After 23 years served, DA vacates conviction of man falsely accused in Brooklyn lumberyard murder

NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — A man who served 23 years in prison for a 1995 robbery-turned-murder in East Flatbush was found to have not committed the crime, prompting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez to move to vacate his conviction and correct the record in the case of mistaken identity.

Steve Carrington, 56, was convicted decades ago of participating in a botched robbery that resulted in a lumberyard employee being fatally shot. But an investigation by the district attorney’s Conviction Review Unit (CRU) found he was convicted by unreliable eyewitness testimony which prosecutors said should never have been admitted at trial.

"This case exemplifies the pitfalls of one witness identifications and highlights the lengths our CRU will go to unearth the truth," Gonzalez said. "Mr. Carrington has proclaimed his innocence from Day One and, while we cannot undo the decades he spent in prison, today we are able to substantiate his claim and give him back his good name.”

On the morning of Jan. 2, 1995, Shannon France entered Lumber Headquarters in East Flatbush armed with a gun. Officials said that a struggle ensured, and he shot lumberyard employee Lloyd St. George Campbell twice, killing him.

France robbed the store’s cash box and told customer Hugh Keizs to leave, but an accomplice—mistakenly identified as Carrington—stopped and robbed the man of his watch and pinky ring. Keizs’ testimony eventually led to Carrington’s conviction.

Prosecutors said that when police first interviewed Carrington, he said it was a case of mistaken identity and that he had an alibi. At trial he claimed that he was at home with his former girlfriend the morning of the murder, and that he then met his wife at the hospital after she had to take their youngest child in for treatment.

The story was backed up by testimony from both women and Carrington’s parents, but prosecutors pointed out inconsistencies with the timelines to rebut the claims. Carrington was convicted of second-degree murder and robbery and sentenced to 23 years in prison.

The CRU investigation found that the eye witness testimony, key to Carrington’s conviction, was based off of a photo identification process that was not tested for reliability.

A few years after he was convicted, Carrington offered up the name of a potential suspect, which the district attorney’s office dismissed due to his incarceration at the time of the murder; however, the CRU found that the man was actually on a work release program at the time of the murder and likely living in East Flatbush, his neighborhood.

The CRU also found two recordings of the alternative suspect, including a phone call recording and a videotape in which he shares details of the crime, states “we messed up” and acknowledges that the wrong man was imprisoned for the crime.

In a 2012 affidavit and in parole hearings, prosecutors said that France took responsibility for the crime and repeatedly stated that Carrington was not involved.

The district attorney’s office pursued charging the alternative suspect, but found that “legal hurdles … render prosecution of that suspect unviable.”

France was convicted of similar charges to Carrington and was sentenced to 25 years to life. He was released from prison in 2021 and deported.

Carrington was released from prison in 2018, and was in court at 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday to have his conviction vacated.

CRU investigations have led to 38 convictions being vacated since 2014, and there are currently 60 open cases.