After spending 13 years behind bars, a New York woman has been exonerated and released from prison. New evidence surfaced contradicting previous accounts that implicated her in a Bronx murder that occurred 25 years ago.
Kimberly Hanzlik, now 59, was originally convicted in 2011 alongside Joseph Meldish, the gunman in the murder of Joseph Brown. The prosecution argued that Hanzlik provided Meldish with information about the intended target's location, Thomas Brown (Joseph's brother), at Frenchy's Tavern in the Bronx on March 21, 1999. Meldish mistakenly shot and killed Joseph Brown, believing him to be his brother.
Both Hanzlik and Meldish received lengthy prison sentences, 20 years to life and 25 years to life, respectively. However, the Bronx District Attorney's Office recently uncovered new evidence challenging the credibility of the victim's wife's identification of Hanzlik at the crime scene. This pivotal discovery led to Administrative Judge Alvin Yearwood vacating Hanzlik's conviction, dismissing the indictment, and sealing the case against her on Tuesday.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark expressed the difficult decision to dismiss the charges despite the pain it caused the victim's family, emphasizing that the new information cast significant doubt on the integrity of the original conviction. Clark stated that her office could not stand by a conviction based on testimony that wouldn't meet current credibility standards.
The initial case against Hanzlik hinged on several key elements: Meldish's alleged motive stemming from a financial dispute and subsequent burglary report to the police by Thomas Brown; Hanzlik's alleged presence at the bar with Meldish and another man, where she supposedly identified Thomas Brown; and the testimony of Meldish's getaway driver, who claimed Hanzlik was involved in the crime.
The victim's wife's testimony played a significant role in the original conviction, as she claimed to have seen Hanzlik in the bar before the shooting. However, the re-investigation of the case revealed that her identification of Hanzlik didn't occur until 2006, seven years after the murder. Furthermore, the NYPD detective who secured the identification has since passed away, but it has recently come to light that he had coerced a false identification in a separate, unrelated case, raising serious concerns about his methods.
Adding to the mounting evidence of Hanzlik's wrongful conviction, a previously undisclosed police document from 1999 containing information from the getaway driver stated that Hanzlik was not present during the incident, directly contradicting his later testimony.
