Chad Heins Released from Prison-Freed by DNA Evidence

JACKSONVILLE, FL (AP) -- A 33-year-old man walked out of jail Tuesday after being cleared of murdering his sister-in-law 13 years ago, and prosecutors decided he should not be retried because his DNA did not match crime scene evidence.

Chad Heins wore a Green Bay Packers shirt as he hugged his lawyers in the jail lobby after being freed. His conviction was tossed this year after a group that helps the wrongly convicted secured the DNA testing.

"It (the system) didn't work in the beginning, but it worked at the end," said Heins, surrounded by reporters as he left the Duval County Jail. "I made it one day at a time and watched my back. I just want to go home to my family and get out of the state of Florida."

Heins planned to fly home to Nekoosa, Wis., as soon as he could get a flight, his lawyers said. Attorney Robert Link said his client did not plan to sue the state for serving 13 years of a life sentence for Tina Heins' murder.

Link said he did not blame the state for convicting an innocent man and fighting his release until Tuesday.

"I don't have evidence this case was brought in bad faith," he said. "I could not prove that in court. What we have is a change in technology over the last 11 or 12 years. If we had the same technology available 13 years ago, I seriously doubt that state would have ever charged him."

"The state wanted to make sure that the person convicted of this horrible murder was not responsible," he said.

In a brief court appearance earlier Tuesday, Assistant State Attorney Melissa Williamson Nelson told Circuit Judge L. Page Haddock of prosecutors' decision. Heins was required to sign a document that he would waive a speedy trial and the statute of limitations if the state found new evidence and decided to charge him again.

Heins had been scheduled for a new trial this month, but it was delayed with the release of even more evidence that seemed to clear him of Tina Heins' murder in 1994.

The newest evidence was semen from an unidentified man that matched foreign strands of hair on Tina Heins' body. She was stabbed 27 times in the Mayport apartment she shared with Chad Heins and her husband, Jerry Heins. Jerry Heins was aboard a Navy ship at the time of the killing.

Chad Heins said he had been out drinking and was asleep when the crime occurred. He awoke to find three small fires burning in the apartment and his sister-in-law dead.

State Attorney Harry Shorstein said DNA evidence was behind the decision not to retry the man convicted of first-degree murder, but he declined to discuss specifics.

"The State's analysis conducted thus far indicates that the dismissal of charges against this defendant is appropriate at this time," Shorstein said in a statement.

When the state's announcement was made, two lawyers for the group that helps the wrongly convicted, the Innocence Project, pumped their fists in court.

Project lawyer Jennifer Greenberg said nine people in Florida and 210 in the United States have been cleared through DNA evidence by the Innocence Project.

"Incarceration for the innocent is like being a prisoner of war or a torture victim," she said. "He always told the truth about what happened and was heartbroken over the death of his sister-in-law, who was his best friend."

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