A man who has spent the past 13 years in prison for murder will receive a new trial after Cayuga County Judge Thomas Leone vacated the original conviction during a Cayuga County Supreme Court session Thursday.

Sammy Swift, 54, who was serving a 25 years to life sentence for the 1994 murder of Stephen DeLuca Sr., said that if the jury had received new DNA evidence that showed Swift's blood was not at the scene, he never would have been convicted.

During Swift's trial in 1995, Jim Vargason, who was the Cayuga County District Attorney at the time, said that blood evidence found at DeLuca's apartment could link Swift to the scene.

An expert witness was brought in to testify the blood at the scene was positively identified as type A, the victim's blood, and could possibly contain type O, Swift's blood type, because the two types shared identical markers. More precise testing was not available at the time.

Swift's conviction also came as a result of witness testimony, but his attorney has called the reliability of those witnesses into question.

During Thursday's court session, Leone said he believed that the new DNA evidence, which showed Swift's blood was not at the scene, may have resulted in a different outcome.

Leone has stayed his decision to give Cayuga County District Attorney John Budelmann a chance to appeal his decision.

Swift will remain incarcerated, but transferred to a state prison closer to Cayuga County so he can have easier access to his attorney, Joseph Sapio.

For more on this story, read Friday's edition of The Citizen.