GUILTY CONSCIENCE

Innocent Man Free After Star Witness Admits She Committed the Murder

Bryan Hooper Sr. spent nearly three decades behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit.

A man wrongly convicted of murder has walked free after a star witness whose testimony helped put him behind bars dramatically confessed to the crime after becoming overwhelmed with guilt.

Bryan Hooper Sr., from Minnesota, spent 27 years behind bars after he was falsely accused of murdering Ann Prazniak, 77, in 1998.

“Twenty-seven years of missed birthdays, missed milestones, holidays. 27 years of lost opportunity and time that we can’t get back. But today we don’t have to lose, we don’t,” his daughter Bri’ana Hooper said during a press conference.

His conviction was primarily based on testimony from a woman, Chalaka Young, who later admitted to committing the crime.

After the confession, Hooper Sr.’s murder conviction was overturned, and the wrongly-imprisoned father finally walked free from Stillwater correctional facility on Thursday, where his children greeted him.

He said he planned to enjoy a meal with them that evening and would make a home for himself in the Twin Cities area, where his family lives.

Prazniak’s body was found dead inside a cardboard box wrapped with Christmas lights at her Minneapolis apartment in 1998. The cause of death was asphyxiation, and her body lay dormant for more than two weeks before police discovered it.

Both Young and Hooper Sr.’s fingerprints were found at the apartment, which was said to have been a “haven” for drug use and prostitution. When questioned about the murder, Young claimed Hooper Sr. forced her to act as a lookout while he killed the woman, and ordered her to hide the body.

Four other witnesses corroborated Young’s false testimony at the time, but were later found to have been incentivised to do so, and all retracted their testimony over the years.

The truth finally came to light in July, when Young confessed it was time to “take responsibility for two innocent lives that I have destroyed” while serving an 8-year sentence for unrelated charges.

“I am not okay any longer with an innocent man sitting in prison for a crime he did not commit,” she wrote in a letter to prosecutors. “Soul [sic] purpose here is not to make any excuse but to take responsibility for two innocent lives that I have destroyed and… to make true amends for once in my life.”

Young later repeated the admission to investigators and even to family members on a recorded prison phone line.

“Today, the courts have affirmed what Bryan Hooper, his family, his loved ones, and his advocates have always known: Mr Hooper is an innocent man,” county attorney Mark Moriarty said in a statement.

“It is our duty as prosecutors to hold the correct individuals responsible for their actions, and that duty demands that we acknowledge our mistakes and make things right as quickly as we can.”

The judge wrote: “The court finds that Mr Hooper’s conviction was tainted by false evidence and that without this false testimony, the jury might have reached a different conclusion.”

Prazniak’s murder case will now be returned to the Minneapolis Police Department for further investigation.

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Tom SandersReporter

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.