PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — A man accused of fatally shooting a Philadelphia Police officer had his conviction overturned after serving a decade of his life sentence, NBC Philadelphia reported.
A judge overturned the murder conviction of Rafael Jones due to disgraced detective Philip Nordo’s involvement with the case. Nordo was later found to have sexually assaulted witnesses and informants. He was sentenced to 24.5 to 49 years in prison in 2019.
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Officer Moses Walker Jr. was shot and killed as he returned home from a shift on Aug. 18, 2012, NBC reported. He noticed two men following him and attempted to evade before they caught up to him and announced it was a robbery.
Walker then drew his gun, at which point he was shot multiple times. He had served with the Philadelphia Police Department for 19 years.
Investigators later arrested Jones and Chancier McFarland in the case. Both pleaded guilty.
McFarland was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison in 2014 after testifying against Jones. Jones was sentenced to life in prison, as investigators at the time determined it was he who fired the fatal shot.
On Aug. 3, a judge overturned Jones’s conviction and ordered a new trial for him because of Nordo’s involvement. Nordo had threatened to rape Jones’s cousin, who was interviewed in the investigation because he had a similar car to one seen leaving the scene, NBC reported.
That informant did not testify during the first trial. Jones’s confession, which was provided to Nordo, also was not used.
Philadelphia D.A. Larry Krasner stated that his office would appeal the decision, as his office holds that the result of the case was “legally correct” and a retrial is unnecessary.
Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 President Roosevelt Poplar told NBC 10 that the judges decision in the case was “disappointing.”
“I was there with the family with Moses Walker’s mother and brother,” Poplar said. “This just reopens wounds that the family is trying to heal. And of course they will never heal. But to do this, it’s just making them relive this moment in their life all over again which is totally a tragedy for them.”
