Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #336 Jason Flom with Lerico Kearney

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#336 Jason Flom with Lerico Kearney · Wrongful Conviction

0:02
Speaker 1: On November twenty first, nineteen ninety seven, a Suffolk County,
0:05
Speaker 1: Virginia man known for drug dealing and gambling named Gene
0:08
Speaker 1: Artists and his sister, Yvonne Giles, were both fatally shot
0:12
Speaker 1: in front of Yvonne's six year old son, Trayvon. The
0:15
Speaker 1: boy was discovered in his blood soaked T shirt and
0:18
Speaker 1: underwear outside of the house shortly after the shooting around
0:21
Speaker 1: ten pm. Trayvon gave a very descriptive police report, but
0:25
Speaker 1: later became unable to remember the details of the tragic event.
0:28
Speaker 1: In a court of law. However, Gene Artist's girlfriend and
0:32
Speaker 1: several other associates began making police statements that named another
0:36
Speaker 1: man involved in the drug trade, Larco Kearney, collectively saying
0:40
Speaker 1: that he shot Jeane to recover a large gambling loss.
0:44
Speaker 1: Shortly before his trial, another drug dealer claimed that l
0:47
Speaker 1: Rico had plotted to rob Gene Artists of the gambling
0:49
Speaker 1: scops in order to repay him for a drug debt.
0:52
Speaker 1: La Rico was convicted, but a constitutional violation triggered a
0:56
Speaker 1: new trial in which three new witnesses joined the commonwealths case.
1:01
Speaker 1: With this many people willing to testify, revealing the statements
1:04
Speaker 1: of the only person who actually saw the murders wouldn't
1:07
Speaker 1: even have seemed like it was necessary. But this is
1:11
Speaker 1: wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction. Today we have
1:26
Speaker 1: another case out of Virginia, which, again the entire substance
1:29
Speaker 1: of the States case was built upon the words of
1:32
Speaker 1: incentivized witnesses receiving leniency on their own charges, by the way,
1:36
Speaker 1: all while ignoring the only actual credible witness and the
1:41
Speaker 1: most likely suspect. Meanwhile, the man who they focused on
1:44
Speaker 1: instead is calling in today, over twenty five long years
1:47
Speaker 1: later from Greensville Correctional Facility of Virginia. Larico Kearney, I'm
1:51
Speaker 1: sorry you're with us today under the circumstances, but all
1:55
Speaker 1: of us here at wrongful Conviction are happy and honor
1:57
Speaker 1: that you're joining us today.
1:58
Speaker 2: Thank y'all just for giving me this opportunity, you know,
2:01
Speaker 2: to share my story.
2:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're most welcome and also joining us. And you'll
2:05
Speaker 1: remember him from our comforage of Terrence Hobbs is Lenny Singleton,
2:08
Speaker 1: who did his own stint a legal conviction but a
2:13
Speaker 1: crazy sentence of the thousand, three hundred and ten years
2:17
Speaker 1: for having stolen a little over five hundred dollars. No
2:20
Speaker 1: one was hurt, and no weapon was used. Lenny was
2:23
Speaker 1: a jailhouse lawyer and then benefited from a conditional pardon
2:28
Speaker 1: and soon joined the Cagashaw Law firm, from which he
2:31
Speaker 1: and his wife, Vandy crusade for the wrongfully convicted. So, Lenny,
2:36
Speaker 1: welcome back to the show.
2:37
Speaker 3: Oh thank you, great to be here.
2:39
Speaker 1: I think our audience will agree that this is very
2:42
Speaker 1: similar to Terrence Hobbs's case, not the story itself, but
2:46
Speaker 1: the patterns of the investigation and the misconduct and the prosecution.
2:51
Speaker 1: The towns in which they occurred were less than twenty
2:53
Speaker 1: miles apart, by the way, where As I alluded to
2:56
Speaker 1: in the opening, you have a crime that occurred in
2:58
Speaker 1: the drug culture of the nineties and an investigation that
3:01
Speaker 1: bent over backwards to ignore the most likely suspect, turning
3:05
Speaker 1: instead to incentivize and or coerced witness testimony in exchange
3:10
Speaker 1: for sentence reductions and things like that. The similarities of
3:14
Speaker 1: the cases are striking, from which it's easy to see
3:17
Speaker 1: that there's patterns here. Right. We see these all over
3:20
Speaker 1: the country, but it seems like there's a cluster of
3:23
Speaker 1: them in Virginia.
3:25
Speaker 3: I don't know that we could just focus on Virginia.
3:29
Speaker 3: I think this is a widespread issue where snitches, and
3:33
Speaker 3: most of them do this for a living. They're always
3:36
Speaker 3: in trouble and they know how to work the system.
3:39
Speaker 3: They know who to call, they know who to get
3:41
Speaker 3: in contact with. I've seen several cases in Virginia where
3:45
Speaker 3: guys will see someone on TV on the news, call
3:48
Speaker 3: someone and say, look, I'm in the pull with this
3:51
Speaker 3: guy and I overheard him saying this, that and the other,
3:55
Speaker 3: when in fact those things have never happened. But it
3:59
Speaker 3: is a culture in Virginia that needs to be stopped
4:02
Speaker 3: for sure, because I've never seen one that actually was true.
4:07
Speaker 3: They're always working to get a deal, get a time cut,
4:10
Speaker 3: as you could clearly see in the letters that Lorico's
4:14
Speaker 3: attorney was able to obtain these inmates, writing folk telling
4:21
Speaker 3: them I'll say whatever you need me to say, just
4:23
Speaker 3: let me get this certain deal.
4:25
Speaker 1: And we'll quote from those letters later. It's really egregious.
4:27
Speaker 1: And of course, again this doesn't only happen in Virginia.
4:31
Speaker 1: It happens in all fifty states, but some states have
4:34
Speaker 1: even enacted laws in order to only allow this kind
4:36
Speaker 1: of testimony if it's corroborated by some physical evidence, of
4:40
Speaker 1: which there usually is none, and this case is no exception.
4:43
Speaker 1: But before we get into all of that, Lorico, you
4:45
Speaker 1: grew up in kind of like in two different places,
4:47
Speaker 1: mostly with your mom in Surrey, Virginia and then part
4:50
Speaker 1: of the time with your father and your grandparents in Suffolk, Virginia.
4:53
Speaker 1: Is that right.
4:54
Speaker 2: I'm a Rigali from Suffol, Virginia. My mom was a
4:56
Speaker 2: single parent. You know. My dad, you know, he was
5:00
Speaker 2: you know, in and out of the streets. You know,
5:01
Speaker 2: he was in and out of jail. My mother's job
5:03
Speaker 2: carried her for different places. So I moved from Suffolk
5:06
Speaker 2: to Windsor, and eventually I moved to Surrey County. But
5:09
Speaker 2: I was still, you know, visiting my grandmother and my
5:12
Speaker 2: father on the weekends. And like I said, you know,
5:14
Speaker 2: my father, you know, he clothed drugs, and me watching
5:17
Speaker 2: my father, you know, you see the so called drug
5:20
Speaker 2: that they're wearing nice clothes, driving nice cars, and you know,
5:23
Speaker 2: I thought that was cool.
5:25
Speaker 1: And this is something I've heard before when a young
5:27
Speaker 1: person growing up around that scene quickly notices that everyone
5:30
Speaker 1: who's not selling drugs is struggling to get by while
5:34
Speaker 1: the ones who are involved in the trade have seemingly
5:38
Speaker 1: comfortable lives.
5:39
Speaker 3: And money in your pocket. Yeah. Back in those days, seriously, yeah,
5:43
Speaker 3: you know when crack cocaine hit. Yeah, they were the
5:45
Speaker 3: heroes in the neighborhood actually, sadly.
5:48
Speaker 1: And the only ones with any real economic power, until,
5:51
Speaker 1: of course they got caught and sent away from some
5:52
Speaker 1: ungodly sentence, like La Rico's father.
5:55
Speaker 2: But my father went to prison in nineteen ninety five.
5:58
Speaker 2: He had fifty four years under the old with parole.
6:01
Speaker 2: He was denied a couple of times. He ended up
6:03
Speaker 2: doing sixteen years and four months.
6:05
Speaker 1: And what did life look like for you after he
6:08
Speaker 1: went away? I understand you had moved out of your
6:10
Speaker 1: mom's in with your father and your grandparents.
6:13
Speaker 2: It's just me, my grandmother or my grandfather. I'man thoseing
6:16
Speaker 2: in the streets. There's nothing you know to glorify, you know,
6:19
Speaker 2: be proud of. But I was in no baying the
6:22
Speaker 2: son of drugs.
6:23
Speaker 1: Right, So you were probably already on the radar of
6:26
Speaker 1: local law enforcement. But have you ever been arrested before
6:28
Speaker 1: I was.
6:29
Speaker 2: Arrested in October of ninety seven. I had a possession
6:32
Speaker 2: of cocaine, assault on the ULSA, and other traffic violations
6:36
Speaker 2: that came with that same incident one month before this happened.
6:39
Speaker 1: Whoa, WHOA, Back up a second, they're the assault of
6:41
Speaker 1: a police officer. What happened in that case?
6:44
Speaker 2: I think in the process of them restraining me, I
6:47
Speaker 2: think he may have hurt his finger.
6:48
Speaker 1: Oh Jesus Christ, I mean so, since the arrest was
6:54
Speaker 1: the impetus for the officer's injury, they, of course, you know,
6:59
Speaker 1: some sort of city are gaslighting move, they got to
7:01
Speaker 1: charge you with assault of an officer, which makes you
7:04
Speaker 1: sound like a super violent person when in actuality he
7:08
Speaker 1: had injured himself.
7:10
Speaker 2: Yes, sir.
7:11
Speaker 1: And so now with this arrest and the alleged assault,
7:14
Speaker 1: and I'm putting that in quotation marks of a police
7:16
Speaker 1: officer just a month before the murders. From what I understand,
7:19
Speaker 1: this put you on house arrests with an ankle monitor
7:21
Speaker 1: with only supervised outings. So, needless to say, you're a
7:24
Speaker 1: well known entity of the local police. You were right
7:27
Speaker 1: for the picking, so to speak. Right, you were easy
7:30
Speaker 1: fall guy for them, and one of the deceased in
7:32
Speaker 1: this case was also known to both you and the police,
7:34
Speaker 1: which is a guy named David Eugene artists who went
7:38
Speaker 1: by a GENA. What was your relationship to Jean.
7:40
Speaker 2: We would run at each other on a regular basis,
7:43
Speaker 2: you know, Like I said, he was on drug dealer
7:45
Speaker 2: in the area. And Jean would you know, always, you know,
7:48
Speaker 2: look to entice people to gamble, to shoot dice because
7:50
Speaker 2: he was he was good at it. I guess that's
7:52
Speaker 2: how he supported itself. No gambling and seven drugs.
7:55
Speaker 1: And it was part of the States theory that he
7:57
Speaker 1: had enticed you into a few games in which you
8:00
Speaker 1: had lost big money. Did you used to gamble with Gene?
8:04
Speaker 2: I never personally gambled with Gene because I knew how
8:07
Speaker 2: I knew how good Gene was.
8:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, some of those guys, man, they come up with
8:10
Speaker 3: these techniques. There's a way you can actually set the
8:13
Speaker 3: dice and increase the probability of a certain number. Gene
8:17
Speaker 3: probably was good with dice. He knew how to set him,
8:19
Speaker 3: he knew how to increase his chances at winning.
8:22
Speaker 1: So you knew better than to play with Gene. Had
8:25
Speaker 1: your father been the one who gave you that advice.
8:28
Speaker 2: He actually did on more than one occasion. He actually did.
8:31
Speaker 1: You had even turned him down in front of two
8:33
Speaker 1: individuals who eventually were coerced into testifying against you. I'm
8:36
Speaker 1: talking about Casey Davis and Travis Chalk.
8:39
Speaker 2: The morning that Gene Artist was killed, he came to
8:42
Speaker 2: the house of trying to entice us to gamble. Of
8:44
Speaker 2: course all of us said no.
8:46
Speaker 1: Right, but the authorities eventually coerced those two men into
8:48
Speaker 1: making false statements about you, saying that you were in
8:52
Speaker 1: possession of a black forty five caliber from the day
8:55
Speaker 1: before and in the morning the twenty first, that you
8:57
Speaker 1: had said, quote, if he don't have g or better,
9:01
Speaker 1: I'm gonna kill him because I'm tired of him winning
9:04
Speaker 1: my money and coming with no money end quote. Chalk
9:07
Speaker 1: went on to say that you and Jean shot dice
9:09
Speaker 1: for about an hour and then agreed to pause the
9:12
Speaker 1: game and pick it up later. The authorities were also
9:15
Speaker 1: successful in getting Jean's girlfriend at the time to say
9:18
Speaker 1: that you had once lost something like five thousand dollars
9:21
Speaker 1: to Jeene and the dice game, but that also had
9:24
Speaker 1: never happened.
9:25
Speaker 2: His girlfriend at the time, her name was Sabrina Northfleet.
9:29
Speaker 2: I think that she had some child depended or she
9:31
Speaker 2: had a situation going on, you know, That's why she
9:34
Speaker 2: fabricated a story which never happened, seeing me gamble with
9:37
Speaker 2: Jean in the place that, as God's my witness, I
9:40
Speaker 2: had never my life been to.
9:41
Speaker 1: But there was something that she testified to that was true,
9:43
Speaker 1: which was seeing you and Jeane together earlier on in
9:46
Speaker 1: the night that he was murdered, when she pulled up
9:48
Speaker 1: to Jean and a gas station and you had asked
9:50
Speaker 1: him for a ride home.
9:51
Speaker 2: I was at the sub shot that was across the
9:54
Speaker 2: street from the gas station that Geene Artists was at,
9:57
Speaker 2: asked her for a rat and she had pulled up
9:59
Speaker 2: in that gas station two. I guess her Gene they
10:02
Speaker 2: had an argument, but she did see me sitting in
10:04
Speaker 2: the car with Gene. He was just giving me a
10:06
Speaker 2: ride home.
10:07
Speaker 1: So he dropped you off with your grandparents. You later
10:10
Speaker 1: walked down the street to be with one of your
10:12
Speaker 1: kids at the child's mother's house. Both the child's mother
10:15
Speaker 1: and grandmother later testified to your whereabouts during the murders
10:18
Speaker 1: of Gene Artists had his sister Eva and Giles, which
10:20
Speaker 1: was November twenty first, nineteen ninety seven. They were both
10:23
Speaker 1: shot while at home sometime between nine and ten pm,
10:26
Speaker 1: and apparently there was a pizza delivery before the murders.
10:29
Speaker 1: The pizza delivery person, Teresa Rix, saw two men arguing
10:33
Speaker 1: on their way into the residence at one sixteen Franklin Street,
10:36
Speaker 1: neither of which she recognized as you we go. So
10:39
Speaker 1: there was another witness to this entire harrowing scene, this
10:44
Speaker 1: whole ordeal.
10:45
Speaker 3: There was one person who was there and who actually
10:47
Speaker 3: saw the killer, six year old Trayvon Artists, who lived
10:51
Speaker 3: in the apartment with his mother and his uncle. At
10:53
Speaker 3: about ten pm the night of November twenty first, ninety seven,
10:57
Speaker 3: Treyvon was found standing outside of that one sixteen Franklin
11:01
Speaker 3: Street address, wearing nothing but a shirt and his underwear,
11:05
Speaker 3: with his mother's blood on his clothes, and he led
11:07
Speaker 3: a neighbor to the bodies in the apartment.
11:09
Speaker 1: Okay, first, let's take a second to recognize that this
11:12
Speaker 1: is a frightened little boy in a terrifying situation. Now,
11:16
Speaker 1: the neighbor that took him back inside was his mother's boyfriend,
11:19
Speaker 1: Jody Cross, and by now the police had been called.
11:22
Speaker 3: Trayvon gave a statement to the police at eleven pm.
11:26
Speaker 3: So this wasn't long after, in which he stated clearly
11:30
Speaker 3: and unequivocally that a relative of his name, Gregory Artist,
11:34
Speaker 3: not Lorico, had been in the apartment and had shot
11:37
Speaker 3: and killed his mother, Yvonne Giles, right in front of him.
11:42
Speaker 3: He repeated these statements to the police twice more the next.
11:47
Speaker 1: Day, and he's crystal clear with the police about what happened.
11:50
Speaker 1: Can you read some of the report for us?
11:53
Speaker 3: They question, did you see the man that shot your mom?
11:55
Speaker 3: He said yes, and they asked him, is his name
11:58
Speaker 3: Jody Cross? He says, no, that's my mom's boyfriend. Did
12:02
Speaker 3: Gregory Artists shoot your mom? Yes? Did you see Gregory
12:07
Speaker 3: Artist shoot your mom? Yes? How do you know Gregory Artists?
12:11
Speaker 3: He has been to my house before and played cards
12:14
Speaker 3: with my uncle. Cravon gives the police details. He says,
12:20
Speaker 3: I've spent time at his house, his kids and I
12:23
Speaker 3: play together. He knows this guy. So they ask him,
12:27
Speaker 3: tell me, in your own words, what you know about
12:29
Speaker 3: this offense? And I guess this is the next day,
12:34
Speaker 3: he says. Trayvon Artists advised he was in his mom's
12:37
Speaker 3: bedroom with her watching TV when he heard David and
12:42
Speaker 3: Gregory Artists arguing they were arguing over a card game.
12:48
Speaker 3: Gregory said that David was cheating again.
12:51
Speaker 1: Jean's full name is David Eugene Artists, so the name
12:55
Speaker 1: David and Jane refer to the same man.
12:58
Speaker 3: He says that Jane had a small silver gun and
13:02
Speaker 3: that Gregory had a big black gun that Jean shot
13:07
Speaker 3: Gregory and Gregory shot at Jean. Him and his mom
13:11
Speaker 3: went into Trayvon's clause at the hide. When no more
13:14
Speaker 3: shots were fired, him and his mom got out of
13:17
Speaker 3: the closet and went down the hall. He followed his mom.
13:21
Speaker 3: Once they were in the front foyer, Gregory and David
13:24
Speaker 3: were standing there and two more shots were fired and
13:28
Speaker 3: he fell dead on the floor. Gregory then walked up
13:31
Speaker 3: to me and my mom and he was told by Gregory,
13:35
Speaker 3: I'm going to shoot and kill your mom now. And
13:38
Speaker 3: remember Gregory Artists killed your mom and that's when he
13:42
Speaker 3: shot her, this says in the neck area, and she
13:44
Speaker 3: fell on the floor by the window and he shot
13:47
Speaker 3: her again. Gregory then left out the house and then
13:52
Speaker 3: they asked him to describe Gregory Artists, and he describes
13:55
Speaker 3: him to the te He says that Gregory Artist was
13:58
Speaker 3: a black male darker skin with two birthmarks and moles
14:02
Speaker 3: on each side of his forehead, and white freckles. He's
14:06
Speaker 3: about fifty years old. Gregory lives in North Carolina, the
14:10
Speaker 3: two story house and lives with his mom.
14:13
Speaker 1: It's just awful for this little kid. And then the
14:15
Speaker 1: authorities appear to have completely ignored him except for the
14:19
Speaker 1: description of the murder weapon, a big black gun which
14:22
Speaker 1: they knew to be a forty five from the fragments
14:24
Speaker 1: they pulled from his mother's skull. Now seven hundred dollars
14:27
Speaker 1: in cast was also found at the scene, I believe
14:30
Speaker 1: five hundred and fifty of which was in Gene Artist's pocket,
14:33
Speaker 1: in addition to some drugs. So the idea that this
14:36
Speaker 1: was a robbery sprung on by dice game losses to
14:39
Speaker 1: a fellow drug dealer is absurd. But instead of just
14:43
Speaker 1: going to North Carolina and arresting Gregory Artist, Detective E. C.
14:46
Speaker 1: Harris appears to use jeens, involveman and drugs as an
14:50
Speaker 1: opportunity to target other guys in that business, including yourself,
14:54
Speaker 1: for either a wrongful conviction or a false statement to
14:57
Speaker 1: use in a wrongful conviction. And as we mentioned, you
15:00
Speaker 1: were on house arrest at the time for that cocaine
15:02
Speaker 1: possession and the bogus assault charge when they came to
15:05
Speaker 1: see you, and you had been seeing with Jeane at
15:07
Speaker 1: the gas station that night, so your name was floating
15:10
Speaker 1: around in the rumor mail, so to speak.
15:12
Speaker 2: So I guess, you know, my name was in his
15:13
Speaker 2: room or meal, and they realized that I was on
15:16
Speaker 2: house arrest. They gave me a violation because I was
15:19
Speaker 2: actually out of my house, you know, that weekend that
15:22
Speaker 2: this crame happened. So I was taking to jail, and
15:25
Speaker 2: I guess the prosecutor or whoever had planned me to
15:28
Speaker 2: sell with an informant. His name was Brad Parker, and
15:32
Speaker 2: he tried to question me about these homicides, and I
15:35
Speaker 2: explained to the gentleman like, no, that's not what I'm
15:37
Speaker 2: locked up for. The following week, I was giving a bond,
15:40
Speaker 2: so I was out again. Later on he ended up
15:43
Speaker 2: writing to the prosecutors or whatever and telling them that
15:46
Speaker 2: I admitted to him while I was in that sale
15:48
Speaker 2: about committing these crimes. So I think all investigations everything
15:52
Speaker 2: stemmed from that.
15:52
Speaker 1: And he wasn't the only one willing to offer false
15:55
Speaker 1: statements against you and your co defending Quinton Parish AKAQP.
16:00
Speaker 1: Eventually a laundry list of people was compiled, including Casey Davis,
16:04
Speaker 1: Travis Chalk, Sabrina Northfleet, as well as two other guys,
16:08
Speaker 1: Tony Booth and Willie Hardy. But was this statement from
16:11
Speaker 1: Brad Parker how they originally obtained your arrest warrant?
16:14
Speaker 2: No, it wasn't Brad Parker. They had got a statement
16:17
Speaker 2: from a Willie Hardy statement that I made a layer's
16:21
Speaker 2: profession to him about committing these murders. He was a
16:23
Speaker 2: suspect in his crime, him and my co defendant, Quentin Persh.
16:26
Speaker 1: So it turned out that he and Quinton Parish were
16:29
Speaker 1: childhood buddi who grew up on the same block. But
16:31
Speaker 1: Quinton refused to give false statements, unlike Willie Hardy. So
16:34
Speaker 1: you were arrested on December twenty eighth, nineteen ninety seven,
16:37
Speaker 1: and your family hired an attorney named Ken Melvin, who
16:40
Speaker 1: was very effective. Now. Hardy testified to this false statement
16:44
Speaker 1: at a preliminary hearing in June of ninety eight, but
16:46
Speaker 1: ended up catching his own charges and hired William P. Robinson,
16:49
Speaker 1: the same attorney as his buddy Quinton Parish. You're a
16:54
Speaker 1: co defendant. Hardy admitted to his attorney Robinson that he
16:57
Speaker 1: had given false testimony against you, and Attorney Ken Melvin
17:01
Speaker 1: was present.
17:01
Speaker 3: They recorded this conversation where he admitted to lying about
17:05
Speaker 3: Larco Kearney. Willie. Hardy said he had been threatened and
17:09
Speaker 3: harassed by detectives every day, threatening the charging with the
17:13
Speaker 3: crimes for which Kearney is incarcerating.
17:16
Speaker 1: So now with this recording, your attorney filed the motion
17:19
Speaker 1: for dismissal of all charges against you, and eventually there
17:22
Speaker 1: was a hearing. Meanwhile, the prosecution was scrambling to find
17:25
Speaker 1: a new star witness and they found another guy from
17:28
Speaker 1: the Suffolk drug game, Tony Booth.
17:30
Speaker 2: I ran it to him one time in the Western Time,
17:33
Speaker 2: what the reason the jail? Well, we was on the
17:35
Speaker 2: basketball court in the jail. He had hired Kenny Milmer,
17:37
Speaker 2: and he asked me about how Kenny mill was doing
17:39
Speaker 2: on my case, and I was like, yeah, he's doing
17:41
Speaker 2: a good job. Maybe a couple of days later he
17:43
Speaker 2: was transferred from the Western Town with the Reason the
17:46
Speaker 2: Jail to Chesapeake. That's when I later learned you know
17:49
Speaker 2: that you know, he had hopped on my case, right.
17:51
Speaker 1: So he hired Ken Melvin for his own charges and then,
17:54
Speaker 1: using this conversation on the yard as a pretext for
17:56
Speaker 1: an alleged confession, began working with the state as a
17:59
Speaker 1: witnessing your case, presenting Ken Melbourn with a conflict of interest.
18:03
Speaker 1: And now this attorney, who had been super effective thus far,
18:06
Speaker 1: was likely to be forced to drop you as a client.
18:09
Speaker 1: All this may or may not have been engineered by
18:12
Speaker 1: the prosecution. Smells like an onion. Might be an onion.
18:16
Speaker 1: But for now, let's get back to the hearing to
18:18
Speaker 1: dismiss your charges. Based on the recording which Willie Hardy
18:21
Speaker 1: admitted to perjuring himself at your preliminary hearing. What happened
18:25
Speaker 1: when they got him on the stand.
18:27
Speaker 3: Fearing he would be charged with perjury, He said he'd
18:29
Speaker 3: been through a lot and he'd been shot, so he
18:32
Speaker 3: couldn't remember anything.
18:34
Speaker 2: Now, Judge westbro Poccer said, it's a possibility that before
18:38
Speaker 2: mister Kearney trial comes up, he may regain his memory back.
18:42
Speaker 3: And so this Judge Westbrook Parker ruled at Kearney's indictment
18:46
Speaker 3: would not be dismissed because the witness did not recap
18:50
Speaker 3: even though they had a recording that he said he
18:52
Speaker 3: was lying about it.
18:54
Speaker 2: So now on this date the prosecutor putting in a
18:57
Speaker 2: motion to have mister Melvine disqualified for my case, could
19:00
Speaker 2: they now have another witness, which was Tony Booth. Mister
19:19
Speaker 2: Melvin was disqualified off my case. It was strategic, you know.
19:23
Speaker 2: I guess they felt as though with the case that
19:25
Speaker 2: they had, it would have been hard for them to
19:27
Speaker 2: get a conviction on me. I had kend of Melvin,
19:29
Speaker 2: that's my attorney.
19:30
Speaker 1: So that was September of ninety nine, and as your
19:33
Speaker 1: first trial was fast approaching, your co defending Quinton Parish,
19:36
Speaker 1: probably seeing what you both were up against, decided to
19:38
Speaker 1: take an alphad play to avoid a potentional life sentence.
19:41
Speaker 3: And that's how they get a lot of guys too.
19:43
Speaker 3: This grel with that I could see him very easily
19:46
Speaker 3: pleading out even though he had nothing to do with it,
19:49
Speaker 3: just because he was afraid he would never get out.
19:51
Speaker 1: But Lrico, you weren't backing down even though you were
19:54
Speaker 1: facing a similar faith.
19:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had two council capital murder at two counts
19:58
Speaker 2: of use of a foul Kate's.
20:00
Speaker 3: Theory of his crime was circumstantial evidence of Rico's alleged
20:06
Speaker 3: rift with Gene Artists over some gambling.
20:09
Speaker 1: Dead now La Rico tells us that this whole disagreement
20:12
Speaker 1: over gambling between he and Jean was impossible because he
20:16
Speaker 1: knew better than to play dice with a guy that
20:18
Speaker 1: was a real hustler, right Jean was was that guy
20:23
Speaker 1: want to lose his money. But the state fabricated statements
20:26
Speaker 1: to the contrary from Sabrina Northfleet, Travis Chalk, and Casey Davis.
20:31
Speaker 2: Sabrino Northfleet gave a false testimony witnessing Jean to win
20:35
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars from me around September of that year,
20:38
Speaker 2: so that, you know, provided a false motor for them.
20:40
Speaker 2: Travis Chalk gave a testimony that he was at you know,
20:43
Speaker 2: my house before these murders happened. He said, when Jean
20:46
Speaker 2: pulled up, I made a statement to him. If Jeane
20:49
Speaker 2: didn't have one thousand dollars of better, I would kill
20:51
Speaker 2: him because I'm tired of Jean wanted my money and
20:54
Speaker 2: coming with no money. And we went in the house
20:56
Speaker 2: to gamble. And the gentleman that was in the driveway
20:58
Speaker 2: with him at the time, whose name Miss Casey Davis.
21:01
Speaker 2: He testified to seeing me with the forty five caliber
21:04
Speaker 2: file arm. On November twentieth.
21:06
Speaker 3: A firearms identification expert testified that the forty five caliber
21:12
Speaker 3: bullet killed Miss Giles is saying that they were fired
21:15
Speaker 3: from the same weapon, and some cartridge casings were found,
21:19
Speaker 3: both of a forty five and a three eighty caliber.
21:22
Speaker 1: Right, No bullets or fragments were found in Gene, but
21:26
Speaker 1: two different casings likely came from the exchange between Gene
21:29
Speaker 1: and Gregory Artists. So they've fabricated the motive and the
21:33
Speaker 1: means and now they place you with Gene, which is
21:36
Speaker 1: actually something that was true. Sabrina north Leet saw you
21:40
Speaker 1: two guys together at the gas station that night.
21:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, she seen us together at the East Coast gas station.
21:46
Speaker 2: She just played to him about the argument, and you know,
21:48
Speaker 2: she told them that I was the last person you know,
21:51
Speaker 2: seeing with Gene Artists. And my thing is this, you know,
21:55
Speaker 2: y'all charged me with another individual. So will it come
21:58
Speaker 2: in at did y'all think me? Mister her She's telling
22:01
Speaker 2: y'all it was just me and Jean together, right.
22:03
Speaker 3: Part of the state's evidence was this, mister Travis Chalk
22:08
Speaker 3: who said that he had seen Jean driving alone in
22:13
Speaker 3: a white Chevy, and that Lo Rico and Quinton Parish
22:17
Speaker 3: known as QP, they were in a white Mitsubishi Gallant
22:21
Speaker 3: heading towards Franklin Street following him.
22:23
Speaker 1: So he was supposed to be in Jean's car, but
22:25
Speaker 1: now he's in a different car with another guy following Jean.
22:30
Speaker 1: Which way is it?
22:31
Speaker 3: Guys?
22:31
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't have it both ways.
22:33
Speaker 3: Travis Chalk several years later, gave an affidavit that all
22:38
Speaker 3: of it was alive. In fact, I do have that
22:40
Speaker 3: Affidavid Travis Chalk said, I never saw Lrico Kearney with
22:46
Speaker 3: a gun, nor did he say anything about killing anyone
22:51
Speaker 3: over some gambling debts, as stated to me by a
22:54
Speaker 3: detective E. C. Harris. He says that that detective led
22:59
Speaker 3: me to say I saw Larico Kearney with the type
23:03
Speaker 3: of gun that was used in the murders, and that
23:05
Speaker 3: he harassed me almost daily, and that he came with
23:10
Speaker 3: papers to encourage me to sign, threatening me with incarceration
23:16
Speaker 3: if I did not cooperate. Travis Chalk said, I was
23:20
Speaker 3: young and afraid, and I was given paperwork as to
23:24
Speaker 3: what to say in court by Detective E. C. Harris.
23:28
Speaker 1: Obviously, the Jerry didn't benefit from this knowledge, just as
23:31
Speaker 1: they had not benefited from Willie Hardy's admissions from the
23:33
Speaker 1: preliminary hearing. And then the Commonwealth brought in another steaming
23:37
Speaker 1: pile of conflicting testimony from Tony Booth. Now the motive
23:41
Speaker 1: isn't just about being mad about losing five grand to Gene.
23:44
Speaker 1: Now it was five grand that he needed to pay
23:47
Speaker 1: mister Booth for drugs.
23:48
Speaker 2: Tony Booth said that I sold drugs for him. I
23:51
Speaker 2: owed him money and I told him that, you know,
23:53
Speaker 2: I had to kill some people to get the money back.
23:55
Speaker 2: I lost the money gambling. And the testimony that he
23:59
Speaker 2: gave it didn't matter the evidence. He just said, I
24:01
Speaker 2: said I held the guns to the people head while
24:04
Speaker 2: PC he said PC in my codefend his name was
24:07
Speaker 2: two T. He was saying PC and PC first dip
24:10
Speaker 2: pockets of money and dugs, you know, while he held the
24:12
Speaker 2: guns to him and killed him oufter that, you know,
24:14
Speaker 2: Jene honest, He had cracked cocaine and five one hundred
24:17
Speaker 2: and fifty dollars a cash in his pocket at the
24:19
Speaker 2: time of his death. So the testimony there, Tony Booth
24:22
Speaker 2: gave it. It didn't even match the evidence, right.
24:24
Speaker 1: If you had robbed Jane to pay Tony as he alleged,
24:27
Speaker 1: then Jean's pockets would not have been full of money
24:30
Speaker 1: and drugs. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to
24:32
Speaker 1: figure this out.
24:33
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely.
24:34
Speaker 1: Booth was awaiting sentencing for his own charges, which was
24:37
Speaker 1: a projected two hundred and eighty months over twenty three years,
24:41
Speaker 1: and that sentencing was suspended until he fulfilled his obligation
24:45
Speaker 1: at your first and second trials, Tony Booth, you guessed
24:48
Speaker 1: it ended up serving only five years now, lo Rico's
24:53
Speaker 1: public defender courtesy of Tony Booth, Mind you, Michael Rosenberg
24:58
Speaker 1: poked holes in Booth's story and incredibility on cross examination.
25:02
Speaker 1: That's good, but what else was presented in your favor?
25:04
Speaker 2: The defense called an attorney, you know, to get on
25:08
Speaker 2: the stand to explain it to the jury about the
25:10
Speaker 2: pre Boggain that Torn and Booth had entered into you know,
25:13
Speaker 2: about him, you know, looking for a sentence reduction.
25:15
Speaker 3: Also, a witness, Teresa Ris, testified she was a pizza
25:19
Speaker 3: delivery person who had delivered a pizza to one sixteen
25:22
Speaker 3: Franklin Street in the hours before the murders, and she
25:26
Speaker 3: did see two black men, one heavy set, one medium
25:29
Speaker 3: bill enter the house after arguing with each other getting
25:33
Speaker 3: out of their car. And this Miss Ricks testified that
25:37
Speaker 3: neither of these men were larco' kearney, who she knew
25:40
Speaker 3: from school. They went to school together, my.
25:42
Speaker 2: Son's mother and her mother. They actually testified on my
25:45
Speaker 2: behalf to saying that you know, I was there in
25:48
Speaker 2: my baby mother's house. You know, at the time that
25:49
Speaker 2: this allarged defense had happened. She actually testified on my
25:53
Speaker 2: behalf too. You know, she told the jury that you know,
25:55
Speaker 2: she was in the driveway when I came from my
25:58
Speaker 2: baby mother's house.
25:59
Speaker 1: Unfortunate, the only loved ones don't make convincing alibi witnesses,
26:04
Speaker 1: as they're easily explained away as someone who might be
26:07
Speaker 1: willing to lie. But his attorney was in possession of
26:10
Speaker 1: the statement from the only witness who should have mattered,
26:13
Speaker 1: which was Trayvon, and Trayvon was who pointed the finger
26:16
Speaker 1: directly at Gregory Artists. Yet this alternate and much more
26:20
Speaker 1: likely suspect was never presented to the jury. Among so
26:23
Speaker 1: much more.
26:24
Speaker 3: The fact that is Lloyd didn't bring up any physical evidence,
26:27
Speaker 3: and none of it pointed to Lorico. Was just astounding
26:30
Speaker 3: to me. They took fingerprints from the crime scene, and
26:34
Speaker 3: to this day they haven't tried to match those fingerprints
26:37
Speaker 3: to anyone except Larico Kearney.
26:39
Speaker 1: I mean, what about Gregory artists. Apparently no one was
26:42
Speaker 1: interested enough, so the jury came to a predictable conclusion.
26:46
Speaker 2: I mean, I didn't have any idea that I could
26:49
Speaker 2: be actually convicted of that crime. You know, I had
26:51
Speaker 2: high hopes, and like I said, I was going home
26:53
Speaker 2: my family in the courtroom. I didn't think of any
26:55
Speaker 2: way that they could find me guilty. I mean, I
26:57
Speaker 2: couldn't believe it. I was a shocked, like I was known.
27:00
Speaker 2: I kind of feel like, you know, I let everybody down,
27:03
Speaker 2: even though it was beyond my control.
27:05
Speaker 1: And your verdict that the first trial was really odd.
27:08
Speaker 1: You were found guilty of first degree murder, but only
27:11
Speaker 1: of Yvonne Giles along with the related firearm charge, you.
27:15
Speaker 2: Know, because you had Casey Davis testified he's seen me
27:18
Speaker 2: with the forty five caliber weapon. I guess they said that,
27:21
Speaker 2: you know, the forty five caliber fragment of a bullet
27:24
Speaker 2: was found in the skull. It was a compromise.
27:26
Speaker 1: Thirty right forty five caliber bullet fragments were only pulled
27:30
Speaker 1: from Yvonne Giles's skull, and maybe they weren't totally convinced
27:33
Speaker 1: of your guilt, so they acquitted you for the murder
27:36
Speaker 1: of Gene Artists cold comfort there, but you were still
27:39
Speaker 1: sentenced to life for the Yvonne Giles homicide plus three
27:42
Speaker 1: years for the gun charge. But your public defender, a
27:45
Speaker 1: new one who you had been assigned, Joseph Winston, was
27:48
Speaker 1: actually able to appeal this verdict and win since the
27:52
Speaker 1: only person who could contradict Tony Booth was you, and
27:55
Speaker 1: the Commonwealth's attorney unconstitutionally argued to the jury that you
27:59
Speaker 1: should have testified. This constituted a clear violation of your
28:02
Speaker 1: Fifth Amendment rights, so they properly declared it a mistrial.
28:06
Speaker 2: I was convicted in February of two thousand. My case
28:11
Speaker 2: was overturned January twenty ninth, two thousand and two. That
28:14
Speaker 2: hadn't been in prison at that time but fifteen months,
28:17
Speaker 2: but I had been around guys that had actually been
28:19
Speaker 2: down with twenty twenty five years. I finally get that
28:22
Speaker 2: Paperbrook saying that my case was overturned, and I shared
28:25
Speaker 2: that with a few individuals, and you know, like some
28:27
Speaker 2: people were happy for me, like, you know, we've been
28:29
Speaker 2: way like to get paid brook like this for twenty
28:31
Speaker 2: plus years. And they was basically telling me, though, take
28:34
Speaker 2: advantage of the opportunity. And when I did go back
28:36
Speaker 2: to court, they offered me a plea.
28:38
Speaker 1: Boggain, They just convicted you, but now they're offering you
28:41
Speaker 1: a plea. That kind of feels like they had a
28:44
Speaker 1: little bit of a guilty conscience maybe, like they knew
28:47
Speaker 1: this conviction was bullshit. So now Joseph Winston was off
28:52
Speaker 1: your case. You were transferred to jail and a new
28:55
Speaker 1: public defender named Dwayne Struthers was a signier case. No.
28:58
Speaker 2: He came to see me and actually, would I be
29:00
Speaker 2: interested in taking the plea deal? You know, I told
29:03
Speaker 2: him no, less it to be time served, you know,
29:05
Speaker 2: because you know, I mean, I didn't do this, and
29:07
Speaker 2: that's what I'm explaining to him. He asked me, where
29:09
Speaker 2: if they were offered ten years to serve, would you
29:11
Speaker 2: be interested in that? And at the time, I had
29:13
Speaker 2: been inconcentrated a little bit over five years, and I said, well,
29:16
Speaker 2: this five years that already did be included with this
29:19
Speaker 2: ten and he didn't know.
29:20
Speaker 1: So without a potential five year deal or time served,
29:23
Speaker 1: you were ready for a second chance to fight for
29:25
Speaker 1: your innocence in court, and that meant the state got
29:27
Speaker 1: a second chance too. So you were initially in protective custody,
29:31
Speaker 1: or the PC pod as it's known, and then you
29:33
Speaker 1: got transferred into the general population, where you made some
29:36
Speaker 1: new acquaintances, notably Ronald Brookins and Raymond Copeland.
29:41
Speaker 2: They tried to, you know, befriend me. So I had
29:43
Speaker 2: been in there with them maybe a couple of months,
29:45
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden they put me back in
29:47
Speaker 2: this protective custody pod and Bookers and Copeland came to visit,
29:51
Speaker 2: and you know, they enticed them to lie. And I
29:54
Speaker 2: know you've read them. I've got the letters that they
29:56
Speaker 2: vote to the prostitutor and to Detective E. C. Herrist.
30:01
Speaker 3: So mister Brookn says to the Commonwealth Attorney, mister Jamison.
30:05
Speaker 3: Hell oh, mister Jamison, I'm hoping to find you and
30:07
Speaker 3: yours and the best of health, highest of.
30:10
Speaker 1: Spirits, the highest of spirits.
30:13
Speaker 3: It's a crazy git. I'm writing you in concern of
30:17
Speaker 3: the visit received from you. Today, I feel as if
30:22
Speaker 3: we did not reach a very clear understanding about having
30:27
Speaker 3: my jeep returned and the charges dropped. Now I'm waiting
30:32
Speaker 3: on an appeal. This you could stop. Just have the
30:37
Speaker 3: federal courts to withdraw their appeal and drop the case.
30:42
Speaker 3: I have never had a violent charge, so this should
30:46
Speaker 3: not be hard. I have gave my life to the Lord. Oh,
30:51
Speaker 3: and I'm willing to help you as best as I can.
30:54
Speaker 3: If I'm going to take the stand, I need to
30:56
Speaker 3: know my charges are being dropped. I just want to
31:00
Speaker 3: chance to start my newfound life in Christ over on
31:03
Speaker 3: the outside. If you give me another chance, I will
31:07
Speaker 3: not let you down.
31:08
Speaker 1: Sincerely, Yours in Christ, while I put my hand on
31:12
Speaker 1: the Bible, swear to tell the truth, and then lie
31:15
Speaker 1: my ass off to help the state ruin another man's life,
31:20
Speaker 1: just like Jesus would do. I mean, apparently, mister Brookings
31:24
Speaker 1: pretended to be a friend of Lorico's father, and then
31:27
Speaker 1: he took a look at Lorico's transcript, all in this
31:31
Speaker 1: twisted attempt to concoct a believable alleged confession in exchange
31:35
Speaker 1: for his own charges being dropped and the return of
31:37
Speaker 1: his jeep, and then along comes mister Brook and cellmate
31:41
Speaker 1: or blockmate, Raymond Copeland.
31:43
Speaker 2: Raymond Copeland, he was sentenced to ten years and the
31:46
Speaker 2: letter that he wrote to the prostitutor, he was seeking
31:49
Speaker 2: to have his ten year sinence cut to three, you know,
31:51
Speaker 2: for his testimony and basically saying he could be as
31:54
Speaker 2: convincing and moving as possible to help bury me, and
31:58
Speaker 2: also that he had testified in another murder case for
32:01
Speaker 2: this prosecutor before.
32:03
Speaker 1: Right, so this is a trial tested bullshit artist. So
32:06
Speaker 1: let me please read from the letter mister Coplan wrote
32:09
Speaker 1: about the meeting he had with a Commonwealth attorney just
32:11
Speaker 1: six days before his own proceedings Raymond Copeland.
32:14
Speaker 3: He says, I am writing in concern about our last meeting,
32:18
Speaker 3: which took place on January twenty eight, two thousand and three,
32:22
Speaker 3: where you mentioned not making any promises, and I can
32:25
Speaker 3: respect that, but perhaps we need to discuss my situation
32:29
Speaker 3: more clearly. I am participating in a double murder trial.
32:34
Speaker 3: I know others are involved that have a lot more
32:39
Speaker 3: time and more serious crimes than I do, so I
32:42
Speaker 3: want you to know I'm not trying to wait until
32:45
Speaker 3: I get to prison before my requests are granted. I
32:50
Speaker 3: was sentenced by Westbrook Parker, which you may be familiar with.
32:56
Speaker 3: I know from experience. If you can talk with Parker,
33:00
Speaker 3: who's the judge, I can get everything I've asked for
33:05
Speaker 3: because I'm not asking for much. I can't go to
33:09
Speaker 3: any prison because of possible retaliation for my testimony. Now,
33:15
Speaker 3: before I take the witness stand, all i'm asking is
33:19
Speaker 3: your word off the record. Please contact me and let
33:22
Speaker 3: me rehearse my testimony. And also I need to evaluate
33:29
Speaker 3: my situation as far as how I will be.
33:34
Speaker 1: Rewarded rehearse my testimony.
33:38
Speaker 3: Rehearse my testimony.
33:40
Speaker 1: There was also a third jailhouse snitch, Christopher Joiner, but
33:43
Speaker 1: we were unable to obtain any damning letters from him. However,
33:47
Speaker 1: in Virginia there's no parole, and Joiner's fifty four year
33:50
Speaker 1: sentence appears to have magically disappeared as he was released.
33:54
Speaker 1: In fact, years ago, he alleged that he overheard incriminating
33:58
Speaker 1: statements from l Rico while he was on the phone.
34:00
Speaker 1: So now that everyone was well rehearsed, you went back
34:03
Speaker 1: to trial in February two thousand and three. There was
34:06
Speaker 1: still no physical evidence tying Larco to the scene. Fingerprints
34:10
Speaker 1: that they believe would be probaitive just didn't match Larico Kearney.
34:14
Speaker 1: So being a north Leet, Travis Chuck, Casey Davis, and
34:16
Speaker 1: Tony Booth returned. So this much was exactly the same
34:20
Speaker 1: minus the Fifth Amendment violation. And now there were three
34:23
Speaker 1: new lying jail house snitches. And in addition to their
34:27
Speaker 1: sentence reductions and letters to the Commonwealth Attorney, there were
34:30
Speaker 1: even more reasons to find their testimonies totally unreliable.
34:36
Speaker 2: Brookers testified that I said I kicked the door in,
34:39
Speaker 2: and that was known throughout the trial, like whoever had
34:42
Speaker 2: committed this crime, it was no force insurry, they knew
34:45
Speaker 2: the victims struggles. He did point that out, and the
34:48
Speaker 2: prostituted just made up some bogus theory like showed them
34:51
Speaker 2: a pitchure of a door in the back of the apartment,
34:54
Speaker 2: like look at their door, don't it look like somebody
34:55
Speaker 2: was trying to get out their doors?
34:56
Speaker 1: So clearly Brookins misunderstood the facts that he was supposed
35:00
Speaker 1: to regurgitate for the state. But what about Copeland.
35:03
Speaker 2: Copeland's testimony was basically the same because they was in
35:06
Speaker 2: the same block, and of course they got together, you know,
35:08
Speaker 2: to go over what they would.
35:09
Speaker 1: Saying, including the same mistakes that proved they didn't know
35:12
Speaker 1: what the fuck they were talking about. Now, Christopher Joyner,
35:15
Speaker 1: he was in the protective custody pod with you because
35:17
Speaker 1: he was also cooperating on a number of other cases,
35:20
Speaker 1: which does not bode well for his credibility either. And
35:23
Speaker 1: he alleged overhearing you say incriminating things while on the phone. Now,
35:27
Speaker 1: you had taken a phone call while he was in
35:29
Speaker 1: earshot one day when you had returned from motion hearing
35:32
Speaker 1: in which you found out that Brookings and Copeland were
35:34
Speaker 1: going to testify against you.
35:36
Speaker 2: My child was to start that Monday, and I found
35:38
Speaker 2: out that Friday. So when I came back, I used
35:41
Speaker 2: the phone. I called my stepfather, displaying it to him.
35:43
Speaker 2: You know what it happened to court and everything that.
35:46
Speaker 2: You know, he heard me say on the phone, and
35:48
Speaker 2: my stepfather he wrote it down and put his own
35:51
Speaker 2: little twist and spin on it. He actually testified that
35:54
Speaker 2: I professed Brookings and Copeland about you know, me doing
35:57
Speaker 2: the murder. I was bragging or saying that I was
36:00
Speaker 2: like a OJ Simpson. It's just for some bogus stuff
36:03
Speaker 2: he was saying. It didn't even make sense.
36:05
Speaker 1: And like we mentioned, he too received a sentence reduction
36:08
Speaker 1: for his OJ Simpson references. Now the defense called the
36:11
Speaker 1: Albi witnesses again your loved ones, as well as the
36:14
Speaker 1: pizza delivery person, in addition to other people who Copeland
36:17
Speaker 1: and Brookings had previously test the lie about. But the
36:20
Speaker 1: difference with this trial was Trayvon who is now eleven
36:23
Speaker 1: years old. Because five years had gone by. You called
36:25
Speaker 1: him to the stand to get him to recount what
36:27
Speaker 1: he had already said to his statements to police, which
36:29
Speaker 1: was a Gregory artist had murdered gene artists Andy von
36:32
Speaker 1: Giles right in front of him alone.
36:34
Speaker 2: I tried to call him as my witness at the
36:37
Speaker 2: second trial, and I'm trying to get him to testify
36:39
Speaker 2: to what he said or at least get the statement
36:41
Speaker 2: presented to the jury. And know they excuse the jury
36:44
Speaker 2: and they did what you call the prophet and they
36:46
Speaker 2: placed them on the stand. He just said he didn't
36:48
Speaker 2: remember anything.
36:49
Speaker 1: Do you know.
36:50
Speaker 2: They showed him the statement and he, like I guess
36:52
Speaker 2: he may have been coached, but he just said he
36:54
Speaker 2: couldn't remember. And the judge said that I couldn't get
36:57
Speaker 2: the statement in to the juri because I couldn't have
37:00
Speaker 2: each of my own witness So they didn't allow the
37:02
Speaker 2: statement to get into the jury.
37:03
Speaker 1: And once again, the jury did not hear the most
37:05
Speaker 1: important witness statement, the one taken from the only eyewitness
37:08
Speaker 1: to the crime, just moments after it happened. Now, who
37:11
Speaker 1: knows if he was coached or coerced by the state
37:13
Speaker 1: or maybe by his own family. After all, Gregory Artist
37:16
Speaker 1: was his relative. It's even possible that the memory was
37:19
Speaker 1: so painful that the associative amnesia took over it. Either way,
37:22
Speaker 1: the jury didn't hear what we all know he had
37:24
Speaker 1: said right after he saw his uncle and mother fatally shot. Instead,
37:29
Speaker 1: the state pieced together, coerced or incentivized witness statements people
37:33
Speaker 1: with no knowledge of the crime. That's the state's case.
37:37
Speaker 1: That's it floating on the hope that the jury might think, well, yeah,
37:41
Speaker 1: they can't all be lying. And I understand the Commonwealth
37:44
Speaker 1: Attorney did something that showed that they knew. You tell
37:47
Speaker 1: me what you think, but it seems like they knew
37:49
Speaker 1: how fraudulent this prosecution was. They passed a plea deal
37:53
Speaker 1: to your attorney, Dwayne Struthers. Even after all.
37:56
Speaker 2: This, after the karmawill presented the case, they asked him,
37:59
Speaker 2: would not be willing to plead the second degree murder?
38:01
Speaker 2: And again I asked him, like, you know, how much
38:04
Speaker 2: tired it this curved and from his actions, you know
38:07
Speaker 2: the way he looked at me, he wanted me to
38:09
Speaker 2: gamble with the jury. I've already had been convicted once
38:12
Speaker 2: and I knew it was a possibility that, you know,
38:15
Speaker 2: I could get life in prison.
38:16
Speaker 1: Again, and your attorney didn't properly advise you about this.
38:20
Speaker 1: But second degree murderer carries a sentence of five to
38:23
Speaker 1: forty years, not life, not in Virginia.
38:26
Speaker 2: And I refused it. And here I am sinning again.
38:30
Speaker 2: You know, I get convicted again, the end up with life.
38:32
Speaker 1: I mean, it must have felt like deja vu all
38:35
Speaker 1: over again.
38:36
Speaker 2: It definitely did. I'm like, this can't be happening like
38:38
Speaker 2: a second time. It's like I just felt like defeated,
38:41
Speaker 2: and I know this time my fight would be a
38:43
Speaker 2: whole lot harder. It's very rare that you see anybody
38:46
Speaker 2: get three trials. Being convicted the second time. It was
38:49
Speaker 2: hard going back to Wallas with I just can remember
38:52
Speaker 2: the ride that I had when my first trial was
38:54
Speaker 2: overturned and they turned me back to the jail. I
38:57
Speaker 2: was in tears for real because of the prison conditions
39:00
Speaker 2: and all the people that I'm gonna leave behind, Like
39:03
Speaker 2: I would never see this again. Guys, don't get these
39:05
Speaker 2: this opportunity that I'm about to get. And like I said,
39:07
Speaker 2: the whole ride back to that jail, I was in tears.
39:10
Speaker 2: I was like, this is the child that my life.
39:11
Speaker 3: Is over with.
39:13
Speaker 2: And it didn't happen that way, you know, me being
39:23
Speaker 2: convicted the second time, it's I knew. I knew my
39:26
Speaker 2: fight would be you know, a whole lot harder. Of course,
39:29
Speaker 2: I went through the litigation process and my family laid
39:31
Speaker 2: on down the line, you know, put out more money
39:33
Speaker 2: for me, trying to get me out. I just always
39:36
Speaker 2: try to be positive and keep their hope like one day,
39:39
Speaker 2: like like Justin would prevail and I would be able to,
39:41
Speaker 2: you know, walk out these prison doors.
39:43
Speaker 1: That return trip to prison was February two thousand and three.
39:46
Speaker 1: It's now February twenty and twenty three, and you're still there.
39:51
Speaker 1: But like you said, the fight is not over. Your
39:54
Speaker 1: first attempt was for ineffective assistance of counsel d Wayne Struggles.
39:58
Speaker 2: He had had a series of like this for their
40:00
Speaker 2: actions from the state bar like in two thousand and three.
40:02
Speaker 2: Then his license was suspended for two years in two
40:05
Speaker 2: thousand and six because you know, he failed to you know,
40:07
Speaker 2: communicate with his clients and you know, he didn't pursuit
40:09
Speaker 2: cases diligently. So I was hoping when I found his
40:12
Speaker 2: habis claim against him, that they would overturn my case
40:15
Speaker 2: just based on the lack of competence of Dwayne Struthers.
40:18
Speaker 2: And I did get the evidentiary heard on Struggles's and
40:21
Speaker 2: competency because of them offered me the plea bargain for
40:24
Speaker 2: a second degree murdered and he didn't know how much
40:26
Speaker 2: time that it carried. The District Court granted to hear
40:29
Speaker 2: my issue on that claim back in two thousand and eight.
40:32
Speaker 2: But the thing where I didn't get into relief on
40:34
Speaker 2: that issue is because you know, the Commonwealth Attorney, Philip Ferguson,
40:38
Speaker 2: the head Collonwealth attorney in Suffolk at that time, he
40:41
Speaker 2: testified that in Suffolk he has a policy that all
40:44
Speaker 2: prea bogins must be reviewed and signed by him, and
40:47
Speaker 2: he wasn't going to give the authorization. So that's why
40:50
Speaker 2: the judge that he didn't rule in my favor.
40:52
Speaker 1: And so that rendered the point moved, not that there
40:55
Speaker 1: aren't plenty of other points to raise a boy that
40:57
Speaker 1: effective assistance, because at the second trial he did not
40:59
Speaker 1: point out that the only witness to the murder, young Trayvon,
41:02
Speaker 1: did not point you out in court. It seems like
41:04
Speaker 1: seeing you in court should have jarred something loose if you,
41:07
Speaker 1: in fact had killed his mother, but you didn't. And
41:12
Speaker 1: once again, the fact that none of the fingerprints taken
41:14
Speaker 1: from the scene that they felt were probative, none of
41:17
Speaker 1: them were a match for you because you weren't there,
41:19
Speaker 1: But this was not raised, as was the fact that
41:22
Speaker 1: the fingerprints have never been tested against Gregory artists, which
41:26
Speaker 1: is insane. So, Lenny, I know you've been on this
41:28
Speaker 1: case since your release brought you to the Western branch
41:31
Speaker 1: of the John A. Cogshall Law Firm, And in another stunning,
41:36
Speaker 1: awful setback for this case, Attorney Cogashall, a legend in
41:40
Speaker 1: the innocence community and a friend to me and you
41:43
Speaker 1: guys and so many others, passed away suddenly in June
41:46
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. He rest in peace. So where does
41:50
Speaker 1: that leave Lorico's case?
41:51
Speaker 3: So once again, the law firm of Johnny Cogshaw filed
41:56
Speaker 3: Larco's petition on January fifth, twan I was in twenty
42:00
Speaker 3: two to the Secretary of Commonwealth Office. That petition primarily
42:05
Speaker 3: dealt with the statements made by Trayvon Artists the day
42:09
Speaker 3: of the murders and the following day when they interviewed
42:12
Speaker 3: him again. Of course, we know there was no physical
42:15
Speaker 3: evidence that pointed to Lrico Kearney's guilt, and that Trayvon
42:20
Speaker 3: Artist definitively told the detectives who killed his mom and uncle.
42:24
Speaker 3: That was the foundation upon which this petition was established,
42:29
Speaker 3: along with the convicted felons who came forward with false
42:33
Speaker 3: testimony in order to get deals. And fortunately we were
42:37
Speaker 3: able to get an affidavit from mister Travis Chalk, who
42:40
Speaker 3: said he just wanted to clear his conscience, and he
42:43
Speaker 3: came forward and said it was all a lie. Everything
42:46
Speaker 3: he said was a lie. He didn't see Lrico Kearney
42:49
Speaker 3: with a gun, he didn't see Larco Kearney following Gene Artists.
42:53
Speaker 3: He was told exactly what to say by this detective
42:57
Speaker 3: when he went to court, and he said as much.
42:59
Speaker 1: In the petition also details everything you've heard here, the
43:03
Speaker 1: inconsistencies and contradictions between the false witnesses and between the
43:08
Speaker 1: statements and the facts of the crime. So what does
43:10
Speaker 1: the petition seek?
43:11
Speaker 3: A conditional pardon on behalf of Larco Kearney. This petition
43:16
Speaker 3: is a waiting review because of the long list of
43:19
Speaker 3: people who file before him. From what we've been told,
43:22
Speaker 3: they're so swamped that it's going to be a long process.
43:25
Speaker 3: So we're hoping to get as much airplay as possible
43:28
Speaker 3: for mister Kearney to hopefully change this wrongful conviction.
43:33
Speaker 1: Well, you have all of our support and hopefully our
43:36
Speaker 1: audience will lead the hand as well. There's currently a
43:38
Speaker 1: petition alerting the governor of this wrongful conviction, pleading for
43:42
Speaker 1: his team to take notice of the grave injustice that
43:45
Speaker 1: this is. So please do it right now. Click the
43:49
Speaker 1: link in the episode bio and get involved. And now
43:52
Speaker 1: we go to my favorite part of the show. It's called,
43:55
Speaker 1: of course, closing arguments, where I first of all, thank
43:58
Speaker 1: you guys for being here and sharing this harrowing story.
44:02
Speaker 1: And then I'm going to turn my microphone off, leave
44:04
Speaker 1: my headphones on, kick back in my chair, and just
44:08
Speaker 1: listen to any closing thoughts you may have. So let's
44:12
Speaker 1: kick it off with Lenny and then close it out
44:15
Speaker 1: with Ulrico.
44:17
Speaker 3: Once again, we have a case where the only evidence
44:21
Speaker 3: that the Commonwealth has in a double murder is convicted felons.
44:27
Speaker 3: It's a sad state of affairs when we are putting
44:30
Speaker 3: people away for life based on convicted felons getting deals.
44:37
Speaker 3: It's time for us to do something, especially in the
44:41
Speaker 3: Commonwealth of Virginia. It's time for prosecutors to bear some
44:46
Speaker 3: of this weight for using convicted felons that they know
44:49
Speaker 3: have extensive criminal records and they know they're getting deals.
44:53
Speaker 3: It's time for the prosecution to possibly suffer as a
44:57
Speaker 3: result of this. I mean, it's the only way that
44:59
Speaker 3: I can see that this situation will ever change. It's
45:04
Speaker 3: a sad day that somebody like Lorico Kearney has been
45:07
Speaker 3: in the prison system for twenty five years or more
45:11
Speaker 3: for something he did not do. There is no evidence
45:14
Speaker 3: to support it. It's time for this to change.
45:18
Speaker 2: I mean, I would just like to say thank y'all
45:20
Speaker 2: for allowing me the opportunity to share my story with
45:23
Speaker 2: the world. Again. This is a situation that anybody can
45:26
Speaker 2: find theirself in. Anybody can come forward and just say
45:30
Speaker 2: you said anything, it's not right without the supporting evidence.
45:34
Speaker 2: But twenty five plus years in prison, you know, I'm
45:38
Speaker 2: still healthy. I still have hope that someday, you know,
45:41
Speaker 2: the justice will prevail and I would be able to
45:43
Speaker 2: walk out this prison and be with the people that
45:45
Speaker 2: love me, try to build a relationship with my children.
45:49
Speaker 2: I would like to see my daughter walk down the
45:51
Speaker 2: aisle and like I said, just want to, you know,
45:53
Speaker 2: just go out there and just be a pillow to
45:54
Speaker 2: my community and try to help others that may be
45:57
Speaker 2: lost so they won't end up in the same position
46:00
Speaker 2: and that I'm in. Again, I just expressed my condolences
46:03
Speaker 2: to you know, the artist family what they have went through.
46:06
Speaker 2: You know, nobody deserved to die. But I shouldn't spend
46:09
Speaker 2: the rest of my life in prison based on you know,
46:11
Speaker 2: people trying to help their whole situations. And I'm just
46:14
Speaker 2: looking forward to today, like I said, I'm released, and
46:16
Speaker 2: I feel in my heart that you know, jessepo pavailed
46:18
Speaker 2: and the right thing will be done. You know, my
46:20
Speaker 2: heart and my courage. I'm just too big just to
46:22
Speaker 2: die in prison.
46:30
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. I'd like to
46:33
Speaker 1: thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff Clyburn, and Kevin Wardis,
46:36
Speaker 1: with research by Lyla Robinson. The music in this production
46:40
Speaker 1: was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
46:43
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
46:47
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast, and on Twitter at
46:51
Speaker 1: wrong Conviction, as well as at Lava for Good. On
46:54
Speaker 1: all three platforms, you can also follow me on both
46:57
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