After 30 years in prison for murder, new DNA evidence frees Hawaii man
who maintained innocence
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 [February 22, 2025]
By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER
HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii man who spent 30 years in prison for a murder
he long denied committing declared the day “Freedom Friday” and said he
was eager to visit his mother after a judge ordered him released because
of new DNA evidence.
There were gasps and cries in the courtroom when Judge Kirstin Hamman
said, “And the judgement and sentence is vacated and the defendant is
ordered to be released from custody,” before a Zoom feed broadcasting
the hearing suddenly turned off.
She ruled that new evidence, including DNA test results, would likely
change the outcome of another trial against Gordon Cordeiro.
The case involves the 1994 killing of Timothy Blaisdell during a drug
deal robbery on the island of Maui.
Cordeiro's first trial ended in a hung jury, with only one juror voting
to convict him. But he was later found guilty of murder, robbery and
attempted murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of
parole.
The Hawaii Innocence Project took up his case, and during a hearing this
week it argued that Cordeiro must be released on the grounds of new
evidence proving his innocence, ineffectiveness of his previous attorney
and prosecutorial misconduct.
Maui County Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin said he was disappointed
in the ruling and “None of the judge's findings exonerate him in any
way.”
His office intends to appeal and file a motion seeking to impose bail on
Cordeiro's release, Martin added, saying there is a flight risk because
a murder charge is involved.
Kenneth Lawson, co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project, said it was
a very emotional moment.
“He cried, we all cried,” Lawson said. “He believed that he was going to
be exonerated ... but having gone through two trials, you lose faith in
the justice system. To finally hear a judge say, ‘I’m vacating your
convictions,’ that’s when it hit him.”
Following his release Cordeiro, now 51, stood outside the Maui Community
Correctional Center and talked to reporters, calling it “Freedom
Friday.” The Associated Press listened by phone from Honolulu.
He said he felt thankful. He thanked his supporters, the judge and even
prosecutors who stipulated to certain facts in the case.
“I'd like to go see my mom,” Cordeiro said. “Would be nice.”
Asked about adjusting to life as a free man after 30 years behind bars,
he said, “I got good support.”
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In this photo provided by Kenneth Lawson, Gordon Cordeiro, who spent
30 years in prison for a murder he said he didn't commit, enjoys
dinner at a steak house Friday, Feb. 21, 2025, in Kahului, Hawaii,
hours after a judge ordered him released because of new evidence.
(Kenneth Lawson via AP)
According to court documents filed by Cordeiro’s attorneys, he was
wrongfully convicted in part because police relied upon four
jailhouse informants motivated by promises of reduced sentences and
fabricated murder-for-hire plots.
“Unfortunately for Cordeiro, the State’s use of incentivized
jailhouse informants and their fabricated evidence and testimony
about the murder-for-hire plots, was enough to convince a jury of
his guilt in his second trial,” the Hawaii Innocence Project said in
a court filing.
However the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to show that
the state intentionally used false testimony and rejected a claim of
prosecutorial misconduct.
Cordeiro had several alibis for the day Blaisdell was killed, his
attorneys said: The then-22-year-old was at home with his parents
and sisters, spending the day building a shelving unit in his
family's open-air garage and installing a stereo in his sister's car
— nowhere near the so-called Skid Row area in upcountry Maui where
the killing happened.
Blaisdell had gone to Skid Row with a man named Michael Freitas and
planned to buy a pound of marijuana with $800 in cash, according to
court documents. His body was found at the bottom of a ravine.
Freitas kept changing his story, Cordeiro's attorneys said, and he
shifted the blame onto their client, a friend who he falsely
believed had “snitched” on him in an unrelated drug case.
After Cordeiro's conviction, new testing on physical evidence from
the scene excluded him as the source of DNA on Blaisdell's body and
other crime scene evidence, the Hawaii Innocence Project said, and a
a DNA profile of an unidentified person was found on the inside
pockets of Blaisdell's jeans.
The judge agreed that the new DNA evidence and new information about
gunshot residue would change the results of a later trial.
Cordeiro's attorneys believe Freitas, who died in 2020, set
Blaisdell up to be robbed and was involved in his killing.
“The police botched this case from the beginning and turned the No.
1 suspect into the state's star witness, resulting in a 30-plus-year
nightmare and miscarriage of justice for Gordon and his family,”
Lawson said.
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