DA To Free Man Who Spent 16 Yrs In Jail For Strip Club Murder

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — A man who has been in prison for 18 years in connection with a murder outside a Sunset Park strip club may get released from jail soon, the district attorney's office announced Friday.

Bladimil Arroyo, 39, was convicted in 2002 for killing Gabor Muronvi, who died after a botched robbery when he was walking with a friend outside of Sweet Cherry strip club in Sunset Park. But prosecutors began the process Friday to vacate the conviction after their Conviction Review Unit found that Arroyo's trial had been unfair.

The only direct evidence against Arroyo for the second-degree murder conviction had been his confession that he stabbed Muronvi, even though police later found out that Muronvi died of a gunshot wound. Detectives also failed to hand over notes that could have helped the defense team, prosecutors said.

“While we cannot say that Mr. Arroyo was not involved in this crime, a thorough investigation by my Conviction Review Unit has concluded that he was deprived of a fair trial, and this undermines our confidence in his conviction," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. "Confirmation bias and nondisclosure of certain police documents led to this outcome and I am confident that policy changes that have been made over the ensuing years and additional recommendations by the CRU will ensure that these mistakes are not repeated."

Arroyo was first taken into custody shortly after Muronvi's murder on September 16, 2001 after police followed a car that left the crime scene. They found Arroyo and his co-defendent, who had been injured during the confrontation with the Muronvi and his friend.

At the time, a doctor had informed police that the victim died from a stab wound to the heart.

Later that day, Arroyo confessed to trying to rob the two men and to stabbing the victim “in the upper chest” during a struggle. He was charged that afternoon.

But, the day after his confession, the Medical Examiner reported that the autopsy showed Muronvi's cause of death was actually a single gunshot wound to his chest and that he had not been stabbed.

Arroyo's confession about the stabbing, though, was used at trial anyway. The district attorney's office said the prosecutor suggested to the jury that the defendant confessed to using a knife in an attempt to minimize his culpability in the fatal shooting.

The victim’s friend, who survived the attack and initially told police there were three assailants, testified that there were only two. He did not identify Arroyo at trial. The co-defendant pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Arroyo was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. He has been serving time since 2002.

"The investigation by the CRU revealed that police accounts concerning Arroyo’s confession – which was false in regard to the murder weapon – were incomplete at best and misleading at worst because they did not explain how Arroyo came to describe erroneous facts that police believed to be true at the time," the report said, adding that the stabbing detail was likely given to Arroyo by police.

The reviewers also found that several detective notes were not turned over to the defense, including that the surviving victim identified someone else as the possible attacker. In other notes not turned over, the detective described three people in the car that left, not two, and included a description of the passenger that did not match Arroyo.

The detectives also disclosed information about the surviving victim's past convictions only after he had false testified about it, prosecutors said.

"These documents would have helped the defense argue against the prosecution’s theory that only two attackers were involved in the crime, a theory that validated the defendant’s confession," the report said.

The CRU also found that because the crime happened a few days after the September 11 terrorist attacks, usual processes of obtaining police reports were disrupted and documents were received late and piecemeal. The reviewers couldn't make out when, if at all, the non-disclosed items were received.

The conviction review team issued a series of recommendations to ensure the wrongful conviction is not repeated.

The case is one of 25 convictions that have been vacated by the unit. The team has also found that of the cases reviewed thus far, 60 convictions are just and not recommended for vacatur. About 100 cases are pending review, prosecutors said.