Crime & Justice

Texas Man Serving Life Sentence to Be Exonerated After New DNA Evidence Leads to New Arrest

JUSTICE

He has served seven years of a life sentence.

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Bertrand Guay/Reuters

A Texas man who has been serving a life sentence will be exonerated after investigators found evidence that points to a different suspect, authorities said. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office said Lydell Grant, 42, has been eliminated as a suspect and another person has been arrested in the murder case of 28-year-old Aaron Scheerhoorn. Grant was freed on bond last month after serving seven years of a life sentence when investigators conducted a new analysis on the DNA found on the victim’s fingernails. “We are relieved that Lydell’s wrongful conviction has had this important breakthrough. We look forward to his full exoneration at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals,” Mike Ware, executive director of the Innocence Project of Texas and one of Grant’s attorneys, told the Associated Press. Authorities now believe Jermarico Carter, 41, is the killer. Police arrested him in Georgia on Thursday. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said Carter has admitted to killing Scheerhoorn.

Read it at AP