March 5, 2021 By Allie Griffin
Three Queens men who were wrongfully convicted in a 1996 double homicide returned home to their families today after nearly a quarter century behind bars.
A Queens Supreme Court judge vacated the convictions of George Bell, Gary Johnson and Rohan Bolt Friday in the murders of an Astoria business owner and off-duty police officer on Dec. 21, 1996.
Bell, Johnson and Bolt were convicted of killing Ira “Mike” Epstein and NYPD Officer Charles Davis during a botched robbery of Epstein’s check cashing business on Astoria Boulevard. Davis was off-duty, working as a security guard for Epstein’s store at the time when both men were fatally shot.