'I could have gone away ... for life,' says teen cleared by DNA

NORFOLK

As he sat in the maximum security section of Norfolk City Jail, Shaka Harrell worried about what would happen to him if no DNA samples could be found.

"I could have gone away to the penitentiary for life," he said.

Two months ago, the 16-year-old was jailed on rape, sodomy and abduction charges - accused by two teenage girls of attacking them as they walked to a school bus stop on Jan. 9 in Fairmount Park.

On Friday, a day after DNA testing led to his release, Harrell said he got through the ordeal by holding fast to the knowledge that he was innocent.

"I just had to deal with it," he said. "When you're in there, you're in there."

First thing after he was freed, Harrell said, he got something to eat from the 7-Eleven. Then, he had a little party at home - including his 2-year-old pit bull, Stone - to celebrate his freedom.

Harrell said he was treated well in jail. A judge had ruled that he could be tried as an adult, and he was housed in a cell with up to 24 other inmates. He talked to a few, but for the most part people didn't know his name.

"They were worried about themselves," he said.

A state forensics lab informed Norfolk prosecutors Thursday that DNA evidence taken from the crime scene did not match Harrell, and he was released within hours. Harrell's lawyer, Kenneth Singleton, said he believed his client was innocent.

"They're going to have DNA," Singleton said he told Harrell.

"Good," Singleton said Harrell replied.

"It makes you wonder about people sitting in jail now based on someone's word..." Singleton said. "I'm glad we're not sitting here 15 years from now talking about this."

Singleton questioned the method police detectives used when asking the girls to pick out their attacker, who had worn a T-shirt wrapped over his face, showing only his eyes. One girl said she saw the assailant's face when he moved the shirt to kiss her. Neither of the girls immediately identified Harrell, although one girl knew him from school.

While police were at the scene, Singleton said, a man stopped to ask what was going on. When he was told, Singleton said, the man replied, "I bet it was Shaka." Harrell had been seen in the area that day, a prosecutor said.

The girls pointed out Harrell after police showed them a high school yearbook. It was opened to a page with Harrell's picture, Singleton said.

"It was one of the worst examples of suggestive identification," Singleton said. "It was avoidable if they had just followed proper procedures."

Singleton said police should have found a picture of Harrell and located pictures of people with similar features to place in a lineup.

Police spokesman Officer Chris Amos said detectives had no other pictures of Harrell - he was a juvenile with no criminal record. The police mug shot database holds a particular type of photo, usually a suspect against a cinder block background, he said. Harrell's yearbook picture would have stood out when compared with standard police photos, he said.

"It's important to note - you take a positive identification, whether by a victim or a witness, and this carries a lot of weight," Amos said. "You take the totality of that, and that's what the investigators move on."

Some argue that eyewitness identifications should not carry that much weight. Shawn Armbrust is the executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, an organization that aims to prevent and correct wrongful convict ions and imprison ments. Several recent cases in which long-imprisoned men were exonerated by DNA started with convictions based on eyewitness identifications.

"It's counterintuitive, but eyewitness confidence has no relationship to accuracy," Armbrust said. Psychological research has showed that humans' memory for faces "is not as good as we think it is."

Harrell said he bears no grudge against the girls who identified him. He does worry what their accusations did to his reputation.

"Those girls were so close to people in that school... " he said. "I don't feel safe in my neighborhood."

Loretta Riddick lives in the 2900 block of Verdun Ave., where the assault occurred. She said her street is usually safe, but she worries about her own teenage daughter, knowing that the person who assaulted the two girls has not been caught.

"I'm relieved... that an innocent child did not go to jail," she said.

Amos stressed that the girls were victims of a brutal attack. It was similar to one that happened about a week before in the 3900 block of Robin Hood Road, Amos said. In both cases, the assailant hid his face, implied he had a weapon, took his victims to a secluded location and sexually assaulted them.

"Your heart breaks for them," Amos said.

Amos said detectives are working the case again, and are "more determined than ever" to find the attacker.

"We are convinced there's not been a vacuum," Amos said. "Whoever did it said something to somebody."

Amos asked that anyone with information call Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.

Michelle Washington, (757) 446-2287, michelle.washington@pilotonline.com