HOUSTON – Lydell Grant spoke out for the first time since another man has been named the suspect in the 2010 killing of Aaron Scheerhoorn.
Jermarico Carter was arrested and charged for stabbing Scheerhoorn several times outside a Montrose bar.
On Saturday, Grant’s ankle monitor was removed and a full exoneration is expected. He served nine-and-half years behind bars and was initially released from prison before Thanksgiving.
“I knew this day was going to come just didn’t know when,” Grant said during a press conference with the Innocence Project of Texas, a nonprofit legal organization is committed to exonerating wrongly convicted people through the use of DNA testing.
“We can say this day that justice has been served."
Grant said he had appeal after appeal denied, but the Innocence Project of Texas listened and intervened. The organization sent DNA results from the trial that they said were not accurate to be examined at a private lab. The new results excluded Grant and identified Carter as the new suspect.
The DNA findings made this case historic, Innocence Project of Texas Executive Director Mike Ware said. This is the first time that a non-law enforcement agency such as the Innocence Project has cracked a case by initiating the nationwide database, he said.
In this case, there was DNA that could be tested and analyzed, which has the exonerated an innocense man but helped identified a suspect.
Grant said he isn’t holding any grudges at the justice system or the person who landed him behind bars, because he knew he was going to get out.
During the press conference, he recalled the day he was sentenced to life in prison. He said he smiled and turned around to his mother and reassured her: “Don’t worry mama, I will be back.”
Grant said he is ready to move forward with his life.
“My future is so bright; it is blinding me,” he said. “2020 is a new chapter.”