Brother admits to murder, wants to finish younger brother's prison sentence

Jet, Dec 6, 1993

Kevin Brinkley of Philadelphia has spent 16 years in prison for a murder his younger brother now has admitted that he did.

Ronald Brinkley says he wants to take his brother, Kevin's place behind bars. The family's new lawyer says he can prove the wrong man was jailed.

"I love my brother," Kevin Brinkley said from his cell in the state prison at Mahanoy City, PA. "My brother he committed the crime, but he didn't put me in here. When he found out they arrested me, he came forward and told them. It took a lot of courage and strength for him to do that," Kin added. "He's tired of having to go through his life knowing why I'm in here."

A week after the shooting, Kevin, then 15, was arrested. According to the Brinkley family, Kevin told his mother that Ronald, then 14, was the killer.

Mrs. Brinkley says she got Ronald to confess this to police. But the alleged confession was not presented at Kevin's trial and Ronald's lawyer advised him not to testify.

Brinkley's subsequent appeals were rejected. But the Brinkleys' new lawyer, Alan Yatvin, has recently filed another appeal.

Kevin was sentenced in the murder of a delivery man, Charles Hagg.