A Buffalo-area man will be released from prison 17 months after being sentenced to 25 years for first-degree manslaughter because a judge vacated his conviction.
A State Supreme Court justice this week ruled that Alan Tomaski's conviction in the death of Samuel Ciapa last year came after the five-year statute of limitations for that crime had expired.
The Buffalo News reports that Tomaski will walk out of Great Meadow Correctional Facility as a free man in a day or two.
Ciapa's body was found in a reservoir in August 2002, two days after authorities say he was killed over a drug debt.
Police said he had been beaten, strangled and stabbed.