Thursday, June 29, 2017 | 3:52 p.m.
A man wrongfully convicted of murder and imprisoned for more than 20 years is going free after another man admitted to the killing, according to the Clark County District Attorney’s Office.
DeMarlo Berry, 42, went to prison in 1995 for the murder of Charles Burkes, 32, a Carl’s Jr. manager who was found shot to death in 1994 after a robbery at the restaurant near Eastern Avenue and Charleston Boulevard, officials said.
Through the years, Berry maintained his innocence, saying another man, Steven Jackson, committed the crime, officials said.
In 2013, while in prison for a separate 1996 murder conviction, Jackson submitted an affidavit claiming responsibility for Burkes’ death, officials said.
Last year, members of the district attorney’s Conviction Review Unit conducted an independent investigation of the case, including an interview with Jackson, who provided additional information about the crime scene that only someone who was there could have known, officials said.
The investigation also determined there was no contact between Berry and Jackson since Berry’s conviction, officials said.
“My goal in creating the CRU was to provide a way for certain cases to be reviewed independently and evaluated on a variety of factors, including new evidence,” Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said in a news release.
“In this case, a confession by Mr. Jackson, and verification of that and other information by our CRU, resulted in our decision to no longer oppose Mr. Berry’s request for conviction relief,” Wolfson said. “The end result is Mr. Berry will be released from prison after over two decades behind bars.”
