AN AMERICAN wrongfully imprisoned for nearly two decades over a $550 robbery he didn’t commit has uttered his first words as a free man.
Kenneth Windley, 61, has been exonerated after a court heard new evidence including confessions from two other men.
Kenneth Windley, who was supported by his mom, Francina Windley Patterson, was looking forward to spending time with his family after nearly two decades of incarcerationCredit: AP
Kenneth Windley, right, pictured speaking to reporters while accompanied by his fiancée, Donna Carter, outside the courthouse in Brooklyn yesterdayCredit: AP
Prosecutors said they now agree that Windley didn’t commit the crime.
“It cost me 20 years, but they said they corrected it now,” he told reporters while leaving a Brooklyn Supreme Court in New York City yesterday.
“So that’s all that matters. So I’m good with that.”
Windley also said he wasn’t bitter about the wrongful conviction – which has now been vacated by Justice Matthew D’Emic – or his lengthy stint in jail.
“I’m just going to move on from there,” the relieved man said as departed to celebrate his hard-won freedom with family.
Before leaving the court, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez shook his hand outside the building.
“Had we known what the evidence was, this case should have never happened,” said Gonzalez, a Democrat.
He also said that he had apologized privately to Windley.
Windley was arrested in 2005 after buying a stove for his mother with a money order that later turned out to be stolen.
It had been snatched from Gerald Ross, 70.
Kenneth Windley shakes hands with Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez at the Brooklyn Supreme CourtCredit: AP
On the morning of April 1, 2005, Ross returned to his Crown Heights home after going to the bank and post office.
Two men followed him into his building where they robbed him in the elevator of cash and two money orders – for $542.77 and $9.48 – that were blank and unsigned.
Over a month after the incident, the victim was informed that one check was cashed in an electronics store, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office .
Windley was arrested as he had supplied his name, driver’s license and address when buying the stove at the Big Daddy appliance store in Brownsville.
But, he has contended all along that he met two men who sold him the money order to make that purchase and that was his entire involvement.
He told a trial that on the day of the robbery he left his girlfriend’s apartment and went to buy his mother a stove.
At a parking lot, he met two men he’s seen in the neighborhood who told him they would cover the tax for the $379 stove if he would give them his cash and use their money order instead, which he did.
His acquaintances had insisted the order was valid – but they couldn’t use it for a bureaucratic reason.
“He was duped,” one of Windley’s lawyers, David Shanies, told the court on Monday.
What is a wrongful conviction?
A conviction may be classified as wrongful for two reasons:
- The person convicted is factually innocent of the charges.
- There were procedural errors that violated the convicted person’s rights.
Source: National Institute of Justice
Ross identified Windley as one of the thieves from a photo array and then a live lineup, despite both of them taking place six weeks or longer after the robbery.
The jury convicted him in 2007 of .
Because of prior felony convictions, he was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. Subsequent appeals failed.
However, he has now been freed following a reinvestigation by his Conviction Review Unit (CRU).
It came after a friend and private investigators helped Windley establish the two suspects’ identities.
Those two men then shared information about the offense, according to the D.A.’s report.
They attested that Windley wasn’t involved.
The CRU discovered that both had extensive criminal histories, and were convicted of committing seven robberies together from April 4, 2005 – three days after Ross’s robbery – until February 1, 2026.
“The robbery pattern took place in the same neighborhood, using the same modus operandi of following elderly men from banks to their homes, then robbing them,” said Gonzalez.
Kenneth Windley told reporters he just wanted to ‘move on’ with his lifeCredit: AP
He said that both men confirmed Windley’s version of events in interviews.
“Their accounts were corroborated through recorded prison phone calls and in emails that the CRU reviewed,” the DA added.
“If the jury had known about the other, similar robbery pattern for which two other men were charged, there is a reasonable probability the jury would have credited Windley’s explanation and rejected the one-witness identification case before it.”
Because the victim has since died and the case can’t be retried as the legal time frame for bringing charges ran out years ago, the indictment has been dismissed.
“It has taken many years, but today we are able to validate his account, release him from prison and exonerate his name,” Gonzalez said.
“We intend to continue leading the way by overturning any miscarriage of justice we discover in Brooklyn.”
The CRU’s reinvestigations have resulted in 42 convictions being vacated since 2014.
Finally free: Kenneth Windley was pictured leaving a courthouse with his mom, Francina Windley Patterson, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on MondayCredit: AP
Eze Chidiebere Paul
I'm dedicated to creating high-quality content that informs, inspires, and delights. If you have any questions or suggestions, don't hesitate to get in touch. Happy reading!
