Johnny Hincapie - "Overwhelming" False Confession

Hincapie, Johnny; murder; NRE: false confession, perjury/false accusation, inadequate legal defense, police officer misconduct, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, witness tampering or misconduct interrogating co-defendant, misconduct in interrogation of exoneree; "OVERWHELMING"

Suggestibility issues

[629:416]; 1st Dept. 7/6/95; affirmed

"[Hincapie's] own statements regarding his participation in the crimes charged were supported by an abundance of corroborating evidence, including the testimony of eyewitnesses regarding the details of the robbery and one victim's identification of [Hincapie] in a lineup as someone who looked familiar from the robbery*..."

[* What in the world does that mean?]

155 F.Supp.2d 66; S.D.N.Y. 8/15/01; writ denied

"On the evening of September 2, 1990, [Hincapie] and a group of his friends, on their way to a dance club, arrived at a subway station in Manhattan...[Hincapie] and several others in the group did not have enough money for admission into the club, so they separated from the larger group and sought to commit a robbery on the subway to obtain money. [Several members of the Watkins family] were visiting from Utah and were targeted by [Hincapie] [???] and his friends as they stood on the subway platform...and a struggle ensued. Brian [Watkins] was fatally stabbed in the chest and approximately $150 was taken from his father.

"At [Hincapie's] trial, he sought to introduce the videotaped confession of his co-defendant Ricardo Lopez. In that tape, Lopez stated, 'Johnny and Kevin left [the group that was planning to commit the robbery].' Lopez later repeated that 'the two of them left.' Lopez was unable to testify at [Hincapie's] trial, and Justice [Edwin] Jones excluded the evidence as hearsay.

"The evidence against Hincapie was overwhelming..."

[This decision was penned by Judge Miriam G. Cederbaum. ]

2020 WL 362705; S.D.N.Y. 1/22/20; civil suit

"Plaintiff Johnny Hincapie claims that he was not involved in the crime...[He] was upstairs on the subway platform's turnstyle level with two girls and Luis Montero when the crime occurred, unaware of what was happening on the subway platform below.

"The first two suspects, Anthony Anderson and Luis Montero, were arrested based on eyewitness statements...At the precinct, Anderson admitted to involvement in the crime and provided a statement naming accomplices, but did not mention [Hincapie]...Over the course of several hours and four separate interrogation sessions -- one of which took place in the precinct's locker room -- suspect Luis Montero was beaten and interrogated by [Detective Carlos] Gonzalez and [Detective Donald] Casey but refused to falsely confess.

"Within hours of the crime, the next two suspects, Ricardo Nova and Pascual Carpenter, were taken into custody -- neither were given any Miranda warnings,* but each was interrogated, leading to statements that for the first time included 'Johnny' as a member of the group heading to the [dance club]...The statement attributed to Nova -- written by... Detective [Jose Ramon] Rosario -- listed eleven participants in the robbery, six more than had been reported by the victims ...Carpenter's confession did not mention [Hincapie]...Indeed, Carpenter repeatedly indicated to the [DA] that the information in his statement had been supplied by Gonzalez and Casey ...Since Carpenter's release from prison, he has described Gonzalez and Casey as coercing him into adopting the detective's narrative in his written statment and instructing him to list Hincapie as present, even though Carpenter had no such knowledge."

[* Nickel was never given any Miranda warnings either.]

"By midday on September 3, 1990, three additional suspects were detained: Gary Morales, Emiliano Fernandez, and Ricardo Lopez...Morales made no mention of...Johnny Hincapie... Detectives [Daniel] Rizzo, [Matthew] Santoro, and [James] Christie made Fernandez go back after his statement had been drafted and insert the name 'Johnny.' ...Lopez's statement...also makes no mention of Johnny Hincapie. Nevertheless, the police report prepared by [Detective Arthur] Swanson and approved by [Sergeant Timothy] Connolly states that Lopez told investigators that seven others 'including Johnny' stayed behind to participate in the crime...Lopez's videotaped statement to the DA's office makes clear that the evidence was fabricated, as he stated several times that 'Johnny left' before the crime and that there were six people present.

"Johnny Hincapie, barely 18 years old with no prior police encounters, was the last suspect arrested. Casey, Gonzalez, Christie, and [Sergeant Sharif] Ali interrogated [Hincapie] for several hours, without Miranda warnings, threatened and inflicted bodily harm and forced him to falsely confess to participating in the crime...Like the other interrogations, this one was not recorded either.*...[Authorities] forced [Hincapie] to adopt a role in the crime of pushing Karen Watkins, the same act attributed to an African-American perpetrator, purportedly claimed hours earlier by Carpenter...Detective Christie wrote out [Hincapie's] purported statement.**...In the videotaped statement to the DA's office, [Hincapie] appears to be in a trance-like state, missing patches of hair from the violent interrogation, providing inconsistent and confused answers to questions drawn from the false statement."

[* The interrogation of Nickel was not (electronically) recorded either.]

[** Likewise, Detective Mark DeFrancesco wrote out Nickel's purported statement.]

"No one ever positively identified [Hincapie] as taking part in either the Watkins robbery or murder, either before or at trial...In addition to failing to identify [Hincapie] as a participant in the crime, the six eyewitnesses offered by the state at trial cumulatively misidentified 27 fillers during the line-up procedures...No physical evidence tying [Hincapie] to the crime ever existed... The only evidence presented at trial against [Hincapie] was his false confession and a single witness's equivocal pre-trial statement that [Hincapie] looked 'vaguely familiar.'...Hincapie was convicted and sentenced to twenty-five years to life.

"In November 2013, [Hincapie] filed a...motion asserting actual innocence and newly-discovered evidence...Multiple witnesses with direct knowledge testified under oath to [Hincapie's] innocence at the...hearing, none of whom had testified at his trial...One particular witness, Mariluz Santana, who knew [Hincapie] from her neighborhood, testified that she observed the entire Watkins robbery...She testified as to [Hincapie's] innocence and swore he was not present...Santana had not come forward earlier on her mother's advice, but was unaware that [Hincapie] spent the ensuing decades in jail...On October 6, 2015, a New York State court...vacated his conviction...The DA's office elected not to retry the case and dismissed the indictment against [Hincapie] on January 25, 2017."

from Records and Briefs (post-conviction motion):

"[At the hearing on a motion for a new trial,] Detective [James] Christie ...arrogantly and smugly insisted that not only was Johnny Hincapie not mistreated in any fashion, but in thirty years on the force, from 1968 to 1998, Christie never witnessed any suspect mistreated by any police officer to obtain a statement, and by the way, the Central Park Five got off but were guilty."

"Detective [Carlos] Gonzalez, who played a major role getting confessions in the Central Park Jogger case just a little over a year before, would go on to become a key player in the investigation of this case as well."

"One of Hincapie's co-defendants, Pascual Carpenter, confessed to -- and was convicted of -- playing the precise role in the robbery to which Hincapie 'confessed.' Carpenter confessed much earlier in the day than Hincapie and admitted that he was the person who held the woman back during the incident." [Emphasis original.]

from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"In September 1990, 22-year-old Brian Watkins and his family traveled from their Utah home to New York City to attend the U.S. Open tennis tournament. On the night of September 2, they decided to take the subway from their hotel on West 53rd Street to have dinner in Greenwich Village.

"While they were on the platform, they were attacked by a group of youths who knocked down Brian's father, Sherwin. They slashed open two of his pants pockets with a box cutter, severely injuring him, and took about $200 in cash. When one of the attackers grabbed Brian's mother, Karen, by the hair and kicked her in the face and chest, Brian intervened and was stabbed in the chest. Brian's brother and sister-in-law were not touched.

"The attackers fled up the escalator and Brian chased them. However, he collapsed on the way up, near the token booth. He died in an ambulance, his pulmonary artery [having been] severed in the stabbing.

"The attack sent shock waves through New York City in a year when more than 2,200 murders eventually would be recorded. Just days later, the New York Post emblazoned its front page with the words 'DAVE, DO SOMETHING!' in a plea to then-Mayor David Dinkins. Ultimately, seven young men, ages 17-20, were convicted and all were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

"The police rounded up numerous suspects for questioning after a witness said a large group of young men and women had poured out of the subway station at about the time of the crime. The were headed for the Roseland Ballroom, a nightclub on West 52nd Street, to go dancing.

"Police learned that about an hour before the attack, a group of several dozen teenagers boarded the train in Queens, headed for the Ballroom. They got off the train at the station where the Watkins family was waiting and most of them went upstairs. However, several of the teenagers came back down because they didn't have the $15 cover charge to get into the Ballroom and decided to get the money by committing a robbery.

"Immediately after the crime, the attackers and a crowd of people who were on the platform and witnessed the attack rushed upstairs to the street. Antonio Gonzalez, a locksmith, was standing outside the subway entrance. He later told police that he had seen a large group of teenagers come up and head to the ballroom, but that several returned and went back into the subway. Minutes later, after a horde of panicked people came out of the subway, he went down and found Karen Watkins, bleeding and hysterical.

"Gonzalez and police later went to the Ballroom where Gonzalez pointed out Anthony Gonzalez as one of the youths he had seen emerging from the subway. He also pointed out Luis Montero as a youth he had seen standing outside the subway entrance. Members of the Watkins family were driven to the ballroom. From the police car, they viewed Montero and Anderson and identified them being among the attackers.

"Montero and Anderson were taken to the police station and interrogated by two detectives. One was Carlos Gonzalez, who had played a major role a year earlier in obtaining (what would ultimately be determined to be false) confessions from Antron McCray et al. and Steven Lopez in the attack known as the Central Park jogger case.

"Montero refused to confess, but Anderson did. Based on his statement, along with descriptions given by the Watkins family, detectives arrested several more suspects outside the Ballroom when it closed in the early morning hours of September 3, 1990.

"Two of those suspects, Pacual Carpenter and Ricardo Nova, also confessed to taking part in the attack. Based on information they gave, detectives arrested Gary Morales, Emiliano Fernandez and Ricardo Lopez. All three of them confessed as well.

"At that point police had seven youths in custody and six had confessed to the same story: that the Watkins family was attacked and robbed for money to get into the Ballroom. The eighth youth charged was 18-year-old Johnny Hincapie, an aspiring dancer, who was implicated by Ricardo Mora and Gary Morales.

"A day later, police said Hincapie had confessed as well and his statement was recorded on video.

"A year later, the [Manhattan DA's] Office dismissed charges against one of the eight, Luis Montero (the only defendant who had not confessed), and proceeded to trial against the remaining seven. Hincapie was tried in [Manhattan] along with Anthony Anderson, Pascual Carpenter, Gary Morales, Emiliano Fernandez, Ricardo Nova, and...the youth who had implicated Hincapie during interrogation.

"The three other defendants -- Ricardo Lopez [and two others] -- were tried separately. Separating the defendants into two groups allowed the prosecution to prevent Hincapie's lawyer from presenting a statement Lopez made to police during Lopez's interrogation. In that statement, Lopez said that Hincapie was not present at the crime. The defense lawyer tried to introduce the statement, but the trial judge ruled the statement was inadmissible hearsay.

"No physical evidence linked Hincapie to the crime. None of the family members could identify him. Karen Watkins, Brian's mother, testified that she had viewed a lineup after Hincapie was arrested and that while he looked 'vaguely familiar,' she could not say he was involved.

"The prosecution presented a videotaped confession given by Hincapie following an interrogation by several detectives. Hincapie testified that the confession was false and was coerced by a detective who slapped him in the head, shoved him to the floor with his foot, repeatedly screamed at him and blew cigarette smoke in his face.

"The detective denied mistreating Hincapie and denied Hincapie's assertion that he had been given a scenario to memorize so that Hincapie could repeat it when he gave his recorded statement.

"Hincapie never denied he was among the group of teenagers who were heading to the Roseland Ballroom. He claimed that he had given his cash to a friend to hold for him because the designer pants he was wearing were too tight to fit a wallet. Hincapie said that when he got off the train and came up to street level, he couldn't find his friend and went back down into the subway to try to find him.

"As he was heading down an escalator, Hincapie said a large group of teenagers came rushing up, so he turned around and went back to the street where he saw his friend, got his money and went to the dance. He said he did not learn of the attack until he saw it on the news the following day -- the same day he was arrested.

"On November 10, 1991, a jury convicted Hincapie and his co-defendants of second-degree murder and robbery. They were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. The other three defendants -- including [the person] who admitted he was the one who stabbed Brian Watkins -- were convicted in their separate trials and also sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

"Over the next 15 years, Hincapie lost all of his appeals. Attorney Vivian Shevitz, who was appointed to represent him on appeal from the denial of a federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus, continued to represent him after the appeal failed -- without charge. In May 2007, Shevitz wrote to the [Manhattan DA's] office requesting that the case be re-investigated.

"The office did re-open the case and interviewed Hincapie, but ultimately closed the case saying thay were satisfied that Hincapie was guilty. Hincapie and his lawyers were skeptical that the re-investigation had been taken seriously -- the prosecutor who directed the re-investigation was the same prosecutor who had presented the evidence against Hincapie at trial in 1991.

"In 2006, William Hughes, a journalist and professor at City University of New York, met Hincapie while researching an article on false confessions. At the time, Hughes was working for The Journal News in Westchester County...In 2010, after the prosecution closed its re-investigation, Hughes published a lengthy article about Hincapie's case. Hughes was convinced that Hincapie was innocent and decided to write a book about the case.

"During his research, he discovered that [one witness] had never been questioned by defense lawyers about whether Hincapie was involved in the crime. [This person] told Hughes that he knew Hincapie was not involved because he actually was with him briefly when Hincapie had gone down into the subway looking for his friend who had Hincapie's money.

"Hughes wrote to the six men who were convicted of the crime. Two of them agreed to meet with Hughes, but said they couldn't remember if Hincapie was involved or even present. Two others refused to speak to Hughes, citing the advice of their attorneys, and two others did not respond at all.

"In 2013, attorneys Ronald Kuby and Leah Busby filed a post-conviction petition on behalf of Hincapie seeking a new trial. The petition included a sworn statement from Montero that Hincapie was within his sight at the time of the crime and was nowhere near the attack. Montero also described being physically abused by detectives during his interrogation -- abuse similar to that described by Hincapie.

"Montero's statement was supported by a sworn affidavit from...one of the six others who had confessed and been convicted. [This person], who had refused to speak to Hughes on the advice of his attorney, said in the affidavit that Hincapie was not involved in the crime.

"The petition also cited the statement by Ricardo Lopez to police at the time of his interrogation. In that statement -- which had been barred from Hincapie's trial -- Lopez said that he and five others, but not Hincapie or Montero, were involved.

"Beginning in February 2015, [Manhattan] Judge Eduardo Padro conducted a series of evidentiary hearings on the petition. Hincapie testified and denied involvement and described his interrogation. Lopez and Montero also testified. Montero recounted that Hincapie was upstairs and not on the platform when the crime occurred, and Lopez testified that he was involved in the attack but Hincapie was not.

"In addition, the defense presented Mariluz Santana, a 45-year-old hospital worker. Santana, who had not previously come forward, testified that she was on the platform and witnessed the attack. Hincapie, she said, was not there.

"In October 2015, Judge Padro granted the petition, vacated Hincapie's conviction and ordered a new trial. The judge said that the testimony of Mariluz Santana and Lopez would have likely changed the outcome at Hincapie's trial. 'All three witnesses indicate that Hincapie was not on the subway platform at the actual moment of the robbery of the Watkins family. Each statement exculpates Mr. Hincapie.'

"On October 6, 2015, Hincapie was released on bond pending a retrial. The prosecution appealed Judge Padro's decision. In September 2016, the Appellate Division...upheld Judge Padro's ruling.

"On January 24, 2017, the prosecution dismissed the charges.

"In April 2018, Hincapie's attorney, Gabriel Harvis, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of New York, alleging malicious prosecution, fabrication of evidence and false imprisonment. On November 2018, Harvis and his firm, Elefterakis, Elefterakis & Panek, filed a claim for unjust conviction on Hincapie's behalf in the New York Court of Claims. The state claim was settled in November 2022 for $12.9 million.

"In 2023, the Queens [DA's] Conviction Integrity Unit agreed to the dismisal of the convictions of Armond McCloud Jr. and Reginald Cameron after concluding that both men falsely confessed during interrogations by Detective [Carlos] Gonzalez."

[All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]