Latest / Wrongful Conviction Podcasts / 523: #523 Jason Flom with Lerico Kearney

Transcript

523: #523 Jason Flom with Lerico Kearney · Wrongful Conviction Podcasts

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