DNA frees long-jailed man

The Miami Herald
By PAULA McMAHON, Sun Sentinel

Broward County, FL

After a quarter century, Anthony Caravella left jail after DNA testing cast serious doubt on his conviction in a murder.

Anthony Caravella walked out of the Broward County jail on Thursday a free man -- at least temporarily -- for the first time in close to 26 years.

'I can't even tell you how excited I am. I think being free hasn't really hit me yet,'' Caravella told the Sun Sentinel. "It's strange, everything is different.''

A judge ordered Caravella, 41, released after a recent test excluded him as the source of DNA found on the body of a Miramar woman he was convicted of raping and murdering in 1983. Broward prosecutors asked for him to be set free, for now, while they reinvestigate the case.

The last time Caravella was free, he was 15 years old, Ronald Reagan was serving his first presidential term, Michael Jackson's Thriller album topped the charts and a gallon of gas cost $1.24.

His impressions after the 20-minute drive from jail to the Davie home where he'll be living for the foreseeable future: People dress differently than in the 1980s, and traffic in Broward is much worse.

Being free after so long, it seemed, was intimidating and overwhelming.

He walks with his hands behind his back, a habit he picked up from being frequently handcuffed during incarceration. When a door opens, he stands by it, waiting to be told if it's OK to enter. He's worried he'll get lost if he walks outside. He can't quite believe that he can decide what to do, and when.

"I'm so used to people telling me what to do and now I'm on my own,'' he said.

Caravella, who has an IQ of 67, wants to work and hopes someone will give him that chance. He would like to go to a Miami Dolphins game and, some day, maybe even visit Disney World.

FAMILY REUNION

Caravella was reunited with his brother, Larry Dunlap, 30, and sister, Angela Butler, 43, in the lobby of the jail in downtown Fort Lauderdale. He grabbed their hands, then hugged them tightly before embracing and thanking his lawyer, Chief Assistant Public Defender Diane Cuddihy, and a Sun Sentinel reporter, both of whom worked on his case since 2001.

"I believe the world's big enough to start over,'' Caravella said. "Do I feel bitter? How do you answer that?''

The first thing Caravella did after his release was visit the mausoleum where his mother's remains are interred. Lorraine Buckels died at age 63 in July 2001, shortly after legal efforts began to overturn her son's conviction.

She always believed he was wrongfully convicted and constantly reminded her other children of his plight. On her death bed, she made her children promise they would keep trying to free him.

'I WANT TO GO HOME'

Caravella, who grew up in Miramar the eighth of 11 children, wasn't allowed out of prison to attend her funeral. He spent somber minutes staring up at the marble plaque that marks her resting place at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Davie. "I just wanted her to know I walked out,'' he said.

Then, he told his brother and sister: "I want to go home.''

Waiting for him there was "an Italian feast'' of cheese-stuffed pasta shells, meatballs and "Mom's special sauce'' -- a secret family recipe. He may never eat turkey again, he said, because it seemed most of his prison meals contained turkey dogs, turkey burgers or turkey something else. He has seen an ad for a McDonald's sundae and he would like to try one.

Caravella confessed to the rape and murder of Ada Cox Jankowski, 58, in five statements the defense said Miramar police beat and coerced from him. Caravella was serving life in prison when his youngest brother, Dunlap, read newspaper stories about DNA exonerations. Dunlap called a Sun Sentinel reporter in 2001 and said, "I think my brother's in prison for something he didn't do.'' He asked if DNA testing, unavailable in 1983, might help.

'I JUST BELIEVED HIM'

The reporter found issues for concern in the case and asked the Public Defender's Office to help the family. Cuddihy began an eight-year effort to clear Caravella. "I can't tell you [why I thought he was innocent],'' Cuddihy said. "I just believed him.''

Broward prosecutor Carolyn McCann agreed to DNA testing on the surviving evidence and in 2001, Broward Sheriff's Office lab workers said there was nothing to implicate or exonerate Caravella. They also said there was no testable semen on the evidence.

But Cuddihy never gave up. She kept the two large boxes of files by her desk where she joked that she tripped over them every day for the last eight years. "I couldn't bear to put them away,'' she said.

Earlier this year, prosecutors agreed to let the defense have the evidence tested at a private California lab. Last week, the results excluded Caravella as the source of the DNA and turned up the genetic profile of an unidentified male.

Legal technicalities kept Caravella in jail two days longer than the judge mandated. Because he was convicted of Jankowski's rape, the Department of Children & Families had to determine if he should be civilly committed after his prison sentence. DCF agreed Thursday that he should be released. Caravella must still wear a GPS monitor, obey an 11 p.m. curfew, submit to random drug tests and report daily to pretrial release officers.

CASE CONTINUES

The legal battle is not over. Cuddihy has filed a legal request asking a Broward judge to exonerate Caravella and permanently free him. In the petition, she noted the test results, as well as several aspects of Caravella's confessions that contradict physical evidence, allegations Caravella was hit and coerced with promises he could get his then-girlfriend out of trouble, and other concerns she said undermine the validity of the conviction. Broward prosecutors are continuing their investigation. A court hearing has not yet been scheduled.

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