Philly DA touts jail term for ex-cop who lied to wrongfully convict man

On Tuesday, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and members of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office detailed the conviction and sentencing of ex-Philadelphia homicide detective James Pitts.

Last year, Pitts, a former Philadelphia homicide detective, was found guilty of violently coercing the false confession of a man who spent more than a decade in prison for a murder he did not commit.

On Tuesday, July 16, 2024, a jury convicted James Pitts of two counts of perjury and three counts of obstructing administration of law or other government function in the wrongful conviction of Obina Onyiah, who was falsely convicted in the 2010 murder of William Glatz.

Pitts, Krasner said, has since been sentenced to serve two-and-a-half to more than five years in prison.

"Good cops hate bad cops," said the district attorney in taking about Pitts' crimes, noting that "the law applies to everyone."

In discussing the case, Krasner said that he hopes Pitts' sentencing serves to "lift up" honest police officers everywhere and show those who would commit crimes while wearing a police uniform that there are consequences to their actions.

“That consequence, in the case of James Pitts, is not just the end of his career, it’s 32 to 64 months in state prison," said Krasner. "And, that‘s exactly where he belongs, in my opinion.”

The case that led to James Pitts' conviction

Glatz was killed in Oct. of 2010 when two gunmen attempted to rob William Glatz at the Glatz Jewelry Store in Philadelphia’s Lawncrest neighborhood.

The robbery erupted in a shootout that left both Glatz and one of the robbery suspects dead.

Onyiah was arrested in connection to the shooting after being implicated by a jailhouse informant.

He was eventually convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

However, a jury found that, after Oniyiah's arrest in 2010, Pitts physically assaulted him, leading to Onyiah falsely confessing to the Glatz's death.

Pitts also made false statements about the interrogation while testifying under oath and was a critical witness for the Commonwealth during Onyiah’s murder trial.

Due in large part to Pitts’ actions, Onyiah was wrongfully convicted in Glatz’s murder.

'A massive injustice'

In discussing Pitts' sentencing, Assistant District Attorney Michael Garmisa, the supervisor if the office's conviction integrity unit, said that, at Pitts sentencing, the judge called what happened to Onyiah "a massive injustice."

“The judge who heard the trial found that this was a massive injustice," said Garmisa.

Onyiah spent 11 years behind bars, Garmisa said, before a judge threw out his conviction during a post-conviction relief hearing.

With the help of the District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit, Onyiah’s conviction was vacated in 2021 after scientific evidence proved he could not have killed Glatz.

During the meeting, members of the DA’s office shared an audio recording of a phone calls in which Onyiah can be heard discussing being beaten while he was in police custody.

Garmisa said that Pitts' decision to lie in court caused Onyiah to lose years of his life behind bars for a crime he did not commit.

“The real harm is that it makes it harder for good detectives to do their jobs because there’s ripple effects in the community," said Garmisa.

The actual gunman who fled the murder scene still has not been found.

Pitts was later arrested and charged in 2022 following a grand jury investigation. The grand jury also determined that Pitts had physically assaulted his then-wife back in 2002 and lied to responding officers as well as investigators in a written statement, claiming both times that his wife had attacked him.

Pitts was an officer for the Philadelphia Police Department for nearly 20 years. He became a police officer in 1996 and was promoted to detective in 1999. He then joined the Philadelphia Police Homicide Unit in July 2006 and remained active in that unit during Onyiah’s 2013 murder trial.

Pitts’ conviction came after another ex-Philadelphia homicide detective, Philip Nordo, was sentenced to 24.5 to 49 years behind bars for sexually assaulting witnesses and informants.