Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #325 Maggie Freleng with Johnetta Carr

Transcript

#325 Maggie Freleng with Johnetta Carr · Wrongful Conviction

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A warning for listeners, this episode contains discussion of suicide.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Please listen with caution and care. In January of two
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: thousand and six, Janetta car was over at her best
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: friend's house when there was a knock at the door.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Police were investigating a violent murder that occurred in the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: area a few months earlier. Sixteen year old Janetta was handcuffed,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: taken down to the precinct, and questioned for nearly twelve hours.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: When I asked for my mom, he told me that
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: it was not a girl Scouts meeting, that my mom
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: was not a way to come down there.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: It was a nightmare she couldn't wake up from. Janetta
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: soon found herself locked up in juvenile detention, charged with
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the murder of the man who had been her boyfriend.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Janetta had a solid alibi, but as the investigation closed
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: in around her, she felt more and more hopeless, until
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: finally she saw only one way out.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: I took all these pills one night that I had
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: been saving that I wasn't taken, and like two o'clock
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: in the morning, I get a tap on my arm
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: and it's this lady stand in front of me. She
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: got an all white nurse's outfit. She just kept touching me,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: saying everything's gonna be okay, It's okay, sweenye. And I
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: thought she was an angel. I feel like she honestly
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: saved my life. My name is Johanetta Carr and I'm
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: thirty four years old. I'm from Louisville, Kentucky.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: From LoVa for Good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Freeling today. Janetta Carr. Janetta Carr was born on me
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: twenty fifth, nineteen eighty eight, in Louisville, Kentucky. She's the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: youngest of six kids and often spent time with her
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: extended family.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: You know, the youngest child, I always were in things
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: so like I'm kind of it was cool, you know,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: I was. I'm very, very spoiled by my siblings. I
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: really didn't get in trouble as much by my great grandmother,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: my mom's mom's mom. When stuff would happen, we would
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: all be at her house and my great grandmother was like,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: she's a baby. She didn't do that.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: You know, you had the baby privilege.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the baby privilege. Definitely the baby privilege.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Until Janetta's stepdad, Edward came into the picture. Janetta's mom, Lorinda,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: raised all six kids on her own.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: She worked hard her whole life to take care of us.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: But you know, we had a lot of family support.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: So like my family's always been close.
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: We would have.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Dinners, you know, at my grandmother's house, who's my mom's mom,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: very very close to my biolage dad's mom, and my
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: aunties and uncles on that side of the family, seven
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: of us total, you know. So I was always with
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: my brothers and sisters, my cousins. You know. When I
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: became a teenager, I would hang with my friends in
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: the neighborhood. We'd be at my mom's house. We wasn't
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: at my mom's house, we'd be at one of my
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: other two friends house. We'd be in the porch, you know.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Lorenda kept a religious household, and Janetta and her siblings
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: went to church every Sunday. Janetta also kept busy performing
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: in plays at her church and taking acting classes at
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the local theater camp.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: And we actually did the The Midsummer's Night Dream was
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: one of the plays that we did, and I wanted
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: to be the witch, but I didn't get the witch part.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: I ended up being the unicorn. And I actually love
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: unicorns today, so I got to be a unicorn and
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: a point.
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: She was just a typical teenager.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: You know, this is Janetta's mom, Loreinda Baker, doing.
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: What typical teenage just do.
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: Own the phone with her friends, withjama parties, movies, skating,
• 4:04
  Speaker 5: hanging out into some on the front, forge ice cream,
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: you know that type of thing.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Was she ever in any kind of trouble.
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: No. Joannette is a lovely person.
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: She's got a lovely personality on a wonderful spirit.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: And everyone around her felt that spirit. She loved to
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: spend time with her friends and pamper them.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Like when we would go, you know, do stuff to
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: the mom me and my friends. I would always be
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: the last one to get ready because I was doing
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: everybody else's her make up.
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: This stuff they used to rush me.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Janetta was super smart and a driven young woman. She
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: graduated high school early at just sixteen years old. Right
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: after graduation, Janetta started school at Sullivan University, studying to
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: be a paralegal. She had planned to work for the
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Prosecutor's office. Around this time, she met Michael.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: I met him just in the neighborhood, like my best friend.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: Her and her mom had lived in these apartments, and
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: he lived in the apartments next to where they lived
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: at Planis.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Michael Adolphe, who went by Michael, was from Haiti. He
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: worked as a cab driver.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: He was nice.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, he was cool. You know.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Michael and Janetta started dating even though he was twenty
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: years older than she was.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, I had already graduated high school. I really
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: went into dudes my age, and I know, I don't
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: care about y'all judging me America, because let me tell
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: y'all something, right now, Okay, let's get this straight. Okay, yes,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: that is part of my story. I don't care what
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: y'all think, how y'all feel about it, because every single
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: teenager has something that they do to rebel against their parents. Okay,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: some teenagers still stuff, maybe some still cars do whatever. Okay,
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: I just liked oda dudes.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Despite their age difference, Janetta and Michael had a great relationship.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: They had fun together, and Janetta says that he was
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: a kind and generous man.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: We was two individuals that connected and liked each other.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: On the night of October twenty second, two thousand and five,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: about two months into their relationship, Michael had friends over
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: at his apartment to play dominoes. Janetta was spending the
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: night at a friend's house for a sleepover party. What
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: do you remember about that night?
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: I just remember me and my friends. We was doing
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: her We was doing you know, makeup. We was watching videos,
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: you know, slapping, eating snacks. At just a normal night, yep.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: But the next morning would be anything but normal. Around
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: nine am, a neighbor called the police to report that
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: someone was collapsed in front of their apartment building.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: It was Michael.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: He had been strangled, apparently with an electrical cord from
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: a fan that was wrapped around his neck. His feet
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: were bound with duct tape. Michael's wallet and cell phone
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: were missing, and in his pocket was a Growl restore
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: receipt timestamped ten forty seven pm the night before. His
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: cab was later found a few miles away, ransacked and abandoned,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: with the stereo missing. Sometime after Michael left the grocery
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: store that night, he had been robbed and violently murdered.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: When did you find out that Michael was killed?
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: I've seen it on the news. It was crazy and
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: scary and horrible and like unbelievable about who could have
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: done it because he didn't have, you know, no like
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: enemies that I knew of, because he was such a
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: sweet person. So I was like, why would somebody do this?
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: Like?
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Who would do this?
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Janetta was heartbroken and things were about to get worse.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Two and a half months later, Janetta was at her
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: friend's house when investigators came looking for her.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: They showed up in my best friend's house, who I
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: was sleep next to the night that the crime happened.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: They showed up at her house and a detective Tony
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Finch knocked on the door. Her mom was like, Janetta,
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: detective for a play you.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Detective Tony Finch was the lead investigator on the case,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: and when Janetta came to the door, he took out
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: his handcuffs and arrested her for the murder of plunt
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: As Michael Adolphe. Then he brought her down to the precinct.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: I was really confused. I didn't know why I was there,
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: what was going on. I just thought that I was
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: going to get to go home because I didn't do nothing,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: So I was scared. I was everything any emotion you
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: can think of. I was angry, you know, was it
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: like registering?
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Like were you processing like, oh, they think I did this. No,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: even though Kentucky laws his police must notify my nurse
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: parents before questioning them. Janetta was interrogated alone by Sergeant
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: James Hellinger and lead Detective Tony Finch. She says Detective
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Finch was extremely harsh with her.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: When I asked for my mom, he told me that
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: it was not a girl Scouts meeting, that my mom
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: was not allowed to come down there.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Janetta says he threatened her, calling her a murderer, a bitch,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: and a whore.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: He asked me if I was in a gang. He
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: tell me he had people that placed me at the
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: scene and that he knew that I was guilty. He
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: told me that I was a danger and threat to
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: society and that he didn't want me on his f
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: and streets and that I was going to prison for
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: f and live.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: The interrogation went on for over eleven hours. Janetta maintained
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: her innocence the entire time. She was sure she would
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: soon be released to go home, but that didn't happen.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: in the communities where they work and live. In light
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: other support to underrepresented communities and individuals.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: I went straight from the interrogation room. They took me
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: in his highway. They started taking pictures of me and
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: had me held up its number, and then they yet
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: they sent me shirt to j c Wise. The same
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: night I got boked into j CYS.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: J c Yse is the Jefferson County Youth Detention Center.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Janetta's mother, Larinda, had no idea what had happened. How
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: did you find out?
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: My neighbor, Miss Pete, let me use her phone for
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: any type of situation that I may have, and she
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: came and knocked on my door and told me that
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: Jace Wyse wanted me on the phone. I had ma Pajamazone.
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: It was about seven forty five, eight o'clock in the morning.
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: I ran out the back door. As a matter of fact,
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: I left the back door open when I went to
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: her house and got on the phone. The lady from
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: j C Wysse told me that they were holding Johanetta
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: on some conspiracy to murder and manslaughter and that she
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: had to be in court that morning at eight thirty.
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: I just couldn't believe it, you know, because the Johanetta
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: that I know is not capable of that type of thing.
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: And I knew that she didn't do it. I knew
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: she was innocent.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Janetta had a rock solid alibi. Over half a dozen
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: people had been at that sleepover, but detectives had their
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: sights set on her.
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: For the first time.
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: I couldn't tell her this is it's gonna be okay,
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: It's going to be all right. You know, You're gonna
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: be fine. We're going to get through this, because I
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: didn't know if we were going to get through this.
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: I didn't know what was going to happen, you know.
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: And I could see her she was trying to be strong,
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: because I guess she was trying to be strong for me,
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: and I was trying to be strong for her. And
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: I didn't want her to see me cry because I
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: knew if she had saw me cry, she would have
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: been more upset than she already was, and I didn't
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: want to inflict any more pain on her.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: What Janetta didn't know was that while she was left
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: confused and alone in juvenile jail, detectives were building an
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: entire case against her. A few weeks before Janetta was arrested,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: detectives had interrogated a friend who was also at the sleepover.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: To protect the identities of these individuals, we'll call this friend, Carrie,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Detective Finch had arrested nineteen year old Carrie on a
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: bench warrant for shoplifting. While in custody, he interrogated her
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: about Michael Adolphe's murder. Carrie said there was no way
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Janetta was involved. They were together all night. Carrie said
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: that she and a few other friends, including one we'll
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: call Kyle, drove around that night. They stopped at White
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Castle for some food before going back to Kyle's house
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: for a sleepover with a bigger group of people. Janetta
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: never left the house by herself that night, but Finch
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: ran with that and started implicating both Carrie and Kyle
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: in the murder as well. Finch told Carrie he'd help
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: her with her shoplifting charges if she would repeat the
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: story he wanted to hear. After about ten hours of interrogation,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Carrie broke down and repeated Finch's false narrative that she, Kyle,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: and Janetta killed Michael quickly, though Carrie recanted and again
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: maintained that she knew nothing about the murder, but it
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: didn't matter. Finch arrested her anyway. Kyle was also interrogated
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: by detectives about the murder, and he too was eventually arrested.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Carrie and Kyle were nineteen years old, technically adults, but
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Janetta was only sixteen. She was initially charged as a juvenile,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: but she was later indicted as an adult. Among Janetta's
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: charges first degree murder. The weight of everything that was
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: happening was too much for Janetta to process, and while
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: she was in the juvenile detention center.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: I'll try to kill myself.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: After her suicide attempt, Janetta was transferred to Our Lady
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: of Peace Hospital. She was diagnosed with clinical depression and
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: put on medication.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: So they started give me these pills I was supposed
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: to take, and I would have the pels in my
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: cheek because I still wanted to to kill myself because
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: I was that hopeless from being incarcerated for a crime
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: I didn't commit, having nothing to do with. So I
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: took all these pills one night that I had been
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: saving that I wasn't taken, and like two o'clock in
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: the morning, I get a tap on my arm and
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: it's this lady stand in front of me. She got
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: on an all white nurses outfit. She had like caramel
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: skin short her. She just kept touching me, saying, everything's
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: gonna be okay, It's okay, sweetie. The next day I
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: started asking the staff members, you know who she was, like,
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: because I wanted to thank her, you know, because I
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: feel like she honestly saved my life. And they was like,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: we don't know her. Nobody works here. The person you're
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: describing doesn't work, And I thought she was an angel.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Soon after that experience, Janetta reached out to her mom
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: and told her about taking the pills.
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: And to the hospital and set with her and just
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: held her hand, you know, and told her, you know,
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: I'm so sorry that this has happened to you. I'm
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: so sorry that you're going through this, you know. I mean,
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: you sitting in his jael Syal day after day, minute
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: at the minute, you know, and you see people going
• 16:16
  Speaker 5: home and you're still sitting here for something that you
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: didn't do. I probably would have took my life to
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: you know, but I know that God has a purpose
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: for everybody's life, and I just felt like God had
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: a lot for her to do down here, and he
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: wasn't ready for her to go yet.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, instead of probing other angles, like analyzing the evidence
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: at the murder scene or pursuing other potential suspects, Detective
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Finch was hell bent on closing the case.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: He would do whatever he needed to do to get
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: a conviction.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: This is Suzanne Hopp, directing attorney of the Kentucky in
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: a Since project. They represented Janetta in her post conviction efforts.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: The final sort of nail in the coffin there is
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: that there was a jailhouse informant that was used against Janetta.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: After Janetta turned eighteen, she was transferred from juvenile detention
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: to an adult jail, and an informant who lived in
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: the cell next door, Laurie Deckard, said that Janetta confessed
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: to her. According to Laurie, Janetta told her she was
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: mad at Michael, and so she, Carrie and Kyle went
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: to his apartment and robbed and murdered him. Detectives got
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: statements from other jailhouse informants implicating Kyle and Carrie as well,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: but they still had a problem the other people at
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: the sleepover, Janetta had a solid alibi, So detective Jim
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Lawson interrogated Janetta's best friend, whom we'll call Britney. Brittany
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: said she was with Janetta all night. They slept on
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: the couch together and fell asleep under the same blanket.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: She told him that Johnetta did not do this, she
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: was snaxting me.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Sleep that night, but laws In dismissed her account. Instead,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: he fabricated a report saying Brittany told him she was
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: a heavy sleeper and couldn't say whether or not Janetta
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: had left the house. Even with all their alleged evidence
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: against Janetta, Carrie, and Kyle, detectives were still hell bent
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: on getting one of the three to flip on the others.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: They were relentless. They just kept going after all three
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: co defendants and repeatedly questioning them. What the police were
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: doing was they were telling all three co defendants that
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: if all of you don't admit to this crime and
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: enter into guilty please, and we're going to try one
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: of the adults under the death penalty.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Remember Kyle and Carrie were both nineteen.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: That was sort of like the ultimate, the end point
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: where these three individuals were thinking about their friends and
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: somebody facing the death penalty.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: With this life or death situation looming over the trio,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: the state offered them a plea bargain called an Alfred plea,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: and Alfred plea is a deal with the state or
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: defendants plead guilty for a lesser sentence, but are allowed
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: to maintain their innocence. Prosecutors told them they would only
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: accept the plea deal if all three pled guilty, so
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: they did. On April fourteenth, two thousand and eight. Janetta
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: took the deal and pled guilty to evidence tampering, two
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: conspiracy charges, and second degree manslaughter. She was sentenced to
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: twenty years in prison. So how did it feel to
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: take a plea saying, you know, I'm innocent, but I
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: recognize all of this evidence because you know it's not
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: real evidence.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: What did that feel like?
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: I literally felt like I had no other choice because
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: at that point I was just helpless. Just know that
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: I was not the Johnetta then that I am now,
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: you know, I went educated about the law and thinking
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: they could arrest people for crimes they didn't committed.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: While in prison, Janetta tried to stay as productive as possible.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: I took computer classes, and I went to church a lot,
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: you know, swung in the choir, a lot, wrote letters,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: a lot ate a lot too many noodles. I do
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: not eat noodles. No more, y'all cany, No, we're not.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: Than.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: What was that like to be around adults as a
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: as a kid.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: Well, at first, it was kind of scary because I
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: was thinking, oh, my guinness, these people are criminals, Like
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: what am I gonna do? But actually I met a
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: bunch of beautiful women from all different walks of life,
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: and they was really lights to me. You know. We
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: gave each other hope because there was nothing else we
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: could do. I think I went through every emotion that
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: a parent could go through. I got frustrated, I got angry,
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: I got upset, I cried because you know, there were.
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: No resources available, and it.
• 21:17
  Speaker 5: Was just a horrible, horrible, horrible thing to go through
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: for anybody. I think one of the hardest parts for
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: me was having to explain to Johanetta's nieces and nephews
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: that we didn't know when she was going to come
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: home because Johnette is very close to them and they
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: love her, you know. And then they're crying and I'm crying,
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: and we're all trying to make some sense out of this,
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: and we still can't make any sense out of it
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: as it stands today.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: About a year or so after her conviction, and Janetta
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: was called into the prison office.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Surprised me because I didn't know why I was getting
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: called in her because I didn't get in any trouble
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: while I was, you know, incarcerated, so I didn't know
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: why I was getting called in there.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: When she walked in, Laurie Deckard, the jail house snitch,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: was there, and she admitted that during the investigation the
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: police told her to lie about Janetta and say she confessed.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: Because I'm like, okay, you're saying this now, why didn't
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: you say that, you know a long time ago? Like
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: I'm basically, you're a part of this. You're a part
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: of the fabricated evidence and part of the reason why
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: I'm here. It is her fault because she didn't have
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: to lie. But when you really think about the jail
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: house snitches. The system actually puts them in situations, you
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. So really the detectives on my
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: case is responsible for that.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: In two thousand and nine, after serving four years of
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: a twenty year sentence, Janetta was eligible for parole. She
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: was granted time served for the time she spent in
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: the juvenile detention facility and was released from prison.
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: It was a joy and of blessing to see her
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: after not being able to see her for so many years,
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: and being able to see her was you know, I
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: was in at mowhere. I didn't want to let it go.
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: She used to tell me all the time, when my
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: mama go, miss Peties. I'd be like, no, I want
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: you to stay in the house.
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: I don't want you to go nowhere.
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: You know, I think I kind of wented to a
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: mother overload, but I think I kind of had a
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: rite to at everything that she had been through. I
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: just wanted to keep her as close to me as
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: I possibly could.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Although she was home, Janetta's journey wasn't over. She was
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: physically free, but people on parole are still under scrutinous
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: state control. Janetta had to do random check ins and
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: drug tests and even had to pay a monthly twenty
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: five dollars fee. She also had to maintain a job,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: which wasn't eat because of her record of incarceration.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: So I would go in jobs, you know, and they
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: would be like, you know, you seem like a great
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: person everything, but your background, you know. And I went
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: in like ten jobs a day sometimes, and I was
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: living with my mom at the time, and I would
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: just go home and I would just bother to her.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: Then I started doing research and found fault that it's
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: estimated in America with ten thousand people get falsely convict
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: her of crimes they didn't committe each year. And my
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: heart was just like, uh, they doing this to other
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: people too. I know how this feels. And I had
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: not heard nobody talking about it.
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: And you know, I asked her one day, I said,
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: you know, I'm so angry. And I asked, I said,
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: how come you're not mad? She said, my mom, don't
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: I'm not gonna be angry. I'm not gonna be mad.
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: She said, what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna fight. I'm
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: gonna fight, she said, because I didn't do this and
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: I'm innocent.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: I started to go to the Plasma center and donate plasma.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: And it was a foun dollar right next to the
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: plasma center, and I would take the money from plasma,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: go to family Dollar, get posts to border markers, and
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: I would make signs trying to write his awareness for
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: wrongful convictions, and I would just started walking around, you know,
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: my city.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Holding At the same time, Janetta was also trying to
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: get off parole and still working to prove her innocence.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: I would look up numbers, you know, for like innocent projects,
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: people who helped innocent I would just google it, and
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: I would you know, call and lead messages on different
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: people's voicemails and stuff, still trying to find help.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Finally, almost a decade after her release, the Kentucky Innocence
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Project agreed to help Janetta fight for her exoneration.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: So when we inherited the case in twenty eighteen, we
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: started doing the record review and attempting to find individuals
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: to interview. And then shortly after getting the case, we
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: received news that we were getting a DNA testing grant
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: from the Department of Justice.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Janetta would finally get a chance to test the evidence,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: specifically the duct tape and the electrical cord that were
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: found on Michael Adolphe's body to see if there was
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: a DNA match with the actual perpetrator.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: If we could get a hit on something in the
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: national database and CODIS, it would then build a stronger
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: case for Janetta. Obviously we would have been able to
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: locate who had actually killed the victim.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: And during its investigation, the Kentucky Innocence Project discovered bombshell
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: information that had never been disclosed to Janetta or her
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: attorneys all those years ago. First off, it turns out
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: that DNA testing had been conducted on the case back
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and six. While it didn't point to
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: someone else as the perpetrator, it did indicate that neither
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Janetta nor her co defendants could have committed the murder.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Not only that, the Kentucky Innocence Project discovered that there
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: were viable alternative suspects who were ever properly investigated. Who
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: is Steve Lewis.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: He should have been a person of interest. I think
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: the police should have pursued a very deep investigation into
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: mister Lewis.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Steve Lewis was an acquaintance of Michaels and in the
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: early days of the investigation officers got a tip from
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: a friend of Michael's who said he had seen Steve
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Lewis and Michael in a heated argument over a girl,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: and that during the fight, Steve threatened to kill Michael.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: When he was questioned by police, Steve denied involvement, but
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: he was unable to provide an alibi for his whereabounds
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: around the time of the murder. Yet, for whatever reason,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: the investigation into Steve ended. Finally, phone records showed that
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: someone was using Michael's phone after his death. There were
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: calls made to Los Angeles and to Florida, and again
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: the police never followed up. Instead, they went after sixteen
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: year old Janetta and her friends.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: Oh. I think the state offered her an offered plea
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: because they knew she would go to trial and they
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: had questions about the strength of their case. I think
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: the case had been pending long enough that the prosecutor
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: wanted to get some closure on it. They knew that
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: they had some problems with their case, that if they
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: went to trial they might not get a conviction.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Do you think if you went to trial you might
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: have won?
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: Probably? So I can't think about it and the reason
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: why I can't think about it because it brings back
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: so much pain. I'm trying to be a light in
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: the world, so I can't think about these things. I
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: just had to move with purpose and take the pain
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: that I've been through and make it. My purpose is
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: to make legislation for the next generations so that people
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: don't get wrongly convicted and so that my children don't
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: have to go through what I went through. Johnetta doesn't
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: want to be angry, you know what I'm saying. Johnetta
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: doesn't want to be better. Johnetta doesn't want to be bad.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: And Johnetta is not going to be the Commonwealth of
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: Kentucky's victim because they already took too many years of
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: my life. So I don't think about these things. I can't.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: The Kentucky Innocence Project also applied for a pardon for Janetta,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: and on December ninth, twenty nineteen, Kentucky Governor Matthew Bevin
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: pardoned her based on her actual innocence.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: The Governor called me and he actually apologized. He said,
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: I want to apologize to you for what the Commonwealth
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: did to you, and we actually cried.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: However, the pardon left Janetta in a strange situation. The
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Kentucky state statuted for DNA testing says that a person
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: must be under state supervision to qualify for testing.
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: So it's very unfortunate because we think that there is
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: biological material on the evidence that was collected, the evidence
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: still exists, we would like to test it.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: If that DNA isn't tested, Michael's true killer may never
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: be known.
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: If indeed there is a person out there that killed
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: the victim and that they're still out there, they may
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: still be doing the same thing to other people. The
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: public is certainly at greater risk to not have that
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: DNA testing get done.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Janetta is also not eligible for any kind of wrongful
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: conviction compensation because Kentucky is one of the twelve states
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: that do not have compensation laws for xoneries.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: But somebody needs has to start being held accountable when
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: wrongful convictions happen. I'm so discussed it and appalled at
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: the justice system in Kentucky and what they are using
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: and spending our tax dollars on. And when you think
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: about it, you know, it's like a slap in the
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: face that money and those resources could be used for
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: so many other things, like we have a homelessness problem
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: in Louil of Like, there's literally veterans at her who's
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: happened to choose right now in between groceries and medicine.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: And they went to war and fought for this country.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: And we're spending tax money to pay for civil litigation
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: calls and defenses to defend publice officers and detectives who
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: normally breach a duty to wrongfully convict people by falsifying evidence,
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: coherts and testimony and how DNA. That's a big issue.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Janetta is now represented by the Exoneration Project and the
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: national civil rights firm Lov and Lov. She's also a
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: mother to two children, one year old Royalty and six
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: year old Jakari, and she's again pursuing one of her
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: early dreams. She's back in paralegal school, but this time
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: she doesn't want to work in the prosecutor's office. She
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: wants to help prevent and write wrongful convictions.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: I'm on a journey. I'm healing me. Being wrongfully convicted
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: something I will live with and it's going to impact
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: my life for the rest of my life. However, I
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: choose not to make that my entire life. I'm just
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: really really focused on my purpose right now. You know
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: what I need to do on life as far as
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: bring and change, you know, and raising my kids, you know,
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: just trying to heal and become a better me every
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: day is all vall.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: If you'd like to help others who have been wrongfully convicted,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: Janetta recommends supporting the organizations I Am Resilience and the
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Chandler Project in Kentucky House Bill six ninety one. Janetta
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: also has a GoFundMe to help raise travel expenses for
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: exoneries attending the Innocence Conference. There will be links to
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: all of this in our bio. Next time, on Wrongful
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Conviction with Maggie Freeling, Hope White, do you think there
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: was police corruption in your case?
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, there was a loss of police corruption.
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: In that case.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: support your local innocence organizations and go to the links
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: in our bio to see how you can help. I'd
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and Kevin Wurtis,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea, producer Lyla Robinson,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: and story editor Sonia Paul. The show is edited and
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production by Jeff Cliburn
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: and Connor Hall. The music in this production is by
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to
• 33:55
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• 33:58
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• 34:02
  Speaker 1: well as at Lava for Good. On all three platforms,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: you can also follow me on both Instagram and Twitter
• 34:09
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• 34:12
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• 34:16
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