Brooklyn Man's Murder Conviction Vacated After 29 Years In Prison

BROOKLYN, NY — A Brooklyn man who spent 29 years in prison will have his murder conviction vacated four years after being paroled for the 1987 shooting, prosecutors announced.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said Friday that his Conviction Review Unit has decided to vacate the conviction of Gerard Domond, who was convicted in 1989 for fatally shooting a man outside a Prospect Lefferts Gardens nightclub.

Investigators with the review unit found out that the only eyewitness in the case had been held in a psychiatric ward before his testimony, a fact that was never disclosed at trial, according to prosectors.

“Vacating Mr. Domond’s conviction highlights the fact that even in cases that are very old and difficult to investigate, our Conviction Review Unit will do all it can to correct miscarriages of justice," Gonzalez said. "This investigation revealed that crucial information about the mental state of the only eyewitness was kept from the jury and from the accused, depriving him of a fair trial. I will not stand by a conviction that was obtained unfairly.”

Domond — who spent 29 years in prison before being paroled in 2016 — had been identified only by a witness known as "FP" who walked into the 77th Precinct three days after the shooting, which killed Patrick Hinkson, prosecutors said.

Hinkson had been dropped off at the hospital by another man who told them Hinkson was killed in the parking lot at Club Love. That witness disappeared before police arrived and was never heard from again, according to prosecutors.

"No crime scene was ever established, and no forensic evidence was found," the DA's Office said.

Instead, the prosecutors case at the time rested on testimony from FP, who described the shooting to cops and said stemmed from an argument over drug money.

FP had open narcotics and robbery cases against him by the time the case went to trial in 1989 and had been incarcerated for several months at Kings County Hospital for what the prosecutors claimed was an AIDS diagnosis, the DA's Office said.

When reviewing documents, the DA's review unit found notes that showed FP had actually been held pre-trial in the Psychiatric Forensic Unit during his stay at Kings County Hospital. Record searches and interviews with practitioners revealed that FP had likely suffered from “a very serious mental health condition,” the DA's Office said.

FP died in 2006.

"...The CRU concluded that the prosecutor should have known of FP’s mental condition and by withholding that information, the defendant was prejudiced and not afforded a fair trial," the DA's Office wrote.

Domond's defense had called several alibi witnesses during the case who claimed that he was in Georgia at the time of the murder, the DA's Office said, though some had failed to identify him in earlier interviews or had provided inconsistent dates for his return.

This is the 29th conviction the CRU has vacated since 2014.