WEBVTT - #516 Jason Flom and Kim Kardashian with Corey Miller 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:06.000 On January twelfth, two thousand and two, sixteen year old 0:00:06.080 --> 0:00:08.960 Steve Thomas went to a crowded hip hop club in 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:14.040 Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, where a successful artist named Corey Miller 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:17.439 was slated to introduce a new hip hop group. But 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:19.680 before they even took the stage, a fight broke out 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:23.360 and Steve Thomas was fatally shot. When the police arrived, 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.479 it was allegedly rumored that Corey was involved, but when 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:30.360 specifically asked about Corey, none of the witnesses substantiated that 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:34.760 rumor until a week later, leading to his arrest, two trials, 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:39.280 and ultimately a non unanimous jury verdict, all of which 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:43.839 may well have been prejudiced by Corey's stage name C Murder. 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:54.280 This is Wrongful Conviction. You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:56.440 can listen to this and all the LoVa for Good 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:59.920 podcasts one week early and ed free by subscribing to 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:11.240 Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Welcome back to 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.640 Romful Conviction, where we've got a case out of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:18.360 involving a once celebrated hip hop artist, Corey Miller, also 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:21.440 known as C murderer. Now he and his brother's master 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:25.000 p and Silk the Shaker had a number of hits 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:30.560 collaborated with Snoop until his situation drastically changed. And here 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:34.800 we are twenty three years later, where he's grateful to 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:39.800 have the support of one of his fiercest advocates, Kim Kardashian. Kim, 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:41.320 welcome back to the show. 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:43.120 Thank you for having me back on. 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:46.039 Were you a fan of Corey's music before you knew 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:46.839 about his case? 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:48.600 I definitely was. 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.280 I definitely knew about The No Limit Soldiers and I 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:56.600 love New Orleans. But years later, the singer Monica called 0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:00.160 me and was like, you have to help me with 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:03.120 A dear friend of mine told me all about the case. 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:05.360 And there's like a network of us, right so it's 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:10.239 like you and Scott Budnick and Jessica Jackson and Aaron Haney, and. 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:11.600 We've been working on it for a while. 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.639 So I'm glad that we can be here to talk 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:16.240 about Corey's case today. 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:20.280 And calling in from a Louisiana penitentiary, the man himself, 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:24.840 Corey Miller, thank Jo Jeff and to help tell his story. 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:26.840 Corey's appellat attorney. 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:28.160 Jane Hogan, Thanks for having me. 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:31.680 Now, this is a Louisiana story where we've seen so 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:37.120 many many wrongful convictions marked by non unanimous jury verdicts, 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.320 which was a legal practice as late as twenty eighteen, 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:43.600 when they could convict you with as few as ten 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:46.680 out of twelve jurors voting guilty. This was a practice 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:49.640 that had its roots in the aftermath of the Civil War, 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:54.920 where the Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery unless duly convicted of 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:57.640 a felony. It also allowed black people to serve on 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.000 jury's and in Louisiana, even if the defense managed to 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:03.840 keep two black people on the jury, well, their votes 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:08.200 could be ignored and the person could effectively be re enslaved. 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:10.959 We've never learned how to have an economy that doesn't 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:15.240 rely on forced labor. There's so many prisons here and 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:17.720 that is the economy. Like you go in the middle 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:22.400 of Louisiana, they have nothing except like three private prisons. 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:25.520 It's the local employer. If you want to stop mass 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:29.320 incarceration in Louisiana, if you were to pay people at 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:32.959 least minimum wage for the labor that they perform while incarcerated, 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:35.240 I think that there would be a real push to 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:39.160 do sentencing reform immediately because it's such a business. 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:41.840 There was a twenty twenty two ballot initiative in Louisiana 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.520 which would have ended the slavery loophole of the thirteenth Amendment, 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:50.320 but it was voted down. Yeah, but certainly before that 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:53.800 as well as this incident, and even before Corey's music career, 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.400 he was just another kid growing up in the New 0:03:57.480 --> 0:03:59.160 Orleans Calio projects. 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.320 I was raised my grandmother, my grandfather, and Big Bomb 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:08.280 and Big Daddy. My mother and father gave here for 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:12.320 addashing to her when I was just a baby and 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:15.000 lived in a county of price Action. When I came 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:18.760 up as and we didn't have Big Bomb and she 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:21.680 kept me out of trouble. She instilled didn't be that 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:26.159 drugs fad. That school was important. So throughout my whole 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:28.720 school I was on a student because I just had 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:30.120 to please Big bomba. 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:33.880 And while school was important, Corey and his brothers Percy 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:37.120 and vy Sean also grew up loving hip hop during 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:38.120 its early years. 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:41.720 We became integrated in rap long time ago, listened to 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:46.360 Right DMC and people like that. So Daddy takes that 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:50.479 were in the room and we were playing the instrumental shape. 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:52.800 Then we would play another teap record and we have 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:57.320 a recording take and we played it too, and write raps. 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.360 Messing around with tape recorders soon turned into renting studio time, 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.880 and eventually Percy Miller, better known as Master P, started 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:07.320 his label No Limit Records in nineteen ninety one with 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:11.720 the founding group tru which featured himself Corey as c 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:14.960 Murder his stage name, and by Sean as Silk the Shaker, 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:17.880 and they began to see big success in the mid 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:19.960 nineties and early two thousands. 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.800 Yeah, it was a good feeling. They had that much 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:25.839 momentum without music. It was a wonderful charity and it 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.919 was only the beginning, and Dallas star rose it in. 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.719 I'm basically this steel in the walls and I just 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.520 moved my family to bed Rouge and the Gaving community, 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:35.680 the country club. 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:38.280 Corey has three kids who at the time lived in 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:40.839 Baton Rouge while he worked out of New Orleans, which 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:43.320 is just across the Mississippi River from where this crime 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:47.599 took place, in a more conservative, white flight type of 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:49.599 area called Jefferson Parish. 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.560 You gotta realize jeff Paris went to try to hit 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:56.320 There was some black people that trying to cross the 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.400 bridge to get some food, water and something like that. 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:04.120 It was a breakdan lady, couple of women, couple of 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:08.120 guys and trying to cross the bridge, and the police 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:12.919 was predicting the bridge any Katrina finish cross and the 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:16.320 actually shut these sheets and the whole as a story, 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:18.400 but distant lady that I got. 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:21.440 Called up and I hope that story might shed some 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:24.240 light on why their police department might have hired the 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:28.680 lead detective in this case, Detective Cloger, after well they 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:32.480 had found he wasn't a good fit for even Orleans Parish. 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:36.479 We got Cloger's personnel record and Cloger was working in 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:40.200 Orleans Parish. Then he went to Jefferson Parish. The superintendent 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.760 of the New Orleans Police Department wrote this very scathing 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.720 letter that's in his personnel file that said he has 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:48.760 been messing up homicide investigations in Orleans Parish. So if 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:51.080 you do hire him, he is more studed to be 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:54.280 a guard at a correctional institution than on the streets 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:55.800 trying to solve murders. 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.280 It appears Jefferson Parish heard this message as more of 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:03.080 a horseman than a condemnation. And that brings us to 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:06.000 January twelfth, two thousand and two, when a sixteen year 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:09.160 old kid named Steve Thomas was killed at the Jefferson 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:11.400 Parish music venue called the Pyramid Club. 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:14.800 That night of the instandent a couple of guys out 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:19.280 they were they were going to perform at that club. 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:23.040 So by being in a savage audis and they know, 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:26.440 all we try to represent a kill of love, the 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:28.480 X me to get loose deal. 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:32.200 So he goes over to the Platinum Club in Harvey, Louisiana, 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:35.040 January twelve, two thousand and two, and there were by 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:37.760 different accounts, three hundred and five hundred people in a 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.120 club like way over fire Marshall capacity. 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:42.920 It's really a bowler there lived the bottom and then 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.440 a club of time to follow, one way up, one 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:49.000 way out to take the thing. And there's four hundred 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:52.360 people and call everybody that walks in getting tagged down. 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:54.280 And so I was saying I was padded down. 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:59.440 And that security guard later testified that Corey was not armed, 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.920 but somehow a gun got in obviously, and as well 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:06.840 as sixteen year old Steve Thomas, who you know. He 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:09.280 probably they must have used a fake ID to get 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:09.760 in there. 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:12.440 And they say that the guy was a tran of mind. 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.240 They even created a moten saying that I had a 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:18.200 rep the guy that was killed. I guess they had 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:20.760 got somebody to stay something like that, I have a 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.040 bad repide of my life from the South, and then 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:26.000 talk he's going the East Coast as yo. Especially back then, 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:28.880 we didn't know what bad a rep it was. That 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:31.280 whole night, I never messed the guy that was doing 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.480 that was Folk, never had one word with him. 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:37.960 After all, Corey was not in this thick crowd, but 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:40.280 rather as you might have expected, he was in the 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:41.040 VIP area. 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:43.680 I was just in there drinking, wait for them to 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:46.880 tell me go up the stage introduced, then I could leave, 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:50.360 right so, I remember talking to a shoot girl. I 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:53.040 never had a chance to even introduce my crew. 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:56.200 Then at some point during the night, a fight breaks 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.480 out near the dance floor, directly across from the DJ booth. 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:03.200 Everybody describes just kind of this group of men surrounding 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:06.560 and beating and kicking Steve as he's curled up on 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:10.000 the ground, and then at some point a gunshot goes off. 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:14.000 I'm just as surprised that everybody else, but and so 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:16.440 unnatural reactions is the goal. 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:20.959 A bunch of people flee, including Corey and his friends. 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.600 It goes from five hundred people to about one hundred. 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:29.160 And after this shot goes off, there was a really 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:32.559 drunk woman who was in the bathroom at the time 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.240 of the shooting, so she didn't see anything, but she 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:39.880 was intoxicated, and she starts hollering out, see mardyed this, y'all, 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.800 see murdered this, And I think that probably is what 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:47.720 began sort of the rumors. And pretty quickly the Jefferson 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:49.080 pair of Sheriff's office gets there. 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.920 They discovered Steve Thomas lying on his back, having been 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:56.520 shot in the chest and there was a chain near 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:57.199 his body. 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.960 The police seal up the doors basically with one hundred 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.920 people left inside. You know, they learned that Corey was there, 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:06.640 and they start interviewing people and they were asking specifically, 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:11.440 did you see c murder do this? And nobody said yes, 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:12.480 none of them. 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:16.120 Some of the witnesses called on that one one he'd 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:19.880 see the show those games like guard I'm six five 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:21.560 big steaks n skin. 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:24.760 Not only was it unlikely that a successful musician would 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.600 put his career and his family at risk. But then 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:34.480 the description wasn't even close, and not one eyewitness named him, 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:37.160 and that included the security guard, the guy who had 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.680 called nine one one, a man named Darnelle Jordan. 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:43.240 The security guard spoke to the police that night and 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:45.720 said that he hadn't seen anything, and then a couple 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:49.000 of days later he gives an inculpatory statement against Corey, 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:53.040 and so based really on that statement alone, they locate 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.120 Corey at the House of Blues four days later. He's 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.440 not run, he's in New Orleans, and then he gets arrested. 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:04.520 Now, according to Darnell Jordan's twenty eighteen recantation, when asked 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:06.800 by the police, if Corey Miller had been the shooter, 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.040 he said, if that was the case, he would have 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:12.800 said so on the nine to one one call. But 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:15.880 then he went on to say, quote, they got me 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:19.120 the id C murder's picture and sign it. They tricked me. 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:22.800 I wasn't signing the picture to id the shooter. I 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:26.400 signed it because they told me to. I knew they 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:30.560 wanted me to say Corey Miller did it because he's famous. 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:35.360 End quote. Nevertheless, this interaction helped them get an arrest 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:36.480 warrant for Corey Miller. 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:40.760 I actually had some kind of shape in eliteal system 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:42.800 at that time. I was like, oh, well, they're going 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:45.439 to live in rest and talked to Wicks and then 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:50.320 they gonna a panory. So there was my whole straight 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:51.959 up while I let it go. 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:56.280 At this point, they continued to interview clubgoers. Meanwhile, they'd 0:11:56.320 --> 0:12:00.000 found two DNA profiles on the chain from the crime scene, 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.880 and one was the victim, so they got a warrant 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:08.840 for Corey's DNA and Kim. I mean, it seems reasonable, 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:12.400 maybe not this positive, but very reasonable that whoever's DNA 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:14.880 was identified could well have been the shooter. 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:20.560 Knowing that the necklace that was allegedly taken from the 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:24.120 person that committed the crime, and obviously if it was 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.240 worn around someone's neck and pulled off of someone's neck, 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:29.560 there would be DNA evidence on it. And then when 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:33.800 it finally was DNA tested, it was not Corey's. 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:50.480 DNA, And then suddenly the chain became unimportant. 0:12:55.520 --> 0:13:01.000 I never understood why someone wouldn't want to find the 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:08.040 real killer. How our state can just be okay with 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:12.520 convicting someone not caring if that someone is actually the 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:16.960 right person. If God forbid, a family member of mine 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:20.600 or someone was harmed in a horrible crime, I would 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:25.559 not be satisfied with just anyone being convicted. I would 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:29.520 have to know without a reasonable doubt that this person 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.600 was the person that committed that crime. And since I 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:35.920 started to get involved in this work, I was really 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:37.960 hopeful at the beginning, and I still am and I 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:40.400 always will be. But like as you dig deeper and 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.000 as you work on more cases and you figure out more, 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:47.559 it just doesn't it become overwhelming to understand, like how 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:48.920 messed up our system is. 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:52.360 Case in point, despite the fact that every club Gore 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:57.800 initially denied Corey's involvement, Detective Cloger revisited them and out 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:02.000 of the hundreds, Cloger found four who were some degree 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:06.560 of willing to implicate Corey. Those four were keishaan Jones, 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:10.640 Ayisha Washington, Tanika Rankins, and Elouise Matthews. And his trial 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:13.880 approached in September two thousand and three. Darnell Jordan had 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:16.840 to be arrested on a material witness warrant, so he 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:20.880 was locked up in a hotel where Kloger visited him 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:24.560 with his alleged statement, which put the following words in 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:25.080 his mouth. 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:28.480 As the fight was happening, Darnell saw fifteen or twenty 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:32.080 men beating Steve, and that Steve was lying on the 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.920 ground in a defensive position, and that Corey wasn't participating 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:38.480 in the fight, was standing back. And then eventually, at 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:41.560 some point he reaches his arm underneath the pile of bodies. 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:44.240 Darnell doesn't see a gun, but he hears a pop, 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:47.000 saw flash and sparks from underneath the pile of people, 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:49.400 which came from the direction of Corey's hand. 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:52.200 And for this alleged account to have been an accurate 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:54.440 description of the murder, there would have had to have 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:57.960 been stippling on the body. Those are the burns associated 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:02.040 with close range gunshots, but there were none, and according 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:06.800 to Darnell's twenty eighteen recantation, despite Cloger's insistence, he told 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:11.400 him quote that's not what I said, end quote, Darnell 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:13.640 claimed that since he had signed that picture, he was 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:15.880 afraid of the police and went along with the narrative 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:19.400 a trial along with three others, whose testimonies, by the way, 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:23.600 varied wildly, starting with Tanika Rankins and Eloise Matthews. 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:26.520 What Tanika testified to at the first trial is that 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:29.840 she was at the Platinum Club with Elouise Matthews. She 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.480 saw Corey verbally confront Steve. Then the fight broke out. 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:37.000 Corey went underneath his shirt raised his arm in Steve's direction. 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:38.840 She never said that she saw Corey with a gun, 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:41.200 but the shot was fired and Steve fell to the floor. 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.360 And then what Eloise testified too was that she had 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:47.360 gone to the club with Tanika Rankins and when the 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:49.800 fight started, they both climbed up on a chair. That 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:52.560 she saw four or five people stomping and punching Steve, 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:54.520 who was lying on the floor on his back. And 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:56.960 then after about thirty seconds, she fell off the chair 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:58.800 and then she heard a gun shot, but she didn't 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.920 see a gun. She didn't see who shot Steve. She 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:04.440 also testified that Tanika had not seen the shooting. 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:08.600 To recap Elouise said both she and Tanika didn't see 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.440 the shooting. Tanika said she saw Corey shoot from a 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:15.040 standing position, while Darnell said that Corey reached under the 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:18.480 pile of bodies before hearing a pop and seeing sparks. 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:23.840 All of the witnesses. Statements by these people are blatantly lying. 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:26.520 My lawyers closely examined it them. 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:30.600 The state's next witness, Keishawn Jones, wouldn't even look up 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.400 when she testified that she saw Corey pull something from 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:35.560 his waist and heard a gunshot. 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:37.720 The second she gets off the stand, she runs up 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:41.880 to the defense investigator in the courthouse, recamps her entire statement, said, 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:45.440 I'm only saying this because I am pressured into it 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:48.960 by the Sheriff's office, and there's a recess. She goes 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:50.320 and she recamps to the judge. 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:53.080 On the record, she said she didn't directly see what 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:55.760 happened and had even told police that night that Corey 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:59.360 was not involved, but in the year following, Detector Cloger 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:01.360 threatened her with unrelated charges. 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:06.560 She told him that everything they have provided the age 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:10.159 forced a delight and she was crying. She was in 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:15.200 distressing to law. 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:17.480 That story of pressure from law enforcement to implicate Corey. 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:20.679 It's a similar story told by multiple different people that 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:24.320 aren't connected. So Another woman named Aisha Washington said that 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:27.679 people were popping up at her mom's house following her 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:30.399 she was taking her children to school, trying to pressure 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:32.720 her into making a statement against Corey. 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.479 Aisha Washington was also being detained on the material witness 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:39.960 warrant for trial, but after Kishawn Jones recanted, Aisha wasn't 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:40.760 called to the stand. 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:44.199 And then also Corey had four witnesses testify for the 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:46.919 defense that they were there, that they know who Corey is, 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:50.200 that whenever the fight broke out, they saw Corey somewhere else, 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:52.280 that he was not engaged in the fight. 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:57.400 But somehow the jury chose to believe the three wildly 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:03.439 inconsistent stories over the defenses United Front, which was supported 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:06.639 by Keishawn Jones's recantation. 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:08.960 Being at Jeffson pay would not be placed with somebody 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.080 like you to go to trial because I was basically 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:14.880 guilty and the eyes already you know what I'm saying, 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:18.680 you know, the old white men and old white women's 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:22.879 like discuss the with being bashing him, just siding the 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:26.000 way that I looked up like gold tee from my 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:30.880 name you from the tragic the NAC burden. I mean, 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:34.880 it wasn't a matter of I innocent. It was basically 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:38.720 like look who you are, Look how you look guilty. 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.840 And the jury returned a unanimous verdict at the first 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:47.800 trial of guilty, and then that began the most extensive 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:51.359 postrial litigation of any case I've ever seen. Seven months, 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:56.400 thirteen different hearings. Corey's trial lawyer really did a phenomenal job. 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.040 A lot of the allegations were that there was withholding 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:04.320 of exculpatory impeachment information, and that Cloger was helping these witnesses, 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:09.080 that he was making convictions quickly get expunged. During the 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:13.760 post trial hearing they recalled Eloise and Tanika. It comes 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:19.119 out that Tanique actually had felony theft convictions outstanding warrants 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:23.080 which the Sheriff's office had arranged to have recalled. They 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:27.240 basically set aside her felony convictions quickly and expunge them. 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:30.240 Which gave the appearance that she had nothing to exchange 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:33.439 for her testimony, and Eloise Matthew's was no different. 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:37.320 Eloise testified that she had met with Cloger multiple times 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:39.119 he had said he'd do anything to help her in 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:43.359 Tanika that she had told Cloger that Corey didn't shoot Steve, 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:46.479 but Cloger wasn't interested and accused her of lying. There 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:49.159 was also impeachment evidence that wasn't turned over about her. 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:53.120 She had arrests for forgery. She was recommended for a diversion, 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:55.280 but she had failed out of diversion, but they hadn't 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:56.080 given notice of that. 0:19:56.760 --> 0:20:00.600 Then Ayisha Washington and Keishaw and Jones testified about there experiences, 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:04.320 how they'd both been harassed, and Keishawn had actually been 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:08.560 detained three times and threatened with unrelated charges to ensure 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:13.200 her testimony. So Judge Martha Sasson simply couldn't ignore their claims. 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:16.160 The judge tells Kloger, like, I want you to bring 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:18.440 your file up here and show me what you've got. 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:22.040 He said, no, I destroy my file, like the night 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:24.520 after the conviction. I just went and shredded everything. And 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:27.520 the judge is like, why would you do that. Then 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.200 it turns out later on into seven months of Postpol proceedings, 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:32.040 that he hadn't shredded his file and so he brought 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:34.520 it up there and within his file. Not only is 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:38.000 there the impeachment evidence against the three witnesses, but there's 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:41.119 also statements from a guy named Roger Lewis and Angela 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:44.440 Casten who were there at the club, who had said 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.160 they saw the fight. They knew that Corey wasn't involved 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:50.000 in it, so the judge granted Corey a new trial. 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:52.240 That was in April two thousand and four, when Judge 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:54.760 Sasson was up for reelection that November. 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:57.399 I think that she was sort of painted as the 0:20:57.520 --> 0:20:59.840 judge who's trying to let see murder out of prison, 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:02.120 and then she lost her bid for reelection. 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:05.879 It's still some parage. These people still sticked together. They 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:09.360 kicked the jail. So then I'm at the Furst year 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:10.800 of these different people now. 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:14.920 And then the intermediate Appellate Court in Louisiana reversed a 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:18.240 new trial, and then the Louisiana Supreme Court actually in 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:20.480 March tenth of two thousand and six, said no, like 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:24.280 she conducted a painstaking review of all of this and 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:28.480 she concluded that there were constitutional violations that mandated a 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:29.000 new trial. 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:31.840 So after two years of appeals, Corey was released on 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:34.920 house arrest awaiting his new trial in two thousand and nine, 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:37.320 giving him three years with his children. 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:41.840 That was amazing good they didn't have to go there week. 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:45.720 And so I definitely hold on to Chared going home, 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:50.560 and those three years after brought us closer. You know, 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:53.600 when I heard that arrested. I just thought that they 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:57.080 were so fraged and so young and small. I couldn't 0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:00.639 even chall that that I was in jail. There was 0:22:00.680 --> 0:22:03.920 a wing on the business and on two I kept 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:05.840 thinking I was going to go to ChIL I was 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:10.400 gonna get release. So when the years says enough the action, 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:13.639 when you come back, oh good, I didn't want to 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:17.240 think that I worked. So I had to break it 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:20.480 down him again. Started they don't come to business. Even 0:22:20.480 --> 0:22:22.520 though I love seeing U, they didn't broke malid. Every 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:26.479 time I said, oh, come with us, meaning with us 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:27.840 to break it. 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:33.160