BK Man's Murder Conviction Vacated Due To Mistaken Identity: DA

BROOKLYN, NY – The conviction of a Brooklyn man who had wrongly served a 23-year sentence for a fatal botched robbery he did not participate in was tossed Thursday, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.

Steven Carrington, 56, was convicted of participating in a botched robbery of an East Flatbush lumberyard in 1995, where Lloyd St. George Campbell was fatally shot, prosecutors said.

Carrington served over 23 years in prison and was released in 2018. He is expected to appear in Brooklyn Supreme Court in front of Justice Matthew D’Emic Thursday afternoon.

An investigation by the Brooklyn DA’s conviction review unit determined that Carrington’s conviction was a case of mistaken identity. They also concluded that the testimony of a sole witness should have never been admitted at trial, prosecutors said.

The CRU identified another person, who had implicated himself in a couple of recordings, as the likely real accomplice to the fatal robbery, prosecutors said.

The shooter, Shannon France, admitted in a 2012 affidavit and in parole hearings, that Carrington was not his accomplice and not involved in the crime, prosecutors said.

“A full investigation by my Conviction Review Unit concluded that this was a case of mistaken identity, where numerous red flags were ignored both before and after Mr. Carrington’s conviction. This case exemplifies the pitfalls of one witness identifications and highlights the lengths our CRU will go to unearth the truth,” Gonzalez said. “Mr. Carrington has proclaimed his innocence from day one and, while we cannot undo the decades he spent in prison, today we are able to substantiate his claim and give him back his good name.”

The investigation also pointed to flawed identification photo arrays shown to a customer who was inside the store and an employee was outside during the crime. In addition, the unit said that procedure was compounded by errors from the hearing judge, the prosecutor and defense counsel.

The district attorney’s office looked into prosecuting the actual accomplice but were unable to due to legal issues for prosecuting a crime that occurred nearly three decades ago and where another man was convicted, prosecutors said.