Miami set to pay $1.3 million to man wrongfully jailed 19 months in shooting deaths

A decade after being pilloried in a cult-hit crime-stopping cop show, a Miami man who wrongfully spent 19 months in jail on a pair of murder charges is about to get a large payday.

Three years ago a federal jury awarded Taiwan Smart $850,000 after determining his civil rights were violated when he was wrongfully charged with the shooting deaths of Jonathan Volcy, 18, and his friend Raynathan Ray, 14. The payout, however, was delayed when the City of Miami appealed the verdict.

Now, Miami has chosen to settle. And on Thursday commissioners are set to vote on a $1.3 million settlement that was upped to include attorney fees. Miami New Times first reported the story.

“It’s bittersweet,” said Smart’s attorney, Hilton Napoleon. “I’m happy justice was served and the city had to pay for what it did. But still, at the end of the day, an innocent person had to spend 19 months in jail.”

Smart, who is now 30, was in a Miami home with two friends who were shot to death in November 2009. “The First 48,” a popular A&E show that follows homicide detectives around the country during the first crucial days of investigations, highlighted Smart’s case.

Camera men followed detectives into a home where they believed Smart lived, before he was arrested for the execution-style murders of Volcy and Ray. Nineteen months later, the state dropped the charges after determining they couldn’t prove the case. Smart filed a wrongful arrest lawsuit in federal court.

The lawsuit focused on “The First 48” and the actions of the Miami detectives, Fabio Sanchez and Eutemio Cepero, who interrogated Smart for 19 hours and who were accused of grossly misrepresenting the evidence against him. Smart’s attorneys said their client asked to be polygraphed 85 times during the interrogation. He never was. They also claimed that their client ran from the scene when the shooter opened fire, thinking his friends were behind him.

Then, when Smart was arrested and jailed, according to Napoleon, his cellmate inexplicably turned out to be the shooter, who shared details of the crime that hadn’t been made public.

To this day, no one has been charged with the murders of the two men. Miami, known as a hot-bed of whodunnits and outrageous acts when it comes to major crimes, especially murders, was a popular destination for the show. In all, A&E aired 113 episodes of “The First 48” that involved Miami police. But after receiving criticism from the community and the courts for its over-the-top focus in predominately minority communities, the city cut ties with the show in 2013.

Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina, acknowledging there are public relations benefits to television shows that highlight his detectives, said he’s been asked repeatedly to do shows, even recently.

“But I don’t want an investigator spending even a minute essentially working for the camera instead of elements of the case,” he said. “It’s not worth the tradeoff.”

This story was originally published December 11, 2018 at 4:23 PM.