Suffolk judge sets bail for murder defendant Gabriel Hubbard

A Suffolk judge Tuesday gave a Wyandanch man whose murder conviction was overturned the possibility to be free on bail, saying questions about the validity of the confession police say they took from the man have weakened the case.

State Supreme Court Justice Mark Cohen set bail of $500,000 cash or $1.5 million bond for Gabriel Hubbard, 22, who is facing a new trial on a second-degree murder charge in the July 2008 killing of Jaquan Jones.

Hubbard was convicted in 2012, but his trial judge, state Supreme Court Justice Martin Efman, later reversed the conviction. He ruled that Suffolk prosecutors should have told defense lawyers that the same detective who took Hubbard's confession had earlier gotten a false confession from Thomas Moroughan, a cabdriver charged with assaulting off-duty Nassau police officers who had shot him in 2011.

Under what is known as the Brady Rule, prosecutors generally are obligated to turn over to defendants any information they have that could be helpful to their defense.

The Suffolk district attorney's office appealed Efman's ruling, but last month the Appellate Division Second Department ruled Efman was correct. Efman last week recused himself from retrying the case, sending it to Cohen. Meanwhile, the district attorney's office hopes the state Court of Appeals will hear the case, too.

Defense attorney Stephen Drummond of Jamaica, Queens, argued that the case against Hubbard is now weak, because jurors are not likely to believe the detective at the center of both cases, Ronald Tavares. Drummond said Hubbard is no threat to flee and is determined to prove his innocence.

"He's not going to run, judge," Drummond said in the Riverhead courtroom.

But Assistant District Attorney Peter Timmons said Hubbard has already run. He noted that Hubbard moved to North Carolina after Jones was killed and was arrested there.

"We do still feel we continue to have a strong case," Timmons said, although the appellate court noted that "there was no physical evidence connecting the defendant to the crime, and the eyewitnesses could not identify him."

Cohen said there has never been "a specific finding" by a court that Tavares got a false confession from Moroughan. The criminal case against Moroughan was dismissed and his federal suit against Tavares and the police department is still pending.

But Cohen agreed the case is weaker. "Here, the weight of the confession has been degraded to some degree," he said.

Hubbard's brother, Leon Ramsey, 36, said the bail set was high but he intends to try to raise the money in the community. "I believe in his innocence," he said.

Jones' parents, Patricia and John Jones of Wyandanch, are just as convinced of Hubbard's guilt.

"I personally do not feel like bail should have been granted, but I am happy with the amount of bail set," Patricia Jones said.