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3 Murder Verdicts Vacated In Case Investigated By Killer Cop

Three men impris­oned since the 1990s for a fatal New Orleans dri­ve-by shoot­ing were ordered freed on Wednesday.

Family mem­bers of Leroy Nelson, Bernell Juluke, and Kunta Gable smile as they stand out­side Orleans Parish Criminal District Court in New Orleans.CHRIS GRANGER/​THE TIMES-PICAYUNE/THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE VIA AP

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Three men impris­oned since the 1990s for a fatal New Orleans dri­ve-by shoot­ing were ordered freed on Wednesday, their con­vic­tions vacat­ed by a judge after pros­e­cu­tors cit­ed the involve­ment of two noto­ri­oul­sy cor­rupt police offi­cers in their case.

Kunta Gable and Leroy Nelson were 17 when they were arrest­ed short­ly after the Aug. 22, 1994, shoot­ing death of Rondell Santinac at the Desire hous­ing devel­op­ment in the south Louisiana city. Also arrest­ed with them was Bernell Juluke, then 18.

The men were ordered released on Wednesday by a state judge who vacat­ed their con­vic­tions, act­ing upon a joint motion by defense lawyers and District Attorney Jason Williams’ Civil Rights Division.

The motion described numer­ous prob­lems with the orig­i­nal case. Among them, it said, the state failed to dis­close evi­dence under­min­ing the case against the men.

The motion also said the jury didn’t know that offi­cers Len Davis and Sammie Williams — the first offi­cers on the scene — were known to cov­er up the iden­ti­ty of per­pe­tra­tors and manip­u­late evi­dence at mur­der scenes at the hous­ing project to cov­er up for drug deal­ers they protected.

Davis was lat­er con­vict­ed for arrang­ing the death of a woman who filed a com­plaint against him in an unre­lat­ed mat­ter and is fac­ing a fed­er­al death sentence.

The motion also said the only wit­ness to the shoot­ing, Samuel Raiford, did not ini­tial­ly describe three sus­pects, adding, “the first time three per­pe­tra­tors were men­tioned by any­one is by Len Davis after the three defen­dants were pulled over.”

The teens were arrest­ed a short time after the shoot­ing but there were no signs of guns or shell cas­ings in their car, accord­ing to the 24-page motion.

The pros­e­cu­tor Williams said in a state­ment released Wednesday after­noon that there was exten­sive doc­u­ment­ed evi­dence of Davis’ ille­gal mis­con­duct while oper­at­ing “under col­or of law.”

“He engaged in ille­gal drug traf­fick­ing, framed indi­vid­u­als who got in his way, and even went so far as to order the mur­der of a pri­vate cit­i­zen who dared to report his sys­tem­at­ic abus­es,” Williams added.

Juluke’s attor­ney, Michael Admirand, said in an emailed state­ment after the release that they were grate­ful to the court, the pros­e­cu­tor and oth­ers for their work “in cor­rect­ing this grave injustice.”

“I am relieved that he has final­ly been vin­di­cat­ed, if dis­heart­ened that it took so long,” Admirand said of his client’s new­found freedom.

The attor­ney added that Juluke had main­tained his inno­cence from the moment of his wrong­ful arrest.