BY VEENA RAO
Atlanta, GA, September 15, 2025: It started like every other day in late November 2001. Sonny Bharadia was 27, working regular hours in sheet steel, going to the fitness center, spending evenings along with his girlfriend. Life was extraordinary, predictable.
Till the Fugitive Squad officers referred to as.
“They had been by my home in Stone Mountain and requested me to satisfy them,” Sonny remembers at our in-person interview on the International Mall in Norcross. “I did. They served me a warrant for housebreaking, sexual assault, kidnapping, and aggravated sodomy. I believed it was a prank—till I noticed weapons and badges.”
“The paperwork mentioned Thunderbolt,” he says. “I had by no means even been there. I didn’t know the place it was. I needed to ask any individual, ‘The place is that this place?’”
Instantly, his life crumbled. The police weren’t interested by his protests, his paper path, or the truth that he had reported his automobile stolen. All that mattered was that his automobile had been utilized in a criminal offense—and somebody had pointed a finger at him.
What Sonny didn’t know then was that he had simply stepped into the center of a nightmare. A conman named Sterling Flint had vanished along with his automobile. Proof would disappear. There can be a flawed picture lineup and unreliable testimony. Prosecutors would seize on his pores and skin shade and his supposed faith to model him responsible. And a jury would ship him to jail for all times.
“It didn’t matter what I mentioned, what proof I had,” Sonny says. “This was post-9/11. I used to be brown. That was sufficient.”
What adopted was the worst miscarriage of justice possible: 8,395 days—22 years and eight days—behind bars for a criminal offense he didn’t commit.
A Childhood Between Worlds
Sonny’s story started removed from a Georgia jail. His father was born in Uganda, his mom in India. They married round 1970, moved to London, and ultimately immigrated to the USA. Sonny arrived in January 1984, 9 years previous, attempting to regulate to a brand new world.
“I noticed over time that the folks I ‘gained’ in life aren’t at all times blood,” he says. “The individuals who got here into my journey—that’s who grew to become household.”
He performed Little League, made pals, and went to high school within the Chamblee–Tucker space earlier than the household moved to Stone Mountain. But even then, he felt a cultural divide. “I needed my dad at my Little League video games, however that simply didn’t curiosity him,” Sonny remembers. “A baby wants affirmation from their dad and mom—I by no means obtained that.”
After highschool, he drifted between profession concepts—structure, science, enterprise—earlier than settling into regular work. By 2001, at age 27, he was incomes good cash. “I used to be making about $1,000 every week after taxes. I used to be even planning to maneuver to New York—$75 an hour up there,” he says. “My life was work, fitness center, girlfriend. That was it.”
Then he met Sterling Flynn.
A Automotive, a Conman, and a Disaster
What led to Sonny’s nightmare started with one thing as extraordinary as letting a pal borrow his automobile. The pal mentioned he was going to go to his mom in Beaufort, South Carolina. When he didn’t return on time, Sonny went to the person’s ex-wife’s home, the place she gave him an tackle. Involved, Sonny contacted police, who in flip reached out to Beaufort County authorities. They situated the automobile and had it impounded.
On November 19, 2001, Sonny went to Beaufort to retrieve his automobile. That very same day he obtained a name from Sterling Flint. Flint recommended he drive the automobile again to Atlanta, and Sonny agreed. On the best way, they stopped in Savannah, the place Flint took the wheel. “After which,” Sonny says, “the nightmare began.”
Flint agreed to drive the automobile again however went lacking alongside the freeway. Hours later, he referred to as Sonny saying he would present up at Sonny’s girlfriend’s home, however he by no means did. The following day, Flint threatened to kill Sonny’s household. Alarmed, Sonny went straight to the police.
Per week later, Sonny’s automobile was concerned in a housebreaking in Thunderbolt, close to Savannah. Flint was recognized because the perpetrator. When police started searching for him, Sonny offered investigators along with his girlfriend’s telephone quantity. That tip led them to Flint’s girlfriend’s home, the place police recovered stolen property from the housebreaking. And but, as a substitute of pursuing Flint, investigators inserted Sonny’s title into the case—and the nightmare grew to become his.
When officers lastly served Sonny a warrant, he was surprised. “The paperwork mentioned Thunderbolt,” he remembers, naming the small coastal city close to Savannah. “I had by no means even been to Thunderbolt. I didn’t know the place it was. I needed to ask any individual, ‘The place is that this place?’ That’s how unreal it felt.”
The sufferer’s description didn’t match him—she initially reported her attacker as a Black male with bushy eyebrows, a bushy mustache, tough pores and skin, and weighing 150 kilos. Lineups had been flawed. Someday she picked out Flynn. One other day she picked Sonny. In courtroom, prosecutors introduced solely the lineup with Sonny’s picture in crisp readability whereas the others had been darkish and blurred.
In the meantime, proof vanished. A recording of Sonny’s assertion disappeared. The gloves supposedly used within the crime had been mishandled by a detective who later misplaced his job and certification.
Flint’s girlfriend even admitted to Sonny that she had as soon as been a Chatham County deputy, and her roommate on the time was a sheriff’s deputy. “That raised pink flags later,” Sonny says, “particularly when she grew to become one of many major folks saying I used to be concerned.”
“In courtroom, the DA mentioned I used to be Muslim,” Sonny remembers. “I mentioned I wasn’t. However this was post-9/11. I used to be brown, I used to be international. That was sufficient.”
He was convicted and sentenced to life in jail with out parole.
Life in a Jungle
Jail wasn’t simply punishment—it was survival. Sonny spent years in Georgia’s most violent amenities.
“You’re dropped right into a jungle—lions, tigers, bears, rhinos—and should survive,” he says.
At Valdosta State Jail in 2016, somebody tried to rob him in his bunk. “They stabbed me within the ear whereas I used to be asleep. It ruptured my eardrum,” Sonny says.
In 2018 at Hayes State Jail, the hazard escalated. “I walked right into a dorm for a medical appointment, and I used to be stabbed 12 occasions—my neck, my again, even my carotid,” he says. “Two officers stood there with cameras and did nothing.”
“I fought again and survived,” he continues quietly. “After which they wrote me up for preventing. That was jail: the other way up.”
Regardless of fixed threats, he by no means joined a gang. “I’d fairly die standing than stay on my knees,” he says. “If somebody tried to take one thing, I fought. In any other case, I saved my head down.”
What sustained him? “Hope,” Sonny says. “Figuring out somebody on the market—an legal professional, a pal—was nonetheless preventing for me. With out that, I’d not be right here.”
The Lengthy Battle for Justice
DNA proof ought to have cleared him early. In 2004, his appellate legal professional paid $25,000 out of pocket for superior testing. “I mentioned, ‘I’m harmless—check it,’” Sonny remembers. The outcomes excluded him. However courts dominated he was too late—that he ought to have completed the check at trial, regardless that the expertise wasn’t out there in Georgia till years later.
“It was just like the system was saying: even when the reality proves you harmless, you’ll nonetheless rot right here,” he says.
Years of appeals failed. His father handed away in 2015 whereas Sonny was nonetheless inside. “I by no means obtained to see him. I missed his funeral. That broke me,” Sonny admits. The grief almost swallowed him. In 2016, hopeless and alone, he tried to finish his life. “I attempted to hold myself,” he says quietly. “I used to be simply drained. Bored with preventing, bored with ready, bored with being forgotten.”
What saved him alive was hope—and the individuals who refused to surrender on him. “What saved me alive was understanding somebody on the market was nonetheless preventing for me,” he says.
Lastly, in a uncommon habeas listening to, his legal professionals introduced the whole lot: the DNA outcomes, skilled testimony, even his trial legal professional breaking down in tears.
“My trial lawyer mentioned he has nightmares about me,” Sonny remembers. “He instructed the courtroom he stays up crying. Listening to him admit that—it broke me and healed me on the identical time.”
When Sonny testified, the courtroom cried. After seven months of ready, the decide vacated his sentence.
“It took 8,395 days—23 years and eight days—for me to get my dawn,” Sonny says. “The darkest a part of the evening is correct earlier than dawn. That’s what jail was for me—simply darkness till then.”
Rebuilding a Life
At 51, Sonny is studying to stay free once more. He has a fiancée, Zara, who he says brings him peace. He enjoys cooking at residence, visiting the Farmer’s Market, and easily opening the fridge each time he needs.
“What I missed most in jail wasn’t simply folks—it was little freedoms. Having a shower while you need, deciding your individual day,” he says. “Now, cooking with Zara, seeing my mother smile—that’s sufficient.”
His mom, now 75, has welcomed him again. His father handed in 2015. “I by no means obtained to see him in jail. I missed his funeral. That damage probably the most,” Sonny says. His relationship along with his sister stays strained. “In 2006, after I referred to as, she instructed me, ‘I hope you rot in jail.’ Phrases like that stick with you.”
Nonetheless, he holds onto forgiveness. “Am I bitter? No. Forgiveness means it occurred, and there’s a lesson in it,” he says.
A GoFundMe was set as much as assist him rebuild his life by the Georgia Innocence Challenge.
Looking for Justice Past Freedom
Freedom is just a part of the battle. Sonny is now suing the Thunderbolt Police Division for perjury and lacking proof. He’s additionally in search of compensation underneath Georgia’s wrongful conviction legislation—roughly $75,000 per 12 months for the 23 years he misplaced.
He’s additionally writing two books: Japanese Fathers, Western Sons, about his relationship along with his father, and Life With out Justice, alternating chapters between himself and one other wrongfully convicted man linked to Flynn.
And he goals of advocacy. “I wish to struggle for girls and kids, for victims of human trafficking. That’s the place I see myself,” he says.
However he additionally goals small. “I’ve at all times needed to stay by the seashore,” he provides with a smile.
A Message of Hope
Requested what message he needs to provide others trapped in wrongful convictions, Sonny doesn’t hesitate.
“By no means quit hope. Should you imagine you gained’t get higher, that mindset will kill you. Consider you’ll be okay,” he says. “A few of my greatest years are nonetheless forward.”
Lately, Sonny stood outdoors the Chatham County Courthouse—the identical courthouse that after sentenced him to life. He took a photograph. “That was therapeutic,” he says. “The place that stole my life—now I stroll out free.”
Then he provides a mirrored image that carried him by way of the darkest moments: “The darkest a part of the evening is correct earlier than dawn. That’s what jail was for me—simply darkness till then. And after 8,395 days, my dawn lastly got here.”
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