This convicted killer of a retired cop has Martin Sheen on his side — but not Cyrus Vance.
Manhattan prosecutors announced today that after an extensive investigation, they will not seek to dismiss the 1998 conviction of Jon-Adrian Velasquez, who is serving 25 years to life for killing Albert Ward, 59, during a Harlem gambling parlor holdup.
Velasquez, whose exoneration has been pushed for in multiple press statements by the Apocalypse Now actor, was convicted after four witnesses picked him out of a lineup; one has since said he is not sure he chose the right person and another at one point recanted.
“We have not found evidence sufficient to demonstrate that Mr. Velasquez is innocent, as he claims,” DA communications director Erin Duggan said in a statement. Prosecutors with Vance’s Conviction Integrity Unit re-interviewed witnesses and reviewed documents and physical evidence over the course of 18 months in reaching their decision, Duggan said.
Velasquez’s lawyers, Robert Gottlieb and Celia Gordon, said they now prepare a motion to ask a Manhattan Supreme Court judge to set aside the 1998 verdict.
“This so-called re-investigation was an absolute joke and a farce,” Gottlieb said today. “Our witnesses were harassed and treated like criminals for having the courage to come forward and speak to the DA,” he said.
“The Conviction Integrity Unit is nothing more than a Conviction Protection racket,” the lawyer said.