Life mirrors movie art in case of ex-Marine reservist
March 15, 2009

by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor

On Mar. 16, a second murder trial will begin in Albany County, NY, court that may decide the fate of Kevin Murphy, a 28-year-old former Marine reservist, who was released from prison when the state’s second highest court ruled on appeal that some evidence entered in his original trial should not have been used. The state Appellate Court ordered the new trial in handing down its decision late last year.

Murphy was convicted of second degree murder during his first trial in October 2006 in the fatal stabbing death of Joseph Jerome, 20, during a street fight outside Murphy’s apartment on Albany’s Hudson Avenue.

The area where the altercation took place sometime after 1 a.m. on the morning of April 30, 2006, was described in one Albany Times-Union story as a “college ghetto,” teeming with young people, bars, high spirits and who knows what other elements.

When I first learned of the details in this case I was struck by the parallels to the story line in the 1997 movie “Con Air.” In that movie, Nicholas Cage plays a young Army veteran just home from combat service who is goaded into a fight with a trio of young bar patrons outside the saloon-dance hall where he was celebrating his homecoming with his wife. Cage’s character is not armed but ends up stabbing one of his attackers with a knife they had tried to use on him.

In “Con Air,” Cage’s military training was used in the prosecutor’s arguments against him. He is convicted and sentenced to prison where he remained a model prisoner but unfortunately is sent home on parole on the same prison plane transporting a transfer load of the prison’s worst repeat offenders. Many Gun Week readers will recall the rest of the violent action movie. The only similarities between Cage’s character’s situation and the Albany case is the conviction of a former serviceman in a street fight stabbing death and the fact that Cage didn’t accept a plea bargain.

In Murphy’s case, he too rejected an opportunity to be tried on a manslaughter charge rather than for second degree murder, according to one of his lawyers.

On the night of the fateful encounter that thrust Murphy and Jerome together, neither had ever met the other previously. Neither was enrolled at any of the nearby colleges which swell the neighborhood’s student population, although Murphy had been a student the previous semester and was expecting to be enrolled again in the following semester. In the meanwhile, he had been trying to set up a small neighborhood bagel shop business.

Murphy told Gun Week that Jerome had been released from prison the day before the street brawl and stabbing. The Times-Union reported in one of its earlier stories that Jerome had been released from “a prison boot camp.”

When police arrived at the scene of the stabbing, Murphy was not there. However, when notified by neighbors that police wanted to speak with him, he reported to the police.

It was sometime during his interview with police that he made a phone call to his family in Long Island which was used in evidence against him at his first trial, despite his continued claims that the stabbing was an unplanned accident and that he was merely fighting back in self-defense.

Whether with a gun, knife or personal weapons like feet and hands, a homicide during any altercation is viewed with considerable concern by most prosecutors and self-defense is a frequent court defense. The death weapon was never recovered in this case.

How the phone call figured in the first trial, Murphy’s conviction and his appeal can best be summed up with these quotes from The Times Union:

“Seventeen months after being sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in connection with a 2006 stabbing death, Kevin Murphy is free on bail.”

A judge set bail last May at $150,000 for Murphy and he later posted that bail and was released from Albany County jail, where he had been detained.

On May 1, (2008) the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court ruled evidence used to convict Murphy—specifically a phone call he made to his family while police interviewed him—should not have been used, at least in its entirety, at trial. The ruling reversed Murphy’s second-degree murder conviction, setting the stage for a new trial before Judge Thomas Breslin in Albany County Court….

The former Marine reservist convicted of fatally stabbing a 20-year-old man two years ago will get a new trial, a state appeals court ruled on May 1.

But he’ll get a new chance at a freedom following the ruling by the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court. It found evidence used to convict Murphy—specifically a phone call he made to his family while being interviewed by police—should not have been played, in its entirety, at trial.

On the second anniversary of the killing, the mid-level court reversed the second-degree murder conviction and sent the case back for a new trial.

Murphy and Jerome did not know each other when their paths crossed after 1 a.m. the morning of the homicide. Albany County Assistant Chief District Attorney Mark Harris, who prosecuted the case, said in 2006 that Murphy “went after” Jerome after being punched in the mouth.

“ ‘But the other kid hadn’t punched him,” Harris added, according to The Times Union. “ ‘And he had nothing to do with punching him.’

“Murphy agreed to speak to police, but their interrogation stopped once he asked for a lawyer. Murphy then spoke to his father and sister on a police phone, and was told the line was being tape-recorded. The 14-minute conversation was used against him at trial, the Appellate Division noted.

“ ‘While his request for an attorney did not make the evidence unfit for trial, he had repeatedly invoked his right against self-incrimination, the court said, continuing it was “unable to conclude that there is no reasonable possibility that the evidence regarding defendant’s invocation of his rights contributed to his conviction.”

“In addition, the court noted evidence of Murphy’s guilt at the trial was ‘not overwhelming.’

“This is a verdict that need not to have happened,” said Kevin Murphy’s lawyer, E. Stewart Jones, after the first trial, according to The Times Union.

“I told him it was not possible to get an acquittal when an unarmed man is stabbed to death,” Jones reportedly said.

One witness testified at the October 2006 trial that Jerome fell on the knife Murphy was holding during the sidewalk melee that night, Murphy’s sister claimed. The street was teeming with college students and many were drinking.

Her brother, she said, is not a criminal, but a veteran who served his country. He was also struggling with a broken wrist and had lost his glasses during the fight.

“He was defending himself against three people while he was disabled, nearly blind and disoriented from his head hitting the ground,” she said. “The only reason he was able to defend himself was, I think, because he was a trained U.S. Marine.”

Needless to say, both families are still devastated by what happened on that April night in 2006.

Now a second trial before the same judge may determine what really happened.

In Murphy’s case, his fate will be decide in court.

In Cage’s case in the “Con Air” movie, he had to redeem himself by fighting all of the bad guys who had been stacked on the plane which they crashed in an escape attempt.

Perhaps that’s the difference between life and art: the reality is always more stark, if not as entertaining. But in both cases, the problems one encounters with the judicial system after a self-defense situation can prove terrifying if not insurmountable.
Return to Archive Index