A man has just been awarded $1 million in compensation after spending 17 years behind bars for a crime committed by another person who bore a striking resemblance to him.
Ricky Jones, 41, was falsely imprisoned in 2000 after a jury found him guilty of aggravated robbery.
However, years later, the mistake was discovered after the victim and witnesses to the crime were shown an image of his doppelgänger. In an unfortunate coincidence, his name also happens to be Ricky, PEOPLE detailed (though at least his surname, Amos, is different).
Jones had been just 24 when he was convicted of the 1999 robbery of a woman in a Walmart parking lot in Roeland Park, Kansas.
However, he had a solid alibi. According to ABC7 Chicago, Jones was close to 10 miles away at a birthday party with his girlfriend in Kansas City, where he was seen by multiple witnesses.
Despite his alibi, he was blamed and convicted anyway, given his striking resemblance to Amos.
His conviction was based upon eyewitness accounts that described the attacker as being slender and light-skinned Black or Hispanic with dark hair, The Washington Post reported. After going to prison, Jones appealed his sentence numerous times, but he was repeatedly denied.
Years later, both Jones and Amos were at the same correctional facility, where they realized the striking similarity.
After this was brought to the attention of the courts, Tamara Scherer, the robbery victim, said in an affidavit: "I am no longer certain I identified the right person at the preliminary hearing and trial. If I had seen both men at the time, I would not have felt comfortable choosing between the two men and possibly sending a man to prison."
Following the case of mistaken identity Jones told ABC News: "I hope and prayed every day for this day to come, and when it finally got here it was an overwhelming feeling [...] Once I had seen his picture beside mine and I seen the resemblance me and him had, I just knew.
"It was understandable why other people would say the same thing."
At his exoneration hearing in 2017, Jones revealed: "It was hard. I won't say it was easy because it wasn't, but I made it through."
When he was finally released, Jones received a certificate of innocence and $1 million compensation from the state of Kansas. "When it comes to my kids, it's been a rough ride, but they are now at an age where they can understand," he said, adding: "I don't believe in luck, I believe I was blessed."
