GIST: "A Crips member’s guilty plea has closed the book on a dizzying case of mistaken identity — one which saw the police arrest the wrong brother for killing a Brooklyn teenager more than six years ago.
Martial H. Amilcar, 28, pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal racketeering charge, admitting he shot and killed 15-year-old Samuel Joseph in 2019 as part of his activities in the Hyena Crips gang.
His admission in Brooklyn Federal Court comes after a six-year legal saga — initially, the NYPD wrongly arrested his younger brother, Martial C. Amilcar, 26, for the teen’s killing.
And in a double twist, Samuel wasn’t the intended target — Martial H. actually hoped to kill the teen’s older brother but targeted Samuel by mistake, investigators believe.
Martial H. will likely face 30 years to life in prison, based on federal guidelines, when Judge Ann Donnelly sentences him in August.
Samuel’s family doesn’t think he should ever see freedom.
“That guy’s supposed to stay in jail for his life,” said Samuel’s mother, Raymonde Figero, who watched Amilcar plead guilty Thursday.
“It was really hurtful,” she said of the proceedings. “It felt like the first day Samuel got killed.”
Samuel was heading out to get something to eat on Feb. 22, 2019, when he unwittingly walked into the crosshairs of a deadly gang conflict.
About two hours before the shooting, a member of the Haitian Loc gang stabbed Martial C. in the leg during a fight, and his older brother started making phone calls and planning retaliation.
Martial H. and an accomplice found their target’s apartment building on Flatbush Ave. near 26th St. and spoke briefly with their rival’s younger sister outside, according to federal prosecutors.
As she walked back inside, Martial H. spotted Samuel heading down a stairwell and, mistaking him for the target of his revenge, started shooting.
Samuel, who moved to Brooklyn from Haiti about five years before his murder, dreamed of becoming a basketball star on par with Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry.
“He makes people laugh. He makes people happy,” his mother said. “Samuel is a very good boy, very good son, very good baby.”
Nearly every day he’d shoot hoops down the block from his home at a neighborhood YMCA, his mother said. The day of the shooting he returned home early because he didn’t have the $10 on hand for an admission to an event there, she said.
At first, police charged Martial C. with the killing. He spent nine months on Rikers Island and another two years in home detention with an ankle bracelet, according to a lawsuit he filed against the city. The city settled for $220,000 in October 2023.
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He was a half-mile away from the shooting, and the cops who arrested him either never reviewed the video of him limping into his apartment building or ignored it, according to the lawsuit. Separate video of the shooting shows the shooter and an accomplice run off with no limp at all. The accomplice has not been caught.
Meanwhile, Martial C. is back behind bars — the feds say he’s also a member of the Hyena Crips and that he took part in COVID unemployment scams and a botched conspiracy to kill a rival gang member in Coney Island.
The case against him and several other reputed Hyena Crips members is still pending."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/03/23/crips-member-admits-to-brooklyn-teens-murder-years-after-younger-brothers-wrongful-arrest/PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
