Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #445 Jason Flom with Donte West

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#445 Jason Flom with Donte West · Wrongful Conviction

0:03
Speaker 1: On March eight, twenty sixteen, Dante West and four friends
0:07
Speaker 1: from California were traveling across country in two separate cars
0:12
Speaker 1: with different final destinations. The last stop they planned to
0:16
Speaker 1: make together was in Manhattan, Kansas, at the apartment of
0:20
Speaker 1: a mutual friend named Jacob Gadwood. As they neared the apartment,
0:24
Speaker 1: a police officer on High seventy spotted the pair of
0:27
Speaker 1: out of state cars and immediately suspected them of drug trafficking.
0:32
Speaker 1: He figured one with carrying the load, while the other
0:35
Speaker 1: was a decoy meant to draw heat from law enforcement.
0:39
Speaker 1: When the officer pulled Dante's car over, he was disappointed
0:42
Speaker 1: to have chosen what he felt must have been the decoy,
0:45
Speaker 1: but took note of the destination under GPS. The officer's
0:50
Speaker 1: suspicions appeared to be confirmed when several pounds of cannabis
0:54
Speaker 1: were later found in the other car. Then, Jacob Gadwood
0:58
Speaker 1: claimed that he planned on buying one of those pounds
1:01
Speaker 1: from Dante, just enough way to incur a nearly eight
1:05
Speaker 1: year sentence. But this is wrongful conviction. Wrongful conviction has
1:17
Speaker 1: always given voice to innocent people in prison. Now we're
1:21
Speaker 1: expanding that voice to you call us at eight three
1:24
Speaker 1: three two oh seven four six sixty six and leave
1:28
Speaker 1: us a message. Tell us how these powerful, often tragic
1:31
Speaker 1: stories make you feel outraged, inspired, motivated. We want to know.
1:37
Speaker 1: We may even include your story in a future episode.
1:40
Speaker 1: Call us A three three two oh seven four six
1:43
Speaker 1: sixty six. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. This is the
1:55
Speaker 1: first time we featured the story of someone who was
1:58
Speaker 1: wrongfully convicted of a crime that I think we all
2:01
Speaker 1: agree now should never even be a crime in the
2:03
Speaker 1: first place, and it isn't in most of the country,
2:06
Speaker 1: which is cannabis. And I'm talking about Dante West, my
2:10
Speaker 1: friend who is an inspiration to me and so many
2:12
Speaker 1: other people. So Dante, first of all, welcome to the show.
2:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you, Jason. It's incredible just to be on
2:18
Speaker 2: this platform.
2:19
Speaker 1: We also have an attorney named Chris Biggs who's been
2:23
Speaker 1: practicing law for over forty years, who was a Secretary
2:26
Speaker 1: of State of the State of Kansas. So Chris, thanks
2:30
Speaker 1: for being here with us today.
2:31
Speaker 3: It's a pleasure. I appreciate the opportunity to share the story.
2:34
Speaker 1: And it is a crazy, freaking story. It involves the misguided,
2:39
Speaker 1: disastrous social policy known as the War on drugs, it
2:43
Speaker 1: has over policing elements to it. It's got snitches, and
2:47
Speaker 1: it happened in Kansas, but it could have happened almost anywhere.
2:51
Speaker 1: And in fact, it could have happened to me when
2:53
Speaker 1: I was growing up. Different being, I wouldn't have been innocent.
2:56
Speaker 1: Full disclosure. So Dante, let's start with you. You didn't grow
3:01
Speaker 1: up in Kansas, right.
3:03
Speaker 2: No, I'm from a place called Stockton, California, right between
3:07
Speaker 2: Oakland and Sacramento.
3:08
Speaker 1: And this happened when you were a college student, right.
3:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, this happened a couple of years after my high
3:14
Speaker 2: school graduation.
3:15
Speaker 1: You know.
3:16
Speaker 2: I graduated twenty thirteen, went out there a few years later.
3:19
Speaker 2: Like I mentioned before, just being from Stockton, California, Jason
3:21
Speaker 2: and living with my grandmother was the sole provider of
3:24
Speaker 2: two younger brothers that were eight nine years old at
3:26
Speaker 2: the time. My grandmother really encouraged me just to say, hey,
3:29
Speaker 2: you've been taking care of me, you should definitely just
3:31
Speaker 2: go out there on a leap of faith and check out,
3:33
Speaker 2: you know, schools. My good cod Infinita, Sean Perkins, had
3:36
Speaker 2: a football scholarship at Tabor University and we were just
3:39
Speaker 2: really just going on a road trip, man, and I
3:41
Speaker 2: was hoping I can continue it out there, first time
3:43
Speaker 2: out of the state, and it was just, you know,
3:45
Speaker 2: a wild experience.
3:46
Speaker 1: Dante Deshaun sat out on the road in a Hundai. Well,
3:49
Speaker 1: three friends of theirs, Victor Lara, Enrique Hinejosa and Jose
3:54
Speaker 1: Jimenez joined them in their Alexus.
3:57
Speaker 3: Yeah.
3:57
Speaker 2: No, I've definitely knew the guys went to high school
3:59
Speaker 2: with those guys friends for sure. They were going the
4:01
Speaker 2: same direction, but different destinations.
4:04
Speaker 1: And they had a different agenda.
4:06
Speaker 2: I had like sebecsa CPOs, a couple pounds of marijuana.
4:08
Speaker 2: I'm not too sure what was in there, and nothing
4:10
Speaker 2: ever left the vehicle. Like I said, same direction, different destinations.
4:15
Speaker 1: Well, unaware of the contents of the Alexis, Dante and
4:18
Speaker 1: Deshaun planned on visiting a few colleges on their way
4:20
Speaker 1: to Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kansas, a state that hadn't
4:24
Speaker 1: yet adopted its neighbors use on cannabis.
4:27
Speaker 3: Kansas is surrounded by Colorado, which has recreational use, Oklahoma,
4:34
Speaker 3: which has medicinal use. Missouri now has been medicinal use
4:38
Speaker 3: and recreational use. And we're in between all those states,
4:41
Speaker 3: and we still have very conservative state laws about using
4:45
Speaker 3: or delivering marijuana. And there's also a lot of enforcement
4:49
Speaker 3: that happens on the interstate highway. Profiling is not allowed.
4:53
Speaker 3: The issue is whether the officers had an independent reason
4:57
Speaker 3: to stop you. My experiences, if you who have out
5:00
Speaker 3: of state tags and they're young people, that they probably
5:04
Speaker 3: have a better opportunity of being stopped. The practice of
5:06
Speaker 3: using a ruse is very common. They stop people for
5:10
Speaker 3: things like following too closely, having a head lamp with
5:13
Speaker 3: some dirt on it, things like that as a ruse,
5:16
Speaker 3: which constitutionally is allowed.
5:18
Speaker 1: On March eighth, twenty sixteen, Dante Deshaun were traveling down
5:22
Speaker 1: Ice seventy in their Hyundai with Nimbata plates, while the
5:24
Speaker 1: Lexus had only one California plate on the front. Officer
5:28
Speaker 1: Nicholas Blake later testified that he believed that the two
5:31
Speaker 1: cars were working in tandem to transport drugs, with one
5:34
Speaker 1: car carrying the load while the other played the decoy
5:38
Speaker 1: meant to draw law enforcement away from the drugs, but
5:41
Speaker 1: which was which in this officer's imagination. He pulled over
5:46
Speaker 1: to Shaun and Dante, presenting his ruse as a reason
5:49
Speaker 1: for the.
5:49
Speaker 2: Stop getting pulled over for having dirt on a license
5:53
Speaker 2: plate on Ice seventy right, just actual rod grid dirt
5:56
Speaker 2: on a license plate is pretty wild. I was a
5:59
Speaker 2: passenger in the v the driver he got a ticket
6:01
Speaker 2: for small amount of marijuana and a Swisher wrapper.
6:05
Speaker 3: Simple possession of marijuana and Kansas as a misdemeanor. The
6:08
Speaker 3: officer suspected that the particular vehicle was connected to another vehicle,
6:13
Speaker 3: and rather than arrest them, they let him go and with.
6:17
Speaker 2: The state alleged. Right, it was a decoy load car, right,
6:20
Speaker 2: And when you think a decoy load car, you think
6:22
Speaker 2: it like smoky in a bandit, Right, You kind of
6:25
Speaker 2: think of something that's someone that's going to deviate off
6:28
Speaker 2: to kind of let.
6:29
Speaker 1: The drugs go.
6:29
Speaker 2: But really, when we got put over by the officer,
6:32
Speaker 2: you told us to exit off the next exit. We
6:34
Speaker 2: got off, went to the Shell gas station and I
6:37
Speaker 2: started to clean my license plate off, and then we
6:39
Speaker 2: glanced up. We just see these troopers just kind of
6:42
Speaker 2: staring down at us.
6:43
Speaker 1: Right, Perhaps they were alerted to a potential drug bust,
6:46
Speaker 1: only to be sorely disappointed. And if there was anything
6:49
Speaker 1: to this decoy load car theory, wouldn't Dantean Deshaun's car
6:53
Speaker 1: have had something deliberately wrong with it.
6:56
Speaker 2: They could read the licen plate to see who the
6:58
Speaker 2: car was registered. You think the decoy car? What were
7:00
Speaker 2: they saying that we put dirt on the license plate
7:04
Speaker 2: in order to get pulled over so the drugs could
7:06
Speaker 2: get away?
7:07
Speaker 1: Is that? I don't know. The missing rear license plate
7:10
Speaker 1: on the Lexus seems like a way more compelling reason
7:13
Speaker 1: to pull someone over. It would stand to reason, after all,
7:16
Speaker 1: that the officer believed that the Lexus was the decoy.
7:19
Speaker 1: But when the officer found no load in the alleged
7:21
Speaker 1: load car to Shaun's Hunday, somehow he held onto the
7:26
Speaker 1: theory and continued his pursuit. However, it did not help
7:30
Speaker 1: matters any When both cars arrived at Jacob Gadwood's apartment,
7:34
Speaker 1: Officer Blake had pulled the address from Deshaun and Dante's
7:37
Speaker 1: GPS and alerted the police in Manhattan, Kansas.
7:41
Speaker 2: Ultimately, we get near Kansas State University, going to meet
7:45
Speaker 2: a guy that I thought was someone I knew right
7:47
Speaker 2: and just went upstairs in the twenty minutes later, I
7:50
Speaker 2: came down the stairs to kind of greet the guys
7:52
Speaker 2: that I traveled with, they went upstairs. As soon as
7:55
Speaker 2: I get down to the parking lot, this guy pops
7:57
Speaker 2: out and playing clothes and was like, hey, you're being
8:00
Speaker 2: I was like being detained for what We just got
8:02
Speaker 2: put over over the freeway for having the dirt on
8:04
Speaker 2: our license plate.
8:05
Speaker 1: So it turned out that although Dante and Deshaun had
8:08
Speaker 1: no idea, there was reason to suspect. Victor Lara, Enriquehnejosa
8:12
Speaker 1: and Jose Jimenez, who was skated out of a back
8:15
Speaker 1: window of Goadwood's apartment, left in their Lexus and later
8:18
Speaker 1: were captured in Tapeka, Kansas, with a small amount of
8:21
Speaker 1: methamphetamine and over six and a half pounds of cannabis. Meanwhile,
8:26
Speaker 1: the police searched Jacob Godwood's apartment.
8:28
Speaker 3: The owner of the apartment the allegation was had his
8:30
Speaker 3: own drugs at the apartment. They basically got that individual
8:34
Speaker 3: to identify Dante as being involved, even though the drugs
8:36
Speaker 3: were found in another car that he was not in.
8:39
Speaker 2: The person at the apartment said, Hey, I was going
8:42
Speaker 2: to buy a pound a weed off Dante, right. It
8:44
Speaker 2: wasn't like oh text messages there wasn't any any other evidence, right,
8:49
Speaker 2: and we ended up going to jail and the fight began.
8:51
Speaker 3: In Kansas for certain drug offence is there all the
8:55
Speaker 3: way up to level one, which is the same as
8:57
Speaker 3: first degree murder, And if you're charge of the level
9:00
Speaker 3: through drag offens for marijuana, you can get a presumptive
9:03
Speaker 3: sentence of up to one hundred and three months. And
9:06
Speaker 3: if you'll also happen to be within a thousand feet
9:08
Speaker 3: of a school, and often in the Midwest almost everything
9:12
Speaker 3: is within the thousand feet of school property somewhere, and
9:15
Speaker 3: they enhance that another level of the crime. But if
9:18
Speaker 3: you kill somebody in the heat of passion at that
9:21
Speaker 3: time it was sixty one months, we have laws that
9:24
Speaker 3: make conspiracy to deliver a pound of marijuana or delivering
9:27
Speaker 3: a pound in marijuana more serious than killing someone in
9:30
Speaker 3: the heat of passion. That's just nuts. But nobody in
9:33
Speaker 3: our conservative state wants to necessarily stand up and say
9:35
Speaker 3: that at least not enough people that we can have
9:38
Speaker 3: our laws changed.
9:39
Speaker 1: Laws like these make it so that the smartest play
9:42
Speaker 1: for the guys in the Lexus is taking a plea deal.
9:45
Speaker 2: Victor Lauri ed up going to prison a couple of
9:47
Speaker 2: those guys got probation. They took plea deals right because
9:50
Speaker 2: they didn't want to go to a jury trial.
9:52
Speaker 3: People cannot be punished by exercising the right to a
9:55
Speaker 3: jury trial in theory, But what happens is people who
9:58
Speaker 3: take a deal can get a bit a fit and
10:00
Speaker 3: the person that goes to trial, even though they're theoretically
10:03
Speaker 3: not being punished for going to trial, the end result
10:05
Speaker 3: often is the person that goes to trial and get
10:07
Speaker 3: convicted will get a longer sentence than the person that
10:10
Speaker 3: inners a plea.
10:11
Speaker 1: With these dynamics at play, taking a plea can also
10:14
Speaker 1: be the most practical move. Brendan is a person like
10:17
Speaker 1: the Shawn Perkins.
10:19
Speaker 2: He ended up going to prison for three years and
10:21
Speaker 2: he lost his scholarship and has beautiful family now. Great
10:25
Speaker 2: dudes still stay in contact with him. In just so
10:28
Speaker 2: fortunate man like, and I'm the only defendant that went
10:30
Speaker 2: to a jury trial. It's not like I had any
10:32
Speaker 2: good offers or anything like that. And quite frankly, I
10:34
Speaker 2: didn't even want to take anything. I'd rather just take
10:36
Speaker 2: my chances at the jury trial.
10:38
Speaker 1: With Gadwood's word as the sole evidence against him. Dante
10:42
Speaker 1: was charged with possession and conspiracy to distribute the small
10:45
Speaker 1: amount of methamphetamine and one of the pounds of marijuana
10:48
Speaker 1: that were found in the lexus, and of course, his
10:51
Speaker 1: grandmother and younger brothers were absolutely devastated.
10:55
Speaker 2: All I can think about is my two younger brothers
10:56
Speaker 2: that were back home eight nine years old at the time.
10:59
Speaker 2: Had to make an unfortunate call to my grandmother and
11:02
Speaker 2: I literally just told her I was locked up, and
11:04
Speaker 2: she couldn't believe it, broke down crying. She was from
11:07
Speaker 2: Texas and she was just really worried about what could
11:10
Speaker 2: happen because growing up she's seen so many people, including
11:13
Speaker 2: my mother. Really didn't know. My mother never met my father,
11:15
Speaker 2: and she just knew how the criminal justice system can
11:18
Speaker 2: do you sometimes, right, especially if you're kind of far
11:20
Speaker 2: away from home, and she ended up passing away.
11:23
Speaker 1: Your grandmother died during.
11:24
Speaker 2: The trial, Yeah, yeah, I during the trial of a
11:28
Speaker 2: broken heart.
11:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, of a.
11:29
Speaker 2: Broken heart had a heart attack, and my world just crashed.
11:32
Speaker 2: And I think that's the biggest issue, just people that
11:35
Speaker 2: get separated for the families. I was fortunate enough to
11:37
Speaker 2: get out on bail and get back to my younger
11:39
Speaker 2: brothers and just to see all the things that they're
11:42
Speaker 2: going through. It really just woke my mind up how
11:44
Speaker 2: you'll never get time back for the people you love.
11:47
Speaker 2: So I ended up hiring a lawyer, and I flew
11:50
Speaker 2: out the week of jury trial February of twenty seventeen,
11:54
Speaker 2: and I met with the council and he told me,
11:56
Speaker 2: he was like, Dante, I didn't read your case, but
11:58
Speaker 2: I have a motion here. I'm going to file a
12:00
Speaker 2: continuance for jury trial. It's not because of you, It's
12:04
Speaker 2: because I had a virus. Here's my doctor's note, and
12:07
Speaker 2: I'm a presented to the judge and we should be
12:10
Speaker 2: able to get some time.
12:11
Speaker 3: Some lawyers operate on what they call flat fee. You
12:14
Speaker 3: pay me X amount of money all representing in this case.
12:16
Speaker 3: Other lawyers do it by the hour. Contingency fees are
12:19
Speaker 3: not legal in a criminal case in Kansas. But the
12:22
Speaker 3: problem with the flat fee is the lawyer's getting X
12:25
Speaker 3: amount of money regardless of how much time's put in.
12:28
Speaker 3: But just human nature, if I've got a case and
12:30
Speaker 3: it might get resolved, I'm not necessarily going to want
12:33
Speaker 3: to put a lot of time into it until I
12:35
Speaker 3: have to write and the file. In this case clearly
12:39
Speaker 3: indicated that a lot of the motions were filed towards
12:41
Speaker 3: the end of the case. In other words, everybody else
12:44
Speaker 3: is pled out, and then you see a flurry of
12:46
Speaker 3: motions right before trial. So it looked like a lot
12:49
Speaker 3: of preparation was happening just before trial. And the lawyer
12:52
Speaker 3: was sick, and there was a comment made about the
12:54
Speaker 3: doctor's note and.
12:55
Speaker 2: End up going to that motion hearing with that attorney,
12:57
Speaker 2: and that motion ultimately got denied and I had to
13:00
Speaker 2: go to trial the next day when not so prepared counsel.
13:04
Speaker 2: And it was super unfortunate on that.
13:06
Speaker 1: I've never heard that before, either a doctor's note, Your
13:11
Speaker 1: lawyer's got a doctor's note? What is he missing gym class?
13:14
Speaker 1: And then the judge doesn't bother to give a continuance
13:17
Speaker 1: and his reason.
13:18
Speaker 2: Was that he had the case out for a year
13:20
Speaker 2: and you didn't read any of it. It's just not
13:22
Speaker 2: excuse and had to go to jury trial.
13:24
Speaker 1: And so trial went forward with what appears to be
13:27
Speaker 1: a built in violation of Dante's right to effective council. Meanwhile,
13:32
Speaker 1: the state presented several officers that claimed packaging material from
13:36
Speaker 1: inside Godwod's apartment match materials found inside the lexus. And
13:40
Speaker 1: even though Godwould escaped any kind of accountability, officers and
13:43
Speaker 1: the prosecutor claimed that Godwould had not received leniency in
13:47
Speaker 1: exchange for testimony. And then Godwood took the stand.
13:51
Speaker 2: The state's aformant went on standard testified that he was
13:53
Speaker 2: going to buy a pound of marijuana from me, and
13:56
Speaker 2: I eventually got found guilty of the pound of marijuana.
13:58
Speaker 1: And also, do you weren't called selling it? This is
14:01
Speaker 1: only that this character said that you were planning to
14:05
Speaker 1: sell it to him, right, right, So it's a thought crime.
14:08
Speaker 2: And on the way to sentencing, fifteen minutes from their airport,
14:12
Speaker 2: just seeing my younger brothers crying in the back seat
14:15
Speaker 2: and feel like they lost everybody. That kind of just
14:18
Speaker 2: woke my brain up. And going out there to that
14:20
Speaker 2: sentencing learning that ninety five percent of people across the
14:23
Speaker 2: state of Kansas cape probation and I had a host
14:26
Speaker 2: of people support me, you know's no criminal history, and
14:30
Speaker 2: ultimately many just sentenced me to seven years a months
14:33
Speaker 2: for a first time offense.
14:46
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15:02
Speaker 2: As I got into the reception area of Valdeto and
15:06
Speaker 2: other persons I went to, we would see these lifers
15:08
Speaker 2: and they had various crimes that they allegedly committed, and
15:11
Speaker 2: they would fight for their innocence and it was just
15:14
Speaker 2: so inspiring to see. And I said, if I could
15:16
Speaker 2: put that fight towards the cannabis offense and whether it
15:19
Speaker 2: be the pill, I try to work on the pill end.
15:21
Speaker 1: Up losing it.
15:21
Speaker 2: But if I could put that effort in time and
15:23
Speaker 2: those lifers, I felt like, if I fought my way
15:26
Speaker 2: as much as I could, I would fulfill my promise. Right,
15:29
Speaker 2: if I worked as hard as I can every day
15:31
Speaker 2: to try to come home to my younger brothers.
15:34
Speaker 1: They were just young kids, right, What were there nine
15:37
Speaker 1: ten years old when this happened.
15:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, there were babies at the time that happened. You know,
15:41
Speaker 2: I had to pick a foster family form. It happens
15:44
Speaker 2: across America all the time.
15:45
Speaker 1: Man.
15:45
Speaker 2: People just get separated from their families. And I think
15:48
Speaker 2: that gave me that motivation every day to kind of
15:51
Speaker 2: get up five thirty breakfasts, get to the law library
15:55
Speaker 2: early in the morning and to try to educate myself,
15:57
Speaker 2: just like those lifer guys would do. Then, after I
15:59
Speaker 2: lost that direct appeal, and I was thinking, like, I'm
16:02
Speaker 2: going to get this clemency. I wrote one hundred and
16:05
Speaker 2: twenty five state reps. I wrote forty senators. Four people
16:08
Speaker 2: wrote me back. A state rep by the name of
16:10
Speaker 2: Willie Debb but actually came and see me during COVID.
16:13
Speaker 2: The Kansas City Star picked it up. It was getting
16:15
Speaker 2: real good publicity. I'm thinking, I'm gonna get this clemency. Right,
16:19
Speaker 2: Mayor of La stepped in former Congresswoman Karen Bass. And
16:23
Speaker 2: it was around the time of legalization of Missouri cannabis. Right,
16:27
Speaker 2: And first two days it sales out. And then you
16:29
Speaker 2: got a guy like me, first time of fence, serving
16:31
Speaker 2: nearly eight years for pound of marijuana.
16:34
Speaker 1: Pound of marijuana that you didn't touch, didn't have, it
16:35
Speaker 1: didn't sell.
16:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it didn't say I mean allegedly there was
16:38
Speaker 2: no money found. Right, someone said they're gonna buy a
16:40
Speaker 2: pound of marijuana. But it wasn't even no money found
16:42
Speaker 2: in the house. It was in another car. I mean,
16:45
Speaker 2: even my code offend and admitted to later on in
16:47
Speaker 2: Affidavid that you know I had no knowledge of it.
16:50
Speaker 1: Victor Lara wrote in an affid David, and this is
16:52
Speaker 1: a direct quote. Dante at no point had knowledge of
16:56
Speaker 1: the marijuana that was in my car. Dante and I
16:58
Speaker 1: were on separate trips in the same direction. The only
17:01
Speaker 1: reason I stopped at Gadwood's house was to take a
17:03
Speaker 1: shower before I went to my final destination. End quote.
17:07
Speaker 1: And this became part of a habeas petition that Dante
17:10
Speaker 1: wrote but had yet to file, just as Chris Biggs
17:13
Speaker 1: was being assigned as his counsel.
17:15
Speaker 2: Thank god, man he was appointed to me. Even asked me,
17:18
Speaker 2: you put this together right, And he was surprised and
17:20
Speaker 2: he was like, man, I got to put my law
17:22
Speaker 2: degree on it and fix some errors on it as well,
17:24
Speaker 2: but you have a chance to go home. And I
17:27
Speaker 2: was like, man, I didn't believe you. And Chris told
17:29
Speaker 2: me KYLEI. He said, I'm an older guy. I wouldn't
17:31
Speaker 2: drive this far. I could have just sent you a
17:33
Speaker 2: letter if I didn't think you had a chance.
17:35
Speaker 1: In addition to the obvious ineffective assistants claim, Chris was
17:38
Speaker 1: also able to uncover a Brady violation.
17:41
Speaker 3: When I read through the transcripts, it was obvious to
17:44
Speaker 3: me when this informant testified that it was peculiar because
17:48
Speaker 3: he had drugs in the apartment. He testified freely, he
17:52
Speaker 3: did not have a lawyer. There was no grant of
17:54
Speaker 3: immunity that was presented to the defense by the state
17:58
Speaker 3: to show what kind of immunity he got, and there
18:01
Speaker 3: was no plea agreement to show what kind of deal
18:03
Speaker 3: he got. And in this kind of case where the
18:05
Speaker 3: only real evidence introduced was the testimony of one person,
18:09
Speaker 3: if the state fails to disclose things that could affect
18:12
Speaker 3: his credibility, that can be grounds for a new trial.
18:15
Speaker 3: And what I did is I simply called the person
18:18
Speaker 3: who was the informant and I asked him, I said,
18:20
Speaker 3: you get any kind of deal? He said, well, yeah,
18:22
Speaker 3: he worked off his cases which were never filed, and
18:26
Speaker 3: as it turns out, he even had a confidential informant number,
18:30
Speaker 3: and none of that was disclosed to the defense in
18:33
Speaker 3: the case, and in fact a trial, he testified that
18:37
Speaker 3: he didn't have a deal, and the prosecutor argued to
18:39
Speaker 3: the jury that there was no deal, and.
18:41
Speaker 1: Then at least one of the cops got on the
18:43
Speaker 1: stand and swore under oath that no deal was made.
18:46
Speaker 3: If by saying there was no deal, he got no
18:49
Speaker 3: formal plea agreement, that may be true, because he never did.
18:52
Speaker 1: It's more like a wink and a nod. Huh.
18:54
Speaker 3: Well, And in my motion I said, we have a
18:56
Speaker 3: right to know of any deal, whether it's just a
18:58
Speaker 3: wink in or nod or a tacit understanding. But aparently
19:01
Speaker 3: the confidential informant agreement had been destroyed, so we didn't
19:05
Speaker 3: have the contract with the police department to see what
19:08
Speaker 3: the specifics were, but we knew that he had a
19:10
Speaker 3: confidential informant number, which meant that there was some kind
19:13
Speaker 3: of agreement. And if the case was that he got
19:17
Speaker 3: something for testifying, there's a special instruction you get in
19:20
Speaker 3: Kansas that says view this person's testimony with caution. And
19:25
Speaker 3: so that instruction was not requested and was not given.
19:28
Speaker 3: I think it could have had a great impact on
19:30
Speaker 3: the outcome of the trial. So bottom line is he
19:33
Speaker 3: got a trial whereby admittedly his lawyer was not prepared.
19:37
Speaker 3: He gave medical reasons for that, but was forced to
19:39
Speaker 3: go to trial, and then we had this problem with
19:41
Speaker 3: evidence that was not discloded about benefits given to a
19:44
Speaker 3: critical witness.
19:45
Speaker 1: Then Chris asked the newly elected prosecutor to look into
19:49
Speaker 1: what kind of a deal Gad would have gotten.
19:51
Speaker 3: I called the prosecutor's office. I didn't tell him initially,
19:54
Speaker 3: I had already talked to the informant. But when they
19:57
Speaker 3: did a check, they found out that he had an
19:59
Speaker 3: informant number. They disclosed that to me, I think it
20:02
Speaker 3: says a lot about the elected official that he was
20:05
Speaker 3: willing to entertain my arguments. Listen to me, go back
20:09
Speaker 3: and look at the record, and made sure that they
20:11
Speaker 3: contacted people the police department to find out what the
20:14
Speaker 3: story was with this particular witness, and once it was disclosed,
20:18
Speaker 3: then agreeing to let him out of prison, and then
20:21
Speaker 3: ultimately they just missed the charges.
20:23
Speaker 1: I know, we don't hear these kind of things happen
20:25
Speaker 1: often enough on the show, but occasionally the right thing
20:28
Speaker 1: is done without years or decades of unnecessary, pig headed
20:33
Speaker 1: and cruel pushback. So, as a result, Dante was released
20:36
Speaker 1: on October fifteenth, twenty twenty.
20:39
Speaker 2: I just want to command Chris Man. He really went
20:41
Speaker 2: in there, worked hard with the DA. He didn't even
20:43
Speaker 2: think he was going to happen, right, because he'll talk
20:45
Speaker 2: about how rarely the step happens. My outdated was twenty
20:48
Speaker 2: twenty five. I'm not even supposed to be on this podcast, right,
20:51
Speaker 2: But I've just super thankful for this integrity of the
20:55
Speaker 2: prosecution and definitely Chris just kind of working hard.
20:57
Speaker 1: Man.
21:08
Speaker 3: You got to have the right people in a position
21:11
Speaker 3: of authority that can make good decisions. I was a
21:14
Speaker 3: prosecutor for a lot of years and my motto was
21:17
Speaker 3: kind of I'd rather lose for the right reasons than
21:20
Speaker 3: win for the wrong ones, and I always considered a
21:23
Speaker 3: fair trial to be the goal. This prosecutor clearly wanted
21:27
Speaker 3: to follow the law and do the right thing, and
21:30
Speaker 3: they released him from prison based on our allegations in
21:33
Speaker 3: our amended motion, and I think they deserve credit for that. Now,
21:37
Speaker 3: if we had someone else there, they could have forced
21:39
Speaker 3: a retrial, but it would have been a retrial with
21:41
Speaker 3: proper instructions.
21:43
Speaker 1: Which would have meant cautioning the jury about the credibility
21:46
Speaker 1: of the only witness in this case. So Dante was
21:49
Speaker 1: finally able to be the big brother again.
21:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, just being released, it was just life changing, man,
21:55
Speaker 2: And just being home finally get to fly back and
21:57
Speaker 2: hug my brothers for the first time.
21:59
Speaker 1: They cried.
22:00
Speaker 2: It was just a sense of relief. Man, just while
22:02
Speaker 2: you're in prison, it really makes you appreciate every single
22:05
Speaker 2: day time accept that you can't get back. So when
22:08
Speaker 2: I got out, my brothers were in high school. One
22:10
Speaker 2: as a senior now playing football, trying to get him
22:12
Speaker 2: a scholarship he wants to continue to play defensive back.
22:15
Speaker 2: And my other one, I was able to fortunate enough
22:17
Speaker 2: to work really hard and put him through college. He's
22:19
Speaker 2: a freshman all as studying business right here in UMKC.
22:23
Speaker 2: And I'm just super thankful when I was able to
22:25
Speaker 2: come home provide get some money, and it hit my
22:28
Speaker 2: goal right of just kind of putting my brothers through college.
22:31
Speaker 2: I wouldn't have been able to do that if I
22:32
Speaker 2: was locked up, man, And I'm just so fortunate and
22:35
Speaker 2: so thankful I'm able to do that. When you get
22:37
Speaker 2: out of prison, you don't get out with no money
22:40
Speaker 2: right to take care of two young boys in California
22:42
Speaker 2: where it's so expensive. I had the opportunity to go
22:45
Speaker 2: work in Kansas City and my story got pretty big
22:48
Speaker 2: and met my dear friend Nate Ruby. He hired me
22:51
Speaker 2: as one of his first employees, made me an executive
22:53
Speaker 2: as well, and taught me everything I knew about the
22:55
Speaker 2: cannabis industry.
22:57
Speaker 1: Yes, the irony is real. Dante was wrong, hopefully incarcerated
23:01
Speaker 1: for cannabis, only to emerge and succeed in a business
23:05
Speaker 1: that is now legal and completely new to him.
23:09
Speaker 2: I met a guy, like I said before, named Nate Ruby.
23:11
Speaker 2: He's the owner of Elissa Gardens from the Earth Dispensaries
23:14
Speaker 2: out here in Kansas City, Missouri. And he hit me
23:16
Speaker 2: in a DM and knew the guy that told ONMI.
23:19
Speaker 2: And he said, man, come work for me, be one
23:21
Speaker 2: of the first employees, and I would get up every
23:23
Speaker 2: morning with them, bright and early. He would just tag
23:25
Speaker 2: me along these finance meetings. I didn't know what was
23:27
Speaker 2: going on, but he said, just sit in and listen
23:30
Speaker 2: and just take notes and eventually it makes sense like
23:33
Speaker 2: it did for you while he was in prison. And
23:35
Speaker 2: it did, and he was able to give me a
23:36
Speaker 2: brand that I was able to get back to prisoners
23:39
Speaker 2: that are locked up in Kansas and around the Midwest
23:41
Speaker 2: and the Southern States. Where a person that buys my
23:43
Speaker 2: particular jar, they get a percentage of the proceeds to
23:47
Speaker 2: the commissary count so they could talk to their family,
23:49
Speaker 2: buy hygiene items, get food, commissary stamps the envelopes, anything
23:54
Speaker 2: they need to succeed.
23:55
Speaker 1: Right, And this isn't the only way Dante's getting involved.
23:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, Man, I have a key associated for the Last
24:01
Speaker 2: Curvesoner project, and we really just work on passing legislation
24:05
Speaker 2: for cannabis, go on to state level and kind of
24:08
Speaker 2: work with key stakeholders on trying to get people released,
24:10
Speaker 2: getting letters, a recommendation of a shorter sentence, working with
24:13
Speaker 2: the attorneys, whether it's presentation at the parole board, filing
24:17
Speaker 2: for the executive clemency, or testifying on the state or
24:20
Speaker 2: federal level. Which is why legislations should be passed.
24:23
Speaker 1: And by the way, Dante and I were working on
24:25
Speaker 1: a case together in Louisiana with Kevin Allen who's was
24:29
Speaker 1: sentenced to life without parole for possession of the two
24:33
Speaker 1: grams of marijuana, which just you know, for people, that's
24:36
Speaker 1: one joint, if it's a decent sized joint, that's incredible.
24:41
Speaker 2: Jason mentioned Kevin Allen, kind of guy in Kansas day
24:43
Speaker 2: Antonio White serving nearly twelve years in prison for a
24:46
Speaker 2: few pounds of marijuana is traveling through the interstate.
24:49
Speaker 1: There's still forty thousand people plus, I believe to this
24:52
Speaker 1: day in a stealing concrete cage right now in America
24:57
Speaker 1: for pot.
24:58
Speaker 2: Good thing about the time. Now, we have a great
25:00
Speaker 2: governor in Kansas, Laura Kelly, and she's made mentioned of
25:04
Speaker 2: people shouldn't be in prison more than you and I
25:07
Speaker 2: for cannabis. Right, So this is our last term and
25:10
Speaker 2: just looking forward to her taking a second look at
25:12
Speaker 2: somebody's cases and making a time that fits the crime.
25:15
Speaker 2: I feel like times are changing and we're looking forward
25:18
Speaker 2: to helping more people.
25:19
Speaker 1: So we will be linking Last Prisoner Project as well
25:23
Speaker 1: as your line of cannabis where part of the proceeds
25:25
Speaker 1: go to prisoners who are still casualties, still serving time,
25:29
Speaker 1: casualties of the War on drugs. And with that we're
25:32
Speaker 1: going to go to closing arguments. Well, first, I'm going
25:35
Speaker 1: to thank you both for joining us here today, and
25:37
Speaker 1: now I'm just going to kick back in my chair
25:40
Speaker 1: and listen to anything else. Do you feel as left
25:42
Speaker 1: to be said? Let's start with Chris and then Dante
25:46
Speaker 1: you close it out.
25:47
Speaker 3: Well, I would just point out kind of big picture
25:49
Speaker 3: that in society. We make choices every day about what
25:52
Speaker 3: society is supposed to look like, and sometimes legislators and
25:57
Speaker 3: the government's a little slow to respect. I mean, we
26:00
Speaker 3: had prohibition, which tells me at some point in time
26:03
Speaker 3: there was enough political support to control the distribution of alcohol.
26:07
Speaker 3: We put a lot of resources into trying to control
26:11
Speaker 3: cannabis over the years in different states, and we're starting
26:14
Speaker 3: to see it change, and I think there just needs
26:15
Speaker 3: to be a recognition that issue is out there and
26:18
Speaker 3: it's a very big issue, and I'm hopeful that people
26:21
Speaker 3: will continue to have open and honest discussions about it
26:23
Speaker 3: so that decriminalization can occur in more places. If you're
26:27
Speaker 3: hopping down I seventy, you're going to go from one
26:30
Speaker 3: state to another without necessarily knowing what the laws are.
26:33
Speaker 3: People like Dante get caught in the gap. This is
26:36
Speaker 3: where these unfortunate stories come from. So I just hope
26:39
Speaker 3: people will continue to have the conversation and collect the
26:42
Speaker 3: evidence and review it so that things that make sense
26:45
Speaker 3: can start happening. I mean, I don't think there's anybody
26:48
Speaker 3: that would think that possession of marijuana or even distribution
26:51
Speaker 3: of the amounts we're talking about should ever result in
26:54
Speaker 3: a higher sentence than someone hurting someone with a dangerous
26:57
Speaker 3: weapon to the point where they could lose their life
26:59
Speaker 3: or actually allong somebody in the heat of passion. That
27:01
Speaker 3: just makes no sense whatsoever. And I don't think people
27:04
Speaker 3: really understand that until they fall into the net, so
27:09
Speaker 3: to speak. And I think in a lot of places we've
27:11
Speaker 3: been casting much too broaden net. And the other part
27:14
Speaker 3: of it is, it doesn't matter what kind of system
27:16
Speaker 3: you have set up. You have to have good people
27:18
Speaker 3: that care and want to do the right thing at
27:20
Speaker 3: every level, and that affects what can happen any system.
27:24
Speaker 2: I just want to encourage whoever's listening to it is
27:27
Speaker 2: the same people that are wealthy that pay for these
27:30
Speaker 2: lobbyists in each state that make cannabis legal so they
27:34
Speaker 2: can own a retail and cultivation and manufacturing facilities, should
27:39
Speaker 2: be the same people lobbying to get re sentencing for
27:43
Speaker 2: people that are locked up for a significant amount of
27:45
Speaker 2: time in marijuana. Let's put the same energy into resetting
27:49
Speaker 2: these folks, dig it into these cases and helping people
27:52
Speaker 2: that are serving a crazy amount of time for marijuana
27:55
Speaker 2: right now, violent offenders. I think that's very doable, and
27:58
Speaker 2: I think that's a fair ass from if you're a
28:01
Speaker 2: Republican Democratic really doesn't matter. What's right is what's right,
28:04
Speaker 2: especially if you've got any type of form of legalization
28:07
Speaker 2: that should definitely happen.
28:15
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen
28:17
Speaker 1: to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts one
28:20
Speaker 1: week early by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on
28:23
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our production team, Connor
28:26
Speaker 1: Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as my fellow executive
28:29
Speaker 1: producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Cliburn. The music
28:33
Speaker 1: in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated
28:35
Speaker 1: composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us across all
28:38
Speaker 1: social media platforms at Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction.
28:42
Speaker 1: You can also follow me on Instagram at It's Jason Flamm.
28:46
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts
28:49
Speaker 1: and association with Signal Company Number one
29:00
Speaker 3: Yeah