WEBVTT - #481 Jason Flom with Chris Turner 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:05.960 On October first, nineteen eighty four, a forty nine year 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:09.000 old mother named Catherine Fuller took a shortcut through an 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:12.960 alleyway in a busy area of Washington, d C. Known 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:17.680 as eighth and h. She was beaten and violated in 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:22.200 a particularly brutal fashion, and she succumbed to her injuries. 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:27.200 Even though only two men were seen fleeing when police arrived, 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.080 it was believed that there just had to be more 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:35.000 assailants involved. An alleged anonymous tip confirmed that fear and 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:40.440 led to seventeen arrests and eight convictions, none of whom 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:45.080 were the two who had fled the scene. This is 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:54.040 wrongful conviction. Wrongful conviction has always given voice to innocent 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:57.200 people in prison, and now we're expanding that voice to you. 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.520 Call us at eight three three two seven four six 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:03.800 sixty six and tell us how these stories make you 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:06.640 feel and what you've done to help the cause, even 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:09.280 if it's something as simple as telling a friend or 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:12.759 sharing on social media, and you might just hear yourself 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:16.360 in a future episode. Call us A three three two 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:29.920 oh seven four six sixty six. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction, 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:34.680 where we've got a historical case from a historical place Washington, DC, where, 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:38.000 even though two assailants were witnessed fleeing the scene of 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:42.959 a sexually violent robbery and murder, somehow a narrative about 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:46.679 a frenzied gang assault took hold and our guest, Chris Turner, 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:49.680 was roped into this precursor to the Central Park five, 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:53.360 now known as the Exonerated five. Only in this case, 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:54.480 it wasn't five. 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:56.640 There was seventeen people. 0:01:57.200 --> 0:01:59.600 The first time ever in the history of America that 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.639 many people were charge for the murder one person without 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:05.640 it being a conspiracy or anything. 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:11.840 So seventeen were charged an eight conviction stuck. And we're 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:15.680 just super relieved and glad that you survived and are 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:16.840 here joining us today. 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:18.680 Thank you for having me. 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:21.359 Yeah, you're very welcome and returning to the show from 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:25.280 the mid Atlantic Innocence Project is one of my personal heroes. 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.280 Sean Armbrus, John, welcome back. 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:30.000 Any chance to talk about this case, I am happy 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:30.320 to take. 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:34.440 So this story when it happened was huge news. The 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:39.360 graphic gang assault narrative stuck in people's minds, and the 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:43.760 setting Chris's hometown also has the distinction of being the 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:44.680 nation's Capital. 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:48.560 I literally grew up on Capitol hill Man when Union Station, 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:53.760 all those fountains that you see down Pennsylvania Avenue, Constitution Avenue, 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:56.079 I swim in all in my I played hide and 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:59.360 go see in the bushes at the Supreme Court. We 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:01.960 used to ride our bikes and around the Capitol, around 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:04.400 the stairs, and I was your average. 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:05.079 Kid growing up. 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:10.680 The neighborhood was like any average middle class neighborhood. The 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.680 community supported each other. My grandmother was one of the 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:18.320 highest ranking members in Peace Corps. She used to take 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.200 us all over the place my siblings. I had two 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.680 brothers and a sister, and my parents were separated, but 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:28.840 my grandmother was the foundation in the family. 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:31.080 She took us everywhere. 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:34.440 So we would hang out at the Pentagon. From being 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:37.200 around that atmosphere, my dream was to go in the 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:40.440 Air Force. I graduated when I was seventeen years old. 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:43.880 Never been arrested. Used to hang out with a bunch 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:46.320 of guys and we'd go to the go gos. We 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:48.680 go to different shows, we go to club. 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:49.200 You know. 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.040 We were trying to get a band, started a go 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:52.680 go band. 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.360 Go go music for those who don't remember, it was 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:59.440 a subgenre of funk born out of the DC area, 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:01.120 And I'm just going to do you a favor and 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:03.800 link one of the originating groups in the episode description 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.280 to give you a feel a flavor for the soundtrack 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:09.560 for this group of friends, among whom were the children 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:12.520 of the victim in this case, Catherine Fuller. 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:17.799 Yes absolutely new Well neewer son David her Son. Willim 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:20.560 was younger than us, but they both looked up to 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:23.800 me as a big brother. So we had some instruments 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:26.080 and then we thought we could make some go go music. 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:29.120 I used to be the so called manager of the 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:31.919 band because I was the one who was putting it together, 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:37.120 the drama, the guitars, the keyboards. But we only had 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:39.960 really two guys in the band that was any good, 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:44.760 and that was James Gomellia and Gregory Williams, who would 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:46.400 end up charged with the case. 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:48.720 And we're going to get to the laundry list of 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:51.440 people from the neighborhood who were dragged into this, including 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:55.200 Chris and his alibi witness, Calvin Smith. But first let's 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:58.520 go to the afternoon of October first, nineteen eighty four. 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:02.159 October first, eighteen four, kind of a drizzly day in DC. 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:05.640 But it's a busy day at eighth and H Streets Northeast. 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:10.520 That area is a very populated section of the city. 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.080 A whole bunch of bus lines come together. It's check day, 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:20.080 so you have people out shopping, doing whatever. And I 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.960 actually like to tell the story the way it actually happened, 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:27.359 as opposed to the way the government has it happened. 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:32.599 So on that day, there was a street vendor who 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:35.840 was at the corner of eighth and H Streets and 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:40.000 his job was kind of watching the area, making sure 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:44.880 nobody touched the merchandise, looking for customers. So he's watching 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:49.280 the corner, he's watching the alley, and he sees two 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:53.800 guys kind of walking up and down H Street Northeast 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:57.080 looking like their case in the joint. But that's about it. 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.040 At around six or six thirty, he goes into the 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.480 alley to take a leak, and he goes kind of 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:05.560 over to where this garage is at the t point 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:08.680 of the alley, and he sees blood and he finds 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:14.200 the body of Catherine Fuller, who is a very tiny 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:18.600 I think like four foot nine ninety eight pounds mother 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:23.760 in the neighborhood, and she's been badly beaten. She's clearly dead. 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:27.120 He calls the police. Him and a couple of his 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:29.800 friends are kind of like monitoring the alley waiting for 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:33.880 the police. As the police show up, the two guys 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:36.240 who had been kind of walking up and down each 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:39.800 street the street vender sees them agin as police were arriving, 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:42.960 those two guys bolt. One of them has something puffy 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:43.800 in his jacket. 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:47.599 They're literally at the garage what a victim is, and 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:51.159 they're tucking someone in the jacket and I think the 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:55.120 police here. The guys say don't run, and then both 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:56.760 of them take off running, So. 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.640 The police start processing the scene. Missus Fuller's body is 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:07.080 in a very small, cluttered garage. She's been badly beaten 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:12.200 anally sodomized, so she's got pretty significant brutal injuries. And 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:14.360 if you look at the crime scene, evidence looks like 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:16.920 it's happened in this garage. There are a group of 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:20.560 witnesses who come forward who say they'd been walking through 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:24.600 the alley at around five thirty that evening and the 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:27.440 garage doors were closed and they heard some low like 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.640 moans or groans coming through the garage. If you look 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:34.560 in that garage, there's all sorts of stuff all over 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:37.160 the place, and you don't see that stuff as disturbed 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:41.200 that there was room for ten, fifteen, twenty people to 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:46.120 be committing this crime. So, if you are someone who's 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:50.360 looking at this case like first blush, what you probably 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.960 think is those two guys who were walking up and down, 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:58.040 who were running from the garage, seem important, and this 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:02.320 might have been happening at around and so you might ask, 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:07.160 how do you go from that to a mob of 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:11.160 crazed young people beating Missus Fuller to death in an 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:16.040 alley in a total frenzy and sodomizing her with an object, right, 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:17.840 Because that's not what that crime looks like. 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:21.920 Well, as we mentioned, many of the kids who eventually 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.280 were convicted were friends with Missus Fuller's sons, never been 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:27.760 in trouble, and would not likely be motivated to do 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:31.000 something like this for any reason at all, let alone 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:35.560 the jewelry and fifty dollars that were stolen. But according 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:39.600 to the investigators McGuinness and Sanchez Torano, they received an 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:44.080 anonymous tip and I'm not buying it. It's like a 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:48.240 go to fallback, you know, something about that sounds fishy to. 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:50.840 Me, I'm glad you say that because I'd never brought 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:54.560 the theory of anonymous call, because they just created a 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:57.080 theory and say, way, it was an anonymous tip that 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.079 it was these even age guys talking about snatches on 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:01.000 one in alley. 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:04.200 They don't tend to be huge organized gangs in DC 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.840 the way there are in like Chicago ORLA. DC has cruise. 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:10.840 There was not an eighth and H Crew, though another 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:13.679 DC thing is go go clubs, go go's like the 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:18.320 DC homegrown music, and the eighth and H Crew was 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:20.600 kind of like a go go thing. Someone would say, 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:23.080 is the eighth and H Crew in the house, and 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.520 people from eighth and H would cheer. So there's not 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:28.840 really an eighth and H Crew. But in nineteen eighty 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:33.000 four you're kind of at the early talk about wilding 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:34.880 and youths and. 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.600 Gangs, and this alleged tip led them to a guy 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.520 named Clifton Yardborough as well as his brother Ernie, and 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:44.640 to their alleged involvement in this fabricated gang. 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:50.559 Cliff Yardborough is sixteen at the time, super talented basketball 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:54.760 player but very low IQ. So they pick up Cliff, 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:59.000 separate him from his older brother and tell Cliff that 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:00.920 they know he was at this scene, that if he 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:03.679 denies it, he's lying, and if he keeps denying it, 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:05.920 he's going to end up getting charged with it. 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:08.719 That right there should tell everyone the story that you 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:12.720 pick this guy, the youngest, weakest guy who didn't have 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:15.920 the mental capacity, and that's where you win at you 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.480 just drill them for nineteen hours, the problem of food, 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:20.840 water anything. 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:25.880 Cliff gives police a statement telling them that a guy 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.240 named Alfonso Harris, his nickname was Monk, a guy named 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.760 Levi Rouse, Roland Franklin, and a couple of other guys 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:38.280 robbed Missus Fuller, and on that basis they arrest Monk Harris. 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:40.800 At that point though, all they have is cliff statement, 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:45.880 and so they keep investigating. Their next big break, to 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:48.400 the extent that we can call it, that comes from 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:53.880 a young woman who is sixteen, a heavy PCP user, 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:58.240 also has an IQ of sixty three, someone who by 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.679 the time of trial has changed the specifics of her 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:05.360 story so many times that it's hard to keep track. 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:09.600 And that was Carrie Ellerby, whose initial statement was made 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:12.319 while she was high on PCP. And for those of 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.559 you who don't know PCP is a powerful drug, and 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:18.240 she identified a guy named Calvin Austin. 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:20.720 The police are talking to her about some kind of 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.439 unrelated fight at one of the go go clubs, and 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:27.559 she kind of spontaneously tells them that she knows who 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:28.560 killed Missus Fuller. 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.280 First, she says she was riding in a car coming 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:35.000 from a go go somewhere in southeast and she over 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:37.320 heard a Calvin Austin tell them mal killed the woman 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:38.000 in an alley. 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:42.719 So police bring in Calvin Alston, very low IQ teenager 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:46.960 interrogated by the same police. Officers who interrogated Cliff tell 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:49.439 him that they know he was there. He's denying it. 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:52.160 They tell him he faces life in prison if he 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:54.120 doesn't talk to them. He can either have a piece 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:55.800 of the pie or they can have the whole thing. 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.599 And Austin eventually says he witnessed. 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:02.840 A group assault thirteen other people. Yeah, when you're hearing 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.319 the three, you like y'all got this room, man, people 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:09.680 would have random Missus Fuller's defense on a street. 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:11.160 This wouldn't have happened that way. 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.240 He says, it's on video, and he thought he was 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:15.880 going to give the statement and go home. 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:19.720 Calvin Austin immediately recanted it, but it was too late. 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:24.320 His statement named thirteen other people, including Chris Turner, his 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.600 younger brother Charles, and a friend named Timothy Catlett. 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:30.880 Yeah, me and Katnet went to a late night movie 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.360 and watched Beverly Hills Cop and came home and the 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:38.040 next morning they kicking out doors. And the crazy thing 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.680 about it is is someone that you know that you 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.319 had to grieve about, You had to greeve what a 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:48.679 friend about. That's the difference in the Central Park case, 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:51.800 in the Norfolk case, and this is somebody that you 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:52.480 actually know. 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:06.640 You're listening to wrongful conviction. You can listen to this 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:09.400 and all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:12.840 and ed free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:15.280 on Apple Podcasts. 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:23.960 The people that were charged on the case have never 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.280 been together. No one has ever heard of an aph 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:29.480 and H gang like. I know all the people that 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:32.000 were charged, but some of the people on the case 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:35.640 don't know each other. The only person I did not 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:38.400 know in the case was Lisa Ruffin. Some of the 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:39.000 guys are. 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:39.600 Meeting each other. 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.800 They like, Chrissy, who is this? I'm like, oh, that's 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:44.840 such and such. That's Bobo or man? 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:45.400 Who is this? 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.119 I ain't never seen this dude for in our neighborhood 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:50.319 and I'm like, no, he live in the neighborhood, just. 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:51.200 Live up top. 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:55.600 And there was a total of seventeen people charged with 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:59.080 the case, so naturally people saw on TV that they 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:02.520 are arresting people and they are up to seventeen. So 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:04.880 you better come up and tell them something when they 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:09.440 come knocking on your door or you will be number eighteen, nineteen, 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:10.000 and twenty. 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:16.200 The other witnesses were mostly teenagers who the police interviewed 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.760 multiple times, and they just keep bringing people in until 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:24.480 they finally broke. There was one witness, Linda Jacobs, who 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:26.560 was friend of Carrie Ellerby's. 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:30.320 Linda Jacobs gave a statement making her and Carrie ellerbe 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:34.920 witnesses instead of just eavesdroppers to Calvin Austin's confession, and 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:37.440 the police went back to Carrie ellerb. 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.400 Now the story changes and now she's a witness tutor 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:44.200 murder at the scene in the alley, her and her 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:47.480 best friend. Now, if you dare Calvin Austen, don't have 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.360 to tell you about it. But that was her initial 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:54.040 statement they used her against Calvin Austen and then got 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:58.960 her to change all her whole testimony around to Kelvin Smith. 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:02.520 Curry Elab was supposed to have had a baby by 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:06.800 Kelvin Smith, which was ludicrous because Kelvin Smith he didn't 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:10.000 need meet Curry Llerb till after missus Fuller's death. 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:13.680 Now, if you recall, Kelvin Smith was Chris's alibi witness. 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:16.480 They were at Kelvin's during the crime. So this new 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:20.920 statement from Ellerb somehow gave Llerb credibility making a statement 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:25.560 that incriminated her alleged baby's father and discredited Chriss alibi, 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.960 even though it was all a total departure from the 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:33.560 statement Llerb had made about Calvin Austen. But nevertheless, seventeen 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:36.960 people from the eighth and H area were now in 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:38.440 jail awaiting trial. 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.000 Many of the defendants would blame in each other because 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.520 they didn't know each other. Like, man, whatever y'all guys 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:46.840 got me into, y'all need to get me the f 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:48.840 off for this case. Man, y'all need to take your 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:52.080 fucking weight if you did this. And everybody's agging back 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:54.680 and forth, and so we got argaments and fight among 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.480 ourselves about man. What you know about this man? You 0:15:57.560 --> 0:15:59.320 better tell the people whatever you know and get me 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:02.440 off of this case. And everybody on the case is 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:06.640 just lost and dumbfounded, except for Harry Bennett. Harry Bennett 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.120 is not from that neighborhood. He put itself on the 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:11.840 case to take away a drug charge that he had, 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:14.760 but he's not from that neighborhood. He's never mentioned in 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:15.360 any of the. 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.640 False confessions, and he's referred to Calvin Austin's statement and 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:20.840 a striking inconsistency. 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:24.880 Calvin Austin and Bennett said the similar story, but they 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:28.600 switched up different people doing different things, and they don't 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:31.680 implicate each other. Why because Harry Bennett don't know Calvin 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:34.880 alst Kavin don't know Harry Bennett, so they never implicate 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:35.640 each other. 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.160 Which sounds like a blazing red flag. 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:42.200 What the government says is essentially, well, these inconsistencies don't 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:46.960 matter because they all basically say the same thing, so 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:48.920 that there was a large grip that attacked Missus Fuller. 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:51.680 And first of all, as details do matter when you're 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.560 looking at those inconsistencies and trying to tell a story 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.359 and figure out how the witnesses got. 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:00.440 There, and not only are they inconsistent with the each other, 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:02.560 but with the objective facts of the crime. 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:06.439 When we asked a pathologist before the twenty twelve hearing 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:09.959 to take a look at this and sort of see, like, 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:13.240 are these injuries possible for one or two people to 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.760 have inflicted? He said, yes, It's actually much more likely 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:19.520 that this is one or two people than a large 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:22.000 grip crime because of the way they're concentrated. 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:25.600 But Calvin Alsen and Harry Bennett said that all these 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:28.320 guys was dead. Oh yeah, Chrissy he hit her, Yeah, 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.960 Charles he kicked her. Snot Rag he hit her. Stephen Webb, 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:34.800 yeah he kicked her. It's like it was a similar line, 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.560 like guys had taken torry, Okay, now you go kick 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:41.280 And the autos report didn't support this. 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:46.520 This pathologist looked at some of the witness statements and said, 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:49.400 if this had happened the way this witness said, here 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:51.560 are the injuries he would have expected. If it had 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:53.479 happened the way this witness had said, here are the 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:56.639 injuries he would have expected, and they're not there. The 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:00.000 other piece of that is that the government has often 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:02.800 said in this case that the injuries were so severe 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:06.439 that they couldn't have been inflicted by one or two people. 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:10.399 The pathologist said, that's absolutely not the case. If what 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:13.240 the witnesses are saying is true, it would have actually 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:15.000 been a more brutal crime. 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:18.840 In addition, Calvin Austin fought to suppress his own false confession, 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:22.760 a process he began upon leaving the interrogation room. 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:27.240 He immediately retracts the confession and is writing everybody under 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:31.679 the sun telling them he falsely confessed. Was planning to 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:34.840 go to trial up until very late in the game. 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:38.600 He was in the sale right next to me, across 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:42.800 from Lamont Bobby, Calvin Smith, and Daryl Murchison. And once 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:47.040 he lost that suppression motion for the video, they actually 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:49.720 moved Calvin Alsten. We don't know why they move them. 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:52.639 I don't want to say they moved him intentionally, but 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:56.000 they put them with people who were sentenced already and 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:57.760 he ended up right. 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:01.560 He was sixteen, He got raped in the DC jail 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:06.200 and at that point he said, like, I've got to 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:08.679 get out here, and so he agreed to testify for 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:10.080 the government Jesus. 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:15.760 So they had Austin Bennett Yarborough, Ellerbye Jacobs, and a 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.480 young man named Maurice Thomas, who claimed to be able 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:21.280 to identify Chris Turner from a distance by the shape 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:25.280 of his head. Yeah, and that is what passed Muster 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:28.520 as the state's evidence that they planned to present at 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:31.840 two separate trials, the first of which was for ten 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:33.879 of the seventeen co defendants. 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:37.200 They told the public that they were more and they 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:41.080 were gonna get more. The other seven were supposed to 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:44.359 be indicted on full of two but the one guy, 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:48.439 Darryl Merchison, was not indicted because he had a time 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:50.760 cause showing that he was at work at the time. 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:55.840 Lamart Bobbitt, his girlfriend had a detailed journal hour on 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:57.320 the hour and her and. 0:19:57.440 --> 0:19:58.359 Lamont was together. 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:01.320 Another one of the guys, we were not in town 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:05.560 or was locked up somewhere else at the time, maybe Rowland, 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:08.439 Franklin or something. And so they don't want none of 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:09.480 that stuff to come out. 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:13.000 The alibi evidence would have impeached the credibility of all 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:16.000 of the state's witnesses, so those whose alibis could be 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:20.920 undermined went to trial, including Chris and Charles Turner, Kelvin Smith, 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:26.840 Timothy Catlett, Levi Rouse, Stephen Webb, Russell Overton, Clifton, Yarborough, 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:29.320 Alfonso Harris, and Lisa Ruffin. 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:33.720 One person had public defendant Alfonso Harris, because he was 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:37.639 the first person arrested, so the public Defender's office couldn't 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.360 represent no one else on the case because of conflict 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:44.520 they're interests. So we all received quarter pointed attorneys. They 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.960 never did no investigation work, They never did any research. 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:50.720 This would have been came out, but they thought that 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:53.280 we all were gonna plead guilty. How could you not 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:56.359 plead guilty to the worst case ever in the history 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:59.800 of DC when they offer you plead deals to six years. 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:02.560 They offered me a plea deal to two years at 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:05.720 least a rough and one year, and offered everybody else 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:06.399 a plead. 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:07.119 Deal to six years. 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:09.399 And I told him I'm not pleading juilty to somebody 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:12.440 didn't do. And it should have woke the lawyers up 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:16.919 if they were actually defense attorneys. Even when trial was 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:20.240 going on, they offered us plead They kept on convincing 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:22.440 us that we need to plead out to this and 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:23.200 move on. 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:26.440 But they refused, and the prosecutor, Jerry Goren, took them 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:28.200 to trial in late nineteen eighty five. 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:32.080 The evidence that it is presented at trial is the 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:36.600 testimony of Calvin Austen and Harry Bennett that they, along 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:39.879 with the defendants of some other individuals, were hanging out 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:42.440 at a bus stop at the corner of eighth and 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:46.480 H Streets when cliff Yarborough started singing a go go 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:51.600 song about getting some money. That someone saw Missus Fuller 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:54.920 from across the street and said let's go get her, 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:59.240 and that they accosted her, drag her into the alley, 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:03.640 rob her her, beat her in a wild frenzy, and 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:07.879 somehow they all come to agree eventually that the person 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:10.960 who committed the analsodomy with an object was Leevi Ross, 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:16.480 and that they then left. That's the overarching narrative. Bennett 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:20.200 and Alston put themselves in the crime. Carrie Ellebie and 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:24.040