Texas: DNA Evidence Links New Black to 2010 Homicide of White Man

Jermarico Carter.

The first black they charged with this crime actually ended up being a literal dindu nuffin.

Now they’ve arrested another black… and it looks like this one did du sumthin’.

AJC:

For years, a man sat behind bars in Texas for a murder that police there now say he didn’t commit. Recent DNA testing has linked a man in Atlanta to the crime, authorities say.

Jermarico Carter, 41, was charged with murder last month after the testing, the Houston, Tex. Police Department said in a news release. The same testing excluded Lydell Grant, the 42-year-old who had been serving a life sentence.

Grant was convicted in 2012 in the fatal 2010 stabbing of a 28-year-old man outside a bar in Houston. A Crime Stoppers tip brought him into the case. Six eyewitnesses identified Grant, but DNA testing requested by the Innocence Project of Texas showed he couldn’t have done it, Houston police said.

Grant, who had spent thousands of hours in prison libraries crafting appeals, was freed from prison two days before Thanksgiving while the Houston Police Department re-investigated the case, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Grant emerged from a courthouse beaming, shallow dimples showing, as supporters chanted: “Free at last!”

Lydell Grant.

Houston police learned that Carter had moved to Georgia.

As it happened, Atlanta Police Department officers arrested him at a Decatur Street pawn shop on Dec. 19 after they learned of outstanding warrants for a probation violation in Statesboro and a larceny charge in Louisiana, according to an Atlanta police incident report. Carter was a customer at the shop.

Houston detectives soon interviewed Carter and say he “confessed to his role” in the Texas slaying. According to Houston’s KPRC 2 news channel, Houston police documents say Carter claimed Aaron Scheerhoorn pulled the knife on him and that Scheerhoorn was “probably” stabbed as they struggled.

Aaron Scheerhoorn.