Three men cleared in 1995 NYC subway toll booth murder

Jack Birle

July 15, 06:50 PM July 15, 06:50 PM

Three men convicted in the murder of a New York City subway toll booth worker were cleared of their convictions by a judge Friday.

A judge in Brooklyn dismissed Vincent Ellerbe, James Irons, and Thomas Malik of their murder convictions in the 1995 incident.

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The convictions were for an incident in which three men tried to rob a subway toll booth before lighting it on fire, causing severe burns to clerk Harry Kaufman, who was inside the booth. The burns from the fire led to Kaufman's death two weeks later.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez pushed for the convictions to be dismissed after he said his office found problems with the evidence leading to the convictions

"The horrific murder of Harry Kaufman shocked our city and devastated a loving family, but the findings of an exhaustive, years long reinvestigation of this case leave us unable to stand by the convictions of those charged," Gonzalez said in a statement. "Above all, my obligation is to do justice, and because of the serious problems with the evidence on which these convictions are based, we must move to vacate them and acknowledge the harm done to these men by this failure of our system."

Shortly after the attack, Irons confessed to the attack during police questioning and implicated Ellerbe and Malik, but the District Attorney’s Office now says it was "a confession that was inconsistent with the facts and the evidence."

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The attack was compared to a scene in the film Money Train, released days before the incident, in which a similar crime was portrayed, but then-Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes denied the connection in December 1995.

“We have no evidence to indicate that Money Train was the reason why this crime was attempted,” Hynes said.