Philly man exonerated last year in murder case surrenders to police in unrelated fatal shooting
Jahmir Harris is expected to be charged with murder in the death of Charles Gossett last month.
A 32-year-old man released from prison last year after a murder conviction was overturned surrendered to police Friday to face charges in an unrelated shooting death of a 50-year-old man last month.
Jahmir Harris turned himself in around 3 p.m., a police spokesperson said, and is expected to be charged with murder in the death of Charles Gossett, who was ambushed outside the Bleu Brook restaurant in Overbrook on Sept. 5.
In March 2021, the District Attorney’s Office successfully sought to have a murder conviction overturned against Harris — even though the judge who approved that admonished them for their handling of the appeal, questioned why they felt confident Harris should be freed, and did not endorse their belief that he was innocent.
Harris had been convicted of the shooting death of Louis Porter outside a Walgreens on Oregon Avenue near 23rd Street in December 2012.
In Gossett’s killing last month, investigators believe Harris drove two shooters to and from the scene, and at one point approached Gossett on foot in the parking lot moments before returning to his car and driving the attackers toward Gossett. Police have not identified either of his suspected coconspirators.
» READ MORE: A Philly man who was exonerated of murder last year is now a suspect in a new murder case
Last year, the District Attorney’s Office said it found that evidence in the 2012 case had been improperly withheld from Harris’ trial lawyers. Harris had been convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Harris’ exoneration last year is one of 29 instances in which District Attorney Larry Krasner’s Conviction Integrity Unit has helped overturn a conviction. Until now, prosecutors say, no one who’s been freed has gone on to face charges in a new killing.