New York — A man who spent nearly two decades in prison for stealing nearly $550 was acquitted and released Monday, after prosecutors said they now agree he did not commit the crime.
“It cost me 20 years, but they said they fixed it now,” said Kenneth Windley, 61, as he left a Brooklyn courthouse free for the first time since 2007. “So that’s all that matters. So I’m good with it.”
The judge overturned his conviction and dismissed his case entirely, at the request of prosecutors and Windley’s attorney. Prosecutors said the new evidence — including confessions from two other men convicted of similar robberies — supports his long-standing claim of innocence.
“This case is really a cautionary tale about how things can appear one way, but without careful analysis, not be what they claim to be,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, a Democrat, said after shaking Windley’s hand outside court.
“If we had known the evidence, this case would never have happened,” he said, adding that he had privately apologized to Windley.
Windley was arrested in 2005, after purchasing a stove for his mother with a money order that turned out to be stolen.
Gerald Ross, 70, was kidnapped by two robbers who followed him home from a trip to a bank and post office. Prosecutors said that the thieves put Ross in a chokehold and took money orders, cash and the bank book from him. a report Released on Monday.
Ross regularly received money orders for his rent and life insurance payments at this post office, which helped him and authorities keep a paper trail after the robbery. The trail soon led to Wendley, who gave his name, driver’s license and address when purchasing the stove at a hardware store.
From the beginning, Windley said he had nothing to do with the robbery. He said he simply bought a $542.77 money order at a discount from two acquaintances, who insisted it was valid but couldn’t use it for a bureaucratic reason.
“He was duped,” David Shanis, one of Windley’s attorneys, told the court Monday.
Ross identified Windley in line as one of the burglars, and a jury in 2007 convicted him of robbery. Because of his prior felony conviction, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. His appeals failed.
Early on, Windley told prosecutors what he knew about the men who sold him the money order: their surnames and some information about their legal names. After his conviction, a friend and private investigators helped him identify the men and persuade them to come forward about what happened, according to the prosecutor’s report.
In sworn statements and then in interviews with representatives of the district attorney’s office, the two men said they robbed Ross together and that Windley was not involved, according to the report. She described their confessions as “convincing.”
He did not mention their names, but referred to them only as “Suspect 1” and “Suspect 2.” They are both serving prison sentences for robbery convictions, according to the district attorney’s office. All of these convictions involved male victims in their 60s and older who were followed up from banks and check cashing offices in Brooklyn in 2005 and 2006.
Prosecutors concluded that if the jury knew the identities of these men and the robbery records, the information would likely raise a reasonable doubt about the charge against Windley.
No new charges have been filed in the case. The legal timeframe for bringing charges expired years ago, and Ross died.
Windley, who headed out Monday afternoon to celebrate with his family, said he was not bitter about what he went through
“I’ll move on from there,” he said.