| ALBANY -- A former Marine reservist convicted of fatally stabbing a 20-year-old man two years ago will get a new trial, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.
Kevin Murphy, 28, has been serving a 25 years-to-life sentence at Upstate Correctional Facility in Franklin County for the April 30, 2006, slaying of Joseph Jerome during a street fight on Hudson Avenue.
But he'll get a new chance at a freedom following Thursday's ruling by the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court. It found evidence used to convict Murphy -- specifically a phone call he made to his family while being interviewed by police -- should not have been played, in its entirety, at trial.
On Thursday, the second anniversary of the killing, the midlevel court reversed the second-degree murder conviction and sent the case back for a new trial.
Murphy and Jerome did not know each other when their paths crossed after 1 a.m. the morning of the homicide. Albany County Assistant Chief District Attorney Mark Harris, who prosecuted the case, said in 2006 that Murphy "went after" Jerome after being punched in the mouth.
"But the other kid hadn't punched him," Harris added. "And he had nothing to do with punching him."
Police believed Murphy stabbed Jerome once in the chest outside Murphy's Hudson Avenue home that morning. Jerome had been living in Schenectady.
Murphy agreed to speak to police, but their interrogation stopped once he asked for a lawyer. Murphy then spoke to his father and sister on a police phone, and was told the line was being tape-recorded. The 14-minute conversation was used against him at trial, the Appellate Division noted.
While his request for an attorney did not make the evidence unfit for trial, he had repeatedly invoked his right against self-incrimination, the court said, continuing it was "unable to conclude that there is no reasonable possibility that the evidence regarding defendant's invocation of his rights contributed to his conviction."
In addition, the court noted evidence of Murphy's guilt at the trial was "not overwhelming."
Jerome, the father of a young boy, was killed in an area between the College of Saint Rose and the University of Albany's downtown campus. The neighborhood is home to scores of college students, many of whom frequent the bars on Madison and Washington avenues.
At his sentencing, Murphy told Judge Thomas Breslin he acted in self-defense. "I want you to know that Joseph was not killed in cold blood -- his death was an accident," he said. "I have served my country and when called upon to fight the war on terrorism and free the people of Iraq, I went ... now I'll be forced to live like an animal among animals. I ask you to look at the facts of this case."
His appeal was handled by Mitchell Kessler of Cohoes, who could not be reached Thursday. "The decision speaks for itself," said Heather Orth, a spokeswoman for Albany County District Attorney David Soares. "We'll move forward to prosecuting the case again." | 