ATLANTA — For more than a year, Keith Sylvester was behind bars for murders and an arson he did not commit.
Now, Atlanta’s City Council is set to vote next Monday to pay him $1.5 million.
Around 4 a.m. on July 3, 2018, firefighters rushed to northwest Atlanta to find a home on fire and bodies inside. Firefighters found the remains of Deborah and Harry Hubbard, who were likely strangled shortly before the 4 a.m. fire.
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Months later, police arrested Deborah’s eldest son, Sylvester, for the murder.
Sylvester was known for seeing his mom almost daily and saw them before leaving at 9 p.m. that night.
According to court paperwork, the detective wrote in his affidavit to get an arrest warrant that Sylvester acted suspiciously after the fire and had bought alcohol and moth balls shortly before the fire.
However, judges during an appeal said the detective omitted facts that would have prevented Sylvester from ever being thrown in jail.
“The power of a lie and the power of lie and accusation go a long way in our system,” Bruce Hagen, an attorney with Hagen Rosskopf, said.
Hagen looked through the ruling with us.
The appeals judges said the affidavit used as the basis of Sylvester’s arrest warrant left out important facts of the timeline.
It did not mention that Harry Hubbard’s niece told police that she talked with Harry at 9:30 p.m. and that the man seemed OK.
Evidence from investigators indicated that the couple was likely strangled shortly before the fire was set around 4 a.m. That would place the time of death around seven hours after Sylvester left the home.
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Video and cell phone data also supported Sylvester’s alibi, showing he never returned to the residence after leaving around 9 p.m. That information was not provided to the judge who signed off on the arrest warrant, according to court paperwork.
“And when you do that, you are violating someone’s rights under the 4th amendment,” Hagen said.
A later investigation by the Fulton County DA found cell phone data, which placed another man, Cornelius Muckle, at the scene around 3 am. Muckle also allegedly pawned items owned by the Hubbards two days after their deaths.
After more than a year in jail, Sylvester was released.
“What is the cost to a person to have their freedom taken away from them?” Hagen asked.
On Monday, an Atlanta City Council Committee approved a $1.5 million settlement. The proposal will go to the full council for a final vote on Monday.
We reached out to Atlanta police and asked if the detective was still employed, but they did not answer the question.
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