Long Island City man exonerated for 1994 murder he didn’t commit
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Jaythan Kendrick stands with his attorneys outside the Queens Criminal Court building Thursday. Eagle photo by Rachel Vick
By David Brand and Rachel Vick
A Long Island City man imprisoned since 1994 for a fatal stabbing near the Ravenswood Houses walked out of the Queens County Criminal Courthouse a free man Thursday, after a judge overturned his wrongful conviction.
Jaythan Kendrick, an Army veteran and former postal worker, was exonerated after his attorneys from the Innocence Project and Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz’s Conviction Integrity Unit filed a joint motion to vacate his indictment and conviction. It was the second case overturned with the support of the Queens CIU.
“I’m very, very happy today because I never thought this would happen, though I hoped and it wished that it would,” Kendrick told the court during his hearing Thursday. “I knew for the past 25 years I didn’t commit this crime and I kept telling them and I didn't know what they wanted from me.”
Kendrick, dressed in a dark suit, leaned forward as he addressed Judge Joseph Zayas and the audience, including friends and family watching on a livestream of the proceedings.
“No one knows what it’s like to be in prison when you know you’re innocent and you’re behind that wall,” he said. “It’s unreal when you know you’re not supposed to be there … Somebody has to figure out how to stop innocent people from going behind that wall.”
For a quarter century Kendrick maintained his innocence, even testifying in his own defense at trial, where he stood accused of killing Ravenswood resident Josephine Sanchez during a botched purse snatching.
He was arrested because he fit the general description of the killer, as seen by a lone eyewitness — a 10-year-old boy peering from a window more than 100 feet away. A second witness said he saw Kendrick run by with a black purse.
Prosecutors said a black purse later found in Kendrick’s apartment belonged to Sanchez and that a red stain on his white jacket was blood. Kendrick said it was lipstick.
In the ensuing years, the prosecution’s case fell apart.
Forensics testing found that the bag had no trace of Sanchez’s DNA and that the red stain was not blood. The boy later recanted his testimony and said his lineup identification was coerced. Four people signed affidavits undermining the credibility of the second witness.
In 2016, a Queens judge ordered new DNA testing on fingernail clippings taken from Sanchez. The DNA found there belonged to another man.
Zayas said Kendrick’s arrest, prosecution, trial and conviction represented a “grievous micarriage of justice.”
“In your case, the miscarriage of justice is monumental and it took way, way too long to discover and you sir deserve better than that,” Zayas said, directing his statement to Kendrick. “This apology comes decades too late.”
Wrongful conviction attorney Tom Hoffman picked up Kendrick’s case and helped lay the groundwork for exoneration. He turned it over to the Innocence Project and the law firm WilmerHale, which worked pro bono.
Attorney Ross Firsenbaum, a partner at WilmerHale, told the court that Kendrick was a victim of racial profiling and railroading. “Police arrested Jaythan because he was a black man wearing a white coat who was in the right place at the right time,” Firsenbaum said.
“It is shocking to see how easy it to obtain a conviction and send someone to prison for the rest of their lives,” added Innocence Project staff attorney Susan Friedman.
Nevertheless, Queens prosecutors under late DA Richard Brown resisted motions from Kendrick’s attorneys to vacate his conviction.
In January, Katz’s new Conviction Integrity Unit fielded the case and opened an investigation of their own. After considering the more recent evidence and the facts of the investigation, CIU Chief Bryce Benjet and his assistant Alexis Celestin determined that Kendrick was likely not the killer.
“I believe that more probable than not with the new evidence and new witnesses that the verdict would have been more favorable to the defendant,” Katz said at the hearing.
In a statement, she said the case was “a prime example” of why she established the CIU.
Despite the new evidence and judge’s determination, the former prosecutor who tried the case said he still thinks Kendrick was responsible.
“I respectfully disagree with the judge,” said former Executive ADA Jim Quinn. “He was convicted by a jury of murder. I think there was more than sufficient evidence of his guilt and I don’t think it was a miscarriage of justice.”
At a press conference immediately following the exoneration, Kendrick thanked his attorneys and the Queens CIU.
Quinn, he said, is the one who should be behind bars.
