Accused murderer gets early Christmas present. State can’t find witness, drops charges
Walter Ray Kyles III has spent most of the past six years in jail awaiting trial for the alleged violent beating and robbing of a man at gunpoint, leaving, then returning a few minutes later and killing his victim with several blasts from a semi-automatic rifle.
Earlier this month, Kyles, 34, got an early Christmas present when the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office suddenly dropped a slew of felony charges after a judge refused to give investigators more time to find a key witness.
“The judge would no longer grant a continuance. That’s what led to the case being dropped,” said State Attorney spokesman Ed Griffith. “An essential witness could not be located.”
Kyles’ attorney called the state’s decision just and said his client was home watching a movie when Victor Carter was killed. He claims the state has been dragging its feet with the witness for years and said his client intends on filing a lawsuit against the state for several civil rights violations.
“After making him sit in jail for more than five years, the state shows up and dismisses the case. He walks out a free man and has Christmas with his family,” said attorney Michael Pizzi. “We have been saying for over five years that the alleged eye witness’s identification was never valid. This case should have been dismissed a long time ago.”
Searches for Carter’s family members this week were fruitless. Carter, who was 46 when he was killed, struggled in and out of homelessness before his life ended on a Brownsville street. The charges were dropped Dec. 4.
Home for Christmas
Kyles couldn’t be reached this week, but his mother said he was grateful to be able to spend the holidays with family and his kids.
“I feel blessed to finally have my son home with his family and especially his children this Christmas,” his mom Tanya Pollack Kyles said. Kyles has three children, ages 6, 7 and 9.
Before the January 2018 shooting death of Carter that led to Kyle’s lock-up, the Tallahassee-native had been in and out of jail for years, but mostly for non-violent offenses, like drug possession or traffic violations.
That all changed just after midnight on Jan. 8, 2018. That’s when, Miami police say, after being alerted to gunfire outside a home at 4401 NW 14th Ave., they found Carter dead in a pool of blood. His girlfriend at the time managed to scramble away and was allegedly the key witness the state has been trying to get to testify ever since.
Kyles was soon taken into custody and charged with 10 felonies, including first-degree murder, attempted murder, home invasion and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
According to police, the unidentified woman provided a recorded statement saying she and Carter were asleep inside the home when Kyles and two other men busted through the door and ordered them onto the ground while pointing guns and assault rifles at them. When Carter began to argue, the woman told police, Kyles hit him in the head with a gun several times.
The woman said Kyles then ordered the two of them out of the house and hauled away a television set and some other items in the home and drove off. But he returned less than a minute later, got out of the backseat of the vehicle and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle, the woman said.
She ran off safely. Carter was struck several times in his upper body and head. He was killed immediately. Police say she identified Kyles in a “sequential lineup.” They also said they obtained surveillance video of a “subject matching the physical description of the defendant, armed with what appeared to be rifle...”
Pizzi says his client was never at the crime scene and that investigators pressured the woman to identify Kyles after a failed first attempt.
“Kyles was not on the surveillance video. His fingerprints and DNA were not at the scene or on any weapons. And more importantly, she never identified Kyles,” the attorney said.
