David Shephard

The Crime

At about 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve 1983, a 19-year-old white woman was abducted from the parking lot at the Woodbridge Shopping Mall in Woodbridge, New Jersey. The woman told police that two men, one brandishing a knife, forced her into the backseat of her car and drove to a nearby residential neighborhood where they both raped her. The woman said the attackers dumped her off in Hillside, New Jersey, and stole her car.

The woman was taken to the hospital where a rape kit was taken.

The Investigation

The woman was unable to provide a detailed description of her attackers. She said that one of them referred to the other as “Dave.”

A week later, the police discovered her car, a 1978 Camaro, near a terminal building at Newark International Airport. They found her purse in a trash bin close to where the car was abandoned. No fingerprints were recovered.

The police focused their investigation on people connected to the airport. The administrator in charge of the ground crew arranged to exhibit the crew to the woman, identifying staff members named Dave.

Among them was 21-year-old David L. Shephard, whose responsibilities included directing jets to the arrival and departure gates. Mr. Shephard and his girlfriend were expecting their first child. They planned to marry and possibly buy a house.

On New Year’s Eve, 1983, when Mr. Shephard went to pick up his paycheck, he and other employees had to walk through a specially-assembled tent in a hangar. The woman was watching them from behind a stack of boxes. There were two employees named Dave, and both were pointed out by a supervisor. The woman said that Mr. Shephard was one of the rapists.

Afterward, the police said they wanted to talk to Mr. Shephard about a stolen car. But when he got to the police station, he was arrested on charges of rape, robbery, making terroristic threats, and weapons violations. 

The Trial

In September 1984, Mr. Shephard went to trial in Union County Superior Court. The woman testified that she was certain Mr. Shephard had raped her. She testified that she recognized him by sight and remembered his voice.

The prosecution introduced evidence that serology testing of the rape kit contained antigens and a secretor type that was the same as Mr. Shephard.

Mr. Shephard testified and denied committing the crime. He told the jury that he had been at work on the evening of the rape. Family members told the jury that he had left the house and returned as usual. 

A friend testified that she had a lengthy phone conversation with Mr. Shephard at about 6 p.m. about the time of the abduction. His mother testified that her son was present when she returned home at about 6:45 p.m..

The driver of the bus that Mr. Shephard rode to work testified, but could only say that Mr. Shephard was a regular passenger. He could not remember if Mr. Shephard was on the bus on Christmas Eve. 

The jury convicted Mr. Shephard of all counts. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The Exoneration

Years later, while working in the prison library, Mr. Shephard found an article about DNA testing being used to exonerate wrongfully convicted defendants. 

In 1992, Mr. Shephard’s attorney, assistant public defender Diane E. Carl, filed for access to the evidence for DNA testing. The prosecution agreed to the testing. 

The first round of testing excluded Mr. Shephard as the source of the semen on the vaginal swab, but since there were two perpetrators, he could not be definitively excluded. A second round of testing revealed a second DNA profile, but it could not be analyzed. 

Testing then was conducted upon samples from the woman’s underwear. Two profiles were found and Mr. Shephard was excluded. The woman’s boyfriend was also tested and excluded.

Based on the DNA testing, the defense filed a petition for a new trial. On Apr. 28, 1995, Mr. Shephard was granted a new trial. The prosecution dismissed the charges, and Mr. Shephard was released. He had spent more than 10 years in prison.

In 1997, the New Jersey legislature enacted a statute allowing wrongfully convicted individuals to seek compensation. Mr. Shephard was awarded $250,000 in compensation.