In 1997, Antonio Beaver was sentenced to 18 years in prison after being convicted of committing a violent carjacking near the Gateway Arch.
But recent DNA testing found that Beaver, 41, didn’t commit the crime and nearly 11 years after it occurred, he’s a free man.
St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce held a news conference Thursday morning to announce that Beaver is being fully exonerated. Beaver is the fifth St. Louis man in as many years to be cleared of a crime by DNA testing.
In Beaver’s case, a man attacked a woman as she was parking her car at the Arch in August 1996. During the attack the attacker was cut and some of his blood remained in the car.
The victim went to police with a detailed description of her attacker and helped officers prepare a sketch. During a lineup of potential suspects the woman ended up identifying Beaver, even though he didn’t match her description or the sketch.
Beaver said the $50 per day compensation allowed under state law for wrongly imprisoned inmates would “not really” be enough.
“Not for a big chunk of your life being taken out of you for a crime you didn’t commit. You missed out on your kids growing up … watching them grow up and stuff like that. I mean just enjoying life — having a normal life,” said Beaver.
Beaver began asking for DNA testing of the blood found in the car in 2001 but the state dismissed his request in 2003. Finally a group known as The Innocence Project took up the case in 2005. The state finally agreed to test the DNA in October 2006.
Prosecutors said a man who is currently behind bars is a suspect in the August 1996 crime. His name was not immediately available.
