N.Y. man who spent 19 years in prison after buying mom a stove with stolen money order is freed

A New York man was freed from prison Monday after having spent nearly two decades behind bars for a robbery he didn't commit.

A New York man was freed from prison Monday after having spent nearly two decades behind bars for a robbery he didn't commit.

Kenneth Windley was linked to the 2005 crime after he bought his mother a stove with a money order that he didn't know was stolen. Windley, 61, was convicted of second-degree robbery and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. A Brooklyn judge tossed his conviction after prosecutors re-examined his claims of innocence and concluded that he wasn’t involved in the crime.

“It has taken many years, but today we are able to validate his account, release him from prison and exonerate his name,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement.

Windley, 61, said outside the courthouse, according to The Associated Press: “It cost me 20 years, but they said they corrected it now. So that’s all that matters.”

Windley’s conviction was connected to a robbery on April 1, 2005, in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood. Two men followed a 70-year-old man into his apartment building and robbed him in the elevator, stealing $485 in cash and two blank, unsigned money orders — one for $542, the other for $9 — according to a review of the case that the prosecutor’s office released Monday.