WEBVTT - #523 Jason Flom with Lerico Kearney 0:00:02.360 --> 0:00:05.440 On November twenty first, nineteen ninety seven, a Suffolk County, 0:00:05.519 --> 0:00:08.479 Virginia man known for drug dealing in gambling named Gene 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:12.160 Artists and his sister, Yvonne Giles, were both fatally shot 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.560 in front of Yvonne's six year old son, Trayvon. The 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.040 boy was discovered in his blood soaked T shirt and 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:21.240 underwear outside of the house shortly after the shooting around 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.119 ten pm. Trayvon gave a very descriptive police report, but 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:28.800 later became unable to remember the details of the tragic event. 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:32.720 In a court of law. However, Gene Artist's girlfriend and 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:36.240 several other associates began making police statements that named another 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:40.240 man involved in the drug trade, Larico Kearney, collectively saying 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.440 that he shot Jeanne to recover a large gambling loss. 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:46.960 Shortly before his trial, another drug dealer claimed that l 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:49.839 Rico had plotted to rob Gene Artists of the gambling 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:50.800 score in order to. 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:52.240 Repay him for a drug debt. 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:56.480 Laurco was convicted, but a constitutional violation triggered a new 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.880 trial in which three new witnesses joined the Commonwealth case. 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.600 With this many people willing to testify, revealing the statements 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.600 of the only person who actually saw the murders wouldn't 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:11.640 even have seemed like it was necessary. But this is 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:26.280 wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction. Today we have 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:29.720 another case out of Virginia, which, again the entire substance 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:32.160 of the States case was built upon the words of 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:36.679 incentivized witnesses receiving leniency on their own charges, by the way, 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:41.240 all while ignoring the only actual credible witness and the 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:44.039 most likely suspect. Meanwhile, the man who they focused on 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:47.319 instead is calling in today, over twenty five long years 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:51.840 later from Greensville Correctional Facility of Virginia. Larico Kearney, I'm 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:55.000 sorry you're with us today under the circumstances, but all 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:56.960 of us here at wrongful Conviction are happy and honor 0:01:57.000 --> 0:01:58.120 that you're joining us today. 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:01.000 Thank y'all just for giving me this opportunity, you know, 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:02.040 to share my story. 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:05.040 Yeah, you're most welcome and also joining us. And you'll 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:08.640 remember him from our comforage of Terrence Hobbs is Lenny Singleton, 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:12.840 who did his own stint a legal conviction but a 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:17.000 crazy sentence of the thousand, three hundred and ten years 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.760 for having stolen a little over five hundred dollars. No 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:23.800 one was hurt, and no weapon was used. Lenny was 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.880 a jailhouse lawyer and then benefited from a conditional pardon 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:31.680 and soon joined the Cagashaw Law firm, from which he 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:36.240 and his wife, Vandy crusade for the wrongfully convicted. So, Lenny, 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:37.520 welcome back to the show. 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:39.720 Oh thank you, great to be here. 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:42.560 I think our audience will agree that this is very 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:46.480 similar to Terrence Hobbs's case, not the story itself, but 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:51.080 the patterns of the investigation and the misconduct and the prosecution. 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:53.840 The towns in which they occurred were less than twenty 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:56.600 miles apart, by the way, where As I alluded to 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:58.880 in the opening, you have a crime that occurred in 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:01.640 the drug culture of the nineties and an investigation that 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:05.160 bent over backwards to ignore the most likely suspect, turning 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:10.720 instead to incentivize and or coerced witness testimony in exchange 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:14.040 for sentence reductions and things like that. The similarities of 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:17.240 the cases are striking, from which it's easy to see 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:19.240 that there's patterns here. 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:19.560 Right. 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:21.880 We see these all over the country, but it seems 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.119 like there's a cluster of them in Virginia. 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:29.000 I don't know that we could just focus on Virginia. 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:33.520 I think this is a widespread issue where snitches, and 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:36.200 most of them do this for a living. They're always 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.080 in trouble and they know how to work the system. 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:41.120 They know who to call, they know who to get 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.840 in contact with. I've seen several cases in Virginia where 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:48.800 guys will see someone on TV on the news, call 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:51.120 someone and say, look, I'm in the pub with this 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:55.040 guy and I overheard him saying this, that and the other, 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:59.280 when in fact those things have never happened. But it 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.080 is a culture in Virginia that needs to be stopped 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:07.120 for sure, because I've never seen one that actually was true. 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:10.760 They're always working to get a deal, get a time cut, 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:14.520 as you could clearly see in the letters that Lorico's 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:21.080 attorney was able to obtain these inmates, writing folk telling 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:23.440 them I'll say whatever you need me to say, just 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:25.000 let me get this certain deal. 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:27.839 And we'll quote from those letters later. It's really egregious. 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:31.080 And of course, again this doesn't only happen in Virginia. 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:33.599 It happens in all fifty states, but some states have 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:36.800 even enacted laws in order to only allow this kind 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:40.000 of testimony if it's corroborated by some physical evidence, of 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:43.000 which there usually is none, and this case is no exception. 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:45.279 But before we get into all of that, Lorico, you 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:47.640 grew up in kind of like in two different places, 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:50.360 mostly with your mom in Surrey, Virginia and then part 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:53.520 of the time with your father and your grandparents in Suffolk, Virginia. 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:54.039 Is that right. 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:56.680 I'm a regally from Suffolk, Virginia. My mom was a 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.800 single parent. You know. My dad, you know, he was 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:01.480 you know, in and out of the streets. You know, 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:03.680 he was in and out of jail. My mother's job 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:06.640 carried her for different places. So I moved from Suffolk 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.320 to Windsor, and eventually I moved to Surrey County, but 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:11.960 I was still, you know, visiting my grandmother and my 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:14.440 father on the weekends. And like I said, you know, 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.640 my father, you know he told drugs, and me watching 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.040 my father, you know, you see the so called drug 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.680 that they're wearing nice clothes, driving nice cars, and you know, 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:25.000 I thought that was cool. 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:27.400 And this is something I've heard before when a young 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.560 person growing up around that scene quickly notices that everyone 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:34.279 who's not selling drugs is struggling to get by while 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:38.159 the ones who are involved in the trade have seemingly 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:39.680 comfortable lives. 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.200 And money in your pocket. Yeah, back in those days, seriously, yeah, 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:45.719 you know when crack cocaine hit. Yeah, they were the 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.719 heroes in the neighborhood actually, sadly. 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:50.960 And the only ones with any real economic power, until, 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:52.840 of course they got caught and sent away from some 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:55.320 ungodly sentence, like la Rico's father. 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:57.960 But my father went to prison in nineteen ninety five. 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:00.839 He had fifty four years under the old with parole. 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:03.360 He was denied a couple of times. He ended up 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:05.400 doing sixteen years and four months. 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.200 And what did life look like for you after he 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:10.840 went away? I understand you had moved out of your 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.360 mom's in with your father and your grandparents. 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.680 It's just me, my grandmother or my grandfather. I'man thoseing 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:19.240 in the streets. There's nothing you know to glorify, you know, 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:22.160 be proud of. But I was in no baying and 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:23.800 selling drugs, right, So you. 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:27.200 Were probably already on the radar of local law enforcement. 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:29.200 But had you ever been arrested before I was. 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:32.520 Arrested in October of ninety seven. I had a possession 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:36.080 of cocaine, assault on the ULSA, and other traffic violations 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:39.160 that came with that same incident one month before this happened. 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:41.760 Whoa, whoa, Back up a second. There the assault of 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:44.039 a police officer. What happened in that case? 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:47.279 I think in the process of them restraining me, I 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:48.719 think he may have hurt his finger. 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:54.520 Oh Jesus Christ, I mean so since the arrest was 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:59.200 the impetus for the officer's injury, they, of course, you know, 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:01.599 some sort of centers are gaslighting move. They got to 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.680 charge you with assault of an officer, which makes you 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:08.479 sound like a super violent person when in actuality he 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:10.040 had injured himself. 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:10.720 Yes, sir. 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:13.960 And so now with this arrest and the alleged assault, 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:16.640 and I'm putting that in quotation marks of a police 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:19.200 officer just a month before the murders. From what I understand, 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:21.440 this put you on house arrests with an ankle monitor 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:24.800 with only supervised outings. So, needless to say, you're a 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:26.960 well known entity of the local police. You were right 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.080 for the picking, so to speak. Right, you were easy 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:32.440 fall guy for them. And one of the deceased in 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:34.840 this case was also known to both you and the police, 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.400 which is a guy named David Eugene artists who went 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:40.640 by a GENA. What was your relationship to Jean. 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.440 We would run at each other on a regular basis, 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:45.679 you know, Like I said, he was a drug dealer 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:48.400 in the area. And Jean would you know, always, you know, 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:50.960 look to entice people to gamble, to shoot dice because 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:52.520 he was he was good at it. I guess that's 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.280 how he supported itself, no gambling and selling drugs. 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:57.440 And it was part of the States theory that he 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.200 had enticed you into a few games in which you 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:04.360 had lost big money. Did you used to gamble with Gene? 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:07.000 I never personally gambled with Gene because I knew how 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:08.400 I knew how good Gene was. 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:10.800 Yeah, some of those guys, man, they come up with 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:13.560 these techniques. There's a way you can actually set the 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:17.360 dice and increase the probability of a certain number. Gene 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:19.800 probably was good with dice. He knew how to set him, 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:21.760 he knew how to increase his chances at winning. 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:25.600 So you knew better than to play with Gene. Your 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.040 father been the one who gave you that advice. 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.560 He actually did on more than one occasion. He actually did. 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:33.719 You had even turned him down in front of two 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:36.880 individuals who eventually were coerced into testifying against you. I'm 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:39.120 talking about Casey Davis and Travis Chalk. 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:42.240 The morning that Gene Artist was killed, he came to 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:44.640 the house of trying to entice us to gamble. Of 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:45.800 course all of us said no. 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.880 Right, but the authorities eventually coerced those two men into 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.960 making false statements about you, saying that you were in 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:55.559 possession of a black forty five caliber from the day before, 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:57.320 and men in the morning of the twenty first, that 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.240 you had said, quote, if he don't have it g 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.520 or better, I'm gonna kill him because I'm tired of 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:07.200 him winning my money and coming with no money end quote. 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:09.439 Chalk went on to say that you and Jean shot 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:12.640 dice for about an hour and then agreed to pause 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.520 the game and pick it up later. The authorities were 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:18.360 also successful in getting Jean's girlfriend at the time to 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:21.240 say that you had once lost something like five thousand 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:24.080 dollars to Jeane and the dice game, but that also 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:25.080 had never happened. 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:28.920 His girlfriend at the time, her name was Sabrina Northfleet. 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:31.400 I think that she had some child depended or she 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:33.920 had a situation going on, you know, that's why she 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:37.560 fabricated the story which never happened, seeing me gamble with 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:39.959 Jean in the place that, as God's my witness, I 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:41.040 had never my life been to. 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:43.640 But there was something that she testified to that was true, 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:46.480 which was seeing you and Jane together earlier on in 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:48.720 the night that he was murdered, when she pulled up 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:50.680 to Jean and a gas station and you had asked 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:51.679 him for a ride home. 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.079 I was at the sub shot that was across the 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:56.960 street from the gas station that Geene Artists was at, 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.680 asked her for a rat and she had pulled up 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:01.640 in that station two. I guess her. 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:02.120 Gene. 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:04.800 They had an argument, but she did see me sitting 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:06.640 in the car with Jene. He was just giving me 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:07.560 a ride home. 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.240 So he dropped you off with your grandparents. You later 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:12.040 walked down the street to be with one of your 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.320 kids at the child's mother's house. Both the child's mother 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.240 and grandmother later testified to your whereabouts during the murders 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:20.760 of Gene Artists had his sister, Evon Giles, which was 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:23.960 November twenty first, nineteen ninety seven. They were both shot 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:26.600 while at home sometime between nine and ten pm, and 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.320 apparently there was a pizza delivery before the murders. The 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:33.360 pizza delivery person, Teresa Rix, saw two men arguing on 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.560 their way into the residence at one sixteen Franklin Street, 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:39.640 neither of which she recognized as you we go. So 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:43.920 there was another witness to this entire harrowing scene, this 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:44.640 whole ordeal. 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.520 There was one person who was there and who actually 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:51.280 saw the killer, six year old Trayvon Artists, who lived 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:53.720 in the apartment with his mother and his uncle. At 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:57.000 about ten pm the night of November twenty first, ninety seven, 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:01.280 Treyvon was found standing outside of that one sixteen Franklin 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:04.960 Street address, wearing nothing but a shirt and his underwear, 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:07.880 with his mother's blood on his clothes, and he led 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:09.760 a neighbor to the bodies in the apartment. 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.000 Okay, first, let's take a second to recognize that this 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:16.400 is a frightened little boy in a terrifying situation. Now, 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.800 the neighbor that took him back inside was his mother's boyfriend, 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:22.640 Jody Cross, and by now the police had been called. 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:26.319 Trayvon gave a statement to the police at eleven pm. 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.480 So this wasn't long after, in which he stated clearly 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:33.920 and unequivocally that a relative of his name, Gregory Artist, 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:37.920 not Lorico, had been in the apartment and had shot 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:42.400 and killed his mother, Yvonne Giles, right in front of him. 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:47.240 He repeated these statements to the police twice more the next. 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:50.559 Day, and he's crystal clear with the police about what happened. 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:52.880 Can you read some of the report for us? 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:55.800 They questioned, did you see the man that shot your mom? 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:58.520 He said yes, and they asked him, is his name 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.839 Jody Cross? He says, no, that's my mom's boyfriend. Did 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:07.080 Gregory Artists shoot your mom? Yes? Did you see Gregory 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:08.480 Artist shoot your mom? 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:09.319 Yes? 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:12.280 How do you know Gregory Artists? He has been to 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:16.120 my house before and played cards with my uncle. Cravon 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:21.280 gives the police details. He says, I've spent time at 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:25.280 his house, his kids and I play together. He knows 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.199 this guy. So they ask him, tell me, in your 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:32.080 own words, what you know about this offense? And I 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:35.960 guess this is the next day, he says, Trayvon Artists 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:39.800 advised he was in his mom's bedroom with her watching 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:45.199 TV when he heard David and Gregory Artists arguing. They 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:49.760 were arguing over a card game. Gregory said that David 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:51.480 was cheating again. 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:55.080 Jean's full name is David Eugene Artists, so the name 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:58.040 David and Jeane refer to the same man. 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:02.880 He says that Jane had a small silver gun and 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:08.319 that Gregory had a big black gun. That Jean shot Gregory, 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:12.000 and Gregory shot at Jean. Him and his mom went 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:15.160 into Trayvon's clause at the hide. When no more shots 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:17.760 were fired, him and his mom got out of the 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:21.040 closet and went down the hall. He followed his mom. 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:24.440 Once they were in the front foyer, Gregory and David 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:27.960 were standing there and two more shots were fired and 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:31.200 he fell dead on the floor. Gregory then walked up 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:35.280 to me and my mom and he was told by Gregory, 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:38.400 I'm going to shoot and kill your mom now. And 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:42.200 remember Gregory Artists killed your mom and that's when he 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.520 shot her, this says in the neck area, and she 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.800 fell on the floor by the window and he shot 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:51.960 her again. Gregory then left out the house and then 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:55.200 they asked him to describe Gregory Artists, and he describes 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:58.520 him to the t. He says that Gregory Artist was 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:02.640 a black male, darker skin with two birthmarks and moles 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:06.520 on each side of his forehead, and white freckles. He's 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:10.520 about fifty years old. Gregory lives in North Carolina, the 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:12.959 two story house and lives with his mom. 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:15.760 It's just awful for this little kid. And then the 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.920 authorities appear to have completely ignored him except for the 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:22.400 description of the murder weapon, a big black gun which 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:24.560 they knew to be a forty five from the fragments 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:27.720 they pulled from his mother's skull. Now seven hundred dollars 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:30.280 in cast was also found at the scene, I believe 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.440 five hundred and fifty of which was in Gene Artist's pocket, 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:36.120 in addition to some drugs. So the idea that this 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.280 was a robbery sprung on by dice game losses to 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:43.240 a fellow drug dealer is absurd. But instead of just 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:46.560 going to North Carolina and arresting Gregory Artist, Detective E. C. 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:49.960 Harris appears to use jeens involvement and drugs as an 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:53.880 opportunity to target other guys in that business, including yourself, 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:56.920 for either a wrongful conviction or a false statement to 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.120 use in a wrongful conviction. And as we mentioned, you 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:02.480 were on house arrest at the time for that cocaine 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:05.720 possession and the bogus assault charge when they came to 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:07.840 see you, and you had been seeing with Jean at 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:10.120 the gas station that night, so your name was floating 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:11.760 around in the rumor mil so to speak. 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:13.800 So I guess, you know, my name was in his 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:16.880 roomor mill, and they realized that I was on house arrest. 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:20.640 They gave me a violation because I was actually out 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:23.640 of my house, you know, that weekend that this crame happened. 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:26.200 So I was taking to jail, and I guess the 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:29.479 prosecutor or whoever had planned me to sell with an informant. 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:33.480 His name was Brad Parker, and he tried to question 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:36.920 me about these homicides, and I explained to the gentleman like, no, 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:39.320 that's not what I'm locked up for. The following week, 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:41.440 I was giving a bond, so I was out again. 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:44.880 Later on he ended up writing to the prosecutors or 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:47.560 whatever and telling them that I admitted to him while 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:49.720 I was in that sale about committing these crimes. So 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:52.600 I think all investigations everything stemmed from that. 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.600 And he wasn't the only one willing to offer false 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:59.440 statements against you and your co defending Quinton Parish AKAQP. 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:04.520 Eventually a laundry list of people was compiled, including Casey Davis, 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:08.680 Travis Chalk, Sabrina Northfleet, as well as two other guys, 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:11.440 Tony Booth and Willie Hardy. But was this statement from 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.680 Brad Parker how they originally obtained your arrest warrant? 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:17.440 No, it wasn't Brad Parker. They had got a statement 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:21.080 from a Willie Hardy statement that I made a layer's 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:23.600 profession to him about committing these murders. He was a 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:27.120 suspect in his crime. Him and my co defendant, Quintin persh. 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:29.120 So it turned out that he and Quinton Parish were 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:31.160 childhood buddies who grew up on the same block. But 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:34.600 Quinton refused to give false statements, unlike Willie Hardy. So 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:37.440 you were arrested on December twenty eighth, nineteen ninety seven, 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:40.360 and your family hired an attorney named Ken Melvin, who 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:41.479 was very effective. 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:41.800 Now. 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:45.240 Hardy testified to this false statement at a preliminary hearing 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:47.240 in June of ninety eight, but ended up catching his 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:51.600 own charges and hired William P. Robinson, the same attorney 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:55.280 as his buddy Quinton Parish, you're a co defendant. Hardy 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:58.320 admitted to his attorney Robinson that he had given false 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.520 testimony against you, and your attorney Ken Melvin was present. 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:07.080 They recorded this conversation where he admitted to lying about Larco' Kearney. Willie. 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:11.520 Hardy said he had been threatened and harassed by detectives 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:14.440 every day, threatening the charging with the crimes for which 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:16.040 Kearney is incarcerating. 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:19.199 So now with this recording, your attorney filed emotion for 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:22.080 dismissal of all charges against you, and eventually there was 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.679 a hearing. Meanwhile, the prosecution was scrambling to find a 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:28.119 new star witness and they found another guy from the 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:30.159 Suffolk drug game, Tony Booth. 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.040 I ran into him one time in the Western Time 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:35.159 What the reason the jail? Well, we was on the 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:37.320 basketball court in the jail. He had hired Kenny mil 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:39.480 and he asked me about how Kenne Mill was doing 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:41.200 on my case, and I was like, yeah, he's doing 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:43.760 a good job. Maybe a couple of days later he 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:46.280 was transferred from the Western Time for the Reason the 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:49.320 Jail to Chesapeake. That's when I later learned you know 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:50.920 that you know, he had hopped on my case. 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:53.840 Right, so he hired Ken Melvin for his own charges, 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:56.240 and then, using this conversation on the yard as a 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:59.280 pretext for an allegend confession, began working with the state 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.280 as a witnessing your case, presenting Ken Melvin with a 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:05.280 conflict of interest. And now this attorney, who had been 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:08.040 super effective thus far, was likely to be forced to 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:11.120 drop you as a client. All this may or may 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:15.320 not have been engineered by the prosecution. Smells like an onion. 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:18.320 Might be an onion. But for now, let's get back 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:20.280 to the hearing to dismiss your charges. Based on the 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:22.960 recording which Willie Hardy admitted to perjuring himself at your 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:27.280 preliminary hearing. What happened when they got him understand. 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:29.880 Fearing he would be charged with perjury, he said he'd 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:32.000 been through a lot and he'd been shot, so he 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:33.879 couldn't remember anything. 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:38.480 Now, Judge westbro Poccer said, it's a possibility that before 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:42.080 mister Kearney trial comes up, he may regain his memory back. 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:46.000 And so this Judge Westbrook Parker ruled at Kearney's indictment 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:50.240 would not be dismissed because the witness did not recap 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:52.840 even though they had a recording that he said he 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:53.679 was lying about it. 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:57.280 So now on this date the prosecutor putting in a 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.399 motion to have mister Melvine disqualified for my case. Could 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:19.280 they now have another witness, which was Tony Booth. Mister 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:23.040 Melvin was disqualified off my case. It was strategic, you know. 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:25.119 I guess they felt as though with the case that 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:27.040 they had, it would have been hard for them to 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:29.800 get a conviction on me. I had kenned Melvin, that's 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:30.400 my attorney. 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.040 So that was September of ninety nine, and as your 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:36.000 first trial was fast approaching, your co defending Quinton Parish, 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:38.520 probably seeing what you both were up against, decided to 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:41.280 take an alphab play to avoid a potential life sentence. 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:43.120 And that's how they get a lot of guys too. 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:46.040 This garrel with that, I could see him very easily 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:49.000 pleading out even though he had nothing to do with it, 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:51.280 just because he was afraid he would never get out. 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.480 But Lrico, you weren't backing down even though you were 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:55.760 facing a similar faith. 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.119 Yeah, I had two counts of capital murder at two 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:00.600 counts of use of a foul Yate's. 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:05.520 Theory of his crime was circumstantial evidence of Rico's alleged 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:09.560 rift with Gene Artists over some gambling. 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:12.560 Dead now La Rico tells us that this whole disagreement 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:16.119 over gambling between he and Jean was impossible because he 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:18.280