A Bronx teen on trial for attempted murder and assault after a 2013 shooting at Bryant Park ice rink was mistakenly identified as the shooter, his lawyer argued on Thursday. Two people were injured in the incident, including a 14-year-old who was paralyzed after a bullet lodged in his spine.
As reported by the New York Daily News, defense attorney Sam Roberts said in his summation to the jury in Manhattan Supreme Court that there was “serious doubt” about the guilt of 19-year-old Cory Dunton. The real shooter was one of Dunton’s friends, Roberts argued, and the multiple eyewitnesses who identified Dunton as the gunman had been mistaken.
Prosecutor Maxine Rosenthal refuted the argument, pointing to the testimony of a 13-year-old girl — known to Dunton — who told police that she saw him firing a weapon shortly after calling her name. Recovered Facebook messages between Dunton and the girl — in which he warned her “not to squeal” before telling her to delete the conversation — contribute to the “overwhelming evidence” of Dunton’s guilt, the prosecutor argued.
Dunton testified on Wednesday that he was innocent of the charges and that he sent the Facebook messages because he thought that he was “going down.” His lawyer explained further that Dunton acted suspiciously because he believed that he would be “found guilty purely by association” with the shooter.
“Cory was in the wrong place and at the wrong time, but most importantly he was in the company of the wrong people,” said Roberts.
Roberts revealed his intent to pursue a misidentification defense in 2014, saying that “[of] the documented cases of wrongful convictions, proven later by DNA testing, seventy-five percent of them involve mistaken identity.” Those accused of committing a violent crime are encouraged to contact a criminal defense attorney with experience in cases involving mistaken identity, coerced confessions and self-defense.