New suspects identified in 1996 murders of New York millionaire and woman after five trials and overturned conviction

For 16 years, suburban New York prosecutors insisted they had the right man in a notorious 1996 double murder. The office tried him five times, through a series of hung juries and overturned convictions, before he He was finally acquitted and released in 2017.

On Monday, the office’s current leader, Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah, said The new investigation identified two suspects. and “no connection” to the man his predecessors tried and retried for the deaths of Archie Harris, 79, and home health aide Betty Ramcharan, 35.

The statement appears to mark the first time the district attorney’s office has said publicly that the blame lies with someone other than Selwyn Days, the man jurors ultimately acquitted in 2017. At the time, prosecutors said they were disappointed with the verdict.

Days’ attorney, Glenn Garber, said Monday that it is time for his client to get a vindication.

“He is truly innocent and it is important to bring this matter to a complete end,” Garber said, adding that the public also has the right “to a fair and equitable closure of this egregious case.”

Rocah took office in 2021 and was not working in the district attorney’s office when it prosecuted Days. He did not give details about the two people he described as “involved” in the murders and said the investigation was ongoing.

His office said the events were so recent that there was more work to be done before possible future steps. Rocah has run out of time to do that job: He leaves office this week after deciding not to run for a second term.

“It is my hope that these important developments will lead to continued investigation and action so that justice can be achieved for the families of Mr. Harris and Ms. Ramcharan,” he said in a statement Monday.

Subsequently, incoming prosecutor Susan Cacace pledged to “continue reviewing cases like this double homicide.” Both she and Rocah are Democrats.

Garber said he was confident that the Cacace government would continue to “charge and punish those truly responsible” for the murders.

According LoHudThe bodies of Harris, Ramcharan and their dog were found in their home on November 21, 1996. They had been beaten and stabbed to death.

Harris, 79, was a recently widowed millionaire who was known in his neighborhood for boasting about having a lot of cash in his Eastchester home, and was known to police for criminal complaints filed by his caregivers. . He faced charges of forcing an assistant, Days’ mother, to perform a sexual act and of pointing a gun at a second assistant.

However, it turned out that he left his entire estate, except $19,000, to Ramcharan, without making provisions for his three children. However, his share ultimately went to his family because Ramcharan died with him.

More than five years later, authorities charged Days. He gave police a video confession that his lawyers later argued was false and obtained under duress.

“I didn’t commit this crime. I don’t know who did it… I don’t know anything about it,” Days told a judge in 2004.

Hanging juries ended Days’ first and third trials. His second and fourth trials resulted in murder convictions and sentences of 50 years in prison. Both convictions were overturned.

According to the Innocence ProjectNo physical evidence linked Days to the crime and detectives only recorded the last 75 minutes of his hours-long interrogation. Witnesses said they saw Days in North Carolina within the period during which prosecutors said the murders occurred, according to the Innocence Project.

By the time he was acquitted at his fifth trial, he had served 16 years behind bars.

Rocah formed a Conviction Review Unit in 2021 to investigate allegations of wrongful convictions. The unit began examining the Harris and Ramcharan case last year.

Contact information for relatives of Ramcharan and Harris could not immediately be found Monday.