Judge overturns murder conviction of Philadelphia man after jail calls suggest he may have been framed
Prosecutors must now decide if they’ll seek to retry Tyree Musier for a 2008 homicide.
A judge on Friday overturned the murder conviction of a North Philadelphia man after prosecutors unearthed jail calls that suggest that a key witness was paid to lie and frame him 17 years ago.
Common Pleas Court Judge Jennifer Schultz said Tyree Musier, 39, should be granted a new trial, and that his conviction and life sentence should be vacated because prosecutors violated his constitutional rights by failing to turn over key evidence to his lawyers as required by law.
Musier has been behind bars for nearly two decades after he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in the shooting death of Nathaniel Crawford near the University City Townhomes in 2008.
The ruling was a long-sought victory for Musier and his family, who for years have fought to prove his innocence.
As Schultz announced her ruling, the nearly 25 members of Musier’s family gathered inside the courtroom gasped in relief. The moment, they said, brought both relief and sadness — relief that they were one step closer to bringing him home, but sadness that it took more than 17 years.
“It was overwhelming knowing all the people who knew he was innocent all these years,” said Musier’s older sister, Tania. “Hearing all the things that came to light, while he’s been gone for 17 years.”
Schultz’s decision does not free Musier. The case now will be reviewed by the district attorney’s office, which will determine in the coming weeks whether or not to retry Musier for the crime.
Prosecutors agreed this week that Musier’s conviction should be overturned, but stopped short of saying they believed he was innocent. Schultz, too, did not offer an opinion on whether Musier had committed the crime, but rather said he did not receive a fair trial.
Still, Tania Musier said, Friday’s developments were the closest confirmation yet of what her family said has been an open secret for years on the streets of North and West Philadelphia: Jonte Slater — not Musier — shot Crawford the night of June 22, 2008.
The night of the shooting, Musier, Slater, and a third person were stopped by police fleeing the scene. Officers said they saw someone throw the gun used to kill Crawford out of the window of the getaway car’s passenger side, where Musier was sitting. And inside the console of the car, officers found an extra-large bright green shirt that the shooter had been wearing.
As officers held that shirt up to Musier, two young witnesses identified him as the person who shot Crawford multiple times.
Police charged both men — Musier as the shooter, and Slater as the getaway driver.
But one of those witnesses, Latasha Austin, later said she had actually seen Slater shoot Crawford but was afraid to identify him that night because she lived next door to his mother and feared retribution. And she said earlier this year that Slater’s family paid her about $2,000 to lie at a preliminary hearing and say that Musier killed Crawford, and Slater wasn’t involved.
After her testimony at a preliminary hearing, the charges against Slater were dismissed, and he was released. The case against Musier moved forward.
Then, in November 2009, Slater was shot and killed in a case that remains unsolved.
Austin attempted to recant her testimony before and during Musier’s 2012 trial, saying she saw Slater, not Musier, kill Crawford. But prosecutors — and jurors — did not believe her. Musier was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
But evidence supporting the theory that Slater was involved was recovered earlier this year after prosecutors said they found a collection of tapes with recordings of his jail calls in the bottom of an old filing box. In the calls, Slater spoke of being at the scene of the shooting and hatched a scheme to bribe Austin to say she saw Musier fire the gun.
“A thousand dollars apiece, for whoever the witnesses is,” Slater said in one call, according to court records. “Each one of them.”
He also said the green shirt was his, and described officers mistakenly holding it up to Musier.
But trial prosecutors did not listen to the tapes, and, for reasons that remain unclear, they did not turn them over to Musier’s defense lawyers before his 2012 trial, as required by law. For that reason, the district attorney’s office said this week, Musier’s conviction should be overturned.
Schultz agreed.
“This evidence alone could have resulted in a different verdict,” the judge said of the tapes.
Crawford’s family did not attend Friday’s hearing, and have declined to speak publicly about the new evidence in the case.
Musier’s lawyer, Dan Silverman, welcomed Friday’s decision and said he, Musier, and Musier’s family were grateful to the judge, the DA’s office, and the 12 witnesses who had come forward in recent months to testify to Musier’s innocence.
Still, he said, “This celebration is tainted by the 17 years Mr. Musier never should have had stolen from him and by the misconduct of those who caused that to happen.”
Silverman said the Crawford family, too, had been wronged by a justice system that failed them.
“I hope they take some comfort in starting to understand who really killed their son,” he said.
Over the last year, Silverman had worked to track down a dozen witnesses who said Slater, not Musier, was the killer.
Among them was Jerrica Rogers, the mother of Slater’s child, who said he confessed to her that he killed Crawford and paid Austin to say Musier was the shooter.
Austin, too, testified and said she was paid about $2,000 to lie.
Even Slater’s own father took the witness stand and said he believed his son killed Crawford.
And then prosecutors found the tapes.
After the hearing on Friday, Musier’s family embraced and cried in the hallway. His mother could barely speak. His sisters wrapped her in their arms and prayed that soon their brother would join them.
Musier, who is in a Western Pennsylvania prison six hours away, was not in court to hear the news, but his sisters said they planned to speak with him by phone Friday afternoon and celebrate the decision.
“It’s not over. There’s still a process, but we’re one step closer to bringing him home,” Tania Musier said. “We’re gonna get there, so he can hug my mom outside those walls.”