FINANCIAL DISTRICT — A Queens man exonerated for murder after spending 14 years behind bars said Wednesday that he plans to use his nearly $3 million settlement with the state to take his adult daughter to Disney World.
Kareem Bellamy, 47, the father of three grown children who agreed to drop his civil rights claim against the state Wednesday in exchange for $2.75 million, said of all the things he lost sitting in prison for over a decade for the stabbing death of James Abbott Jr., it was his family that he missed the most.
"I know that the money I will be receiving today will change my life," he told the judge in the state Court of Claims Wednesday. "I will be able to do things to get my children back. It's been hard to reconnect."
He said that he is estranged from his son, who was 9 years old when he was convicted.
"My son does not speak to me," he said. "I hope that will change."
He doesn't know whereabouts of his youngest daughter, Nkeba, who was 1 year old when he went to prison.
"She has always been so sweet," he said. "Now I can find her."
Shalisha, who was 4 years old when he was locked up, is 25 years old now and lives in Virginia. They are trying to make up for lost time.
"She wants me to take her to Disney World, but I know that is just a start," he said.
Bellamy was convicted in 1990 of killing Abbott, an acquaintance from his Rockaways neighborhood, always professed his innocence.
"I did not kill James Abbott Jr., I had nothing to do with his murder," he said again Wednesday.
He spent years writing for help from prison. He exhausted all his appeals. His federal Habeas Corpus was denied in 2004.
It was not until lawyer Thomas Hoffman, who had thrown one of Bellamy's letters out, picked it out of the garbage and decided to take on the case.
"If my lawyer would have told me in June 2004 that all this would be happening — I would hve called him crazy," he said. "Today it is my impossible dream."
He was exonerated in 2008. He still has a federal claim against the state pending.
Bellamy said Wednesday that in addition to making up lost time with his family, he'll be trying to help others seeking to overturn wrongful convictions.
"I know there are lots of innocent people still in prison who feel that this dream really is impossible," he said. "Don't give up hope, because miracles can happen."
