Man facing retrial in ‘Grid Kid’ killing argues lawyers purposely suppressed evidence
The man facing retrial for the 15-year-old murder of a college football player at a Brooklyn house party is trying to get the case tossed — arguing the prosecutor deliberately suppressed evidence that could have cleared him.
John Giuca says former Brooklyn prosecutor Anna Nicolazzi purposely buried an interview that exonerated him of the 2003 murder of New Jersey teen Mark Fisher.
Giuca’s defense lawyer, Mark Bederow, argues in court papers that jailhouse snitch Joseph Ingram told Nicolazzi in a taped 2005 conversation that Giuca was innocent.
“[Russo] told me he left the party with [Fisher],” the documents quote Ingram as saying, referring to Giuca’s convicted co-defendant, Antonio Russo.
“He said he had the intention of robbing him. And [Fisher] didn’t have enough money on him and he was going to take him to the ATM machine. And they ended up getting into some kind of fight and he ended up shooting him,” Ingram says.
“[Russo] called John’s house and asked John if he could come over, and that he had just shot the kid in the leg,” Ingram allegedly said. “John answered the door. The kid asked him to get rid of the weapon. And John refused.”
Ingram died in 2006; Russo recently confessed to the fatal shooting.
Giuca served more than 10 years for the slaying before an appeals court overturned his 2005 conviction in February. He remains jailed, pending retrial.
“There is no excuse for the prosecution’s 13-year-failure to disclose what Nicolazzi clearly knew was exculpatory evidence,” the motion reads. “The critical witness, now dead, could have testified for Giuca at the first trial. Now that is impossible.”
“We will review the motion, and are investigating to determine whether that evidence had been turned over,” said a spokesman with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.
Nicolazzi, who now stars on the television show “True Conviction,” did not return a message.