The city of Atlanta will pay $1.5 million to a man who spent 15 months in jail after being wrongly accused by the Atlanta Police Department in the deaths of his parents.
“I feel a lot better now,” Keith Sylvester told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I know that this could have went another way and that’s even scary still thinking about that. I’m just very happy that the truth came out. I’m very happy about the current situation.”
The bodies of his mother, Deborah Hubbard, 65, and stepfather, Harry Hubbard, 67, were found inside their burning home in northwest Atlanta in July 2018. Sylvester said he helped investigators all he could, even spending nights without sleeping.
Five months after the incident Sylvester was charged with murder, accused of committing the crime in a bid for insurance money. Charges against Sylvester were dropped in March 2020 after evidence pointed to a suspect now facing trial on murder charges. Sylvester filed a lawsuit in September 2019.
“I did the best I could to be truthful and I told (authorities) a lot of things,” Sylvester said. “I just never thought that they would have blamed me for that.”
In a 2020 interview Sylvester told the AJC he thought officers were playing a trick on him to get more information when he was arrested.
Sylvester’s lawsuit against Atlanta police investigator James Barnett was dismissed in 2022 but later revived by a federal appeals court in March. Court records showed Barnett omitted key facts in his affidavit the arrest warrant.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a reasonable jury could find Barnett intentionally or recklessly left out information that exonerated Sylvester and that if they had been corrected, his reasoning for arresting Sylvester in the first place “fails to establish even arguable probable cause.”
“When Detective Barnett submitted his affidavit, a great deal of evidence tending to exonerate Sylvester had already come to light,” the court of appeals judges said. “Yet, none of that evidence was included in the affidavit.”
A spokesperson for the Atlanta Police Department said previously it doesn’t comment on pending litigation; asked for comment on the settlement the department said only that Barnett is still employed as an investigator. According to Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council records, Barnett was hired as a police officer in October 2005 before being promoted to investigator in April 2010. He has no disciplinary history.
Cornelius Muckle, who authorities say pawned several items belonging to the Hubbards two days after their deaths, was indicted on felony murder and other charges in 2021. His trial is scheduled to start Oct. 3.
Sylvester said he is still grieving his parents. Asked what he would say to the officer who arrested him, he couldn’t answer as because his mood is constantly changing.
“I wouldn’t want anybody that’s innocent to go through what I went through,” Sylvester said. “I’m fully aware and I fully believe now that there are innocent people in jail and prison.”
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