An 'overwhelmed' David Ranta left prison with a small bag of belongings and family members ecstatic to see him outside of his cell. His conviction began to fall apart when it was revealed that case detectives used questionable tactics in his case, including coaching witnesses.
David Ranta (l.) walks out of Brooklyn Supreme Court a free man after nearly 23 years in jail after prosecutors vacated his conviction for the 1990 murder of Williamsburg Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger. His attorney Pierre Sussman accompanied him out.
An innocent man was sprung from prison Thursday — more than 20 years after he was wrongfully convicted of killing a beloved Brooklyn rabbi.
David Ranta, 58, could barely contain his excitement, smiling broadly at relatives who hadn’t seen him as a free man since his 1991 conviction. Ranta was found guilty of shooting Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger in a botched jewelry heist in Williamsburg.
The conviction crumbled after a year-long investigation revealed case detectives coached witnesses, did not keep notes and gave incentives to felons who provided information.
“I’m overwhelmed,” Ranta said outside a courtroom in downtown Brooklyn, carrying a purple laundry bag with all his belongings. “Right now, I feel like I’m underwater, swimming.”
“To say that I’m sorry for what you have endured will be an understatement and grossly inadequate, but I say it to you anyway,” Supreme Court Justice Miriam Cyrulnik told Ranta. “Sir, you are a free man.”
Ranta’s sister, Beverly Maccheroni, 51, said the family supported him through the years he spent in a maximum-security prison outside of Buffalo.
“There are no words, no words. I don’t know how he would start over,” said the Staten Island woman. “I’m hoping he comes and stays with me for a while, because I have the biggest house where everybody can come and stay.”
IRabbi Chaskel Werzberger, center right, was killed in 1990 during a botched diamond robbery attempt.
“We’re excited,” said his oldest son, David Ranta Jr., of Virginia. “I just wanted to get up and come here.”
His father’s nightmare dates to Feb. 8, 1990, when Werzberger, a leader of the Satmar Hasidic community, was shot in the head after the attempted robbery of a nearby diamond courier. The gunman ran up to the rabbi’s car and shot him in the forehead. He yanked the victim’s body out of the vehicle and drove off.
A jury found the unemployed former drug addict guilty in May 1991, and he was sentenced to 37 years to life. There was no physical evidence linking Ranta to the crime.
