A Hawaiian man who spent more than 30 years behind the bar for a murder he claimed he had not committed for a long time was released on Friday on a judge's order citing new evidence in his case. .
This man, Gordon Cordeiro, was convicted in October 1998 of the murder of Timothy Blaisdell in an apparent drug deal robbery on Maui in August 1998. For decades, 51-year-old Cordeiro has maintained his innocence.
Cordeiro's ruling Friday was in Maui's courtroom for new evidence, including DNA evidence that his legal team said he was not at the crime scene on the night of the murder. It has been disabled. The Associated Press gasped in court after Judge Kirstin Haman of the Second Circuit of Maui, Hawaii, said “the judgment and judgment are invalid and the defendant is ordered to be released from custody.” He reported that he had done so.
Cordeiro said in an interview Sunday that he hugged the lawyer after the judge issued her decision. “It was definitely a much-anticipated relief,” he said.
Kenneth Lawson, director of the Hawaii Innocence Project, featured Coldeiro's case, but was choked in an interview after explaining he was sitting beside Cordeiro in court on Friday.
“There was relief and there was joy,” he said.
Maui County prosecutor Andrew Martin declined to respond to a request for comment. The AP reported that Martin's office plans to appeal and file a motion to place bail on Cordeiro's release. Cordeiro is at risk of flying because of murder charges, he said.
According to court documents, Mr. Blaisdell went to Skid Row in Maui on August 11, 1994, for $800 in cash to buy marijuana with a man named Michael Freitas. Mr. Blaisdell's body was later found at the bottom of the valley. Freitas, who passed away in 2020, changed the story he gave to police several times, and ultimately hinted at Cordeiro as the person who killed Blaisdell, Cordeiro's legal team said. (According to court documents, Freitas believed that Cordeiro had sniffed one of Freitas' friends in an unrelated drug case.)
According to the Hawaii Innocence Project, Cordeiro built a shelf all day, staying at his parents' home, where witnesses and receipts support his activities.
According to the Hawaii Innocence Project, Cordeiro's first trial ended in a judge's judge. Cordeiro was found guilty after his second trial. This is the prison informant who gave testimony linked Cordeiro to murder in exchange for his generosity.
He was convicted of murder, attempted murder and robbery, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The Hawaii Innocence Project last week argued that Cordeiro should be released because he proved his innocence. This includes DNA testing inside the jeans that Blaisdell was wearing the day he was killed. This discovered an “unidentified DNA profile” but there are no traces of Cordeiro's DNA.
Hawaii's Innocence Project also claimed that Cordeiro had an invalid defense team and was the victim of fraudulent prosecutors.
The judge found there was insufficient evidence to show that the state intentionally used false testimony, and she refused to assert the prosecution's allegations of misconduct, the Associated Press reported.
After he was released, Mr. Cordeiro went to visit his mother's cemetery. On Saturday he visited his grandparents' grave. He is staying at Maui's parents' house, and his family is helping him settle down, buying clothes and feeding him, he said. They were his “rock,” he said.
“I'm starting from scratch,” he said.
Cordeiro attended church with his family on Sunday mornings, and the sermon was to forgive those who were harmful to you. He said he learned to forgive those who involved him in Mr. Blaisdell's murder. It felt like the priest was talking to him directly.
“It was the perfect message,” he said. “It was the perfect sermon.”
