Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #542 Jason Flom with Nicholas Allen
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: On February sixth, twenty eleven, a party in a queen's
- 0:06Speaker 1: New York basement turned violent, and when those involved were
- 0:10Speaker 1: forced out into the exit stairwell, two gunshots were fired
- 0:14Speaker 1: into the door, fatally striking twenty six year old Avalisa Morris.
- 0:21Speaker 1: The police were soon directed toward a couple Felicia Douglas
- 0:25Speaker 1: and O'Neill Mayers, whose argument allegedly ignited the fray. Even
- 0:30Speaker 1: though O'Neill claims to have left before the gunshots and
- 0:34Speaker 1: didn't match the initial descriptions of the likely shooter, he
- 0:37Speaker 1: was arrested and tried, along with his friend Nicholas Allen,
- 0:41Speaker 1: who had left the party hours before the shooting. This
- 0:46Speaker 1: is wrongful Conviction. You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can
- 0:55Speaker 1: listen to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts
- 0:57Speaker 1: one week early and ad free subscribing to Lava for
- 1:01Speaker 1: Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Welcome back to Ronfuel Conviction,
- 1:13Speaker 1: where our guest is calling in from the country of
- 1:16Speaker 1: Jamaica to tell us about a case that happened near
- 1:19Speaker 1: Jamaica Queens and started with an absolutely senseless act of
- 1:23Speaker 1: violence which was then compounded by convicting at least one,
- 1:27Speaker 1: if not two innocent men, one of them being Nicholas Brucky. Allen, welcome,
- 1:32Speaker 1: Thank you, all right. So tell us about growing up
- 1:34Speaker 1: in Jamaica and coming to the US.
- 1:37Speaker 2: I was born in Kingston, Jamaica. I got four sisters
- 1:40Speaker 2: and three brothers. Two of them was like babies, and
- 1:43Speaker 2: one of them was born while I was in the States,
- 1:45Speaker 2: so I didn't really actually grew up with those three.
- 1:48Speaker 2: I came to the stage when I was like twelve.
- 1:50Speaker 2: So I just remember where I used to live in Jamaica.
- 1:54Speaker 2: It was like a soccer field next.
- 1:56Speaker 3: To my home. Soccer was just my love.
- 2:00Speaker 2: If my friend's playing on the street bearfooted, I will
- 2:03Speaker 2: go out there and also play bearfooted.
- 2:06Speaker 1: So where did the nickname Brockie come from?
- 2:09Speaker 2: In Jamaican culture, we call dribble brooke when you cross
- 2:15Speaker 2: somebody that's basically you brooking everybody. Basically Brookie is somebody
- 2:21Speaker 2: that does just love to dribble and don't like the past.
- 2:24Speaker 3: And it's funny because when I.
- 2:26Speaker 2: Got to the States, my first team, Cambria Heights, it
- 2:30Speaker 2: was a lady that first called me Brookie.
- 2:32Speaker 3: I never told her that was my nickname. In Jamaica.
- 2:35Speaker 3: I never told her that. She just watched me. She
- 2:36Speaker 3: was like, yo, you was a Brookie and.
- 2:38Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, that's what they called me in Jamaica.
- 2:41Speaker 3: That's my name.
- 2:42Speaker 1: But it wasn't soccer that brought him to New York.
- 2:44Speaker 2: At the age of eleven, I was diagnosed with you
- 2:47Speaker 2: and star a coma. It was a form of cancer.
- 2:50Speaker 2: This was like around two thousand. I started off getting
- 2:53Speaker 2: treatment in Jamaica, but my auntie came into the States
- 2:58Speaker 2: and on the teaching program. She went to the courts
- 3:01Speaker 2: with my dad and my mom did the legal guardianship.
- 3:05Speaker 3: So the lawyer told.
- 3:06Speaker 2: Her when you're in the States and you get your
- 3:08Speaker 2: green card, he's going to get his. When you become
- 3:10Speaker 2: a citizen, he will become citizen. So she had took
- 3:14Speaker 2: me into the States. I did chemoturpy. I had no hair,
- 3:17Speaker 2: so I used to wear a lot of door rags
- 3:19Speaker 2: a lot of time. When I used to play soccer,
- 3:21Speaker 2: it was like I was the sick on. Everybody was
- 3:23Speaker 2: just looking at me. But that never stopped me. I
- 3:27Speaker 2: play hard. I went to Automotive High School. My own
- 3:30Speaker 2: was a teacher at the school. But yo, they never
- 3:33Speaker 2: seen the playoff until I came. When I came, took
- 3:36Speaker 2: them the playoff the whole four years.
- 3:38Speaker 3: That I was there. I graduated.
- 3:41Speaker 2: Then from there I got in a soccer scholarship to
- 3:44Speaker 2: Globe College. Went for a year and a half and
- 3:48Speaker 2: that's when I got arrested.
- 3:50Speaker 1: And he was arrested along with another young Jamaican man
- 3:53Speaker 1: named O'Neill Mayers.
- 3:55Speaker 2: I met Mayors through guys from my soccer team. They
- 3:59Speaker 2: were quit mars at Walmart. When I first met him,
- 4:03Speaker 2: I never get any bad vibes. I see that he
- 4:07Speaker 2: always works to take care of his son. You know,
- 4:10Speaker 2: I'm on college and stuff, so I used to love parties,
- 4:14Speaker 2: so you know, me and Mirors sometimes will go to parties.
- 4:18Speaker 1: And that's what was happening at the time of this
- 4:20Speaker 1: tragic shooting. O'Neill's supervisor at Walmart, Damian Skurvin, had planned
- 4:25Speaker 1: a party for his wife Nikki at their friend Mary
- 4:27Speaker 1: Johnson's apartment on February fifth, twenty eleven, even though there
- 4:31Speaker 1: was a competing party nearby at Nicholas's friend named Pouchi
- 4:35Speaker 1: Poochie's house. Both O'Neill and Nicholas were drawn to the
- 4:38Speaker 1: Skurvans party to see two girls who they had met
- 4:41Speaker 1: the night before, one of whom Britney Goodrich later testified.
- 4:45Speaker 1: Now this previous night, February fourth, they were up really late,
- 4:49Speaker 1: leading to a midday nap for O'Neil that nearly lasted
- 4:52Speaker 1: through both parties on February fifth. But Nicholas was close
- 4:55Speaker 1: with Poochie's boyfriend Gabby Francis, so he made sure he
- 4:59Speaker 1: was at Pooci's.
- 5:00Speaker 2: So when I got there, I was pretty much helping
- 5:02Speaker 2: him decoration, helping, cooking the food, stuff like that. So
- 5:06Speaker 2: around twelve midnight, I pull up my friends Cafarri, Samuel,
- 5:10Speaker 2: Dwayne Right, Gabby Francis, and Dennis Cunningham, and I told him, oh, listen,
- 5:16Speaker 2: Damien is having a birthday party for his wife tonight.
- 5:20Speaker 2: Y'all want to go support, and they agreed. They call
- 5:23Speaker 2: a cab. I got there around twelve ish and I
- 5:26Speaker 2: left like early one. When we got there, I saw
- 5:29Speaker 2: Brittany dancing under the light. The only spot in the
- 5:32Speaker 2: basement had light was where the DJ booth was at,
- 5:35Speaker 2: So I went right up to Brittany. I asked her
- 5:37Speaker 2: how she's doing. I told her I'm not staying. My
- 5:39Speaker 2: people have a party, so I'm leaving. She put her
- 5:42Speaker 2: number with my phone and I never seen mirrors at
- 5:46Speaker 2: that party. Never Me and Mirrs was not together. It
- 5:49Speaker 2: was my four friends and we left in a cab
- 5:52Speaker 2: back to Pucci party. For the rest of the night,
- 5:55Speaker 2: we drink, dance, we took pictures. One of the girls
- 5:57Speaker 2: over there took a picture with me and around the
- 6:00Speaker 2: same time as.
- 6:01Speaker 1: The incident, it was just about eight minutes after the
- 6:04Speaker 1: shooting when Nicholas took a picture with Vanessa Bunton on
- 6:07Speaker 1: a digital camera. Now remember this was twenty eleven when
- 6:09Speaker 1: folks were still transitioning from flip phones, iPods and cameras
- 6:13Speaker 1: to the all in one smartphone that's now ubiquitous. But anyway,
- 6:17Speaker 1: we'll get back to Vanessa Bunton and this picture in
- 6:19Speaker 1: a bit. So let's rewind to about three o'clock in
- 6:23Speaker 1: the morning.
- 6:24Speaker 2: Around three on he called me saying, yo, you just
- 6:27Speaker 2: got up. He's gonna go to Damien wife's Porty Nikki
- 6:31Speaker 2: on his block because the party actually kept on his block.
- 6:33Speaker 2: So I said, oh yeah, I was there earlier.
- 6:36Speaker 3: And I got Brittany number. That was it. Around a
- 6:39Speaker 3: little bit before five.
- 6:41Speaker 2: He called me back again, saying the party got shoot up,
- 6:43Speaker 2: asked if I was still at Pucci I said yes,
- 6:45Speaker 2: and he said I'm coming right now. When he came,
- 6:48Speaker 2: he sat in the car and he told me the
- 6:50Speaker 2: girl that he was talking to the day before. He
- 6:53Speaker 2: was talking to her and his girlfriend came over slapped him,
- 6:58Speaker 2: and out of a reflex, he slapped her back and
- 7:02Speaker 2: she went outside crying and stuff. He also said he
- 7:05Speaker 2: noticed the commotions at the door. He said the DJ
- 7:08Speaker 2: got into it with somebody and he just pushed through
- 7:11Speaker 2: the commotions and left. While he got to the front
- 7:14Speaker 2: of the house, he said he heard gunshots and he
- 7:16Speaker 2: just ran home, jump in his car, called me and
- 7:18Speaker 2: came to me at Pouci's.
- 7:20Speaker 1: To exit the basement, O'Neill left through the back door
- 7:23Speaker 1: to a covered stairwall that led to the backyard, where
- 7:25Speaker 1: his girlfriend Felicia Douglass and her friend Vanessa Edwards claimed
- 7:29Speaker 1: to have seen him, which he doesn't deny. What he
- 7:32Speaker 1: does deny is going back down the stairwell and shooting
- 7:36Speaker 1: at the door. Now. According to the initial police reports,
- 7:38Speaker 1: also known as DV five's, the guest of honor, Nicki
- 7:41Speaker 1: Scurvin the host Mary Johnson, as well as the victim
- 7:45Speaker 1: of Alisa Morris, pushed a group of three or four
- 7:47Speaker 1: young men out into the back stairwell and slammed the door,
- 7:50Speaker 1: and the group tried to force their way back in.
- 7:53Speaker 2: I heard that she used her back to prevent the
- 7:56Speaker 2: guys from coming back and said and shot fired and
- 8:00Speaker 2: mis Kelly hit her in their head. When the cops
- 8:02Speaker 2: had just came Mary Johnson's she identified a tall, light
- 8:06Speaker 2: skin with braids in his.
- 8:07Speaker 1: Thirties, which doesn't describe O'Neill or Nicholas.
- 8:12Speaker 2: Also, NICKI Scurvin the morning off the crime. When the
- 8:15Speaker 2: cops came in our DD five, she never mentioned O'Neill.
- 8:18Speaker 2: Mayers never mentioned me at all.
- 8:19Speaker 1: But both of those statements would change by the time
- 8:22Speaker 1: of the grand jury and trial, as would pretty much
- 8:25Speaker 1: everyone else's statements, including O'Neill's girlfriend Felicia Douglas and her
- 8:30Speaker 1: friend Vanessa Edwards. Now. In their first statements, they said
- 8:33Speaker 1: that they had seen O'Neill emerge from the coupvered stairwell,
- 8:36Speaker 1: which is undisputed, but was it before or after the
- 8:40Speaker 1: gunshots well? Either way, Felicia texted O'Neill after giving her statement.
- 8:46Speaker 2: So we were still in the car, he got a
- 8:48Speaker 2: text from his girlfriend saying that such and such a
- 8:51Speaker 2: diet and you and your friend Brookie did it. So
- 8:55Speaker 2: he showed me the texts. I'm like, what the hell
- 8:57Speaker 2: is she talking about?
- 8:57Speaker 3: You know?
- 8:58Speaker 2: But I looked at Mayer's face. I could see like
- 9:00Speaker 2: a worried look. So he tried to call her. She
- 9:03Speaker 2: answered on the fifth call, and she was just crying.
- 9:07Speaker 2: He said, Yo, what's going on? Why you send me
- 9:09Speaker 2: that text? So she was like, they made me do it,
- 9:13Speaker 2: They made me do it. So he said, why would
- 9:15Speaker 2: you tell the police?
- 9:16Speaker 3: I did nothing? Why do you tell the police? Go
- 9:18Speaker 3: tell the police. I didn't do nothing.
- 9:20Speaker 2: We had found out later on that basically the friends
- 9:23Speaker 2: of the victim tell her, yo, listen, you and your
- 9:25Speaker 2: man came here and mess up my party, so you
- 9:27Speaker 2: better go tell the cops that he did that. That's
- 9:30Speaker 2: when she had gave the police on ill number.
- 9:33Speaker 1: But with no views through the stairwells covering the basement
- 9:37Speaker 1: door or any meaningful ballistics evidence, no witnesses or experts
- 9:41Speaker 1: could claim to know who pulled the trigger, and without
- 9:44Speaker 1: the ever important timing aspect had O'Neil been seen before
- 9:48Speaker 1: or after the gunshots, and with no other names being
- 9:51Speaker 1: mentioned besides O'Neil, he became the target.
- 9:54Speaker 3: So we were still in the car. He looked distressed.
- 9:58Speaker 2: A few minutes later, a detective by the name of
- 10:00Speaker 2: Pearson called him saying that he's a person of interest
- 10:04Speaker 2: and they would like to speak with him. So he said,
- 10:06Speaker 2: all right, no doubt, I'm coming in right now. So
- 10:08Speaker 2: I stayed and I waited for him to come back,
- 10:11Speaker 2: and he never came back.
- 10:13Speaker 1: O'Neill was arrested, and since no one could actually see
- 10:17Speaker 1: the shooting, they used the circumstances. Someone had to place
- 10:21Speaker 1: a gun in his hand in the stairwell at the
- 10:23Speaker 1: time of the crime. So by the grand jury, Vanessa
- 10:27Speaker 1: Edwards testified that when O'Neill first emerged from the stairwell,
- 10:30Speaker 1: he had a gun in his hand. Then the group
- 10:33Speaker 1: went back down the covered stairwell and shots were fired. However,
- 10:37Speaker 1: Felicia's story changed in a different way.
- 10:40Speaker 2: The two statements that she gave to the cops. She
- 10:43Speaker 2: was saying that she saw Onneila ran up the steps.
- 10:46Speaker 2: The other statement she had said that she just said
- 10:50Speaker 2: this because she was mad, because Onlyla had slapped her.
- 10:53Speaker 2: She also made a statement to one's lawyer saying that
- 10:58Speaker 2: she was mad and was also forced by the victim
- 11:02Speaker 2: friends tell the cops that she saw on it ran
- 11:05Speaker 2: up the steps, and she also made a statement to
- 11:09Speaker 2: my attorney saying that she never even seen me that
- 11:12Speaker 2: whole night.
- 11:13Speaker 1: And at this point, neither Vanessa Edwards, Nicki Scurvin, nor
- 11:18Speaker 1: Mary Johnson had mentioned Nicholas, only Felicia had done so
- 11:22Speaker 1: in that text that she now just disavowed. Vanessa Edwards
- 11:27Speaker 1: also maintained that she hadn't seen Nicholas since earlier in
- 11:30Speaker 1: the evening. But Nicholas becomes involved because during the month
- 11:34Speaker 1: following the shooting, O'Neil had let Nicholas his car.
- 11:37Speaker 2: So a month later I noticed an unmarked car following me.
- 11:41Speaker 2: They passed me, came in front of me, made a
- 11:44Speaker 2: sound stop, forcing me to stop. Then they jumped up
- 11:48Speaker 2: and it was just police everywhere, guns everywhere.
- 11:52Speaker 3: Move Move, motherfuckers. I could shoot you. Move. So I'm like,
- 11:54Speaker 3: I'm not moving. I'm not moving.
- 11:56Speaker 2: They dragged me out of car, put my face on
- 11:59Speaker 2: the ground with the knee in my face. Detective Pearson
- 12:02Speaker 2: came in, got me and brought me to one thirteen.
- 12:04Speaker 1: Percent, and this detective Timothy Pearson, recently served as a
- 12:08Speaker 1: top aid to New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Apparently
- 12:12Speaker 1: they go way back, and he has faced or is
- 12:14Speaker 1: currently facing allegations ranging from corruption, pay the play schemes,
- 12:18Speaker 1: as well as rape and other sexual misconduct. But there's
- 12:21Speaker 1: no known history of wrongful convictions, that is until now.
- 12:26Speaker 2: So when I got to one thirteen percint, they asked me,
- 12:28Speaker 2: do you know why I'm here? I'm like, maybe because
- 12:30Speaker 2: I was driving my friend's car and he was charged
- 12:33Speaker 2: for murder. They said yes, but there is more. The
- 12:36Speaker 2: car was seen leaving the scene that waitness saw me
- 12:39Speaker 2: and O'Neill together that night, So I said, no, that
- 12:42Speaker 2: can't be true. So he said, O'Neill said I was
- 12:45Speaker 2: with him that.
- 12:45Speaker 1: Night, which yes, they were together, but only after the
- 12:49Speaker 1: shooting when they met up at Pucci's house. Now, always
- 12:53Speaker 1: remember it is legal for the police to lie or mislead.
- 12:57Speaker 1: I'm hoping that'll change someday, but that's the way it is.
- 13:00Speaker 1: And the reality here was that Nicholas and O'Neill had
- 13:04Speaker 1: been calling each other before they actually met up.
- 13:07Speaker 3: So I'm like, I have.
- 13:08Speaker 2: Proof in my phone that we was actually calling each other.
- 13:11Speaker 2: If you check my call log, you could see recent
- 13:13Speaker 2: call and only called me at three, and he called
- 13:17Speaker 2: me also at five. It was like a tow way phone.
- 13:20Speaker 2: It was a Walmart phone. So the only thing that
- 13:22Speaker 2: phone could prove is the recent call. So I don't
- 13:25Speaker 2: know if they did check or not, but my phone
- 13:28Speaker 2: end up disappearing, right. I told my lawyer about the phone,
- 13:32Speaker 2: and they told my lawyer in evidence.
- 13:35Speaker 3: Right days past, my lawyer tried.
- 13:37Speaker 2: To get the phone back again and they said the
- 13:40Speaker 2: phone disappeared. The phone can be found.
- 13:43Speaker 1: I mean, why let perfectly good exculpatory evidence get in
- 13:46Speaker 1: the way of what appears to be manufactured evidence. This
- 13:51Speaker 1: came in the form of another alleged partygoer, the upstairs neighbor,
- 13:55Speaker 1: a guy named Richard Bennett. For the first time, he
- 13:58Speaker 1: claimed to have seen the alleged sailants being pushed out
- 14:01Speaker 1: of the basement back door. Never mind that from where
- 14:04Speaker 1: he said he was standing, he couldn't have seen that door.
- 14:08Speaker 1: Then he said he ran upstairs to his apartment. This
- 14:11Speaker 1: is a two family home, so he had to go
- 14:14Speaker 1: out Mary Johnson's front door outside to access his own
- 14:17Speaker 1: front door, and he claimed that this is when he
- 14:20Speaker 1: saw three alleged assailants. And now he was at the
- 14:23Speaker 1: precinct of view a lineup featuring Nicholas.
- 14:27Speaker 2: He was seeing a Facebook photo off me minutes before
- 14:32Speaker 2: the lineup. This same guy testified at a grandjury that
- 14:36Speaker 2: I have a tattoo on the right side of my neck.
- 14:38Speaker 2: This same guy said that when me and Oni got
- 14:41Speaker 2: to the front of the house, he said a point
- 14:43Speaker 2: a gun in his face. He said, I said to him,
- 14:45Speaker 2: what's you're looking at, motherfucker? And while he was looking
- 14:48Speaker 2: at me, he saw a tattoo on my neck, with words,
- 14:51Speaker 2: I don't have no tattoo, never have a tattoo on me.
- 14:54Speaker 1: Ever, nevertheless, now Panessa Edwards and Richard Bennett both placed
- 14:59Speaker 1: O'Neill and the at the scene with guns in their hands.
- 15:02Speaker 2: They charged us with acting in concert.
- 15:05Speaker 3: I was arraigned.
- 15:06Speaker 2: I had a bunch of people in court that was
- 15:08Speaker 2: there with me at Pucci house. It looked like the
- 15:11Speaker 2: judge were considering to give me a bill until the
- 15:14Speaker 2: district attorney jumped up and said, judge, the victim family
- 15:17Speaker 2: scared for their life, and the judge was like, no bill,
- 15:21Speaker 2: you know, so I was sent to rakas Allen. It
- 15:25Speaker 2: was a new experience for me, so I had to
- 15:28Speaker 2: adapt fast.
- 15:30Speaker 3: I was young. I was like in the jungle.
- 15:32Speaker 2: I was like around some wild kids that's probably been
- 15:35Speaker 2: to jail more than my fingers, you know.
- 15:53Speaker 1: Nicholas spent three long, miserable years in pre trial detention
- 15:58Speaker 1: on the Notori Complex, not as Riker's Island, which is
- 16:03Speaker 1: just fucking wild. I mean, from March twenty eleven to
- 16:07Speaker 1: November twenty fourteen, not convicted of a freaking thing. This
- 16:13Speaker 1: was around the same time that Khalif Browder, by the
- 16:15Speaker 1: Way Rest in Peace was there for three years pre
- 16:18Speaker 1: trial as well. We're going to link to the Kaliff
- 16:21Speaker 1: Browder documentary in the episode description. Well, luckily Nicholas was
- 16:25Speaker 1: able to survive this ordeal, unlike Khalif. But meanwhile, on
- 16:28Speaker 1: the outside, O'Neil and Nicholas's attorneys had three years to
- 16:32Speaker 1: prepare for cross examinations, and despite Nicholas's phone just magically disappearing,
- 16:38Speaker 1: he still had his alibi, witnesses and the picture with
- 16:41Speaker 1: Vanessa Punton, placing him a fifteen minute drive away from
- 16:45Speaker 1: Mary Johnson's just about eight minutes after the shooting. The
- 16:48Speaker 1: only issue was that in the digital cameras settings AM
- 16:53Speaker 1: had been flipped with PM.
- 16:54Speaker 2: Well, my lawyer was telling me that even though the
- 16:57Speaker 2: time stamp it's saying PM instead of M. When it's
- 17:00Speaker 2: time for trial, he would get Vanessa to come and
- 17:03Speaker 2: testify for.
- 17:04Speaker 1: The grand jury. Only the photo was entered into evidence.
- 17:07Speaker 1: In addition, his friend Gabby Francis testified that he was
- 17:10Speaker 1: with Nicholas all night, including when they had gone to
- 17:13Speaker 1: the Scurvins party and back to Poocies, but Britney Goodrich,
- 17:17Speaker 1: the girl that had traded phone numbers with him, She
- 17:19Speaker 1: claimed that Nicholas had returned later on in the morning.
- 17:22Speaker 2: There was a weakness go by the name of Larissa White.
- 17:26Speaker 2: She also wrote a statement the morning of the crime.
- 17:29Speaker 2: She also testified in a grand jury, and her testimony
- 17:33Speaker 2: was that when the shot rang out, she was upstairs
- 17:36Speaker 2: with Britney Goodrich looking for their coats to leave. So
- 17:40Speaker 2: she contradicts Brittany because Brittany said she was down in
- 17:43Speaker 2: the basement when the shots rang out and that's the
- 17:45Speaker 2: last time she saw me.
- 17:47Speaker 1: Vanessa Edwards also testified that the last time she saw
- 17:50Speaker 1: Nicholas was earlier in the night, which also impeached Brittany,
- 17:54Speaker 1: as well as Nicki Skurvin and Mary Johnson's new statements,
- 17:57Speaker 1: which now aligned with the state's narrative.
- 18:00Speaker 3: D five statement.
- 18:01Speaker 2: As Mary Johnson, she gave to the cops she identified
- 18:04Speaker 2: a tall, light skin with braids in his thirties. That
- 18:08Speaker 2: was just disregarded. So my lawyer let her know that
- 18:13Speaker 2: he's not tall, he's not light skin, and you know
- 18:16Speaker 2: what I'm saying.
- 18:16Speaker 3: So her thing was that it was me. I was there.
- 18:19Speaker 2: Also, Nicki Scurvin, minutes after the situation, she never mentioned
- 18:23Speaker 2: ONeill Mayors. She never mentioned me at all. It was
- 18:26Speaker 2: at the Grand Jewelry when she mentioned O'Neill and me.
- 18:29Speaker 2: Then in the first trial, Mary Johnson she said, my
- 18:32Speaker 2: hair was basically braided up with rubber bands at the tip,
- 18:36Speaker 2: wearing a jeans jacket with a gray shirt. That's was
- 18:39Speaker 2: not my appearance that night. The picture that I took
- 18:42Speaker 2: showed a different appearance. Everybody put me into a different clothing, earstyle.
- 18:46Speaker 2: Everybody description was just off, but hers was funny and ridiculous.
- 18:52Speaker 1: So despite photographic evidence of the contrary, Mary Johnson and
- 18:56Speaker 1: Nicki Scurvin supported the state's trial narrative, which was that
- 19:00Speaker 1: after O'Neill and Felicia traded slaps, that O'Neill, Nicholas, and
- 19:05Speaker 1: two others were forced to leave the party by the victim,
- 19:08Speaker 1: as well as Mary Johnson and Nicki Scurvin.
- 19:11Speaker 3: Nicki's Curvin.
- 19:12Speaker 2: She testified that she went to you gotta go because
- 19:15Speaker 2: you and your girl messed up my party.
- 19:17Speaker 3: And she said.
- 19:18Speaker 2: One'll tell her leave me alone. And while she grabbed him,
- 19:21Speaker 2: she said, he like swring her hands off him. And
- 19:24Speaker 2: as he did that, she said she saw something that
- 19:27Speaker 2: appears to be a gun in his waist. When she
- 19:29Speaker 2: saw the gun, she said, ONeill said, yo, leave me alone.
- 19:32Speaker 2: You want to mess with badman. Don't mess with badman.
- 19:35Speaker 2: That's the Jamaican term saying that, don't mess with the gangster.
- 19:39Speaker 3: So she said.
- 19:40Speaker 2: Other people came in shove shove him out. So they
- 19:43Speaker 2: asked her what I was doing. She said, I was
- 19:45Speaker 2: just there. She said, she got us out, closed the door.
- 19:48Speaker 2: As we're trying to bang the door to come back in,
- 19:51Speaker 2: the door cracked open and she saw my face, so
- 19:54Speaker 2: she put.
- 19:55Speaker 3: Me on the scene.
- 19:56Speaker 1: Then Vanessa Edwards stuck with her initial statement about O'Neil
- 20:00Speaker 1: emerging from the stairwell, but this time she added a
- 20:03Speaker 1: gun and more.
- 20:04Speaker 2: She testified that she saw one ran up the steps
- 20:08Speaker 2: with a gun in his hand with about four guys,
- 20:11Speaker 2: and the four guys ran back down the steps. She
- 20:15Speaker 2: heard the shots, and then the guys walked back up
- 20:18Speaker 2: and ran down the driveway. So Maloya asked her, did
- 20:22Speaker 2: she ever saw my face before? She said yes, she
- 20:24Speaker 2: saw me that night talking to Brittany. Did you see
- 20:27Speaker 2: him run up the steps with those group of guys?
- 20:29Speaker 3: She said no.
- 20:30Speaker 2: Last time she saw me was the time that I
- 20:32Speaker 2: was talking to Brittany, and she never saw me back that.
- 20:34Speaker 1: Night, which contradicts Mary Johnson and Nikki Scurvin, who claimed
- 20:38Speaker 1: to have seen Nicholas's face when Ava Lisa Morris slammed
- 20:41Speaker 1: the door shut on the four men before two gun
- 20:44Speaker 1: shots were fired through the door.
- 20:46Speaker 2: There was a hole that's higher and there's another lower hole.
- 20:50Speaker 2: The ballistic detective he was trying to say, I fired
- 20:54Speaker 2: the lower hole and because one was taller, he fired
- 20:58Speaker 2: the higher hole. So like this is just your speculations
- 21:03Speaker 2: or this is a fact. He said, no, it's just
- 21:06Speaker 2: in speculating. So Maloya ax him.
- 21:09Speaker 3: Was it one gun? Was it two gun?
- 21:11Speaker 2: Did they fire one gun and gave it to the
- 21:13Speaker 2: other one and the other one fired?
- 21:14Speaker 3: What was it?
- 21:15Speaker 2: So he couldn't answer, So it was just based off
- 21:17Speaker 2: of his speculations.
- 21:19Speaker 1: And what appears to be wishful thinking to nab two
- 21:22Speaker 1: gunmen for the price of one, when in actuality, what
- 21:26Speaker 1: they had were two forty five caliber shell cases believed
- 21:29Speaker 1: to have been fired from a semi automatic weapon, which
- 21:31Speaker 1: simply could have been fired from different angles. But they
- 21:35Speaker 1: continued right along with the two shooter theory, putting Richard
- 21:38Speaker 1: Bennett on the stand, and he proceeded to impeach himself twice,
- 21:43Speaker 1: first claiming that he was at the front side of
- 21:45Speaker 1: the basement about to head up the stairs when he'd
- 21:47Speaker 1: seen o, Neil and Nicholas being forced out the back door,
- 21:49Speaker 1: but there was a structure, a bathroom that had been
- 21:53Speaker 1: built between those two points and it was blocking his
- 21:55Speaker 1: view of the back door. And then came self sabotage
- 21:58Speaker 1: number two, when he claimed to have gone upstairs and
- 22:01Speaker 1: out the front door.
- 22:03Speaker 2: So he said, while he was outside opening the door,
- 22:06Speaker 2: he said he saw me and Onneil. He said, I
- 22:09Speaker 2: said to him, what's you looking at motherfucker pointing the
- 22:11Speaker 2: gun in his face. And he was asked, did you say, mister,
- 22:14Speaker 2: and you saw a tattoo on his neck?
- 22:16Speaker 3: Yes, he got a tattoo on his neck.
- 22:18Speaker 2: So when I took the stand, my lawyer asked me
- 22:20Speaker 2: to show my neck, and I don't have no tattoo,
- 22:23Speaker 2: never have a tattoo on me ever, But Bennett was
- 22:27Speaker 2: certain that he saw a tattoo and it was in words.
- 22:30Speaker 1: Then Gabby Francis teestified that Nicholas had been with him
- 22:33Speaker 1: all night and therefore unavailable for this crime. The picture
- 22:38Speaker 1: with Vanessa Bunden was also presented, which not only impeached
- 22:41Speaker 1: all the hair and clothing descriptions, but also corroborated his alibi,
- 22:45Speaker 1: placing him a fifteen minute drive away right about eight
- 22:49Speaker 1: minutes after the shooting. And instead of attacking the incorrect
- 22:52Speaker 1: AMPM setting up the timestamp, the district attorney, Denise Tarini,
- 22:56Speaker 1: took a different tact.
- 22:58Speaker 2: She was trying to say that I did the crime
- 23:00Speaker 2: and a rush to Puccios. So her argument was like, yes, judge,
- 23:05Speaker 2: he knew what he was doing. He did that, and
- 23:08Speaker 2: then he rushed over there and say, let me take
- 23:10Speaker 2: a picture to show that I was here.
- 23:12Speaker 1: So let's recap. Vanessa Edwards contradicted Scurvin, Johnson and Bennett,
- 23:17Speaker 1: while Bennett proceeded to impeach himself even more. And then
- 23:22Speaker 1: there was the worthless ballistics speculation, followed by Ada Denise
- 23:28Speaker 1: Terini's own worthless speculation about the photo. But still some
- 23:34Speaker 1: jurors they just wanted to believe in their guilt.
- 23:37Speaker 2: We went for deliberation and we was in the bullpen
- 23:41Speaker 2: and it was just a wall separating us from the
- 23:45Speaker 2: deliberation room, so we could actually hear the juries like
- 23:49Speaker 2: raising their voice cursing like I.
- 23:52Speaker 3: Don't give a fuck.
- 23:53Speaker 2: He did not do it, he caunnot see, he cannot
- 23:56Speaker 2: see through the bathroom.
- 23:58Speaker 3: I don't give a fuck.
- 23:59Speaker 2: So me and Oni like we got elated because we
- 24:03Speaker 2: were like damn people in there fighting for us. The
- 24:05Speaker 2: verdict came back, they said, judge, we can't decide, and
- 24:09Speaker 2: it was a hang jury. The child would have to
- 24:12Speaker 2: go over again.
- 24:13Speaker 3: And it was like mixed.
- 24:15Speaker 2: Feeling because like I was happy and I was said
- 24:18Speaker 2: because I was sent back to rack as Allen, and
- 24:21Speaker 2: also I felt like all right, no, we know what
- 24:25Speaker 2: was said.
- 24:25Speaker 3: So next time it would be better.
- 24:27Speaker 1: But the district attorney also observed what worked and what
- 24:31Speaker 1: clearly did not. So eight months later, at the second trial,
- 24:35Speaker 1: Vanessa Edwards needed to not contradict half the state's witnesses,
- 24:40Speaker 1: most of whom had previously testified about how dark it
- 24:43Speaker 1: had been in the basement, thereby making it difficult to see,
- 24:47Speaker 1: so that part of the narrative needed to change. And
- 24:50Speaker 1: then Richard Bennett needed to try to somehow deflect from
- 24:54Speaker 1: his previous self sabotage and focus solely on identifying Nicholas.
- 25:00Speaker 2: My second trial started and Richard Bennon he was the
- 25:04Speaker 2: first witness call to the stand, right, so eight months
- 25:08Speaker 2: later he trying to say that, you don't remember saying
- 25:11Speaker 2: no tattoo.
- 25:11Speaker 3: You don't remember saying that.
- 25:13Speaker 2: So you know, we did read backs from the first
- 25:15Speaker 2: trial and grand jury acting him, do you remember saying, yeah,
- 25:18Speaker 2: witness point of gun in my face had a tattoo
- 25:20Speaker 2: on his right side of his neck. And then that's
- 25:23Speaker 2: when he was like, yeah, I remember saying that. But
- 25:25Speaker 2: he came back in the second trial trying to say,
- 25:28Speaker 2: you don't remember saying it. District attorney disregard that old tattoo.
- 25:32Speaker 2: She said, first of all, Richard Bennon was not identifying
- 25:36Speaker 2: a tattoo. He was identifying my face. And she was like,
- 25:40Speaker 2: so what what if he thought he saw a tattoo.
- 25:43Speaker 2: So she disregarded that whole thing, and she asked him
- 25:47Speaker 2: about the lighting.
- 25:48Speaker 3: He said it was dark. It was dark.
- 25:50Speaker 2: It was dark, and she become frustrated. Now you know,
- 25:55Speaker 2: in the first trial that was like a big thing
- 25:58Speaker 2: for my side, were trying to prove, like, yo, is
- 26:01Speaker 2: a party, it's pretty much dark.
- 26:03Speaker 3: Like, yeah, the DJ have light.
- 26:05Speaker 2: In the second trial, the district attorney.
- 26:07Speaker 3: She lit up the whole place. It was so bright.
- 26:11Speaker 2: She was like Christmas lights was in the basement. Light
- 26:14Speaker 2: was shining from outside coming into the basement.
- 26:16Speaker 3: She was lit up the whole place.
- 26:18Speaker 2: That's why the ballistic detective came back and started testifying
- 26:21Speaker 2: about lights. So Monmoy was like, Yo, you supposed to
- 26:26Speaker 2: be testifying about ballistic evidence. Why are you coming here
- 26:29Speaker 2: testifying about lights? You never said that in your first child.
- 26:31Speaker 2: Why are you coming here talking about the light.
- 26:33Speaker 1: So it appears that testifying about the lights was a
- 26:36Speaker 1: better use of this expert than his speculations. In addition,
- 26:40Speaker 1: Mary Johnson and Nicki Scurvin steered away from the erroneous
- 26:44Speaker 1: hair and clothing descriptions and focused instead on making the
- 26:47Speaker 1: IDs and placing a gun on O'Neill.
- 26:50Speaker 2: In the second trial, Nickiy Scurvy she was more sturdy.
- 26:55Speaker 2: Her husband actually came also in the second trial and
- 26:58Speaker 2: testify on RBA testify and said she was drunk. He
- 27:02Speaker 2: said one time he was trying to talk to her,
- 27:04Speaker 2: she couldn't even recognize him.
- 27:05Speaker 3: She was up in his face. So he testified that
- 27:08Speaker 3: she was actually drunk.
- 27:10Speaker 1: But that impeachment mattered a little less when Vanessa Edwards
- 27:14Speaker 1: took the stand to place o'neel at the scene with
- 27:16Speaker 1: a gun and was careful not to clear Nicholas again,
- 27:19Speaker 1: thereby impeaching the other state's witnesses.
- 27:22Speaker 2: My lawyer asked her the same thing again. Was I
- 27:25Speaker 2: in the group? She said she don't know, because she
- 27:28Speaker 2: wasn't looking at face and she was just looking at
- 27:30Speaker 2: the gun that Meares had in his hand. You could
- 27:33Speaker 2: tell that she was coached by the district attorney. My
- 27:36Speaker 2: lawyer picked that up throughout the whole trial because they
- 27:38Speaker 2: was like button heads.
- 27:40Speaker 3: They was literally arguing.
- 27:42Speaker 2: I remember incident my girlfriend came in and told me, oh,
- 27:45Speaker 2: mister Mitchell just cursed out mister Reno. He told her
- 27:49Speaker 2: that you're trying to set up my client. You're trying
- 27:50Speaker 2: to send my client to jail, not over my dead body.
- 27:52Speaker 2: And it was a big argument in the elevator. It
- 27:55Speaker 2: was just so crazy because you sit down in your
- 27:58Speaker 2: first child here thing, and then when it comes to
- 28:01Speaker 2: the second child, the whole testimony just changed and flips.
- 28:05Speaker 1: But there were at least two witnesses in addition to
- 28:07Speaker 1: Gabby Francis that could have helped the defense. One was
- 28:10Speaker 1: the girl from the picture, Vanessa Bunten, the second child.
- 28:14Speaker 2: She said she was coming to testify. She was supposed
- 28:17Speaker 2: to go to work and sign out and come in court.
- 28:19Speaker 2: So we was in court waiting for her to come,
- 28:23Speaker 2: so my lawyer called her. She told my lawyer that
- 28:26Speaker 2: she's sorry, she cannot come anymore because when she got
- 28:30Speaker 2: to work, she had a surprise promotional party for her,
- 28:34Speaker 2: so she never came in testify.
- 28:36Speaker 1: Another defense witness could have been Felicia Douglas, because not
- 28:39Speaker 1: only had she admitted to making the statement out of
- 28:42Speaker 1: anger at O'Neill and feeling pressure from the victim's friends,
- 28:45Speaker 1: but also she had denied seeing Nicholas at the time
- 28:48Speaker 1: of the shooting, and she was standing right next to
- 28:50Speaker 1: Vanessa Edwards.
- 28:52Speaker 2: She came to the court ready to testify, but only
- 28:56Speaker 2: lawyer pulled back. He said, listen, we're not going to
- 28:59Speaker 2: put her on this because with the four statement that
- 29:02Speaker 2: she made, the district attorney will eat her up. So
- 29:06Speaker 2: he decided not to put her on the stand.
- 29:08Speaker 1: And let's face it, separate trials had a singularly focused
- 29:12Speaker 1: strategy probably would have made a difference for Nicholas, but
- 29:16Speaker 1: unfortunately he was deprived of that. And then the district
- 29:20Speaker 1: attorney had one more tactic.
- 29:22Speaker 3: She put the mom on.
- 29:23Speaker 2: The stand, and the mom testified above for half an hour,
- 29:27Speaker 2: and she cried the whole alf an hour. You know
- 29:29Speaker 2: what I mean, I cried, I'm sitting over there, she cried,
- 29:33Speaker 2: I can't remember that.
- 29:36Speaker 3: This deliberation, this.
- 29:38Speaker 2: One took three days, not like the first one that
- 29:41Speaker 2: took almost two weeks. This one took three days.
- 29:45Speaker 3: And the verdict came in. They started O'Neill.
- 29:48Speaker 2: First, murder her in the second degree not guilty, so I.
- 29:52Speaker 3: Was like, oh whooa.
- 29:54Speaker 2: But then manslaughter guilty, criminal position of a weapon guilty,
- 29:59Speaker 2: recklessly guilty, so now.
- 30:01Speaker 3: It was my term. They read a murder not guilty,
- 30:05Speaker 3: so no o, so they read out manslaughter.
- 30:09Speaker 2: I was guilty, criminal position guilty, reckless endigierment guilty.
- 30:14Speaker 3: So we got the same charges. We had to go
- 30:17Speaker 3: back like.
- 30:18Speaker 2: Three months for sentence, and I gave my condolences to
- 30:22Speaker 2: the family. I told the mom, listen, your daughter blood
- 30:26Speaker 2: is not on my hand. I don't know what happened,
- 30:28Speaker 2: but I give you my deepest condolence. O'Neill did the
- 30:34Speaker 2: same thing. I asked the judge for sympathy, but it
- 30:40Speaker 2: was gotten. The mac sentence and all charges five to
- 30:43Speaker 2: fifteen on the Manto fifteen flat for the criminal position
- 30:48Speaker 2: of a weapon and three to seven on the reckless engagement.
- 30:52Speaker 2: The fifteen flat overrides the five to fifteen. If it
- 30:56Speaker 2: wasn't the fifteen flat, I think would have been home
- 30:58Speaker 2: long time ago. But because fifteen flat, we had to
- 31:01Speaker 2: do the whole fifteen years. When I got to five points,
- 31:23Speaker 2: he was a double bunk jail, so I was like,
- 31:27Speaker 2: oh my gosh, I gotta share this small space with someone.
- 31:31Speaker 2: But the guy that I was bunk with, he was
- 31:36Speaker 2: pretty cool.
- 31:37Speaker 3: You know, so we become close. Then he left.
- 31:41Speaker 2: Then no, I was worrying again and be like, oh
- 31:43Speaker 2: my god, I hope I don't get a nasty bunky,
- 31:45Speaker 2: you know, But I got somebody pretty decent. He was
- 31:49Speaker 2: like older. He's also good in the law. His name
- 31:51Speaker 2: is Paul Thompson. Actually he's also innocent in his case.
- 31:57Speaker 2: Somebody had shot him and the person that shot him
- 32:02Speaker 2: died later, so they're trying to say he was the
- 32:05Speaker 2: one that did it. So they paid a crackhead, put
- 32:08Speaker 2: him up in the hotel, make him live in luxury
- 32:11Speaker 2: to testify against him that he saw him that day
- 32:13Speaker 2: that shoot the guy that shot him.
- 32:15Speaker 3: So he's good with the laws. He's still fighting right now.
- 32:19Speaker 1: Paul Thompson, all right, we'll try to make contact somehow.
- 32:22Speaker 2: He got twenty five to life and I got fifteen years.
- 32:25Speaker 2: I saw I could never complain. I'm gonna go back out.
- 32:29Speaker 3: He might not.
- 32:30Speaker 1: And what's wild about Nicholas's appeal process was that since
- 32:33Speaker 1: three years went by pre trial, a lot of the
- 32:36Speaker 1: information that we talked about today was discovered and used
- 32:41Speaker 1: by the defense, so new evidence couldn't get him the
- 32:44Speaker 1: relief that he needed and deserved. At least not yet. Now.
- 32:48Speaker 1: The issues that were raised on direct appeal and in
- 32:51Speaker 1: his habeas related to insufficiency of evidence, as well as
- 32:55Speaker 1: potentially prejudicial comments and conduct by the prosecution. Unfortunately, the
- 33:00Speaker 1: time that was denied, it was already twenty twenty two,
- 33:03Speaker 1: eleven long years into a maximum sentence of fifteen years.
- 33:08Speaker 2: Because you know, when you get fifteen years, you have
- 33:11Speaker 2: good time, so you don't actually do the whole fifteen years.
- 33:15Speaker 3: You know.
- 33:15Speaker 2: I wasn't giving no trouble inside, so I still had
- 33:19Speaker 2: my good time, you know, So I actually did twelve
- 33:22Speaker 2: years and ten months. My release date was January seventh,
- 33:27Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, right before I came home. You know,
- 33:32Speaker 2: they have a saint say in the streets talk, you know,
- 33:35Speaker 2: so I waited the years to see if someone my
- 33:39Speaker 2: anti prayed like, oh, the real person was going to
- 33:42Speaker 2: come forward one day, and right before I came home,
- 33:46Speaker 2: I called my cousin one day and she told me
- 33:48Speaker 2: that she heard who did it.
- 33:53Speaker 1: He knows the alternative suspect's name, but that would still
- 33:56Speaker 1: need to be verified. And we're not going to name
- 33:58Speaker 1: names here if it's not confirmed, but that could be
- 34:01Speaker 1: a very promising starting point for an interested attorney who
- 34:06Speaker 1: hopefully is listening right now, who might want to take
- 34:09Speaker 1: up the cause of clearing Nicholas's name once and for all.
- 34:12Speaker 1: It also seems that there's an ineffective council claim here
- 34:16Speaker 1: for not having severed the trials.
- 34:19Speaker 2: When I did my appeal, that was a big thing.
- 34:22Speaker 2: My lawyer, Alan Feleck, he was saying, listen, you could
- 34:25Speaker 2: have easily walk away from this if the child was separated.
- 34:29Speaker 2: But at the time my lawyer it felt like it
- 34:32Speaker 2: was best for him to team up, so you have
- 34:35Speaker 2: two lawyers against one district attorney. But he was wrong
- 34:38Speaker 2: because every other lawyer looked at my case they said, yeah,
- 34:42Speaker 2: y'all should have been separated.
- 34:43Speaker 1: So we'll be linking the contact information for Nicholas Brucky
- 34:47Speaker 1: Allen in the episode description for any interested attorney or
- 34:52Speaker 1: anyone who has it pertinent information, including the actual shooter
- 34:58Speaker 1: or one of the men in the stairwell morning. But
- 35:01Speaker 1: back to his release. Since his immigration status was impacted
- 35:05Speaker 1: by this roundful conviction, he was sent to immigration detention.
- 35:10Speaker 2: So I was in the immigration facility. I was deciding
- 35:14Speaker 2: to fight the case, you know, But then I'm like,
- 35:18Speaker 2: why would I stay any longer in prison, when I
- 35:23Speaker 2: could just be free and just go back to Jamaica.
- 35:27Speaker 2: I just want to live my life now. Thank God
- 35:29Speaker 2: for my freedom, and that's it. But always in the
- 35:32Speaker 2: back of my head saying that one day I want
- 35:34Speaker 2: to clear my name, you know. And when I got
- 35:37Speaker 2: to Jamaica walked out, that's when I firstly first experience freedom.
- 35:45Speaker 2: On the twenty fifth January in twenty twenty four, my
- 35:49Speaker 2: family here head keep a big party for me, like
- 35:52Speaker 2: a welcome home party meals.
- 35:53Speaker 3: When I came home that I was eating, it was
- 35:55Speaker 3: like just delicious. It was. It was like a breath
- 35:58Speaker 3: of fresh air. You know.
- 36:00Speaker 2: It was like the actra real, authentic Jamaican taste.
- 36:05Speaker 3: You know.
- 36:06Speaker 1: Since Nicholas Bucky Allen has been home, he's written a
- 36:08Speaker 1: book called The State of New York Versus Nicholas Allen.
- 36:11Speaker 1: We're going to link to that as well. I'm going
- 36:13Speaker 1: to order a copy myself. But Brucky has also connected
- 36:16Speaker 1: with an old friend who has been visiting him in
- 36:18Speaker 1: Jamaica and they're expecting a baby really soon. So we
- 36:22Speaker 1: wish them all the best. And with that, we're going
- 36:26Speaker 1: to go to closing arguments, where first of all, I
- 36:29Speaker 1: thank you for sharing this incredible true story. Closing arguments,
- 36:34Speaker 1: of course, is a part of the show that I
- 36:36Speaker 1: really look forward to, where I'm going to turn off
- 36:38Speaker 1: my microphone, leave my headphones on, just close my eyes
- 36:42Speaker 1: and listen to any other thoughts you want to share.
- 36:45Speaker 2: When it comes to like the criminals system, you know,
- 36:48Speaker 2: they always say it's unjust, but as every here goes by,
- 36:55Speaker 2: people becoming more aware, so a lot of laws change
- 36:59Speaker 2: in and eventually, hopefully one day there will be no
- 37:04Speaker 2: more wrongfully convicted person behind bars. You know, I thank
- 37:10Speaker 2: people like you for just keep bringing awareness, keep doing
- 37:15Speaker 2: what you're doing. The work that you're doing is not
- 37:18Speaker 2: going unseen or unheard, because you got to understand a
- 37:23Speaker 2: lot of the dudes in there, they don't really have
- 37:25Speaker 2: a voice. So with yeah being the voice for them
- 37:28Speaker 2: out here, they trust me. They would really appreciate that.
- 37:32Speaker 2: Because when I used to be in jail, and I
- 37:36Speaker 2: used to be in prison and I heard oh, this
- 37:39Speaker 2: law is coming, this law is coming soon, that law
- 37:43Speaker 2: is coming soon, I'm like, ah, it was because the
- 37:46Speaker 2: people like you, like protests, people fight, people bring awareness.
- 37:52Speaker 2: So I just cannot do nothing else but show y'all
- 37:56Speaker 2: my gratitude like I thank y'all so much.
- 37:58Speaker 1: Man, all of y'all, thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction.
- 38:11Speaker 1: You can listen to this and all the Lava for
- 38:13Speaker 1: Good podcasts one week early and ad free by subscribing
- 38:17Speaker 1: to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I want
- 38:20Speaker 1: to thank our production team, Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink,
- 38:23Speaker 1: as well as my fellow executive producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis,
- 38:26Speaker 1: and Jeff Kleiber. The music in this production was supplied
- 38:29Speaker 1: by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure
- 38:32Speaker 1: to follow us across all social media platforms at Lava
- 38:35Speaker 1: for Good and at Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow
- 38:38Speaker 1: me on Instagram at It's Jason Flamm. Wrongful Conviction is
- 38:41Speaker 1: a production of Lava for Good Podcasts and association with
- 38:44Speaker 1: Signal Company Number One. We've worked hard to ensure that
- 38:47Speaker 1: all facts reported in this show are accurate.
- 38:49Speaker 2: The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in
- 38:52Speaker 2: this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect
- 38:54Speaker 2: those of Lava for Good.