Brooklyn man exonerated after 16 years in prison

A Brooklyn man became home free Friday for the first time in 16 years.

Arvel Marshall was exonerated of a Crown Heights murder after key evidence, once withheld by prosecutors, finally came to light.

“They knew I was innocent. They knew it would have proved my innocence, so they tried to keep it under the table,” Marshall said after his exoneration.

Marshall’s fight with the criminal justice system began in July 2008, when Moustapha Oumaria was murdered in Crown Heights. At the time, Oumaria and Marshall were dating the same woman, so Marshall became a murder suspect.

During a hearing Friday, the chief of the Conviction Review Unit in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said the evidence back then didn’t add up.

“Despite the fact that the three eyewitnesses all described the shooter as a kid, between the ages of 16 and 21 years old, detectives arrested Mr. Marshall and charged him with the murder. Marshall was 36 years old at the time.”

Brooklyn prosecutors had surveillance video in their possession at the time that showed two men, one with a dark object in his hand, walking towards the scene of the shooting. They walk out of the camera’s view, but moments later they’re seen back on camera running away without looking back.

“The inescapable conclusion is that the video depicts the actual shooter,” Linehan said.

The jury never saw the video, trial prosecutors never turned it over to the defense team. Marshall was convicted and spent 16 years in prison, dreaming of freedom, telling himself “just keep fighting.”

Marshall eventually connected with a new attorney, Justin Bonus. The Conviction Review Unit in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office agreed to take a second look at the case, and that’s when the surveillance video finally came to light.

Outside the courtroom, surrounded by his family, Marshall reflected on his ordeal, “I’m happy it’s over you know, and I’m kind of still depressed I had to go through all of this and I’ve been telling them since the day they arrested me.”