ECBAWM has secured a $15.25 million settlement on behalf of Vernon Horn, who spent approximately 17 years in prison before his murder conviction was vacated and the case against him was dismissed with prejudice. Mr. Horn and Marquis Jackson, who brought separate civil rights lawsuits arising from their wrongful convictions, each received $15.25 million, the largest wrongful conviction settlements in Connecticut history.

Mr. Horn was 17 years old when three masked gunmen robbed the Dixwell Deli in New Haven in January 1999, killing Caprice Hardy. Mr. Horn maintained his innocence from the beginning, but was convicted and ultimately sentenced to 70 years in prison.

Mr. Horn’s federal civil rights lawsuit alleged that New Haven police detectives withheld exculpatory evidence, coerced witnesses, fabricated evidence, and failed to adequately investigate evidence pointing away from him. Central to the case was a cellphone stolen during the robbery. Although the prosecution used testimony connecting Mr. Horn to the phone, his lawsuit alleged that evidence concerning calls made from the phone instead pointed toward individuals in Bridgeport.

In January 2018, during a reinvestigation by the Connecticut Federal Defender Office, an investigator obtained 137 pages of previously undisclosed phone records and related documents that a former New Haven detective had kept in her basement. The records contained materially exculpatory evidence that had never been provided to prosecutors or Mr. Horn’s defense. The reinvestigation also uncovered cell-site information placing relevant calls from the stolen phone in Bridgeport rather than New Haven, and an FBI analysis further undermined the prosecution’s account of how the phone had been used and Mr. Horn’s alleged connection to it.

In April 2018, the State’s Attorney’s Office moved to vacate Mr. Horn’s conviction, stating that newly developed information had sufficiently undermined its confidence in the judgment. The court vacated the conviction, dismissed the case with prejudice, and Mr. Horn was released.

In response to the settlement, Vernon Horn said:

“I want to thank the Most High for getting me through this. I want to thank my daughter. I want to thank my criminal defense team: Terry Ward, Richard Reeve, David Keenan, and the Federal Defender of Connecticut. I don’t know what I would have done without them. I also want to thank my lawyers Ilann Maazel, Nick Bourland, and Hannah Brudney for being there for me and believing in me. I want to thank Mayor Elicker for putting an end to this nightmare and Judge Vatti for mediating my case. And I want to thank Gary Winfield for his leadership in changing the law in Connecticut. No amount of money can give me back the 17 years that were taken from me. I lost years with my family, I lost people I loved while I was in prison, and I missed precious time with my daughter that I can never get back. But I never stopped fighting to prove that I was innocent, even when it felt like no one wanted to hear the truth. I am grateful to everyone who stood beside me and kept fighting for me.”

“Vernon Horn lost 17 years of freedom for a crime he had nothing to do with,” said Ilann M. Maazel, Partner at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP. “The New Haven Police Department coerced witnesses, fabricated evidence, and buried exonerative evidence in the basement of a detective’s home. Shame on them. They almost destroyed this man’s life and finally are facing some accountability. We’re proud of Vernon for standing strong and never giving up in his fight for justice.”

“Vernon Horn fought tirelessly for his freedom for nearly two decades. He then fought for seven years to hold the City of New Haven and its corrupt police officers accountable for robbing him of what should have been the prime of his life,” said Nick Bourland, Associate Attorney at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP. “This landmark settlement speaks to the seriousness of the harm Mr. Horn suffered and will help him focus on his future.”

Mr. Horn is represented by ECBAWM attorneys, Ilann Maazel, Nick Bourland, Hannah Brudney, as well as paralegal, Jasmine Diaz.

Read coverage of this historic settlement below:

New Haven Independent: Horn, Jackson Cases Settled For $30.5M

New Haven Register: New Haven agrees to pay $30.5M to two men wrongfully convicted of murder 

WNTH: 2 men each awarded $15M in settlement with City of New Haven after wrongfully imprisoned for 1999 murder

The Inner City News: Horn, Jackson Cases Settled For $30.5M 

Yahoo News: Two Connecticut Men Wrongfully Imprisoned for 1999 Murder Awarded $15.25 Million Each