Brooklyn Man Exonerated After 19 Years in Prison for 2005 Crown Heights Robbery

Kenneth Windley has been exonerated after 19 years in prison. New evidence proved he unknowingly used a stolen money order taken by two other men.

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 17, 2026, 9:35 AM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from Brooklyn Paper

A Fateful Purchase at an Appliance Store

The case against Kenneth Windley began on April 1, 2005, following the robbery of 70 year old Gerald Ross in a Crown Heights elevator. The thieves escaped with cash and two blank money orders. Later that same day, Windley visited Big Daddy Appliance Store in Brownsville to buy a stove for his mother. In the parking lot, two men he knew from the neighborhood offered to pay the tax on the stove if he traded his cash for their larger money order. Windley, believing it was a legitimate favor, agreed. He used his own driver’s license and provided his home address for the delivery, unknowingly creating a paper trail that would lead to his arrest.

Identification Errors and Sentence Escalation

While the money orders were initially difficult to track, a diligent postal teller eventually located the serial numbers, which led investigators to the appliance store. Despite Windley’s testimony that he had purchased the money order from neighborhood "hustlers," he was placed in a lineup six weeks after the crime. The victim, Gerald Ross, identified Windley as one of the robbers. In March 2007, Windley was convicted of second degree robbery. Due to prior non violent felony convictions, he was sentenced as a persistent felony offender to a mandatory term of 20 years to life in prison.

The CRU Reinvestigation and Pattern of Crimes

Windley’s exoneration was the result of years of persistence. Working with his lawyers and private investigators, Windley eventually identified the two men who had sold him the money order. The Brooklyn DA’s Conviction Review Unit, led by Special Counsel Julio Cuevas, discovered that these two individuals had a documented pattern of committing seven similar robberies between April 2005 and February 2006. Their method was consistent: following elderly men from banks to their homes before robbing them in secluded areas like elevators.