston's role or whether he was involved at all, whether she saw the suspects flee and whether she heard the suspects discuss the crime at a later time.
Based on crime scene photos, Evans' testimony was also shown to be physically impossible. She claimed to hide behind a dumpster and observe the crime from a window, but the window was largely blocked by objects, officials said.
The jury was never shown the crime scene photos.
"This old conviction was predicated on the testimony of a single witness who, based on a reinvestigation by my Conviction Review Unit, should have never been called to testify at trial," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.
"Her myriad inconsistent statements and newly discovered crack habit undermine this conviction and it must be reversed," Gonzalez concluded.
Evans' testimony in the codefendant's trial was "even more incredible" according to the district attorney's office, and that jury "disregarded her completely."
The alleged accomplice was convicted of attempted murder and weapon possession based on testimony from the surviving bodega employee.
Livingston appeared in court at 11 a.m. on Friday before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew D'Emic.
CRU investigations have resulted in 36 convictions being vacated since 2014.
