In November 2002, Todd Barry admitted killing Victoria “Vickie” Cushman in her Warwick apartment. By then Jeffrey Scott Hornoff had spent years in prison for her murder. Rhode Island’s highest court had affirmed his conviction and the police department had dismissed him. Barry was a man investigators had never approached as a suspect. [1] [2]
Hornoff walked out of prison that November. In January his conviction was vacated and the indictment dismissed. Barry pleaded guilty to killing Vickie. It still left Hornoff with a job, wages and benefits to try to recover. [1]
The note in Warwick
Vickie was killed in August 1989. Among the things investigators found was a handwritten note addressed to Hornoff, a Warwick police officer with whom she had had an affair. The note gave detectives a connection to pursue. Warwick police initially told him he wasn’t a suspect. When state police reopened the case in 1991, the relationship, the note and false statements he had made drew their attention back to him. [1]
An indictment came in 1994. The department suspended Hornoff without pay in December. A jury found him guilty on June 19, 1996, and he received a life sentence. In October 2000 the Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed the verdict. The city terminated his employment and ended his benefits that month. Years had passed since detectives first asked him about Vickie. The courts and his employer were now acting on the conviction as final. [1]
A name the investigation had missed
The later Superior Court opinion records that Barry had never been approached as a suspect before he confessed. Hornoff filed an amended request for post-conviction relief and was released on November 6, 2002. On January 6, 2003, Barry pleaded guilty and the court vacated Hornoff’s conviction and dismissed the indictment. His record was expunged in June. [1]
The three dates track different things. In November he got his freedom back. In January the court undid the conviction. In June it expunged the record. A separate question remained in the city’s personnel files. What happened to the job he’d lost because of that conviction? [1] [2]
The job after the verdict
Hornoff sued Warwick in August 2003 for reinstatement and the pay and benefits he’d lost. The city argued that his firing was lawful when it happened and that, as a former employee, he no longer had the protections he was invoking under the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights. Under that argument the dismissal would survive the conviction that had led to it. [1]
The Superior Court ruled against the city on January 6, 2004. It ordered reinstatement, back pay and lost benefits. The amount still had to be worked out. The case over Vickie’s death had ended in Barry’s guilty plea. The employment ruling took up the consequences the wrong conviction had left behind. [1]
The dates in the city’s records give a sense of how long one mistaken conclusion can govern a life. Hornoff had been without pay since 1994. The conviction had cost him his liberty in 1996 and his career in 2000. Vickie had been killed in 1989. It took until 2003 for the man responsible for her death to plead guilty. [1] [2]
Case brief
Warwick, Rhode Island · 1989
- Recorded outcome
- Hornoff exonerated; Todd Barry pleaded guilty in 2003
Key moments
People in this case
- Todd Barry
Pleaded guilty to murdering Victoria Cushman
Photo at source · The Providence Journal via Yahoo News · case photograph
Look closer · 3 visuals
Inside the evidence.
Open a visual to explore what it contributed to the case—and the limits of what it shows. These original illustrations explain the record; they are not photographs of the actual evidence.
A note and a false conclusion
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The affair and a note to Hornoff helped focus investigators on him. Another man later confessed and pleaded guilty.
No handwriting or text from Cushman’s real note is reproduced. These facts did not establish Hornoff’s guilt.
The confession that changed the case
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Todd Barry’s November 2002 confession led to a fundamental change. Barry pleaded guilty in January 2003 and Hornoff’s conviction was vacated.
This marker highlights evidence that cleared the wrongly convicted man. It is not a surviving exhibit or transcript.
Freedom came in stages
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The court record separates release, vacatur and expungement. Employment relief required another court decision.
A chronology explains the judicial record; it is not evidence identifying the killer.
★ Key evidence used in a conviction · ✓ Exclusion or reversal · ◇ Disputed evidence · ⊘ Excluded at retrial · ◆ Identity / investigative finding, not a conviction. A symbol does not mean one item proved the whole case.
Follow the locations
Put the story on the map.
Follow the dated entries, then select an event to find its regional setting. Shared-location pins open a group of events. Evidence symbols identify important findings and their limitations.
Open the map in its own window ↗Sources & further reading
- Hornoff v. City of Warwick — reinstatement litigation
- Murder Will Out — Wesleyan University MagazineRetrospective reporting on the wrongful conviction; contextual corroboration.
Editorial review: 2026-11-12 · 531 words