DNA Test Frees Trio Convicted in Girl's Murder
N EW Y O R K, June 13 -- — For the first time in 18 years, John Kogut, John Restivo and Dennis Halstead stepped out into the arms of their relatives as free men.
Each had been convicted in the murder of 16-year-old Theresa Fusco, whose nude body was found on Dec. 5, 1984, buried under a wooden pallet covered by leaves in a wooded area of Long Island, N.Y.
The teen had been raped and strangled, and her body was left near the Long Island roller skating rink where she had worked. Several months later prosecutors charged Kogut, Restivo, and Halstead. The three were later convicted on rape and murder charges and sentenced to more than 30 years in prison.
But new DNA evidence showed that semen found on Fusco's body was from another man.
John Restivo was 27 when he went to prison. Now, at 44, he's enjoying his freedom and his mother's pasta dinner for the first time in 18 years.
"For years … someone would ask me 'how I'm doing today?' I'd say 'not good, I woke up on the wrong side of the wall this morning.' Yesterday I was able to say, I woke up on the right side of the wall this morning," Restvio told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.
Kogut, who was 22 when he went to prison, is now 39. He and his fiancee grew apart while he was in prison and are now trying to salvage their relationship.
"We're working on seeing if we can work this out and get back together and see what happens," Kogurt said.
Now 48 and a Grandfather of Four
Halstead went to prison when he was 31. He is now 48, and became a grandfather of four while he was behind bars.
"Naturally, there will be anger and bitterness … something I'm going to have to deal with, but I just want to go on with my life and try to make it through, one day at a time," Halstead said. "It's going to take a long time to build my life."
From the start, the men insisted that they were innocent and that the case against them hinged on a coerced confession.
Defense lawyers said that Kogut gave a videotaped confession, only after more than 18 hours of interrogation and sleep deprivation. In it, he said that Fusco had gotten into a van with him and the two other men. The three sometimes worked for a moving company that Restivo's family owned.
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