Latest / The Breakfast Club / EXCLUSIVE: Karmelo Anthony’s Advocate Speaks Out After Guilty Verdict & 35 Sentencing

Transcript

EXCLUSIVE: Karmelo Anthony’s Advocate Speaks Out After Guilty Verdict & 35 Sentencing · The Breakfast Club

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I'm a homegrow that knows a little bit about everything
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  Speaker 1: and everybody.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: You don't know if you don't lie about that, right,
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Lauren came in.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: Hey, y'all, what's up.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: It's Lauren Rosa and this is another episode of the
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  Speaker 1: Latest with Laura Rosa. This is genentitly deave on all
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  Speaker 1: things pop culture, entertainment, news and all of the conversations
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  Speaker 1: that shake the room.
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  Speaker 3: My lowriders.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: If you guys cannot tell by the tone of my
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  Speaker 1: voice and the intro, today's conversation is going to be
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: one that is very serious. We cover a lot of
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: things here at the Latest with Laurna Rosa, but when
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  Speaker 1: it's time to take the time, we do so. And
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  Speaker 1: today there was a verdict that came down in the
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  Speaker 1: Carmelo Anthony case and I, like the rest of the world,
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  Speaker 1: uh had some had some thoughts and feelings on it,
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  Speaker 1: but wanted to put my own thoughts and feelings aside
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  Speaker 1: and bring someone who has been very close to this case,
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  Speaker 1: who's been advocating for the Anthony family right here to
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  Speaker 1: you guys on the podcast to have some conversations about
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  Speaker 1: what happened and the verdict that we all heard today.
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  Speaker 3: Of guilty. Thank you for dominic.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: How you doing I'm doing pretty good about yourself.
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  Speaker 3: I mean I'm doing good.
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  Speaker 1: I think like everybody else, I'm kind of watching from
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  Speaker 1: the outside looking in and just have a lot of
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  Speaker 1: questions and I don't know, I kind of feel like
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  Speaker 1: like I have a younger brother, So watching everything that
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  Speaker 1: played out in this case and what didn't play out, Uh,
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  Speaker 1: it's heartbreaking, you know what I mean? And I know
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  Speaker 1: that you were working alongside Carmelo Anthony's family to give
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  Speaker 1: everything that was happening, you know, some platforms so that
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  Speaker 1: we knew what was going on.
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  Speaker 3: How are you feeling following a verdict?
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  Speaker 4: Well, it's really hard right now to be able to
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  Speaker 4: process it when you know, I've had the opportunity to
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  Speaker 4: get to know Carmel or Anthony. I've had the opportunity
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  Speaker 4: to get to know Kayla, and Andrew and his father
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  Speaker 4: and other children. You're talking about a beautiful black family.
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  Speaker 4: You're talking about a very educated young brother, Carmelo Anthony,
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  Speaker 4: a very kind and very smart and had a very
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  Speaker 4: promising future that was stolen today.
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  Speaker 1: Do you feel like and it's hard to do in
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  Speaker 1: a trial right where you know you have the prosecutors
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  Speaker 1: who are there's there's stuck on what they're trying to
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  Speaker 1: get to. But do you feel like it was there
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  Speaker 1: was a good enough job done of humanizing Crimela Anthony
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  Speaker 1: outside of what we as a community would would just
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  Speaker 1: try and do ourselves on social media.
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  Speaker 3: Do you think it was done well in court?
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  Speaker 2: I don't. I don't think so.
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  Speaker 4: I think that there were many things that I disagreed
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  Speaker 4: with the approach, but at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 4: I'm not a lawyer. Of course, he had attorneys. There
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  Speaker 4: were a multiple different things that I felt like it
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  Speaker 4: could have went this way, but it didn't. And I
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  Speaker 4: just the young man that I got to know, I
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  Speaker 4: didn't think. I didn't think it was displayed to the
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  Speaker 4: fullest in courtroom.
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  Speaker 1: How is Carmelo's mom doing? I know she was the
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  Speaker 1: only one at this time. She is the only person
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  Speaker 1: that is testified in the sentencing part of the child
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  Speaker 1: because that's where we are now. How's his mom doings
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  Speaker 1: as of now?
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  Speaker 2: Kayla is distraught.
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  Speaker 4: I can't speak for her, but just to know Kayla,
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  Speaker 4: Kayla is a mother. She does everything for those children.
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  Speaker 2: She is a woman of.
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  Speaker 4: She doesn't say a lot or whatever but she doesn't
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  Speaker 4: play about her children, and you know, my heart goes
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: out to her, because this is a family that traveled
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  Speaker 4: and moved from Louisiana to Texas and for just a
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  Speaker 4: better opportunity, better exposed and they landed in Collin County.
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  Speaker 4: And Collin County is a county north of Dallas County
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  Speaker 4: where the city of Dallas results. And of course a
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  Speaker 4: lot of times when people move here, they end up,
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  Speaker 4: you know, moving to some of these suburb areas, not
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  Speaker 4: knowing some of the history that goes behind some of
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  Speaker 4: these areas, very problematic, and so I know that the
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  Speaker 4: family is really hurt.
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  Speaker 2: Right now.
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  Speaker 1: I've read a report about the plea that she made
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  Speaker 1: to the court after everything, and you know, her attempt
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  Speaker 1: to just humanize her child herself, and it was heartbreaking
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  Speaker 1: to read. So I can only imagine what happens now though,
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  Speaker 1: Like is is after? Are you guys already talking about
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  Speaker 1: like a pill? How do we activate around the case
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  Speaker 1: in the verted?
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  Speaker 3: Like what now? What do we do now?
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  Speaker 4: Well, of course, the next generation Action Network is going
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  Speaker 4: to have to raise resources and we're going to have
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  Speaker 4: to have people from all different cousors and creeds and
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  Speaker 4: black America to really stand up, because this case is
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  Speaker 4: solely about are these laws going to be applied to
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  Speaker 4: everyone or are they going to be applied to some right,
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  Speaker 4: I know, you see cases from all across this country,
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  Speaker 4: even from the recent case in Carolina where we're told, hey,
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  Speaker 4: take your emotions out of the situation. It's law, this
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  Speaker 4: is law, right, and so in this situation, the law
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  Speaker 4: was very clear and the law was ignored. And of
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  Speaker 4: course that was also the reason why the judge limited
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  Speaker 4: the court proceedings, so that the people won't be able
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  Speaker 4: to know what really went on, rather than the secondhand
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  Speaker 4: count of information that pretty much all America is pretty
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  Speaker 4: much going off of. Because only fifty people were allowed
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  Speaker 4: at a time to be in a court.
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  Speaker 1: Can you break down, So first let's start with the limiting.
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  Speaker 3: Can you explain what was limited?
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  Speaker 4: Well, first of all, you limit the amount of people
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  Speaker 4: that were able to see exactly what's going on the activities.
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  Speaker 2: You also even in the ruling of the jury.
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  Speaker 4: Of course, many people are making it seem like the
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  Speaker 4: judge went through a full process. No, the judge actually
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  Speaker 4: made a decision fairly quickly on those three black jurors
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  Speaker 4: that the prosecution striped right. A lot of people got
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  Speaker 4: answers on that. A lot of people got answers on
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  Speaker 4: how did these people testify in court?
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  Speaker 2: What was their body language?
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  Speaker 4: We know, based on a lot of accounts of people
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  Speaker 4: who were in the courtroom, a lot of them witnesses
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  Speaker 4: were cohearsed, They were instructed what to say. You can
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  Speaker 4: tell they tried to keep the brother far away from
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  Speaker 4: the situation. When we know that Hunter Metcalf had already
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  Speaker 4: went on national TV saying he was right there. But
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  Speaker 4: some kind of way during the trial, by multiple eyewitnesses
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  Speaker 4: account we found that Hunter was there.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, this is what we have to deal with.
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  Speaker 4: And now, just while I've been on the interview with you,
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  Speaker 4: we find out that Carmelo has been sentenced to thirty
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  Speaker 4: five years.
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  Speaker 3: Oh my god, Oh was I expecting that?
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  Speaker 1: So okay, let's talk about the jury really quick, because
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  Speaker 1: you brought that up right, and I know the conversation
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  Speaker 1: with the black jurors that there were three of them
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  Speaker 1: that were struck. Correct, Yes, the judge said that they
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  Speaker 1: were struck for non racial reasons, and they brought out
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  Speaker 1: the fact that they were educators. Wouldn't you want people
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  Speaker 1: that were educators and understood children in an educational or
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  Speaker 1: a school setting, and how those things happened on a
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  Speaker 1: jury Like where was there a law basis that allowed
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  Speaker 1: them to like, how was that able to be an
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  Speaker 1: argument to take those jurors off of the jury or
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  Speaker 1: off of the selection process?
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  Speaker 2: You know, it flabbergasting.
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  Speaker 4: Nobody that was there understood exactly how they were able
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  Speaker 4: to strike them. They just said they were educators, not
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  Speaker 4: explain why they think they're conflicted because they're educators, just
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  Speaker 4: because they're just they're educators, right, And of course we
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  Speaker 4: know that Colin County has a long history of yet
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  Speaker 4: discriminatorial practices. We know that Colin County is a county
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  Speaker 4: black people have had a real uphill battle uh to
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  Speaker 4: be able to get justice.
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  Speaker 2: And we know that Collin County has.
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  Speaker 4: A real large population of black people that it had
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  Speaker 4: sent to prison in the history of it. And we
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  Speaker 4: know that this county is very problematic. And we heard
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  Speaker 4: a lot of different calls for people saying why didn't
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  Speaker 4: we push for change of venue? But if they understood
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  Speaker 4: how state law work, there were only certain red counties
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  Speaker 4: around that that even if they would have pushed it
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  Speaker 4: to another venue, it would have been even worse.
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  Speaker 1: And and and there was an educator that was kept
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  Speaker 1: on the jury still, so even though they tried to
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  Speaker 1: have that argument, it was it still was that one
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  Speaker 1: educator that was was that a person of color a
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  Speaker 1: white person.
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  Speaker 3: Man?
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  Speaker 4: Okay, so if it's educators, is blanket educators across the board?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: I thought that there was maybe like a legal standing,
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  Speaker 1: but if you're keeping one educator and getting rid of
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  Speaker 1: the other ones, like I would have to dive more
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  Speaker 1: into like why, like what made one different than the
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  Speaker 1: other three? And then my last question, I know we
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  Speaker 1: have to wrap up. Are we going to see a change?
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  Speaker 1: I don't even know if this would be possible at
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  Speaker 1: this point, But if you guys go into the appeal status,
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  Speaker 1: which are you you guys are planning to appeal?
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  Speaker 3: Is that something that family is considering.
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  Speaker 2: Yes?
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  Speaker 3: Will there be a change of attorney.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, there there will be new appella attorneys assigned, and
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  Speaker 4: there will be a new legal strategy and we will
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: need to be able to raise the resources to be
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: able to support that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, got you.
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  Speaker 1: And then the focus of the appeal is it going
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  Speaker 1: to be to just kind of combat all the jury information.
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  Speaker 1: The thing with the judge and the DA and the father,
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  Speaker 1: there's some correlation and relationship there that I was reading about.
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  Speaker 3: Is that true?
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  Speaker 2: We don't know if you know that was true.
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: We know that the picture was not the sitting judge,
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  Speaker 4: and we we gave some clarification.
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  Speaker 2: We don't know what judge that was in the picture.
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  Speaker 4: It wasn't given to us, but it wasn't John John Roach,
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  Speaker 4: who was the presiding.
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  Speaker 2: Judge over this situation.
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  Speaker 4: But of course we're going to need to need the
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  Speaker 4: community support across America support to go go into this
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  Speaker 4: next process. And of course we know the road to
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  Speaker 4: justice is not a quick one, but we we stand
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  Speaker 4: committed towards making sure.
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  Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much for joining me. I know
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  Speaker 1: you have a lot uh to try and figure out
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  Speaker 1: at this point.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: I appreciate thank you for having me. Thank you.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: I'll talk to you guys soon. Please stand contact
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: All righty, I will already