October 3, 2008
Fernando Bermudez is imprisoned in Sing Sing for the fatal shooting of Raymond Blount at the Marc Ballroom, on Union Square West between 15th and 16th Streets in 1991. The killer shot Blount in retaliation for an assault at the club on Efrain Lopez. But Bermudez is an innocent man. He was never even at the scene of the crime. On October 3, 2008, Bermudez's lawyer Alan Kaufman, former chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, and other pro bono counsel filed a motion to set aside Bemudez's conviction.Police allowed four eyewitnesses to view mug shots together. One of them picked up Bermudez's photo and the others agreed he resembled the killer. They collaborated on their recollection as to who looked like the killer, then subsequently individually identified Bermudez in police line-ups. Six other witnesses who separately viewed the photo array did not identify Bermudez. Lopez had told police the shooter was "Wool Lou," a drug dealer from his neighborhood.
Bermudez had alibi witnesses. With no forensic evidence, no fingerprints, no blood or DNA evidence, but based solely on the evidence of the five witnesses (now recognized as tainted evidence), in 1992 Bermudez was convicted. Subsequently, all five witnesses have said they no longer believe Bermudez was the killer. Investigations and several witnesses who were at the Marc Ballroom that night with Lopez have confirmed that none of them knew or had ever seen Bermudez. They have identified "Wool Lou" as being Luis Munoz, a drug dealer from Lopez's neighborhood who was at the Marc Ballroom when Lopez was assaulted by Blount.
To read the Memorandum of Law in Support of Defendant’s Motion to Vacate Judgment Pursuant to CPL § 440.10 submitted on October 3, 2008, click here.
