Jabar Walker

The Crime

At about 10 p.m. on May 28, 1995, 32-year-old William Santana Guzman and 30-year-old Ismael De La Cruz were having something to eat while sitting in a parked car on 148th Street near Broadway in upper Manhattan. According to witnesses, a man walked up to the car and began shooting. Mr. Guzman and Mr. De La Cruz both died of their wounds.

The Investigation

Officers from the New York Police Department’s 30th Precinct investigated the shooting. Carlos Jimenez told officers that he saw the shooting while playing dominoes and that the shooter ran into the basement of a five-story apartment building at 560 West 148th Street. Several tipsters said the gunman was someone called “Black.”

The police pulled all arrest records related to that building. The next day, reportedly acting on a Crime Stoppers tip, they entered Apartment 2A. Jabar Walker, who was 20 years old, left as the police arrived. Inside the apartment, police arrested John Mobley and Robert Locust, who were cousins, but their charges were later dismissed.

At the time of the murders, the Hamilton Heights neighborhood was riddled with drug dealers and corrupt police officers. A year earlier, the scandal involving the “Dirty 30,” as the precinct was known, had exploded and ultimately would result in the conviction of 30 officers and dismissals of nearly 100 wrongful convictions.

On May 19, 1997, Detective Elpidio De Leon was trying to close out an unrelated murder investigation from October 1994 in which a man had been fatally shot in a different apartment building on 148th Street. At the time of the crime, Vanessa Vigo said she had seen that shooting and identified a potential suspect. But the murder was still unsolved when Detective De Leon asked Ms. Vigo to again look at photos. At the precinct, she was said to have identified the shooter in that case. 

Detective De Leon then asked Ms. Vigo if she knew anything about the murders of Mr. Guzman and Mr. De La Cruz. The detective reported, “Ms. Vigo said that she saw it happen and that she knew the person who did the shooting.” 

Two weeks later, Detective De Leon and Detective Gerard Dimuro said that Ms. Vigo identified the gunman as Mr. Walker. The detectives said they showed Ms. Vigo two Polaroid photos of Mr. Walker, which they happened to have with them.

At the precinct the next day, Ms. Vigo told the police that she saw the shooting from her apartment window. Ms. Vigo said she had known Mr. Walker from the neighborhood for many years. She also said in the statement that Mr. Walker went by the street names “Black” and “Snoop.” 

On June 19, 1997, Detective De Leon and Detective Dimuro interviewed Mr. Walker. He said that at the time of the murder, he was at his mother’s home in Queens. He said he learned of the shooting the following day, when a friend, Ismail Khabir, brought him back to Manhattan. The police later interviewed Mr. Walker’s mother, but not Mr. Khabir. Detective Dimuro said in his report that Mr. Walker acknowledged that he went by the nicknames “Black” and “Snoop.”

On July 10, 1997, Mr. Walker was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of second-degree murder. Ms. Vigo had initially told police that the shooter fired from the driver’s side of the car. But that was inconsistent with a bullet hole in the windshield. And she had said she could not recall the color of the car. During her grand jury appearance, Ms. Vigo said that the shooter was on the passenger side and that the car was red.

The Trial

Mr. Walker’s trial was initially set for Feb. 9, 1998, but was pushed back two weeks. On February 19, the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Helen Sturm met with Sergio Nolasco, Ms. Vigo’s brother, and entered into an agreement with him. At the time, Mr. Nolasco was facing drug charges in federal court. 

Separately, beginning on Jan. 28, 1998, Mr. De Leon and Mr. Dimuro began meeting with Mr. Mobley, who at the time was in a New Jersey jail facing several years in prison. As a result, Mr. Mobley agreed to testify against Mr. Walker.

On Feb. 23, 1998, the day before the trial began, the State offered a deal to plead guilty to two counts of manslaughter with two consecutive sentences of nine to 18 years. Mr. Walker refused to plead guilty.

Mr. Walker’s principal attorney was Thaniel Beinert. This was his first criminal trial. Mr. Beinert had an arrangement with two more experienced attorneys, Vincent Scala and Carl Spector, where Mr. Beinert would try to dispose of cases through pleas, and failing that, the attorneys would assist him at trial.

Just before trial, a new witness known in court records as “Santiago” emerged. Mr. Santiago had looked at a photo array that included Mr. Walker but said another man in the array looked more like the shooter. The State offered to make him available to the defense, but neither Mr. Beinert nor his colleagues interviewed Mr. Santiago. Instead, the defense agreed to a stipulation drafted by the State that summarized Mr. Santiago’s interview with police.

Detective De Leon had written in a report that the murders were most likely a drug-related hit, but when the trial commenced, the prosecution argued that Mr. Walker had killed Mr. Guzman and Mr. De La Cruz at the behest of a man named Felipe Garcia in retaliation because Mr. De La Cruz had beaten up Mr. Garcia.

Mr. Mobley testified that a few weeks before the shooting, Mr. Walker had shown him a gun that he needed to “take care of some business.” Mr. Mobley said that Mr. Walker told him that Mr. Garcia wanted Mr. Walker to kill somebody based on a previous altercation. 

Mr. Mobley also testified that he ran into Mr. Walker the day after the murders, and Mr. Walker told him he had shot the men. Mr. Mobley also said that a few weeks after the murders, he and Mr. Walker ran into Mr. Garcia in the neighborhood, and he overheard Mr. Garcia tell Mr. Walker, “Good job.”

Ms. Vigo testified that prior to the shooting, she saw Mr. Walker and his girlfriend on 148th Street. Ms. Vigo said that not long after, Mr. Guzman and Mr. De La Cruz pulled up, parked, and were eating in the car. Ms. Vigo said she saw Mr. Walker pull out a gun and shoot three times into the car from the passenger side. She said Mr. Walker then ran east toward Amsterdam Avenue. 

Ms. Vigo said that even though Mr. Walker was wearing a hoodie, she could see his braids, eyebrows, and forehead. Shortly after the shooting, Ms. Vigo said, she went to her mother-in-law’s apartment two blocks away and her mother-in-law called 911. Ms. Vigo said she didn’t speak to the police about what she saw for two years because she was scared.

Mr. Walker’s attorneys requested information about any deals with Ms. Vigo or her brother. Justice Edwin Torres asked Assistant District Attorney Sturm what she knew. Assistant District Attorney Sturm said there was no cooperation agreement based on Ms. Vigo’s assistance. The defense asked if Mr. Nolasco’s case was still open. 

Assistant District Attorney Sturm said, “I have nothing to do with her brother. It’s my understanding he is being prosecuted federally.” 

Juan De La Cruz, Ismael’s brother, testified that he knew Mr. Garcia and that a month before the shooting, he saw Ismael beat up Mr. Garcia on Amsterdam Avenue. Mr. Walker’s defense tried to ask whether Ismael was a drug dealer. Ms. Sturm objected, and Justice Torres sustained the objection. Juan said his brother earned a living from a bodega he owned. Juan also testified that he had no criminal convictions and his only arrest was for a case that had been dismissed.

Mr. Garcia was never charged. 

Detective De Leon testified that he tried to speak with Mr. Garcia at Rikers Island, where he was being held on an unrelated charge, but Mr. Garcia refused to engage, and that part of the investigation came to a halt. Mr. Mobley had testified that he met with Detective De Leon and others about five times, but Detective De Leon kept no records of those meetings. Detective De Leon testified that nothing required him to prepare a report. 

Mr.  Jimenez had returned from the Dominican Republic to testify. He said that he had no idea it was Mr. Walker’s trial until he came to court. Mr. Jimenez testified he heard four shots and a person ran by. He said he did not see his face.

Mr. Jimenez was 6 feet 1 inch tall. He said the gunman was a little bit taller than him, but Mr. Walker was shorter than Mr. Jimenez. Neither the prosecution nor the defense asked Mr. Jimenez if Mr. Walker was the gunman. 

Mr. Walker’s defense stipulated that Mr. Mobley had a previous felony conviction and then rested without presenting or calling any witnesses. During his closing argument, Mr. Scala referred to Mr. Beinert as an “inexperienced lawyer who used to work in [their] office during law school.”

In her closing argument, Ms. Sturm told jurors that Ms. Vigo had received “no consideration in connection with her testimony.”

On March 5, 1998, the jury convicted Mr. Walker of two counts of second-degree murder. 

Justice Torres imposed the maximum sentence, as requested by the prosecution, of two consecutive sentences of 25 years to life.

Mr. Walker convictions were affirmed in January 2001.

The Exoneration

By then, Mr. Mobley had recanted his testimony. In a 1999 notarized letter, Mr. Mobley said he falsely testified when he said Mr. Walker said he was going to kill someone. His testimony that he heard Mr. Garcia compliment Mr. Walker on a job well done also was false, he said. 

Mr. Walker filed a motion for a new trial based on actual innocence in 2019, and subsequently added an affidavit containing a more detailed account of Mr. Mobley’s recantation. In the affidavit, Mr. Mobley said detectives from the 30th Precinct implied that if Mr. Mobley didn’t cooperate, he would be charged with murder. Mr. Mobley said he told the officers what they wanted to hear because he had “no choice.”

In 2022, Innocence Project’s Director of Special Litigation Vanessa Potkin contacted the Post-Conviction Justice Unit of the New York County District Attorney’s Office, and the two sides worked collaboratively to reinvestigate the case.

The review found numerous problems. The State had failed to disclose that Ms. Vigo had received housing benefits and that Mr. Jimenez had told investigators that Mr. Walker was not the person he saw shoot Mr. Guzman and Mr. De La Cruz. The defense also wasn’t told that in the murder case that first put Ms. Vigo in contact with the detectives, her identification of the suspect turned out to be wrong  —  the man she had implicated turned out to be out of state at the time of the crime.

The investigation also uncovered problems with Ms. Vigo’s testimony. She falsely testified that her mother-in-law called 911 and that she did not receive any benefits in exchange for her testimony. 

In interviews with the post-conviction review team, Ms. Vigo now said that Mr. Walker wore a mask made of pantyhose, but she knew it was him because of his thick braids. This fact wasn’t in any police report.

The post-conviction review team interviewed Juan De La Cruz in July 2023. He said his testimony had been misleading. While his brother did derive some income from the bodega, he also sold drugs, and the friction between Ismael and Felipe Garcia was based on the two men competing for customers along Amsterdam Avenue. Separately, Juan De La Cruz said he had testified falsely about his police record. At the time of the trial, he had an open arrest warrant.

The review also found evidence that that the police fabricated evidence to connect Mr. Walker to the murders, including Mr. Walker’s statement that he used the nickname “Black.” His family and acquaintances were unequivocal that he went by either “Jab” or “Bar.” There was also evidence that the police falsified a report from May 5, 1996. 

In addition, the review found new evidence suggesting Mr. Walker’s innocence and corroborating his account of his whereabouts at the time of the shooting. Throughout 1996, the police had received several tips about the shooting, linking the murders to a man named “Black,” and suggesting that the man was still around. 

But by 1996, Mr. Walker was living in Atlanta, living with his aunt and her family while he worked cleaning airplanes and he had the records to prove it.

In addition, Mr. Khabir told the post-conviction review team that he brought Mr. Walker back to Manhattan on May 29, 1995, and when they arrived in the neighborhood, people were talking about the double murder.

On Nov. 27, 2023, the district attorney’s office consented to Mr. Walker’s motion for a new trial and asked a judge to dismiss his case. The state filing said that Mr. Mobley’s recantation was credible, “leaves no evidence of motive and renders the case a one eyewitness case with no supporting forensic evidence linking [Mr. Walker] to the crime.”

The filing said the State no longer had confidence in Ms. Vigo’s account of the crime, which had shifted over the years. 

That same day, Justice Miriam Best of the New York County Supreme Court vacated Mr. Walker’s convictions and dismissed the case. Mr. Walker was released nearly 26 years after his conviction.