Renay Lynch

The Crime

On May 19, 1995, the body of 82-year-old Louise Cicelsky was found in her home in the Eggertsville neighborhood of Amherst, New York. She had been stabbed in the neck and had been beaten.

Police were called after a relative came to check on Ms. Cicelsky because she had not answered phone calls and failed to come to a bar mitzvah in Albany. 

Officers found three purses and her wig next to her body. In a spare bedroom, a white dresser had a bloody fingerprint on one of the drawers and on a white purse. There were blood stains inside the purse flap and the purse. Police recovered nearly $1,700 in cash as well as credit cards in the home.

The Investigation

Ms. Cicelsky, who was less than 5 feet tall, was well-known as a feisty widow who owned and managed several rental properties and collected rents in cash. 

Nearly 50 items of evidence were collected and sent to the Erie County Department of Central Police Services Forensic Laboratory. Thirteen items were submitted for DNA testing. None of the blood spatter or the fingernail scrapings were tested.

According to the autopsy, Ms. Cicelsky had been dead for at least 12 hours prior to her discovery. 

The last evidence of her being alive was May 17, two days before her body was found. 

Calls to her home on May 18 went unanswered. A plumber arrived shortly after 10 a.m. to collect a payment. Both of Ms. Cicelsky’s cars were in the driveway, but she did not come to the door. At about 4 p.m., a contractor arrived for a previously scheduled appointment. When Ms. Cicelsky did not answer his knocks, he slid his estimate under the door.

Officers learned that Ms. Cicelsky had problems with multiple tenants over late payments and building maintenance. Among those investigated was a man whom Ms. Cicelsky had sold a property to and she had started proceedings against when he failed to make payment. Police also investigated a tenant who had been convicted of manslaughter and gave inconsistent statements about when he had last seen Ms. Cicelsky, including that he talked to her on May 18.

Other tenants said the man and Ms. Cicelsky had clashed numerous times in the past over late rent payments.

On the day Ms. Cicelsky’s body was found, 39-year-old Renay Lynch, who was one of Ms. Cicelsky’s tenants, called Ms. Cicelsky to find out what was going on. When a police officer answered the phone, Ms. Lynch falsely identified herself as Ms. Cicelsky’s niece, but gave her correct address. Police later said they didn’t believe the caller was Ms. Cicelsky’s niece. When police came to her address, Ms. Lynch told them that her sister had ridden by Ms. Cicelsky’s home in a taxi and saw police there, so she was concerned. Police confirmed that account with her sister and with the cab company. 

At the time, Ms. Lynch been renting from Ms. Cicelsky since December 1994 and Ms. Lynch thought they were “close.” They had shared a meal on one occasion. Ms. Lynch said she had last seen Ms. Cicelsky on April 25 when she paid her rent. Detective Joseph LaCorte told Ms. Lynch she was not a suspect, but that he felt as if someone in her circle of friends was involved.

Not long after, police began to suspect that a man named Kareem Walker was involved in the crime. Mr. Walker was an acquaintance of Ms. Lynch with whom she had once been romantically involved. Detectives LaCorte and Raymond Klimczak turned to Ms. Lynch for information on Mr. Walker. 

On May 24, 1995, they picked up Ms. Lynch and drove her around until she pointed out Mr. Walker’s white Cadillac. She told police he was capable of murder. She said that he had previously driven Ms. Lynch when she visited Ms. Cicelsky to pay rent.

On Oct. 15, 1996, nearly 18 months after the murder, Detectives LaCorte and Klimczak went to Buffalo City Court where Ms. Lynch was appearing on unrelated charges. Her case was continued, and the detectives later met with a prosecutor in the Erie County District Attorney’s office to try to work out a deal for Ms. Lynch in exchange for her cooperation in the murder case.

According to Detective LaCorte, when he and Detective Klimczak went back to court on October 22, 1996, for Ms. Lynch’s sentencing, she approached him unprompted prior to sentencing and said she had learned information about the murder. Ms. Lynch later testified that the detectives had approached her and told her it would be “smart” of her to start giving information. The detectives said she told them that a woman who was dating Mr. Walker’s cousin heard that Mr. Walker was the attacker. 

On Oct. 25, 1996, Ms. Lynch met with the detectives and a prosecutor. She now said that she had heard that Mr. Walker committed the crime with his cousin. She said that Mr. Walker drove her to pay her rent on May 10, 1995, and that about four or five days later, she and Mr. Walker got into an argument when Ms. Lynch refused to give him any money.

On Oct. 29, 1996, Ms. Lynch was released on an appeal bond. The detectives took her to the police station where she was fitted with a wire. Ms. Lynch then went to several locations to try to gather information on Mr. Walker. This was unsuccessful and they learned that Mr. Walker had gone to Florida.

On Nov.  6, 1996, the police brought Ms. Lynch to the police station. At that time, she signed a statement in which she said Mr. Walker had admitted to her that he killed Ms. Cicelsky. 

On Nov. 25, 1996, the detectives arrested Ms. Lynch for theft in Williamsville, New York, and Detective LaCorte threatened to charge her. The detective would later testify that prompted Ms. Lynch to tell “the truth.” Now, according to the detectives, Ms. Lynch said she was present when Ms. Cicelsky was killed. 

According to Detective LaCorte, Ms. Lynch said that the day before the crime, Mr. Walker suggested that robbing Ms. Cicelsky. The plan was for Ms. Lynch to go to her rent and Mr. Walker would come through the back door and rob Ms. Cicelsky. Instead, Mr. Walker hit Ms. Cicelsky twice and knocked her to the floor. Mr. Walker went into her bedroom and returned with money in his hand. Detective LaCorte said Ms. Lynch described binding Ms. Cicelsky with duct tape — although this was not in the written statement. Detective LaCorte said Ms. Lynch said that Mr. Walker stabbed Ms. Cicelsky in the back of the neck with a black handled dagger that was about five or six inches long. 

Ms. Lynch was indicted on charges of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery on June 13, 1997.

The Trial

In February 1998, Ms. Lynch went to trial in Erie County Supreme Court. There was no physical or forensic evidence connecting her to the crime. Amherst Police Captain Michael Melton testified that only two latent palm prints found in the hallway of the multi-family building were suitable for comparison and that the sources of those palm prints were of a plumber and another tenant of Ms. Cicelsky. Captain Melton said none of the other prints found at the scene were suitable for comparison.

The confession was the cornerstone of the prosecution’s case. Although Mr. Walker was never arrested or charged, the prosecution contended that Ms. Lynch had helped him commit the crime.

Detective LaCorte testified about Ms. Lynch’s confession.

A jailhouse informant testified that while she was in jail with Ms. Lynch, Ms. Lynch had admitted taking part in the crime. That same week, the informant had also testified for the prosecution in an unrelated murder trial that the defendant in that case had confessed to her as well.

Ms. Lynch testified and denied that she was involved in the crime. She said the confession was false, that it was the result of coercion by the detectives, and that it was based on information the detectives fed her during questioning.

She said that Detective LaCorte had threatened her with seven years of jail time for theft, but promised that she would not be arrested if she helped get it back. When she did, Detective LaCorte broke his promise and told her that they knew Mr. Walker committed the crime. He told her that her Nov. 6 statement – in which she placed Mr. Walker but not herself at the scene of the crime – would not be enough to arrest him. Ms. Lynch asserted that the detectives told her that they “needed [her] to be there at the murder.” 

She testified that Detective LaCorte then fed her information; showed her photographs of the crime scene; threatened her with perjury and another 10 to 14-year sentence; banged on the table; and asked leading questions. 

Ms. Lynch testified that, although she knew nothing about the murder, she felt pressured to make up a story because she feared going back to jail for the theft, and she believed that giving the detectives what they wanted would keep her out. Ms. Lynch testified that at the time of the interrogation she was heavily addicted to crack and she was concerned about getting her next fix.

She said that what the detectives didn’t feed her, she knew from following news accounts of the crime.

Her statement was at odds with the facts. She said the motive was robbery, but $1,700 in cash had been recovered from Ms. Cicelsky’s kitchen. She said the crime occurred between 6 and 7 p.m. on May 18, 1995, though there was no evidence that Ms. Cicelsky had been active since the night before. There was no evidence that duct tape had been used or that the weapon was a dagger. The medical examiner said the wounds could have been caused by “any sharp pointed” weapon.

On Feb. 18, 1998, the jury convicted Ms. Lynch of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery. She was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Her convictions and sentence were upheld on appeal.

The Exoneration

By 2017, the Innocence Project and the law firm of Byrialsen & Fisher were representing Ms. Lynch. Matt Marvin, a certified latent print examiner from Ron Smith & Associates, reviewed 14 digital images of fingerprints that had been obtained through a public records request. Mr. Marvin concluded there were seven prints suitable for comparison. 

In May 2018, Erie County Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller, over the objections of Erie County District Attorney John Flynn Jr., granted a request for DNA testing that had been filed by Innocence Project attorney Susan Friedman and attorney Jane Fisher-Byrialsen. A bloody fingerprint found on the dresser was to be checked against state and federal fingerprint databases.

Ultimately, the testing found nothing to link Ms. Lynch to the crime. All of the female DNA belonged to Ms. Cicelsky. There were DNA profiles from two unknown male individuals found on a glove box.

In 2020, Mr. Marvin reviewed evidence at the police department and determined that there were 14 prints suitable for comparison. Four of these prints were found in Ms. Cicelsky’s home in what Ms. Lynch’s lawyers said were locations “highly” indicative that they were left by the killer. There were prints found on the door jamb leading to the hallway to the guest bedroom where the bloodstains were found on the purse and dresser.

As part of the re-investigation that was also being conducted by the Erie County District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), the Amherst police revealed records showing that at the time of the crime, five prints had been compared to possible suspects. This contradicted Captain Melton’s trial testimony that only two prints were suitable for comparison. 

On Jan. 27, 2022, Ms. Lynch was released from prison on parole. 

In November 2023, Ms. Friedman and Ms. Fisher-Byrialsen filed a motion to vacate Ms. Lynch’s convictions. The motion noted that the tenant of Ms. Cicelsky who had a prior conviction for manslaughter was the source of nine of the fingerprints. The motion noted that prior to Lynch’s trial, Amherst police had compared the prints of Ms. Walker and Ms. Lynch to the crime-scene prints, and both had been excluded. That information had not been disclosed to the defense. 

By that time, the jailhouse informant, who had recanted her testimony to Ms. Lynch in 2005 and to post-conviction counsel in 2017, had died. In her initial recantation, the informant said she used information she obtained from media accounts to come up with her false testimony. She said she was young, addicted to drugs, and saw an opportunity to get out of jail.

On Dec. 11, 2023, Justice Boller, noting that District Attorney Flynn did not object, granted the motion for a new trial. On Jan. 3, 2024, Justice Boller granted the prosecution’s motion to dismiss the case.