Adam Carmon Walks Free From Prison

After 29 years in prison, Adam Carmon walked out of the Church Street courthouse handcuff-free on Monday. His son, Najee, ran out after him. They hugged for a minute, tears streaming down their faces.

“You’re here. You’re here. You’re here,” murmured Najee, who had only ever seen his father in prison or in court. 

The hug took place two weeks after a judge overturned Carmon’s conviction for the notorious 1994 murder of 7‑month-old Danielle Taft, whose killing inside the home of her grandmother rocked the city and lead to passage of gun-control legislation statewide.

“It’s been a long time,” Carmon said, his breath visible in the cold. ​“We’ve still got a fight to go.”

Carmon was able to take those first steps outside of the Church Street courthouse Monday evening because of a ruling that a state judge made inside of that same building earlier in the afternoon.

Superior Court Judge Gerald Harmon, presiding over a courtroom filled with trembling knees and silent prayers, ruled at the end of a bond hearing that Carmon could leave prison on a $500,000 bond so long as he spends 24 hours a day at a halfway house wearing a GPS monitor.

Carmon’s lead attorney, David Keenan, summarized the case during the hearing in Courtroom 6A: Carmon was convicted in 1995 of a shooting that killed baby Danielle in her stroller and paralyzed her grandmother, Charlene Troutman. He maintained his innocence ever since the crime, and spent 28 years in prison before a civil trial last spring brought his case back to light. 

Following the trial, Judge Jon Alander vacated Carmon’s conviction, citing a multitude of evidence that the state suppressed in Carmon’s original court case as well as new scientific developments that recast the forensic evidence against him. ​“How could anyone have confidence in a verdict of guilty in a case such as this?” Alander wrote in his decision. 

In Harmon’s courtroom, Keenan argued that his client — once again legally presumed innocent until proven guilty of the 1994 murder — should be released on bond, without any GPS monitoring. 

Keenan noted that Carmon, who had been 21 at the start of his incarceration, is now 50 years old. ​“His life has been considerably reformed,” Keenan said, noting a lack of disciplinary infractions for the past 20 years, a newfound Muslim identity, and stellar work performance reviews from the Department of Correction.

New Haven State’s Attorney John Doyle stood up to argue that Harmon should consider a bond commensurate with the egregious nature of the crime for which Carmon was arrested back in 1994. ​“This was a homicide of an infant,” he said. 

He said that his team is still deciding on whether or not to re-try the case. For now, they are treating Carmon as an accused suspect. ​“Our office is going to conduct an assessment of available evidence,” he said. ​“Mistakes were made. Perhaps they can be rectified, perhaps they can’t.”

(When asked later why the state’s attorney is only now re-investigating the case, a representative of Doyle’s office declined to comment due to the pending nature of the trial.)

Harmon ultimately landed on a $500,000 non-surety bond — meaning that Carmon would need to sign an agreement holding him liable for that amount should he fail to re-appear in court. Carmon would not, however, need to pay the bond upfront. Harmon said he aimed to balance the ​“severity of the crime” with ​“how long a time has passed” when deciding on the bond.

“As of this moment, he has not been found innocent,” Harmon said. 

He ordered that Carmon be required to spend all hours at a re-entry program in Meriden, which offers mandatory programming from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Carmon will have to wear an ankle GPS monitor and submit to random drug tests throughout his release.

The Long Wait

In the hour leading up to Harmon’s decision, nearly a dozen of Carmon’s friends and relatives waited anxiously on the sixth floor of the state courthouse.

Carmon’s 27-year-old son, Najee Carmon-Reynolds, sat as close as he could to the seat where his father would soon be led in handcuffs. He was born after his father was incarcerated, and he gradually grew close to Carmon through prison visits and phone calls. He believes in his father’s innocence. As he waited for the marshals to escort his dad to the courtroom, his knees shook compulsively. 

“I’m happy he has a chance, but I also know how the justice system is,” he said. ​“It’s not what you know, but what you can prove. I’m optimistic, but I expect the unexpected.”

He imagined playing basketball with his dad — a sport the two of them love. ​“He always talks smack,” Carmon-Reynolds said. ​“I’m going to want him to live his life, but I know he’s gonna want to be with me because of all the time we lost.”

Among Carmon’s supporters who came to the courtroom were friends he’d made in prison.

Those friends included Gaylord Salters, whose conviction is also being re-investigated by the state’s attorney’s office after the sole witness against him recanted. Salters knew Carmon from working in the prison kitchen and from researching the legalities of their cases together. 

“We talked about the corruption in New Haven,” Salters said, referring to the series of wrongful convictions on the part of New Haven police and prosecutors in the 1990s and early 2000s. ​“They’re taking people’s lives.”

Abdullah Siddiq, who got out of prison on a sentence commutation, also knew Carmon from working in the prison kitchen. ​“I just love him,” he said. ​“I thought he’d be home before me.”

On the other side of the courtroom sat Shirley Troutman, Danielle’s mother and Charlene’s daughter. Troutman and two relatives wore T‑shirts that read ​“Justice for Danielle.”

“At this point, I just want justice for my baby and justice for my mother,” Troutman said solemnly.

“If Adam Carmon is not the perpetrator or the monster that did such a horrendous crime, then we still have a killer among these streets for a crime that took place February 3 of 94,” said Angel Hubbard, Danielle’s cousin, later that day. ​“We would not want nobody to be wrongfully convicted of a crime they did not commit, but right now, we just want [the killer] to be held accountable.”

“We went from ​‘Rest in Peace’ to ​‘Justice for Baby Danielle,’ ” Hubbard added. ​“We are now reliving what took place.”

Carmon-Reynolds and Troutman were praying for opposite outcomes, but when they saw each other, they met in the middle of the courtroom for a hug.

“I have no hard feelings whatsoever,” one of them whispered; from a distance, it wasn’t clear who.

Later, Carmon-Reynolds said that while he believes in his father’s innocence, he feels connected to baby Danielle, who was murdered shortly before he was born. 

“After she passed, I came,” he said. ​“Maybe some of her good is in me.”

Immediately after Judge Harmon ruled and the court adjourned, neither Carmon-Reynolds nor Troutman knew what to say.

Troutman left the courtroom in tears.

“I don’t know right now,” Carmon-Reynolds said. ​“I gotta see him on this side, I gotta see him on this side.”

"I'm Adam Now"

At 4:50 p.m., Carmon finally received his mandatory GPS anklet, along with permission to leave the building.

Tears streaked his face as he hugged his son, and his cousin, and his aunt.

“Thank you, everybody,” he said to his lawyers. 

“I’m not vindicated yet,” he added. He plans to ​“enjoy family for right now.”

Donald Moody handed Carmon a paper bag with a steak and cheese sandwich, topped with tomatoes and lettuce and fries. 

“I wanted him to taste something different from the past 29 years,” Moody said.

Moody said he met Carmon inside prison, when he was 17 and Carmon was in his early 20s. He looks up to Carmon like an older brother, he said.

From the moment that Carmon took his first steps outside, Moody live-streamed the scene on social media.

“20’s home,” he told the camera, using Carmon’s street nickname.

“I’m Adam now,” Carmon called out, mid-hug with his family. ​“20 is dead.”

Previous Independent coverage of Adam Carmon’s overturned conviction:

• Day 1 of habeas trial: New Trial Sought In Baby’s Murder
• Day 2: Lost Years Flow Into Courtroom 5a
• Day 3: Trial Goes Down Memory Hole
• Day 4: Hyphen, Click Probed In Baby-Murder Case
• Day 5 & 6: Trial Q: When Did 2nd Suspect Not Lie?
• Day 7: Q For Judge: Would Verdict Have Changed?
• The ruling: New Trial Ordered In Baby-Murder Case
• Carmon Seeks Release From Prison After Judge’s New-Trial Order In Baby-Murder Case
• Judge Accelerates Adam Carmon’s Likely Release

Click here to read articles published at the time of Danielle’s murder about the circumstances both in the case and the surrounding neighborhood, as well as an interview with the man who owned the gun stolen to commit the killing. Click here for a story about how the family and neighborhood were faring 20 years after the murder, and here for an account of Danielle’s posthumous 21st birthday.