PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Three retired Philadelphia homicide detectives are on trial, accused of perjury in connection with a murder from 1991. The courtroom grew heated Wednesday as defense attorneys questioned the man at the center of the case.
The three defendants, Martin Devlin, Frank Jastremzski, and Manuel Santiago, are accused of lying under oath during the retrial of Anthony Wright. Wright was convicted in 1993 for the murder of 77-year-old Louise Talley, but his conviction was overturned in 2016 after DNA evidence from the scene matched someone else.
58-year-old Wright was acquitted and later sued the city, settling for $10 million, about a decade ago.
That civil suit and the retrial led District Attorney Larry Krasner to charge the three detectives who came out of retirement to testify against Wright. Krasner has said they knowingly lied to jurors about DNA evidence and a confession Wright signed, which he claimed was coerced.
On Wednesday, the defense peppered Wright with questions, seemingly putting him on trial a third time.
Wright testified that six witnesses in the first trial lied, including his mother who believed her son was using crack cocaine at the time.
The defense also questioned Wright about his prior juvenile record, which included an assault on a police officer and his girlfriend at the time, as well as a theft from his grandmother’s house.
Wright admitted to his juvenile offenses and said he didn’t know any of the eyewitnesses who claimed to have seen him entering Talley’s house the night she was killed.
Prosecutors believe another man named Ronnie Byrd, who has since died, was the real killer.
The trial against the three detectives is expected to last throughout the week.