WEBVTT - #336 Jason Flom with Lerico Kearney 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:05.480 On November twenty first, nineteen ninety seven, a Suffolk County, 0:00:05.519 --> 0:00:08.479 Virginia man known for drug dealing and gambling named Gene 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:12.200 Artists and his sister, Yvonne Giles, were both fatally shot 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.600 in front of Yvonne's six year old son, Trayvon. The 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.040 boy was discovered in his blood soaked T shirt and 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:21.320 underwear outside of the house shortly after the shooting around 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.160 ten pm. Trayvon gave a very descriptive police report, but 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:28.800 later became unable to remember the details of the tragic event. 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:32.760 In a court of law. However, Gene Artist's girlfriend and 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:36.240 several other associates began making police statements that named another 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:40.240 man involved in the drug trade, Larco Kearney, collectively saying 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.440 that he shot Jeane to recover a large gambling loss. 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:46.960 Shortly before his trial, another drug dealer claimed that l 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:49.839 Rico had plotted to rob Gene Artists of the gambling 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.240 scops in order to repay him for a drug debt. 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:56.280 La Rico was convicted, but a constitutional violation triggered a 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:59.880 new trial in which three new witnesses joined the commonwealths case. 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.600 With this many people willing to testify, revealing the statements 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.600 of the only person who actually saw the murders wouldn't 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:11.640 even have seemed like it was necessary. But this is 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:26.319 wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction. Today we have 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.720 another case out of Virginia, which, again the entire substance 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:32.160 of the States case was built upon the words of 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:36.720 incentivized witnesses receiving leniency on their own charges, by the way, 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:41.280 all while ignoring the only actual credible witness and the 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:44.039 most likely suspect. Meanwhile, the man who they focused on 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:47.320 instead is calling in today, over twenty five long years 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:51.840 later from Greensville Correctional Facility of Virginia. Larico Kearney, I'm 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:55.000 sorry you're with us today under the circumstances, but all 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:56.960 of us here at wrongful Conviction are happy and honor 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:58.120 that you're joining us today. 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:01.000 Thank y'all just for giving me this opportunity, you know, 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:02.080 to share my story. 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:05.040 Yeah, you're most welcome and also joining us. And you'll 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:08.640 remember him from our comforage of Terrence Hobbs is Lenny Singleton, 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:12.840 who did his own stint a legal conviction but a 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:17.000 crazy sentence of the thousand, three hundred and ten years 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.799 for having stolen a little over five hundred dollars. No 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:23.799 one was hurt, and no weapon was used. Lenny was 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.880 a jailhouse lawyer and then benefited from a conditional pardon 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:31.720 and soon joined the Cagashaw Law firm, from which he 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:36.239 and his wife, Vandy crusade for the wrongfully convicted. So, Lenny, 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:37.520 welcome back to the show. 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:39.760 Oh thank you, great to be here. 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:42.600 I think our audience will agree that this is very 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:46.480 similar to Terrence Hobbs's case, not the story itself, but 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:51.120 the patterns of the investigation and the misconduct and the prosecution. 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:53.840 The towns in which they occurred were less than twenty 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:56.600 miles apart, by the way, where As I alluded to 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:58.920 in the opening, you have a crime that occurred in 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.640 the drug culture of the nineties and an investigation that 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:05.160 bent over backwards to ignore the most likely suspect, turning 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:10.760 instead to incentivize and or coerced witness testimony in exchange 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.040 for sentence reductions and things like that. The similarities of 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:17.280 the cases are striking, from which it's easy to see 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:20.520 that there's patterns here. Right. We see these all over 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.400 the country, but it seems like there's a cluster of 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:25.119 them in Virginia. 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:29.000 I don't know that we could just focus on Virginia. 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:33.520 I think this is a widespread issue where snitches, and 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:36.200 most of them do this for a living. They're always 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.080 in trouble and they know how to work the system. 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:41.120 They know who to call, they know who to get 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.880 in contact with. I've seen several cases in Virginia where 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:48.800 guys will see someone on TV on the news, call 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:51.160 someone and say, look, I'm in the pull with this 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:55.040 guy and I overheard him saying this, that and the other, 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:59.320 when in fact those things have never happened. But it 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.040 is a culture in Virginia that needs to be stopped 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:07.120 for sure, because I've never seen one that actually was true. 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:10.720 They're always working to get a deal, get a time cut, 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:14.520 as you could clearly see in the letters that Lorico's 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:21.080 attorney was able to obtain these inmates, writing folk telling 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:23.479 them I'll say whatever you need me to say, just 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:24.960 let me get this certain deal. 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:27.840 And we'll quote from those letters later. It's really egregious. 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:31.120 And of course, again this doesn't only happen in Virginia. 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:33.640 It happens in all fifty states, but some states have 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:36.800 even enacted laws in order to only allow this kind 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:40.000 of testimony if it's corroborated by some physical evidence, of 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:43.000 which there usually is none, and this case is no exception. 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:45.320 But before we get into all of that, Lorico, you 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:47.640 grew up in kind of like in two different places, 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.360 mostly with your mom in Surrey, Virginia and then part 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:53.520 of the time with your father and your grandparents in Suffolk, Virginia. 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:54.039 Is that right. 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:56.680 I'm a Rigali from Suffol, Virginia. My mom was a 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.800 single parent. You know. My dad, you know, he was 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:01.520 you know, in and out of the streets. You know, 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:03.680 he was in and out of jail. My mother's job 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:06.640 carried her for different places. So I moved from Suffolk 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.320 to Windsor, and eventually I moved to Surrey County. But 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:11.960 I was still, you know, visiting my grandmother and my 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:14.480 father on the weekends. And like I said, you know, 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.680 my father, you know, he clothed drugs, and me watching 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.080 my father, you know, you see the so called drug 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.720 that they're wearing nice clothes, driving nice cars, and you know, 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:25.000 I thought that was cool. 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:27.440 And this is something I've heard before when a young 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.560 person growing up around that scene quickly notices that everyone 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:34.280 who's not selling drugs is struggling to get by while 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:38.160 the ones who are involved in the trade have seemingly 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:39.640 comfortable lives. 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.200 And money in your pocket. Yeah. Back in those days, seriously, yeah, 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:45.719 you know when crack cocaine hit. Yeah, they were the 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.719 heroes in the neighborhood actually, sadly. 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:50.960 And the only ones with any real economic power, until, 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:52.840 of course they got caught and sent away from some 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:55.360 ungodly sentence, like La Rico's father. 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:57.960 But my father went to prison in nineteen ninety five. 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:00.839 He had fifty four years under the old with parole. 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:03.360 He was denied a couple of times. He ended up 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:05.440 doing sixteen years and four months. 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.240 And what did life look like for you after he 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:10.880 went away? I understand you had moved out of your 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.440 mom's in with your father and your grandparents. 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.720 It's just me, my grandmother or my grandfather. I'man thoseing 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:19.240 in the streets. There's nothing you know to glorify, you know, 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:22.200 be proud of. But I was in no baying the 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:22.960 son of drugs. 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:26.080 Right, So you were probably already on the radar of 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:28.719 local law enforcement. But have you ever been arrested before 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:29.280 I was. 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:32.479 Arrested in October of ninety seven. I had a possession 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:36.080 of cocaine, assault on the ULSA, and other traffic violations 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:39.159 that came with that same incident one month before this happened. 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:41.760 Whoa, WHOA, Back up a second, they're the assault of 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:44.039 a police officer. What happened in that case? 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:47.279 I think in the process of them restraining me, I 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:48.760 think he may have hurt his finger. 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:54.520 Oh Jesus Christ, I mean so, since the arrest was 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:59.240 the impetus for the officer's injury, they, of course, you know, 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:01.600 some sort of city are gaslighting move, they got to 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:04.680 charge you with assault of an officer, which makes you 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:08.480 sound like a super violent person when in actuality he 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:10.040 had injured himself. 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:10.760 Yes, sir. 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:13.960 And so now with this arrest and the alleged assault, 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:16.680 and I'm putting that in quotation marks of a police 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:19.200 officer just a month before the murders. From what I understand, 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:21.440 this put you on house arrests with an ankle monitor 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:24.800 with only supervised outings. So, needless to say, you're a 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:26.960 well known entity of the local police. You were right 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.120 for the picking, so to speak. Right, you were easy 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:32.440 fall guy for them, and one of the deceased in 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:34.840 this case was also known to both you and the police, 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:38.440 which is a guy named David Eugene artists who went 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:40.640 by a GENA. What was your relationship to Jean. 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.480 We would run at each other on a regular basis, 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:45.680 you know, Like I said, he was on drug dealer 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:48.400 in the area. And Jean would you know, always, you know, 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:50.960 look to entice people to gamble, to shoot dice because 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:52.520 he was he was good at it. I guess that's 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.320 how he supported itself. No gambling and seven drugs. 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:57.440 And it was part of the States theory that he 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.200 had enticed you into a few games in which you 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:04.360 had lost big money. Did you used to gamble with Gene? 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:07.040 I never personally gambled with Gene because I knew how 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:08.400 I knew how good Gene was. 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:10.800 Yeah, some of those guys, man, they come up with 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:13.560 these techniques. There's a way you can actually set the 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:17.400 dice and increase the probability of a certain number. Gene 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:19.800 probably was good with dice. He knew how to set him, 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:21.760 he knew how to increase his chances at winning. 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:25.400 So you knew better than to play with Gene. Had 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.520 your father been the one who gave you that advice. 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.600 He actually did on more than one occasion. He actually did. 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:33.720 You had even turned him down in front of two 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:36.920 individuals who eventually were coerced into testifying against you. I'm 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:39.160 talking about Casey Davis and Travis Chalk. 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:42.280 The morning that Gene Artist was killed, he came to 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:44.679 the house of trying to entice us to gamble. Of 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:45.839 course all of us said no. 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:48.880 Right, but the authorities eventually coerced those two men into 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.960 making false statements about you, saying that you were in 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:55.160 possession of a black forty five caliber from the day 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:57.440 before and in the morning the twenty first, that you 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:00.880 had said, quote, if he don't have g or better, 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.040 I'm gonna kill him because I'm tired of him winning 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.600 my money and coming with no money end quote. Chalk 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:09.839 went on to say that you and Jean shot dice 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.760 for about an hour and then agreed to pause the 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:15.880 game and pick it up later. The authorities were also 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:18.559 successful in getting Jean's girlfriend at the time to say 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:21.680 that you had once lost something like five thousand dollars 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.320 to Jeene and the dice game, but that also had 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:25.080 never happened. 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:28.920 His girlfriend at the time, her name was Sabrina Northfleet. 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:31.400 I think that she had some child depended or she 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:33.960 had a situation going on, you know, That's why she 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:37.560 fabricated a story which never happened, seeing me gamble with 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.000 Jean in the place that, as God's my witness, I 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:41.080 had never my life been to. 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:43.679 But there was something that she testified to that was true, 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:46.480 which was seeing you and Jeane together earlier on in 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:48.720 the night that he was murdered, when she pulled up 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:50.680 to Jean and a gas station and you had asked 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:51.679 him for a ride home. 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.120 I was at the sub shot that was across the 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:56.880 street from the gas station that Geene Artists was at, 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.680 asked her for a rat and she had pulled up 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:02.280 in that gas station two. I guess her Gene they 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:04.920 had an argument, but she did see me sitting in 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:06.760 the car with Gene. He was just giving me a 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:07.600 ride home. 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.280 So he dropped you off with your grandparents. You later 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:12.080 walked down the street to be with one of your 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:15.320 kids at the child's mother's house. Both the child's mother 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.240 and grandmother later testified to your whereabouts during the murders 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:20.600 of Gene Artists had his sister Eva and Giles, which 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:23.640 was November twenty first, nineteen ninety seven. They were both 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:26.480 shot while at home sometime between nine and ten pm, 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.120 and apparently there was a pizza delivery before the murders. 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:33.200 The pizza delivery person, Teresa Rix, saw two men arguing 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:36.520 on their way into the residence at one sixteen Franklin Street, 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:39.640 neither of which she recognized as you we go. So 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:43.920 there was another witness to this entire harrowing scene, this 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:44.680 whole ordeal. 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.520 There was one person who was there and who actually 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:51.280 saw the killer, six year old Trayvon Artists, who lived 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:53.720 in the apartment with his mother and his uncle. At 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:57.000 about ten pm the night of November twenty first, ninety seven, 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:01.320 Treyvon was found standing outside of that one sixteen Franklin 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.000 Street address, wearing nothing but a shirt and his underwear, 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.920 with his mother's blood on his clothes, and he led 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:09.760 a neighbor to the bodies in the apartment. 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:12.000 Okay, first, let's take a second to recognize that this 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:16.400 is a frightened little boy in a terrifying situation. Now, 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:19.880 the neighbor that took him back inside was his mother's boyfriend, 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:22.679 Jody Cross, and by now the police had been called. 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:26.319 Trayvon gave a statement to the police at eleven pm. 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:29.480 So this wasn't long after, in which he stated clearly 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:33.960 and unequivocally that a relative of his name, Gregory Artist, 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:37.920 not Lorico, had been in the apartment and had shot 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:42.400 and killed his mother, Yvonne Giles, right in front of him. 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:47.320 He repeated these statements to the police twice more the next. 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:50.600 Day, and he's crystal clear with the police about what happened. 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:52.920 Can you read some of the report for us? 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:55.800 They question, did you see the man that shot your mom? 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:58.560 He said yes, and they asked him, is his name 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.880 Jody Cross? He says, no, that's my mom's boyfriend. Did 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:07.080 Gregory Artists shoot your mom? Yes? Did you see Gregory 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:11.400 Artist shoot your mom? Yes? How do you know Gregory Artists? 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.640 He has been to my house before and played cards 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:19.920 with my uncle. Cravon gives the police details. He says, 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:23.200 I've spent time at his house, his kids and I 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:27.440 play together. He knows this guy. So they ask him, 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:29.600 tell me, in your own words, what you know about 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:34.559 this offense? And I guess this is the next day, 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.480 he says. Trayvon Artists advised he was in his mom's 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:42.400 bedroom with her watching TV when he heard David and 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:47.079 Gregory Artists arguing they were arguing over a card game. 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:51.480 Gregory said that David was cheating again. 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:55.080 Jean's full name is David Eugene Artists, so the name 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:58.000 David and Jane refer to the same man. 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:02.880 He says that Jane had a small silver gun and 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:07.800 that Gregory had a big black gun that Jean shot 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:11.840 Gregory and Gregory shot at Jean. Him and his mom 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.800 went into Trayvon's clause at the hide. When no more 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:17.679 shots were fired, him and his mom got out of 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:21.040 the closet and went down the hall. He followed his mom. 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:24.480 Once they were in the front foyer, Gregory and David 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:27.960 were standing there and two more shots were fired and 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:31.200 he fell dead on the floor. Gregory then walked up 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:35.400 to me and my mom and he was told by Gregory, 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:38.400 I'm going to shoot and kill your mom now. And 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:42.200 remember Gregory Artists killed your mom and that's when he 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.560 shot her, this says in the neck area, and she 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.800 fell on the floor by the window and he shot 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:52.000 her again. Gregory then left out the house and then 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:55.240 they asked him to describe Gregory Artists, and he describes 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:58.520 him to the te He says that Gregory Artist was 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:02.640 a black male darker skin with two birthmarks and moles 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:06.560 on each side of his forehead, and white freckles. He's 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:10.520 about fifty years old. Gregory lives in North Carolina, the 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:12.959 two story house and lives with his mom. 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:15.800 It's just awful for this little kid. And then the 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:18.960 authorities appear to have completely ignored him except for the 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:22.400 description of the murder weapon, a big black gun which 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:24.520 they knew to be a forty five from the fragments 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:27.720 they pulled from his mother's skull. Now seven hundred dollars 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:30.320 in cast was also found at the scene, I believe 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:33.440 five hundred and fifty of which was in Gene Artist's pocket, 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:36.120 in addition to some drugs. So the idea that this 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.320 was a robbery sprung on by dice game losses to 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:43.240 a fellow drug dealer is absurd. But instead of just 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:46.560 going to North Carolina and arresting Gregory Artist, Detective E. C. 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:49.920 Harris appears to use jeens, involveman and drugs as an 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:53.880 opportunity to target other guys in that business, including yourself, 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:56.920 for either a wrongful conviction or a false statement to 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.120 use in a wrongful conviction. And as we mentioned, you 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:02.480 were on house arrest at the time for that cocaine 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:05.760 possession and the bogus assault charge when they came to 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:07.880 see you, and you had been seeing with Jeane at 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:10.120 the gas station that night, so your name was floating 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:11.760 around in the rumor mail, so to speak. 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:13.800 So I guess, you know, my name was in his 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:15.880 room or meal, and they realized that I was on 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:19.760 house arrest. They gave me a violation because I was 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:22.480 actually out of my house, you know, that weekend that 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:25.760 this crame happened. So I was taking to jail, and 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.040 I guess the prosecutor or whoever had planned me to 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:31.960 sell with an informant. His name was Brad Parker, and 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:35.400 he tried to question me about these homicides, and I 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:37.720 explained to the gentleman like, no, that's not what I'm 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:40.320 locked up for. The following week, I was giving a bond, 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:43.360 so I was out again. Later on he ended up 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:46.320 writing to the prosecutors or whatever and telling them that 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:48.400 I admitted to him while I was in that sale 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:51.920 about committing these crimes. So I think all investigations everything 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:52.600 stemmed from that. 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.600 And he wasn't the only one willing to offer false 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:59.480 statements against you and your co defending Quinton Parish AKAQP. 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:04.520 Eventually a laundry list of people was compiled, including Casey Davis, 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:08.680 Travis Chalk, Sabrina Northfleet, as well as two other guys, 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:11.480 Tony Booth and Willie Hardy. But was this statement from 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.760 Brad Parker how they originally obtained your arrest warrant? 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:17.440 No, it wasn't Brad Parker. They had got a statement 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:21.080 from a Willie Hardy statement that I made a layer's 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:23.640 profession to him about committing these murders. He was a 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:26.760 suspect in his crime, him and my co defendant, Quentin Persh. 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:29.160 So it turned out that he and Quinton Parish were 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:31.160 childhood buddi who grew up on the same block. But 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:34.640 Quinton refused to give false statements, unlike Willie Hardy. So 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:37.480 you were arrested on December twenty eighth, nineteen ninety seven, 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:40.400 and your family hired an attorney named Ken Melvin, who 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:44.320 was very effective. Now. Hardy testified to this false statement 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:46.240 at a preliminary hearing in June of ninety eight, but 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.840 ended up catching his own charges and hired William P. Robinson, 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:54.080 the same attorney as his buddy Quinton Parish. You're a 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:57.560 co defendant. Hardy admitted to his attorney Robinson that he 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:01.000 had given false testimony against you, and Attorney Ken Melvin 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:01.520 was present. 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:05.600 They recorded this conversation where he admitted to lying about 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:09.040 Larco Kearney. Willie. Hardy said he had been threatened and 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:13.560 harassed by detectives every day, threatening the charging with the 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:16.000 crimes for which Kearney is incarcerating. 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:19.000 So now with this recording, your attorney filed the motion 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:22.000 for dismissal of all charges against you, and eventually there 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:25.600 was a hearing. Meanwhile, the prosecution was scrambling to find 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:28.040 a new star witness and they found another guy from 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:30.159 the Suffolk drug game, Tony Booth. 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.080 I ran it to him one time in the Western Time, 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:35.199 what the reason the jail? Well, we was on the 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:37.440 basketball court in the jail. He had hired Kenny Milmer, 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:39.480 and he asked me about how Kenny mill was doing 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:41.200 on my case, and I was like, yeah, he's doing 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:43.760 a good job. Maybe a couple of days later he 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.280 was transferred from the Western Town with the Reason the 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:49.320 Jail to Chesapeake. That's when I later learned you know 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:51.520 that you know, he had hopped on my case, right. 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.200 So he hired Ken Melvin for his own charges and then, 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:56.800 using this conversation on the yard as a pretext for 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.520 an alleged confession, began working with the state as a 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:03.280 witnessing your case, presenting Ken Melbourn with a conflict of interest. 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:06.600 And now this attorney, who had been super effective thus far, 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:09.360 was likely to be forced to drop you as a client. 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:12.680 All this may or may not have been engineered by 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:16.280 the prosecution. Smells like an onion. Might be an onion. 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:18.919 But for now, let's get back to the hearing to 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:21.480 dismiss your charges. Based on the recording which Willie Hardy 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:25.240 admitted to perjuring himself at your preliminary hearing. What happened 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:27.160 when they got him on the stand. 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:29.920 Fearing he would be charged with perjury, He said he'd 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:32.000 been through a lot and he'd been shot, so he 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:33.880 couldn't remember anything. 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:38.480 Now, Judge westbro Poccer said, it's a possibility that before 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:42.080 mister Kearney trial comes up, he may regain his memory back. 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:46.040 And so this Judge Westbrook Parker ruled at Kearney's indictment 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:50.240 would not be dismissed because the witness did not recap 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:52.879 even though they had a recording that he said he 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:53.679 was lying about it. 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:57.320 So now on this date the prosecutor putting in a 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.400 motion to have mister Melvine disqualified for my case, could 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:19.240 they now have another witness, which was Tony Booth. Mister 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:23.040 Melvin was disqualified off my case. It was strategic, you know. 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:25.119 I guess they felt as though with the case that 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:27.040 they had, it would have been hard for them to 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:29.600 get a conviction on me. I had kend of Melvin, 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:30.400 that's my attorney. 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.040 So that was September of ninety nine, and as your 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:36.000 first trial was fast approaching, your co defending Quinton Parish, 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:38.560 probably seeing what you both were up against, decided to 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:41.320 take an alphad play to avoid a potentional life sentence. 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:43.080 And that's how they get a lot of guys too. 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:46.040 This grel with that I could see him very easily 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:49.000 pleading out even though he had nothing to do with it, 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:51.280 just because he was afraid he would never get out. 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:54.479 But Lrico, you weren't backing down even though you were 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:55.760 facing a similar faith. 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.520 Yeah, I had two council capital murder at two counts 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:00.600 of use of a foul Kate's. 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:05.520 Theory of his crime was circumstantial evidence of Rico's alleged 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:09.600 rift with Gene Artists over some gambling. 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:12.560 Dead now La Rico tells us that this whole disagreement 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:16.159 over gambling between he and Jean was impossible because he 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:18.320 knew better than to play dice with a guy that 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.359 was a real hustler, right Jean was was that guy 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:26.680 want to lose his money. But the state fabricated statements 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:31.400 to the contrary from Sabrina Northfleet, Travis Chalk, and Casey Davis. 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:35.119