Judge vacates Brooklyn man’s murder conviction after he spent 16 years incarcerated

A Brooklyn man had his conviction overturned on Friday after he spent 16 years in jail and prison for a murder he maintained he didn’t commit, according to prosecutors who determined that the justice system had failed in the case.

Arvel Marshall, who is now 52, was arrested for the 2008 shooting death of 22-year-old Moustapha Oumaria in Crown Heights. But prosecutors who reviewed the case said critical surveillance video wasn’t turned over to Marshall’s lawyer, who they said “abdicated his role as an advocate” while the judge failed to be a “neutral arbiter.”

Prosecutors later received an anonymous tip that Oumaria was killed because he was mistaken for someone else in a drug turf war, according to the Brooklyn district attorney’s office. Marshall appealed his conviction at one point, but his appeal was denied.

“Everyone involved in this case — defense, prosecution, police, and the Court — failed, depriving Mr. Marshall of a fair trial,” Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez said in a statement on Friday. He added that Marshall’s case was a “prime example” of systematic failures in the justice system.

The case is one of 39 that Gonzalez’s Conviction Review Unit has gotten overturned since 2014, with another roughly 60 still pending. In 2022, his office sought to vacate 378 convictions where the verdict relied on testimony of police officers deemed unreliable.

On Thursday, 46 people had their convictions cleared, after Queens DA Melinda Katz said an NYPD detective in the cases admitted last year to lying in court.

In Marshall’s case, prosecutors’ conviction review report said police never turned over surveillance footage that may have identified another possible shooter. The report also said law enforcement may not have even watched the whole video.

Marshall, who was 36 at the time of Oumaria’s murder, requested the video repeatedly, to no avail. According to the DA’s report, after the verdict was read Marshall yelled that he had not killed Oumaria and had “pictures to prove it,” while he struggled with court officers.

During Marshall’s court testimony, the DA’s report said, the judge belittled him and told him to shut up. Gonzalez’s office also faulted prosecutors for not watching the video supplied by police.

Marshall’s original lawyer, Alan Stutman, didn’t ask to see the video, despite Marshall’s insistence that he do so, according to the conviction review report. Stutman also did not prepare Marshall to testify and did not question him, the review found.

In a phone interview on Friday, Stutman said he had no recollection of the trial, except that Oumaria was shot between the eyes. He said he couldn’t recall any conversations with Marshall, or what he looked like.

“Good for him, that’s all I can say,” said Stutman. “I don't know him. I don't recall him. I don't recall the facts of the case.”

Stutman said he was a court-appointed private lawyer paid by the court at an hourly rate to defend Marshall.

“Good luck to Arvel Marshall, you know, in his life,” he said.

Samantha Max contributed reporting.