PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia prosecutors have overturned a nearly 30-year-old murder conviction involving three defendants and an elderly woman who was brutally beaten and stabbed inside her home.
Elsie May Thomas, 73, was found stabbed and beaten to death inside her North Philadelphia home in 1997. A neighbor identified three suspects — Jermel Shuler, Rasheed Smith and Mark Brittingham — and said she saw them leave the victim’s home the night of the murder.
A medical examiner testified to the woman’s time of death, but 29 years later, District Attorney Larry Krasner said they found their own expert who claimed there was a different time of death.
“The judge in court, on the record, stated that among reasons she was vacating these convictions, one of the elements was a disciplinary record,” said Krasner.
“There are going to be other potential cases in which the medical examiner had testified and we are going to be reviewing those cases.”
Court records indicate the crime scene was bloody, and motions were made to have evidence tested for DNA, but it is unclear whether that was ever done. The trio of defendants had two post-conviction appeals dismissed by higher courts.
The case was originally prosecuted by one of Krasner’s political foes, Carlos Vega, whom he fired from the office and who ran against him in 2021. Vega said that if the medical examiner’s timing was in question, it would have been probed by the three original defense attorneys.
The overturned conviction was approved by Judge Jennifer Schultz. Attempts by KYW Newsradio to contact the victim’s family have not yet been answered.
A judge vacated the conviction in the 1997 homicide of an elderly North Philadelphia woman
A judge vacated the conviction in the 1997 homicide of an elderly North Philadelphia woman
