Vernon Horn and Marquis Jackson v. City of New Haven, et al.

New Haven, Connecticut, justice went to hell when Vernon Horn and Marquis Jackson were wrongfully convicted of murder and were sentenced to prison.

Personal injury lawyers represented the Plaintiffs who sued the Defendants on a 42 U.S.C. 1983 civil rights violation theory.

Vernon Horn and Marquis Jackson were accused, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to

“On January 24, 1999, at approximately 3:30 a.m., [the petitioner] and [Vernon] Horn, along with Steven Brown, entered the Dixwell Deli on Dixwell Avenue in New Haven, wearing masks and carrying handguns. As Horn entered the deli, he fired five or six shots from a nine millimeter pistol. One bullet struck Caprice Hardy, a customer, and killed him. A second bullet struck Abby Yousif, an owner of the deli, in the shoulder. Brown and [the petitioner] followed Horn into the deli.

“[The petitioner] then went behind the counter and attempted to open the cash register. Horn and Brown went to the deli's back room where they found Vernon Butler, an off-duty employee, and Warren Henderson, a homeless man who helped out around the store. Butler was hit on his head with the butt of a gun, searched for money and taken to the front of the store by Horn to open the cash register. When Butler could not open the register, [the petitioner] took the cash that Yousif had in his pockets. Butler's cellular telephone was also stolen. The telephone was subsequently used the day after the robbery by Marcus Pearson, who had obtained it from Horn.

“During the course of the robbery, two customers, one of whom was Kendall Thompson, entered the deli. Upon entering, each individual was forced to the ground at gunpoint and ordered to turn over whatever money they possessed.

“In the back room, Brown riffled through Henderson's pockets, looking for any money that he may have had. Finding no money on Henderson's person, Brown searched the cigar boxes in the back room to see if there was any cash hidden there. After searching the back room, Brown returned to the front of the deli, where Horn was shouting orders by the door and [the petitioner] was still behind the counter near the cash register. Upon hearing the sound of sirens, [the petitioner], Horn and Brown fled the scene.

“The police processed the crime scene and found latent fingerprints on a cigar box in the back room. The prints matched Brown's fingerprints on file with the Bridgeport police department. When interviewed by the New Haven police, Brown admitted his participation in the January 24, 1999 robbery and identified [the petitioner] and Horn as the other individuals involved. Jackson and Horn were arrested and tried jointly.

The following procedural history is also relevant to our resolution of the present appeal. The petitioner filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus as a self-representedlitigant on July 21, 2005. He subsequently obtained an attorney and filed an amended petition on October 14, 2009. The following counts comprise the amended petition. Count one sets forth a claim of ineffective assistance by the petitioner's trial counsel, Michael Moscowitz. Count two sets forth a claim of trial court errors and omissions that violated the petitioner's constitutional rights to confront witnesses and present a defense. Count three sets forth a claim of violations of the petitioner's constitutional right to due process. Finally, count four sets forth a claim of actual innocence. The respondent, the Commissioner of Correction, filed an amended return on April 6, 2010. The petitioner filed a reply to the amended return on June 3, 2010.

The habeas court scheduled the trial for this matter to begin on January 25, 2011. On that date, both parties appeared before the habeas court, which asked the petitioner about “what purports to be a withdrawal” that it had received “on the eve of trial.” The petitioner stated that he sought to withdraw his amended petition at that time because, inter alia, approximately two weeks before, his motion to consolidate his matter with Horn's habeas matter and his subsequent motion for a continuance had been denied.

Vernon Horn and Marquis Jackson were found guilty of eight of the ten counts and were sentenced to 45 years in prison.

They claimed that the lead detective became convinced that the Plaintiffs were guilty under a theory that perpetrators usually return to the scene of the crime.

Settled for $30.5 million.