Speaker 1: We initially released Kevin Dyk's story on September fourteenth, twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: and an update in August of twenty twenty one. Since then,
Speaker 1: our understanding is that some powerful people in the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles District Attorney's Office under the leadership of George Gascon,
Speaker 1: listened to our coverage and agreed that Kevin deserved relief.
Speaker 1: He was resentenced, paroled, and released from prison on February
Speaker 1: twenty first, twenty twenty four. We are so happy that
Speaker 1: he is finally home where he belongs, as we continue
Speaker 1: to hope for his full exoneration. Please check the episode description.
Speaker 1: There's a link to his cash ap. He needs our
Speaker 1: help as he struggles to get his life back together
Speaker 1: after thirty eight long years in prison. Here's our coverage
Speaker 1: of his story. As a child, in the late nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: Kevin Dykes accidentally killed his best friend when they were
Speaker 1: playing with a gun, sending him to juvie for involuntary manslaughter.
Speaker 1: When he got out, he turned to petty drug dealing
Speaker 1: in Compton, California. Fast forward to nineteen eighty six. After
Speaker 1: a terrible assault that led to a four month hospital stint,
Speaker 1: Kevin continued peddling drugs from his temporary wheelchair for two
Speaker 1: men named Slim and Hondo. Kevin rented a bed and
Speaker 1: a trailer home in his landlord's driveway, where Slim and
Speaker 1: Hondo occasionally hit weapons. That June, two incidents occurred just
Speaker 1: days apart, resulting in one murder and two attempted murders.
Speaker 1: The first during a party, when Kevin booted his friend
Speaker 1: Ephram for being belligerently drunk. Slim and Hondo followed he from,
Speaker 1: stabbing him several times. A neighborhood mother, Missus Bradley, came
Speaker 1: to Ephraim's aid, only to get stabbed as well. Kevin intervened,
Speaker 1: jumping from his wheelchair to stop the assault before it
Speaker 1: turned fatal. A few days later, Slim and Hondo accused
Speaker 1: Kevin's friend Otis Perry of stealing their gun from Kevin's trailer,
Speaker 1: stabbing him eighty one times. Unable to stop the murderous
Speaker 1: frenzy and fearing for his own life, Kevin helped them
Speaker 1: clean up before going to the police a few hours later.
Speaker 1: A few days after that, Kevin was arrested for cocaine
Speaker 1: possession and put into a special holding tank for state's witnesses.
Speaker 1: Then three jailhouse snitches claimed that Kevin had confessed to
Speaker 1: all three attacks in exchange for leniency in their own cases.
Speaker 1: Kevin Dykes is serving life in prison on the word
Speaker 1: of three notorious jailhouse snitches. This is Wrongful Conviction with
Speaker 1: Jason flamm Wrongful Conviction has always given voice to innocent
Speaker 1: people in prison, and now we're expanding that voice to you.
Speaker 1: Call us at eight three three two O seven four
Speaker 1: six sixty six and tell us how these stories make
Speaker 1: you feel and what you've done to help the cause,
Speaker 1: even if it's something as simple as telling a friend
Speaker 1: or sharing out social media, and you might just hear
Speaker 1: yourself in a future episode. Call us A three three
Speaker 1: two O seven four six sixty six.
Speaker 2: This is Global taill Link. You have a prepaid call
Speaker 2: from care an inmate at the California State Prison, Los
Speaker 2: Angeles County, Lancaster, California. This call and your telephone number
Speaker 2: will be monitored and recorded. To accept this call, say
Speaker 2: or dial five now. Thank you for using globaltaill Link.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Wrawful Conviction with Jason Flomp. Today we
Speaker 1: have an incredible story, so we're going to get right
Speaker 1: into it, and I'm going to introduce you first to
Speaker 1: Stephen K. Howser. He's a criminal defense attorney representing the
Speaker 1: star of this episode, Kevin Diyke. Stephen, Welcome to Wrongful Conviction.
Speaker 3: Thank you, glad to be here.
Speaker 1: And Kevin Dykes is on the phone with us from prison,
Speaker 1: and I hope we'll be able to do something about
Speaker 1: his situation because it is awful. Kevin. I'm sorry you're
Speaker 1: here where you are, but I'm happy you're here with
Speaker 1: us today. So thank you for.
Speaker 4: Being here, no problem, thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 1: This case goes back to Compton nineteen eighty six, and
Speaker 1: it's got so much that you'll think I'm talking about
Speaker 1: a movie script that would be too much to be believed,
Speaker 1: except for it's real. It's got gangster's name Hondo and Slim.
Speaker 1: It's got drugs, it's got snitches that ended up on
Speaker 1: sixty minutes. It's got laws that changed, and victims who
Speaker 1: testified that this was not the guy who did it.
Speaker 1: It's got a guy who's in prison for three and
Speaker 1: a half decades with no evidence against him except the
Speaker 1: testimony of jailhouse snitches who have recanted their testimony. It
Speaker 1: is nuts, but it's true. So let's get right into it.
Speaker 1: And Kevin, let's start with you going back to your
Speaker 1: youth because you grew up in common.
Speaker 4: Right, Yes, I grew up good, two pay at homes
Speaker 4: in the pop Water Sport. I actually had a real
Speaker 4: good up bringing until I, uh, I think it's actually
Speaker 4: saying I ended up actually killing my best friend. I
Speaker 4: went for a voluntary man father, and I was sick too.
Speaker 3: And for those of you who don't know, YA or
Speaker 3: CYA is the California Youth Authority.
Speaker 1: As I understand it, your friend's death was entirely accidental,
Speaker 1: just two kids who made a big mistake playing with
Speaker 1: a gun. But they still sent your way to Julie
Speaker 1: for involuntary manslaughter. And I also understand that you harbor
Speaker 1: a lot of guilt about this. Even though the family
Speaker 1: forgave you, yes.
Speaker 4: Just family, they stayed them directly across the street from
Speaker 4: my family, even to the day, still film the same street.
Speaker 4: Although the family had for given me, written me letters
Speaker 4: and come to see me. When I got out, I
Speaker 4: saw what idea to that family, and I didn't know
Speaker 4: how to process. Although my mother and my father my
Speaker 4: grandmother and all kind of people were trying to help me.
Speaker 4: I didn't know how to ask for their help that
Speaker 4: I actually needed. So I got Digris, a little deck grid.
Speaker 5: To the King.
Speaker 1: So the guilt kind of derailed your potential, it seems.
Speaker 1: And after Juvie, you start dealing drugs and looking outside
Speaker 1: of what seemed like a supportive home for whatever it
Speaker 1: was that you felt you needed, acceptance, identity, whatever, out
Speaker 1: in the street. So fast forward to January nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 1: Some other really bad stuff happens January eighteenth.
Speaker 4: So I try to kiddingap me. They try to cheat
Speaker 4: them in front of my house. I followed. They ran
Speaker 4: me through a brick wall. They both my inter smashed
Speaker 4: my failings. So I went to the hospital January eighteenth
Speaker 4: in dollars to May twenties. When I got out of
Speaker 4: the hospital, I was in a wheelchair and I had
Speaker 4: a walker, and I was going to a therapy.
Speaker 1: Yes, someone tried to kidnap Kevin. So you fought them off,
Speaker 1: and they ended up hitting you with their car against
Speaker 1: a brick wall, broke your hips, snapped your pelvis, and
Speaker 1: put you in the hospital for four months. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're lucky to even be alive. And we haven't even
Speaker 1: gotten to the part that has you locked up right now. Okay,
Speaker 1: so it's May nineteen eighty six. You're temporarily in this
Speaker 1: wheelchair doing physical therapy and dealing drugs for these two
Speaker 1: mid level management drug dealers named Slim and Hondo.
Speaker 3: Slim and Hondo decided that they were going to take
Speaker 3: over the local drug sales. I believe they helped Kevin
Speaker 3: and some of his friends with small amounts of cocaine
Speaker 3: to sell in the neighborhood, and they would periodically show
Speaker 3: up and I guess resupply the local sellers, including Kevin
Speaker 3: and Kevin.
Speaker 1: You were renting a place to stay from a man
Speaker 1: named mister Bryce. You were renting a bed in this
Speaker 1: mobile home that's sat in his driveway right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was standing mister Bryce's mobile hole. We had
Speaker 4: a mobile home. They had like six days in a
Speaker 4: shower and all that stuff inside. It was parked in
Speaker 4: the driveway. Sometimes my friends used to places to stay.
Speaker 4: They had like six paces where he suld be sleeping there.
Speaker 4: So Otis would come in and sleeping.
Speaker 6: There, and Otis is Otis Perry, who occasionally stayed at
Speaker 6: mister Bryce's mobile home, and he's the one that was
Speaker 6: eventually stabbed like slimon Hondo for taking the gun that
Speaker 6: they had left in the trailer.
Speaker 3: The night that these two attempting murders occurred outside a
Speaker 3: party at mister Bryce's house.
Speaker 4: Yes, oldly, my cousin Pam was inside the mobile home.
Speaker 4: I was inside the house where the party was there
Speaker 4: when the fighting, when the fight after, so I didn't
Speaker 4: know this was out there at the time. And I
Speaker 4: know Slim pulled up. They knew mister Bryce didn't allow
Speaker 4: guns in his house, but they heard a gun in
Speaker 4: the mobile home with my cousin and Olsted. But I
Speaker 4: still didn't know and about that at that time.
Speaker 1: Okay, So now the stage is finally set for these
Speaker 1: crimes to take place. This is we're talking June nineteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six. There's a little party going on at
Speaker 1: mister Bryce's. Your friend Otis and your cousin Pam are
Speaker 1: in the mobile home in the driveway. Slim and Hondo,
Speaker 1: your bosses, come to hang out, but out of respect
Speaker 1: for mister Bryce, they leave their gun in the mobile home.
Speaker 1: Then your friend Ephraim is at the party and he
Speaker 1: is drunk, to say the least.
Speaker 4: Wellphim is my older homeboy. He was being religerate and
Speaker 4: wrestle with the females. I was up in there and
Speaker 4: grabbing drinks and didn't belong to him, and I told
Speaker 4: the man go down to the pool man, keep back.
Speaker 4: I got he kept home. So I got pissed off
Speaker 4: and I hate him once and when I hate him,
Speaker 4: Hondo slim. Both of them attackly be some of them.
Speaker 4: I here's what they see, he said. I didn't understand,
Speaker 4: and why did they get involved in there? Here's what
Speaker 4: they said. Because I could barely walked. They people were
Speaker 4: taking advantage of my disability.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, so your drug bosses are sticking up for you,
Speaker 1: but then they go way beyond what you would ever
Speaker 1: want them to do.
Speaker 4: Yes, So once I stuck some both of them attacking,
Speaker 4: I got them to stop. Told these communities. He left,
Speaker 4: and then they take him down the street. They caught
Speaker 4: him at the end of the corner. Once I got
Speaker 4: down there, I saw that they was actually stabbing. When
Speaker 4: I Hando leaving alone, Hondo, he looked up and saw me.
Speaker 4: But when he saw me, he saw this Bradley. Behind
Speaker 4: me was Brady as my older home was mother. When
Speaker 4: she looked up and saw that it was her son,
Speaker 4: she tried to turn it around. He ran her down,
Speaker 4: grabbed her by her address, and saw her stabbing her.
Speaker 4: I hopped my way to him and grabbed him to
Speaker 4: see him off of her, and once an hour Holy
Speaker 4: she got loose. We gave you from time to shut up,
Speaker 4: and then I got to toil that she should the
Speaker 4: call and drove them off. I drove off to a
Speaker 4: motive and then I came back to Hic and Missus Bradley.
Speaker 4: But the Amma's already came and it was the hospital.
Speaker 1: So you basically saved Missus Bradley and Ephraim from being
Speaker 1: murdered by Slim and Hondo by convincing them to stop
Speaker 1: stabbing them and drive away from the scene. But this
Speaker 1: incident on June nineteenth is what becomes two charges of
Speaker 1: attempted murder that gets stuck on you, the guy confined
Speaker 1: to a wheelchair at the time. Yeah, okay, so Slim
Speaker 1: and Hondo stabbed both Ephraim and Missus Bradley. You drove
Speaker 1: them to a motel. At some point, your friend otis
Speaker 1: back at the mobile home takes the gun Slim and
Speaker 1: Hondo had left behind. Not too smart, by the way,
Speaker 1: because Slim and knew who was in the mobile home
Speaker 1: when they stashed it in the first place, so they
Speaker 1: come looking for Otis on June twenty thirty.
Speaker 4: June twenty thirty, he came over looking for Otis like
Speaker 4: one something in the morning. They said, come outsire, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna go and kill Oldis. I didn't know Otis was
Speaker 4: out here in the motor home. So when I went
Speaker 4: out to the front yard going to the motor opened,
Speaker 4: Oldis stepped out. Hanolds attacked Otis said may with my gun.
Speaker 4: He said, we can go get it. He said, too late,
Speaker 4: and they attashing. They started fighting. ODIs was fighting back,
Speaker 4: but they were fighting him from the side of the
Speaker 4: mobile hole and went around the garage, and that was
Speaker 4: the first time I saw him being stashed. And I
Speaker 4: came back from around there. I wasn't neighboring one or
Speaker 4: whatever it's so didn't say nothing and just listener to
Speaker 4: everything that was going on. And I don't know how
Speaker 4: the much time passed, but gave Honolds came from around
Speaker 4: there and it was no more noise. I was wondering
Speaker 4: it okay, now what He said, uh woo something, you
Speaker 4: got some revenue, And then I gave him my blak
Speaker 4: so him a swim went behind the babe and wrapped
Speaker 4: him up, drugged him out and put him in the car.
Speaker 4: And instead of hear him, the slim boy, he said,
Speaker 4: you swim, you stay here watching out all the blood
Speaker 4: that was coming from behind the motherwll and showed me
Speaker 4: to get in the car and ride with him. So
Speaker 4: I took him over through my own boys neighborhood by
Speaker 4: the canail, and that's where he jumped in and I said, look,
Speaker 4: I'll be back. I left it deb came back.
Speaker 1: And what would you tell anyone listening now who's wondering
Speaker 1: why you played any part in getting rid of the
Speaker 1: body with Slim and Hondo.
Speaker 5: I did.
Speaker 4: With any reasonable person not trying to die, I would
Speaker 4: have done. I have seen what I saw. I knew
Speaker 4: I gotta do something that made myself a part of
Speaker 4: what's going on. And I wasn't as physically able to
Speaker 4: do nothing to prevent myself from being killed. And I
Speaker 4: expressed that that was the smartest thing that I could
Speaker 4: have done at the time for myself, instead of doing nothing.
Speaker 1: If you had done nothing at all. What do you
Speaker 1: think Slim and Honda would have done?
Speaker 4: I was a little bit too afraid to find out.
Speaker 4: I was in a position where something happened to my
Speaker 4: free and Donald Ross, and I knew what I thought
Speaker 4: was the best thing to do for my silks. They're
Speaker 4: not two folders now.
Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by Paul Weiss, Rifkin, Porton and Garrison,
Speaker 1: a leading international law firm. Paul Weiss has long had
Speaker 1: an unwavering commitment to providing impactful, pro bono legal assistance
Speaker 1: to the most vulnerable members of our society and in
Speaker 1: support of the public interest, including extensive work in the
Speaker 1: criminal justice area. You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can
Speaker 1: listen to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts
Speaker 1: one week early and ad free by subscribing to Lava
Speaker 1: for Good Plus on Apple podcasts. Otis's murder eventually gets
Speaker 1: pinned on you, the guy who was only able to
Speaker 1: watch or listen helplessly as your friend got stabbed to death.
Speaker 1: And then, in order to save your own life, you
Speaker 1: did what probably any of us would have done. You
Speaker 1: played along with Slim and Hondo until you could get away.
Speaker 1: I would not want to have been in your shoes.
Speaker 1: At that point, you just lost your friend. Otis you
Speaker 1: had to contend with the question of to snitch or
Speaker 1: not to snitch on like a sophie's choice on these
Speaker 1: two murderous drug dealers.
Speaker 4: Definitely, I was sign the process. What just happened to
Speaker 4: show sixty seven o'clock in the morning. That's when I
Speaker 4: saw the police told that you got who there was?
Speaker 4: One always said come over here and look at Moved
Speaker 4: and Blake, and I knew it was. I said, I
Speaker 4: know where he lives, to the little mother's house. And
Speaker 4: then when we came back to the scene, I asked
Speaker 4: my saying, look if I had any information, talk on
Speaker 4: my contract, and he gave me his car. I took
Speaker 4: your car, rode a mile two whiles and I went
Speaker 4: to the phone boof and then I called the police
Speaker 4: to look and I told everything the thing needs to
Speaker 4: know and told him while I was there, they came
Speaker 4: and picked me up, took me out to the station
Speaker 4: and I made the tape and then once I made
Speaker 4: the take, they let me go. I went back home.
Speaker 1: So you made a statement to a sergeant Sergeant Preston,
Speaker 1: and you're going to be a witness and Steve, maybe
Speaker 1: you can tell us about the next part of the story,
Speaker 1: which is how Kevin was picked up for cocaine possessions.
Speaker 1: Sometime later and while in the state's witness holding area
Speaker 1: of La County Jail, he eventually meets three guys who
Speaker 1: are responsible for him being in this horle ruble predicament today.
Speaker 3: What happened was Kevin got arrested for a possession of
Speaker 3: cocaine charge and because he was the main witness against
Speaker 3: Slim and Hondo on a murder case, they put him
Speaker 3: in with other prosecution witnesses and it's commonly called the
Speaker 3: snitch Tank, which is a separate jail from the men's
Speaker 3: central jail. And while Kevin was in there, he told
Speaker 3: his cellmate, Willie Battle and the guy that was in
Speaker 3: the next cel over, Jesse Williams. He told them what
Speaker 3: actually happened because they asked, and that's very common in jail,
Speaker 3: what are he in for? And they exchanged information, but
Speaker 3: this time it only came from Kevin. He told him
Speaker 3: what happened, and they twisted it around and ran with it.
Speaker 3: And then they called the Compton Police Department and asked
Speaker 3: them if they had a murder case where the body
Speaker 3: was found by a canal. They called it a canal,
Speaker 3: it's really a drainage. And they put him in contact
Speaker 3: with Detective Marvin Branscombe, who was not Sergeant Preston, who
Speaker 3: Kevin gave the statement to, and they convinced Branscomb that
Speaker 3: what they had to say was true, which they said
Speaker 3: that Kevin confessed to these tempted murders and murder.
Speaker 4: They say, we got a guy out here bragging about
Speaker 4: chilling his guy and sad with lady telling this time,
Speaker 4: don't kill it. So I end up all from being
Speaker 4: the actual witness now being the actual killer.
Speaker 3: So Kevin became a defendant instead of the prosecution witness.
Speaker 3: And they moved him out of the snitch tank to
Speaker 3: another part of the jail. So Kevin's transferred over to
Speaker 3: the central jail, and then he met a very notorious
Speaker 3: nitch named Leslie White. And I get a call from
Speaker 3: Leslie White. I'd never heard of Leslie White. Leslie White says,
Speaker 3: I understand you're defending Kevin Dykes and that he has
Speaker 3: been rare it out by two snitches. And I said,
Speaker 3: that's exactly right. He says, well, I can help you.
Speaker 3: You come down here and I'm going to tell you
Speaker 3: all about the snitch system and how it works. Okay.
Speaker 3: So I go down to the jail. I talked to
Speaker 3: Leslie White. He tells me about how inmates get a
Speaker 3: hold of paperwork and change facts and get a hold
Speaker 3: of the detective or DA that's handling a particular murder case.
Speaker 3: And because they know these unique facts, they can convince
Speaker 3: the detective or district attorney that's handling the case that
Speaker 3: this confession was a valid confession. So I said, well,
Speaker 3: that sounds good, Okay, I'll put you on the witness list,
Speaker 3: mister White. So about a week or two later, I
Speaker 3: get the witness list from the district attorney and Leslie
Speaker 3: White is on there as a people's witness. And not
Speaker 3: only that, I get a report that says that Kevin
Speaker 3: Ike's confessed to Leslie White. And I'm flabbergasted because I
Speaker 3: just talked to Leslie White and he was going to
Speaker 3: be a witness for Kevin. So I go down to
Speaker 3: the jail and I call out Leslie White and he's
Speaker 3: willing to come and talk to me, and I said,
Speaker 3: what do you are? You a witness? For the prosecution. Now,
Speaker 3: he says, yep, I said, well, you know that Kevin's innocent.
Speaker 3: Why do you doing what? How can you do that?
Speaker 3: And he says, well, man's got to do what he's
Speaker 3: got to do. That's what he said.
Speaker 1: I gotta be honest. My head is spinning and I
Speaker 1: didn't even live through this. I mean, this is Kevin.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm so sorry that you're living this is
Speaker 1: this is your life we're talking about.
Speaker 4: I didn't actually believe that what was going on was
Speaker 4: even possible. I didn't think that there's doub would hold.
Speaker 4: I'm like, what, Oh, I'm an actual eye witness. The
Speaker 4: guys they don't know none about rally, but none about
Speaker 4: what actually happened. So I didn't really believe the people
Speaker 4: could do what they were what they were doing to me.
Speaker 4: I had never even heard about that before.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is this is like nothing. I don't
Speaker 1: think we've ever heard a story like this before. So Steven,
Speaker 1: what happens next?
Speaker 3: When we got to court, all they had was his
Speaker 3: statement to Sergeant Preston and three snitches, and I couldn't
Speaker 3: believe that they would even want to proceed with this evidence.
Speaker 3: But they did, and just before the verdict was issued,
Speaker 3: I told Kevin, I said, now, Kevin, when you get
Speaker 3: out of here, you've got to change your ways, be
Speaker 3: a law abiding citizen and then used to society and
Speaker 3: he said, yeah, came mister Houser, I'm going to do that,
Speaker 3: came back guilty. We were both floored.
Speaker 1: You were sentenced to twenty four years to life. Here
Speaker 1: it is now twenty twenty. You're still in Could you
Speaker 1: just take us back there, put us in that courtroom
Speaker 1: with you if you can't.
Speaker 4: I actually could not believe the verdant. You know, I
Speaker 4: actually didn't a crime. I just see how it was possible. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I was after eyewitness. I came for I gave him
Speaker 4: everything they needed, all evidence to call, the weapons. The
Speaker 4: people he from testify that I didn't attacking. He from
Speaker 4: will stand like thirty three times and he's test fired
Speaker 4: I didn't attack him, and it testified that I didn't
Speaker 4: attack Ms. Browning. That was my friend mother. There was
Speaker 4: nobody there that said I.
Speaker 1: Can't anybody but this And this is something I really
Speaker 1: need to highlight here, which is that if you go
Speaker 1: in a jury box and you're presented with a case
Speaker 1: where someone's life is hanging in the balance, just like
Speaker 1: Kevin's was, and there's no evidence connecting that person's at
Speaker 1: a crime except for the testimony of a snitch. You
Speaker 1: cannot vote to con because it's crazy. I mean, these
Speaker 1: are people who are clearly incentivized. They may not tell
Speaker 1: you that at the time, but you have to understand
Speaker 1: that the defense can never bribe a witness. That's it.
Speaker 1: That's a crime punishable by long time in jail. But
Speaker 1: the government can make a deal with a snitch to
Speaker 1: reduce their charges or drop their charges in exchange for testimony.
Speaker 1: And that is the best bribe of all. So it's
Speaker 1: the most unreliable testimony imaginable. And here you have a
Speaker 1: case where the direct evidence contradicts what the snitches were saying.
Speaker 1: The evidence showed that Kevin could not have committed this crime,
Speaker 1: and yet he ends up getting convicted on the testimony
Speaker 1: of people who were notoriously untrustworthy and were incentivized to lie.
Speaker 4: With the evidence. Where they get apartments, they say, oh,
Speaker 4: he's grit in my family, So the government gives them
Speaker 4: money to relocate them movement apartments. All of them end
Speaker 4: up getting reduced to left white, ended up getting out
Speaker 4: at such five member. He came right back any threatened
Speaker 4: physician attorney. If you don't bake me back out, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna blow his whole case.
Speaker 3: What happened was Leslie White then went on sixty minutes
Speaker 3: when he was back in again in the jail, and
Speaker 3: he showed on camera how he could work his magic
Speaker 3: and get favors from the DA. And then when I
Speaker 3: saw that, I went down and talked to Leslie White.
Speaker 3: I said, well, now I know for sure you lied
Speaker 3: in Kevin's case, and he says, yeah, I did. And
Speaker 3: I said, well, I want you to sign an affidavit
Speaker 3: that you lied in Kevin's case because Kevin deserves a
Speaker 3: new trial. And so sure enough he signed it. But
Speaker 3: instead of giving Kevin a new trial, the DA indicted
Speaker 3: him Leslie White with a grand jury, had me come
Speaker 3: in and test, and they gave Leslie White four years
Speaker 3: for perjury. They gave Kevin Dykes nothing. And that's where
Speaker 3: it sat.
Speaker 1: It's all so backwards and upside down. And of course,
Speaker 1: you know we have two more characters that are coming up.
Speaker 1: GG Gordon, who's on the right side of this story,
Speaker 1: and Willie Battles. We can't leave him out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when this snitch system came out thanks to Leslie White,
Speaker 3: believe it or not, Gigi Gordon was appointed. She's a
Speaker 3: defense lawyer. She's deceased now, but she was a criminal
Speaker 3: defense lawyer friend of mine, and Gigi Gordon was appointed
Speaker 3: by i think the Supreme Court to do an independent
Speaker 3: investigation on all of the snitch cases to see if
Speaker 3: justice was done. And she spent over a year on
Speaker 3: this project, being paid by the state of California. And
Speaker 3: as a result of Gigi Gordon's research and investigation, a
Speaker 3: law was introduced in the legis to require corroboration if
Speaker 3: snitch's testimony is going to be used in a case.
Speaker 3: And that happened, but.
Speaker 1: They didn't do it retroactively. Am I getting that right?
Speaker 1: Because it always drives me nuts when we change a
Speaker 1: law in this country and we don't do it retroactively.
Speaker 3: How could it be different now than it was before.
Speaker 3: It doesn't make sense. Didn't make any sense to me,
Speaker 3: and that's why I appealed it. We went to the
Speaker 3: Pellate Court in California, then the Supreme Court, and actually
Speaker 3: when we went to the Supreme Court the first time,
Speaker 3: the law had not been changed.
Speaker 1: Yet.
Speaker 3: But then we went back to the Supreme Court on
Speaker 3: another issue and the law had been changed, and in
Speaker 3: federal court, the judge actually said that Kevin might be innocent,
Speaker 3: but there's nothing I can do because this law is
Speaker 3: not retroactive or something to that effect. And I just
Speaker 3: thought that that was the most unjust result I've ever
Speaker 3: had in my whole career. Still is wow. And so
Speaker 3: if Kevin's case were tried now, they wouldn't have any
Speaker 3: evidence against him because the only incriminating evidence was from
Speaker 3: the snitch testimony.
Speaker 1: If Kevin's case were to be tried now, they would
Speaker 1: have no evidence against him. And yet it's thirty four
Speaker 1: years later and he's I can't this is nuts.
Speaker 3: I went to the district attorney with that very argument.
Speaker 3: With each new district attorney that came in, I would
Speaker 3: go talk to him and they told me that because
Speaker 3: of his statement admitting what he did pretending to go
Speaker 3: along with what is Slim and Honda were doing, because
Speaker 3: of that statement, that made him guilty. And they said, sorry,
Speaker 3: you have to present new evidence to us before we're
Speaker 3: going to recommend anything for Kevin. And I said, what's
Speaker 3: amount with these confessions by these snitches, that's new evidence
Speaker 3: at least since the trial. Two out of three Leslie
Speaker 3: White signed an affidavit that sent him put himself in prison,
Speaker 3: and Jesse Williams signed a letter saying that he lied
Speaker 3: in Kevin's case. He said, no, we want some more
Speaker 3: than that. Plus you've got one snitch that you don't have,
Speaker 3: you know, retraction from Willi Battle. We never had a
Speaker 3: retraction from him. And Willie Battle I tried to find
Speaker 3: but he's probably dead. So that's where we sit.
Speaker 1: And what is the outlook now? I mean, is there hope?
Speaker 3: I think Kevin has two hopes parole and with a
Speaker 3: new DA. I thought Jackie Lacey was very progressive and
Speaker 3: I had high hopes for Kevin when she put together
Speaker 3: her Internal Innocent project and I met with what I
Speaker 3: thought was a very ethical, fine lawyer, and I got
Speaker 3: a very unfavorable result. And I asked him during that hearing,
Speaker 3: I said, you know, as a human being, you know,
Speaker 3: do you really think that Kevin Dykes was convicted properly fairly?
Speaker 3: He wouldn't answer. He wouldn't give me an answer.
Speaker 1: Nearly a year has gone by since we originally released
Speaker 1: this episode in September twenty twenty and shortly thereafter in
Speaker 1: La County, George Gascon was elected DA, and Steve, last
Speaker 1: time we spoke, you said that one of the only
Speaker 1: avenues left for a leaf for Kevin was that very
Speaker 1: election victory. So you must have been really excited when
Speaker 1: it became clear that Jackie Lacy was on her way
Speaker 1: out and George Gascon was on his way in. I'm
Speaker 1: imagining you must have jumped right into action on the
Speaker 1: first business day of twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3: That is correct, on January fourth, twenty twenty one, I
Speaker 3: sent a letter to George Gascon, the new DA, alerting
Speaker 3: him to Kevin's situation, and I was contacted shortly thereafter
Speaker 3: by a deputy in his conviction integrity unit. She said
Speaker 3: that she had reviewed the case and she agreed with
Speaker 3: the former head of their integrity unit under Jackie Lacy
Speaker 3: that taking out all of the snitch testimony and just
Speaker 3: focusing in on Kevin's statement both to the police and
Speaker 3: what he testified to a trial, which were both consistent,
Speaker 3: that she felt that he was guilty because of what
Speaker 3: he said he shared in the criminal intent to kill
Speaker 3: his friend Otus, which I think was not reasonable. I
Speaker 3: don't understand how a deputy district attorney can look at
Speaker 3: the facts in this case, focusing on Kevin's own testimony
Speaker 3: and come to the conclusion that he intended Otis's death,
Speaker 3: that he wanted Otis to die, or that he wanted
Speaker 3: his friend Ephraim to die or Missus Bradley to die. Now,
Speaker 3: Ephram testified in court that Kevin was not a part
Speaker 3: of the assault on his person or Missus Bradley. For
Speaker 3: the district attorney to believe that Kevin convicted himself based
Speaker 3: on his testimony of both the murder and the attempted
Speaker 3: murders is beyond belief. For a second degree murder, there
Speaker 3: has to be criminal intent. You have to share in
Speaker 3: the intent of the stabbers in this case, Slim and
Speaker 3: Hondo to kill Otis, and there's no proof of that
Speaker 3: from Kevin's life. The only evidence of that is from
Speaker 3: snitch testimony, which under today's law would be inadmissible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and with good reason. I mean, let's face it,
Speaker 1: snitch testimony for the state is almost always incentivized by
Speaker 1: leniency in the snitch's charges, making that testimony as unreliable
Speaker 1: as it could be. So this deputy in Gascon's CiU
Speaker 1: wants to preserve this conviction, saying that Kevin's testimony reaches
Speaker 1: the burden of proof for criminal intent, when in reality,
Speaker 1: Kevin was essentially a hostage of Slim and Hondo until
Speaker 1: he could finally get away. I mean, had he not
Speaker 1: gone along with everything that happened in the aftermath of
Speaker 1: Otis's death, Slim and Hondo would have been dumping both
Speaker 1: Kevin and Otis's bodies and we wouldn't even be having
Speaker 1: this conversation or know what Slim and Hondo did. So
Speaker 1: what was the end result of your discussion with Gascon's deputy.
Speaker 1: Were you able to work anything out?
Speaker 3: After several back and forth conversations, she was going to
Speaker 3: bring a motion for resentencing. This was apparently a new
Speaker 3: law where they could go back into the trial court
Speaker 3: and petitioned for a change of sentence. She said that
Speaker 3: if Kevin would agree to change his plea from murder
Speaker 3: to manslaughter, that they would go along with it, and
Speaker 3: that he could then be sentenced to whatever the maximum
Speaker 3: on manslaughter was, which is a lot less than thirty
Speaker 3: five years that he's been in. So we're still waiting
Speaker 3: for that. I don't know what's happened. But the district
Speaker 3: attorney that I was talking to called me and told
Speaker 3: me that there was some problem with them making this
Speaker 3: motion because some judge might deny it or she wasn't
Speaker 3: real clear on that, but that she invited me to
Speaker 3: think of a way to get around the judge having
Speaker 3: to make a decision to get Kevin out. So I suggested, well,
Speaker 3: how about if I file another rit of habeas corpus
Speaker 3: and if the district attorney doesn't oppose it, then the
Speaker 3: judge can grant him a new trial, and once he
Speaker 3: gets a new trial, then they can dismiss the case
Speaker 3: because they don't have any evidence. They don't have any
Speaker 3: admissible evidence, right.
Speaker 1: The only evidence they had back then was the snitch testimony,
Speaker 1: which was totally uncorroborated and therefore now inadmissible under the
Speaker 1: law that resulted from Leslie White sixty minutes and the
Speaker 1: subsequent investigation. Not to mention that Jesse Williams recanted, Leslie
Speaker 1: White took a perjury charge and four years to undo
Speaker 1: his damage to Kevin, and Willie Battles is presumed dead
Speaker 1: or he might have done the same. So are they
Speaker 1: gonna move forward with your habeas idea or are they
Speaker 1: looking for something better to hang their hat on, considering
Speaker 1: that your idea would prove that this conviction has absolutely
Speaker 1: no integrity.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure what going to happen. It seems like
Speaker 3: that they're just waiting for the parole hearing.
Speaker 1: Right, Kevin is up for parole at the beginning of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3: And if the DA's office does not oppose parole, he
Speaker 3: will probably get released on parole. However, he will be
Speaker 3: on parole for the rest of his life for a
Speaker 3: crime that he did not commit, as well as having
Speaker 3: served thirty five years for a crime that he did
Speaker 3: not commit. I think that George Gascon himself has not
Speaker 3: heard the evidence in this case. Once he realizes exactly
Speaker 3: what went on in this case, I'm sure that he
Speaker 3: will see that justice is done and Kevin will get released.
Speaker 1: That's our hope as well, and anyone in our audience
Speaker 1: who feels the same way, and I hope all of
Speaker 1: you do, can scroll down to the link in the bio.
Speaker 1: There's a petition to George Gascon to do just that.
Speaker 1: He's a good man and he's a very reasonable person.
Speaker 1: I mean, really, I honestly like to clone George. He's
Speaker 1: that kind of guy. We hope that he and others
Speaker 1: in his office could come around to our view. Kevin
Speaker 1: would admit to anyone that he wasn't living with really
Speaker 1: honorable life at that point. But in fact, ironically, it
Speaker 1: was at this moment in his life that he did
Speaker 1: something truly honorable. He went to Otis's mother and then
Speaker 1: to the police to do the right thing. Does that
Speaker 1: sound like the actions of someone possessing criminal intent.
Speaker 4: Well, I know I need the ryting when I went
Speaker 4: to the police ten and high total food, a total
Speaker 4: food firm, and jury. Even now, I don't regret doing
Speaker 4: the riating because he was love for his life and
Speaker 4: it was important for his mother to know the food
Speaker 4: what happen to her son. Maybe I wouldn't say that
Speaker 4: while I'm in jail. He cast me a lot. I've
Speaker 4: lost like seventeen family members. My mom's hands spoken to
Speaker 4: you years ago. Now it talks me a lot. But
Speaker 4: I was should do it even all this time. I
Speaker 4: found ruin the last five years, so I'm at finding
Speaker 4: with God in myself. So now it's like, you know what,
Speaker 4: There's nothing I can do about what they've done. I'm
Speaker 4: not gonna let them take what's rest that I got
Speaker 4: in my speed and now my family is proud of me,
Speaker 4: even though I've never done nothing, because I've changed my life.
Speaker 4: So I'm gonna keep pushing. I'm gonna keep believing I
Speaker 4: got to so.
Speaker 1: I got And with that we will now go to
Speaker 1: closing arguments as they still ring true today with justice
Speaker 1: delayed in this case, I first of all, thank you both.
Speaker 1: Turn my microphone off, leave my headphones on, close my eyes,
Speaker 1: and let you both talk about whatever you want for
Speaker 1: the last few minutes of the show. Kevin, we're gonna
Speaker 1: save you for last if that's okay. And Stephen, please
Speaker 1: just share whatever it is that's on your mind.
Speaker 3: Uh well, Kevin, let's hope this is another step to
Speaker 3: get you out of prison. It's been a long, long road,
Speaker 3: but I won't give up ever.
Speaker 1: And Kevin, over to you.
Speaker 4: I'm thankful, you know. And it's taking me a long time,
Speaker 4: but I'm at peace last year, like the last five
Speaker 4: years now, and my life now still has purpose and
Speaker 4: meaning despite what they've done. I owe no feel feelings,
Speaker 4: force nobody. He is what he is, He is all
Speaker 4: I've lost, all lost in my life. I was twenty
Speaker 4: four years old. I'm fishing now. I've been seen over
Speaker 4: five years. So it's like there's nothing enough that I
Speaker 4: can't do that I don't consult it, but I won't
Speaker 4: let what they've done to me back then is something
Speaker 4: to me. Now I'm free, you know I am. I'm
Speaker 4: at pe and and even if I die in here,
Speaker 4: I'll be at peace knowing I stood for the swoop
Speaker 4: into woman. I need the right thing as an adult,
Speaker 4: so my parents were proud of. There's nothing I can
Speaker 4: do but keep my mind focusing on what's possible, what
Speaker 4: could be possible, and how to help us.
Speaker 5: It is a human opportunity to this God family in
Speaker 5: my community where I see them. You know, I won't
Speaker 5: let nothing take that from me.
Speaker 4: That's all I have. And I appreciate everything that you
Speaker 4: guys are doing, and I appreciate what support from everybody,
Speaker 4: whether it's for the governor whatever it can be done
Speaker 4: to help me. This is just the truth, the absolute
Speaker 4: in front of the people, and.
Speaker 5: They let them decide again. But I said I need
Speaker 5: to be punished for what I needed if they say so,
Speaker 5: because I pretended. But I was worried for my life
Speaker 5: star for my life at the time, but I did
Speaker 5: what I believe being was the right thing and I
Speaker 5: don't regret doing it.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flahm.
Speaker 1: Please support your local innocence projects and go to the
Speaker 1: link in our bio to see how you can help.
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff
Speaker 1: Cliburn and Kevin Warnis. The music on the show, as always,
Speaker 1: is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be
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Speaker 1: Flahm is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts and
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