Conviction Review Unit uncovered new evidence corroborating claims of police-coerced identification of shooter; sole witness recanted testimony
September 26, 2024
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.– Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah announced today that following a credible witness recantation of testimony and discovery of new evidence by her Conviction Review Unit’s exhaustive investigation, a Bronx judge vacated the murder conviction of Antonio Mallet, 54, for the fatal shooting of a man at a Bronx supermarket parking lot in September 1996.
DA Rocah said: “The credible witness recantation and the new evidence uncovered by the CRU’s more than two-year investigation provided a strong case that the integrity of the conviction was compromised. Though this is not proof of actual innocence, we believe the defendant did not receive a fair trial, which is why we supported vacating this conviction.”
New York Supreme Court Justice Alvin Yearwood today in Bronx County vacated the conviction and dismissed the underlying indictment of Mr. Mallet, who was released on parole in January 2019 after serving nearly 20 years in prison.
The CRU’s investigation found that the single eyewitness in the case made a credible recantation that his statements implicating Mr. Mallet in the murder were the result of physical and psychological coercion during a nearly 19-hour interrogation by two New York City Police Department detectives. The CRU found new evidence supporting and corroborating these claims, and further obtained information and records, including some that pre-dated Mr. Mallet’s 1999 trial, of reported misconduct by the two detectives.
The CRU’s investigation began in March 2022 after the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office was appointed special prosecutor by the Bronx County Supreme Court due to the Bronx District Attorney’s previous involvement in some of Mr. Mallet’s post-conviction proceedings as a presiding judge.
At approximately 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 24, 1996, Michael Ledeatte, 19, was delivering a stolen Lexus to a buyer at Waldbaum’s, a supermarket chain, on Gun Hill Road in the Bronx.
Mr. Ledeatte’s friend, who was present for the sale and in his own car waiting nearby, saw two men approach the Lexus with Mr. Ledeatte in the driver's seat. After hearing a gun shot and seeing the men leave the scene in their car, the friend found Mr. Ledeatte in the Lexus slumped over and bleeding from a gunshot wound to the head.
After calling 911, and now a witness, he was interrogated by NYPD detectives Joseph Nieves and Kevin Tracy for nearly 19 hours during which he gave multiple written statements, ultimately identifying Mr. Mallet as the shooter.
Mr. Mallet was arrested on Sept. 26, 1996.
Asserting his innocence, Mr. Mallet went to trial where a jury returned a guilty verdict on March 18, 1999.
Mr. Mallet was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.
Since his conviction, Mr. Mallet has filed an appeal and numerous motions to overturn his conviction. In October 2019, Mr. Mallet filed his sixth motion to vacate his conviction based on the witness recantation and assertion that his identification of Mr. Mallet as the shooter was false and a result of police coercion.
The CRU investigation was conducted by Bureau Chief Anastasia Heeger, former Senior Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Keeling, former Assistant District Attorney Charity Brady and Criminal Investigators James Menton and Jon Jennings.
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