24-year-old boat captain James Swan Jr. was charged with murder for killing Tyronne Felix in May of 2006 but tonight Swan is a free man. This morning the DPP's office entered a nolle pros against Swan which was his ticket to go home.
Deputy DPP Cheryl Lynn Branker-Taitt says the charges were being dropped because the star witness against Swan had recanted his story.
Felix was killed with a gunshot to the head literally just footsteps from his home on Gill Street. Felix was returning home after the Tanya Stephens Mother's Day concert. Though unrelated, he was killed around the same time as the Brannon brothers. Swan can be rearrested.
And Swan wasn't the only accused murderer to go home today. Basil Willis and Francis Petillo who were charged for killing a deliveryman on May 11th of 2004 also had the cases against them withdrawn this morning. They were charged for Hilberto Aragon but the only eyewitness has now refused to testify. Aragon had just exited his vehicle in front of a Chinese grocery shop when he was accosted by two men who fatally shot him.
Petillo still faces a charge of conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the same killing. Both men cab be rearrested for the murder charge.
