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#441 Jason Flom with Jeremy Puckett · Wrongful Conviction

0:02
Speaker 1: On March fourteenth, nineteen ninety eight, the body of nineteen
0:05
Speaker 1: year old Anthony Golotti was found alongside a desolate stretch
0:09
Speaker 1: of road outside of Sacramento, California. The case remained cold
0:14
Speaker 1: for over a year until a young man named Israel
0:17
Speaker 1: Sept went to prison on a gun charge and offered
0:19
Speaker 1: authorities information about the murder. According to Sept, he was
0:25
Speaker 1: at an apartment when two others, Angela Devorski and Jeremy Pucket, assaulted, robbed,
0:30
Speaker 1: and abducted Anthony Golotti. Then, according to Sept, he got
0:34
Speaker 1: into Anthony's car with them to keep him safe from
0:36
Speaker 1: further violence, but failed when they arrived at that stretch
0:39
Speaker 1: of road where Golotti was fatally shot. In the weeks
0:43
Speaker 1: following the murder, Angelo Devorski also turned up dead, leaving
0:47
Speaker 1: only Jeremy Pucket to stay a trial where Scept made
0:50
Speaker 1: good on his plea deal and sent Jeremy away for life.
0:55
Speaker 1: But this is wrongful conviction. Wrongful conviction has always given
1:06
Speaker 1: voice to innocent people in prison. Now we're expanding that
1:09
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1:13
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1:16
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1:20
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1:28
Speaker 1: A three three two oh seven, four six sixty six.
1:40
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Rafel Conviction. Today, we have a story
1:42
Speaker 1: out of Northern California in the years following legislation that
1:46
Speaker 1: had been passed to stop ironically prosecutions just like this
1:50
Speaker 1: one that use snitch testimony that is not corroborated by
1:54
Speaker 1: independent evidence. Nevertheless, a path was made with the help
1:57
Speaker 1: of other incentivized witnesses, to let that happened. And here
2:01
Speaker 1: to help tell this story as an attorney with the
2:03
Speaker 1: Northern California Inisons Project, Karen Sanu, New Tower, Karen, Welcome
2:08
Speaker 1: to the show.
2:09
Speaker 2: Thank you, and our.
2:10
Speaker 1: Guest of honor today, the man who lived and somehow
2:12
Speaker 1: survived this night, mayre Jeremy Pucket. Jeremy welcome, thank you.
2:17
Speaker 1: And this crime took place in a place called Rancho
2:20
Speaker 1: Cordova kind of outside of Sacramento anyway. Is that where
2:24
Speaker 1: you grew up and what was your family life like?
2:27
Speaker 2: Well, I grew up in Sacramento, California, pretty much all
2:31
Speaker 2: over the place, mainly ranch cordova'sself, and we moved around
2:34
Speaker 2: a lot, you know, and didn't have the most money
2:37
Speaker 2: or anything. But you know, my parents they did the
2:40
Speaker 2: best they could and gave me, my brother and my
2:42
Speaker 2: sister the best life that we could have. So I
2:45
Speaker 2: had a great childhood. It was good. It was really good.
2:48
Speaker 1: In the late eighties and early nineties, the crack epidemic
2:51
Speaker 1: affected many of Jeremy's friends, but not him. Instead, Jeremy
2:55
Speaker 1: became a father who's clear head served him well. One night,
2:58
Speaker 1: when his young family faced a situation.
3:01
Speaker 2: The house call on fire while me and my son's mother,
3:05
Speaker 2: Carl were sleeping, and as I woke up, I opened
3:08
Speaker 2: up the door and there was just smoke coming up
3:10
Speaker 2: the stairs. So I went across the hall grabbed my son,
3:15
Speaker 2: and because of all the smoke and everything's coming from downstairs,
3:18
Speaker 2: I knew we had to jump out the window. When
3:20
Speaker 2: we jumped out the window, at that time, I knew
3:23
Speaker 2: that her sister would sleep downstairs, and so I kicked
3:26
Speaker 2: in the door to get her out. However, when her
3:29
Speaker 2: sister was coming out the door, that's when she told
3:33
Speaker 2: me that one of my good friends was sleeping. My
3:36
Speaker 2: son's Auntie's room basically, and by that time the house
3:40
Speaker 2: was up in flames and there's nothing we can do
3:42
Speaker 2: to save them.
3:43
Speaker 1: Oh man, what was his name?
3:44
Speaker 2: Benny Campbell? And I think the worst part of it
3:47
Speaker 2: was is I heard her scream as he was trying
3:49
Speaker 2: to get out, and like, this is like not just
3:51
Speaker 2: a friend, Like he was like one of my best friends.
3:53
Speaker 2: So just to not be able to save him, you know,
3:56
Speaker 2: And it still affects me, I guess you could say,
3:58
Speaker 2: and it's just and still miss him to this day.
4:00
Speaker 1: Jeremy displayed true heroism that night, but unbeknownst to him,
4:04
Speaker 1: his friend Israel Scept harbored some resentments over Benny's death.
4:08
Speaker 2: I believe I met him through Benny. I thought we
4:12
Speaker 2: had a good relationship. I thought we were good friends.
4:15
Speaker 2: You know, he came to my house, I would go
4:17
Speaker 2: to his house. But yeah, I guess we were as
4:20
Speaker 2: good as friends as I thought thought we were.
4:22
Speaker 1: Israel Scept became integral to Jeremy's wrongful conviction for a
4:26
Speaker 1: murder that in part began at the apartment of a
4:29
Speaker 1: young man named William van Hill.
4:31
Speaker 3: This was a small, one bedroom apartment in the heart
4:35
Speaker 3: of Rancho Cordova, and William van Hill would let people
4:39
Speaker 3: come to the house and deal drugs and he would
4:43
Speaker 3: get some drugs through that, and he also was letting
4:47
Speaker 3: a guy named Larry Biddlebrooks crash there every once in
4:52
Speaker 3: a while, and so on the particular night in March
4:57
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety eight, Larry middle brook Brooks was there. Van
5:01
Speaker 3: Hill was pretty much in his bedroom. A woman named
5:05
Speaker 3: Patty Scott Bostik was there. She and Larry Middlebrooks were
5:10
Speaker 3: heavily using crack cocaine that night and drinking a lot.
5:14
Speaker 3: And then Israel Sep was there.
5:16
Speaker 1: Jeremy planned to hang out with Israel step that night
5:19
Speaker 1: after a family gathering.
5:21
Speaker 2: Had a little get together. It was no part or nothing,
5:23
Speaker 2: and we had a little barbecue. It was me, my
5:25
Speaker 2: sister's friend, Chante, my son's mother, Akara, my mom was there,
5:29
Speaker 2: my dad was there. There was a few people there
5:31
Speaker 2: that could all testify to my whereabouts this night. Prior
5:35
Speaker 2: to my leaving and coming back, I remember talking to Israel.
5:38
Speaker 2: He told me what was going to be at. I
5:40
Speaker 2: showed up and as I seen how things were progressing
5:44
Speaker 2: at the apartment where he was at, I pulled myself
5:47
Speaker 2: out of that and went back home.
5:48
Speaker 3: The victim of the murder, Anthony Glotti, showed up wanting
5:52
Speaker 3: to buy some drugs to celebrate his nineteenth birthday. He
5:56
Speaker 3: was by himself.
5:57
Speaker 2: The Goliath didn't looked like the usual crack I guess
6:01
Speaker 2: she would say, so he showed up. I was like,
6:04
Speaker 2: this guy looks like he might be the police. And
6:07
Speaker 2: I told Scept this, and Set was still intent on
6:10
Speaker 2: selling this guy drugs. And that's when I decided to
6:12
Speaker 2: pull myself out of that situation and leave because I
6:15
Speaker 2: was not gonna be involved in something that got myself
6:17
Speaker 2: in trouble.
6:18
Speaker 3: With and Galotti was a young, young god yeah guy
6:21
Speaker 3: that everyone called the preppy because he didn't look like
6:25
Speaker 3: anyone else in the apartment.
6:27
Speaker 2: It's not to judge anybody, but just look out of place.
6:30
Speaker 3: But he saw this young attractive woman, Angela Devorski, and
6:35
Speaker 3: he left the apartment, but then told his friends he
6:38
Speaker 3: wanted to go back and meet up with the girl.
6:41
Speaker 2: I didn't know Andrew Devorski. The only people, I guess
6:43
Speaker 2: you really knew it was Israel and Larry. That's about it.
6:47
Speaker 1: According to all accounts, Angela Davorski was there with her
6:50
Speaker 1: boyfriend James Reeves, also referred to as Jamo, but the
6:54
Speaker 1: accounts diverge on what happened between the time Jeremy left
6:57
Speaker 1: the apartment that night and when Anthony glotti body was
7:00
Speaker 1: found on March fourteenth, nineteen ninety eight, on White Rock Road.
7:04
Speaker 3: Just a driver going down the road spotted him and
7:08
Speaker 3: called it in to police. He was at the side
7:11
Speaker 3: of the road in an unincorporated area of Sacramento County.
7:15
Speaker 3: It appeared that he had been shot out there. His
7:18
Speaker 3: hands were tied behind his back. Really an assassination type murder.
7:23
Speaker 3: Originally they thought he had one bullet wound to the head,
7:27
Speaker 3: but after autopsy, they realized he had been shot twice
7:30
Speaker 3: in the head.
7:31
Speaker 1: The medical examiner later testified that the time of death
7:34
Speaker 1: was likely between five and seven am on Saturday, March fourteenth.
7:38
Speaker 1: Two days later, an I think Alotti's Pontiac fireberg was
7:41
Speaker 1: found set ablaze in a parking lot, and then, as
7:44
Speaker 1: police continued to question non associates, Angela Devoorski's body washed
7:48
Speaker 1: up in the American River on May first of ninety eight.
7:51
Speaker 1: She had been stabbed twelve times. Her case remains cold
7:55
Speaker 1: to this day, but Galotti's investigation was reinvigorated when Israel's
7:59
Speaker 1: SEPT was victed an unlawful discharge of a firearm in
8:02
Speaker 1: October of ninety nine.
8:04
Speaker 3: As soon as you are taken to prison, your DNA
8:07
Speaker 3: is taken. In California, Israel believed that his DNA was
8:13
Speaker 3: going to implicate him in the murder of Anthony Gollotti,
8:18
Speaker 3: so he contacted the Sheriff's office to tell a story
8:23
Speaker 3: that would take the focus away from him and onto
8:27
Speaker 3: someone else. He then was interviewed by the Sacramento Sheriff's
8:31
Speaker 3: office three or four times, and each story was inconsistent.
8:36
Speaker 1: Jeremy's jury never heard about Sept's motivation. Nevertheless, it appears
8:41
Speaker 1: that SEPT bounced inconsistent stories off the Sacramento Sheriff's department
8:45
Speaker 1: until they landed on a narrative which Anthony Gollotti came
8:48
Speaker 1: to William Van Hill's apartment to buy some drugs, and
8:50
Speaker 1: Scept alleged that Jeremy Pistol whipped and tied up Anthony
8:54
Speaker 1: with the help of Angela Devorski. Scept said that he
8:57
Speaker 1: followed them out to Anthony's car, where he allegedly told
9:00
Speaker 1: Anthony that he would come along and keep him safe.
9:03
Speaker 1: Then Jeremy allegedly drove them all out to White Rock Road,
9:06
Speaker 1: took Anthony out of the car, shot him, and drove off,
9:10
Speaker 1: dropping sept at a motel. Shortly after this account, Jeremy
9:14
Speaker 1: was brought in for questioning.
9:15
Speaker 2: They were just asking me questions about a murder that happened,
9:19
Speaker 2: Like I have to know something about this, because you know,
9:21
Speaker 2: I'm from the neighborhood or whatever, and I don't have
9:24
Speaker 2: no idea what they're talking about. I believe they mentioned Israel,
9:27
Speaker 2: and that's when I started trying like peaceful things agein.
9:30
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, this is what's going on, But
9:33
Speaker 2: I still had no idea of what happened after I
9:35
Speaker 2: had left the apartment where he was at this night.
9:39
Speaker 1: Curiously, only Scept was charged in June of two thousand
9:42
Speaker 1: and taken to trial in March two thousand and.
9:45
Speaker 3: One, because all they have is this so called confession
9:50
Speaker 3: by Israel, and so they have to try them separately
9:55
Speaker 3: because Israel will have the opportunity to take the Fifth
10:00
Speaker 3: Amendment and then there'd be no case. And they can't
10:04
Speaker 3: just use this statement because Jeremy wouldn't have had a
10:07
Speaker 3: chance to cross exam Israel, so they had to try
10:10
Speaker 3: them separately, and so they started with Israel and then
10:14
Speaker 3: of course he folded after opening statement. But he cut
10:19
Speaker 3: a deal. I mean, he went from life without the
10:21
Speaker 3: possibility of parole to what eleven years eight months. But
10:27
Speaker 3: when he was actually sentenced, he even got a better deal.
10:31
Speaker 1: Shortly after steps leaning a plea deal for robbery and
10:33
Speaker 1: accessory to murder, they arrested Jeremy.
10:36
Speaker 2: All our members being at work and I was called
10:39
Speaker 2: to the office and I had a feeling that something
10:41
Speaker 2: might goals, like something just wasn't right. I walked into
10:43
Speaker 2: the office. That's when I was basically surrounded by officers
10:47
Speaker 2: placed in handcuffs, placed in the car, and I was like,
10:50
Speaker 2: you gotta have the wrong person, because I ain't hurt nobody.
10:54
Speaker 2: I didn't kill nobody, Like I don't know what you
10:56
Speaker 2: guys are talking about, Like you got to have the
10:58
Speaker 2: wrong person, And they're like, no, got you with this
11:00
Speaker 2: and now whatever. I'm trying to convince them, you know,
11:03
Speaker 2: but they didn't want to hear nothing. I had to say.
11:17
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11:32
Speaker 2: I pretty much preached together that something was being pinned
11:34
Speaker 2: on me from Israel. I believed during the initial interview
11:38
Speaker 2: with my investigator, he was still sticking to his story
11:41
Speaker 2: that it was all me, and then during the second
11:44
Speaker 2: one that's when he recanted his story.
11:47
Speaker 1: Prior to trial, Israel set recanted in an interview with
11:50
Speaker 1: Jeremy's private investigator and gave some version of the truth,
11:54
Speaker 1: saying something about Middlebrooks having set up Anthony Allotti for
11:57
Speaker 1: a robbery and quote, Jeremy not involved. Jeremy knew nothing
12:02
Speaker 1: about robbing anyone. That's the God's truth end quote. Wow.
12:08
Speaker 1: Sept never said who was responsible, though, but with this
12:11
Speaker 1: recantation in the bag, it appears that Jeremy's attorney didn't
12:14
Speaker 1: feel the need to develop an alibi defense or look
12:16
Speaker 1: into any of the state's evidence, including Israel SEP's motel
12:20
Speaker 1: receipt that was alleged to a line with the morning
12:22
Speaker 1: of March fourteenth.
12:23
Speaker 3: The motel receipt shows that Sepp registered at this motel
12:28
Speaker 3: at four to twenty am and there was a number
12:31
Speaker 3: on the receipt six seven one eight. The receipt was messy,
12:35
Speaker 3: but if you look at the next receipt six seven
12:39
Speaker 3: nine with a totally independent party registering at six ten am,
12:43
Speaker 3: you realize it was on the morning of the thirteenth.
12:46
Speaker 2: And there was one part as well.
12:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the one prior to it. That's correct. So
12:50
Speaker 3: there's no doubt that this hotel entry was on the thirteenth.
12:54
Speaker 3: But however, the Sacramento DA just said it's on the fourteenth.
12:59
Speaker 3: She talked about it as though he registered the mourning
13:04
Speaker 3: of the fourteenth.
13:05
Speaker 1: This could mean one of a few things. Perhaps the
13:08
Speaker 1: medical examiner was mistaken about the time of death between
13:11
Speaker 1: five and seven am on the fourteenth, or perhaps the
13:14
Speaker 1: state glossed over the discrepancy in order to align the
13:17
Speaker 1: findings of the autopsy with the morning after Jeremy had
13:20
Speaker 1: actually made an appearance at Van Hill's apartment March twelfth
13:23
Speaker 1: and to the thirteenth. This could have been uncovered by
13:26
Speaker 1: Jeremy's attorney had he just bothered to look at his alibi.
13:30
Speaker 1: In addition, it's important to note that, according to nineteen
13:32
Speaker 1: ninety one California legislation, jail house inform and testimony has
13:36
Speaker 1: to be corroborated by independent evidence. Perhaps the prosecutor, Marjorie Kohler,
13:41
Speaker 1: used this motel receipt from the thirteenth to check that
13:43
Speaker 1: box for a crime that occurred on the fourteenth.
13:46
Speaker 2: None of the witnesses or anybody testified to the thirteenth.
13:52
Speaker 2: They were told from the prosecution of what day this happened.
13:56
Speaker 3: Jeremy's right. The prosecution would just say, let me draw
13:59
Speaker 3: your attention to the night of the thirteenth or the
14:02
Speaker 3: morning of the fourteenth, So witnesses just went along with that.
14:06
Speaker 3: No one said, oh, wait a minute, this happened on
14:08
Speaker 3: a Thursday night.
14:10
Speaker 1: And this wasn't the only dirty trick. In her opening statements,
14:13
Speaker 1: Kohler raised the specter of the fire that killed Benny
14:16
Speaker 1: Campbell as well as the murderer of Angela divorce key.
14:19
Speaker 3: They tried to implicate Jeremy in that murder.
14:23
Speaker 2: She already knew she had a week case, so she's
14:24
Speaker 2: trying to throw everything in to make me look bad
14:26
Speaker 2: from the get go.
14:27
Speaker 1: Anyway, Jeremy's attorney asked the judge to Clara misstrial, and
14:31
Speaker 1: when the judge asked Kohler if she had the evidence
14:33
Speaker 1: to corroborate her implications. She said that there was evidence
14:37
Speaker 1: linking Jeremy, but just not enough to charge him.
14:40
Speaker 3: But that wasn't true, and she was admonished by the
14:44
Speaker 3: judge that this wasn't proper.
14:46
Speaker 2: She was actually told to tell the jerry that I
14:47
Speaker 2: had nothing to do with that, and she said no, yeah,
14:50
Speaker 2: so the judge himself had to do it.
14:52
Speaker 1: The judge instructed the jury that the prosecutor could not
14:55
Speaker 1: corroborate her implications, and then the trial proceeded.
15:00
Speaker 3: The state presents middle Brooks. Middlebrooks said he was in
15:04
Speaker 3: the bathroom doing cocaine with Patty Scott Bostick and that
15:08
Speaker 3: he didn't think that Jeremy was there, and Patty Scott
15:13
Speaker 3: Bostick always said that she never looked out the door.
15:16
Speaker 3: And then she got on the stand and then she
15:19
Speaker 3: said she heard Jeremy yelling. She had never testified to
15:23
Speaker 3: that before, but we found out later that she wanted
15:28
Speaker 3: to testify favorably because she was on probation at the
15:31
Speaker 3: time she testified, and the jury was never told this. Again.
15:35
Speaker 3: The jury has to hear if a witness has a
15:38
Speaker 3: motive to make an entirely new statement that had never
15:42
Speaker 3: been made before, so that's what Patty said. And then
15:46
Speaker 3: van Hill said he saw Anthony Glotti being removed by
15:50
Speaker 3: two black men and based on their height difference, he
15:54
Speaker 3: thought it might be Israel and Jeremy. Again, that was
15:58
Speaker 3: a new statement made it.
16:00
Speaker 1: In his earlier statements, van Hill said that the two
16:03
Speaker 1: black men were about the same height. Then at trial,
16:06
Speaker 1: he said that his memory had improved since his first
16:08
Speaker 1: interview just after the crime. In addition, he described Israel
16:11
Speaker 1: Scept as being five to four, much shorter than his
16:14
Speaker 1: actual height five to ten, which notably is not much
16:18
Speaker 1: shorter than Jeremy at six foot one.
16:20
Speaker 2: His stores all over the place.
16:22
Speaker 3: We learned during our investigation, unfortunately, that mister van Hill
16:27
Speaker 3: had many psychological problems, but of course the jury never
16:32
Speaker 3: heard that.
16:33
Speaker 1: But of course none of the supporting testimony mattered as
16:36
Speaker 1: much as Israel Scept. And we don't know what happened
16:38
Speaker 1: between his recantation and trial, but perhaps the prosecutor reminded
16:43
Speaker 1: him about the deal they had made.
16:45
Speaker 2: Either testify against me and say it was all me,
16:49
Speaker 2: or there's going to take his deal back. And he
16:51
Speaker 2: was face to life without the possibility to role. He
16:53
Speaker 2: just went back to the script he was given when
16:55
Speaker 2: he took the deal. What was crazy about that is
16:58
Speaker 2: that prior to being into the courtroom, we were in
17:02
Speaker 2: separate sales, like basically across from each other. And now
17:04
Speaker 2: I ask them personally, like what are you doing? Like
17:07
Speaker 2: why you doing this to me? I still remember him
17:09
Speaker 2: saying like, I know, I'm sorry, And when I get
17:12
Speaker 2: back in there, I'm gonna go in there and tell
17:14
Speaker 2: them the truth that you have nothing to do with it. Right.
17:17
Speaker 2: But well, soon we get back into the courtroom, it
17:19
Speaker 2: was like everything that was just said he completely forgot,
17:23
Speaker 2: and then he's just got the back to pointing the
17:24
Speaker 2: finger right back at me.
17:26
Speaker 1: Jeremy's attorney was able to cross Examinecept with not only
17:29
Speaker 1: inconsistencies with his prior statements, but also his recantation.
17:33
Speaker 2: A course Scept denied it. And that's why I was
17:36
Speaker 2: shot that my trial attorney didn't call their investigator to
17:40
Speaker 2: rebut his role.
17:41
Speaker 1: Wait wait wait, wait, so he didn't even bother to
17:44
Speaker 1: call the investigator to present the recantation.
17:46
Speaker 3: It's unbelievable. It's absolutely I tell people this story that
17:51
Speaker 3: the attorney had a recantation he didn't put on it,
17:53
Speaker 3: and they can't believe it, let alone the data the
17:56
Speaker 3: murder is even wrong. It's just unbelievable.
18:00
Speaker 1: The jury had not heard the motivations of those testifying,
18:03
Speaker 1: as well as the full recantation by this state star witness,
18:07
Speaker 1: so they predictably returned a guilty verdict for first degree
18:10
Speaker 1: murder robbery, but curiously not guilty for unlawful use of
18:14
Speaker 1: a firearmy.
18:15
Speaker 2: All I remember is hearing is I was guilty of
18:17
Speaker 2: murder and everything else I didn't hear. I blacked out.
18:21
Speaker 2: It wasn't until my mother came and visited me that
18:24
Speaker 2: she's the one who told me that I was found
18:26
Speaker 2: not guilty of the gun, and that kind of shot
18:29
Speaker 2: me because I thought once I heard guilty murder, I
18:31
Speaker 2: felt I was guilty of everything. Everything just blacked out.
18:33
Speaker 2: I heard nothing else, and I just especially see my
18:36
Speaker 2: life just washed away like it was nothing. You walked
18:52
Speaker 2: into the yard and all you see is these big
18:55
Speaker 2: brick walls and you just realize like you're really imprisoned,
18:59
Speaker 2: like they're going to rest your life here for something
19:01
Speaker 2: you didn't do. It was heartbreaking. I couldn't sleep for
19:04
Speaker 2: the first couple of nights because I couldn't even believe
19:06
Speaker 2: I was in the situation I was even in. It's
19:08
Speaker 2: a doggy doll world in there. You know, it's a
19:10
Speaker 2: battle of the fitness. It's a survival instinct that you
19:13
Speaker 2: must have in prison to make it through. I've seen
19:16
Speaker 2: people come in prison and not make it at all,
19:18
Speaker 2: and I've seen people commit suicide before. I've seen people
19:21
Speaker 2: get killed in prison. I've seen all type of things happen.
19:23
Speaker 2: I've seen people overdose. I've seen basically just about everything
19:26
Speaker 2: in there. And thank God that I was able to
19:29
Speaker 2: put my faith in God and keep fighting. And I
19:31
Speaker 2: guess it is always frustrating to know that you're doing
19:35
Speaker 2: everything you can, but knowing it is not enough.
19:38
Speaker 1: After his initial appeal, Jeremy fought his case pro sae,
19:41
Speaker 1: meaning on his own, without an attorney, from inside of
19:44
Speaker 1: his prison cell.
19:45
Speaker 3: And of course it was so hard for Jeremy because
19:48
Speaker 3: he doesn't have anyone to find that the evidence has
19:51
Speaker 3: been suppressed. He's banging up against a brick wall because
19:55
Speaker 3: he can't get into the DA file, into his own file,
19:59
Speaker 3: into the file of Angela divorce. KI out on the
20:02
Speaker 3: street to interview people.
20:04
Speaker 2: I was almost ready to give up because I was
20:06
Speaker 2: tired of getting all the denials on my own and
20:09
Speaker 2: to thank god, I had my sister and my mom,
20:12
Speaker 2: my cousins and everybody, a strong core in my family
20:15
Speaker 2: that still believed in me no matter what. And I
20:18
Speaker 2: look back on it and I think it was my daughter,
20:19
Speaker 2: and my daughter saved my life. I'll never forget that
20:21
Speaker 2: day she came to saw me and I think, my
20:23
Speaker 2: sister's gonna get something to eat for us, and my
20:26
Speaker 2: son and my niece. They went to a player and
20:29
Speaker 2: I was telling my daughter, like, oh, I want you
20:31
Speaker 2: go play with your brother and your cousin, and she's like, no,
20:33
Speaker 2: I want to stay here with you. And I remember
20:35
Speaker 2: her looking at me and she was like, when you
20:38
Speaker 2: wait you excuse me. She said, when you come home,
20:41
Speaker 2: when you're gonna come home, because I want you home.
20:44
Speaker 2: And that's what I knew right there. I had to
20:46
Speaker 2: keep fighting, not for myself, for my kids. I couldn't
20:50
Speaker 2: give up.
20:51
Speaker 1: After about fourteen long years of denials, and appellate Cord
20:55
Speaker 1: Karen and the Northern California Indoston's Project took on Jeremy's
20:58
Speaker 1: case and were able to un what Jeremy never could
21:01
Speaker 1: have from the inside.
21:03
Speaker 3: Sepp told the detectives that a man with the nickname
21:08
Speaker 3: Jamo brought Angela Devorski to the apartment, and that was
21:13
Speaker 3: a very important sentence that he said that. I don't
21:18
Speaker 3: think Jeremy's trial attorney appreciated the importance of it at
21:22
Speaker 3: the time. Because the Sheriff's detectives had suppressed the evidence
21:27
Speaker 3: related to Angela Devorski.
21:30
Speaker 1: Much of the discovery that should have come to Jeremy's
21:32
Speaker 1: defense attorney remained hidden in the Angela Davorski murder file.
21:36
Speaker 1: I'm talking about seven hundred pages worth.
21:40
Speaker 3: Pages and pages of evidence, witness after witness saying Jamo
21:46
Speaker 3: had control over Angela Devorski, and Angela's diary talked about
21:52
Speaker 3: the control that Jamo had over her, and that Jamo
21:56
Speaker 3: and Angela Devorski did set up robberies. They would use
22:00
Speaker 3: her as a lure for young men who wanted to
22:04
Speaker 3: spend some time with her, to put it nicely, and
22:08
Speaker 3: instead they would rob the young man. In the suppressed evidence,
22:14
Speaker 3: we learned that there were two witnesses that actually saw
22:18
Speaker 3: the set up robberies going on. And once you know
22:21
Speaker 3: that and know that Jamo is controlling her, then the
22:25
Speaker 3: story starts to make sense. The story Step told didn't
22:28
Speaker 3: make any sense. But this is a robbery gone bad
22:32
Speaker 3: and they've set up Anthony Golotti. We learned that Jamo
22:36
Speaker 3: went to an apartment where a gun was later found,
22:40
Speaker 3: and we believe that is the gun used to pistol
22:43
Speaker 3: whip Anthony Golotti. And the investigating detective had said that
22:49
Speaker 3: this gun was connected to the Glotti murder, and yet
22:53
Speaker 3: that information was never turned over to Jeremy's attorney.
22:59
Speaker 1: So they hid not only the motives of all of
23:03
Speaker 1: the trial witnesses who testified falsely, but now it was
23:07
Speaker 1: also discovered that they'd hidden a way more compelling suspect,
23:11
Speaker 1: James Reeves or Jamo, Who's estranged wife, Connie Goins, gave
23:16
Speaker 1: a statement sworn statement in twenty fifteen in which she
23:20
Speaker 1: said that Jamo had always said that Jeremy had nothing
23:23
Speaker 1: to do with Anthony Glotti's robbery and murder, and he
23:26
Speaker 1: knew that because he was there at the time of
23:29
Speaker 1: the crime. Moreover, this is supported by the fact that
23:33
Speaker 1: Angela Davorski's diary contained the names of one hundred and
23:37
Speaker 1: twenty one men, and get this, not one of them
23:41
Speaker 1: is Jeremy.
23:43
Speaker 3: There's no evidence that they knew one another, and during
23:46
Speaker 3: the investigation of the Divorski murder, many witnesses were shown
23:52
Speaker 3: Jeremy's picture friends of hers. No one could identify Jeremy.
23:56
Speaker 3: They ran in completely separate and disc circles.
24:01
Speaker 1: The choice to pursue Jeremy over Jamo made me wonder
24:04
Speaker 1: if perhaps investigators were protecting Jamo. Maybe he was cooperating
24:08
Speaker 1: in other cases, but that doesn't seem to fit here.
24:12
Speaker 3: The sheriff never interviewed Jamo. This is investigation one oh one.
24:18
Speaker 3: You interview everyone who was there that night. They never
24:22
Speaker 3: interviewed him. My theory is that the police were negligent.
24:26
Speaker 3: I think Sepp was protecting Jamo. That's my theory of
24:31
Speaker 3: the case. What do you think, Jeremy.
24:33
Speaker 2: I think they were so solely focused on me that
24:37
Speaker 2: they didn't care about anybody else.
24:39
Speaker 3: That was an easy prosecution. We don't have to do
24:42
Speaker 3: any more work. If you accuse Jeremy, how can he
24:45
Speaker 3: defend himself other than just say I had nothing to
24:48
Speaker 3: do with it. By the time he's interviewed, he can
24:50
Speaker 3: hardly remember that night. You know, it's a year and
24:52
Speaker 3: a half later.
24:54
Speaker 1: The Northern California, and this projects, along with attorneys from Simpson,
24:57
Speaker 1: Thatcher and Bartlett, filed a state which they had to
25:01
Speaker 1: fight all the way up to the state Supreme Court
25:03
Speaker 1: to finally get a hearing, where they presented there's absolute
25:06
Speaker 1: mountain of Brady material, the recantation evidence, the statement from
25:10
Speaker 1: Connie Goins as well as an expert to point out
25:13
Speaker 1: the discrepancy between dates in the state's narrative and the
25:16
Speaker 1: time of death.
25:17
Speaker 3: Doctor Melanik was incredible. There was no question by the
25:21
Speaker 3: time she was done testifying that they had the date
25:24
Speaker 3: of the murder wrong, and they actually conceded that finally,
25:28
Speaker 3: finally correct. At the very end of the hearing, they
25:30
Speaker 3: conceded that the gun evidence came in that they had suppressed.
25:36
Speaker 3: Jamo had made this statement by the time of the
25:38
Speaker 3: hearing to one of our investigators, and so he said, no,
25:42
Speaker 3: Jeremy had nothing to do with the murder. I was there.
25:46
Speaker 3: So everything went right in the hearing. I think we
25:50
Speaker 3: were feeling positive.
25:51
Speaker 2: I mean I felt good, but of course, you just
25:54
Speaker 2: never know where it's going to go. And then the
25:57
Speaker 2: day that I found out was one of the most
26:00
Speaker 2: happiest and craziest days. Ever, I finally got my case overturned.
26:04
Speaker 3: It was pretty emotional, and of course it was the
26:10
Speaker 3: day that California is shut down, like.
26:13
Speaker 2: A few days.
26:13
Speaker 3: So the good news is you're gonna get out. The
26:17
Speaker 3: good news is it's a shutdown.
26:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, Friday thirteenth. At that well, it was crazy. Everybody
26:24
Speaker 2: else is losing their minds, and I'm like, oh, y'all
26:27
Speaker 2: think you this is nothing.
26:29
Speaker 3: When we're all home crying in our soup that we
26:32
Speaker 3: can't go out. Jeremy gets a driver's license, a passport,
26:36
Speaker 3: a job, a car, housing, He lived life and it
26:43
Speaker 3: was just amazing. And you know, we needed to get
26:46
Speaker 3: his record cleared and all that and everything now was
26:50
Speaker 3: slowed down because of COVID the hearing for factual innocence
26:55
Speaker 3: that didn't come till the following January.
26:57
Speaker 2: It's kind of shocking when we had the factual innocence
27:00
Speaker 2: because she told me it's going to be like two
27:01
Speaker 2: or three days and he's only there for like fifteen
27:03
Speaker 2: twenty minutes. And when he finally said what he said,
27:06
Speaker 2: I had to turn through us. I didn't know what happened.
27:07
Speaker 2: I was like, what just happened? She's like, you won
27:10
Speaker 2: you're actually insigt now and it was just a shock
27:13
Speaker 2: for everybody.
27:15
Speaker 1: Jeremy was awarded statutory compensation from California just under a
27:19
Speaker 1: million dollars, and as of February twenty twenty two, he's
27:21
Speaker 1: been pursuing civil litigation.
27:24
Speaker 3: I'm playing a small role again, Simpson Thatcher. The law
27:28
Speaker 3: firm is working on it and Jeremy has just inspired
27:33
Speaker 3: everyone in that firm to get behind him, and we're
27:37
Speaker 3: very hopeful that will be successful. But again Sacramento, they
27:42
Speaker 3: continued to fight us, even though Jeremy was wrongfully convicted,
27:46
Speaker 3: served nineteen years for a crime he didn't commit, and
27:49
Speaker 3: has been found factionally innocent.
27:51
Speaker 1: In the meantime, life goes on, and Jeremy has been
27:54
Speaker 1: doing his best to adjust to life on the outside.
27:57
Speaker 2: I have a job. I've officially bought me a house
28:00
Speaker 2: seven months ago. I had my grandkids. Building my relationship
28:03
Speaker 2: with my kids who were just My kids were two
28:06
Speaker 2: and one when I initially got locked up and I
28:08
Speaker 2: came out, they were grown. So trying to rebuild that
28:11
Speaker 2: relationship has been ongoing. It's a little bumpy sometimes, but
28:15
Speaker 2: you know where the loved you can see the love
28:16
Speaker 2: is there. Or really see in a relationship now. So
28:20
Speaker 2: that's going good. So life's been pretty good so far,
28:23
Speaker 2: and I'm just looking forward to continue to grow every
28:25
Speaker 2: day and make life even better.
28:27
Speaker 1: Jeremy's freedom would not have been possible without the dedication
28:30
Speaker 1: of Karen's new new tower and the other great folks
28:32
Speaker 1: at the Northern California Innocence Project, which we will link
28:35
Speaker 1: in the episode of description. Please support them and follow
28:39
Speaker 1: their work, as there are countless people like Jeremy who
28:42
Speaker 1: still need their help. And with that, I want to
28:45
Speaker 1: turn into closing arguments, where, of course, you know, I
28:48
Speaker 1: get the privilege of thanking each of you first of all,
28:53
Speaker 1: Karen and Jeremy, and then turning off my microphone, kicking
28:57
Speaker 1: back in my chair with my eyes closed and my
29:00
Speaker 1: headphones on, and just listening to anything else you want
29:03
Speaker 1: to share with me and with our fantastic audience. So Karen,
29:06
Speaker 1: it's traditional you go first and then just sort of
29:09
Speaker 1: hand the mic off to Jeremy and he'll take us
29:12
Speaker 1: off into the sunset.
29:13
Speaker 3: Well, I feel very honored to have been on the
29:17
Speaker 3: journey to justice with Jeremy Puckett. I've gained a friend
29:22
Speaker 3: and learned a lot through his ordeal, and he's let
29:26
Speaker 3: me enter his life, He's shared his most intimate details,
29:31
Speaker 3: and I believe we've built a friendship out of this
29:35
Speaker 3: crazy situation. How the two of us came together is
29:39
Speaker 3: the stuff stories are made of. But it's been my
29:44
Speaker 3: honor to work with Jeremy, and I look forward to
29:47
Speaker 3: wrapping up the civil suit and still maintaining that friendship.
29:52
Speaker 2: And I just want to thank you for having me
29:54
Speaker 2: here and being able to tell my story. And I
29:58
Speaker 2: also want to just think people like like Karen, the
30:00
Speaker 2: whole NCIP organization and the whole project organization in itself,
30:05
Speaker 2: as well as Buzz and everybody from a team, from
30:08
Speaker 2: the Cents and Thatsher, from Don, everybody who helped me
30:10
Speaker 2: with my case. And then I think most importantly I
30:13
Speaker 2: think I would like to say is that if there
30:15
Speaker 2: is somebody listening to this who is innocent, locked up
30:19
Speaker 2: to keep fighting, to keep going. I don't care who
30:22
Speaker 2: says what If you know you're innocent, keep going because
30:27
Speaker 2: your day will come. I don't know when. I can't
30:29
Speaker 2: tell you how, but your day will come. The truth
30:32
Speaker 2: always fulvails.
30:40
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Ron for conviction you can
30:43
Speaker 1: listen to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts
30:45
Speaker 1: one week early by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus
30:49
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our production team
30:52
Speaker 1: Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as my fellow
30:54
Speaker 1: executive producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Clyburn. The
30:58
Speaker 1: music in this production was three time OSCAR nominated composer
31:02
Speaker 1: Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us across all social
31:05
Speaker 1: media platforms at Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction.
31:08
Speaker 1: You can also follow me on Instagram at It's Jason Flamm.
31:12
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts
31:15
Speaker 1: and association with Signal Company Number one