WEBVTT - #241 Jason Flom with Jerome Loach 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:05.400 On the night of January tenth, two thousand and nine, 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:07.920 forty three year old Jerome Loach was performing as one 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:10.480 of the leads in a church play in South Philadelphia. 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:13.480 At the same time, police were responding to a home 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:17.200 invasion in West Philadelphia in which two men forced themselves 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:20.759 into a home at gunpoint, confronting three women. Nothing was 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:24.200 stolen and no one was hurt. As police arrived, they 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:27.240 saw two men running away and arrested Sophie Batt and 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:30.080 Jesse Higgins. One of the victims, stated that there was 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:33.080 a third man involved in In Batt's original statement, he said 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:35.559 that he didn't know the person, but under threat of 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:39.240 deportation and other charges by investigators, Fat changed his story 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:41.839 to say that the third man was his employer at 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:46.280 a barber shop, Jerome Loach. Jerome was arrested when charged 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:50.280 with forty two counts, but prior to trial, Bat recanted 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:55.480 his identification, citing pressure from investigators. Despite this, the prosecution 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:58.560 read Bat's prior statement to the jury in light of 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:02.800 the actual exculpatory phone records. An investigator misled the jury 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:06.480 with fabricated phone records to tie Jerome into the crime. 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:10.360 When the defense failed to present Jerome's alibi or to 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:14.360 expose the fake phone records. Jerome was convicted and sentenced 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.760 to twenty five to fifty years. Jerome was able to 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:19.920 win an evidentiary hearing in which he was able to 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:24.319 present his alibi and expose the fraudulent phone records, proving 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:29.919 both ineffective assistance of counsel and prosecutorial misconduct, ultimately setting 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:34.959 himself free after a decade in prison. This is romful conviction. 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.280 Welcome back to ronful Conviction. I'm your host, Jason Flomm. 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:53.760 Today's episode would actually be better as a comedy if 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:58.720 it wasn't so incredibly sinister and if the consequences were 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:03.880 so terror of this ridiculous frame job. And when I 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:08.080 say that, I'm talking about Jerome Loach. So, Jerome, first 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.200 of all, welcome to wrongful Conviction. I'm sorry you're here, 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:12.200 but I'm happy you're here. 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:15.600 Thank you, and the audience will allow me to come 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:17.600 before y'all and share my story. 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:21.519 So, Jerome, you grew up in Philadelphia, is that right? 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:22.519 Yes, sir? 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:25.320 Feel listen, what was your life like growing up and 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:28.200 what were your interactions with law enforcement before this crazy day? 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:32.760 Essentially, I grew up in a single parent household. My 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:35.880 father passed away when I was about ten years old. 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:40.359 That left my mother to raise six children. I took 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:42.799 to the streets at of every young age. I wound 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:47.440 up getting caught up in little nicknacked crimes, nothing serious, 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:50.560 but just getting caught up with the wrong crowd. 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:52.160 All my other. 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:58.360 Siblings they wound up growing up to become successful entrepreneurs, ministers. 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:01.320 My brother, he went on his served twenty five years 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.080 in the army, and so I was the only one 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:05.360 that made that wrong turn. 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:07.200 I was young at the time. 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:12.119 I served my time, and during my incarceration, I went 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:14.440 to the University of Pittsburgh, went to college. 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:16.359 I wound up getting a couple of trades. 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:19.639 One of the main trade was in barbering, and I 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:22.639 wound up getting my license. I transformed that and wound 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:27.560 up getting my manager's license, and so when I come 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:30.280 back home, I wound up getting into real estate and 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:33.400 opening up a barbershop. Once I opened up the barbershop, 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.440 I felt the need to want to give back, and 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:40.400 so those individuals that was returning home, ex offenders and 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:43.440 things of that nature who had the barbered license, I 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:46.080 would hire them at my barbershop, you know, give them 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:48.280 like a second chance, like I got a second chance, 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:51.720 try to get their life in order and doing this. 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:56.000 One individual that I wind up hiring was an individual 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:59.160 by the name of Sophie fat And this is how 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:03.480 this story in my life began to take a change. 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:08.040 Yeah, it adds a layer of tragedy to this awful 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.760 injustice because it impacted you and your family, but also 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:15.200 the opportunities that you were providing for people who really 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:19.360 needed those opportunities. Let's go back to the case itself. 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:23.040 So at nine point fifteen on January tenth, two thousand 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:26.159 and nine, the Philadelphia Police responded to a report of 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:30.039 a home invasion in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood of West Philadelphia. Now, 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.120 three women were in the house, and they said that 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:35.039 a man knocked on their door pretending to be a 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:38.159 pizza delivery guy. He and another man forced their way 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:41.200 in at gunpoint. But here's where it gets really weird, right. 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:43.440 They asked one of the women where her boyfriend was. 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:45.520 She said she didn't know, and soon they left without 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:47.960 taking anything, sort of apologetically, from what I understand, they 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:49.960 were like, you know, sorry, we bothered you. Type of 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:53.200 thing I mean, And in the end, nobody was hurt 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:58.120 and nothing was stolen. Okay, very unusual set of circumstances here. 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:00.640 So then police approached the he Wow. So they saw 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:03.719 two guys running away, and they arrested two guys, a 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:07.400 guy named Sophie Fat and Jesse Higgins. They recovered a 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:09.839 bandana and a gun holster from Higgins at a tourist 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:13.440 revolver from an alley where Higgins was found running. The 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:15.799 women identified both of the guys as the home invaders 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:17.520 and said that they're in the invasion. This is an 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:20.400 important point. Higgins would perceive a call and turned to 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:23.039 Fat and said let's go right before they left Esventually, 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:25.480 they were both charged with Berkeley conspiracy from at Berkeley 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:28.480 So one of the women said there was a third person, 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:31.839 a black man in his twenties, about six feet tall, 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:34.679 with the tan jacket and jeans, who got away. Now. 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:37.640 She told police that one of the other women might 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:40.560 have known this man, implying that the home invasion had 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:43.799 been a setup. Sophie Fatt made a statement to Detective 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:46.240 John Druding on January eleventh that he didn't know who 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:51.440 this third man was besides that his nickname was Rome. So, Jerome, 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:53.920 did you match the description of that person in any 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:54.560 meaningful way? 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:58.440 No, no, no, no, I'm about twice that age number 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:02.760 at that particular time. I'm mid forties, my built, everything 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:07.719 was totally opposite. Nothing about her description match me. And 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:11.480 we know that to be true because afterwards, a year 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:15.640 or so later, when my picture was given to all 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.240 the victims, they all said they couldn't identify me, that 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:22.159 they didn't know who I was. Sophie Fat, in his 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:25.960 original statement, he never said that there was three people 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:28.720 that came in the house. He said that it was 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:32.400 another person that was involved in the planning, and that 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:37.240 this person came to the house but never came in 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:42.640 the house. Sophie Fat also stated that he was upstairs 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:48.400 and he came downstairs and that's when the second person, Jesse, 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:52.880 said we have to go. Sophie Fat never claimed in 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:55.160 his first statement that he heard. 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:58.400 A phone call. He's seen a phone call, none of that. 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:02.159 And Jesse, of course versus Jesse Higgins, who was Sophie 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:05.440 Vatt's co defendant. And in October of that year it 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:08.640 had been ten months since the crime, Sophie Fatt made 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:12.040 a deal with prosecutors, and this happens again and again, 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.280 where people receive almost an offer they can't refuse in 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:20.440 exchange for implicating basically anybody else. So in this new statement, 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:23.520 Fat now said that you, Jerome, were involved in the 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:27.040 invasion and were the person he had previously identified as Rome. 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:30.800 He said that you persuaded him to commit the home 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:33.480 invasion to pay off a debt, and that you had 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:36.200 been there during the robbery, had given Fat, who posed 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:39.520 as a pizza deliverer, a gun, and had texted Higgins 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:43.440 during the crime. So what do you think caused him 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:45.800 to finger you? I mean, other than the obvious, which 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:48.000 was that he had to pick someone out if he 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.040 wanted to take some of the heat off of himself. 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:53.160 Well, I don't know what was in Fat's mind, but 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:57.000 what I do know is that Fat came under a 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:01.160 lot of pressure from the police officers. They was threatening 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:06.360 with deportation, they was threatening with fifty years, all types 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:06.920 of stuff. 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:08.920 And yeah, it's sad because you were a guy who 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:11.600 had given Fat an opportunity working in your barbershop. So 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:14.600 it's almost like a Shakespearean twist to this whole thing 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:19.400 for him to come forward and implicate you. So this 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:23.200 crazy case began under the district Attorney Lynn Abraham, who 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:27.400 was wrapping up a very checkered twenty year tenure, to 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:30.480 say the least. But her successor was the newly elected 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:33.440 Seth Williams, and when he picked up this case, he 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:35.640 decided to make it an example of how tough on 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:39.720 crime he was. And so, jero on December nineteen, two 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.240 thousand and nine, you were charged with forty two counts 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:45.480 related to the incident, including two counts of robbery and 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:49.040 single counts of criminal conspiracy, burglary, falls and prisonment, terroristic 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:52.959 threats at attempted theft. But neither fat nor Higgins had 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:56.200 been charged with the majority of these alleged crimes. And 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:00.559 then you were arrested January fourth, twenty ten. But here's 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:05.920 the thing. We haven't even scratched the surface on this insanity, 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:11.840 because what adds another huge layer to all of this 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.440 is your alibi. Your airtight alibi. I mean, in a 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:19.440 world of alibis, yours was truly top tier. If someone 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:22.280 could get convicted with an albi like yours, then nobody 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:24.439 is saved from this. So tell us what you were 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:27.680 doing at exactly the time that this crazy situation was unfolding. 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:32.600 At the time that this whole thing was unfolding, I 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:36.120 was performing in a play called Clean Up Your Own Mess. 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:37.479 It was a church play. 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.760 And it had two viewings, one on the afternoon and one 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:41.400 doing an evening. 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:45.120 In time, I'm one of the lead characters in this play. 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:51.640 You know, billboards, paste ubs, everything showing that I'm at 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:52.240 this play. 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:55.840 And while was at this play, this crime was going on. 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:58.400 So how many people were there? 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.520 You know, we looking at over one hundred people, so 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:03.920 that was there at this play. 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:08.400 So again, there's not too many cases I've ever heard 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:11.640 of where you have over one hundred alibi witnesses. Now, 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:15.040 your first attorney didn't even investigate the albi, right, which 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:19.720 would not be a difficult alibi to investigate. I mean, 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:22.800 you throw a stick out there and you'd hit one 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:26.160 of the witnesses, so you replaced her, and the new 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.160 attorney said he would investigate it and presented a trial. 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.800 But as the case approached the time of trial, that 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:36.200 attorney told you and your family that he couldn't present 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:40.160 his alibi defense because the first attorney failed to give 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:46.160 adequate notice to the court. I mean, it's just unbelievable. 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:49.920 But there you were heading into your trial, and there's 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:54.640 yet another statement from Sophie Fatt. Please tell us about that. 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:58.880 So once he gave his statement, a month later he 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:03.280 gave another state and guess what. It exonerated me of 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:07.319 everything before I even go to trial. Before anything happens, 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:11.080 he said, hey, hold up, I lie. This man never 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:13.520 had nothing to do with this case. I made it 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:15.760 up because I was trying to get a better deal. 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:19.000 And so when we go to trial, he takes the 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:22.640 stand and he told them over after he was badgered 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:25.520 by the DA, he said, listen, this man ain't had 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:26.680 nothing to do with this case. 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:29.320 I lied, And they didn't want to believe that. 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:33.040 They went so far as to say that I may 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.840 have gotten somebody to get at him. Well, that didn't work, 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:40.080 because he wound up saying, hey, I'm the leader of 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:41.400 an Asian gang. 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:42.800 And I'm not afraid of none of this. 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:47.240 He hasn't been threatened, that no one had been approached. 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:48.920 They didn't want to believe that. 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:05.520 So two of the women testified and didn't identify you. 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.480 Fat came clean and said that you had nothing to 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:10.840 do with this, that he had lied previously, because he 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:13.880 was threatened with deportation. And then Higgins, who pleaded guilty, 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:18.000 didn't testify at all, So the prosecutors had basically nothing 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:19.880 to go on at this point, so they had to 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.600 make up something, right, and that's where these phantom phone 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:26.200 records come in. We've been doing this show for over 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.599 five years, two hundred and fifty episodes or whatever. I 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:32.720 don't think I've ever heard this one. Just follow along 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:35.920 with me for a second here. Okay, So prosecutors used 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:38.920 phone records to try to show that you were involved, right, 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:41.360 What they actually showed was that you weren't involved. The 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.120 original records they suppeeded in two thousand and nine were 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:49.040 almost completely exculpatory for you. Higgins's phone showed no local 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:50.960 calls at all on the day of the crime, so 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:55.000 that blows it up right there. Then the police assumed 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:58.840 that the records were wrong, so they weren't introduced into evidence. 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:01.400 Let me just say that again. Police assumed that the records, 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:04.920 which weren't wrong because they couldn't have been wrong, were wrong. 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:08.560 Then they used a digital tool called a universal Forensic 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:11.400 Extraction device to get records directly from the phone. But 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:15.679 this also showed no calls or text between Higgins and 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:19.760 you on the day of the crime, So okay, again, 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:23.440 should be case closed, But nope. So this is where 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:28.320 Detective Christopher ten Kellowix ended up going into Higgins's phone 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:30.520 and looking at the call log. Now a trial, he 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.600 testified as an expert in digital forensics, said that he 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:38.160 quote manually extracted twenty five calls between the phone allegedly 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:41.839 belonged to Higgins and a phone registered to Loach's wife. 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:44.199 He manually extractedly, but I'm trying to figure out what 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:47.000 that means. He also said he found a text from 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:49.200 the Loach phone to the Higgins phone, made a few 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:52.800 hours before the home invasion, and this info was contained 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:57.120 in a quote unquote supplemental report that Detective tank Kellowick's 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:02.400 attached to the uped report. So, I mean, drum, what 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:03.000 the hell. 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:05.320 Man this here? 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:09.640 It pains me to talk about it a lot of times. Essentially, 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:13.600 what happened was that because the young lady said that 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:17.480 there was a phone call, they needed something to corroborate that. 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:21.800 They then got Sophie Fat and then instead of Sophie 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:24.960 Fat saying that it was a phone call, he slips 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:27.800 and say that it was a text message and it's 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:28.600 on record now. 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:33.040 Has that never came out, I probably still would be 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:34.560 doing fifty years in prison. 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:39.480 Detective John Juden, he was the lead detective on this 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:45.400 case and he was the one who obtained the phone 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:49.360 records a year before I even got arrested Sophie Fat 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:53.800 and mister Higgins was already convicted a year before me. 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.240 And so Judy goes on this stamp. 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:02.320 He's talking insane things about the phone records. So we 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:05.600 had to get what he said then in compare to 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:09.200 what he's saying a year later now. And so when 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:12.760 he got the phone records back then, he said that 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:19.400 there was no local phone calls on mister Higgins's phone records. 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:24.120 He then looked at Sophie fat phone records and there 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:27.920 was again no phone calls between. 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:29.920 Us, so that was a problem. 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:35.080 He then turned around and he got with a detective 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:38.000 named Christopher tink Kellowists. 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:40.760 He was a detective. 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:46.560 Who moonlighted as an expert in forensics. Mister tank Kelligish 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.440 had the phone records from AT and T and Sprint, 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:54.840 both of these phone companies basically said there is no 0:15:55.200 --> 0:16:00.280 phone calls during this time period. That equates it's the 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:02.880 Loaches phone to these phones. 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:06.720 None. Not only that, the phone company. 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:12.040 Said this phone itself do not have the capabilities to 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:17.200 make texts, but they withheld all of that. Tank Calliquish said, 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:21.000 let's use a universal for rigic distraction device. This is 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:24.960 the device that FBI and everybody else uses to extract 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:28.360 information from phones and computers. And he plugged that into 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:33.880 the phone and in two minutes it extracted no phone calls. 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:38.240 And this is what tank Calliquish testified to after the 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:40.160 report that none of this stuff was. 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:40.960 In that phone. 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:44.600 He then picked up the phone a day two days later, 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:49.440 and miraculously he sees twenty five phone calls and a 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:53.080 text message all around the time of this crime. 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.640 So he saw twenty five calls that AT and T 0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:59.960 had the incontroversial evidence never happened, and a text mess 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.040 since that AT and T said the phone was incapable 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:06.280 of sending. I mean, this is this is really dark stuff. 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:12.080 And it gets crazier because we say Higgins phone, well 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:13.440 that was a lie. 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:14.880 It wasn't even his phone. 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:19.280 Sprint wind up sending records saying that Higgins never owned 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:22.760 the phone, that this phone that they looking at belongs 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:28.320 to someone else, and they misrepresented the facts, They concealed 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:33.160 the evidence, you know, and they made it all appear 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:37.400 to be something that it wasn't. Sprint records came back 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:40.800 and said those was no twenty five calls at and 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:44.480 T said, those wasn't twenty five calls at and T 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:49.040 said that phone can't even text. But that's where when 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.159 you say manually extract. 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:53.879 That sounds real technical. 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:57.040 But all he did was picked the phone up and 0:17:57.080 --> 0:18:01.520 looked at it, a phone that supposedly been sitting in 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:06.280 evidence for over a year. So you saying that every 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:11.920 other police officer or detective before tank Calibers who had 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.840 that phone looked at this phone and they didn't see 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:19.920 none of this because Detective Judie said that in order 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:23.240 for him to get the phone number from that phone, 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:26.439 he had to turn it on and look through the phone, 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:30.800 and he said he could not find nothing in the phone. 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:33.159 That's because there was nothing in the phone. And it 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:35.960 still gets crazier from here, because the police also had 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:38.919 mister Fatt's phone records which showed a call at one 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:41.879 twenty two and nine oh seven to the phone registered 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:44.400 to your wife, right, because he was somebody who worked 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:46.600 for you and you knew him right, but equally important, 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.359 the phone continued to be used after fats arrest at 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:52.760 nine to twenty pm on January tenth, two thousand and nine. 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:55.240 So Detective Drudien testified that Fat would have had his 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:58.159 phone confiscated upon arrest. Of course he would, and he 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:02.080 was unable to explain these additionalks. That's crazy. So the 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:05.560 prosecutor closed by referencing the text from you to Higgins 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:08.680 and said that the phone records showed a coordinated effort 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:11.960 by the three of you. Loach Batten Higgins. He said, 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:14.800 quote at nine oh seven pm, the robbery is underway. 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:17.160 Sophie Fat is in the middle of this robbery. Who 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:19.359 does he call? He calls the defendant. Why would he 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:21.920 do that? Ladies and gentlemen, There were twenty five phone 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:23.560 calls that day. Now, I don't know about you, but 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:25.680 I can't remember the last time I called someone twenty 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:28.280 five times in a day. The only way that's happening, 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:31.600 something very important must be happening. Think about it. Something 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:33.919 in your life. You know a baby, you know a 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.200 job promotion, you get on the phone, you keep calling people. Well, 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:39.960 this robbery is important it's important to the defendant, it's 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:44.200 important to fat and Higgins. End quote. What a steaming 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:47.840 pile of bullshit that is. Oh my god, that's the 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:51.280 quote from the closing argument. What is wrong with these people? 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:54.800 So during deliberations, jurors asked to review the cell phone 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:58.399 records for Higgins. Prosecutors told the judge that they didn't 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:02.200 have the actual record us to supplemental report, So they 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:07.639 withheld the real records, they substituted this quote unquote supplemental report, 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:10.240 and that was what was given to the jurors. I 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:12.840 actually feel sick for the jurors because they were sitting 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:16.480 there having no ability to make a decision based on facts. 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:20.760 You absolutely hit it on the nail. I do not 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:25.119 fuck the jury. They only go on what's presented before them. 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:29.560 And the jury acts three times. We want to see 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:34.040 those phone records from Sprint. And that's when the DA said, yeah, no, 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:36.159 we don't have those, and the judge was kind of 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:38.280 like taking a back, like, huh, well, what was. 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:40.280 We using during the trial. 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.800 He said, oh, that was a report that was prepaid 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:44.880 by the detective. 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:46.919 And the judge said, well, they don't want to see that. 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:49.680 They want to see the actual phone records, and so 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:52.920 they asked the jury, listen, we don't have the phone records. 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:55.320 Do y'all want to see the report? That's the only 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:58.840 thing we have. And the jury took this and they 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:01.600 convicted me. I do not falk the jury for what 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:04.159 they did because they only went on what was resented 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:05.400 before them. 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:09.959 So the jury convicted you of criminal conspiracy on May 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:12.000 twenty seven, twenty eleven, but it quitted you on all 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:14.840 the other charges. So that moment when the jury came 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:17.720 back in, I mean, you had seen what these people 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:20.439 were capable of, and you'd been through a lot of 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:24.199 insanity already. Did you still hold out hope that you 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:26.880 were going to be exonerated and the truth would come out? 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.159 And what was it like to find out that you 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:31.840 were going to prison for fifty years? 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:34.920 I honestly believe I was going to be exonerated because 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:38.120 I knew I was innocent. But when that verdict came back, 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:40.919 it took everything out of me. The only way that 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:44.680 I can explain it, and my soul was stripped when 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:47.520 they gave me fifty years. 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:50.720 I couldn't believe it. I said, I know my life 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:53.919 ain't going in like this is y'all kidding me? Like, 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:56.080 wake me up? Is this a nightmare? 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:14.159 I went in fighting because I said, if I'm going 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:16.840 to die in here, I'm going to die fighting. And 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:20.040 twice my life almost came to it end while being 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:25.760 in prison. The psychological and physical torture that I experienced 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:30.359 while being incarcerated. I am subjected to being in the 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:34.119 cell by myself because the psychological issues that I have 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:38.000 been dealing with, PTSD and things of that nature. And 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:42.440 one day I fell out and myself out completely nine 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:44.480 ten o'clock at night, I have to be rushed to 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:48.199 the hospital. Outside hospital in which I stayed for a 0:22:48.240 --> 0:22:52.199 few days, my blood pressure shot to the roof. I 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:55.080 can recall the doctor said, why is your blood pressure 0:22:55.200 --> 0:22:58.440 so high? I said, why did y'all convict me? That's 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:02.280 why my blood pressure is so high. And so another 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:05.440 incident is when I couldn't walk no more than a 0:23:05.560 --> 0:23:08.520 hundred feet before I would pass out, and no one 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:11.199