Connecticut judge overturns murder convictions of 2 men, citing ‘manifest injustice’

Murder convictions of 2 Conn. men overturned

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut judge has overturned the convictions of two men serving 80 years for a 1993 murder and ordered their immediate release from prison, saying they are the victims of a “manifest injustice.”

Superior Court Judge Stanley Fuger ruled Thursday that Ronald Taylor and George Gould are “actually innocent” of the crime and even threw out their arrest warrants. His ruling came after a star witness recanted.

“It is now an inescapable conclusion that a manifest injustice has been done to these two men, a manifest injustice that adversely affects each and every stage of these proceedings,” Fuger wrote in granting the habeas petition. “George Gould and Ronald Taylor have been convicted and spent over sixteen years in the custody of the state of Connecticut Department of Correction for a crime that, based upon all of the available evidence, they did not commit.”

Prosecutors were granted an emergency stay of the ruling to decide whether to appeal. Prosecutor James Clark, who tried the case, said the judge blocked the state from presenting important evidence on the recantation and predicted his ruling would be reversed.

Taylor and Gould were convicted of killing Eugenio Deleon Vega, a New Haven shop owner.

The star witness, Doreen Stiles, testified at the original trial that she saw Gould enter the store and heard him arguing with Vega about opening his safe. She said she heard a gunshot and then saw Gould and Taylor leave the store.

But last year, Stiles testified she had lied and that she was not at the murder scene.

The ruling also noted that a DNA analysis of a cord used to bind Vega’s hands “conclusively eliminates” Gould and Taylor as the source.

Attorneys for both men did not immediately return phone messages.

Fuger said Stiles committed perjury, but could not be prosecuted because of a statue of limitations, unless she was lying about her recantation. He said she was more credible when she recanted her testimony than when she testified at the original trial.

Fuger noted the extraordinary nature of his ruling. He said New Haven Police Department “accused the wrong men and now has a seventenn-year-old unsolved murder on its hands.”

The ruling is the latest conviction overturned in Connecticut.

In August, Kenneth Ireland was freed after spending two decades in prison after a judge dismissed murder and rape charges against him following DNA testing that showed he could not have committed the crimes.

James Calvin Tillman was released from prison in 2006 after serving 18 years for rape. The state awarded him $5 million for his wrongful conviction.

Miguel Roman was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the 1988 murder of his girlfriend, 17-year-old Carmen Lopez, but freed after he served 20 years. DNA tests showed he could not have been the killer.