The Trial and Wrongful Conviction

A prosecution without physical evidence

At trial, the state presented no fingerprint, weapon, DNA, ballistic evidence, or other physical proof placing JJ inside the illegal Harlem gambling joint where retired NYPD officer Albert Ward was killed. The case depended primarily on eyewitness identifications produced after the photo and lineup procedures.

The identification testimony

Witness accounts varied in opportunity, certainty, and reliability. Two people who identified JJ knew one another and had discussed the case. One additional courtroom witness pointed to a juror rather than JJ when asked to identify the shooter. Another witness had a serious drug history and received housing, clothing, and money while cooperating; he later acknowledged that his identification could have been mistaken.

The inconsistencies were specific. Augustus Brown testified that the shooter held the gun in his right hand, while JJ is left-handed, and described detectives questioning him for hours before the photo selection. Dorothy Canady’s trial description shifted from the Black man she first reported to a Spanish man, and she pointed to a juror when asked to identify the gunman. Robert Jones’s description likewise changed from the Black man in the first report and composite to a Puerto Rican man at trial. These details are summarized in the National Registry of Exonerations’ trial account.

The defense emphasized that every initial description identified a Black shooter, often with braids, while JJ is Hispanic and had short hair. A photograph taken two weeks before the crime showed hair too short to have grown into the braids witnesses described.

The phone-call alibi

Phone records confirmed a 74-minute call between JJ’s and Maria Velazquez’s residences from 11:44 a.m. to 12:58 p.m. The call overlapped the period when witnesses said the man using the name Tee first entered and completed a betting slip; it ended before the later robbery and shooting. JJ’s girlfriend testified that he remained at her apartment until about 3:30 p.m. Prosecutors challenged the alibi, including who had used the telephone.

What the jury heard about Derry Daniels

Daniels had been identified as the other robber and later pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery. During his plea allocution, he named JJ as the planner and gunman. But Daniels had not named JJ when first questioned, had no cooperation agreement, and did not testify at JJ’s trial. The jury therefore did not evaluate his accusation through live cross-examination. The official 2016 appellate opinion records both the plea and the absence of trial testimony.

The verdict

After deliberating for three days, the jury acquitted JJ of first-degree murder but convicted him of second-degree murder, attempted murder, robbery counts, and attempted robbery. He received a sentence of 25 years to life.

What the verdict could not repair

The verdict left the identification mismatch, absence of physical evidence, alternate lead, and phone records unresolved. Those issues continue in the post-conviction record.

The New York Appellate Division’s 2016 opinion collects the trial and appellate history and records the court’s denial of JJ’s earlier motion. The Associated Press’s 2024 account explains why prosecutors later concluded that the new DNA comparison, absence of physical evidence, and inconsistent witness statements required a different result.