Former Rikers Island inmate Robert Hinton was the target of vicious beatings and other abuse by corrections officers at the notorious jail. In April 2012, he was hogtied and beaten by five guards and a supervisor and placed in solitary confinement. The brutal beating left him with a broken nose and a fractured vertebra. Hinton sued the City of New York and was awarded $450K by an administrative court judge who called the beating “brazen misconduct.” The jail personal involved in the beating were then fired.
Since being awarded the settlement, Hinton had intentions of moving away from his crime-ridden neighborhood in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, New York. He was taking care of his ailing mother and looking forward to getting the check that would allow him to change his life.
Tragically, Hinton would never see a dime of that money. On midnight this past Friday morning, he was murdered near his home on the day he was supposed to receive his settlement. Police have made no arrests and there are no leads on Hinton’s murder.
His lawyer Nicole Bellina described him as upbeat and positive earlier in the week and looking forward to a new life.
Hinton’s last text to her was, “I pray I even live long enough to see some sort of happiness.”
The investigation into his murder is ongoing, according to NYC police detectives.
