EXCLUSIVE: Harlem man exonerated for triple murder dies less than a year after his release from prison
Sharrif Wilson, 38, passed away Saturday night at Mount Sinai Hospital, where he had been hospitalized since the end of December after complaining of breathing problems. Wilson spent 21 years locked up, along with Antonio Yarbough, for the gruesome murders of Yarbough’s mother, 12-year-old sister and another 12-year-old relative in 1992.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, January 12, 2015, 2:30 AM
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NY STATE CORRECTIONS DEPARTMENT
JESSE WARD/JESSE WARD FOR NEW YORK DAILY NE
Sharrif Wilson, 38, passed away less than a year after he was exonerated in a 1992 triple murder.
A Harlem resident who spent more than 21 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit died Saturday night, less than a year after restarting his life as a free man.
Sharrif Wilson, 38, passed away at 10:59 p.m. at Mount Sinai Hospital, where he had been hospitalized since the end of December after complaining of breathing problems, his lawyer Adam Perlmutter said.
Wilson suffered from acute respiratory distress syndrome, a health condition his lawyer said was greatly exacerbated by his years in prison.
“He was a young healthy man when he went in and he was a sick unhealthy man when he came out,” Perlmutter said.
Wilson spent more than two decades locked up, along with Antonio Yarbough, 40, for the gruesome murders of Yarbough’s mother, 12-year-old sister and another 12-year-old relative in 1992. All three had been choked with electrical cords and stabbed to death.
ANDREW SAVULICH/NEW YORK DAILY NEWSLeft to right: Tiffany Wilson (sister), Steven Quhshi (brother-in-law), Fatima Wilson (sister), Asiyah (neice), and Gloria wilson (mother) in their Bronx apartment.
Wilson confessed to police and testified against Yarbough in exchange for a lighter sentence, but later recanted, saying that police had coerced his confession.
The pair were released in February after Brooklyn prosecutors agreed to drop the case in the face of new evidence.
Most notably, DNA found on Yarbough’s mother matched that found on the body of another murder victim from 1999, Magdalia Ruiz, even though the two men had been locked up for years, as the Daily News first reported.
Members of Wilson’s family said they were heartbroken to have lost him.
COURTESY OF ADAM PERLMUTTER
ANDREW SAVULICH/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sharrif Wilson had been hospitalized since the end of December after complaining of breathing problems.
“It felt like my heart was without my chest,” said sister Tiffany Wilson, 28, who added that Sharrif Wilson was beloved by her 3-year old.
“He was going to take her to ballet class,” she said.
His sisters said Wilson worked hard to reintegrate himself into a world that had changed so much since he had been locked away.
Tiffany said her brother was enamored with modern technology like cellphones and social media, which he used to do research and connect with family and friends.
CNNAnthony Yarbough and Sharrif Wilson talk to Piers Morgan about living behind bars for 21 years.
“You couldn’t get him off,” she said.
Wilson is survived by his mother and two brothers in addition to his sisters.
Perlmutter, who employed Wilson part-time to help investigate Ruiz’s homicide, said that the family has begun the process filing civil lawsuits against both the city and the state for his incarceration.
Yarbough and Wilson, who were kept separate during their long imprisonment, were publically reconnected in a powerful side-by-side interview by CNN’s Piers Morgan in February.
“I find it heartbreaking that a boy could serve (21) years for a crime he didn’t commit and finally come home and have only 11 months to spend with his family,” Yarbough said in a statement given to The News by his lawyer. “My heart breaks for the family and the mother that lost her son not once but twice.”
