George Gould was free for just over a year after a judge determined he was wrongly convicted of murder, but he is going back to prison until he can be tried in the case again.
Last year, a judge ordered that Gould and Ronald Taylor be released after serving 16 years of an 80-year sentence for the murder of Eugenio Deleon Vega, a New Haven bodega owner, in 1993. Taylor has stage-four colon cancer and will stay out of prison on bond.
Last month, the state Supreme Court ruled that the lower court judge was wrong to release the men and reinstated their sentences. The justices determined that the lower judge’s ruling was wrong because there wasn't any evidence of the men's innocence and ordered new trials for the two men, related to their habeas corpus appeals that the lower court decided in their favor.
The main issue in the case was the testimony of the prosecution's main witness, Doreen Stiles, at the original trial. Stiles testified that she saw Gould enter Deleon's store and heard him arguing with Deleon about opening his safe, then heard a gunshot and saw Gould and Taylor leaving the store. A jury convicted Gould and Taylor in 1995.
But Stiles testified before the lower court judge in 2009 that she lied during the trial and wasn't at the murder scene. She said that she was "dopesick" when police interrogated her after the killing and that a detective told her he would help her buy heroin if she told authorities what happened. Stiles said she identified Taylor and Gould in photos as the men in Deleon's shop and afterward two detectives gave her $60 and drove her to a street where she bought heroin.
Police denied Stiles' allegations.
Gould's attorney, Joseph Visone, had argued that the state's theory that Gould and Taylor killed Deleon in a robbery made no sense. He said Deleon was found with $1,800 stuffed in his pockets and there was $100 in the cash register, money that should have been taken if the motive was robbery. Both Visone and Tsimbidaros claimed Deleon's son was the killer, an allegation O'Hare has called "vague speculation.
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Peter Tsimbidaros, Taylor's attorney, said going back to jail "would essentially serve as the execution of my client."
The case was heard in Rockville on Monday to determine if they're headed back to jail and the judge said he was skeptical of the recanted testimony.
