Retrial underway in Schenectady murder case

Jeremiah Hamilton, right, with his attorney Frederick Rench during opening statements in Schenectady County Court at Hamilton's murder trial Tuesday. Hamilton was previously convicted of the 2008 killing of Jerome Cannon, but an appeals court reversed ...

Attorneys in the murder trial of Jeremiah Hamilton made their initial arguments Tuesday: The prosecutor arguing Hamilton shot and killed a man trying to protect him; the defense arguing key witness accounts are paid for with deals.

Shawna DuBoise, the mother of the man Hamilton is accused of killing, Jerome Cannon, heard much of it before in the eight years since her son’s death.

She heard it in 2012 at Hamilton’s first trial, one where a jury convicted Hamilton and a judge called the evidence of guilt overwhelming.

An appeals court, however, found the first conviction flawed based on a jury selection issue and ordered a new trial. That new trial began Tuesday with opening statements.

“It just opens old wounds,” DuBoise told The Gazette Tuesday after opening statements in the case, “wounds that never really totally closed.

“It’s like living a nightmare that you never wake up from.”

Hamilton, 31, faces second-degree murder and other charges, accused of shooting and killing Cannon Sept. 13, 2008 on Lincoln Avenue during a dispute over a dice game.

Prosecutors have described the 20-year-old Cannon as a peacemaker in a heated argument that erupted between Hamilton and another man. Hamilton opened fire, prosecutors said, and one of his three shots struck Cannon in the head, killing him. Hamilton wasn’t arrested until January 2011.

Convicted after the 2012 trial, the judge sentenced him to 40 years to life in prison. At the same proceedings, Hamilton continued to proclaim his innocence, saying the “odds were stacked against” him.

The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court last year focused on a jury selection issue. The court found Hamilton did not receive a fair trial because the defense had to use one of its limited juror challenges when it shouldn’t have and ultimately ran out pf challenges.

Despite the murder case ruling, Hamilton continues to serve up to eight years in state prison on a Bronx attempted murder conviction. Hamilton fled the Bronx shooting to Schenectady only weeks before Cannon’s killing, prosecutors said.

Judge Michael V. Coccoma is presiding over the current trial; Judge Karen Drago presided over the first one.

On Tuesday, new prosecutor Peter Willis argued Cannon died trying to protect Hamilton. Hamilton opened fire as Cannon spoke to Victor Toomer, the man with whom Hamilton had the dice game dispute, Willis said.

Toomer and friends had chased Hamilton from the game. Hamilton returned with friend Cannon and a gun. Cannon also knew Toomer, walking over to try to calm the situation when Hamilton opened fire, Willias said.

“The defendant didn’t want to be protected,” Willis told the jury. “He wanted to shoot. … He wanted to kill. And that’s what that man did.”

Hamilton’s new defense attorney, Frederick Rench, took a similar approach as original defense attorney, Michael Horan. Rench focused on the witnesses that prosecutors say will implicate Hamilton in the murder. Not one is believable because of their changing stories and the deals prosecutors made to get them to testify, Rench said.

“The witnesses are going to fail, the proof is going to fail and the case is going to fail,” Rench told the jury.

While Cannon’s family is attending the trial, Rench said during a break that Hamilton’s father is expected to attend later.

DuBoise knows the reason the appeals court sent the case back to trial didn’t involve the evidence. She’s hoping for the same outcome as the first trial.

“With the support of my family, I made it through the first one,” DuBoise said. “I’ll make through this one.”