DNA frees man wrongly convicted of murder
UTICA — After more than 19 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, Steve Barnes has rejoined his family just in time for Thanksgiving.
Barnes walked out of Oneida County Court a free man Tuesday after a judge agreed new DNA evidence cleared him of raping and killing 16-year-old Kimberly Simon in 1985.
“I’m overwhelmed. This is the happiest day of my life,” said Barnes, now 42. “I’ve been waiting for this day for 20 years. I never gave up hope. I knew this day would eventually come.”
Sylvia Bouchard said she learned her son had been cleared when defense attorney Alba Morales called Friday and told her to set another place for Thanksgiving dinner. She said she went out and bought a bigger turkey.
“When you have a loved one in prison . . . there are no special days, no holidays. You go through the motions but you don’t really celebrate,” said Bouchard, who visited her son weekly while he was in prison. “It’s a dream come true. It’s nothing short of a miracle. I knew from day one he was innocent. Now everybody knows my son is innocent.”
Simon’s naked and bruised body was discovered along the Mohawk River in Whitestown in September 1985. More than two years would pass before Barnes was charged with raping and killing Simon, an acquaintance who was a few years behind him at Whitesboro High School.
Witnesses claimed they saw Barnes with Simon near the crime scene. Police said they found an imprint of Simon’s jeans on dirt covering Barnes’ pickup truck. And a jail inmate testified that Barnes had discussed the girl’s death.
Barry Scheck, the co-director of the Innocence Project, said Barnes was sent to prison on circumstantial evidence, not because of any misconduct or negligence by police and prosecutors.
“If this technology had existed in 1985, Steve Barnes would never have even been arrested,” said District Attorney Scott Mc- Namara.
Barnes always maintained his innocence.
This year, the Innocence Project — a national organization that takes up cases of wrongful conviction — convinced the DA’s office to test the DNA a second time after a first test proved inconclusive.
Tuesday’s court proceeding took five minutes, most taken up by McNamara’s explanation that the new DNA testing “definitively excluded” Barnes as a suspect.
McNamara said the Simon family was devastated when he told them about Barnes’ exoneration.
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