Andrew Krivak acquitted of raping and killing teen Josette Wright after spending 20 years in prison
PUTNAM COUNTY, NEW YORK: After being found guilty more than 20 years ago of raping and killing a 12-year-old girl, a Putnam County man was cleared of all charges on February 27 in his follow-up trial. After serving more than two decades in prison, and more than six years after his friend and co-defendant Anthony DiPippo was cleared of the horrific attack, Carmel man Andrew Krivak was also acquitted.
Both Krivak and DiPippo were initially convicted in separate trials in 1997 of the mid-1990s rape and murder of teen Josette Wright. The young girl went missing in 1994 and was discovered dead 13 months later. DiPippo and Krivak were detained in July 1996 for one of the most terrible murders to have ever occurred in Putnam County.
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'It’s finally over'
According to Krivak's attorney Oscar Michelen, the jury was not needed to decide on the murder accusation because they had already found him not guilty of first-degree rape. “He just started to cry,” Michelen said of his client’s reaction when he heard the verdict. “Obviously he thanked us and he couldn’t believe it. I think his words were ‘it’s finally over’ and that’s it, it’s finally over. It’s over for him, it’s over for DiPippo and the community.”
Outside the courtroom on February 27, Krivak told reporters, “It’s about time,” according to The Journal News. “There’s a lot I can’t say, I’ll just bite my tongue on most of it and I’ll just say I appreciate the jury seeing the truth and coming back with a not guilty verdict. It’s been far too long, it should’ve ended 2016 when Anthony was exonerated.” DiPippo went through three trials—in 1997, 2011, and 2016—before his final one, in which he was declared not guilty.
What evidence did Krivak's defence team use to get him acquited?
Krivak's defense team contended at his retrial that his confession was coerced and that Putnam sheriff's office investigators had intimidated him when he was first found guilty and given a jail term after confessing to the crime. “DNA has proven that people falsely confess,” Michelen said.
The girl was spotted alive by two persons after police claimed she had already died, according to Michelen and co-counsel Karen Newirth, who testified with him during the seven-week trial, as well as other facts that could raise a reasonable doubt. Howard Gombert was also named by the defense as a potential offender. He was a sexual predator who preyed on people around the time Wright was killed. According to The Journal News, Putnam prosecutors based their case on Krivak's alleged confession and a witness who claimed to have witnessed Krivak and DiPippo raping a tied-up Wright and disposing of her body in the woods. Denise Rose, the witness and a former acquaintance, was allegedly persuaded to lie by cops, according to the defense.
In his closing statement, District Attorney Robert Tendy, who assisted in the prosecution of the case, reportedly denied that investigators had coerced Krivak or any other witnesses, and he claimed that while Gombert was a "sick, sick human being," there was no proof that he had committed the horrifying crime. “He confessed to it,” Tendy said of Krivak, according to the newspaper. “The confession was not coerced.” After the verdict, Tendy told The Post, “The jurors spoke and we have to respect their verdict.”
'I needed this as much as Andy did'
DiPippo was there when the verdict was read aloud in the courtroom. He never admitted to doing the crime, unlike Krivak. “I needed to hear this,” DiPippo admitted to The New York Post of his reaction to the verdict. “I needed this as much as Andy did. As far as him I couldn’t be happier for him, he deserves it.”
In 2020, DiPippo successfully negotiated a $12 million settlement with Putnam County. After being given a fresh trial in 2019, Krivak was sent back to the county jail before being released to house arrest in October 2020 in preparation for his trial.
