On the afternoon of November 4, 1986, officers with the U.S. Park Police discovered the body of a Black woman lying under a blanket on a bike path just off the Belt Parkway near the entrance to the Jamaica Bay Riding Academy in Brooklyn, New York. She had been strangled to death.
Ten minutes prior to the discovery, another officer with the Park Police had been driving nearby when he saw a white man with a mustache who was 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall and leaning against a gray car parked near the entrance to the academy. The officer would later say that the car appeared to be a 1970s Oldsmobile.
Upon hearing radio transmissions about the discovery of the body, the officer drove to the scene. There, a witness, Peter Mitchell, said that he had been jogging on Belt Parkway when he saw a man whose description resembled that of the man seen earlier.
Mitchell said that from about 1,000 feet away, he had seen a white man and a black woman sitting in a gray car parked by the highway. The man said he then watched the white man, who was wearing red jeans, walk to the passenger side of the car and pull out a body, lay it on the ground and place a blanket over it. The jogger said the man noticed him after just three seconds and ran back to the driver's side.
Because the body was discovered on New York City property, New York police took over the investigation. Detectives interviewed Mitchell and the Park Police officers. Mitchell’s account shifted. He first said the white man was in his 40s and then said the man was in his 60s.
The woman carried no identification but ultimately was identified as 27-year-old Virginia Ann Robertson, from the Flatbush neighborhood in Brooklyn. Testing conducted on hair samples found on Robertson’s body revealed Caucasian characteristics.
The lead New York Police Department detective assigned to the case was Louis Eppolito, who knew that 38-year-old Barry Gibbs, who was white, lived in East Flatbush near where Robertson lived and was acquainted with the victim.
Although Gibbs was 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighed 212 pounds, and had no facial hair, Eppolito focused on him as a suspect. Gibbs was arrested on November 14, 1986 in front of his home.
Years later, Gibbs filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against Eppolito. The lawsuit said that Eppolito interrogated Gibbs about his knowledge of Robertson. During the interrogation, Eppolito repeatedly slapped and beat Gibbs so violently that other detectives came into the interrogation room and pulled Eppolito away.
Because Eppolito had told Gibbs that a witness had identified him, Gibbs agreed to participate in a live line-up. He also consented to a police search of his apartment.
During the search, police found a pair of red jeans that resembled Mitchell’s description of what the man he said he saw dump the body, but the jeans did not fit Gibbs. Police also discovered that Gibbs owned a gray car similar to the car seen where the body was dumped. But Gibbs’s car was inoperable, had two flat tires, and had not been driven for a substantial amount of time.
During the police lineup, Mitchell identified Gibbs as the perpetrator despite the physical differences in stature and weight. The Park Police officer who had seen the car prior to the discovery of the body was never asked to view the lineup.
Gibbs was charged with murder.
He went to trial in January 1988 in Kings County Supreme Court. Mitchell testified about seeing a white man dump the body.
A jailhouse informant testified that he spoke to Gibbs while Gibbs was in jail awaiting trial and Gibbs admitted to killing the victim.
A defense witness, who was also incarcerated with Gibbs prior to the trial, said that Gibbs always maintained his innocence.
On January 31, 1988, the jury convicted Gibbs of murder. On March 25, 1988, he was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.
Nine years after his conviction and after his appeals were denied, Gibbs contacted the Innocence Project (IP) for assistance in obtaining DNA testing.
In response to an IP motion, the prosecution was ordered to search for the evidence–including the Caucasian hairs and a rope that apparently had been used to strangle the victim–and conduct DNA testing. Despite repeated searches, no evidence could be found. Some of the evidence in the case had been reported as destroyed, other items were never found.
Gibbs’s police investigation file was also missing at the time.
In March 2005, Eppolito and another New York police detective, Stephen Caracappa, who were now retired, were arrested by federal agents. They were charged with several murders committed on behalf of organized crime families in New York City.
In a search of Eppolito’s house in Las Vegas, officers found Gibbs’s police file.
The IP then requested that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York, which was prosecuting Eppolito and Caracappa, investigate Gibbs’s claim of innocence.
In that investigation, Mitchell, the eyewitness who had testified at Gibbs’s trial that he had seen the perpetrator while jogging in the area, recanted his testimony. He said Eppolito had threatened his family if he didn’t identify Gibbs in the lineup and again in court.
On September 29, 2005, a motion filed in Kings County Supreme Court by the IP to vacate Gibb’s conviction based on the recantation and Eppolito’s corruption was granted. The prosecution dismissed the charges and Gibbs was released.
Eppolito and Caracappa were convicted of racketeering and sentenced to life in prison, where they both died.
In 2010, Gibbs settled a wrongful conviction lawsuit against the city of New York for $9.9 million. He later settled with the state of New York for an additional $1.9 million.
Gibbs died in March 2018.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 07-22-2026
