Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #181 Jason Flom with Danny Rincon

Transcript

#181 Jason Flom with Danny Rincon · Wrongful Conviction

0:02
Speaker 1: In the late eighties and early nineties, the crack epidemic
0:05
Speaker 1: was in full swing, and one of New York's most
0:07
Speaker 1: powerful drug gangs was Lenny and Nelson Sepulvida's Wild Cowboys
0:11
Speaker 1: aka the Red Top Crew. Red Top referred to the
0:15
Speaker 1: color of the caps on their crackpiles, and their less
0:17
Speaker 1: powerful competitors were called Orange Top and Yellow Top. Yellowtop
0:22
Speaker 1: began selling out of an alleyway on Beakman Avenue in
0:24
Speaker 1: the Bronx, which was Red Top territory. On December sixteenth,
0:28
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one, in an incident that became known as
0:31
Speaker 1: the Quad Murders, Nelson Sepulvida and three others rolled up
0:35
Speaker 1: with semi automatics indiscriminately spraying sixty bullets into the alleyway
0:40
Speaker 1: on Beakman, killing four and wounding one. Detective Mark Tebins
0:45
Speaker 1: was under intense pressure to bring order to the dangerous area,
0:48
Speaker 1: and he indicted forty one people as co defendants for
0:51
Speaker 1: several drug related incidents, including the Quad murders. Teppens's street
0:56
Speaker 1: sweep turned suspects into witnesses, and nine of the forty
0:59
Speaker 1: one in dit it went to trial. Five of the
1:02
Speaker 1: codependants were blamed for the quad riders, four of whom
1:05
Speaker 1: are innocent, and one of those poor souls is Danny
1:08
Speaker 1: rin Khone. Alibi witnesses placed Danny on the other side
1:12
Speaker 1: of a large city block at the time of the shooting,
1:14
Speaker 1: including a victim's mother and brother, but the jury could
1:18
Speaker 1: not see through the trial's circus atmosphere. Danny was convicted
1:23
Speaker 1: and sentenced to one hundred and fifty eight and a
1:25
Speaker 1: third to life. Glenn Garber and Farah Rossner from the
1:29
Speaker 1: Exoneration Initiative joined Danny rin Kon calling it from Attica
1:33
Speaker 1: Prison to tell us about the case that they've built
1:36
Speaker 1: for Danny's freedom. This is Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm.
1:52
Speaker 2: Hello.
1:53
Speaker 1: This is a prepaid collect cast an inmate at New
1:58
Speaker 1: York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. This call
2:02
Speaker 1: is subject to recording and monitoring.
2:04
Speaker 3: To accept charges. Press one.
2:07
Speaker 1: Thank you, Producing Sekurus.
2:09
Speaker 3: You may start the conversation now.
2:11
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm. Before I
2:14
Speaker 1: introduce Danny ring Kahn, who's calling in from prison where
2:18
Speaker 1: he's been for a very long time, where he doesn't belong. First,
2:22
Speaker 1: I'm going to introduce his legal team. Sarah Rossner Farah
2:26
Speaker 1: is an attorney with the Exoneration Initiative.
2:29
Speaker 2: Thank you for having us and.
2:30
Speaker 1: With us today as well is Glenn Garber. And Glenn
2:34
Speaker 1: has been responsible for a large number of exonerations as
2:39
Speaker 1: the founder and director of the Exoneration Initiative. And it's
2:42
Speaker 1: so great that you're here and so great that you're
2:44
Speaker 1: working on Danny's case that I know that you'll be
2:46
Speaker 1: the first one to greet him when he gets out,
2:48
Speaker 1: because I know how much this case meets you. So
2:49
Speaker 1: Glenn Garber, welcome to wrongful Conviction. Thank you.
2:52
Speaker 4: Jason happy to be here.
2:53
Speaker 1: And Danny ring Khon calling in from Attica. So Danny,
2:58
Speaker 1: welcome to wrongful Conviction.
3:00
Speaker 5: Thank you so much, Jason, thank you for the opportunity.
3:03
Speaker 1: Danny is serving what I think a lot of people
3:05
Speaker 1: will agree is an absurd sentence. He's serving one hundred
3:08
Speaker 1: and fifty eight and a third years to life. But
3:11
Speaker 1: let's not start there. Let's start at the beginning. Danny,
3:14
Speaker 1: you grew up in Washington Heights in the height of
3:17
Speaker 1: the crack epidemic. Can you tell us a little bit
3:20
Speaker 1: about what it.
3:21
Speaker 5: Was like It was certainly a volatile neighborhood, a troubled
3:25
Speaker 5: timed in New York City. There was a you know,
3:27
Speaker 5: war on drugs. There was a high crime and murder rate.
3:30
Speaker 5: Drugs were prevalent, particularly crack cocaine. And I'm not going
3:34
Speaker 5: to say that I am innocent of being involved in drugs,
3:37
Speaker 5: but I would never do what I am wrongly convicted of.
3:42
Speaker 5: You know, my parents were working people. My dad worked
3:46
Speaker 5: at Columbia Presbyteria Medical Center for twenty seven years. My
3:50
Speaker 5: mom makes you rest in peace. Excuse me. My mom
3:56
Speaker 5: worked thirty three years at a ghost and my parents
4:02
Speaker 5: worked hard to provide for my brothers and me. My
4:06
Speaker 5: parents are still values in US. And I made a
4:11
Speaker 5: poor decision in those years to take to the streets,
4:14
Speaker 5: which brought nothing but shame, embarrassment, and humiliation of my
4:18
Speaker 5: parents and my family. But you know, we were blessed
4:21
Speaker 5: in many ways because my parents provided and we had
4:24
Speaker 5: what we needed, my brothers and I and we went
4:26
Speaker 5: to school and we had a great upbringing, despite the
4:29
Speaker 5: fact that we grew up in a poor neighborhood that
4:31
Speaker 5: was flooded and riddled with violence and drugs. But that
4:35
Speaker 5: was Washington Heights.
4:36
Speaker 4: In those days.
4:37
Speaker 5: The South Bronx was no different.
4:38
Speaker 1: You know.
4:39
Speaker 5: I ventured over to the South Bronx at the age
4:42
Speaker 5: of maybe fourteen fifteen years old, and what I saw
4:46
Speaker 5: there was not much different than what I seen in
4:49
Speaker 5: my own neighborhood in Washington Heights.
4:51
Speaker 1: Even for the violent insanity that was taking place in
4:56
Speaker 1: the South Bronx and Washington Heights, that whole section of
4:59
Speaker 1: the city in those days. This was a particularly violent
5:02
Speaker 1: crime though. This was a crime that became known as
5:06
Speaker 1: the Quad murders.
5:07
Speaker 3: So there were rival drug organizations at the time in
5:10
Speaker 3: the area in mod Haven, and there were three that
5:13
Speaker 3: we can discuss which were actually relevant to this incident.
5:16
Speaker 3: There was the Red Top organization, which was led by
5:19
Speaker 3: two brothers, Lenny and Nelson Seppovita, and then there was
5:23
Speaker 3: another organization, the Orange Top, which Danny was affiliated with,
5:27
Speaker 3: and then there was the Yellow Top. Each of these
5:29
Speaker 3: organizations had a separate location where they would sell drugs.
5:33
Speaker 3: They had different people that worked for each of the groups.
5:35
Speaker 3: They were stepping on each other's toes. They were fighting
5:38
Speaker 3: over territory, they were fighting over pricing for each of
5:41
Speaker 3: the vials that they were selling, trying to undercut the
5:43
Speaker 3: other to take over some territory. So it was a
5:45
Speaker 3: drug war so to speak, that was going on between
5:47
Speaker 3: these three organizations.
5:49
Speaker 1: This was not some small time drug dealing. I mean
5:51
Speaker 1: they were making between ten and twenty million dollars a
5:54
Speaker 1: year just the Red Top Gang itself, right.
5:56
Speaker 3: The Sepovetas were sort of the drug kingpins, if you will,
6:00
Speaker 3: and they were the ones who were actually ruling most
6:02
Speaker 3: in that area.
6:03
Speaker 5: BigMan Avenue is a small street between Saint Mary's Park
6:07
Speaker 5: and one hundred and forty fourth Street in the Bronx,
6:09
Speaker 5: New York. Let me Supervador basically ruled Big Maan Avenue
6:13
Speaker 5: with a nine and fifth Let me Supervada. At the
6:15
Speaker 5: time of the murders was in prison. A good friend
6:19
Speaker 5: of mine, Gerard Herd, opened up a spot on BigMan
6:22
Speaker 5: Avenue and was selling yellow time. Nelson Sepervador apparently took
6:27
Speaker 5: over while his brother Lenny was in prison and felt
6:30
Speaker 5: that Gerard her was encrouching on BigMan Avenue. So in
6:35
Speaker 5: an act of force or discipline or what have you,
6:38
Speaker 5: he decided to unleash these individuals, include himself, to shoot
6:44
Speaker 5: up this corner, killing four people.
6:45
Speaker 1: So what happens is.
6:47
Speaker 4: First of all, it was a freezing called night. It
6:49
Speaker 4: was about ten fifteen ten twenty on December sixteenth, and
6:53
Speaker 4: Nelson Saipolvite, who was the architect of the quad murders,
6:58
Speaker 4: arrives on the scene with Francisco Medina or Freddy Krueger,
7:03
Speaker 4: a guy named Platino who is Wilfredo de los Angeles
7:07
Speaker 4: Tezo or Rafael Perez, and an individual known as Crazy
7:11
Speaker 4: Ray converge and start opening fire into that alleyway at
7:17
Speaker 4: three forty eight Peakman Avenue.
7:19
Speaker 1: These guys, two of them jump out of a car
7:21
Speaker 1: two run up on foot Nelson Sepulvido, Wilfredo de los Angeles,
7:26
Speaker 1: Rafael Perez and a guy named Crazy Ray. They roll
7:30
Speaker 1: up spray the alleyway with sixty rounds from semi automatics,
7:34
Speaker 1: wounding one person Janice Brewington, and killing four Cynthia Cassada,
7:40
Speaker 1: Emmanuel Vieira, one unidentified manned Anthony Green and Danny. You
7:45
Speaker 1: knew Anthony Green and his family, his brother Benjamin and
7:48
Speaker 1: his mother Irene. I mean, in fact, they're part of
7:52
Speaker 1: your alibi. I mean again, this is the mother and
7:56
Speaker 1: the brother of a victim. It just doesn't get more
7:59
Speaker 1: so that right.
8:01
Speaker 5: What we learned later was that the shooters left the
8:04
Speaker 5: apartment of Terrell Blair and Brenda Blair on Beekman Avenue.
8:08
Speaker 5: Sorel Blair leaves his apartment and runs up to the
8:11
Speaker 5: Greens apartment to tell Benjamin that something's gonna happen to
8:14
Speaker 5: his brother down the block because these guys were leaving
8:17
Speaker 5: his apartment and he knew they were discussing. Jera heard
8:21
Speaker 5: his brother and those individuals around Yellow Chop there, so
8:25
Speaker 5: he was headed up there to warn Benjamin to go
8:28
Speaker 5: get his brother out of the way because something was
8:30
Speaker 5: gonna happen there. Cyrel Blair has refused to get involved
8:35
Speaker 5: in this matter for whatever his reasons are.
8:38
Speaker 1: Can you tell us about that night? Like, what were
8:41
Speaker 1: you actually.
8:42
Speaker 5: Doing that evening? I was on Cyprus Avenue in Building
8:46
Speaker 5: three seventy, an apartment in one gene while I was
8:49
Speaker 5: sickond in a bedroom talking to my brother. May he
8:52
Speaker 5: also rest in peace. He was incarcerrated in Raking's Island
8:56
Speaker 5: at the time. He had made a phone call. Prior
8:58
Speaker 5: to me taking the call, I was inside Apartment one
9:00
Speaker 5: B in the adjacent building three point fifty four and
9:03
Speaker 5: mide Ya Beenurecour's apartment. While my brother and I were
9:06
Speaker 5: on the phone. I her shooting, and it appeared to
9:09
Speaker 5: me that the shooting was coming from right out front.
9:12
Speaker 5: I raised the shade from the window and I see
9:15
Speaker 5: a girl standing right in front of the window by
9:17
Speaker 5: the name of Pamela Fortune. I bang on the window.
9:21
Speaker 5: I tell her, don't you hear those people shooting? Get
9:23
Speaker 5: in the building. Moments later, within minutes, I'm getting ready
9:26
Speaker 5: to walk out the building. In the vestibule of the building,
9:29
Speaker 5: I run into Pam Lena Patten Irene Green, who's crying uncontrollably.
9:35
Speaker 5: I know Irene Green because she is the mother of
9:38
Speaker 5: two friends of mine, Benjamin Green and Anthony Green. She
9:41
Speaker 5: tells me that her boy got shot. I offered to
9:44
Speaker 5: help her up to her apartment. Lena Patten and Pam
9:48
Speaker 5: Fortune said that they were going to take upstairs, so
9:50
Speaker 5: I took her to the front of the elevator and
9:52
Speaker 5: I left him there. I immediately walk outside. I noticed
9:56
Speaker 5: that Benjamin Green was standing in front of the building.
9:59
Speaker 5: In my mind, and when she said my boy got shot,
10:01
Speaker 5: I thought that it was Benjamin because I knew at
10:03
Speaker 5: the time Benjamin was running the streets in those days.
10:06
Speaker 5: Never had it occurred to me that it was Anthony.
10:09
Speaker 5: So I approached Benjamin. I said to him, Hey, your
10:12
Speaker 5: mother doesn't seem well. You need to go in there
10:14
Speaker 5: and check on your mother. He tells me my brother
10:16
Speaker 5: got shot. He goes in the building to assist his mother.
10:19
Speaker 5: I leave the neighborhood that night. The very next day,
10:23
Speaker 5: I was back on Cyprus Avenue about ten to eleven in
10:26
Speaker 5: the morning, and I see that the neighborhood is flooded
10:29
Speaker 5: with investigators and cops. Canda seeing that whole entire.
10:32
Speaker 1: Area, Yeah, I guess you would have a lot of
10:35
Speaker 1: investigators and a lot of pressure to get the killers
10:38
Speaker 1: off the streets or to get somebody just to make
10:40
Speaker 1: the pressure go away, right, And I imagined that had
10:43
Speaker 1: a lot to do with how they ended up targeting you, Right.
10:46
Speaker 5: Absolutely, Mark Tepans was pressure to make an arrest in
10:50
Speaker 5: this case and he didn't have anything.
10:52
Speaker 3: Tippins was a member of the fortieth Precinct Detective Squad
10:55
Speaker 3: and he had several open cases in the Mount Haven
10:57
Speaker 3: area during that time too. After the Quad murders, he
11:01
Speaker 3: was assigned to the bronx DA's office to help make
11:04
Speaker 3: the case on the Quad. He was under a lot
11:06
Speaker 3: of pressure to close all of these cases, and so
11:08
Speaker 3: he used a lot of the same witnesses over and
11:11
Speaker 3: over again, sort of a witness for higher situation, if
11:14
Speaker 3: you will. These witnesses would offer false testimony in exchange
11:17
Speaker 3: for money and reduced charges or sentences for their own crimes.
11:21
Speaker 3: In the Quad murder case, many of the witnesses he
11:23
Speaker 3: used to implicate Danny and his co defendants were members
11:26
Speaker 3: of the Red Top, the rivals to Danny's Orange Tops
11:29
Speaker 3: and to those Yellow Tops who were the targets of
11:31
Speaker 3: the Quad. They had all had a vested interest in
11:34
Speaker 3: Danny getting off the street, so they were more than
11:35
Speaker 3: willing to place them at the scene.
11:37
Speaker 2: So let me give you an example.
11:39
Speaker 3: In April of nineteen ninety two, Tebens received a call
11:42
Speaker 3: from a woman named Elizabeth Morales. Morales, who by the way,
11:46
Speaker 3: had worked for the Red Top organization, claimed that she
11:48
Speaker 3: and her family were in fear for their lives because
11:51
Speaker 3: the Sepulvedas were after them because they'd stolen drugs from them.
11:54
Speaker 3: So Elizabeth Morales said she needed help, and in exchange
11:58
Speaker 3: for that help, she's told Tebans conveniently that she could
12:00
Speaker 3: provide help and give him information on a lot of
12:03
Speaker 3: the violence that took place on Beakman Avenue. So Tebbins
12:06
Speaker 3: remember under so much pressure, he went immediately to the
12:10
Speaker 3: shelter to where she and her three children were and
12:12
Speaker 3: started talking to them, and she said that they could
12:15
Speaker 3: give them names of the alleged perpetrators of the quad,
12:17
Speaker 3: as well as several other homicides that had taken place
12:20
Speaker 3: in the area over time. So he calls them down
12:23
Speaker 3: to the DA's office and they give statements. Meanwhile, he's
12:26
Speaker 3: providing them protection, he's helping them to relocate to a motel.
12:30
Speaker 3: He gives them money for living expenses and food, and
12:33
Speaker 3: he later moves them to an apartment and starts to
12:35
Speaker 3: pay for their rent. So each of them happily gives
12:38
Speaker 3: a statement. One of Elizabeth's daughters, Iris Cruise, what they
12:41
Speaker 3: used to call their little Iris. She was fourteen years
12:43
Speaker 3: old at the time of the quad, and she also
12:45
Speaker 3: was an employee of the Red Top. She can even
12:48
Speaker 3: read English at the time, but she signed a statement
12:50
Speaker 3: he handed her that she saw Danny from her fourth
12:53
Speaker 3: floor apartment window at the opposite end of Beakman Avenue,
12:57
Speaker 3: which is where the alley was located, and she said
12:59
Speaker 3: she heard fireworks. So she leaned out of her window
13:02
Speaker 3: and looks down the road through a fire escape and
13:05
Speaker 3: says she can see what was going on. Now, if
13:07
Speaker 3: you picture a city block, it's pretty long. She can
13:10
Speaker 3: see all the way down to the other end of
13:12
Speaker 3: the block in the dark because the lights have been
13:14
Speaker 3: blown out, and can see that Danny's sitting in a
13:16
Speaker 3: car shooting from the car. I mean that sounds a
13:19
Speaker 3: little bit sketchy to me.
13:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I would like to actually go to that apartment,
13:24
Speaker 1: and I have a funny feeling we would know maybe
13:26
Speaker 1: you've already done that.
13:27
Speaker 3: So we actually did do that, Jason, and we stood
13:30
Speaker 3: on the street and looked down the block and there's
13:32
Speaker 3: absolutely no And we did.
13:34
Speaker 2: It in broad daylight.
13:34
Speaker 3: There's no way in the dark of night you could
13:37
Speaker 3: see all the way down there.
13:38
Speaker 1: We see cases like this over and over again where
13:41
Speaker 1: these witness statements are so easily proven to be not
13:45
Speaker 1: a false, but could not be true. It's a different
13:47
Speaker 1: category from false, right could not be true because you
13:49
Speaker 1: cannot see from where they said they were to where
13:52
Speaker 1: the thing took place. But that gets pretty easily glossed
13:55
Speaker 1: over in the course to these proceedings somehow and eliciteth.
13:59
Speaker 3: Morales also had a son named Joey Morales who was
14:02
Speaker 3: thirteen at the time of the quad and he allegedly
14:06
Speaker 3: saw the shooting as well. And he, by the way,
14:08
Speaker 3: was a witness in six other cases in which Teppens
14:12
Speaker 3: was the detective.
14:12
Speaker 5: Let me tell you something about the incredible Joy Morales.
14:16
Speaker 5: Joey Morales claims that he went to buy a gallon
14:18
Speaker 5: of milk at ten thirty in the evening and witnessed
14:22
Speaker 5: the quad murders. In another case, he went to buy
14:25
Speaker 5: milk at three point thirty in the morning and witnessed
14:29
Speaker 5: a guy by the name of Rashi Rice and Angel
14:31
Speaker 5: kinyone is committed a robbery and a murder at three
14:34
Speaker 5: thirty in the morning that his mother sent him to
14:36
Speaker 5: go buy some milk. In another matter, Marion Frasier's case,
14:40
Speaker 5: the Incredible Joey Morales claims that he left his house
14:43
Speaker 5: to go hang out in the neighborhood at fort the
14:45
Speaker 5: afternoons and wondered the neighborhood to six o'clock in the
14:50
Speaker 5: morning without going home. Thirteen year old kid wandered that
14:54
Speaker 5: neighborhood in those years to six o'clock in the morning.
14:57
Speaker 5: We're at five point thirty in the morning. He allegedly
15:00
Speaker 5: observes Madamia Frasier, I'm bitter murder one hundred and forty pressure.
15:04
Speaker 1: And these people were just so lucky that they have
15:06
Speaker 1: to witness one murder after another. That sounds like some
15:08
Speaker 1: Scarcella type of stuff.
15:10
Speaker 5: It seems that Evans has got sell as the one
15:11
Speaker 5: in the same.
15:22
Speaker 1: This episode is brought to you by Stand Together. Stand
15:25
Speaker 1: Together is a philanthropic community dedicated to helping people improve
15:29
Speaker 1: their lives. For more than twenty years, Stand Together and
15:32
Speaker 1: its partners have been on the front lines of criminal
15:34
Speaker 1: justice reform. By empowering people to take action, supporting nonprofits,
15:39
Speaker 1: and working with businesses. Stand Together tackles the root causes
15:43
Speaker 1: of problems in our communities and empowers those closest to
15:46
Speaker 1: the problems to drive solutions. Solutions like reducing unjust prison
15:50
Speaker 1: sentences through the First Step Act, empowering community based programs
15:54
Speaker 1: and help people re enter society, and now working to
15:57
Speaker 1: bridge divides in our communities. To learn how you may
16:01
Speaker 1: get involved, visit standtogether dot org, slash conviction. Danny, when
16:10
Speaker 1: did you get arrested?
16:11
Speaker 5: It was almost a summer day, like it was June sixth,
16:15
Speaker 5: nineteen ninety two. I was on the same street that
16:17
Speaker 5: I was on the night of the murders, on Typer's Avenue.
16:19
Speaker 5: As I look up, I see Mark Tebans and he
16:21
Speaker 5: tells me that he needed to talk to me, And
16:23
Speaker 5: I said, to talk to me about what. He said, well,
16:25
Speaker 5: somebody said you robbed them. When I get to the
16:27
Speaker 5: priest and he tells me that I'm there for Big Monamue.
16:30
Speaker 5: I said, what do you mean Big Minavenue. He said,
16:31
Speaker 5: we got information that you was driving the car the
16:35
Speaker 5: night of the murders. That said me, impossible. There's thirty
16:38
Speaker 5: forty people that can tell you I was on Cyper's
16:40
Speaker 5: Avenue that evening. That's impossible. I was processed. I was
16:44
Speaker 5: taken down to Central Booking and charged with killing four
16:47
Speaker 5: people and wounding someone else, and Judge Ira Growboman granted
16:52
Speaker 5: me the bill was said at one hundred thousand dollars.
16:54
Speaker 1: That's kind of low bail for someone who they think
16:57
Speaker 1: committed this horrific crime.
17:00
Speaker 5: I was able to get bailed out because Benjamin Green
17:03
Speaker 5: and his mother Irene Green, were at my arrangement, and
17:06
Speaker 5: as you know, Benjamin is the brother of Irene is
17:08
Speaker 5: the mother of one of the deceased, Anthony Green. And
17:11
Speaker 5: so their statement was to quote an open statement that
17:14
Speaker 5: I was on Cyprus Avenue in their building and that
17:16
Speaker 5: I assisted her that evening, and that I couldn't have
17:18
Speaker 5: been involved. The judge, I guess, took that in consideration
17:22
Speaker 5: and granted me the bail. Even while I was out
17:24
Speaker 5: on bail, I visited the Green house.
17:26
Speaker 1: So how long were you out before the trial?
17:28
Speaker 5: So I got arrested in ninety two, I got out
17:30
Speaker 5: on bail. I initially started trial in the Bronx, well,
17:34
Speaker 5: at least the co defendants did, and just Ira Globerman,
17:38
Speaker 5: a Supreme Court justice in the Bronx, who granted me
17:40
Speaker 5: the bail. By the way, Ira Globerman did not believe
17:44
Speaker 5: that I was guilty of these murders. He's told the
17:46
Speaker 5: prosecution and a hearing he said that he's seen the
17:49
Speaker 5: evidence of prosecution has and he's not persuaded that I
17:52
Speaker 5: am guilty of these murders, and that for those reasons
17:55
Speaker 5: he's going to separate my case from that of the
17:57
Speaker 5: Code offantas he said, the cod defenders will go on
17:59
Speaker 5: trial first, and mister rincomm because he is out on bail,
18:02
Speaker 5: he'll go on trial's second. That never happened. Obviously, we
18:06
Speaker 5: was indicted in the superseding indictment in New York County.
18:09
Speaker 5: All the charges were later dismissed in the Bronx and
18:11
Speaker 5: reindicted in New York County, and I was remanded by Snyder,
18:15
Speaker 5: and that was in ninety three, and the trial that
18:20
Speaker 5: had starts a year later.
18:21
Speaker 1: We went before Snyder and Leslie Crocker.
18:24
Speaker 4: Schneider, you know, was an animal judge. I mean, she
18:27
Speaker 4: was notorious for doing out the harshness of sentences and
18:31
Speaker 4: wrote the book twenty five to Life, which focused on
18:34
Speaker 4: the Wild Cowboys.
18:35
Speaker 1: Yes, she was notorious.
18:37
Speaker 3: Little did anyone know that this tough judge would not
18:40
Speaker 3: be Danny's biggest problem. It's important to note that in
18:44
Speaker 3: November of ninety three they found an indictment with forty
18:47
Speaker 3: one defendants co defendants, and they called it the Wild
18:50
Speaker 3: Cowboy Trial. But it was like all the crimes that
18:53
Speaker 3: had taken place in that area. So there was a
18:55
Speaker 3: big blanket of an indictment that they issued and all
18:58
Speaker 3: that the crowd murders was just one of them, and
19:01
Speaker 3: thirty two of those individuals of the forty one play
19:03
Speaker 3: out they pled guilty and nine, Danny being one of them,
19:07
Speaker 3: proceeded to go to trial, and of those, five of
19:10
Speaker 3: them were convicted of the quad.
19:11
Speaker 4: I can tell you that the wrong people that they
19:13
Speaker 4: focused on were Stanley Tukes, Russell Harris, Daniel Gonzalez, and
19:19
Speaker 4: Danny ron Cone, and those people are all innocent, by
19:22
Speaker 4: the way. In addition to Danny ron Cone, there was
19:24
Speaker 4: one guy, Wilfredo de Los Angeles, who we believe was
19:28
Speaker 4: an actual perpetrator of the quad. But the theory that
19:32
Speaker 4: they went with was clearly wrong.
19:34
Speaker 1: How did they come to land all five of them?
19:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, So the prosecution came up with this theory that
19:41
Speaker 4: Orange Top teamed up with Red Top in an effort
19:44
Speaker 4: to off Yellow Top, which was totally false. I mean,
19:49
Speaker 4: in fact, Red Top and Orange Top did not get
19:53
Speaker 4: along and Red Top had put a hit at we
19:56
Speaker 4: actually shot Danny in.
19:58
Speaker 5: Nineteen ninety was the subject of a similar shooting at
20:02
Speaker 5: the hands of Lenny Separvator, where I was shot six
20:05
Speaker 5: times on that same corner where the quad happened. Just
20:08
Speaker 5: a year before for the same reasons, because I was
20:11
Speaker 5: associated with Orisa. As we know that the murders happened
20:15
Speaker 5: on December sixteen, nineteen ninety one. Two weeks later, I
20:19
Speaker 5: held a New Year's party at Cyprus Avenue. I invited
20:22
Speaker 5: the whole Yellow Top crew to about her. Benjamin Green,
20:26
Speaker 5: whose brother had just been killed two weeks earlier, was
20:29
Speaker 5: in a party with me, So you know, it just
20:32
Speaker 5: the sized logic that you know, I would try to
20:34
Speaker 5: ambush these guys and then be partying with them two
20:36
Speaker 5: weeks later. But ironically, the people that were actually now
20:40
Speaker 5: known to be responsible for the Quad were not present
20:45
Speaker 5: or invited to the party. Again, as I said, a
20:47
Speaker 5: decise logic, So.
20:49
Speaker 4: There was really a clear divide between Redtop and Orange Top.
20:53
Speaker 4: But the prosecution just blew through that because they needed
20:55
Speaker 4: to join them for their case.
20:57
Speaker 1: So you end up a trial and how did that
21:00
Speaker 1: whole thing play out?
21:01
Speaker 5: So the trial began in nineteen ninety four September ninety four,
21:05
Speaker 5: But I never, for the life of me, believed that
21:07
Speaker 5: the Quad was something that I get convicted of for
21:10
Speaker 5: many reasons. The alleged witnesses stories were all over the place.
21:13
Speaker 5: You know, their narratives changed from one telling to the next,
21:16
Speaker 5: and I knew that there was just so many people
21:18
Speaker 5: that can place me on Cyprus Avenue. But as the
21:21
Speaker 5: trial moved along, I realized that the waste sneider was
21:26
Speaker 5: pushing this trial forward, and the way she was denying stuff,
21:30
Speaker 5: you know, my hopes dwindled more and more that I
21:33
Speaker 5: can get a fair trial in front of this woman.
21:35
Speaker 5: And so the witnesses got up, understand and they all testified,
21:39
Speaker 5: and one after the other, the lawyers tried their best
21:41
Speaker 5: to try to show that these witnesses were all lying
21:44
Speaker 5: for a favor and providing testimony and to try to
21:46
Speaker 5: get legacy from the prosecutor's officer for you know, whatever reasons.
21:50
Speaker 5: But I predominantly wanted to hear the Cruise Morales family
21:54
Speaker 5: because I knew I didn't know these people. I knew
21:56
Speaker 5: that we weren't friends, I knew that these people were lying,
22:00
Speaker 5: and I just knew that at some point, you know,
22:02
Speaker 5: it's going to come out, this is going to come
22:03
Speaker 5: out during this trial that these people did not witness this,
22:06
Speaker 5: and these people just implicating individuals here wrongfully. That was
22:10
Speaker 5: my aspiration, but it didn't play out. That way they testified,
22:13
Speaker 5: they gave the conflicting narratives that they gave, and the
22:16
Speaker 5: jury still accepted it. But I believe that the jury
22:19
Speaker 5: accepted the narratives that these witnesses provided simply because the
22:22
Speaker 5: way the trial was held. They sat us in this courtroom,
22:26
Speaker 5: eight individuals at a defense table. So try to picture
22:29
Speaker 5: these guys in your mind. There's three defense attorneys. There's
22:32
Speaker 5: an armed camp of court officers and investigators and police
22:37
Speaker 5: all surrounding the courtroom, media all over the place. There's
22:40
Speaker 5: eight defense attorneys. A couple of the defense attorneys had
22:43
Speaker 5: either a paralegal or second chair, and there's just this
22:47
Speaker 5: big show going on about how these guys were one
22:51
Speaker 5: of the worst groups of individuals that committed all these
22:54
Speaker 5: hangs acts during the course of seven years.
22:58
Speaker 1: It sounds like a circus. I mean, with that many people,
23:02
Speaker 1: how could you even begin to present the cohesive defense.
23:06
Speaker 4: It's very unusual that they would do more than five
23:09
Speaker 4: defendants together in a trial. Anything over five becomes super unwieldy.
23:15
Speaker 4: And this was way beyond that. It was a circus.
23:18
Speaker 5: And the jury, not hearing from any of the defendants,
23:23
Speaker 5: in their mind, must have said that They're all guilty,
23:26
Speaker 5: they all did it. Why aren't they getting up there
23:28
Speaker 5: and defending themselves. I wanted to testify. I was prepared
23:33
Speaker 5: to tell this jury. Look, I was on Cyprus Avenue.
23:35
Speaker 4: And Irene Green and Benjamin Green had provided information to
23:39
Speaker 4: Donald Tucker, Danny's lawyer, about that alibi. Donald Tucker failed
23:44
Speaker 4: to do anything with that alibi. Investigated further and put
23:48
Speaker 4: on alibi witnesses on Danny's behalf.
23:50
Speaker 5: The lawyer Donald Tuckle at the time, who was disbarred
23:54
Speaker 5: by the way six months seven months after my trial,
23:57
Speaker 5: told me that if I forced any witness to come
23:59
Speaker 5: into the court to testify that doesn't want to testify.
24:02
Speaker 5: Whenever I needed them to testify, they won't testify for me.
24:05
Speaker 5: And I was explained to that if I do testify,
24:09
Speaker 5: will not be in my best interest. So I decided
24:11
Speaker 5: to not to testify, which I think is one of
24:13
Speaker 5: the worst mistakes I've made in my life. But the
24:16
Speaker 5: trial was a font.
24:18
Speaker 1: You have a circus trial with an impossible number of
24:21
Speaker 1: people at the defense table in and around defendants, lawyers, paralegals.
24:27
Speaker 1: You had a lawyer who was on his way to
24:28
Speaker 1: being disbarred. But the moment, the moment when you were convicted.
24:33
Speaker 1: What was that like.
24:36
Speaker 5: I got to tell you that it was probably one
24:39
Speaker 5: of the worst days of my life. I mean absently
24:42
Speaker 5: my mother's passing and my brother. I think that that
24:45
Speaker 5: was one of the most worst days of my life.
24:47
Speaker 1: You know.
24:48
Speaker 5: I sat there and looked at I stared at the
24:50
Speaker 5: jury like a blank stare, and I'm trying to just
24:56
Speaker 5: make sense of how did they come to the conclusion
24:59
Speaker 5: that I was guilty of Quad. The reason we sat
25:01
Speaker 5: there was because of that Quad murder, and I knew
25:04
Speaker 5: I wasn't guilty. I never, never, never would have imagined
25:08
Speaker 5: that maybe it's twenty eight years later and I'm still
25:11
Speaker 5: sitting here. I knew that. At some point I said
25:14
Speaker 5: to myself, you know, Benjamin Green's family would come forward
25:18
Speaker 5: and fortune will come forward and tell these people I'm
25:21
Speaker 5: not responsible for this. They can bear witness to the
25:23
Speaker 5: fact that I didn't do this, and that day hasn't come.
25:29
Speaker 1: You got sent to president.
25:30
Speaker 5: On the day of sentencing, I was taken up to
25:33
Speaker 5: downstair from the bullpen. I didn't make it back to
25:35
Speaker 5: Raga's Island. I was processing downstate. Within the next two
25:39
Speaker 5: three days. I was on a bus headed towards Western
25:42
Speaker 5: New York. I found myself in Wendy Correctional Facility. I
25:46
Speaker 5: stayed at Wendy for about roughly seventy days. I had
25:50
Speaker 5: an opportunity at least to see my mother. My mother
25:52
Speaker 5: tracked me down and made her way up there, and
25:55
Speaker 5: I saw my mother's and thereafter seventy some days later,
25:59
Speaker 5: I found myself where I am today at Attica Correctional Facility,
26:03
Speaker 5: and I'm looking for a familiar faith and I run
26:07
Speaker 5: into Derek Hamilton, who I had known from Rykers Island
26:10
Speaker 5: and who actually was a friend of my brother when
26:13
Speaker 5: he rested peace. So I've seen Derek and he tells me, listen,
26:16
Speaker 5: you got to go to the Law Library. But back
26:18
Speaker 5: then I didn't have a crew of what the law
26:20
Speaker 5: Library was or what the low Library was going to
26:22
Speaker 5: do for me, and I just didn't go. So five
26:26
Speaker 5: years later, I leave Attica and I find myself at
26:28
Speaker 5: green Haven. I decided that I needed to go to
26:31
Speaker 5: the Law Library because they was offering a legal research class,
26:34
Speaker 5: and I ended up getting a legal research certificate. Almost
26:37
Speaker 5: four years later, I leave green Haven and I find
26:39
Speaker 5: myself in Auburn and I run into a good friend
26:42
Speaker 5: of min named Shabaka Chakourt, who introduced me to other
26:45
Speaker 5: individuals that are working in the law library of doing
26:47
Speaker 5: things that were constructive. And I just made a decision
26:50
Speaker 5: that that's what I was going to do. That I
26:53
Speaker 5: had to teach myself how to research, understand, how to
26:56
Speaker 5: seek evidence, obtain evidence, and present it. I find it
27:00
Speaker 5: to get a job in the law library around two
27:01
Speaker 5: thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, and then another
27:03
Speaker 5: guy comes into the library that I hadn't the privilege
27:06
Speaker 5: to meet then, Nelson Cruz, talking about his case. He
27:09
Speaker 5: was talking about how he had a wrongful conviction and
27:12
Speaker 5: he had actually an officer who can substantiate that he
27:16
Speaker 5: was not the shooter in his case. Law and behold,
27:18
Speaker 5: Derek Hamilton arrives to the facility, but he's at the
27:21
Speaker 5: shoe now and he sent me a message because he
27:23
Speaker 5: heard that I was a clerk in the law libraries.
27:25
Speaker 5: And so Derek gets down to the law library. Now
27:27
Speaker 5: we're all together. We were all wrongfully convicted, and because
27:30
Speaker 5: we were all arguing actual witniicsens, we namely grouped the
27:33
Speaker 5: AI team the actually Wittidens team. So what we would
27:37
Speaker 5: do is brainstorm different cases. One of the cases that
27:39
Speaker 5: we brainstorm was Innrie Davis. It was a Supreme Court
27:43
Speaker 5: case where the guy was convicted wrongfully we believe as well,
27:47
Speaker 5: for shooting a police officer down in Georgia somewhere. And
27:50
Speaker 5: interestingly in the decision, one of the judges stated was
27:53
Speaker 5: that the guy had some alibi winners who weren't given
27:56
Speaker 5: the opportunity to testify, and it should be afforded that opportunity.
28:00
Speaker 5: When I read that that like gave me energy, gave
28:04
Speaker 5: me hope that the witnesses that I have that can
28:08
Speaker 5: place me on Cyper's avenue hadn't been given that opportunity
28:11
Speaker 5: to testify and should be given that opportunity to testify.
28:27
Speaker 4: So Danny actually had a number of post conviction motions after.
28:31
Speaker 2: He got sentenced to one hundred and fifty eight to
28:34
Speaker 2: third to.
28:34
Speaker 4: Life, and the first motion was a Brady violation the
28:39
Speaker 4: suppression of exculpatory evidence, which he lost. It was another
28:42
Speaker 4: one that was brought based on Leslie Krocker Snyder's failure
28:47
Speaker 4: to accuse herself because she had conflicts associated with the case.
28:51
Speaker 4: They lost that there was a habeas corpus petition brought
28:55
Speaker 4: in federal court based on the theory of prosecution, which
29:01
Speaker 4: was that it was one single conspiracy, which was the
29:04
Speaker 4: Red Top Orange Top combined, when in reality was multiple conspiracies.
29:10
Speaker 2: They lost that.
29:11
Speaker 5: So during those years, you know, the people that I
29:13
Speaker 5: would write frequently write was Glenn Garber, John Elstein, Ron Cooby,
29:19
Speaker 5: pleading with them to help me with my situation. But
29:22
Speaker 5: unbeknownst to me, there was an attorney who believed in
29:26
Speaker 5: my innocence. Was David Taber and David Goldstein who were
29:28
Speaker 5: actually speaking to Glenn for me.
29:30
Speaker 4: David Tagar, who was the lawyer for Rafael Perez and
29:34
Speaker 4: was co counsel to Donald Tucker, Danny's lawyer, came to
29:39
Speaker 4: me and said, you got to get involved in Danny's case.
29:42
Speaker 4: We actually went me and David Tager up to see
29:46
Speaker 4: Tezo Rafael Perez to talk to him because David was
29:51
Speaker 4: saying that Danny was innocent, and the affid David that
29:54
Speaker 4: Tezo signed came about either when I went with him
29:58
Speaker 4: or maybe shortly thereafter. In any event, in twenty fourteen,
30:02
Speaker 4: I teamed up with two other lawyers to do what
30:05
Speaker 4: was a very substantive post conviction motion of also called
30:09
Speaker 4: a four to forty motion, and the lawyers were Jonathan
30:12
Speaker 4: Eedelstein and Patrick Joyce. And in that motion in twenty fourteen,
30:17
Speaker 4: we had an affidavit from Rafael Perez Tezo who came
30:21
Speaker 4: forward and said that he was a shooter in the
30:25
Speaker 4: quad murder. Now, mind you, Teso was not one of
30:28
Speaker 4: the prosecution defendants for the quad murder. He was actually
30:32
Speaker 4: at that joint trial, but the prosecution did not claim
30:35
Speaker 4: he was associated in any way with the quad shooting.
30:38
Speaker 4: But it turns out that Tezo was a shooter. And
30:42
Speaker 4: Francisco Medina also came forward aka Freddy Krueger, and he
30:47
Speaker 4: also signed an affid David and said that he was
30:51
Speaker 4: a shooter in the quad murder. Also, somebody the prosecution
30:54
Speaker 4: did not target as a defendant for the quad murder.
30:58
Speaker 5: I also want to put something out of that. I
30:59
Speaker 5: think it's very interesting. In nineteen ninety five, there was
31:02
Speaker 5: an individual by the name of Raoul Vaugis who was
31:04
Speaker 5: indicted by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New
31:07
Speaker 5: York along with several others. They charged seventeen murders. Freddy Krueger,
31:11
Speaker 5: who was actually one of the participants in this quad
31:14
Speaker 5: was charged in that indictment as well. In nineteen ninety five,
31:17
Speaker 5: the federal government had yet to declare whether or not
31:19
Speaker 5: they was going to seek the death penalty in that case,
31:22
Speaker 5: Raoul Vagas decided to become a federal cooperator. In nineteen
31:26
Speaker 5: ninety five, he admits of the federal government that he
31:28
Speaker 5: was involved in the quad murders.
31:30
Speaker 4: And in that trial, Raoul Vargas testified about being the
31:35
Speaker 4: driver and being in the neighborhood and around the corner
31:39
Speaker 4: when the shooting took place, and was aware of the
31:42
Speaker 4: details of it, and knew that Freddy Krueger was involved,
31:45
Speaker 4: knew that Teza was involved, knew that Nelson said Pulvido
31:49
Speaker 4: was involved, and knew that Platineau was also involved, and
31:53
Speaker 4: says that Danny had nothing to do with the quad murder.
31:56
Speaker 4: So we had those three people who were all involved
31:59
Speaker 4: in the quad murder, all people the prosecution did not
32:02
Speaker 4: target as defendants in the quad murder, and they came
32:05
Speaker 4: forward and they said unequivocally that Danny was not involved.
32:10
Speaker 4: That really should have been enough to get either an
32:13
Speaker 4: exoneration or a hearing where they could have testified in
32:18
Speaker 4: front of the court and the court could have heard
32:20
Speaker 4: from them. The judge actually denied us even hearing on
32:23
Speaker 4: that motion. There was other things also that were raised
32:26
Speaker 4: in that motion that were very powerful. There were six
32:29
Speaker 4: alibi witnesses that came forward, and just to harken back
32:33
Speaker 4: to what Danny was saying a bit, those were witnesses
32:36
Speaker 4: that placed him at that apartment one G on Cyprus Avenue,
32:40
Speaker 4: over a block and a half away from where the
32:42
Speaker 4: quad murder took place at the time that the shooting occurred,
32:46
Speaker 4: and those witnesses prepared Affi Davids and we filed those
32:50
Speaker 4: with our four to forty motion as well. Some interesting
32:54
Speaker 4: features also, as David Towger wrote an affid David and
32:58
Speaker 4: said that Tezo Rafael Perez had been telling him all
33:02
Speaker 4: along from the beginning that he was involved in the
33:06
Speaker 4: quad murders and that Danny was innocent. But David Tower
33:09
Speaker 4: couldn't reveal that information because he was defending Tezo, and
33:14
Speaker 4: he obviously couldn't raise that information and implicate him on
33:18
Speaker 4: something that's client did that he was in charge with.
33:21
Speaker 4: But Tezo ultimately allowed David Tager to come forward with
33:25
Speaker 4: this information because Justice demanded it, and that gives you
33:29
Speaker 4: a sense of why David Tager was up in arms
33:32
Speaker 4: about this, the fact that Danny was erroneously placed in
33:35
Speaker 4: the quad murders, not only you know, during the trial,
33:38
Speaker 4: but also afterwards, why he came to me and why
33:41
Speaker 4: he's so adamant that this injustice happened that Danny needed
33:44
Speaker 4: to be exonerated. David Goldstein also filled out an affid
33:48
Speaker 4: David that was submitted in that four to forty motion
33:52
Speaker 4: and talked about Donald Tucker, who was Danny's lawyer, and
33:56
Speaker 4: said that he had revealed to Tucker that there was
34:00
Speaker 4: an alibi, and Irene Green and Benjamin Green had provided
34:04
Speaker 4: information to him about that alibi, and Donald Tucker never
34:07
Speaker 4: brought that evidence forward. And one of the claims in
34:10
Speaker 4: that four to forty motion, by the way, was in
34:12
Speaker 4: effective assistance of counsel for Tucker's failure to do anything
34:17
Speaker 4: with that alibi. Investigated further and put on alibi witnesses
34:21
Speaker 4: on Danny's behalf. So unfortunately, in twenty fifteen, Judge Fitzgerald,
34:27
Speaker 4: who got assigned to the case, wrote a very bad decision,
34:31
Speaker 4: denying us on all grounds and not even giving us
34:34
Speaker 4: our day in court, and that's where we're basically at now,
34:38
Speaker 4: where we're continuing our investigation. We're trying to shore up
34:42
Speaker 4: additional aspects of the alibi, we're looking into Tebbans, and
34:46
Speaker 4: we're at a place right now where we're trying to
34:48
Speaker 4: get him back into court with new stuff.
34:50
Speaker 3: And I think one of the most important parts of
34:52
Speaker 3: this whole case has been the targeting of Danny, basically
34:55
Speaker 3: to get him off the street. And I think the
34:57
Speaker 3: witnesses they've used, I mean, the judge never seemed to
35:00
Speaker 3: knowledge the fact that all of these people had invested
35:02
Speaker 3: interest in having him put away, and that was something
35:05
Speaker 3: that just was never brought to light. And I think
35:07
Speaker 3: that that's sort of our goal going forward, is to
35:09
Speaker 3: show that they all had a motive. We have people
35:12
Speaker 3: with no incentive to lie that have cleared him. So
35:15
Speaker 3: I think we just need to sort of parse out
35:17
Speaker 3: the facts and separate them chronologically and logically to see
35:20
Speaker 3: why we're in the situation.
35:22
Speaker 2: It just doesn't make any sense.
35:23
Speaker 1: It just doesn't make any freaking sense. And so many
35:28
Speaker 1: of the people that Danny referenced are people that we've
35:30
Speaker 1: had on the show, people that I consider to be
35:32
Speaker 1: friends and most of them have been exonerated by now
35:35
Speaker 1: or at a minimum freed, and yet he continues to
35:39
Speaker 1: go on with Danny, I mean, what an inspirational guy
35:43
Speaker 1: you are. You were convicted of a horrible crime that
35:46
Speaker 1: you didn't commit. The killers were allowed to remain free,
35:50
Speaker 1: and New York City suffered as a result. Taxpayers continue
35:53
Speaker 1: to pay for your wrongful incarceration, and you continue to
35:57
Speaker 1: pay with your very life. And all of it is
35:59
Speaker 1: something that you outrage everybody of good conscience. So the
36:03
Speaker 1: good news is we're here, we're shining a light on it.
36:06
Speaker 1: We have Glenn and Farah and a whole team of people,
36:10
Speaker 1: and I think hopefully we'll build a new legion of
36:12
Speaker 1: people with some of the information that we've shared today.
36:16
Speaker 1: And how can people get involved?
36:18
Speaker 4: First of all, they can write letters to the Manhattan
36:20
Speaker 4: District Attorney's office to say vance Junior and ask that
36:24
Speaker 4: they'd be sent to the Integrity Unit and that they
36:26
Speaker 4: reevaluate the case. We went to the integraty Unit, by
36:30
Speaker 4: the way, and they didn't give a shit. They can
36:32
Speaker 4: go to their local government representatives and their districts and
36:36
Speaker 4: they can say that this is a case that bothers
36:38
Speaker 4: them and ask those people to get involved and maybe
36:41
Speaker 4: write letters to the DA's office on their behalf.
36:43
Speaker 1: There's also a petition that you can sign on change
36:47
Speaker 1: dot org, so please scroll down to the bio and
36:51
Speaker 1: get involved. Now we turn to the portion of the
36:54
Speaker 1: show that we call closing arguments. First of all, I
36:57
Speaker 1: think our distinguished guests, all three of you for our roster,
37:03
Speaker 1: thanks again for being.
37:04
Speaker 2: Here, Thanks for having us, Jason, thank you.
37:07
Speaker 4: And Glenn Garber my pleasure and I'm glad that you're
37:10
Speaker 4: featuring this case. We really appreciate it.
37:12
Speaker 1: And of course, Danny, you know we're going to get
37:14
Speaker 1: to you last, because that's how closing arguments works here
37:16
Speaker 1: at the show, is that we always save the bets
37:18
Speaker 1: for last. But first of all, like I said, I
37:21
Speaker 1: just want to thank you for being here, Thank you
37:24
Speaker 1: so much, and we're going to keep fighting for you.
37:26
Speaker 1: So now closing Arguments is where I turned my microphone off,
37:30
Speaker 1: I kicked back in my chair, and I ask each
37:33
Speaker 1: of you to share your final thoughts with our audience.
37:37
Speaker 6: First of all, thank you so much Jason for having us,
37:39
Speaker 6: and thank you for taking the time to hear's Danny's
37:41
Speaker 6: story and getting to know him. And learning as many
37:44
Speaker 6: people as possible to hear about the injustice he has suffered. Already,
37:47
Speaker 6: He's spent twenty five years in prison for a crime
37:50
Speaker 6: he did not commit. As you've heard, there's so much
37:52
Speaker 6: evidence supporting his claim of innocence, from statements of the
37:55
Speaker 6: actual perpetrators of the quad to the people who are
37:58
Speaker 6: with him at the exact time of the shooting. Is
38:00
Speaker 6: clear that he was not near or in the alley
38:02
Speaker 6: when the shooting occurred. In fact, he was on the
38:04
Speaker 6: phone with his brother, who was incarcerated at the moment
38:07
Speaker 6: the shots were fired, and he ran to see what
38:09
Speaker 6: had happened. He yelled to his friends to come inside,
38:12
Speaker 6: and then he saw the mother of one of the
38:13
Speaker 6: victims and actually hugged and consoled her.
38:16
Speaker 2: Of these six.
38:16
Speaker 6: People have signed affidavit stating that Danny was with them
38:19
Speaker 6: when the shots were fired. They all signed statements saying
38:22
Speaker 6: that he did not commit the quad murder. He had
38:24
Speaker 6: the misfortune of having a lawyer who did not call
38:27
Speaker 6: these witnesses as alibi witnesses at trial, despite his repeated requests.
38:31
Speaker 6: He also had the misfortune of being tried in front
38:33
Speaker 6: of a judge who was predisposed in not liking him,
38:36
Speaker 6: As we later found out in a book she authored
38:38
Speaker 6: after the trial with no evidence, she blamed him and
38:40
Speaker 6: his co defendants for death threats she and her family
38:43
Speaker 6: received during the trial. He had the misfortune of being
38:46
Speaker 6: targeted by detective who was determined to close his cases
38:49
Speaker 6: as quickly as possible. And as we've discussed, we have
38:52
Speaker 6: concerns about the detective's use of witnesses in this case
38:55
Speaker 6: and have found a pattern of him misusing the same
38:57
Speaker 6: witnesses over and over. He's made promises to the witnesses
39:00
Speaker 6: and they often received reduced penalties for their own crimes
39:03
Speaker 6: in exchange for their false testimony. Most of these witnesses
39:06
Speaker 6: were members of the rival Red Top drug organization, and
39:09
Speaker 6: they had interested in getting them off the street. So
39:11
Speaker 6: Glenn and I are really committed to helping him uncover
39:13
Speaker 6: the truth in this case and giving Danny as well
39:16
Speaker 6: as the families of the victims the justice they deserve.
39:20
Speaker 4: So this case is a debacle of justice, and there's
39:24
Speaker 4: exceptionally strong evidence of innocence that normally would be enough
39:29
Speaker 4: to at least get an evidentiary hearing to be able
39:33
Speaker 4: to open the door to the court and establish through
39:36
Speaker 4: live testimony the exonerating evidence. And we unfortunately had a
39:41
Speaker 4: judge who didn't care when we brought the evidence forward
39:44
Speaker 4: in our post conviction motion in twenty fourteen. The decision
39:49
Speaker 4: that the judge wrote was basically focusing on non substantive
39:52
Speaker 4: matters to deny us even the hearing that we needed
39:56
Speaker 4: to establish Danny's innocence. We are hopeful that maybe with
40:02
Speaker 4: a new DA in Manhattan, or with additional evidence which
40:06
Speaker 4: we're developing right now and getting back into court, we
40:09
Speaker 4: will get a fair hearing if we have to go
40:12
Speaker 4: that far, and we'll get a judge who's actually going
40:15
Speaker 4: to care and hear the evidence. Because we do think
40:18
Speaker 4: that once we ultimately get our day in court, well
40:21
Speaker 4: we can bring those witnesses forward, those true killers who
40:25
Speaker 4: actually admit to the crime, and the alibi witnesses who've
40:29
Speaker 4: never been heard by a fact finder. Once we're able
40:32
Speaker 4: to bring those forward in a fair environment, we're optimistic
40:36
Speaker 4: that Danny is finally going to get exonerated.
40:39
Speaker 1: Amen, and now Danny over to you for closing arguments.
40:43
Speaker 5: Thank you so much, Thank you so much, Jason for
40:45
Speaker 5: giving me the opportunity I want to thank Glengaba, Cybara Rosina,
40:49
Speaker 5: the Exageration Initiative, for giving me this opportunity, for believing
40:52
Speaker 5: in my innocence, but not giving up on me while
40:55
Speaker 5: you know, I fight for my life here. You know,
40:57
Speaker 5: this is a difficult situation. Being in prison is hard
41:01
Speaker 5: enough of being in prison for a crime that you
41:03
Speaker 5: didn't commit, and do a life or a crime that
41:06
Speaker 5: you didn't commit, and you know that you look in
41:08
Speaker 5: the mirrory morning and you don't have a date to
41:10
Speaker 5: be relief from this hell. It's pretty it's a pretty
41:12
Speaker 5: hard pill to swallow.
41:14
Speaker 1: You know.
41:14
Speaker 5: It weighs on my conscience. It makes me make bad
41:16
Speaker 5: decisions at times, It makes me lose my temper, and
41:20
Speaker 5: you know, it testes my faith, It testes my mental fortitude.
41:24
Speaker 5: It really, you know, doesn't umber mean, and it affects
41:27
Speaker 5: a lot of you know, other aspects of my life
41:29
Speaker 5: and you know, my personal relationship, my friends, relationship with
41:32
Speaker 5: my family and friends, and it's just not right. And
41:35
Speaker 5: I know that most of the decisions that I make
41:38
Speaker 5: obviously are influenced by this incarceration. But my aim is
41:43
Speaker 5: to prove that ultimately one day, that I didn't commit
41:46
Speaker 5: this crime, and that there is more than enough evidence
41:49
Speaker 5: to substantiate the fact that I didn't commit this crime.
41:51
Speaker 5: And I ast encourage those who have that evidence to please,
41:55
Speaker 5: you know, come forward, come forward and provide that evidence.
41:58
Speaker 5: You know, you know, think about what it would be
42:00
Speaker 5: for you sit in prison for twenty eight years for
42:02
Speaker 5: a crime and commitment. Think about what it would be
42:05
Speaker 5: for a relative of yours, a brother or sister, sibling,
42:08
Speaker 5: anybody that you may know that's close to you, to
42:10
Speaker 5: sit in prison for twenty eight years knowing that that
42:13
Speaker 5: person is innocent, while that person withers away is in
42:16
Speaker 5: rots in prison. That's not an easy thing. It's not fair.
42:19
Speaker 5: I don't think it's fair on anybody. It's not something
42:21
Speaker 5: that anybody should go through. And you know, this is
42:25
Speaker 5: a difficult system. The justice system is not just you know,
42:27
Speaker 5: the justice system is about who has the wherewithal to
42:31
Speaker 5: navigate the system. If you have the money, you can
42:34
Speaker 5: locate what you want to need. It appears to be
42:36
Speaker 5: in this system. But if you have the evidence, you know,
42:38
Speaker 5: the system for some reason sense to undermining and look
42:42
Speaker 5: for ways to discredit the evidence. Something that I faced
42:46
Speaker 5: in twenty fourteen when Emotion was filed that might behalf
42:50
Speaker 5: based on actual The sistant adjudged by the name of
42:52
Speaker 5: Daniel sits Gerald, undermine the evidence, overlook the fact that
42:57
Speaker 5: I was sitting in prison for a crime that I
42:59
Speaker 5: can and get away with me, you know, and that
43:03
Speaker 5: was wrong and for those reasons, you know, among others,
43:06
Speaker 5: I fight as hard as I fight to prove that,
43:09
Speaker 5: you know, I do along around my family and friends
43:11
Speaker 5: and out in prison to ride away for something that.
43:14
Speaker 1: I didn't do. Don't forget to give us a fantastic
43:22
Speaker 1: review wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps. And
43:26
Speaker 1: I'm a proud donor to the Ennocence Project, and I
43:29
Speaker 1: really hope you'll join me in supporting this very important
43:32
Speaker 1: cause and helping to prevent future wrongful convictions. Go to
43:36
Speaker 1: Innocenceproject dot org to learn how to donate and get involved.
43:40
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our production team, Connor Hall and
43:42
Speaker 1: Kevin Wartis. The music in the show is by three
43:45
Speaker 1: time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow
43:48
Speaker 1: us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and on Facebook at
43:52
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm is a
43:56
Speaker 1: production of Lava for Good Podcasts. And association with Sick no.
44:00
Speaker 1: Company number one