Man freed from death row in the ‘90s arrested on attempted murder charge

By Heather Nolan
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

A former death row inmate whose 1996 murder conviction was overturned by the Louisiana Supreme Court in 2004 was arrested Thursday (March 14) on an attempted murder charge in New Orleans.

Dan Bright, 50, is accused of stabbing a man multiple times Wednesday afternoon in a yard in the Lower 9th Ward. Bright made an initial appearance in magistrate court Friday, where Judge Harry Cantrell set his bond at $400,000.

Cantrell also pointed the Orleans Public Defenders office to represent him, according to court records.

According to court records, NOPD Detective Nicholas Buckel interviewed the victim at University Medical Center Wednesday night, where he was being treated for stab wounds to his forehead, left arm, right thigh, and two lacerations to his back.

The victim was in critical condition prior to and during surgery because of the stab wound to his left arm, which struck a major vein, according to an arrest warrant affidavit signed by Buckel.

The victim told Buckel he and Poonie, whom Buckel identified as Bright, were involved in a verbal altercation inside a house. The victim said, “he likes to run his mouth and I said, ‘You’re not going to talk to me like this,’” according to Buckel’s arrest warrant affidavit.

Bright struck the victim with a closed fist on the right side of his face, and again when they moved to a yard across the street, according to the affidavit.

After fighting for a few seconds, the victim told Buckel that Bright pulled out a knife of an unknown length and began to stab him, according to the affidavit. The victim grabbed Bright’s arm with the knife, but Bright broke free and stabbed the vicim in the back, according to the affidavit.

The victim told Buckel the next thing he remembered was waking up in the hospital.

Trail of blood found at scene of stabbing

Buckel wrote in his arrest warrant affidavit that a “concerned citizen” flagged him down during his initial investigation and told him the victim and Bright were involved in a verbal altercation Wednesday afternoon in the 6400 block of Marque Street. The victim yelled, “No, Poonie don’t!” then screamed loudly in pain, according to the affidavit.

The citizen, who did not witness the stabbing, reported recognizing the voices of both the victim and Bright. The citizen, according to Bright’s arrest warrant affidavit, knew the victim from childhood and said Bright had been around the last eight months.

Buckel wrote in his affidavit that he saw a trail of fresh blood leading up to black metal stairs at the back of a house in the 1200 block of Delery Street, which runs directly next to the 6400 block of Marque Street. The victim was in the tub covered in blood, Buckel wrote, and was suffering from several stab wounds.

A trail of blood led outside the home and across the street, and stopped in a field on Marque Street, according to Buckel’s affidavit.

There were signs of a physical altercation in the field, he wrote, noting he observed a “large amount” of pooled and dried blood saturated in dirt, and a visible face print in the dirt where the victim likely fell. Buckel also found a pair of gold teeth in the dirt that witnesses said belonged to the victim, according to the affidavit.

The concerned citizen told Buckel that Bright has been around the neighborhood the last eight months, and has “bragged several times about how he was once found guilty of murder and how the Innocence Project helped him get out of jail,” according to Buckel’s affidavit.

Buckel searched Bright’s name online and found an Innocence Project New Orleans article about him, he wrote in the affidavit. The citizen identified the man in the article’s accompanying picture as “Poonie,” Buckel wrote.

Buckel downloaded a picture of Bright from a law enforcement database and confirmed it was the same person pictured on the Innocence Project New Orleans website, he wrote in the affidavit.

He brought that picture to the hospital, and the victim identified Bright as the man who stabbed him, Buckel wrote in his affidavit. The victim didn’t know Bright’s real name, Buckel wrote, but said “Poonie beat a murder charge.”

The victim refused to sign the confirmation photo and told Buckel he was afraid Bright would retaliate when he finds out the victim identified him. Buckel wrote in his affidavit that the “victim was visibly afraid when asked if he knew who stabbed him.”

Murder conviction overturned on jury verdict ‘not worthy of confidence’

Bright was convicted in 1996 of first-degree murder in the January 1995 shooting of Murray Barnes. Barnes, 31, was gunned down minutes after he collected his $1,000 winnings in a football pool at Creola bar in the 2900 block of Lausat Place.

An anonymous caller told investigators Bright and another man were involved, police said at the time. Davis was arrested, and Bright surrendered after seeing himself on “America’s Most Wanted.”

Bright’s sentence was later commuted to life, and overturned in 2004 by the Louisiana Supreme Court.

He sought a new trial in 2003, based on an FBI affidavit that showed a paid confidential informant named another man as the killer. A federal judge ruled that year that information was improperly withheld from Bright’s trial attorneys in 1996.

The FBI affidavit stated: “Daniel Bright, aka ‘Poonie,’ is in jail for the murder committed by Tracey Davis. The source stated that he or she has heard Davis bragging about doing the murder and how he is confident that Bright will be able to beat the charge because they don’t have enough evidence against him.”

Judge Dennis Waldron denied Bright a new trial based on that information. He said the FBI evidence should have been provided to Bright before his trial, but it wasn’t “sufficient to grant a defendant relief following a conviction.”

In overturning his conviction the following year, state Supreme Court justices said the jury verdict was “not worthy of confidence” because prosecutors suppressed information his lawyers could have used to discredit the state’s lone witness, who identified Bright as the person he saw shoot his friend as Barnes was leaving the bar.

https://www.nola.com/crime/2019/03/m...er-charge.html