On May 28th, 1995 in upper Manhattan, New York, Ismael De La Cruz and William Santana Guzman were shot and killed in their car.  This immediately launched an investigation that would lead to a complex wrongful conviction.

 

What is important to note is that the police precinct that handled the case had been known as the “Dirty 30” because of their known corruption and a series of wrongful convictions conducted in the area.  

 

During the investigation, many witnesses were used against Jabar Walker, who had been identified by what is now known as a fake and fabricated tip off to police.  John Mobley, who was arrested and in prison for a different crime, testified against Walker saying that he had known Walker had “business to handle” with his gun and was likely carrying out the killings for Felipe Garcia who had gotten into an argument with De La Cruz.  Mobley would later recant this testimony many times under oath but it was used as major evidence throughout the case.

 

Additionally, the lead witness Vanessa Vigo claimed to have seen the crime happen and knew it was Walker that had committed it.  However, Vigo’s testimony varied throughout the investigation, trial, and post-trial and she had already been responsible for misidentifying a defendant in a previous case which was never shared with the defense or during the trial.  Additionally, Vigo benefitted from testifying against Walker with housing improvements, also not shared with defense.  This, on top of the fact that her testimony repeatedly changed with her once saying she saw no car, then saying she saw him driving a red car, or with changes in what he was wearing or how the crime occurred, showed that there were clear holes in her identification. 

 

For Walker, he was failed by his defense team.  His lawyer was a first time criminal lawyer who had no experience with major cases like this and he failed in many ways throughout the case.  First off, the testimony of Vigo was never fully questioned or used the way it should have been, second off, there were two men who identified a different suspect in a lineup and photo array which were never moved on by the defense, and failed to ask witness Carlos Jimenez to identify whether or not Walker was the man he saw during the crime when Jimenez had already testified the man was taller.

 

There was also additional questionable activity with Assistant DA Sturm and Vigo’s brother as he lied about his involvement in her brother’s case after having spoken with him about Walker’s case.  On top of this, some facts used to get Walker as the lead suspect in the first place were faulty as his “street name” that was used to identify him was wrong and his name was fabricated and put onto an official police report where it should not have been.

 

After looking into the case, the Innocence Project with the help and cooperation of the District Attorney’s office team were able to find enough evidence and convinced many key witnesses to recant their testimony in the case which allowed the state to deem Walker innocent and exonerate him of all crimes.

 

This case happened as a result of mistaken eyewitness identification, official misconduct from both police and prosecution, and inadequate legal defense for Mr. Walker.