By Yaffi Spodek
It was 10:00 a.m., the trial was scheduled to begin and the defendant was nowhere to be found. “That’s never a good sign, if you lost the defendant,” one of the court officers quipped.
Finally, at 10:30, the officers got word that the defendant was en route, by bus, from Riker’s Island. A few minutes later, he was brought into the Jay Street courtroom, his handcuffs removed, and the proceedings could begin.
Shamduh Wilson, a young man in his 20s, was being charged with two offenses: conspiracy in the second degree, as well as solicitation.
In March of 2007, Wilson was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 38 years in prison for fatally shooting a man in a bodega on Pitkin Avenue. Kenneth Frasier, an innocent bystander, was struck by a bullet that had traveled through the shoulder of the intended victim, Andre Wheatley, who had allegedly attacked Wilson’s girlfriend.
Now, more than three years later, Wilson was once again on trial. In a white buttoned down shirt and green slacks, he sat quietly beside his attorney, Michael Sheinberg, the soles of his white Converse sneakers tapping nervously on the floor.
Two days earlier, the jury had heard testimony and an audio recording of a conversation in jail between Wilson, a confidential informant planted by the police, and an undercover cop. Wilson was allegedly making plans to have Wheatley killed, to prevent him from testifying in court. “He’s a snitch and that’s a no-no,” Wilson was overheard saying.
With all the testimony finished, Sheinberg began his summation. He tried to convince the jury that the evidence brought against Wilson was “vague,” and reminded them that they needed to be certain that his client has been conspiring to actually kill Wheatley, and not just scare him or deter him from testifying in any other way. He also urged the jurors to remember to not be influenced by the fact that there was a murder case.
Next, the prosecutor, Melissa Carvajal, made her case. She relied heavily on the conversation overheard in the recording, explaining that the defendant’s intent to kill was clear, and not vague at all. He had formulated a plan, asking the undercover cop to kill Wheatley, in exchange for money he would get from a car scam. To strengthen her point, Carvajal also mentioned Wilson’s prior motivations to kill Wheatley and his original attempt to do so when he shot him at the bodega. “He went with a loaded gun,” she said. “Just because he’s not a good shot, he wanted to kill him then, but he just didn’t finish the job.”
When she was done Sheinberg requested a motion for a mistrial on the grounds that the prosecution had made improper comments about the murder, and noting that close to a dozen of his objections had been sustained. “We’re past the point where the court could repair an impaired judgment by simple instruction,” he said. “The damage has already been done.”
After a short recess, the judge, Guy Mangano, ruled a mistrial on the grounds that Carvajal had brought in outside evidence, spoken too much about the murder, made inflammatory statements, and vouched for the testimony of the confidential informant. “You got greedy and you went too far,” Mangano told Carvajal. “The cumulative effect was prejudiced.”
Carvajal was livid over the judge’s decision, saying she was just responding to Sheinberg’s summation.
Even Sheinberg was surprised by the judge’s conclusion. “It’s rare that there is a mistrial and I didn’t expect the judge to grant it,” he told the Ink later.
Mangano thanked the jurors, telling them that their service was no longer needed, and apologizing that they didn’t have the chance to experience the full deliberation process. After dismissing the jury, Mangano addressed the two lawyers. They agreed to reconvene on Friday, May 7. “If they really want to go after my client again, we have to start from the beginning and have another trial,” Sheinberg said. “They can decide whether or not to go forward.”
Then, Mangano unceremoniously left the room, leaving the two lawyers behind to gather their papers and thoughts.
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