WEBVTT - #467 Jason Flom with Jerome Curry 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:06.080 It was the summer of nineteen ninety six in Upper Manhattan, 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:11.920 while the violence of the crack epidemic continued to rage. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.760 On July fifteenth, a man survived a gunshot on one 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.400 hundred and fifty ninth Street. On August thirtieth, another man 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:21.000 wasn't as lucky at a bus stop on one hundred 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:25.400 and forty fifth On September twentieth, gunshots erupted on one 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:27.920 hundred and fifty eighth Street, and police chased down a 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:30.440 white sedan that had sped away from the scene with 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:36.280 two young men inside, Petro Guzman and Jerome Curry. Detectives 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.280 told them that they'd found a gun in their wake, 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:43.720 and eventually Guzman named Jerome and their friend Miguel Enriquez, 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:46.600 saying that the gun was used in the August thirtieth 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:50.599 murder as well. Over a day later, Jerome said the 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:56.320 same thing, additionally admitting to the July fifteenth shooting. Either 0:00:56.400 --> 0:01:01.640 those detectives hit the jackpot, or this is wrongful conviction. 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:12.920 Wrongful conviction has always given voice to innocent people in prison, 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.600 and now we're expanding that voice to you. Call us 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:20.160 at eight three, three, two oh seven four six sixty six, 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:22.640 and tell us how these stories make you feel and 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:25.039 what you've done to help the cause, even if it's 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:27.840 something as simple as telling a friend or sharing on 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:31.680 social media. We've really appreciated hearing from our audience so 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:34.200 much so that we've included one of the messages at 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:36.120 the end of this episode. So stick around for that, 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.200 and if you have something to say, we definitely want 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.160 to hear it, and you might just hear yourself in 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:46.080 a future episode. Call us A three three, two oh seven, 0:01:46.200 --> 0:02:00.000 four six sixty six. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction today's episod. 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:02.640 So it's a case that you're not going to want 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:04.720 to hear, but you need to hear the story of 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:08.720 mister Jerome Curry. And Jerome is on the phone with 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.120 us now. First of all, I'm sorry for everything even 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:15.000 going through for Jesus almost three decades. Yes, but I'm 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:17.320 very honored to have you here on the show. Well, 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:19.720 I honor also to be on the show man yeah, 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:22.639 and joining us once again to help tell this story. 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:25.840 My friend attorney Justin Bonas Justin, welcome. 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:27.480 Back, thank you. It's great to be back on. 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.960 So Jerome, take us back to before all of this 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:34.240 horrible stuff happened. 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:37.560 I was born into Dominican Republic. I spent some years 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:40.480 out there. I grew up in between two different family structures. 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:43.680 Social structures, like on my father's side, all of his 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:46.880 children and everybody else in the family, they will all 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:50.480 graduate from college and the university. They were professional, so 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:53.880 like a middle class sort of family. And on my 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:58.200 mother's side, basically no one had graduated from college, but 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:00.280 some people don't even read and write. It was a 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:04.880 very poor family and a very rough neighborhood. I kind 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:07.120 of grew up there more than with my father. I 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:09.359 used to like it there more because I had cousins. 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:12.840 And in the May seventies, my mother met an American doctor. 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.040 They married and he brought over to the United States, 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:18.919 and about a year later I came over to Trent 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:21.880 in New Jersey. It was rough. I didn't know English, 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:27.119 and I'm baskin so experienced bullying and abused by other kids. 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:31.360 But I ended up getting a good education, graduating, and 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:34.680 I moved over to New York Jerome. 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:36.840 First moved to one hundred and fifty ninth Street in 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:39.560 Washington Heights, an area that was deep in the throes 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:42.480 of the crack epidemic. But then soon Jerome found a 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.560 safer place in the Bronx, where he met his co defendants, 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.640 Miguel Enriquez and unfortunately the guy who sold him down 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:51.560 the river, Pedro Goosemann. 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:54.720 I had just really met the guy around the time 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:57.360 that we both got arrested, and Rieke has introduced me 0:03:57.440 --> 0:03:59.480 to him. You know, he worked for the superl the 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.160 same build than where I lived, and he kind of 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:05.000 gravitated tow us me, so we started hanging out together. 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:07.840 You know, Ice, it's like smoking weed. He smoked weedze. 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:10.520 But I never really knew much about the guy. So, 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:13.960 you know, we all had moved to the Bronx around 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:16.960 that time because Washington Heights or the opposite west side 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:20.279 of Manhattan was very very different man they was moving 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:24.000 at a different speed. It was huge drug enterprise, so 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:28.440 everybody and then the businesses, everybody was involved in something. 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:31.719 Even the people that were not committing crimes were right 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:32.919 there in the middle of everything. 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:36.960 Crack epidemic era Upper Manhattan was rife with violence, But 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.560 that doesn't excuse how our civil rights were regularly trampled 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:45.159 to clear sometimes multiple open cases. If you recall what 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:47.920 happened to Ralphie Martinez, which we're going to link that 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:52.880 incredible story in the episode description. He became the scapegoat 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.120 for drug trafficking on West one hundred and fifty seventh 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:59.000 Street and three violent crimes. And this case bears some 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:02.800 resemblance as the police were willing to once again use 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:06.600 false statements to clear July fifteenth assault with a deadly weapon, 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:10.600 an August thirtieth murder, and an attempted murder on September twentieth. 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:13.480 And in this story, we have a known repeat offender 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:18.600 with whom Justin has had some contact, Detective Ba de Leone. 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:23.520 Lpedo Ba de Leone. They cleared the books. That's what 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:25.640 they did back then. I mean BA told me that 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:28.520 about Raffi. That's what they did back then. I mean 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:31.160 even now in modern times is when they think they 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:33.880 can throw everything on a guy, that's what they're going 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:36.280 to do. The funny thing is Baight, he's in the 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:40.560 Jabbar Walker case. Jabar Walker was exonerated November twenty seventh, 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.320 twenty twenty three the Innocence Project. From everyone that I've 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:46.480 spoken with have stated that the net case there was 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:51.000 fabricating and manufacturing evidence from Ba de Leone, And we 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:54.039 also know about de Leone that he was found in 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:58.159 nineteen ninety to have used force against a witness in 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.479 another case. In order to get statement, I could tell 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:06.600 you that it almost never happens thirty years ago that 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:11.159 the Civilian Complaint Review Board and the NYPD internally substantiated 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:14.080 use of force allegation. And that's before we get the 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.960 Jabar Walker's case, which took place around the same time 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:19.400 as Curry's. So it's kind of like a clear of 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.400 the books type of situation. With the Jerome the July 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:27.880 attempted murder and then the September twentieth attempted murder, we're 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:32.400 both in the thirty third precinct, and then the murder 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:35.760 of Reginald Myers is in the thirtieth precinct. So this 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.560 is what brings de Leone in. So you get these 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:43.520 statements that are obviously fabricated and manufactured, not only because 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:48.679 they're identical, but also because they are demonstrably false. Okay, 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:53.680 but the other detectives, he was the more senior detective, 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:56.000 it appears, and he was the one that took the 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.680 lead driving the investigation with regard to the other cases. 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:03.360 So let's start with the assault of Reginald Fraser on 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.240 July fifteenth of nineteen ninety six. 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:09.800 According to him, it was late that night, around ten o'clock. 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:13.400 He says that it was a male black eighteen to 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:17.040 twenty years of age. They had an argument walking down 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:20.120 the street from the middle of the block through the 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:24.680 corner of one hundred and fifty ninth Street in Broadway, 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:27.920 and that the argument got a little heated and the 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:30.840 male black put out a gun on him and shot 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:33.360 him on a box when he tried to flee away 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:37.320 from Reginald Fraser. He's African American, so he would know 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.560 for a fact whether he's talking to an African American 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:44.360 or Latino. That was a dark skin, he definitely would 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:45.680 have been able to distinguish that. 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:49.640 Now Jerome was five to seven with dark skin and 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:51.720 a thick Dominican accent. 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:55.200 In fact, my English back then, my accent was a 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:58.200 little stronger. Now it has gotten better to education and 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:00.680 studying and reading and you know, going through them off 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:04.800 a pronunciation, but it was definitely a lot stronger back there, 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:07.520 so he would have known that this distinction immediately. 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:12.320 Nevertheless, Reginald Fraser initially reported a young black Mail as 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:16.680 his assailant, not an Hispanic Mail. But eventually Fraser identified 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:19.040 Jerome and changed his story to say that an Hispanic 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:22.040 Mail was his assailant. And we'll get into the suggestive 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:25.120 nature of his idea as well as Fraser's particulate later on. 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:28.880 But first back to July fifteenth, nineteen ninety six, detectives 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:31.760 from the thirty third precinct had no leads, and then 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:34.920 in the thirty th precinct on August thirtieth, nineteen ninety six, 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:37.559 there was a murder of Reginald Myers. 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:40.280 Got two Reggies in this case, a Reggie Fraser and 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:46.000 Reggie Myers. Myers is the deceased. Fraser is alive. My 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.760 focus has been on the Myers case because you got 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:52.160 to take one case at a time. If you don't, 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:55.040 you're going to confuse a judge. I think you got 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.520 to focus on Myers first, because there is a landslide 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:03.760 worth of evidence, forensic, medical, One of the people that 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.760 was in the car has come forward with an affidavit 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:10.040 detailing who the killer was and that it wasn't Jerome 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:11.040 and he wasn't there. 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.400 During this time, I was visiting Trenton, New Jersey with 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:16.880 my girlfriend visit in my mother's house. I was out 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.160 there with friends and spending some time out there. 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:22.439 Many years later, Jerome's co defend at, Miguel Enriquez, made 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.320 it clear that he committed this crime with Pedro Guzman 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:26.440 and another man. 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:30.199 Yes, he mentioned in Markles and then he nicknamed him 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:32.400 boas this was the guy that was supposed to have 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:34.760 fired the shot. On the night of the murder. 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:41.480 From my investigation, Henriquez, Guzman and a man named mark 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:45.960 Or Leboa are looking for someone to rob. This is 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:49.160 the west side of Harlem, and there was a lot 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:51.480 of people running around with I guess a lot of 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:54.760 weight in drugs, so you know, guys would drive around, 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.160 you had stick up kids. And on one hundred and 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:02.480 forty fifth Street, Henriquez Guzman on and Loboa. They see 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.560 this man who happens to be Reginald Myers with a 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.240 bag in his hand. They think that he has drugs 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:10.520 in the bag. Turns out that he just got some 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:13.400 like gatorade and like a snapple or something like that, 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:17.360 and Henriquez gets out of the car grabs the bag. 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:21.080 Myers chases Henriquez back to the car and a gun 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:21.719 shot goes over. 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:25.520 Ems arrived around nine pm and Myers was pronounced dead 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:29.199 at the hospital. Detective de Leon arrived around nine point 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:32.080 fifteen pm, and, according to police reports that were not 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:35.760 presented a trial, eyewitnesses said that a man around six 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:38.600 feet tall grabbed the bag and returned to a dark 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:41.640 gray sedan. As Myers reached for the guy who robbed him, 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:45.040 the car pulled off toward Amsterdam Avenue and shots were fired. 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:49.400 The following day, the autopsy revealed stippling, suggesting a close 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:52.600 range shot with no impediments. It was determined that a 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:55.680 nine millimeter bullet passed through the back of his upper 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:59.839 right arm into the armpit, striking his lungs and heart. 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.760 The witnesses and trajectory suggest that the victim reach for 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:05.680 the sedan's passenger side and was shot as the sidhan 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:09.240 pulled away. Yet the state's narrative had Meyers slapping the 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:11.920 windshield of a stationary vehicle and was shot with a 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.120 thirty eight caliber bullet through the windshield, which is simply 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:18.760 not supported by the facts, But that narrative didn't emerge 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:22.920 until September twentieth. Now, Jerome was back from New Jersey 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:25.920 and was driving around Washington Heights near his old apartment 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:26.880 with Pedro Guzman. 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:30.480 No, this is what we did with party, smoke, marijuana, hangout, 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:33.280 look for girls. So we ended up driving down the 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:37.080 streets and we ended up coming into one hundred and 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:39.400 fifty eighth Street. While in the middle of the block, 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:42.079 a shootout happens. For what I was told, it was 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:44.120 over a drug spot. That they had, a crack spot 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:46.640 that they were fighting over. It was individuals from I 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.280 blocked Reginald Fraser his friends. 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:53.240 Yep, the same Reginald Fraser from the July fifteenth assault 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:56.240 was involved in a shootout over a crack spot in 0:11:56.280 --> 0:12:00.560 which his friend Thomas Joe Long ran toward Amsterdam Avenue 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:02.880 with the one way flow of traffic on his right 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:04.520 and the buildings on his left. 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:08.520 The shot on the left shoulder and the shots supposedly 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:11.040 came from his right side of a car that was 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.880 riding along the streets, but his left shoulder is facing 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:18.240 the buildings as he's running towards Amsterdam. 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:21.240 Even though the bullet entering and exiting through his upper 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.280 left shoulder supported that the shooter was on the sidewalk. 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:26.800 The police radio reported that the shots came from a 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:30.599 white Sedan. The making model varied, but this play suspicion 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:33.600 on Jerome Curry and Petro Guzman, who were in a 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:35.599 white Nissan Maxima. 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.120 In the middle of this. We did what we thought 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:41.360 was logical at that moment, and we also sped out 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.880 of the block. The police are chasing us. You know, 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.720 even though the victims identified multiple different cars, it just 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:52.320 happened that our car was also white. Now, on that night, 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:55.720 we had a substantial amount of marijuana, and then we 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.880 ain't had no identification, no license, We didn't even have 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:01.120 paperwork for the car, even that the car was legit. 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.480 Guzman was driving, He panised him. He said, I'm not stopping. 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:07.320 I'm not stopping. I'm going. You know, I didn't try 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:08.800 to stop him. What I did was I tried to 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:10.520 get rid of the marijuana we had in the and 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:12.880 we just ran as much as we could. 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.520 They sped toward the Macomb's Damn Bridge on their way 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:17.920 back to the Bronx, but traffic from the Yankee Game 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:20.000 was backed up and the police pulled up right next 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:20.360 to them. 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:24.360 Kurr gets arrested with Guzman on September twentieth. 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:26.600 Somewhere in the area. The police found a gun. First, 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:28.760 they claimed that it was a three fifty seven, so 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:30.679 they put that on the reporter and said, well, we 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:33.520 found a gun and this gun belongs to you. Guys. 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:37.520 They never took any fingerprints off it, DNA anything, and 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:39.679 they said, well, this is your gun, and we tell 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:42.200 them this is not our gun from the beginning, this 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:44.320 is not our gun. This is not our gun. And 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:47.920 eventually Pedro Guzman started talking to the people. He said, well, 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:49.679 that's my friend gun and I gotta talk to you. 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:52.679 That's why he began to talk about the murder case. Well. 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.400 Offending off suspicion in the attempted murder of Thomas Long, 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:59.040 it appears that Guzman decided to try to save himself 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:02.319 by cooperating, and at some point the three point fifty 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:06.320 seven Magnum became a thirty eight special. I guess the 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:09.320 police didn't know what kind of gun they allegedly found 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:14.120 dumped from Guzman's car. Nevertheless, Guzman started to spill real 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.240 information mixed in with the lies about the murder of 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:20.800 Reginald Myers, which had occurred in the thirtieth precinct. 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:23.920 They called in the thirtieth precinct. This is when Detective 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:27.840 de Lyon get involved. Pedro Guzman admitted that him and 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.320 two of the individuals have been involved in that shooting 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:36.080 of Reginald Myers. They never mentioned me. Somehow they pressured 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:38.960 him and then he implicated me in the crime. 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.600 They take a statement from Guzman, not knowing that you know, 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:46.000 this guy now is trying to dig himself up out 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:51.000 of a really, really nefarious scenario. Here. Guzman's I know 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:54.800 about this other murder and Curry's involved with this murder. 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:57.000 Right basically says to de Leon that this thirty eight 0:14:57.080 --> 0:14:59.920 killed Myers. Turns out that that thirty eight was not 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.720 the murder weapon in Myers. There was a deformed nine 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:08.320 millimeter bullet that was found in Meyer's body, and that 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:12.040 bullet was compared to the gun that was recovered in 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:15.200 connection with Curry's arrest on the night of September twentieth. 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:20.520 The NYPD's own ballistic expert concluded that that nine minilimeter 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:23.480 bullet could not have been fired from that thirty eight, 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.360 that there was no connection between that gun and Myers 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:26.640 at all. 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:29.680 But de Leon didn't know this information when he was 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:32.760 working on these statements, first with Guzman and then they 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:35.560 picked up Miguel Enriquez and lastly. 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.960 Jerome detected de Leon came in. This guy, him and 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.200 another Guydny Detected Crimes. We were kept in a freeze 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:45.200 and approximately forty eight hours, probably a little longer than that. 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.680 Things got really bad, but no, continue to deny my 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:51.160 involvement in it. The first thing they did was they 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:53.760 brung in big colored pictures of a victim and they 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:57.080 put them on the table. They were determined to get 0:15:57.080 --> 0:15:58.960 a confession. Who say, you're going to tell um just 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:01.360 out of the story. You know, it got so bad 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:05.400 to the point where this detective Elpedio de Leon became 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:08.120 a bit physically, you know, I remember him getting off. 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:12.080 He went into a rage, punching and slapping me and 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:14.280 he said, we know you're not leaving here until you 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:16.760 tell us what we want to hear. You know. During 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:19.640 this process, they brought in a TV screen where the 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:25.280 DVD was BCR player and they continuously played the confession 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:28.440 that this guy edro Guzman had already given them and 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:31.680 gelhen Riquez that they implicated in this crime as well. 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:36.440 Enriquez and Guzmand both say that Enriquez jumps out of 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:40.560 the car takes the bag off of the victim, runs 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.840 back to the eighty six accurate dark gray four door, 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:47.040 and both of them say that the victim comes to 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:50.120 the front windshield, slaps it, and Jerome shoots through the 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:53.280 windshield and see that's the thing. The police could have 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:55.560 easily gone to the autopsy to see that there was 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:59.800 stippling on the body and automatically know that what Enriquez 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:01.600 Guzmana saying is false. 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:05.720 The windshield would have blocked any stippling at all from 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:09.280 landing on Reginald Myers. And in addition, the nine milimeter bullet, 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:12.520 not a three fifty seven or a thirty eight caliber, 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:16.600 but a nine milimeter bullet entered through the back upper 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:20.000 right arm and passed through the chest to the left. 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.600 There was no upward trajectory that one might expect to 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:25.840 have seen with a shot through the windshield. The shot, 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:29.679 in fact, entered the back upper right arm. This scenario 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:34.040 in which Jerome is the shooter simply defies reality. 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:37.719 And they can tell me just with people, they are saying, 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:39.600 you gotta give us a story, you gotta pay some 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:43.040 type of responsibility. And this went on for hours, like 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:47.200 I never knew how serious sleet the probation was, and 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:50.560 not drinking water, not having access to fool for so 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:54.199 long really meant into experience. Then they put me in 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:56.520 a line up. I may have found out that the 0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:59.320 people that claimed that they see me at the crime 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:02.480 scene had identify a guy that was six feet to 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:04.200 six one. I'm only fist seven. 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:07.920 How can a guy be identified as being six to 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:09.600 one and be five to seven? 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:12.560 Taking in consideration that I was sitting down when they 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:15.119 made the identification with a bunch of other guys, so 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:17.800 they didn't even see me standing up to compare me 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:18.520 to the other. 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:22.960 Individuals, you know, Oh wow, Okay, that's a whole I 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:24.840 never heard of a lineup sitting down. 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:27.919 Yeah, on a bench, So that's how they made the identification. 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:30.200 So they said, well, you know, we got you. I 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:32.040 picked out of a line on there's people that seen 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:35.480 you there, and it was all line and it got 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:38.119 so bad that I just wanted to end it. I 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:41.479 ended up incriminating myself in this crime, even though I 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:43.840 was innocent, which is something that I have regreaded all 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:46.359 these years because I have to live with that. My 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:48.040 family had to live with that, you. 0:18:48.000 --> 0:19:02.520 Know, listening to wrongful conviction. You can listen to this 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:05.280 and all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.720 and ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:18.399 on Apple Podcasts. As far as we can tell, the 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.440 witnesses that viewed to sit down lineup were never heard 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:25.400 from again, but they served as an effective cudgel. They 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:28.679 got Jerome to sign a confession making him the shooter 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:33.000 for Reginald Fraser, Reginald Myers, and Thomas Long, but as 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:36.960 we've already pointed out, the statements were not corroborated by reality. 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:40.200 And then they brought in Reggie Fraser, who was both 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.440 the victim from July fifteenth as well as the witness 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:45.920 of the shooting in front of his crack spot, which 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:50.000 one can surmise made him open for cooperation when he 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:53.240 came in to view a lineup, especially when he's made 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.200 to believe that the guy who shot his friend Thomas 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:57.560 Long had been caught. 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:02.679 He said, badd came in and he saw my picture 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:05.080 on the detective's desk, and then he went into the 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:06.359 lineup and identified me. 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:10.280 There's also another version of events where someone else at 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:13.560 the thirty third Precinct, not Detective Primus, who was conducting 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:18.440 the lineup, but somebody else showed him Jerome's picture by mistake. 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:23.879 Either way, Reggie Fraser made the id that was incentivised 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:26.960 by not only a blind eye to his drug activity, 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:30.159 but also just a few months before trial trigger warning, 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:34.280 thirty eight year old Reggie Fraser had been charged with 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:37.720 the rape of a thirteen year old child who became pregnant, 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:41.720 receiving a sentence of only one and a half to 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:45.960 three years. Meanwhile, Jerome had awaited his trials for about 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:49.399 that same amount of time on Riker's Island. His first 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:52.919 trial was for the July fifteenth assault of Fraser and 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:56.040 the attempted murder of Fraser's buddy Thomas Long. 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:01.080 Regulald Fraser, he testified that he seen a white car. 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:04.000 Somebody pointed a girl out of the window of the 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:06.919 car and started shooting at him or the group that 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:10.920 he was in. Long testified also, but he really didn't 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:13.960 provide much information. He just said that, you know, he's 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:16.520 seen a white car. He couldn't identify the car. He 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:19.000 don't even know where the shots came from. He just 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:21.800 said he heard a shot and he started running. And 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:25.080 of course, a confession for me an incriminating confession. 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:29.360 Now, as we've discussed, this alleged confession was about shooting 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:32.760 Thomas Long from the car, even though the bullet path 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:36.360 through Long's left shoulder placed the shooter on the sidewalk 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:38.560 in front of or behind him, not in a car 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:40.680 way off to his right, but none of this was 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:43.000 ever explained to the jury. Then they moved on to 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:43.520 the assault. 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:47.359 On July fifteen, Fraser said that he had a confrontation 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:49.679 with a guy on one hundred and fifty ninth Street 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:53.199 that he had never seen before at night, and the 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:56.120 guy shot him as he tried to run away. He said, yes, 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:58.680 he don't right there, sitting right there now. 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:01.920 Importantly, he reported that this was a blackmail, but changed 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:05.400