A man, 42, who was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1995 and spent 15 years in prison after the real murderer confessed, is suing New York State for $100 million.
Christian Pacheco was 19 years old when he was convicted in 1996 with slashing the throat of Lemuel Cruz in a bar fight in Brooklyn involving members of the Latin Kings Gang.
Despite fellow gang member Melvin Garcia admitting to the murder and being convicted for the same crime in 2004, Pacheco would spend 15 more years in jail before his conviction was overturned on February 12.
A free man for the first time in almost 25 years, Pacheco filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking $100 million compensation from New York State for the time he spent behind bars.
Christian Pacheco, 42, spent almost 25 years behind bars for a 1995 murder when the real killer admitted his guilt 16 years ago in 2004 and told prosecutors Pacheco was innocent
Christian Pacheco who was convicted of the murder of Lemuel ‘Lenny’ Cruz in 1995 is exonerated of the conviction by the Brooklyn DA’s office on February 12 after 25 years
Christian Pacheco was arrested, aged 18, after being found bleeding outside the Con Sabor Latino Lounge in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, on December 2, 1995.
Police were responding to a bar fight that had broken out inside the bar involving members of the Latin Kings gangs after victim Lemuel Cruz bumped into one of the gang members while he was dancing.
Cruz’ throat was fatally cut in the fight which was believed to be racially motivated. According to a report by the Brooklyn District Attorney Office’s Conviction Review Unit (CRU), ‘Get the black guy, get the black guy’ was heard before Cruz was set upon by the gang members.
Pacheco was also stabbed, although he maintains that he did not start the brawl and was rushing to help Cruz. He had collapsed outside of the property when police arrived.
He was arrested, indicted, convicted and sentenced in less than a year for Cruz’ murder based solely on the testimony of the bar’s bouncer, also a gang member, who identified him as the ‘throat slasher’ but whose statements were later found to be false.
Cruz’ blood was also found on his shirt.
Pacheco has always insisted that he was wrongfully arrested by police and despite being offered a plea deal twice, he maintained his innocence.
Two others were convicted with murder but their conviction was overturned in 2003 and 2005, respectively.
The former location of the Con Sabor Latino Lounge in Brooklyn which has now closed
Christian Pacheco celebrates with is attorney Derek Sells after his conviction is overturned
Christian Pacheco’s family member celebrate his release on February 12 after 25 years
Further evidence pointing to Pacheco’s innocence emerged as early as 1998, two years after his conviction, when two gang members named Melvin Garcia as the murderer as part of an ongoing investigation by the Eastern District of the U.S. into the Latin Kings narcotics trafficking activities.
As part of the federal probe into the gang, Garcia confessed to the murder in 2004, stating that ‘he caused the deceased’s death by “cutting him up, slicing him up”‘, according to the CRU report.
Four other participants pointed to Garcia as the murderer and became cooperating witnesses in the federal case. He was convicted in 2004, 16 years ago, of the same crime as Pacheco.
‘I knew that they had gotten arrested for some charges in the feds and somehow my case had to do with those charges,’ Pacheco told CBS News.
As the investigation continued, Garcia told federal prosecutors in 2005 that ‘Christian Pacheco did not participate in the murder’ and again in 2013, he wrote a letter to prosecutors saying that Pacheco was innocent.
‘I believed in my heart I was going to come home soon. It was just a matter of days, probably months, and that never happened.’
The difficulties in overturning wrongful conviction cases meant that in would be 16 more year until Pacheco was set free, despite Garcia’s testimony.
‘That’s a flaw of the system,’ Criminal defense attorney Ken Belkin told CBS.
‘If you’re the DA, do you really want to go questioning the people that you rely on to prosecute cases… They sort of have this wall of silence where they say, “Hey, we’re all on the same team. Whatever happened, happened”.’
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said he is not convinced of Pacheco’s complete innocence as the blood of the victim Lenny Cruz was found on his shirt after the murder
Christian Pacheco claims he knew he would win freedom as his conviction was overturned
Pacheco said he fought for his freedom so his son would now he ‘is not a killer’
On February 12, Pacheco was freed from prison after prosecutors with the CRU announced that his conviction should be tossed and the indictment dismissed in its entirety.
He will now be able to spend time with his 25-year-old son, who is in the Navy and lives in San Diego, and meet his granddaughter for the first time.
‘I believe that this is one of the reasons I always fought for my freedom,’ Pacheco told ABC News.
‘So I can prove to him, his dad is not a killer.’
Pacheco was already scheduled for a parole hearing this December but had been working to vacate his conviction for the past 18 months.
The prosecutors leading further investigation into the case stated that ‘while the investigation did not uncover any error by the police or prosecution, new evidence shows that the testimony that led to the conviction – which described the defendant slashing the victim’s neck – was not credible.’
‘Due process and fairness are both part of the standards of review in all of our reinvestigations and I therefore must set aside this wrongful murder conviction in the interest of justice,’ said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez in a statement.
‘I’m not going to say it feels foreign because I always believed I was going to get it back,’ Pacheco told CBS News on his release.
‘I feel peace because I was able to prove my innocence,’
‘I thank God for being free, for having the right people to get me out of here and back with my family.
‘I don’t regret helping him, honestly, I don’t,’ he said of his claim that he rushed to help Cruz in the fight.
‘That’s the kind of person I am.’
Christian Pacheco, 42, with his attorneys after the Brooklyn DA’s office announced that it had proved that he was wrongly identified and then convicted of the killing of Lenny Cruz in 1995
Christian Pacheco, right, announcing the lawsuit with his attorney Derek Sells
DA Gonzalez does not believe in Pacheco’s complete innocence, however, as the victim’s blood was still fund on his shirt.
The CRU report stated that: ‘This evidence shows that the only reasonable explanation for the deceased’s blood on the defendant’s clothing is he was assaulting the deceased while he and/or other assailants were stabbing and cutting the deceased whereupon the deceased’s blood, flowing from the cutting injuries, was transferred by contact to the defendant.’
The District Attorney claims that while Pacheco did not strike the fatal blow, he did stab the victim.
On Wednesday, Pacheco filed the lawsuit in the Brooklyn Court of Claims.
‘The amount reflects the value of freedom,’ his attorney, Derek Sells told the news conference.
The $100 million reward is almost twice the largest total compensation award ever granted in New York to a person who was incarcerated for wrongful conviction.
The state has no limits on how much can be paid.
‘There is no way you can put a price to that,’ Pacheco said. ‘Freedom is the most beautiful thing we have, I believe.’
In New York, there have been 268 overturned convictions since 1964, 94 of which were connected to mistaken witness identification as in Pacheco’s case.