A Chicago man who was wrongly imprisoned 17 years for a murder he did not commit was killed during a drug deal Tuesday, three years after finally walking free, the New York Daily News reports.
Alprentiss Nash was shot multiple times during an argument with a man in a “drug deal gone bad,” Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Associated Press, according to the report. A suspect was taken into custody Wednesday but had yet to be charged.
Nash had reportedly texted his lawyer about a half hour before the shooting, saying that he was looking for a job.
The 40-year-old, who had been a drug dealer, was convicted in 1995 on charges he robbed and murdered a bootlegger and was sentenced to 80 years in prison. According to the report, Nash had always insisted on his innocence, saying that he had been selling drugs at the time of the murder.
In August 2012, Nash was released from prison after DNA tests on a ski mask found at the crime scene pointed toward a different man. Nash was given a certificate of innocence and a $200,000 settlement.
Nash reportedly had dreams of opening a restaurant and went to culinary school after his release. However, he had trouble keeping a job. He told family members he was considering moving to Florida or Louisiana, saying that he felt uncomfortable staying in Chicago, fearing that people might try to take his money.
“He really just wanted to disappear and get out of here,” Nash’s attorney, Kathleen Zellner, said, the Daily News notes.
“Nothing has ever felt so heavy on my heart,” Nash’s mother, Yvette Martin, told the Chicago Tribune, the Daily News notes. “All those years he was taken from us, and to lose him again in a short amount of time. He got a second shot at life and then someone took it away. For nothing.”
Read more at the New York Daily News.