DNA Evidence To Free Man After 17 Years In Prison

BALTIMORE, MD – A man convicted nearly 20 years ago in the fatal stabbing of a teen will be exonerated based on DNA evidence, Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby said Wednesday afternoon.

Malcolm Bryant, 41, has been incarcerated since December 1998, court records show.

He was sentenced to life in prison in 1999 for the murder of 16-year-old Toni Bullock, who was walking with a friend on Nov. 20, 1998, when she was fatally stabbed in the abdomen on Harford Road at East Preston Street by a man who had demanded money from them and tried to drag them to a secluded area, Mosby said.

Bullock's friend provided eyewitness testimony that led a jury to convict Bryant, whom she picked as the suspect out of a photo array, according to Mosby.

"It was an observation that was made for three or four seconds, in rainy nighttime conditions and under the strain of being attacked," Mosby said.

"Despite the defendant's statements, negative DNA at the scene of the crime and alibi witnesses that were presented to the jury," she said Bryant was sentenced to life plus 10 years in prison for felony murder, second-degree murder and carrying a deadly weapon.

He has maintained his innocence ever since the conviction in August 1999, enlisting the assistance of the Innocence Project, a nonprofit that works to exonerate those it says are wrongfully convicted. Through DNA evidence, it reports that it has helped free more than 300 individuals from wrongful incarceration.

Due to forensic advancements, the court in 2011 ordered Bullock's nail clippings to undergo DNA testing, which revealed a partial DNA profile with a rare identifier that did not match Bryant's; then the victim's t-shirt was sent for testing, which provided a full DNA profile that also did not match Bryant's, according to Mosby.

"This information was the catalyst for our reopening of the case," Mosby said. "...the only plausible explanation...is that the DNA is in fact that of the killer, and the DNA does not match that of Malcolm Bryant, which means in all probability he is not the killer."

She said for those reasons, her team was dismissing the case.

"My heart breaks for many reasons," Mosby said. Reopening the case put stress on Bullock's family and also took 17 years of a man's life.

"On behalf of the criminal justice system, I would like to apologize..." she said to Bryant, who would be freed this week from prison, possibly in the next few days.

Who Killed Toni Bullock?

Since the murder case is now an "open and pending investigation," Mosby said she could not comment on details, but said her office was "actively pursuing" the matter.

"There's no statute of limitation on murder," Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said at a press conference with the state's attorney Wednesday. "We're going to take a good hard look at it and see what we can do..."

In addition to DNA testing improvements, Davis said that investigative measures have also evolved since the time the case went to trial in the late 1990s.

"Witness identifications are done differently now," Davis said.

Photo displays are "double-blind," he said, so the detective does not know who the suspect is and neither does the witness. He said the photos are shown one at a time instead of in batches. "We don't want to discount them," Davis said of witnesses. "We want to make sure that their information is credible."