Black Atlanta Man Wrongfully Imprisoned for Murder After Detective Hid Key Evidence — Now Free, But Corrupt Cop Won’t Face Any Punishment

Keith Sylvester, a black man from Atlanta, spent greater than a yr in prison for the murders of his mother and stepfather — despite video and cellphone evidence proving his innocence that was intentionally suppressed by the detective investigating the murders.

Now, Sylvester is about to receive $1.5 million in damages following an appeals court decision to overturn his conviction, in accordance with WSB Television.

But it doesn’t appear that the officer investigating the case, Atlanta Police Detective James Barnett, was ever punished for withholding evidence that might have proven that Sylvester never murdered his parents or set their house on fire after strangling them.

It also doesn’t appear that he could possibly be charged with perjury, which could be an appropriate charge in this kind of case.

“The argument is that a jury could find that Detective Barnett either intentionally lied to a state judge or was so reckless with the truth that he misled the state judge into thinking there was probable cause,” in accordance with the appeals court ruling that overturned his conviction.

Atlanta police arrested one other black man, Cornelius Muckle, for the murders of Deborah and Harry Hubbard after cellphone records showed his phone was at their home before they were murdered and their home was set on fire. Muckle, who had nothing to do with the Hubbards, also tried to sell items stolen from the house at an area pawn shop two days after the murders.

But Barnett claimed Sylvester murdered his parents to get the insurance money. However, Sylvester’s lawyer on the time said he was not even listed as a beneficiary, in accordance with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“His name is nowhere on the insurance policy,” he said.

Zack Greenamyre on the time. “He would have been one of six children and stepchildren who would have been beneficiaries of the policy.”

Sylvester, who helped detectives on the case for nearly six months in hopes of finding the killer, said he was shocked when he was arrested.

“When (the detective) handed me the summons and told me I was arrested for the murder of my parents, I thought it was a ploy on his part to get more information,” Sylvester told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Article from May 2024.

“I thought it was a mistake. They’d figure something out and I’d be out of there soon. I thought I’d be out in a few days.”

Instead, he spent 14 months behind bars on charges of murder, arson and insurance fraud.

Murder

It was June 2nd, 2018, and Sylvester was visiting his mother and stepfather at their Atlanta home, which he did almost on daily basis, in accordance with WBS-TV.

However, in accordance with dashcam footage, cellphone operator footage and security cameras that recorded him at gambling establishments, the person left his home before 9 p.m.

Phone records also show Harry Hubbard called his niece, Nyaira Walton, at 9:30 p.m. Nyaira told detectives her uncle showed no signs of distress throughout the call.

At 3:56 a.m., the Atlanta Fire Department received a report of a house fire. Upon arrival, officers discovered bodies inside with signs of strangulation.

Firefighters also determined that the hearth had been intentionally set “shortly before” the decision was received, which might have prevented Sylvester from setting it, in accordance with the aforementioned evidence, which was never presented at trial. The autopsy also showed that the couple were still alive when the hearth began, because the couple had ash and soot of their tracheae, indicating that they were still respiration when the hearth began.

However, it appears Barnett had no luck finding the actual killer, so he focused his efforts on Sylvester.

According to the appeals court ruling:

Nearly six months had passed because the murders when Barnett arrested Sylvester in December 2018, much to his shock because Sylvester had continually cooperated with police to assist solve the crimes.

This is how Sylwester described the arrest WGRZ in February 2019 after two months in prison:

Barnett spent the following yr attempting to prove his innocence, writing letters to judges, prosecutors and civil rights groups, hoping they might consider his case.

The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office launched an investigation and determined that Muckle was the actual killer.

But prosecutors tried to pin the blame on Google for locking up the unsuitable man, accusing the tech company of taking nine months to answer a request for a search warrant under a geofence that might allow investigators to “cast a wide net, collecting information on all devices located within a specified area,” in accordance with National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

In this manner, they determined that Muckle’s phone had been within the Hubbards’ house shortly before the hearth broke out, and that the Hubbards had been murdered, in accordance with 11 Living news. It was also determined that Muckle attempted to sell items stolen from the house at an area pawn shop two days later.

“The results of this investigation show that the assailant, who was not named in the original police investigation, was in fact inside the home of Deborah and Harry Hubbard 20 minutes prior to the 911 call about the fire that caused their deaths,” District Attorney Paul Howard said in an announcement to 11Alive News on the time.