New York Prisoner, Paroled After 25 Years, Exonerated of Crime
by Chuck Sharman
Manhattan District Attorney (D.A.) Alvin Bragg (D) announced on April 27, 2026, that his office had successfully moved a state judge to vacate the conviction of and dismiss the indictment against Harry Ruiz, 57, who served 25 years in a state prison for murder before his 2019 parole.
Four days after the 23-year-old Emmanuel Felix was fatally shot in the head in Harlem in 1993, Ruiz was identified as the killer by the sole eyewitness to the crime, Nilda Alomar, 13. But jurors never heard that Alomar and her mother had received $17,000 in cash and housing assistance from the D.A.’s office, money meant to encourage them to maintain the home as a hangout for criminals and gather intelligence about their activities. The prosecutor, then-Assistant D.A. Helen Sturm, failed to share that with Ruiz’s attorney.
Almost a decade later, as a federal court was considering Ruiz’s 2002 habeas corpus petition, another Assistant D.A., John Dormin, was prosecuting a drug trafficker named “K.B.” and learned that it was he who had put out the contract to murder Felix in a dispute over territory, hiring someone named “Shorty” to pull the trigger. An underling named “J.M.” who was also prosecuted by Dormin corroborated the story. But again the information was never shared with Ruiz or his counsel, and his habeas petition was denied. See: Ruiz v. Artuz, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17779 (S.D.N.Y. June 13, 2002).
Most damning of all, an investigator hired by Ruiz’s attorneys met in 2009 with Alomar’s husband, who said that she wanted to provide additional testimony and “do the right thing” by Ruiz, but fear of the D.A.’s office prevented her. After that, an assistant D.A. sent the investigator a cease-and-desist demand, adding that he might face prosecution if he refused.
Ruiz has consistently maintained his innocence. But it wasn’t until after his parole that New York Police Department (NYPD) Det. Carlos Vasquez happened upon Ruiz’s case file while doing “cold case” work in 2024. Noticing the red flags, he took his concerns to Bragg’s Post-Conviction Justice Unit (PCJU), which initiated a reinvestigation. That led the D.A. to move the state Supreme Court for New York County for vacatur of Ruiz’s conviction, on the ground of newly discovered evidence. In granting the motion, Judge Robert M. Mandelbaum said that the “unimpeachable conduct of the current prosecutors is worthy of praise.”
“But it appears that the … same may not be said of some of the former prosecutors involved in this case,” he added, noting that Sturm refused to be interviewed during the reinvestigation. “To this court, that speaks volumes,” the judge declared. See: People v. Ruiz, 2026 NY Slip Op 26061 (Sup. Ct.).
Ruiz has not yet decided to file a civil suit for damages over his wrongful conviction and incarceration, his attorney, Ron Kuby, told USA Today. According to a March 2026 tally by the National Registry of Exonerations (NRE), such suits have resulted in over $1 billion in payouts by New York to exonerated prisoners so far.
Additional sources: NRE, USA Today
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