Queens man spends 6 years in jail before cleared of murder charges

A Queens man who spent more than half a decade locked up at Rikers Island was officially declared off the hook for murder charges Wednesday, the Daily News has learned.

Terrel Banks, 26, was arrested months after his 20th birthday for the October 2008 fatal shooting of 21-year-old Timothy Smith in Fresh Meadows.

Banks lingered behind bars and faced trial three times — all of which ended in mistrials.

“It’s been a long time,” Banks told The News Wednesday. “Knowing that you’re an innocent man and that you were wrongfully (accused) to be out free now after all the years . . . It’s a huge relief.”

After new information emerged in the case, prosecutors released Banks in January, and formally dismissed his second-degree murder charge Wednesday.

Judge Gregory Lasak suggested that Banks, “thank the district attorneys for dismissing the charges.”

“You persevered through a very tough time — be proud of yourself. . . . You got a second chance at life,” Lasak added.

The case against Banks had been rocky from the start as the prosecution’s star witness changed her testimony that she saw Banks shoot Smith before the first trial in 2010.

They earned Lasak’s approval to use the woman’s grand jury testimony identifying Banks in subsequent trials.

Banks’ third and final trial ended in March 2014 with a hung jury.

After that, prosecutors made a last-ditch effort with a plea deal, agreeing to drop the murder charge if Banks copped to criminal possession of a weapon.

Banks refused to admit guilt, his lawyer Jorge Santos said.

“He said, ‘I’m innocent I’m not taking it, I don’t care. I’m not admitting to having a gun, I didn’t do anything,’ ” Santos said.

Prosecutors finally dropped the case after new information came to light pointing to another suspect, a source said.

Banks, who was facing a potential life sentence, said he doesn’t harbor any grudges against the district attorney’s office, the police or the judge.

“It’s not their fault that they put me in handcuffs and accused me of this crime,” the gracious 26-year-old said. “Police is just doing their job. The district attorney is just doing their job.”

But Banks, who has enrolled in school to be a phlebotomist and works at Russo’s on the Bay in Howard Beach, said no one would ever understand what he went through.

“The heartache, the stress, the pain, the anguish. . . the police don’t know what you go through. The district attorney don’t know what you go through. The judge don’t know what you go through,” he said. “It was a bad experience that nobody should have to go through.”

The Queens district attorney’s office declined to comment on the dismissal.