Court Decision: Wrongful Conviction Vacated & Client Released From Prison

Supreme Court, Queens County: People v. Williams

Wrongful Conviction Vacated & Client Released From Prison

Mr. Williams was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison in connection with a 2013 robbery at a storage facility. The conviction was based primarily on the testimony of a single eyewitness. Mr. Williams consistently maintained he was home in Brooklyn at the time, on the telephone with his superintendent. Appellate Advocates represented him on direct appeal but was unsuccessful, and continued to investigate. We obtained cell site location records establishing that a 35-minute phone call coincided with the robbery, and that Mr. Williams’s cell phone was connected to a Brooklyn cell tower one-half mile from his apartment and 10 miles from the scene of the crime. Mr. Williams’s superintendent confirmed that the call was from him. After Appellate Advocates filed a C.P.L. § 440 motion based on newly discovered evidence, the Queens County Conviction Integrity Unit reinvestigated the case, and the District Attorney consented to the vacatur of Mr. Williams’s convictions. Mr. Williams, who had served 10 years of his 15-year sentence, was released from prison.

Alexis A. Ascher represented Mr. Williams