Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #584 Jason Flom with Tysheem Crocker

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#584 Jason Flom with Tysheem Crocker · Wrongful Conviction

0:04
Speaker 1: Hey, it's Connor Hall, senior producer for Wrongful Conviction, back
0:08
Speaker 1: with another case update and more behind the scenes insights.
0:12
Speaker 1: And this time we're talking about Taysheim Crocker and more
0:16
Speaker 1: broadly about post conviction procedure in Pennsylvania. Now, Taysheim's story
0:23
Speaker 1: reminds me a bit of the guy who brought us
0:26
Speaker 1: his case, another previous guest, and somebody I'm lucky to
0:30
Speaker 1: call a friend, Lorenzo Johnson. Both of these guys and
0:34
Speaker 1: their friends were just kids who were fleeing the late
0:39
Speaker 1: Crack epidemic era in the Bronx for what they were
0:42
Speaker 1: hoping were safe for pastures in Pennsylvania, only to find
0:46
Speaker 1: new threats to their lives and freedom. I'll link Lorenzo's
0:50
Speaker 1: story in the episode description where in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Lorenzo
0:55
Speaker 1: and the other new arrivals from the Bronx were well
0:57
Speaker 1: aware of how the local law met felt about them.
1:01
Speaker 1: And then there was certainly added racial motivation in his
1:04
Speaker 1: story when Lorenzo's co defendant, Corey, happened to be dating
1:08
Speaker 1: the daughter of the investigator in their case. Yeah, that's
1:12
Speaker 1: exactly how it sounds. And then in Tyshiem's case, when
1:17
Speaker 1: shots rang out at an October nineteen ninety seven dice
1:20
Speaker 1: game in York, Pennsylvania. The murder of Raymond skip Clark
1:25
Speaker 1: seems to have become an opportunity to again take down
1:28
Speaker 1: as many kids from the Bronx as possible, when the
1:30
Speaker 1: likely shooter, Danny Steele, became the state's star witness, saying
1:35
Speaker 1: that he had planned the shooting at a motel with
1:38
Speaker 1: four or five others, including Tyshiem, Crocker and Melvin Bethune,
1:42
Speaker 1: who were alleged to have attended the motel meeting, pointed
1:45
Speaker 1: guns at a guy named Ken du Smith at the
1:47
Speaker 1: dice game, but their guns jammed, and then after everyone scattered,
1:51
Speaker 1: a fictional character named Corleone and a few others chased
1:55
Speaker 1: and shot Raymond skip Clark a few blocks away, and
1:59
Speaker 1: that testimony got Danny Steele two to five years instead
2:03
Speaker 1: of life like Melvin and Tyshem got for their role
2:07
Speaker 1: in the alleged conspiracy and accomplished liability to that murder.
2:12
Speaker 1: But in two thousand and three Tayshim discovered the deal
2:15
Speaker 1: made with Danny Steele which would have impeached him, and
2:19
Speaker 1: then Danny Steele recanted. In two thousand and five, but
2:23
Speaker 1: that was deemed not credible, only to be corroborated ten
2:26
Speaker 1: years later by Ken Duce Smith, who said that Taysheem
2:30
Speaker 1: and Melvin never pointed guns at him or anyone at
2:32
Speaker 1: the dice game, but there was still another witness who
2:36
Speaker 1: had held that position. Another five years down the road,
2:40
Speaker 1: Taysheem's team found the motel clerk who had checked them in, importantly,
2:45
Speaker 1: about an hour after the shooting, so this conspiracy meeting
2:49
Speaker 1: narrative fell apart. There was also a phone call from
2:53
Speaker 1: their room to Melvin's girlfriend Tucker Redman, allegedly made before
2:57
Speaker 1: the shooting. It was allegedly overheard by another girl named
3:00
Speaker 1: Nicki Rhoades. The prosecution said in opening and closing statements
3:04
Speaker 1: that Melvin had relayed the alleged plot over the phone
3:07
Speaker 1: before the shooting. Neither of the girls wherever called to
3:10
Speaker 1: the stand, but the existence of this phone call was
3:13
Speaker 1: raised in court. It seems purposely without a time stamped
3:17
Speaker 1: call log, which would have shown a time for after
3:21
Speaker 1: the shooting when they were checked into this motel. Now,
3:25
Speaker 1: since our coverage in twenty twenty three, the Pennsylvania Innocence
3:28
Speaker 1: Project has taken over Taishiem's case, and both women have
3:32
Speaker 1: sworn statements that the prosecution's assertions but the phone call
3:36
Speaker 1: were lies, as corroborated by the motel clerk and the
3:39
Speaker 1: time of the check in. Additionally, the remaining witness who
3:42
Speaker 1: claimed to see Tayshim and Melvin with guns has also
3:45
Speaker 1: now recanted, saying that he received a deal for himself
3:48
Speaker 1: and a girlfriend in unrelated charges for that testimony. Then
3:52
Speaker 1: another alleged witness, an ear witness, has also recanted, saying
3:56
Speaker 1: that he had caved to pressure from police and his
3:59
Speaker 1: family to say that he could identify Taysheim at the
4:03
Speaker 1: scene from the sound of his voice. And you might
4:06
Speaker 1: be thinking to yourself, well, who should have ever given
4:08
Speaker 1: a shit about that last one? As well as why
4:10
Speaker 1: the hell are Taishiem and Melvin still in prison? The
4:14
Speaker 1: case for their innocence had already been laid out in
4:16
Speaker 1: court over time, but in Pennsylvania post conviction timing is
4:20
Speaker 1: everything when it comes to newly discovered evidence. For starters
4:25
Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania to be considered newly discovered evidence and open
4:29
Speaker 1: an avenue to a new trial, the evidence could not
4:32
Speaker 1: have been discoverable with due diligence at the time of trial.
4:36
Speaker 1: So if something was in the public record or even
4:39
Speaker 1: in the universe at the time of trial, say a
4:41
Speaker 1: witness like Kendu Smith or a motel clerk's timesheet, but
4:45
Speaker 1: know that evidence was just simply not investigated, discovered, and
4:48
Speaker 1: or raised, well, that can't be considered newly discovered evidence,
4:53
Speaker 1: no matter how earth shattering it is. So okay, that's
4:57
Speaker 1: the defense attorney's fault, right, And in most states one
5:00
Speaker 1: could claim ineffective assistance of trial council and they open
5:04
Speaker 1: up an avenue for a new trial. But in Pennsylvania,
5:06
Speaker 1: if that isn't raised on direct appeal, well, then the
5:09
Speaker 1: defendant's only option is to then claim ineffective assistance of
5:13
Speaker 1: appellate council in their first post conviction motion. And if
5:17
Speaker 1: they don't do that the ineffective assistance avenue, that's closed. Again.
5:23
Speaker 1: No matter how earth shattering the evidence, the issue cannot
5:26
Speaker 1: be raised on a successive post conviction motion, even if
5:30
Speaker 1: said evidence was only discovered so many years after their
5:35
Speaker 1: first post conviction motion. And then to diminish the avenues
5:38
Speaker 1: further up until twenty eighteen, any evidence that passed the
5:42
Speaker 1: other qualification for newly discovered evidence had to be filed
5:46
Speaker 1: within sixty days of discovery. Now you have a whole year.
5:51
Speaker 1: But even with the increased window of three hundred and
5:54
Speaker 1: five whole days, often evidence of innocence is more impactful
5:58
Speaker 1: in the context of other evidence that only comes to
6:00
Speaker 1: light so many years later, like ken Do Smith's testimony
6:04
Speaker 1: supporting Danny Steele's recantation. Without ken Do, it's pretty easy
6:08
Speaker 1: to just call your own witness, Danny Steele, a liar,
6:11
Speaker 1: especially after he changed his story from what he had
6:14
Speaker 1: sworn in court. But what if can do Smith, the
6:17
Speaker 1: motel clerk, and now two more witnesses from the scene,
6:20
Speaker 1: as well as Tucker Redman, Nicky Rhodes and telephone call
6:24
Speaker 1: logs that would show that the prosecution at the very
6:27
Speaker 1: least didn't know what they were talking about when they
6:30
Speaker 1: said that these phone calls happened before the shooting, All
6:34
Speaker 1: of those things together supporting the recantation of their star witness.
6:39
Speaker 1: What if that could finally be heard at one evidentiary hearing,
6:44
Speaker 1: like in other states, where you can file a post
6:46
Speaker 1: conviction motion based on actual innocence, and if granted, then
6:50
Speaker 1: the procedural time bars are lifted and the court can
6:53
Speaker 1: finally hear the preponderance of evidence of a defendant's innocence. Well,
6:58
Speaker 1: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, it doesn't have anything like that yet.
7:03
Speaker 1: I think Virginia's pretty much in the same boat. So
7:06
Speaker 1: guys like Taishim Melvin, in way too many others to name,
7:13
Speaker 1: just out of options and their cases reach a point
7:16
Speaker 1: of legal finality. Now, we've been talking about pardoning power
7:21
Speaker 1: being the fail safe, but that can be quite a
7:24
Speaker 1: long shot when you throw a career minded governor in
7:27
Speaker 1: with a population plagued by misinformation or just low information.
7:31
Speaker 1: So when you hear Taisheim and Melvin's story, I want
7:34
Speaker 1: you to think about whether the concept of finality is
7:39
Speaker 1: more important than bringing the right person to justice. I
7:41
Speaker 1: guess that one's kind of obvious. And again, whether we
7:45
Speaker 1: can trust career minded politicians to be the fail safe
7:48
Speaker 1: when law enforcement and the courts reach finality without the
7:51
Speaker 1: deserving party and custody. I'm not the praying type, so
7:55
Speaker 1: it's strange for me that prayer feels like the only
7:58
Speaker 1: option for Taisheim and Melvin for some kind of intervention.
8:01
Speaker 1: And I'm just not sure what that even looks like,
8:04
Speaker 1: but it feels like someone or something he's gonna have
8:10
Speaker 1: to summon unusual courage.
8:16
Speaker 2: In October nineteen ninety seven, two overlapping groups of friends
8:20
Speaker 2: from New York, one known as the Cream Team and
8:22
Speaker 2: the other is the Gods, were living in York, Pennsylvania.
8:26
Speaker 2: Three of these young men were Danny Steele, Melvin Bethune,
8:29
Speaker 2: and Tysheen Crocker. On October fifth, nineteen ninety seven, at
8:33
Speaker 2: a corner dice game, Melvin and Taysheem spoke to another
8:35
Speaker 2: New York guy about a previous beef when gunshots rang
8:38
Speaker 2: out and the crowd dispersed, but no one was hurt
8:41
Speaker 2: until about five minutes later and two blocks away, when
8:45
Speaker 2: a young man named Raymond Clark had been fatally shot.
8:48
Speaker 2: When the investigation of the murder led to Danny Steele,
8:51
Speaker 2: he told the police that Raymond's death was part of
8:53
Speaker 2: a larger organized action involving a disagreement between rival New
8:57
Speaker 2: York gangs. At the dice game, that Melbourne and Taishim
9:01
Speaker 2: had rounded up some muscle from back in New York,
9:03
Speaker 2: including Steel and three others, to confront the opposing gang,
9:07
Speaker 2: the Gods. In the lead up to this confrontation, they
9:10
Speaker 2: allegedly checked into a motel and hatched a plan that
9:12
Speaker 2: allegedly resulted in the death of Raymond Clarke. Clearly, local
9:17
Speaker 2: law enforcement had only one choice to believe Danny Steele
9:21
Speaker 2: and do their part on the front lines of America's
9:24
Speaker 2: war on drugs by taking as many of these New
9:27
Speaker 2: York gangsters off their streets as they possibly could. But
9:31
Speaker 2: this is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to raeful conviction. Today,
9:47
Speaker 2: we're going to cover a case in which the soul
9:49
Speaker 2: assailant who is responsible for the murder got off with
9:52
Speaker 2: less than three years for giving false testimony against two
9:55
Speaker 2: innocent men. And I'm going to introduce one of those
9:57
Speaker 2: men now. He's calling in from a maxim security. President
10:00
Speaker 2: in Pennsylvania tayshim, Crocker, even though I hate the reason
10:05
Speaker 2: why you're at where you're at, but I got to say,
10:08
Speaker 2: I'm really happy and honor to have you.
10:11
Speaker 3: I'm glad i'm here. Thank you, Thank you for having me.
10:14
Speaker 2: You're most welcome, and with him is his post conviction
10:17
Speaker 2: pro bono attorney Latsia Shaviz Free Latsia, welcome to the show.
10:22
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me.
10:23
Speaker 2: Jason, You're also very welcome, So tayshim, This crime happened
10:26
Speaker 2: in Pennsylvania, but you're not from there, originally from the Bronx, right,
10:30
Speaker 2: So tell me a little bit about your childhood.
10:32
Speaker 3: I was born to a teenage mother. My mom was sixteen,
10:35
Speaker 3: you know, she wasn't ready to be a mother year,
10:38
Speaker 3: so she picked me in forced to kid and I
10:40
Speaker 3: spent my first four years out in Queens. It was
10:44
Speaker 3: like eighty one. She decided she wanted to be back.
10:47
Speaker 3: I moved back to the Bronx. It was rough, we
10:50
Speaker 3: were we were pull. I was pretty much terrified at
10:53
Speaker 3: my mom. That was like the only person I was
10:55
Speaker 3: scared around. The Asian twelve. I was back and forced
10:58
Speaker 3: to kid out of a presidence. I just became a.
11:04
Speaker 4: Sweet kid, so tayshim. He had a pretty hard life
11:08
Speaker 4: and was living in the Bronx. You know, this is
11:10
Speaker 4: at the height of the crack epidemic. Friends of his
11:13
Speaker 4: are literally dying.
11:15
Speaker 3: I went off the Yoka because my best friend had
11:19
Speaker 3: just got cute. I was fourteen, he was fifteen when
11:22
Speaker 3: he got cute. The next day, another one of my
11:25
Speaker 3: closest friends got cute, and I was all for the
11:28
Speaker 3: opportunity to go to York. So I jumped on the
11:32
Speaker 3: bus and went out there.
11:33
Speaker 2: What did you do to support yourself to survive out there?
11:35
Speaker 3: I started askling. I started taking pass from people older dues.
11:39
Speaker 2: So this is the sort of thing where you did
11:41
Speaker 2: the dirty work for the older guys, because in theory,
11:43
Speaker 2: at least a miner wouldn't get into that much trouble, right,
11:45
Speaker 2: that's how it goes.
11:47
Speaker 4: So it's my understanding that he's a pretty low level
11:50
Speaker 4: drug dealer, him and a lot of the kids. He
11:53
Speaker 4: also runs with a group of young people known as
11:56
Speaker 4: like the Cream Team. And you know, there's several groups,
12:00
Speaker 4: but two of them are called the Gods and the
12:02
Speaker 4: other ones the Cream Team. The District Attorney's office tried
12:05
Speaker 4: to paint this as some gang, but really Cream just
12:09
Speaker 4: means cash rules everything around me.
12:12
Speaker 2: So they were Wu Tang fans, yes, And I mean
12:15
Speaker 2: anyone who's aware of Wu Tang Cash rules everything around
12:18
Speaker 2: me is probably there could be their most iconic song
12:20
Speaker 2: and terms like gods and earths. Some of the members
12:23
Speaker 2: of Wu Tang are really into the theories of the
12:25
Speaker 2: five percent nation where those terms come from, and we
12:27
Speaker 2: could get into all of that on a totally different podcast.
12:30
Speaker 2: But Wu Tang had just come out with their debut album,
12:33
Speaker 2: Entered the thirty six Chambers in nineteen ninety three. So
12:35
Speaker 2: guys like Tayshim and Melbourne that was the soundtrack of
12:38
Speaker 2: their childhood.
12:40
Speaker 3: The Cream Team and the guys were once the kids
12:43
Speaker 3: from the block. We was rolling up together, we know,
12:45
Speaker 3: to the same school, eat party together, and we ended
12:49
Speaker 3: up in Pennsylvania.
12:51
Speaker 2: The Hustler, So were you on the radar of the
12:54
Speaker 2: York Police before all of this happened?
12:56
Speaker 3: I talked about a week in prison for a couple
12:58
Speaker 3: of bags in marijuana that was like eight up there.
13:00
Speaker 3: It was like.
13:01
Speaker 2: Fortyrand forty fucking grand for some weed. Jesus well, I mean,
13:06
Speaker 2: this was the nineties when the War on drugs was
13:10
Speaker 2: in full swing. It still is, unfortunately to a large extent.
13:13
Speaker 2: And if you're listening to us right now, you might
13:15
Speaker 2: want to check out our new series called The War
13:17
Speaker 2: on Drugs. We're gonna have it linked in the bio.
13:19
Speaker 2: Check it out the War on Drugs podcast. And back then,
13:22
Speaker 2: as we've seen time and again on this program, even
13:24
Speaker 2: involving a low level drug deal and could make that
13:26
Speaker 2: person a target for a wrongful conviction. So let's get
13:30
Speaker 2: to early October nineteen ninety seven and the lead up
13:33
Speaker 2: to this dice game and the shooting. There was some
13:36
Speaker 2: actual beef that had started a few days before between
13:39
Speaker 2: your co defendant, Melvin Bethune and a friend of this guy,
13:42
Speaker 2: can Do Smith, and this served as an allegend motive
13:45
Speaker 2: for what happened later. But this was kind of like
13:47
Speaker 2: a small time beef, right.
13:49
Speaker 3: There was no conflict that rules to the level of
13:52
Speaker 3: one and take.
13:53
Speaker 2: A life, right, and Kendo Smith wasn't the victim anyway,
13:56
Speaker 2: but rather a guy named Raymond skip Clark, who I'm
13:59
Speaker 2: guessing was one of the gods as well.
14:02
Speaker 3: No, he wasn't a member of the Gods. He wasn't
14:04
Speaker 3: even friends with Smith that I know of that night.
14:08
Speaker 3: No guys were at this dice game, makes sense, can
14:11
Speaker 3: Do Smith.
14:12
Speaker 2: So the states theory about a beef between the Gods
14:14
Speaker 2: and the Cream team is not holding up so far.
14:17
Speaker 2: It's full of holes. But this beef, however, inconsequential, was
14:21
Speaker 2: something you intended to bring up with ken Do Smith
14:23
Speaker 2: when you saw him at the dice game. This was
14:25
Speaker 2: October fifth, nineteen ninety seven, on the corner of Maple
14:28
Speaker 2: and Duke in New York, Pennsylvania, where there was a
14:30
Speaker 2: regular dice game. Ken do Smith was there as well
14:33
Speaker 2: as Melvin Bethune Danny Steele. You had just got back
14:37
Speaker 2: from the Bronx and a bit before eleven pm you
14:39
Speaker 2: arrived at the game, and Raymond Clarke was there as well.
14:42
Speaker 3: I never saw Raymond Clark that that, but according to
14:45
Speaker 3: court documents, he was at the dice game. He was
14:49
Speaker 3: playing games. I got to the dice game and I
14:51
Speaker 3: told the work I needed to talk to him. Before
14:54
Speaker 3: we could talk, a shot was fired. He ran and
14:57
Speaker 3: I dug No one knows who fired that shot. It
15:01
Speaker 3: came from behind me when I ducked in a land
15:05
Speaker 3: you know. It was more shotsified. No one was injured.
15:08
Speaker 3: Approximately five to seven minutes later than two blocks away.
15:12
Speaker 3: According to the shots Rush Gript, more shots we fire.
15:16
Speaker 3: That is who Raymond Clark was shot at, not as
15:19
Speaker 3: the Dunce game.
15:20
Speaker 2: So not only had you not even seen the victim
15:23
Speaker 2: at the dice game, but at this point you had
15:24
Speaker 2: no idea that anyone had even gotten hurt. So shots
15:27
Speaker 2: were fired, everyone scattered, total chaos. Did you have a clue?
15:31
Speaker 2: Did anyone have a clue why this was even happening.
15:34
Speaker 4: There was essentially no serious beef at the time where
15:38
Speaker 4: they feel like they should be targeted for any reason.
15:41
Speaker 4: But they're taking off because there's gunfire and they know
15:44
Speaker 4: what gunfire.
15:45
Speaker 3: Can do, so when they got a hotel.
15:48
Speaker 2: But according to the state's theory, you checked into the
15:50
Speaker 2: hotel before going to the dice game before Raymond Clark's death,
15:54
Speaker 2: sometime between like ten and eleven PM.
15:57
Speaker 3: That is what they wanted the jewry and the quote
16:00
Speaker 3: they believe I kept him to the Super Eighth at
16:04
Speaker 3: about twelve thirty one in the morning. I let Mel
16:07
Speaker 3: know where I was going, I let Danny know where
16:09
Speaker 3: I was going, and they spent the night with me.
16:12
Speaker 2: And at that point, not only did you not know
16:14
Speaker 2: that Skip Clark was dead, but you also didn't know
16:16
Speaker 2: that your boy Danny Steele was about to use a
16:19
Speaker 2: shared room at the Super eight as a premise for
16:21
Speaker 2: a false statement, which really ends up being the basis
16:23
Speaker 2: of the state's entire case. And we'll get to that
16:26
Speaker 2: in a bit. But first, letitia, what did we know
16:29
Speaker 2: about the initial investigation, Like how did they even end
16:33
Speaker 2: up coming upon Danny?
16:34
Speaker 4: So we have no idea exactly what happened Tyshim's lawyer,
16:40
Speaker 4: the person who would have gotten the box of evidence
16:42
Speaker 4: or whatever he's passed when we go to Melvin's attorney.
16:46
Speaker 4: This is over twenty plus years ago. He doesn't have that.
16:49
Speaker 2: Box, so the usual trough of information was not available.
16:53
Speaker 2: But what we do know about this incident is that
16:55
Speaker 2: there were a thought of witnesses, some of whom spoke
16:58
Speaker 2: with you and your lead investigator, Kitty Haley Way later
17:01
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one.
17:02
Speaker 4: Well, what we find out later is that Raymond Clark,
17:06
Speaker 4: he's found with drugs on his person, and it is
17:10
Speaker 4: noted that he apparently owed Danny Steele some money.
17:14
Speaker 3: Turns out maybe, I think like a week after that,
17:17
Speaker 3: Danny was interrogated in.
17:19
Speaker 2: The lasting and at least four people have testified both
17:22
Speaker 2: the trial and in post conviction that Danny Steele was
17:25
Speaker 2: the shooter. So that should have been it, but instead
17:28
Speaker 2: a story and a strategy was being concocted with Danny
17:31
Speaker 2: Steele in order to drag more people down the rabbit
17:34
Speaker 2: hole with him turning this tragedy into an opportunity for
17:38
Speaker 2: the authorities to sweep the streets from those they considered
17:42
Speaker 2: undesirable namely Melvin and Taysheen, who for months went about
17:46
Speaker 2: their lives, eventually hearing about Raymond Clark's death and having
17:49
Speaker 2: no idea that one of their friends, Danny, was saving
17:51
Speaker 2: himself from life in prison at their expense by creating
17:55
Speaker 2: this phony narrative in which members of the Cream team
17:57
Speaker 2: met at the Super eight Motel and conspired tired to
18:00
Speaker 2: confront the gods at this dice game about the beef
18:02
Speaker 2: with Melvin, and This group allegedly included Taishim, Melvin, Danny,
18:07
Speaker 2: and three other men from New York, one of whom
18:09
Speaker 2: was named Corleone.
18:10
Speaker 3: Coleon was a made up figure. Danny still made up
18:13
Speaker 3: Coolion so he could tend this homicide on somebody. He
18:18
Speaker 3: made Coleon a shooter.
18:19
Speaker 4: It's like they sat around and watched The Godfather and
18:22
Speaker 4: then went and tried a case. That's how it feels.
18:24
Speaker 4: Some guy named Corleone who's never been identified, and some
18:27
Speaker 4: other guys from New York, they all go to the
18:29
Speaker 4: Super eight Motel and they want blood for what happened
18:32
Speaker 4: to Melvin yesterday. Melvin was disrespected or something, and they
18:36
Speaker 4: want blood. So they're all going to get guns from
18:40
Speaker 4: a friend's house. And then they're going to go down
18:42
Speaker 4: there and shoot up the gods at a dice game.
18:45
Speaker 2: Now, the theory continued that in order to arrive at
18:48
Speaker 2: the dice game before the shootings took place around eleven
18:51
Speaker 2: thirty pm, this alleged crew of Muscle from the Bronx
18:54
Speaker 2: had to have checked into the Super eight Motel by
18:56
Speaker 2: ten thirty pm or earlier in order to have time
18:59
Speaker 2: for thirty to sixty minute plotting session as well as
19:02
Speaker 2: picking up the guns. But when they arrived at the
19:04
Speaker 2: dice game, Taysheem allegedly pointed a gun at Ken Do
19:06
Speaker 2: Smith had tried to shoot him, but the gun allegedly
19:09
Speaker 2: malfunctioned and didn't fire, so the rest of this alleged
19:13
Speaker 2: cream team hit squad open fire, and everyone at the
19:15
Speaker 2: dice game ran for their lives. No one was hurt,
19:18
Speaker 2: and Ken Du Smith has since gone on the record
19:20
Speaker 2: saying that Taysheen never pulled a gun on him. Other
19:23
Speaker 2: eyewitnesses also corroborated that the only evidence of this version
19:26
Speaker 2: events is Danny Steele's statement, which continued saying that then
19:30
Speaker 2: he another man and this fictitious guy named Corleone chased
19:35
Speaker 2: Raymond Skip Clark, and this fictional Corleone guy, not Danny Steele,
19:40
Speaker 2: allegedly shot and killed Clark. So that's how Steele shifted
19:43
Speaker 2: total blame from himself and alleged that he was just
19:46
Speaker 2: a co conspirator, not the loan shooter.
19:49
Speaker 4: Now, Danny Steele, this is important. He is charged with
19:52
Speaker 4: the exact same crimes as Melvin and Tysheen, so you
19:57
Speaker 4: would think he'd get the exact same punishment were close.
20:02
Speaker 4: For murder, for conspiracy to commit murder, he did two
20:06
Speaker 4: years in the county jail, presumably because he couldn't go
20:09
Speaker 4: to state prison because you know, he was a known snitch.
20:13
Speaker 2: From what I understand, he had also been convicted of
20:16
Speaker 2: perjury twice before. So this is the guy on whom
20:19
Speaker 2: the entirety of the state's case rests and what they
20:21
Speaker 2: used to issue arrest warrants for both Melbourne and Taysheem.
20:25
Speaker 2: And at the time, Melvin had just pled guilty to
20:27
Speaker 2: some unrelated drug charges.
20:29
Speaker 4: Right, he takes a plea and he's getting ready to
20:32
Speaker 4: go to prison, and the police come to let him
20:35
Speaker 4: know that he's been indicted on these charges, and he's
20:38
Speaker 4: just shocked. There's no conversation they don't take him down
20:42
Speaker 4: to the police station and interview him.
20:46
Speaker 2: They had all the information they wanted from Danny Steele. Now, tysheim,
20:50
Speaker 2: you were back in New York at the time, and
20:52
Speaker 2: during a routine traffic stop, NYPD discovered that you were
20:56
Speaker 2: wanted in New York Pennsylvania.
21:00
Speaker 3: I did that. I was a fugitive. I got picked
21:03
Speaker 3: up January nineteen ninety eight, pull door one, one hundred
21:06
Speaker 3: and forty fifty with twenty seventh and eighth avenual. I
21:10
Speaker 3: was arrested and I haven't been on the street since.
21:13
Speaker 3: And while PD picks me up, I'm extradited down to
21:16
Speaker 3: York where I was charged.
21:19
Speaker 4: When he gets to York and he's in the county jail,
21:23
Speaker 4: there's no interview. The information and the story has already
21:27
Speaker 4: been told by Danny Steele. But there's literally a fifteen
21:34
Speaker 4: minute drive at one point from one drop up location
21:37
Speaker 4: to the jail with the police officer.
21:40
Speaker 3: Dennis Williams was the arresting detective. While he's driving me
21:44
Speaker 3: to the York County prison, he said, I know you
21:47
Speaker 3: didn't kill Rainey Club, but I don't know you're part
21:50
Speaker 3: of the clean team. I can get you with deal
21:53
Speaker 3: if you cooperate, and I told him I didn't know
21:57
Speaker 3: nothing annosing For a few months after that, they offered
22:01
Speaker 3: me another deal popped in and I turned that down.
22:06
Speaker 3: Did they trout thought that they offered me another deal
22:08
Speaker 3: They were going to dismiss all degrees of homicide about
22:11
Speaker 3: played guilties and I completed his so I turned that down.
22:16
Speaker 3: Dennis Williams offered me the the deal that DNA deal
22:20
Speaker 3: ended up huting.
22:37
Speaker 2: Danny Steele did less than three years in the county jail.
22:40
Speaker 2: That's jail, right, not president, and that was part of
22:43
Speaker 2: his deal to avoid running into other people who he
22:46
Speaker 2: had flipped on previously. And so no one was ever
22:49
Speaker 2: charged with being skipped Clark Shooter Corleone certainly wasn't. It's
22:53
Speaker 2: hard to charge a ghost after all. And now all
22:55
Speaker 2: three of you had been charged with murder, but only
22:58
Speaker 2: by way of conspiracy and a compless liability. And this
23:01
Speaker 2: is why your arrival time at the Super eight motel
23:03
Speaker 2: is so important to the state's theory, as is the
23:05
Speaker 2: part of Danny Steele's testilize where he alleged that you
23:08
Speaker 2: drew a gun on Kendo Smith that never did fire.
23:11
Speaker 4: So conspiracy liability requires proof of an agreement or a
23:16
Speaker 4: common design to commit the unlawful act for which the
23:20
Speaker 4: person is convicted. So person cannot be convicted of conspiracy
23:24
Speaker 4: from merely being present during the commission of a crime.
23:27
Speaker 4: There has to be some step taken, some proof of
23:31
Speaker 4: the agreement, you know, and then obviously the crime. For
23:35
Speaker 4: accomplass liability, it requires more than mere presence during the
23:39
Speaker 4: commission of a criminal act, even if the accused knew
23:44
Speaker 4: that the crime was to be committed. So we see
23:46
Speaker 4: like accomplass liability like after the fact, you know, someone
23:50
Speaker 4: who's helping to conceal or clean something up. So these
23:53
Speaker 4: are really what tayshim as well as Melvin were convicted under. Also,
23:59
Speaker 4: you know, a lot of that prosecutorial caselied on something
24:03
Speaker 4: called transferred intent, which basically means if I pull out
24:07
Speaker 4: a gun and I'm trying to shoot you, but I
24:11
Speaker 4: accidentally shoot your friend or someone standing next to you,
24:14
Speaker 4: you know, it would have been attempted murder because I
24:16
Speaker 4: purposefully knowingly was aiming at you. But it's still first
24:21
Speaker 4: degree murderer even though I had no intention of killing
24:24
Speaker 4: your friend, because the intention had already formed. And so
24:28
Speaker 4: throughout the trial, we'll hear of transferred intent in those transcripts.
24:32
Speaker 2: So because you were alleged to have met beforehand establishing
24:35
Speaker 2: the intent, and then followed through with your part of
24:37
Speaker 2: the supposed conspiracy by allegedly pulling a gun on Ken
24:40
Speaker 2: du Smith, that then made you in turn responsible in
24:44
Speaker 2: some degree for the murder of Skip Clark, the alleged
24:47
Speaker 2: end result of this alleged organized confrontation.
24:54
Speaker 3: I didn't realize what conspiracy laws accomplished liability was. I
24:57
Speaker 3: didn't realize what you moved P on the chessboard to
25:01
Speaker 3: Alanna the way you want it to be seen. You
25:03
Speaker 3: can make something look like something that it wasn't. We
25:06
Speaker 3: were kids, you know. In our adversary were chrome men, seasoned,
25:11
Speaker 3: you know, politicians, prosecutors, and I did not realize what
25:16
Speaker 3: was going on until it was.
25:17
Speaker 2: Too late, that they had fabricated a narrative with Danny
25:21
Speaker 2: Steele to convict you through these conspiracy and accomplished liability
25:24
Speaker 2: laws that you were unaware of. So Melvin was already
25:27
Speaker 2: in prison for the unrelated drug charges, so he didn't
25:30
Speaker 2: bond out, but neither did you. You both were being
25:33
Speaker 2: held separately from Danny Steele. But at this point you
25:36
Speaker 2: didn't even know about what he had done, right, So
25:38
Speaker 2: when did you first realize what he was doing to you?
25:41
Speaker 3: The first time I see him is at my preliminary
25:43
Speaker 3: here and he testifying against me. You know, he's saying,
25:46
Speaker 3: I'm the leader of the Cream team that prior to
25:49
Speaker 3: the Dice Game shooting that we met at a motel
25:52
Speaker 3: and agreed to kill someone. Actually at the preliminary here
25:55
Speaker 3: when he said we agreed to step to these guys
25:58
Speaker 3: to try to squash this beef. With the proceedings, his testimony,
26:02
Speaker 3: you know, would constantly change and get more dramatic and
26:06
Speaker 3: more incriminated.
26:07
Speaker 4: There were a lot of inconsistencies in the telling of
26:12
Speaker 4: these various stories by Danny Steele, But there wasn't necessarily
26:18
Speaker 4: a rigorous, vigorous defense from Taishim's counsel. Melvin's council, when
26:24
Speaker 4: looking at the transcript, tended to do a better job.
26:28
Speaker 2: Right. Both families had hired counsel prior to the January
26:31
Speaker 2: ninety nine trial, but only Melvin's family was able to
26:33
Speaker 2: pay and maintain counsel.
26:35
Speaker 3: So this attorney that was represented me at the time,
26:38
Speaker 3: Alla Smith, you know, he was never paid him full
26:41
Speaker 3: and he thought the motion to withdrawals counsel. I didn't
26:45
Speaker 3: know that. I could have still been getting counsel by
26:49
Speaker 3: the state, which probably would have been a bad attorney anyway,
26:51
Speaker 3: as bad as he was. But he never did nothing
26:54
Speaker 3: after that, after the judge told him the motion was denied,
26:57
Speaker 3: we continue to proceed to trial without an investigation of
27:01
Speaker 3: what going on.
27:02
Speaker 2: So it sounds like you didn't even have an attorney.
27:05
Speaker 3: Absolutely attorney. I didn't have a suit shoods, I didn't
27:08
Speaker 3: have a family an attorney.
27:10
Speaker 4: Tayshiem would come to the courthouse not in a suit,
27:14
Speaker 4: but in an orange jumpsuit. So this was not, you know,
27:18
Speaker 4: someone being able to put forth their best defense.
27:21
Speaker 2: And in order to combat the state, especially with what
27:23
Speaker 2: we now know that they were willing to hide, you
27:26
Speaker 2: were going to need a vigorous investigation from zealous attorneys
27:30
Speaker 2: and the whole team that would have done things like
27:32
Speaker 2: caul Ken do Smith to the stand. He has since
27:35
Speaker 2: gone on the record that you did not, in fact,
27:37
Speaker 2: point to gun at him, which directly contradicts the state's narratives. Now,
27:40
Speaker 2: how your counsel didn't at least contact can do is
27:43
Speaker 2: just it's irresponsible in desire. It's it's disgusting actually. But
27:47
Speaker 2: even more bizarre is how Danny Steele did something on
27:49
Speaker 2: the stand that even I've never heard of before.
27:52
Speaker 4: Throughout the trial, he kept mentioning that, you know, he
27:57
Speaker 4: was incentivized, that he's hoping, he's hope that the prosecutors
28:02
Speaker 4: do right by him and only give him two to
28:04
Speaker 4: five years in the county. And that's exactly what they
28:07
Speaker 4: give him.
28:08
Speaker 2: He literally told the judge and jury why his own
28:11
Speaker 2: statement was unreliable. He's like, I'm receiving a benefit for
28:15
Speaker 2: lying here. He's spelling it out.
28:17
Speaker 3: Now.
28:17
Speaker 2: How are they supposed to trust anything he said? But
28:20
Speaker 2: they did. I can't get over this, and we already
28:22
Speaker 2: went over what Steele said before the shooting At the
28:25
Speaker 2: dice game. He plays Taisheem Melvin, himself and three other guys,
28:28
Speaker 2: including this Corleone character, at the Super eight motel between
28:32
Speaker 2: ten and eleven PM for this conspiracy meeting, and the
28:34
Speaker 2: manager of the Super eight, guy named Alfred Milburn, corroborated this.
28:39
Speaker 2: Why we're not sure because the clerk who actually checked
28:43
Speaker 2: Taysheim into the hotel, the person who actually knew this
28:46
Speaker 2: information was a woman named Terry Flinch boss Siler, and
28:49
Speaker 2: what she told police directly and totally contradicted Albert Milburn's
28:54
Speaker 2: phony narrative.
28:56
Speaker 4: She's the one who checks Tayshi Minh. She knows this now.
29:00
Speaker 4: Raymond Clark dies at eleven thirty pm that night. That's
29:02
Speaker 4: when he shot.
29:03
Speaker 2: We know this for a fact.
29:05
Speaker 4: She doesn't come on until eleven pm.
29:08
Speaker 3: Right.
29:08
Speaker 2: The States spoke to her, but they didn't want to
29:10
Speaker 2: hear about how Tayshiim checked in at twelve thirty one
29:12
Speaker 2: o'clock in the morning, and that this conspiracy meeting in
29:15
Speaker 2: fact never took place.
29:16
Speaker 4: She tried to offer help and they didn't want to
29:20
Speaker 4: hear it. She had documents, you know, where he signed,
29:24
Speaker 4: as well as any telephone calls he would have made
29:26
Speaker 4: out of that room because it's the nineties, and they
29:29
Speaker 4: could have turned that over to Tayshim's lawyers, and that
29:33
Speaker 4: never happened.
29:34
Speaker 2: And perhaps these documents the telephone records may have also
29:37
Speaker 2: been timestamped.
29:38
Speaker 4: Miss Flinch boss Siler says that the records she maintained
29:42
Speaker 4: for the hotel have a bottom section which indicates the
29:46
Speaker 4: exact times the calls made from each room, so it's
29:50
Speaker 4: not known if the police are prosecutors were in possession
29:54
Speaker 4: of that part of the document, but the documents used
29:57
Speaker 4: at trial were the only ones that she was a
30:00
Speaker 4: asked to review that she was asked to talk about.
30:03
Speaker 4: And they don't have the exact times the calls made.
30:08
Speaker 2: And no one from the defense went looking for call logs.
30:10
Speaker 2: It's totally irresponsible. I mean, it would have been helpful
30:14
Speaker 2: to know what time the calls were made, but that
30:16
Speaker 2: specifically wasn't in the documents used by the state of trial.
30:21
Speaker 2: And from what I understand, they deliberately limited Terry Flinch
30:24
Speaker 2: boss Siler's testimony.
30:26
Speaker 4: She was told by the prosecutors, you're not allowed to speak.
30:29
Speaker 4: You're going to answer yes or no to my questions.
30:32
Speaker 2: Right. They were merely trying to establish that a phone
30:34
Speaker 2: call had taken place, but they specifically did not want
30:37
Speaker 2: to know when, and they definitely didn't want to know
30:39
Speaker 2: when her shift started or when Tayshiim Melvin and Danny
30:42
Speaker 2: were checked in because that would have blown up their case.
30:45
Speaker 2: They knew about Terry and these phone records, so it
30:47
Speaker 2: looks like they knew that they were presenting false testimony. Now,
30:49
Speaker 2: the phone call was important to them because it corroborated
30:52
Speaker 2: Melvin's presence at the alleged conspiracy meeting. It was alleged
30:55
Speaker 2: that he had called his girlfriend at the time, named
30:57
Speaker 2: Tucker Redmond, and told her what his intention was, which
31:00
Speaker 2: was to go down to the dice game and shoot
31:02
Speaker 2: up the gods. It was also alleged that a fourteen
31:05
Speaker 2: year old girl named Nicki Rhodes overheard this conversation. The
31:08
Speaker 2: state made a number of false statements during opening and
31:11
Speaker 2: closing that they never backed up by calling these alleged witnesses,
31:15
Speaker 2: Ducker and Nicki.
31:17
Speaker 4: Our investigator was able to speak with Tucker, so she
31:20
Speaker 4: was dating Melvin. She did speak with him that night.
31:23
Speaker 4: She never told the prosecutor or the police that Melvin
31:26
Speaker 4: was interested in hurting or shooting up the young men
31:29
Speaker 4: on the corner plane craps. When she discovered what the prosecutor,
31:34
Speaker 4: specifically Prosecutor Kelly, had said in open court, she was
31:39
Speaker 4: not present at the time, but she became incensed to
31:42
Speaker 4: learn that he claimed she came to court willingly, she
31:46
Speaker 4: was subpoenaed to come to court, and that he had
31:48
Speaker 4: lied about what she had heard and said that evening.
31:53
Speaker 4: When she discovered that the prosecutor during a sidebar, had
31:57
Speaker 4: told the judge that her conversation she was overheard and
32:02
Speaker 4: passed along by Nicki Rhodes. She proclaimed that also to
32:07
Speaker 4: be alive. Nikki confirmed that she had no knowledge of
32:10
Speaker 4: the interaction between Melvin Bethiune and Taker Redman on the
32:13
Speaker 4: night of the shooting and of Skip Clark. She was
32:15
Speaker 4: adamant that she was a younger at the time with
32:17
Speaker 4: no knowledge of anything related to the crime. She did
32:20
Speaker 4: not testify, and she was not asked to testify.
32:24
Speaker 2: I guess the state strategy was, if you're gonna lie,
32:26
Speaker 2: go big, and they were able to hide those lines
32:29
Speaker 2: from these alleged witnesses because witnesses aren't typically allowed to
32:32
Speaker 2: sit in court to watch the proceedings, But here it
32:35
Speaker 2: seems this rule was a convenient way to hide them
32:37
Speaker 2: from what was being said about them, Like Kalanda Chance,
32:41
Speaker 2: who had told the police that she had been at
32:43
Speaker 2: the scene earlier in the evening but left prior to
32:45
Speaker 2: the shooting. I knew nothing about it. Now, what did
32:48
Speaker 2: she tell your investigator? Kitty Hayley In twenty twenty.
32:51
Speaker 4: One, Holanda Chance, she was provided with a copy of
32:55
Speaker 4: the trial transcript and was upset to read that the
32:58
Speaker 4: prosecutor was attempting to her into a web of lies
33:02
Speaker 4: about Melboyn wanting to shoot up men on the corner.
33:05
Speaker 4: She never knew about the plan to use her as
33:08
Speaker 4: a link between Taker Redman's conversation and the actual shooting.
33:12
Speaker 4: She further claimed that the prosecutors were trying to make
33:15
Speaker 4: two groups of friends, the Cream Team and the Guards,
33:18
Speaker 4: look like a hardened criminal gang, even though.
33:21
Speaker 2: That was not so. But even if you want to
33:23
Speaker 2: believe that these two groups will hardened criminal organizations help
33:26
Speaker 2: bent on destroying the otherwise decent, hardworking town of York, Pennsylvania,
33:30
Speaker 2: the evidence simply doesn't support the state's theory. Terry flinch
33:33
Speaker 2: Buss Siler was the clerk who checked Taishim into the
33:36
Speaker 2: Super eight, and her shift started at eleven pm, So
33:39
Speaker 2: even if he was waiting there for her shift to
33:41
Speaker 2: start before he checked in, there's just not enough time
33:43
Speaker 2: to check in. The Cream Team have a thirty minute
33:46
Speaker 2: to an hour long meeting to conspire about confronting the Gods.
33:48
Speaker 2: Go to another dress to pick up the guns, go
33:50
Speaker 2: to the dice game, shoot up the place, and then
33:53
Speaker 2: chase down and kill Raven Skip Clark by eleven thirty
33:57
Speaker 2: do all that shit in thirty minutes.
34:00
Speaker 3: And they knew it was impossible, but they weren't with
34:04
Speaker 3: the theory, and the judge told the jury that it
34:07
Speaker 3: Ty wasn't at that motel prior to the shooting. TI
34:11
Speaker 3: cannot be farn Gailty has an accomplished or a co
34:14
Speaker 3: construmity in this case. But while I was on trial,
34:17
Speaker 3: I didn't have the information I'm in possession from now right.
34:21
Speaker 3: They did, though, and.
34:22
Speaker 2: The state used testimony that they knew was false in
34:25
Speaker 2: order to trick the jury into believing that this alleged
34:27
Speaker 2: conspiracy meeting was both plausible and real, and I'm sure
34:31
Speaker 2: Danny's admission to his involvement acted as a stamp of legitimacy.
34:34
Speaker 2: Then they alluded to this alleged phone confession for Melvin
34:37
Speaker 2: that was never actually confirmed or corroborated, and the jury
34:40
Speaker 2: bought at Lockstock and Barrel. They convicted you both and
34:44
Speaker 2: sentenced you to life in prison.
34:47
Speaker 3: I watched Melvine cry after we was devicted. Cried. I
34:52
Speaker 3: couldn't believe it. I was in disbelief. I didn't even
34:55
Speaker 3: know we could get life because we didn't kill anybody.
35:00
Speaker 3: No I'm not telling this story yet. Living this story.
35:20
Speaker 3: Prison there's something different than anybody. You know. It's like
35:23
Speaker 3: a hospital, it's like a hotel. It's like a hideout.
35:27
Speaker 3: It's like a hangout. It's like a hostage situation. To
35:32
Speaker 3: the words so being awfully convicted, it's about it's fun.
35:36
Speaker 3: It's falling off to the story building. It's send a
35:40
Speaker 3: struggle when I go up in prison as a smarting
35:43
Speaker 3: little kid. I hate it here today as much as
35:46
Speaker 3: I did the first day. You never get used to it.
35:51
Speaker 3: There's nothing more than in freedom. You know what I'm saying,
35:56
Speaker 3: I'm gonna look at myself like a hostage. They give back.
36:00
Speaker 4: Among my memory, Melvin's trying to make peace with the
36:05
Speaker 4: fact that he has a son he'll never watch grow up,
36:09
Speaker 4: that he's going to be spending the rest of his
36:11
Speaker 4: life in a prison for a crime he didn't commit.
36:13
Speaker 4: I don't believe Melvin has ever received legal help. Maybe
36:19
Speaker 4: one time for a post conviction relief. I don't know
36:21
Speaker 4: that he learned to use the law library and advocate
36:24
Speaker 4: for himself like tayshim did.
36:26
Speaker 3: Every Wigod moment on fire from my life, he was
36:29
Speaker 3: giving me the worst attorneys you know, my first attorney
36:32
Speaker 3: was sleeping in the same prison I was in for
36:35
Speaker 3: the US when he dropped the ball. They gave me
36:38
Speaker 3: another lawyer. She was helpful, but she was in over
36:41
Speaker 3: her head because her expertise was social security claims. So
36:46
Speaker 3: it was really me. I had to learn the law
36:48
Speaker 3: of myself.
36:49
Speaker 2: So you've taught yourself the law, as we often see
36:51
Speaker 2: as absolutely necessary for our guests to do, and you
36:55
Speaker 2: also saw it outside help like investigators and lawyers, and
36:57
Speaker 2: you've been funding that by writing and self books. Who
37:01
Speaker 2: are you, dude? That's amazing. I mean, I see you've
37:03
Speaker 2: written eight books.
37:05
Speaker 3: I've written fifteen books, eight published. They're all available for purchase.
37:12
Speaker 2: I just received, by the way, your latest book. It's
37:14
Speaker 2: called It Could Happen to any of us, and that's
37:16
Speaker 2: like a mantra of mine. So I'm really looking forward
37:18
Speaker 2: to reading it. And we're going to make sure to
37:19
Speaker 2: link your books in the bio. This is how you've
37:21
Speaker 2: been funding your fight for freedom, and I hope our
37:23
Speaker 2: audience will show their support. So let's talk about that fight.
37:26
Speaker 2: You mentioned that you had some Mappella attorneys that were
37:29
Speaker 2: about as useless as your own as your original trialer
37:32
Speaker 2: and in Pennsylvania post conviction, I'm not so sure it
37:35
Speaker 2: matters if the lawyers are better or not, since the
37:36
Speaker 2: post conviction statutes make the fight even more difficult than usual. Now,
37:40
Speaker 2: if I understand this correctly, you can find new evidence,
37:43
Speaker 2: even Brady material, But if that evidence could have possibly
37:46
Speaker 2: been found, that means it was available to you, and
37:50
Speaker 2: therefore it cannot be considered new evidence. For example, since
37:53
Speaker 2: the Super eight clerk Terry Flinch Boss Siler was alive
37:56
Speaker 2: and available to be questioned, what she has to say
38:00
Speaker 2: is not considered new evidence. And the fact that the
38:02
Speaker 2: state didn't share it doesn't make it a Brady violation
38:06
Speaker 2: because you could have discovered it on your own or
38:09
Speaker 2: your lawyer could have, which sounds fucking absurd. And then
38:12
Speaker 2: in this case, since they were co defendants, if Melvin
38:14
Speaker 2: had an attorney who litigated something already, the issue can't
38:17
Speaker 2: be raised. So options run out very quickly, and doors
38:21
Speaker 2: keep closing, and you've been met with denial after denial,
38:24
Speaker 2: even though you've amassed a formidable case for actual incense.
38:29
Speaker 3: And in two thousand and three I found out that
38:31
Speaker 3: Danny still had a secret deal with the Commonwealth. The
38:35
Speaker 3: two and a half to five. So I found my
38:37
Speaker 3: first PCRA on my own in two thousand and three.
38:40
Speaker 3: I was unsuccessfully because they said that this information was
38:45
Speaker 3: in the public domain, and then I could have voted
38:48
Speaker 3: in the first pcl the council PCLA with the attorney
38:52
Speaker 3: they gave me, who never read the record, never interviewed me,
38:56
Speaker 3: never try to interview anybody.
38:58
Speaker 2: See, this is the kind of bulls I'm talking about.
39:01
Speaker 2: Since the information was in the public domain, meaning that
39:04
Speaker 2: it existed among all the information in the world and
39:07
Speaker 2: wasn't being kept under lock and key, then it was
39:10
Speaker 2: technically in the public domain during his first post conviction
39:14
Speaker 2: motion and his council didn't find it and build a
39:16
Speaker 2: motion around it. So then the issue cannot be raised again.
39:19
Speaker 2: I don't even know what to say. And then there's
39:21
Speaker 2: only a certain amount of time that it can be raised.
39:24
Speaker 3: The judge felt like this information was in the public
39:27
Speaker 3: domain between the time of need film it and the
39:32
Speaker 3: twindow closing on my first.
39:33
Speaker 2: Pc ulredy, And in Pennsylvania back then you'd only get
39:37
Speaker 2: sixty days since legislation.
39:40
Speaker 3: You know, it's three hundred and sixty five days now.
39:42
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's really fucking generous. I mean, who does
39:45
Speaker 2: legislation like that serve or punished? Think about it. It's
39:48
Speaker 2: not like people who are dead to rights guilty are
39:49
Speaker 2: making credible cases for actual innocence, or at least not likely.
39:53
Speaker 2: So shutting the door on these post conviction motions pretty
39:55
Speaker 2: much solely kept the innocent incarcerated. Since that time, though
39:59
Speaker 2: that has changed.
40:01
Speaker 3: The presumption and knowledge is no longer a reason to
40:04
Speaker 3: foreclose your post conviction motion twenty years ago it.
40:08
Speaker 2: Was today it's not so much good it does for
40:10
Speaker 2: you though.
40:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you can't go back, there's no retroactivity. You
40:14
Speaker 3: can't go back and seat, which already happened.
40:17
Speaker 2: So after appealing your denials in two thousand and three
40:20
Speaker 2: in the state courts, you went federal go challenge my.
40:22
Speaker 3: Conviction on the federal level because of our constitutional rights.
40:27
Speaker 3: I mean, you know. The two major issues was that
40:30
Speaker 3: the trial court gave the wrong jury instruction as it
40:33
Speaker 3: applied to accomplished liability, and the second issue was an
40:37
Speaker 3: effective assistic council for fail to investigate. Those were my
40:40
Speaker 3: two strongest issues, and after two and a half years,
40:43
Speaker 3: three years, I filed my own hate too. But it
40:46
Speaker 3: was eventually denied.
40:48
Speaker 2: He then filed your fourth PCRA petition in twenty twelve
40:51
Speaker 2: because Danny Steele recanted his trial testimony. Yeah, you heard
40:54
Speaker 2: that right. Danny Steele was finally doing the right thing.
40:57
Speaker 3: He sent me after David and that he had been
41:01
Speaker 3: prushing to give false testimony that he had witnessed be
41:04
Speaker 3: for the gun to do Work's head and pull the trigger.
41:07
Speaker 3: He also testified about the fake motel meeting, and he
41:12
Speaker 3: was ultimately found to be incredible because he was no
41:16
Speaker 3: longer in jeopardy from the Commonwealth, but he was still
41:21
Speaker 3: allegedly in jeopardy.
41:22
Speaker 2: From his codefendants you and Melvin, who were both locked
41:26
Speaker 2: up for life while he's out there doing whatever he's doing,
41:28
Speaker 2: living the dream. You know what I find incredible, The
41:31
Speaker 2: fucking balls on these judges. I mean, unfucking believable. The
41:35
Speaker 2: only evidence in the case, besides the Super eight manager
41:38
Speaker 2: who we know didn't know his ass from his elbow,
41:40
Speaker 2: the only evidence is Danny Steele's word, which apparently no
41:43
Speaker 2: longer matters. I guess if anyone could be a good
41:45
Speaker 2: judge of Danny's credibility, though, it'd be the guys who
41:48
Speaker 2: cooked up the lines with him to begin with.
41:50
Speaker 3: Both of the prosecutors also testified that they didn't understand
41:54
Speaker 3: that they had said if he testified falsely, it was
41:56
Speaker 3: something he chose to do. They didn't encourage him to
41:59
Speaker 3: do it. Oh, he found them to be more credible
42:02
Speaker 3: than Danny Steele.
42:04
Speaker 2: So now you find a way to bolster the recantation.
42:07
Speaker 2: You got in touch with Ken Do Smith, like your
42:10
Speaker 2: trial attorney should have done in the first place, and
42:11
Speaker 2: he was finally ready to corroborate Danny Steele's recantation. So
42:15
Speaker 2: that was the focus of your last of your PCRRA
42:17
Speaker 2: petitions filed in August twenty fifteen, and evidentiary hearing was
42:21
Speaker 2: held in August twenty seventeen.
42:23
Speaker 3: And at this evidence he here Jim Delle Smith shows
42:26
Speaker 3: up and he testifies on the old debt, Chad never
42:30
Speaker 3: put a machine gun in my head and pulled the trigger.
42:32
Speaker 3: And I don't know why Danny Steel made that up.
42:35
Speaker 3: Had it happened, I wouldn't be headed day saying it
42:37
Speaker 3: didn't happen.
42:38
Speaker 2: Right, Why would he be standing up for his attempted
42:41
Speaker 2: murderer in court. So this adds legitimacy to his testimony,
42:44
Speaker 2: which transfers legitimacy to Danny Steele's recantation, and this would
42:48
Speaker 2: qualify as new evidence in other states, but not in Pennsylvania.
42:52
Speaker 2: This was denied as untimely because this witness was available
42:55
Speaker 2: at the time of trial. It's like running into a
42:57
Speaker 2: brick wall over and over again. Now, while at this
43:00
Speaker 2: time a chain of events began involving Melvioyn's son. Now
43:03
Speaker 2: this must have been right after this evidentiary hearing, maybe
43:05
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, something really bad happened, and then
43:10
Speaker 2: that thing was almost made even worse the TCIA.
43:13
Speaker 4: Can you explain guess who gets found shot multiple times
43:17
Speaker 4: in his car? Danny Steele. I mean, he's just riddled
43:22
Speaker 4: with bullets. York County decides that Melvin Bethune's own son,
43:29
Speaker 4: who grew up without his father, was the person who
43:34
Speaker 4: killed Danny Steele, that he was so angry about him
43:40
Speaker 4: allegedly perjuring himself naming his father, that he decided to
43:45
Speaker 4: lie in wait and kill Danny Steele. Well, Melvin Bethune's
43:51
Speaker 4: son decided to take the single trial, and he prevailed.
43:55
Speaker 4: He was found not guilty, and Danny Steele is dead,
43:59
Speaker 4: which which is very sad, of course, but there are
44:03
Speaker 4: many people who may have harbored very bad feelings towards
44:07
Speaker 4: Danny Steele.
44:08
Speaker 2: I mean, I wouldn't blame Melvin's son if he was
44:10
Speaker 2: angry with Danny Steele. How I'm angry with Danny Steele,
44:13
Speaker 2: even posthumously, But that doesn't mean that Melvin's son murdered anybody.
44:18
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know all the details, so I
44:19
Speaker 2: won't comment on the investigation of the prosecution. I do
44:22
Speaker 2: hope that things have changed significantly in your county since
44:25
Speaker 2: the time they wrongfully convicted Melbourne. But at the very least,
44:28
Speaker 2: I'm glad one of the Bethunes appears to have had
44:30
Speaker 2: a competent attorney, which was also on the horizon for
44:33
Speaker 2: Melvin and Taishim. One of your advocates, Omar Jannette, was
44:37
Speaker 2: instrumental in getting you the competent attorney who we have
44:40
Speaker 2: with us today, Ptsia Chaviz Freed And apparently it started
44:44
Speaker 2: off as a change dot org petition that put you
44:46
Speaker 2: on the radar of the NIS's Project of Pennsylvania. When
44:49
Speaker 2: Letsia just happened to be looking for some pro bono
44:51
Speaker 2: work and reached out to them, and so.
44:53
Speaker 4: I contacted Innison's Project and they gave me this case.
44:57
Speaker 4: I collected every record I possibly could, and of course
45:00
Speaker 4: I realized that Melvin Bethune was also behind bars for
45:05
Speaker 4: the same crime as tayshim. And that is about the
45:08
Speaker 4: time where I hire Kitty Haley. She went back in time. Essentially,
45:13
Speaker 4: she spent weeks and weeks in York and talked to
45:17
Speaker 4: you know, people who knew all of the players involved Kendo,
45:21
Speaker 4: you know, Bethune's girlfriend, the victim, Raymond Clark's mother. Kitty
45:26
Speaker 4: Haley went to New York and went and sat with
45:28
Speaker 4: this woman on more than one occasion and talked to
45:30
Speaker 4: her about her son and what he meant to her.
45:33
Speaker 4: And we have an alpha David. She literally said that
45:37
Speaker 4: the prosecutors and she named them, told her that Danny
45:41
Speaker 4: Steele was responsible for the murder of her son. But
45:45
Speaker 4: they won as many gang members as possible off these streets,
45:49
Speaker 4: and so they're going to get all three of them.
45:51
Speaker 4: And they're not given Danny Steele a deal. They're not
45:54
Speaker 4: doing that. He's going to get the same amount of
45:56
Speaker 4: time as the others. Well, that's not what happened.
46:00
Speaker 2: You know, I didn't think there was room for these
46:02
Speaker 2: prosecutors to get any less likable, but trust me, there
46:05
Speaker 2: is even more room. And as we've already discussed, Kitty
46:08
Speaker 2: Haley spoke to all the women who the prosecutors lied
46:11
Speaker 2: about a trial, Tucker Redmond, Kalanda Chance, and of course
46:14
Speaker 2: the fourteen year old girl Nikki Rhoades. Then she spoke
46:17
Speaker 2: with Terry flinch bos Syler, and we know that she
46:20
Speaker 2: discovered that Terry began her shift at eleven pm and
46:23
Speaker 2: checked Taishim into the Super eight well after Skip Clark
46:26
Speaker 2: had already died, which means this entire case just fell apart.
46:30
Speaker 3: So I'll meet Kitty Haley to beginning a twenty twenty
46:34
Speaker 3: one and it was drilling for me when she said,
46:36
Speaker 3: you know, he've been telling the same story for twenty years.
46:40
Speaker 3: It felt good. But Kitty Haley gets out there in
46:43
Speaker 3: the field. She speaks to Terry and the motel clerk
46:47
Speaker 3: from the Superby hotel, and she adamantly says that she
46:51
Speaker 3: told the prostitution that this theory was flawed, that I
46:55
Speaker 3: could not have been there any time prior to eleven pm.
46:59
Speaker 3: They said, up they at ten pm, but you know
47:01
Speaker 3: where I was at at ten pm. All my way
47:03
Speaker 3: back from New York. I was on the highway at
47:06
Speaker 3: ten pm. And she also made one distinct statement in
47:11
Speaker 3: the feature. She said that the evidence that they presented
47:14
Speaker 3: at my trial, something was missing and it had the
47:18
Speaker 3: d detached, that it was ripped off. The ripped DOLF
47:21
Speaker 3: piece is called the bottom of a folio, a folio
47:26
Speaker 3: that contains information they would have told whoever wanted to
47:29
Speaker 3: see it, exactly what time the room was rent it,
47:33
Speaker 3: if and when any calls were made, how long the
47:36
Speaker 3: calls were, and where they went to. The jury never
47:40
Speaker 3: got an opportunity to see this. The defense was never
47:43
Speaker 3: in possession of this, and I didn't even know it
47:46
Speaker 3: existed until Kitty Hally furnished the legal team with her
47:50
Speaker 3: conclusions in these statements.
47:52
Speaker 4: And so presumably those documents are sitting in the District
47:55
Speaker 4: Attorney's office today and that's what we're fighting for to get.
48:00
Speaker 4: But also, this woman has sign an AUF of David.
48:02
Speaker 4: She's willing to come in. And this woman doesn't know anybody,
48:06
Speaker 4: she has no skin in the game.
48:08
Speaker 3: Uninsarsted objective pauty witness is telling you that this serious flawed,
48:14
Speaker 3: and you decide to perpetuate this throg and allow for
48:18
Speaker 3: it to go uncorrected for twenty something years. Based on
48:23
Speaker 3: my studies, this would be considered deliberate and willful deception.
48:28
Speaker 2: No words could do this injustice, any justice. So now
48:32
Speaker 2: that we've heard everything that Kitty dug up, you all
48:35
Speaker 2: were able to petition the courts based on this evidence,
48:38
Speaker 2: and they said that this was litigated by Melvin back
48:40
Speaker 2: in two thousand and seven and it was denied back
48:43
Speaker 2: then as untimely because Terry Flinchboss Silo was available to
48:46
Speaker 2: testify at trial, so this couldn't be considered new evidence
48:49
Speaker 2: and most certainly was past the deadline. And I mean
48:52
Speaker 2: what we're seeing in this case over and over again
48:55
Speaker 2: is ineffective assistance at trial.
48:57
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it all comes down to the beginning this stage's trial.
49:02
Speaker 3: So at trial, I had a lawyer who had checked
49:04
Speaker 3: out on me. But the beautiful thing is he did
49:07
Speaker 3: file a Brady. He wrote some passion for everything that
49:11
Speaker 3: was open, so we know today that they without some
49:14
Speaker 3: information that was requested.
49:16
Speaker 2: I mean, there's always been a solid case for Brady
49:18
Speaker 2: violations and ineffective assistance here, But so far, I don't
49:21
Speaker 2: think it's a stretch to say that you have been
49:23
Speaker 2: failed not only by your attorneys along the way, but
49:27
Speaker 2: by the entire judicial system. I understand you have plans
49:30
Speaker 2: to file with the York County Fiction Integrity Units, so
49:33
Speaker 2: we hope that they will be able to provide the
49:34
Speaker 2: relief that you have so rightfully deserved. But if not,
49:37
Speaker 2: I'm afraid your only option might be clemency. You know
49:40
Speaker 2: you have my full support, in the support of our
49:42
Speaker 2: whole team, and right now I'm going to ask for
49:44
Speaker 2: our audience to lend their support as well. So we're
49:46
Speaker 2: going to have a lot of things linked in to bio,
49:48
Speaker 2: but the number one call to action is to sign
49:52
Speaker 2: the petition to support your release. I'm literally begging our
49:54
Speaker 2: audience please join us on this one. Just go there
49:57
Speaker 2: right now and sign the petition. I'll take you a
49:59
Speaker 2: minute and a half. And now we go to my
50:01
Speaker 2: favorite part of the show, which is called closing arguments,
50:03
Speaker 2: where first I thank both of you incredible people for
50:06
Speaker 2: being here, and now I'm just going to kick back
50:09
Speaker 2: in my chair, turn my microphone off, and just listen
50:12
Speaker 2: to any final thoughts that you may have. So let's
50:15
Speaker 2: start with Altisia and then Taishim. Please take us out
50:19
Speaker 2: into the sunset for you and for Melbourn.
50:22
Speaker 4: America as a country, and our court system has largely
50:27
Speaker 4: been steeped like a tea bag in racism, and some
50:32
Speaker 4: people are considered worthy and some people are not considered worthy.
50:36
Speaker 4: And I would offer that back in the nineties, two
50:40
Speaker 4: young black men from New York are really considered outsiders
50:45
Speaker 4: and their lives were not worth a lot. I will
50:49
Speaker 4: never know what the prosecutor was thinking. I don't know
50:52
Speaker 4: the prosecutor, but I know that the hat was hung
50:57
Speaker 4: on somebody who had more multiple convictions for perjury, who
51:02
Speaker 4: was highly incentivized, who pled guilty to the same crime,
51:07
Speaker 4: and who served less than three years out of county jail.
51:10
Speaker 4: You know that in and of itself is a crime.
51:14
Speaker 4: We know that these two young men did not commit
51:18
Speaker 4: this crime. And what I can say to Tayshim as
51:22
Speaker 4: well as Melvin, is I'm not giving up until they
51:25
Speaker 4: walk out.
51:26
Speaker 3: Just support this is a great cause. I fought hard
51:29
Speaker 3: for my freedom for twenty plus years. I've been accarcerated
51:32
Speaker 3: almost a quarter century. I'm innocent. I was awfully convicted.
51:36
Speaker 3: You can go to change that or assign this petition
51:39
Speaker 3: that was initiated by DJ Coco Chanel. You can visit
51:42
Speaker 3: my website. I want my life back, I want to
51:44
Speaker 3: be free. I want to turn my books into movies.
51:47
Speaker 3: I want to help other people who awfully convicted. I
51:50
Speaker 3: want to one day start my own innocence projects and
51:53
Speaker 3: be able to help people regain their freedom in their
51:57
Speaker 3: voices back and be returned to their family.
52:00
Speaker 1: Yeah.
52:08
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen
52:10
Speaker 2: to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts one
52:13
Speaker 2: week early and ad free by subscribing to Lava for
52:16
Speaker 2: Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our
52:19
Speaker 2: production team, Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as
52:22
Speaker 2: my fellow executive producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Kleiber.
52:26
Speaker 2: The music in this production was supplied by three time
52:28
Speaker 2: OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us
52:31
Speaker 2: across all social media platforms at Lava for Good and
52:34
Speaker 2: at Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow me on Instagram
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Speaker 2: at It's Jason Flamm. Wrongful Conviction is a production of
52:40
Speaker 2: Lava for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number One.
52:44
Speaker 1: We've worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in
52:46
Speaker 1: this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by
52:49
Speaker 1: the individuals featured in this show are their own and
52:52
Speaker 1: do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good