Presumed Johnson City ‘porch pirate’ gets a new trial

BINGHAMTON, NY ( WIVT/WBGH ) — A Johnson City man who was found guilty of burglary and sentenced to up to seven years in prison in 2021 is getting a new trial after the ruling was reversed by the NYS Appellate Court.

Charles Alexander was sentenced to three and a half to seven years in New York state prison for felony burglary in October 2021. Alexander was sentenced after being “sufficiently proven to be” the man who broke into the vestibule of a multi-resident dwelling on Oak Street in the City of Binghamton and stole packages that had been delivered to a resident at that location on Feb. 17, 2021, according to court documents .

Alexander appealed the decision, claiming the “verdict is not supported by legally sufficient evidence” that identified him as the perpetrator beyond a reasonable doubt due to the fact that Broome County Court declined to give a cross-racial identification jury instruction upon Alexander’s request.

Testimony by both the victim and manager of the Oak Street building shows neither of them could identify the man caught on security camera footage.

Binghamton Police Officer Jonathan Kellar, who had reviewed the video and was familiar with Alexander as a repeat offender, testified that he “recognized” the “strong jaw-line” of Alexander in the video and was able to identify him with the “same characteristics as far as height and weight.” He went as far as to say he “knew for a 100 percent fact it was [Alexander],” per court records.

It was after Officer Kellar’s testimony Alexander requested the cross-racial identification jury instruction, warning members of the jury about potentially unreliable identifications by eye-witnesses of a different race than the defendant, which was held in People v Boone in 2017.

In the video, Alexander is said to have been wearing a black leather jacket, a gray hoodie, and a black flat-brimmed baseball hat with a yellow sticker on the brim. Officer Keller testified that he observed Alexander walking down the street a few weeks after the burglary wearing clothes that matched the video, along with a pocket knife in his pants pocket.

Broome County Court initially concluded the evidence was sufficient enough for “a rational person” to conclude Alexander was the suspect in question for the crimes committed, ultimately being found guilty.

The Appellate Court deemed otherwise, stating Broome County Court “misinterpreted” the People v Boone standard and “erred in denying [Alexander’s] request for a cross-racial identification jury instruction.”

Without the identification testimony, the court decided that the video and clothes as evidence were not enough to come to a proper conclusion that it was Alexander beyond reasonable doubt.

“The judgment is reversed, on the law, and the matter remitted to the County Court of Broome County for a new trial,” the court concluded.

There is not trial date available at this time.

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