David Yeager and his girlfriend were at a New Orleans bus stop, when they were accosted by two Black males on the night of August 7, 1981. One of the men asked if they wanted to buy some weed or if they had any to sell. They said no. The man displayed the gun he had under his jacket and demanded money. Mr. Yeager, 23 years old, pushed the gunman. The female victim, 15 years old, started running. She heard a shot and turned to see the gunman shoot Mr. Yeager in the head. She returned to him as the assailant fled. The second man robbed Mr. Yeager of a wallet and ran. Mr. Yeager was shot twice – once in the leg and once in the head.
The investigation, led by Det. Marco Demma, dragged on for several months without any real leads. The female victim was shown many photos of suspects, but no identifications were made. On February 15, 1982, a local station aired a CrimeStoppers segment purporting to re-enact the crime and a reward was offered. Police claimed that they received a tip naming Calvin Duncan on February 18, 1982. No other tips were noted by police. Another CrimeStoppers tip was received in July 1982, five months after the first tip and nearly a year after the crime. A caller claiming to be Mr. Duncan’s girlfriend reported that Mr. Duncan was living in Oregon. The female victim was shown a photo of Mr. Duncan, taken when he was 14 years old, though he was 18 when the crime took place. She made a tentative identification of Mr. Duncan and asked for a live lineup. The state used her cross-racial identification, testimony from two Oregon police who claimed that Mr. Duncan made a statement with details of the crime, and the two CrimeStoppers tips to persuade a jury to convict Mr. Duncan of first degree murder in January 1985. He was sentenced to life.
Innocence & Justice Louisiana’s investigation uncovered new evidence that illuminated flaws in the identification, contradicted the Oregon police claims, and revealed key details about the tips received by police. The female victim’s repeated descriptions of the perpetrator differed from Mr. Duncan in complexion, build, and the fact that gunman did not have gold teeth. Mr. Duncan, at the time, had gold teeth. Two Oregon police officers testified that Mr. Duncan had spontaneously provided details of the crime that were unknown to them. In their police reports, however, they describe Mr. Duncan asking them about the crime they’d arrested him for. They told him that the murder happened during a robbery and that a female witnessed the crime.
Though New Orleans police testified that both anonymous tips had named Mr. Duncan as the gunman, documents revealed that one caller only told police where Mr. Duncan was living and the other caller stated that he was interested in the reward money. Other documents discovered corroborated Mr. Duncan’s alibi. In response to Innocence & Justice Louisiana filing new evidence of innocence in court, the state offered Mr. Duncan a plea deal that meant immediate release. After 28.5 years in prison, Mr. Duncan accepted the deal, which involved him pleading to a lesser charge. He was released in January 2011, but continued the fight to clear his name.
In August 2021, 40 years after the crime, his plea was vacated and he was finally cleared of a murder he did not commit.
