Former Hempstead resident Gary Lawrence facing murder retrial in 1990 fatal shooting of Hofstra coach

A former Hempstead man who spent decades behind bars after being convicted of a murder charge in the fatal shooting of a Hofstra football coach outside a fast-food restaurant in 1990 will go on trial again on Monday for the same crime two years after a Nassau County judge set aside his conviction.

Gary Lawrence, 56, who now lives in Georgia, will be retried for the fatal shooting of Hofstra University assistant football coach Joseph Healy after judges found that prosecutors and police withheld evidence in the case and forced a confession.

This will be the second retrial in Healy's fatal shooting in less than a year.

Last year, a Nassau County jury found Christopher Ellis, Lawrence’s co-defendant in the first trial, not guilty in the shooting.

Lawrence and Ellis were convicted in 1992 of second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree attempted robbery, two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and third-degree criminal possession of stolen property. Both verdicts were set aside. Lawrence will be retried on the same charges from his original case.

Ellis filed a federal lawsuit against Nassau County on April 7, charging that Nassau County police used "unconstitutional investigative techniques,” such as withholding and fabricating evidence, coercing witnesses and confessions and suppressing evidence.

The killing of the beloved coach stunned the college community.

Joseph Healy, 25, of Ramsey, New Jersey, was out barhopping with friends on Sept. 29, 1990. He helped coach the football team while taking graduate school courses at the time.

According to police, two men with guns tried to rob Healy and his friends by an Arby’s drive-through window about 4 a.m.

One witness testified in court that one of the muggers told the other, "Just do him” and shot Healy in the chest. He died that night.

The next day, the then-Flying Dutchmen dedicated their game to Healy during a pregame chapel service and went on to beat the University of Buffalo Bisons 44-0.

Months after the killing, police fingered Ellis, Lawrence and a third man, David Liles, for the crime.

Lawrence signed a six-page confession, blaming Liles for the shooting and saying the gun went off after Healy tried to grab it.

Defense attorneys said that their client, who was 20 years old at the time, had been held for 19 hours without food and was coerced into the confession.

The defense team said three out of four eyewitnesses did not pick Lawrence out of a lineup and the fourth had four or five drinks the night of the shooting.

Nonetheless, Lawrence, who was also charged with the attempted robbery of a drug dealer in a separate incident, was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life.

He served 24½ before being released in 2015.

The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office acknowledged that evidence had been withheld in the first prosecution, but said the conviction should not be set aside.

In 2019, after prosecutors with the Conviction Integrity Unit reviewed the file based on a motion filed by Ellis, they found that 50 pages of notes from lead homicide Det. Richard Wells had not been turned over to the defense attorneys.

After state Supreme Court Justice Patricia Harrington tossed Ellis' conviction, prosecutors dug a little more and found a file labeled "Unnamed Homicide Squad Investigation File” with 234 pages of investigative records they said contained "additional notes and other documents pertaining to potential suspects and leads” that had not been turned over to the defense.

Investigators developed at least 11 leads in the murder case, but they were never shared with Lawrence’s lawyers, according to a 2023 ruling by state Supreme Court Justice Howard Sturim, which cleared Lawrence’s conviction.

Police concealed the names of potential suspects and witnesses until 2020 and a file with more than 200 pages until 2021, the ruling said.

"It is clear that access to this information could have allowed the defendant to develop additional facts, which in turn could have aided him in establishing additional or alternative theories to support his defense,” Sturim wrote.

He also noted that "evidence establishing the defendant's guilt at trial cannot be considered overwhelming.”

Prosecutors said they believe Lawrence is responsible for Healy’s death.

"After a thorough review of the evidence by NCDA’s Conviction Integrity Unit, prosecutors determined that a retrial was warranted to ensure justice in this case,” district attorney spokeswoman Nicole Turso said in a statement to Newsday.

Defense attorney Ron Kuby, who is defending the case with his daughter, Emma Vasta-Kuby, said they expect to prevail.

"We have every hope that Mr. Lawrence's ordeal will end when this trial is over," he said.