WEBVTT - #554 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Pablo Velez 0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:04.640 At two a m. On July fifteenth, two thousand four, 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:08.119 a Houston pool hall emptied into its parking lot along 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.680 with a young man named Jason Wooey and nineteen year 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:15.200 old Adrian Pion was waiting outside to settle a score, 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:20.360 but Pion and two friends only brought fists to a gunfight. 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:25.560 Jason Wooley began to fire, as did two others who 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:30.680 emerged near a gold Cadillac. Pion was wounded, while seventeen 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:35.479 year old Emerson Boyorkeez, was fatally shot. Woolley and the 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:38.839 other two assailants sped away in the Cadillac while witnesses 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:41.800 jotted down the plate number, which led to the name 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:45.839 on the registration twenty three year old Pablo Vallese, a 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:49.560 trucker whose hobby of fixing up and reselling cars ultimately 0:00:49.640 --> 0:01:01.080 earned him thirty to life. This is wrongful conviction. The 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:04.640 Fox Foundation is proud to support this episode of wrongful 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:08.560 conviction and the work of After Innocence, a nonprofit that 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:13.200 helps hundreds of people nationwide rebuild their lives after wrongful incarceration. 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:17.440 Each year, innocent people are released after spending years behind 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:20.800 bars for crimes they didn't commit. Nearly all of them 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:23.800 leave prison with nothing more than the clothes on their backs, 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.760 with no help or compensation from the state, as they 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:31.280 face the steep challenges of rebuilding their lives after wrongful imprisonment. 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:36.639 After Innocence is changing that After Innocence helps exoneries get 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:40.119 and make good use of essential services like health care, 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:45.120 dental care, mental health support, legal aid, financial counseling, and more. 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:48.880 Since twenty sixteen, they've brought that help to more than 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:53.840 eight hundred exoneries across forty six states, working tirelessly to 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:58.400 ensure that no one released after wrongful incarceration is left behind. 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:02.880 Learn more at a dash innocence dot org and join 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:07.000 After Innocence to support exoneries as they rebuild their lives. 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:20.240 I'm Lauren Brt Pacheco. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction where 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:22.880 we have a story out of Houston, Texas in which 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:26.040 our guest's only crime was selling a car to an 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:29.799 actual criminal. But before we get into all that, joining 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:32.960 us or is pro bono attorneys from Latham and Watkins, 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:36.760 herman U and Alexandra van Dine. Thanks for having us, Yeah, 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:39.280 thank you for featuring this story and calling in from 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:44.480 the Texas Department of Corrections. Pablo Valles, thanks for joining us. So, 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:47.840 Pablo grew up in an area of Houston called Houston Heights. 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:49.480 I mean I grew up. 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:51.119 Like most kids. 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:55.360 Mom, dad, two older sisters. We all were pretty close 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:58.120 in age, so we all went to the same schools, 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:02.480 just doing the normal kid thing, going outside, plane, having 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:04.840 a lot of friends. On the weekends, I would go 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:07.960 work with my dad. My dad had two bars, so 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:11.120 you know, as a kid, if I wanted video games 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:13.400 or toys or anything, I have to go to my 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.440 dad's bar on the weekends and clean up and fill 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.840 the coolers up with beer and just all that stuff. 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.480 And perhaps this work ethic led to an interest in 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:27.240 trucking that was spurred on by one of his neighbors, Jackie. 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:30.000 My neighbor Jackie, he was an older white man, cool 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:32.240 as a fan man. Him and his wife doors. They 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:35.240 lived three houses down from us, and across the street 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:37.800 there was an empty lot, and as a kid, I 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:40.200 would see him. He'd come in his atune with her 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:43.800 a flatbed, and he'd always parked across the street and 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:46.280 that empty lot, and we'd be over there in that lot, 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.840 plane jumping onto the flatbed and what now. He didn't mind. 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:52.520 As I got older, I was like, drive trucks. One 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:55.720 day and he explained to me, get your DL book, 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:58.520 study it, read it two or three times. 0:03:58.200 --> 0:03:58.800 If you have to. 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:01.600 I did that and I ended up getting a CDL 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:04.920 and just being able to be free. Man be away, 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:09.440 be on that road, peaceful, especially out west in the mountains. 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:09.920 Driving. 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:12.400 I loved it, man, It's fun. 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:17.240 But before his career he fell in love with cars. 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:20.360 My dad's friends used to come over and they had motorcycles, 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:23.640 and my dad had a smoke in the bended trends them. 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.960 Started working at sixteen at the Mini keme Uffler. The 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:31.400 owner there, Jimmy King, I'll never forget I went there. 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:34.240 I had for an iron. He said, well, Dean, I 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:37.640 how to work on brakes? And I said sometimes, and 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:39.080 everybody busted out laughing. 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.400 Right, he said sometimes, he said. 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:44.800 You know what he said, man, just show up tomorrow. 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:46.440 And he came in the job. 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:46.680 Man. 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:48.680 They showed me how to well, they showed me how 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:52.000 to fix breaks. They showed me how to work on vehicles, 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:56.200 and I took flights from there. Man fell in level cars, 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.520 sports cars. I would buy a car fixed it up, 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:03.200 man have it buy another woman piece it up in Samoa. 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:07.360 And another neighbor of his, who is believed to be 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:11.039 one of the assailants in this case, Ron Strandberg, purchased 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:12.120 a car from Pablo. 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:14.560 It was a ninety eight Cadillac Devil. 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:17.520 Ron the guy actually sold the cars, and he lived 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.479 down the street, on the same street as me, maybe 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:23.200 about seven houses down from me. And so when I 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:25.760 came up on a good deal on this Jaguar, I 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:28.920 was like, man, I'm gonna sell this Cadillac. And Ronin 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:30.840 had actually seen it, and he was like, I'll buy it. 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:32.839 And ILL said, look, check this out. 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:35.960 I'll make it even easier for you. Man, just finished 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:37.840 paying it off. You don't got to pay me nothing, 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:40.200 just finish paint it off to this little car lot 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:40.680 right here. 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:41.760 And he was like cool. 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:44.839 And I never had time in the change the title because. 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.960 I was never home every week Sunday through Friday. Pablo 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:51.080 was on the road with his truck. So unfortunately the 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:53.920 title of the car remained in his name through the 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:57.240 incidents of July twelfth through the fifteenth, two thousand and four. 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:02.120 Apparently alleged gang affiliates of On Strandberg, including a guy 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:06.440 named Richard Shorty Cisnaro's, got into a fight with nineteen 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:10.280 year old Adrian Pyon at a local club in Billiards 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:14.520 Hall with a distractingly ridiculous name, the Perfect. 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:19.120 Rack, the perfect rereg Now everybody from the neighborhoods in 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:23.360 the heights and surrounding neighborhoods, everybody goes is the perfect wreck. 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:26.560 I wasn't a clevin person. I'd rather go change the 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.160 whole on his you know what I mean, But his 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:32.919 true he had been locked up before a gang related 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.960 from what they said, and got into it with Richard 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:39.400 Cis Narrows you know, and Jordie and they beat him 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:41.880 on a Monday. He went to get back at them. 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:46.440 According to Adrian Pion's girlfriend Claudia Beltron and her friend 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:50.560 Nancy Elmanza, on Wednesday, July fourteenth, they were hanging out 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.120 at the club on the lookout for Shorty or his 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:57.159 known associates, Ron Strandberg and another guy named Jason Woolley. 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:01.120 And while this confrontation was brewing in Houston. This is 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:03.520 a Wednesday, so Pablo was on the road. 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:07.920 Pablo has been training another guy, this guy LG. They 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:11.800 have been driving through Oklahoma and Mississippi over a couple 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:16.280 of days. Their generator has gone out. In Weatherford, Texas, we. 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:20.080 Had a generator on the truck that ran the AC 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:23.120 system so on our way till death. So we noticed 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:25.680 we had a gas leak on the generator, so I 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:26.760 called my dispatcher. 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:27.560 He ended up. 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:31.640 Calling another truck driver named Ray, and we met. 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:32.880 Up in Weatherford, Texas. 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.720 We swapped loads. He continued to load back to Odessa, 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:39.720 and I took his trailer back to Houston. We left 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:43.840 Weatherford around eight thirty pm that night and so back 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:45.920 to Houston that it had him not been for that 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:48.400 gas leak, I mean, I would never even went back 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:50.800 to Houston. I'd have been on the road and killed Friday. 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.400 So Pablo is sort of getting the trainee situated. He's 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.000 getting home at one point thirty in the morning, getting 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:00.800 a shower, getting some cereal, seeing his brothers, and then 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:04.440 heads off to his ex girlfriend's house in sort of 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:06.520 just the cab of the truck, which I imagine looked 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.280 very interesting, sort of driving down the street and then 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:12.960 in parallel, this other conflict is going on. 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:17.000 At this point. Claudia and Nancy had spotted Jason Woolly 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:21.040 and alerted Adrian pion So. At around the usual two 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.880 am closing time, clubgoers were spilling out into the parking lot, 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:30.160 including Claudia, Nancy, and Jason. Meanwhile, Adrian and his friends 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:35.280 Stevan Rodriguez and seventeen year old Emerson Boyorkez pulled into 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:36.000 the lot. 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:39.600 And Emerson Biorkez is in the car. He's told you're seventeen, like, 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.280 don't get involved in this. Stay in the car. They 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:45.160 get out. Waiting for them is Jason Wooley in a 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:49.080 red shirt. He pulls a nine millimeter gun from his wasteland, 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:52.440 shoots at the ground, and then someone pulls up in 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:57.160 this gold Cadillac Deville, the famous gold Cadillac. Other shooters 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:03.600 come into this sort of ambush style attack. Adrian runs, 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:05.040 Rodriguez runs. 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:08.840 The police found three different calibers of shell casings at 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:12.640 the scene and Wooly was responsible for one of them, 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:16.559 and witnesses only described one other shooter who had emerged 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:21.080 near the gold Cadillac, standing about five foot four, light hair, 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:24.520 firing a long gun, wearing a blue shirt. 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.960 The descriptions of the blue shirted shooter right was a 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:33.880 gentleman who is shorter, stockier, heavier. That's not Pablo. Pablo 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:37.520 is especially at the time, pretty in shape, tall guy. 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:38.960 He's like sick something. 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:42.680 It just doesn't fit, but it might fit a guy 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:47.439 nicknamed Shorty. Either way. Back to the shooting, Adrian Pyon 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:50.480 was hit in the abdomen. He and Rodriguez took off running. 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:53.960 Wooly chased them along with the blue shirted shooter, but 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:57.439 eventually ran back to the gold Cadillac and sped off, 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:02.840 at which point Claudia Beltron Tilmanza allegedly chased after them 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:03.480 in their. 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:07.360 Car, and Claudia and her friend Nancy, I believe, grab 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:11.079 a bible and write down the license plate an eyeliner 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:13.240 or something like that, and so they get the plate. 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:18.480 But what everyone realizes during all of this paullabaloo as 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:23.360 Adrian is shot but escapes, Rodriguez escapes, por Emerson bi 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:25.480 Jorkez has gotten out of the car and he has 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:30.160 been wounded fatally and dies And that is all happening 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.160 in a parking lot in Houston at the perfect rack, 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:37.079 and Pablo is elsewhere at his ex girlfriend's house having 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:40.640 what sounds like a very serious conversation about their relationship. 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.960 But it's just two totally different events happening in two 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:46.679 totally different places. 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.800 Ron calling me the night of the murder, you know, 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.720 asking me to the car's going, and you know, I 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:55.120 have what happened as I man, I'll play you later, 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:56.760 and I'm like, good, I'm just going to have you. 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:58.880 Man said, I'm going to go to sleep, and I said, 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:01.240 I'm not taking a waight up night for the cups 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:04.120 to show up because they're not biking come ride away, 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:06.800 just because of carguts. So he was like all right. 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:09.520 So the next morning he calls me back and he's like, 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:10.920 did you report the carsons? 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:11.319 And I'm not. 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:13.679 He don't even worry about it, and I'm like, well, 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:16.040 what happened? He's a man, It was nothing, And I 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:17.680 was like whatever. 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:17.560 You know. 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:19.560 I mean, if you're telling me not to worried about it, 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:22.079 if you're not worried about it was gonna obviously, then 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:24.120 it's not nothing serious. It's what I've got. 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:28.800 But the license plate number led investigators to the gold Cadillac, 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:33.400 which was still registered to Pablo Valaise. Now Pablo had 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:37.319 never been booked before, so police pulled his driver's license 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:40.600 photo in which Pablo was three years younger with a 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:43.400 buzz cut, and they put it in a photo array 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:44.679 for Claudia Beltron. 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:48.880 The initial identification of Pablo by Claudia Beltran was a 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:53.080 photo identification, right, It was just his face, no physical appearance, 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:56.400 so she did not have the benefit of his overall 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:59.000 body shaped type, and so she had no opportunity to 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:03.240 recognize that Pablo looked nothing like the blue shirted shooter 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:05.600 that she had seen in terms of the body shaved hype. 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:09.480 And it turned out that the freezing of Claudia's alleged 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:13.920 identification was very important, but that was not shared with 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:16.920 the defense before trial, and we'll get into that later, 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:21.000 but for now, investigators had obtained arrest warrants for both 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:23.000 Jason Wooley and Pablo Vallez. 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.840 I mean, swat was everywhere and there was at eight everywhere, 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:29.960 guns drawn on me. And when they got me out 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:33.040 the car, I'm like, man, what the hell, He's like, 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:35.599 we got a photny warrant for you from murder and 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:36.920 I'm like, from murder. 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:38.920 Like, well, what did I do you know? 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:41.640 Then of course they asked me all the questions and 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:43.960 all that stuff, and I told them how much is 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.520 my bond? And he's like twenty thousand and I'm like 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:48.360 all right, well I'm getting out. I'm down on top 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:51.960 of sea and he's like eight charges and I'm like, well, 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:52.920 how many charges are? 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:53.040 Like? 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:56.240 He said, you know I saw with a daily weapon 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:00.960 and murder, and I'm like, okay, sixty thousand, still bonding out. 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:03.280 I'm done talking to you. He tried to give me 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:06.160 not to bomb out, right, and he was like, well, 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:07.920 why do you want to bond out if you didn't 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:10.000 have nothing to do with this. You'll see the judge 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:12.520 in the morning. He'll see that you had this. He'll 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:12.920 let you go. 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.480 As if only guilty people value their freedom. 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:19.440 Yeah, I'm here on that. I just went to work 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:22.079 every day and not knowing what was really going to happen. 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:24.240 My attorney he kept telling me, don't worry about it, 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:26.400 don't worry about it. If they don't have nothing on you, 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.240 you weren't there. And so I had the mindset I 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:32.520 didn't worry about it. Continued life, living my life, working, 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.760 having fun, going to the racetrack, taking my cars down there. 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.160 After all, he had an alibi. He'd been with his 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:43.920 trucking trainee LG. Holmes until just shortly before the shooting, 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:47.360 then at his mother's with his siblings before heading over 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:50.240 to his girlfriend Annelle's in the cab portion of his 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:54.360 eighteen wheeler. But as time war on pre trial, that 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:55.760 relationship fizzled. 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:59.559 She was mad and had a lot of anger towards 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:03.520 Naki because she wanted to shadow down get married and. 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:04.240 I didn't want to. 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:07.480 I didn't want to because I had already got with 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:08.520 somebody else. 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:11.840 Right, So we ended up splitting up. 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:14.600 But before that, when I got arrested and all that 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:16.440 she had told me, and she said, man, don't worry 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.400 about a year with me that night, so fast forward 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:21.800 we split up. Of course, I told her like, hey, 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.600 don't forget when I go to courtor, my attorney needs 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:26.680 to talk to you, you know. And that's when she 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:30.240 hit me with the oh, I don't I don't remember 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:33.400 if it was that night, And I'm like, what the 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:35.280 fuck you mean you don't remember? I'm at your house 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:37.080 in a big red agent with her. What do you 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:38.960 mean you don't remember? You know what I mean, that's 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:40.240 the only time I ever went to your. 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:41.200 House in this acing with her. 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:45.280 And soon Pablo's new romantic partner became pregnant, so one 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:48.840 can imagine that this may have strengthened Annelle's resolve not 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:53.480 to participate in his defense, and perhaps Pablo's trial attorney, 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:57.240 Ken MacLean would have done more to solidify Pablo's alibi. 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:01.119 But he was enduring a may health crisis. 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:04.760 His defense counsel is being treated for cancer. He's dying 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:08.480 of cancer. He's obviously not going to be doing an 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:11.840 adequate job representing Pablo. He didn't do the basic investigation 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:15.080 of published phone records right, and we weren't able to 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:17.600 retrieve all of his phone records given the passage of 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:20.720 time when we were involved. But certainly his defense counsel 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:22.960 would have been able to retrieve the phone records we did, 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:27.240 and more that would have demonstrated his location, the infeasibility 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.720 of him getting to the perfect rac and published communications 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:31.440 with Nielle. 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:35.480 When I was sitting and they bring in my guilphone 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:36.680 and I'm like, what the pup? 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:38.120 What is she doing here? 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:41.000 And they're asking her questions and they're like, well, he 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:43.240 said he was with you that night and this and whatnot, 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:44.720 and she's like, no, he wasn't with. 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.480 Me that night his ex girlfriend announce as we weren't 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:50.120 even in contact in July, why would I have been 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:52.400 talking to him all night? Put the phone record show 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:54.080 that no, they were in fact in touch. They were 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:56.400 talking at that time. So that would have, I think, 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.840 lent credibility to Pablo's testimony as well in front of 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:02.400 the jury. And then the phone records show he's not 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.280 really in touch with any of these people, right, Like 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.240 he's in touch with Strandberg once or twice related to 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:11.520 this car because Strandberg suddenly needs to unload this car. 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:11.800 Right. 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:14.440 But when you look at the song records that the 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:17.920 police did pull Ron and Jason, they're in touch. They're 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:19.480 exchanging all these phone calls. 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:24.360 Willy, Strandberg and Cin scenario exchanged twenty six calls before 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:27.480 the shooting and then thirty eight calls after the shooting. 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:30.680 Wow, that's right, And so you can tell the jury 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:33.880 these guys are all talking to each other. Pablo Valz 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:37.280 is really not talking to them other than with respect 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:39.880 to this car that we have adduced other evidence about. 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:40.160 Right. 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:42.960 So, in addition to the damage and Nell did to 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:46.640 Pablo's credibility as well as the lack of any further 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:50.000 context that could have been derived from Jason Woolly's phone records. 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:53.880 The judge limited the defense's ability to question witnesses about 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:58.240 Ron Strandberg and Richard Cisnaro's even though the DA stated 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.920 in her opening statement that they were likely involved with Woolley, 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:07.280 and then they had to contend with Claudia Beltron's alleged identification. 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:12.600 But curiously, the prosecutor, Iileen Bogar even said in her 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:16.600 opening statement that she was not expecting an in court 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:18.760 identification from Claudia. 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:23.320 When Claudia Beltran sees Pablo Valles at his trial for 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:25.920 the very first time, what does she say to the prosecutor? 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:29.080 She says, that's not him. Despite that, the prosecutor goes on, 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:34.040 she pushes forward. She forces Claudia to testify just about 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:38.040 the photo array, not about her now realization that that 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:40.120 is not Pablo. Sitting in the defense. 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:43.520 Table when Claudia when they asked her, she wasn't able 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.760 to pick nobody up. I was like, okay, I'm good 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:48.840 and I'll be going home and this. 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:53.200 Will be able with right, And then Detective Swainson gets 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.960 up there and negates her testimony. 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:02.200 Yeah, he pretty much he seld it to the jury. 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:07.520 Man called the identification perfect, beautiful, positive. 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:11.439 He gives those little flourishes, right, because those are the 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:13.960 kinds of things that a jury's going to hear and 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:17.159 think to themselves, Oh, if he's going to be so descriptive, 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:20.120 surely he must have seen it, witness this identification. 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:24.640 In addition, Adrian Pion also testified, saying that he'd seen 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:28.080 Pablo at the Perfect Rack around ten PM, which was 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:32.000 not only impeached by Pablo's trucking trainee LG. Holmes, but 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:36.080 also that wasn't even part of the state's narrative. Importantly, however, 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.560 Pion did not identify Pablo as one of the assailants. 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:43.800 The defense also presented several witnesses that placed the gold 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:48.479 Cadillac in ron Strandberg's possession in the days and weeks 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:52.480 before and after the shooting, but it appears that they 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:57.440 weren't enough to overcome Officer Swainson's description of the identification 0:18:57.600 --> 0:18:59.400 that he allegedly witnessed. 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.479 When they came back with the guilty verdict, I remember 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:07.880 turning around and my mom, my daughter's mother, and my cousin, 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:12.360 some of my friends, my sisters, and everybody they were 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:13.160 just in tears. 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:14.840 My daughter was. 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:17.840 Three weeks old when they convicted me, and they gave 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:18.720 me thirty years. 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:40.080 I didn't know what to expect, Like, now, okay, I'm 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:40.720 not going home. 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:43.919 I'm not going to be able to raise my daughter. 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:47.000 Take care of my mom and my little brothers. Now 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:50.840 I have to worry about taking care of myself. It's 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:53.760 like going to a porough world country man. It's like 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:57.040 a whole other world in here, and I had to 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:03.320 learn to adjust quick. There's rules and laws in here 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:08.720 amongst in mates, and life is the situation in here. 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:13.720 It's a negative, evil face in here. 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:17.119 I'm already at twenty years. 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:18.159 That's on you. 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:20.480 Earlier, my daughter was three weeks old and here she 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:23.399 had a twenty As a little kid growing up, she 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:26.040 would always tell everybody, I just want my daddy for Christmas. 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:29.240 She came to me one day and I didn't it. 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:31.600 And she said, Dad, She said, can I take you 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:34.960 home with me? And I'm like, no, I can't. 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:35.440 Go home, baby. 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:35.639 You know. 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:36.960 She was about seven years. 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:41.560 Old, And I said again, and she said, you know, 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:44.080 I'll put two in a box and I'll sink you up. 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:45.639 And I said, so, I can't. 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:48.800 I can't. And you know, man, she even said, she 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:51.680 said I'll poke hop in and said you can breathe. 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:54.879 I can't go home baby, you know, and you know, 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:56.480 a real. 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:57.960 Kid, innocent, not knowing. 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:00.840 You know the seriousness of man. 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:03.640 And you know kids are. 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:08.040 I've got a daughter and a son. And if I 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:10.880 were in Pablo's shoes and I wasn't able to see 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:13.240 my kids, I mean, it would just kill me. I 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:15.600 mean it would absolutely destroy me. Yeah. 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:19.320 Even now, she'll cry, man, when we have to leave 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:20.480