Speaker 1: It was early Sunday evening in November of two thousand
Speaker 1: and five, and a pop up street fair was in
Speaker 1: full swing in south central Los Angeles. The neighborhood had
Speaker 1: turned out to enjoy the rides, carnival games, hot dogs,
Speaker 1: and cotton candy. Crowds of people were milling around the
Speaker 1: entrance at the corner of Rodeo Road and Second Avenue. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: half a dozen shots rang out and two kids fell
Speaker 1: to the ground. Fourteen year old William Cox was shot
Speaker 1: twice in the torso and died at the scene. His friend,
Speaker 1: Edward Williams, also fourteen, was shot in the heart, but
Speaker 1: somehow he survived. At the hospital. Edward gave police the
Speaker 1: names of several rival gang members who might have been
Speaker 1: the shootor.
Speaker 2: They opened up the book of all the people that
Speaker 2: they believed were members of the Mansfield This is Jason,
Speaker 2: He's from Mansfield, whatnot. And that's where things just started
Speaker 2: to snowball and I became target number one.
Speaker 1: That night, Jason Malton had been hanging out with a
Speaker 1: group of friends miles from the crime scene. His alibi
Speaker 1: was solid, but once the police had fixed their sights
Speaker 1: on him, the truth was meaningless.
Speaker 2: I don't feel like they altoly cared about the victim
Speaker 2: nor myself. It's like, okay, well, one gang members dead,
Speaker 2: one gang member shot, one gang members in jail. We
Speaker 2: got a three for one.
Speaker 3: In a way, this is grooble telling you have a
Speaker 3: prepaid call from Jason Vanners and one an inmate at
Speaker 3: the California State Prison, Lancaster, California.
Speaker 1: From Lava for Good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie
Speaker 1: Freeling today.
Speaker 4: Jason Walton, my name is Jason Robert Walton.
Speaker 2: I'm from Los Angeles, California. I was arrested and ultimately
Speaker 2: longfully convicted November seventeenth, two thousand and five.
Speaker 5: Jason was a real fun loving kid. He loved sports.
Speaker 5: He collected basketball cards and things like that.
Speaker 1: This is Jason's mother, Francisle Johnson. Most people call her friend.
Speaker 2: She mostly raised me along that. I did sometimes go
Speaker 2: and visit my father, but living with my mother was
Speaker 2: where I was most comfortable, where I wanted to be.
Speaker 5: We always had a big dinner on at my parents' house,
Speaker 5: and either my mom would cook or my dad would barbecue.
Speaker 2: I thought I was rich. I thought the world was perfect,
Speaker 2: and I loved to play video games, collect sports cards, POGs,
Speaker 2: just anything that you collect. My hobbies consisted of building
Speaker 2: things and fixing things.
Speaker 5: If he saw a radio or portable TV that was
Speaker 5: sitting on the curb or near the alley, he would
Speaker 5: want to take it home and try to fix it,
Speaker 5: and quite often it would work.
Speaker 2: As I got older, I grew a fascination with cars,
Speaker 2: and I started with building model cars. And I realized
Speaker 2: at a young age that I was good at it
Speaker 2: because I can take a box, take the kid out,
Speaker 2: and I would never remove the instructions from the box,
Speaker 2: and I can put the whole car together.
Speaker 1: Jason was a pretty typical kid, into cars, bikes, video games,
Speaker 1: and sports.
Speaker 2: Swimming, fishing, or anything that that involved being outside. I
Speaker 2: love to push the envelope. I was somewhat of a daredevil,
Speaker 2: so whether that was trying to ride a bike on
Speaker 2: one wheel for the whole the lamp of the block,
Speaker 2: or holding onto the ice cream truck to gain speed
Speaker 2: to try to jump over a makeshift lamp that we made.
Speaker 1: Jason describes himself as a class clown, someone who loved
Speaker 1: to make people laugh, but he also had more serious ambitions.
Speaker 2: I wanted to be a lawyer when I was younger,
Speaker 2: because I loved to debate. I loved just the art
Speaker 2: of being able to verbally wrastle, I guess you could say.
Speaker 1: But for Jason, school it just wasn't a big priority.
Speaker 1: As a teenager, Jason started cutting class, hanging out with
Speaker 1: his friends and smoking weed. Jason's older brother, Antoine, belonged
Speaker 1: to a local gang, the Mansfield Crips, and it wasn't
Speaker 1: long before Jason followed in his footsteps that.
Speaker 2: Side of town. Being in a gang or being from
Speaker 2: a gang, it really wasn't like we were gang banging.
Speaker 2: We just hung out together. We went to school together,
Speaker 2: after school, we were just hanging out. We're just having
Speaker 2: a good time. It wasn't consumed with oh, we're young
Speaker 2: and we're selling drugs to support our family. That wasn't
Speaker 2: our story.
Speaker 1: As Jason remembers it, being in the Mansfield Crips was
Speaker 1: a way of learning the ropes and learning about life.
Speaker 1: He says, the older members of the gang were actually
Speaker 1: a good influence.
Speaker 2: They never told me anything wrong. They always encouraged me
Speaker 2: to stay in school. So they're dropping me off at school,
Speaker 2: they're picking me up from school, we're going on these trips.
Speaker 2: We're going camping, we're going to the snow, and they're
Speaker 2: encouraging me to do the right thing. When people are saying, oh,
Speaker 2: gang banging is bad and gang members are bad, I'm
Speaker 2: not saying that because these are the same people that
Speaker 2: I know are gang members. But they're telling me good things.
Speaker 1: Friend, you know, we were talking about how he wounds
Speaker 1: up in a gang. Do you remember finding out about
Speaker 1: that or what that was like.
Speaker 5: Well, when you live in certain neighborhoods, there are gangs.
Speaker 5: It's not a protection thing, but they know who you
Speaker 5: are because you live in the neighborhood and you know
Speaker 5: who they are, but you're not always necessarily participating. I'm
Speaker 5: not saying he didn't associate, but he didn't have He
Speaker 5: never had any problems or with the police or criminal
Speaker 5: activity that involved association with a gang.
Speaker 2: No, you know, we did have conflicts or verbal spats
Speaker 2: or cups with other kids and whatnot. That it wasn't
Speaker 2: so much of a violent thing. It was more of
Speaker 2: a unit family, a togetherness as when we were younger.
Speaker 1: But there was a time when Jason found himself in
Speaker 1: a confrontation with someone from another gang. It was the
Speaker 1: fall of two thousand and five, when Jason was around
Speaker 1: twenty one, Jason was driving around South Central with his girlfriend,
Speaker 1: Amber Jones, and his two young nephews. They stopped by
Speaker 1: Amber's house on Rodeo Road, which was on the turf
Speaker 1: of the Roll In Thirties, a rival.
Speaker 2: Gang, and being from the gang, I was hyper alerted.
Speaker 2: I was always aware of my surroundings. I had my
Speaker 2: two younger nephews with me, so that made me more
Speaker 2: vigilant because I couldn't afford for something to happen to
Speaker 2: these two kids. So when we pull up our and
Speaker 2: I see the kid walking on the opposite side of
Speaker 2: the street coming my direction.
Speaker 1: The kid was fourteen year old Edward Williams. Ember knew
Speaker 1: him through a friend of her uncle's.
Speaker 2: She's like, yeah, he's a little kid. He's just big
Speaker 2: for his age, so okay, no problem. When he realizes
Speaker 2: that it Pembers in the car, that kind of made
Speaker 2: him escalate with his antics as far as preaching like
Speaker 2: he had a gun and posturing and throwing up gang
Speaker 2: signs or whatnot.
Speaker 1: Edward was a junior member of a gang called the
Speaker 1: Rolling Forties, and they were in Rollin thirties territory. Jason
Speaker 1: knew that all Edward's showing off could lead to.
Speaker 2: Trouble their direct rivals. This is a serious rivalry. He
Speaker 2: was asking me where was I from? At that time?
Speaker 2: Even though I was young, I wasn't focused on the
Speaker 2: day to day gang banking. I wanted something different in life,
Speaker 2: so I wasn't worried about over from what color are
Speaker 2: you wearing? That nonsense. I ultimately was trying to let
Speaker 2: him know, Hey, you're on Rodeo Boulevard. This is a
Speaker 2: main street that leads to the Jungles, which is a
Speaker 2: predominantly blood neighborhood. And so while you're doing a gang signs,
Speaker 2: that mean from across this busy street, you don't know
Speaker 2: who's driving up and down this street that might see you.
Speaker 2: That you're putting a target on yourself.
Speaker 1: But despite Jason's warning, Edward kept it up. Finally, Jason
Speaker 1: did get out of his car.
Speaker 2: When I got out of the car and I approached him,
Speaker 2: I let him know that I was from Mansfield. I
Speaker 2: didn't want no problems with him. I got back in
Speaker 2: the car. That was the end of the conversation. That
Speaker 2: was the end of the I guess you can call
Speaker 2: it an altercation, and that was the last time I
Speaker 2: had ever seen it.
Speaker 1: Two weeks later, Jason was driving down Pigo Boulevard. As
Speaker 1: he passed Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, he spotted a fellow
Speaker 1: crip who had recently gotten out of prison.
Speaker 2: So I stopped. We're talking. More people that we know
Speaker 2: are starting to pull up, and we're hanging out with smoking,
Speaker 2: and we were waiting for his sister.
Speaker 1: His friend's sister was on her way with tickets to
Speaker 1: a concert, but she kept calling to say she was delayed.
Speaker 2: It will be one excuse after the other. Oh, we
Speaker 2: stopped to get drinks and we'll be there in ten minutes.
Speaker 2: Oh my friend left something at her house, will be
Speaker 2: there in twenty minutes. Or we stopped here, we'll be
Speaker 2: there in fifteen minutes. That stretched out for over an
Speaker 2: hour or so, to the point where they never ended
Speaker 2: up arriving. So ultimately we just hung out at Roscoe's
Speaker 2: for a a couple hours, just doing what we did
Speaker 2: on the regular, talking to people, talking to girls, smoking
Speaker 2: and just hanging out.
Speaker 1: And that was Jason's entire Sunday evening, just kicking it
Speaker 1: with friends in the parking lot. At Roscoe's. Meanwhile, a
Speaker 1: few miles away, a very different drama was unfolding.
Speaker 6: And so there's carnivals in town. It's a Friday night.
Speaker 6: It's a pop up carnival in a parking lot. It's
Speaker 6: on the corner of Rodeo Road and Second Avenue in
Speaker 6: Los Angeles. And there's a lot of people there.
Speaker 1: This is Michael Simanchic, executive director of the Innocent Center.
Speaker 6: There's cars everywhere, and there's kids, and there's there's probably
Speaker 6: I think I've heard reports there might have been thirty
Speaker 6: or forty people just outside the carnival gate. So on
Speaker 6: the evening of November thirteenth, two thousand and five, just
Speaker 6: after seven pm, and Jewel opened fire and fired six
Speaker 6: five to six rounds. A couple of rounds struck a
Speaker 6: child named William Cox I believe was fourteen at the time,
Speaker 6: and another couple of rounds struck and injured Edward Williams.
Speaker 1: The same kid from the Rolling Forties that Jason had
Speaker 1: had to run in with a couple weeks before.
Speaker 6: Edward Williams was transported by ambulance to the hospital shortly
Speaker 6: thereafter and was in critical condition until a few days later,
Speaker 6: and william Cox died of the scene.
Speaker 1: And to put this incident into context, we need a
Speaker 1: little background on the gang situation in South Central at
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 6: So there were two gangs that were at war at
Speaker 6: the time of the crime. It's the Roland thirties and
Speaker 6: the Rollin forties. The thirties and the forties were fighting
Speaker 6: over the territory right where the carnival was taking place.
Speaker 6: Edward Williams was part of the Baby Hustlers also known
Speaker 6: as the Baby forties, and he had recently been jumped
Speaker 6: into the forties. The thirties were comprised of this individual
Speaker 6: named Jay Rock, who Edward Williams first mentioned at the hospital,
Speaker 6: another individual named Terrell who was in a dispute with
Speaker 6: Edward Williams at a Halloween party about two weeks before
Speaker 6: this incident, and four or five other individuals that were
Speaker 6: all spotted at the scene at the carnival that night.
Speaker 6: So we had both a group of thirties and then
Speaker 6: we had Edward Williams who was a forties self admitted member.
Speaker 6: And William Cox was not claiming a gang and in
Speaker 6: fact I believe he had actually told Edward Williams not
Speaker 6: to be involved in the gangs because he thought it
Speaker 6: was dangerous.
Speaker 1: After the shooting occurred, police and ambulances were soon on
Speaker 1: the scene and Edward was taken to the hospital.
Speaker 6: I believe he was in critical condition when he arrives,
Speaker 6: and he's on a bunch of medication, but he's jotting
Speaker 6: down notes because he can't speak at this point, and
Speaker 6: he writes down that it's Jay Jay Rock from Roll
Speaker 6: in thirties.
Speaker 1: But somehow, over the next few days, someone else entered
Speaker 1: into Edward's narrative, and.
Speaker 6: Two days later he then switches to saying it was
Speaker 6: Amber's friend who did it. And I don't know it's
Speaker 6: if it's entirely clear that we know how that shift happens,
Speaker 6: where he goes from thinking it's somebody in the thirties
Speaker 6: to thinking it's Jason.
Speaker 1: Remember, Jason was in the Mansfield Crips, not the Roll
Speaker 1: in thirties. But going back to the night of the shooting,
Speaker 1: around ten or so, Jason left the gathering at Roscoe's
Speaker 1: to go pick up Amber from work.
Speaker 2: We came back to my mother's house and that was
Speaker 2: how we ended the night. The next morning, she woke
Speaker 2: up and being that her family knew the family. Her
Speaker 2: mother let her know that Hey Edwards was shot last night.
Speaker 2: I didn't he didn't put one in one together that
Speaker 2: the kid from weeks prior was Edward until later on
Speaker 2: when she had said, you know that was the kid,
Speaker 2: and it's like wow that he shot on the same
Speaker 2: very street that we had having what they were calling
Speaker 2: an altercation week's prior for what they said was doing
Speaker 2: the same thing, being out gang banging, you know, bringing
Speaker 2: that attention to herself.
Speaker 1: A few days later, Jason was out having lunch with
Speaker 1: his two nephews.
Speaker 2: I had just picked my nephews up from school. I
Speaker 2: came to Poki Dogs. I ordered them something to eat.
Speaker 2: I was standing at the table.
Speaker 1: A squad car cruise by outside, and Jason recognized one
Speaker 1: of the cops, Officer Gutierrez.
Speaker 2: So when he passed by, he threw up the peace
Speaker 2: sign or waved at me and beans rebellious. I believe
Speaker 2: I flipped him the bird, he smiled. That was the
Speaker 2: relationship between the officers in the neighborhood and the youth
Speaker 2: in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: But this friendly exchange soon turned into something else. Jason
Speaker 1: had no idea that the police were out looking for him.
Speaker 1: To charge him in the carnival shooting. The squad car
Speaker 1: swung back around and pulled up at the restaurant. Jason
Speaker 1: was arrested and taken to the Wilshare Division police station.
Speaker 2: Once I was placed in the holding tank, and I
Speaker 2: guess you can say, actually charged with the crime, my
Speaker 2: mind raised as to where was I because just it
Speaker 2: blew my mind that I was in jail for uh homicide.
Speaker 1: But so at the hospital, Edward had named several rival
Speaker 1: gang members in the shooting. How did the police wind
Speaker 1: up getting your name?
Speaker 2: So? I don't know, because he always would shift. If
Speaker 2: you get let him talk, he will say it was
Speaker 2: the guys from the Rowland thirties. He even named the
Speaker 2: guy multiple times. He named people that lived on his
Speaker 2: street by name and begged the police go talk to them.
Speaker 2: They'll tell you who the guy was that shot me.
Speaker 2: The police never did a proper investigation. They never went
Speaker 2: to go talk to anyone that had information that made sense.
Speaker 2: And I figured out later one day when he was
Speaker 2: in the hospital, is one of his older brothers was
Speaker 2: in the hospital room when he was talking to the officers,
Speaker 2: and I guess he just heard him say, oh, Amber's boyfriend,
Speaker 2: or he was talking about multiple incidents. He talked about
Speaker 2: the day that we had seen each other in front
Speaker 2: of Amber's house. He was talking about a fight that
Speaker 2: took place at a Halloween party. I had never been
Speaker 2: to this Halloween party. But the police were jump owing
Speaker 2: everything together as if there was one situation, one day,
Speaker 2: one event. So I guess when the brother heard Amber's boyfriend,
Speaker 2: he asked Amber's uncle, who's Amber's boyfriend? He just knew
Speaker 2: that my name was Jason and that I was from Mansfield.
Speaker 1: The detectives ran Jason's name by Officer Gutierrez and the
Speaker 1: other officers at the Wilshire Division.
Speaker 2: They opened up the book of all the people that
Speaker 2: they believed were members of the Mansfields. They identified into
Speaker 2: the detectives, this is Jason, He's from Mansfield, whatnot. And
Speaker 2: that's where things just started to snowball and I became
Speaker 2: target number one.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.
Speaker 1: You can listen to this and all the LoVa for
Speaker 1: Good podcasts one week early and ad free by subscribing
Speaker 1: to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 2: I didn't know what wrawful condition was I never thought
Speaker 2: that that would even happen. I knew I didn't do anything,
Speaker 2: but I didn't at the time remember where where was?
Speaker 2: I have nothing in my life. Told me that I
Speaker 2: had to remember where I am and what I'm doing
Speaker 2: every second of the day, every day, every night.
Speaker 1: After hours of questioning, Jason was transferred to Southwest Division
Speaker 1: and placed in a holding cell. That night, he called
Speaker 1: Amber to help him remember where he had been the
Speaker 1: night of November thirteenth.
Speaker 2: We're replaying events, saying, she let me know that was
Speaker 2: the night that you were supposed to go to the concert. Okay, perfect.
Speaker 2: That means I was at Rosco's.
Speaker 1: Jason and Amber were able to call Roscoe's and speak
Speaker 1: to the manager who had been on duty that night.
Speaker 2: So he said, I asked him, you know, do you
Speaker 2: have the surveillance cameras. He said, yeah, we still have tapes.
Speaker 2: So he asked, well, around what time was it? So
Speaker 2: I said a little before seven. So he fast forwarded
Speaker 2: and he's watching and I remember him saying I got you,
Speaker 2: I got you. When he recognized my car pulling in,
Speaker 2: he said, yeah, I got you. You're you're on camera
Speaker 2: and you pulled in at this time so it started
Speaker 2: with the surveillance camera as an alibi.
Speaker 1: And there was something else that placed Jason at Roscoe's
Speaker 1: that night.
Speaker 2: There was a celf On tower one block north of Roscoe's,
Speaker 2: Chicken and Waffles on the Brea and San Vincentain. So
Speaker 2: my calls are being picked up off of that celf
Speaker 2: On towers. Okay, Well, now I feel good that I'm
Speaker 2: going to end up getting out and everything's going to
Speaker 2: be okay. I got proved.
Speaker 1: But nine months later, in August of two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: Jason went to trial in front of Judge Larry Findler.
Speaker 1: The prosecutor was Deputy District Attorney Paul Kim.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: The prosecution's theory at the time of trial was that
Speaker 6: Jason had had this prior interaction about a month before
Speaker 6: the crime, where he got in an argument with Edward Williams.
Speaker 6: And that's the only interaction that Jason ever had with
Speaker 6: Edward Williams. And so the prosecution alleged that this interaction
Speaker 6: proceeded Jason seeing Edward Williams and William Cox at this
Speaker 6: carnival in south central LA and when he sees these
Speaker 6: two individuals, he has a gun in his hoodie pocket,
Speaker 6: and he shoots through his hoodie and kills William Cox
Speaker 6: and wounds Edward Williams and then flees the scene.
Speaker 1: So one of the things that the prosecution said was
Speaker 1: that you would have been able to go from Roscoe's
Speaker 1: to this carnival.
Speaker 4: Is that possible?
Speaker 2: It's not possible at all, by no such of the imagination.
Speaker 1: Remember, Jason was seen on the surveillance video for nearly
Speaker 1: the entire evening.
Speaker 2: I was only off film at Roscoe's. I believe from
Speaker 2: maybe twelve to eighteen minutes. That wouldn't have been enough
Speaker 2: time to make it from Roscoe's to the carnival, change
Speaker 2: my clothes, lying in wait, find Edward.
Speaker 6: Officers took the stand and claimed that it was possible
Speaker 6: for him to make the drive, change his clothes, talk
Speaker 6: to the girls, do the shooting, changes his run, change
Speaker 6: his clothes, get back and get on camera. We've done
Speaker 6: time trials ourselves. The quickest we've been able to do
Speaker 6: it is seven minutes. The average was actually nine minutes driving.
Speaker 1: The prosecution also presented an alleged witness, a carnival worker
Speaker 1: named Richard Gray. Gray had given police a statement soon
Speaker 1: after the shooting, but by the time of trial, his
Speaker 1: story had already changed several times.
Speaker 6: Richard Gray says he initially says I only saw the
Speaker 6: shooter fleeing, and I only saw him from behind, didn't
Speaker 6: get a chance to see his face, doesn't initially say
Speaker 6: he's able to make an identification, and then a week
Speaker 6: later he picked Walton out of a six pack photo lineup.
Speaker 6: At trial, he has like a soft recant, I'll call it,
Speaker 6: or says I wasn't really able to see. I'm not
Speaker 6: entirely sure. But the thing about Richard Gray, and what's
Speaker 6: so interesting is that Richard Gray, from the point where
Speaker 6: he says he was standing, could not have seen the
Speaker 6: shooting take place.
Speaker 1: The shooting happened on the corner of Rodeo Road and
Speaker 1: Second Avenue, in the street just outside the entrance to
Speaker 1: the carnival. Richard Gray was stationed at a ride inside
Speaker 1: the carnival area, a short distance back from the entrance.
Speaker 6: There was a row of poor potties that were blocking
Speaker 6: Richard Gray's view between him and where the shooting happened
Speaker 6: on just off the corner where it occurred.
Speaker 1: Edward Williams also took the stand and identified Jason, even
Speaker 1: though he admitted he hadn't seen the shooter's face and
Speaker 1: had not even seen a gun.
Speaker 6: And then they also had gang experts that identified Walton
Speaker 6: as a member of the Mansfield Crips, which at the
Speaker 6: time were allegedly allies with the Rolling Thirties gang, which
Speaker 6: was at war with the Rolling Forties. And so that's
Speaker 6: the essentially the crux of the prosecution's case.
Speaker 1: Jason's defense attorneys were Jerry Kaplan and Helene Farber.
Speaker 6: The defensive trial was that Jason Walton was in fact
Speaker 6: at the Roscoes, that there were these other individuals that
Speaker 6: could have possibly been interested in doing harm to these
Speaker 6: two individuals, and that it was an eyewitness misidentification. One
Speaker 6: of the things that Edward Williams had said was that
Speaker 6: the shooter was on the curb and Edward Williams was
Speaker 6: on the street from the curb. The shooter was still
Speaker 6: shorter than Edward Williams, so this suggested that the person
Speaker 6: that was the shooter was probably five four to five six. Now,
Speaker 6: Jason Walton at the time of the crime was six
Speaker 6: foot one.
Speaker 1: And then the witnesses who saw Jason at Roscoe's, did
Speaker 1: they testify at trial?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I believe the two that testified at trial. There
Speaker 6: was an individual named Nico who was a gang intervention
Speaker 6: specialist who recognized Jason and saw him at the seat
Speaker 6: at Roscoe's, and then I believe it was the manager
Speaker 6: of Roscoe's testified to the security camera footage and then
Speaker 6: confirmed that he saw Jason at Roscoe's from six '
Speaker 6: six something until after eight o'clock that.
Speaker 1: Night, but that wasn't enough to convince the jury. In
Speaker 1: August fourteenth, two thousand and six, Jason was convicted of
Speaker 1: the first degree murder of William Cox an attempted murder
Speaker 1: of Edward Williams. He was sentenced to fifty years to life.
Speaker 1: He was twenty one years old.
Speaker 2: I was confused. I was heartbroken, I was lost, and
Speaker 2: it just wasn't real to me that I was convicted.
Speaker 2: I just knew in my mind that something is going
Speaker 2: to happen. They're going to realize a mistake was made
Speaker 2: and I'm going to get out. It took years of
Speaker 2: even being in prison to realize that, hey, this is real,
Speaker 2: Like my life doesn't mean anything. They don't care. I
Speaker 2: was put in Salinas Valley Maximum Security Prison on the
Speaker 2: one eighty yard been my first twenty four hours there.
Speaker 2: I've seen an officer attacked and beaten. Within the first week,
Speaker 2: I witnessed the first person of many people, unfortunately stabbed
Speaker 2: and murdered in prison. The first time that I've ever
Speaker 2: seen certain levels of violence, the first time I seen death,
Speaker 2: the first time I've seen savage beatings and stabberings and
Speaker 2: people just normalized it was in prison, and this is
Speaker 2: where I was dropped off and I'm expected to walk
Speaker 2: on eggshells.
Speaker 5: To be honest with you, I only went to trial
Speaker 5: maybe once or twice. I just couldn't do it. It
Speaker 5: was too devastating for me.
Speaker 1: When her son went to prison, Fran was grief stricken.
Speaker 5: I still have a lot of anxiety. I might wake
Speaker 5: up at four o'clock in the morning, unable to sleep,
Speaker 5: heart pounding, stressed. I'm his mom, his best friend, and
Speaker 5: he knew how I felt because we we cried about it.
Speaker 5: He said, Mom, I'm not gonna He said, I didn't
Speaker 5: do this, and I'm not going to be able to
Speaker 5: make it.
Speaker 2: I ultimately felt that in order to get out, I
Speaker 2: would have to advocate for myself. I would have to
Speaker 2: have my family and friends advocate me for me to
Speaker 2: getting the attention and awareness from people that are advocates
Speaker 2: and that are fighting for justice, so people would understand,
Speaker 2: how does a young man have a surveillance camera or
Speaker 2: cell phone records, how does he have an alibi like
Speaker 2: this and ultimately still be found guilty.
Speaker 1: Jason appealed his conviction to the trial court numerous times,
Speaker 1: but it seemed no one wanted to listen to the truth.
Speaker 2: They would deny me time after time with anything and
Speaker 2: everything that was submitted in my favor. After maybe seven
Speaker 2: to ten years, I felt like my life didn't matter.
Speaker 2: I'm just another black kid from the streets and a
Speaker 2: gang member. I don't feel like they ultimately cared about
Speaker 2: the victim nor myself. It's like, okay, well, one gang
Speaker 2: members dead, one gang member shot, one gang members in jail.
Speaker 2: We got a three for one.
Speaker 5: In a way, it started during trial where all the
Speaker 5: evidence it just seemed like everyone was against us. No
Speaker 5: one was in Jason's favor. The original lawyer, he left
Speaker 5: a little bit to be desired. We also had an
Speaker 5: appeals attorney he didn't follow through. So yes, there were
Speaker 5: so many things that did not appear to be in
Speaker 5: our favor.
Speaker 1: Just a few days after Jason was convicted, his son,
Speaker 1: Tyler was born.
Speaker 2: I was determined to be a good father. That meant
Speaker 2: something to me, to make sure that I was a
Speaker 2: part of my son's life. And the choices that I
Speaker 2: had made that led me to prison, or the things
Speaker 2: that I had been through that put me in prison,
Speaker 2: didn't affect my son as far as oh, I don't
Speaker 2: have a father, So his first steps, his first words,
Speaker 2: were captured on a cell phone and sent to me.
Speaker 2: He would call me when he wanted something, and if
Speaker 2: I had to sacrifice getting the package or going the
Speaker 2: commissary this month, so I can use that money to
Speaker 2: buy him the things that he wanted or that he needed,
Speaker 2: That's what I did.
Speaker 5: He's great, He's really great. He's on top of school
Speaker 5: and activities, things that Tyler may have going on on
Speaker 5: the weekends. He's a good dad.
Speaker 1: How did you describe things to Tyler when he wondered,
Speaker 1: you know what happened with his dad when he was
Speaker 1: a kid.
Speaker 5: Explained exactly what happened, and his mom had newspaper clippings.
Speaker 5: He knows what took place, he knows the accusations. He
Speaker 5: knows that his dad went to court. He knows that
Speaker 5: his dad was found guilty and there was no need
Speaker 5: to sugarcoat it or lie or make stories or excuses.
Speaker 5: He needed to know. He's a young man.
Speaker 2: I'm very proud of my son. I tell him all
Speaker 2: the time. He's an amazing kid. He's just turned seventeen
Speaker 2: in August. His name is Tyler Walton. I'm nick name
Speaker 2: some King Tyler.
Speaker 7: At first, I was as a kid that I wasn't nervous,
Speaker 7: But when I finally you know, sat down and you know,
Speaker 7: it was face to face, it was really more of
Speaker 7: a kind of like a wow woman, like dang, you
Speaker 7: know this is this is whom my dad is really
Speaker 7: an amazing person.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you tell people your dad's in prison occasionally?
Speaker 7: Know if I, if I know them, I'll be like, yeah,
Speaker 7: this is you know what I go through. This is
Speaker 7: what I have to suffer with. But it's something that
Speaker 7: I know I can I can handle because I know
Speaker 7: it's you know, it's not forever obviously.
Speaker 1: What is that that you go through.
Speaker 7: A lot of stuff, well, a lot a lot of thoughts, memories,
Speaker 7: emotions that I feel within myself. But I have learned
Speaker 7: to kind of have an understanding of them and accept
Speaker 7: them and use them as a way of motivation. And
Speaker 7: I've taken more as a learning opportunity and if anything,
Speaker 7: so it's like I really have to make something of it,
Speaker 7: and I have to do something that would you know,
Speaker 7: show some light more than light has already been drown
Speaker 7: and really kind of prove to everyone that even with
Speaker 7: these circumstances you can still do great. I plan on
Speaker 7: having a very bright future.
Speaker 1: You know, when we spoke with Frann and Tyler over
Speaker 1: a video chat, they were wearing identical T shirts. I
Speaker 1: couldn't read them from the screen, so I asked them
Speaker 1: what they said.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it says Jason Walton was wrongfully convicted from murder
Speaker 7: evidence used to give some him proof that he was
Speaker 7: innocent of.
Speaker 1: How did Jason's case come to you?
Speaker 6: Jason wrote to us in the late two thousands, claiming
Speaker 6: innocence and saying that he was not involved in any
Speaker 6: way in the case and that he was at Roscoe's
Speaker 6: Chicken and Waffles when the shooting occurred.
Speaker 1: So what made you really dive in and want to
Speaker 1: look at this? What was it about his case?
Speaker 6: Jason was on security camera footage at the Roscoe's chicken
Speaker 6: and waffles. And you know what's interesting about that is
Speaker 6: that the security camera footage was available at the time
Speaker 6: of trial. So from the start, it was like he
Speaker 6: had this awesome alibi and for some reason it just
Speaker 6: didn't play to the jury. So that's really what sold
Speaker 6: me on this case. On top of that, as we
Speaker 6: dug into the case, we found all of these inconsistencies
Speaker 6: throughout the investigation, as well as uncovered some incredibly motivated
Speaker 6: third party suspects that more likely committed this crime.
Speaker 1: One important key to unraveling the case was a man
Speaker 1: named Christopher Green, one of the witnesses who spoke to
Speaker 1: investigators after the shooting. Strangely, his statement was never brought
Speaker 1: up at trial.
Speaker 6: Christopher Green was a carnival ride operator. Him and Richard
Speaker 6: Gray were actually coworkers at this carnival and what Green
Speaker 6: told investigators this he went and left to go to
Speaker 6: a convenience store across the street.
Speaker 1: In twenty sixteen, Michael and the Innocent Center sent their
Speaker 1: own investigator to interview Christopher. He told them everything he
Speaker 1: had told the police, and as it turns out, Christopher
Speaker 1: Green may have been the only witness who was close
Speaker 1: enough to you see what actually happened.
Speaker 6: On his walk back as he's making his way around
Speaker 6: the corner to go back into the carnival, essentially right
Speaker 6: where the porta potties are that are blocking Richard Gray's view.
Speaker 6: Green's coming around the corner and he sees an arm
Speaker 6: extended essentially over his shoulder, and he sees a gun.
Speaker 6: And it's this gun that ends up firing five to
Speaker 6: six rounds and shooting and wounding Edward Williams and striking
Speaker 6: and killing William Cox. And he gets a look at
Speaker 6: the shooter, but says he doesn't think he'd be able
Speaker 6: to identify the shooter because the shooter had a black
Speaker 6: hoodie on and the hood was up. Christopher Green is
Speaker 6: the only witness at the scene that's told police that
Speaker 6: he saw a gun. Edward Williams said he didn't see
Speaker 6: a gun. He thought the shooting happened from allegedly Jason
Speaker 6: Walton firing through a hoodie.
Speaker 1: So if Christopher Green actually saw the shooting, how did
Speaker 1: Richard Gray become the prosecution star witness?
Speaker 6: So in our subsequent post conviction investigation, what we learned
Speaker 6: is that Green went and told Gray everything that he
Speaker 6: saw and Gray then, either trying to be the savior
Speaker 6: or being pressured by police because of his own criminal
Speaker 6: liability that might have existed in other cases, agrees to
Speaker 6: cooperate and takes parts of Christopher Green's story as his own,
Speaker 6: tells police and makes this sort of soft identification. But
Speaker 6: if you talk to Green, Green's unable to make the
Speaker 6: identification because the hoodie is pulled up over this shooter's head,
Speaker 6: and he also describes having seen the gun, totally inconsistent
Speaker 6: with what Edward Williams says. Immediately after Edward Williams is shot,
Speaker 6: Green runs up to Williams and he gets down and
Speaker 6: he's like, hey, there's an ambulance coming. Someone's just called
Speaker 6: nine to one one, And Edward Williams spontaneously says, I
Speaker 6: don't know who did this. I don't know who would
Speaker 6: want to do this. So that's a crucial piece of
Speaker 6: information because if Edward Williams knew who it was, then
Speaker 6: he would have said it in that moment, and he doesn't.
Speaker 6: He says he didn't know who did it.
Speaker 1: Well, if the police had all this information from Christopher Green,
Speaker 1: why didn't they use it at trial?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 6: I mean I think the most important things were that
Speaker 6: Christopher Green probably had the best vantage point for seeing
Speaker 6: the shooter and didn't play a part in the prosecution's
Speaker 6: case because it didn't fit their theory. Richard Gray wasn't
Speaker 6: able to see anything, and yet he played a major
Speaker 6: part of the prosecution's case because he had made that
Speaker 6: tentative identification prior to trial. And so it was kind
Speaker 6: of a situation in which the prosecution was cherry picking
Speaker 6: the information they were presenting in order to make it
Speaker 6: fit their theory, and I think that resulted in Jason's
Speaker 6: wrongful conviction.
Speaker 1: Michael believes the most likely scenario is that Edward Williams
Speaker 1: was being targe by a rival gang.
Speaker 6: There was a witness named Drew Maxwell who told police
Speaker 6: at the time that Edward Williams had actually been shot
Speaker 6: at in the week's leading up to this, and Edward
Speaker 6: Williams being this new jumped in member of the Baby
Speaker 6: forties certainly made him a target. And the graffiti and
Speaker 6: the fact that a number of people at the scene
Speaker 6: said they saw Jay Rock and another individual from the
Speaker 6: thirties named Terrell who had been at the Halloween party.
Speaker 6: In gang cases like this, it's often difficult to get
Speaker 6: people to talk and let us know who actually committed
Speaker 6: the crime. I'm hopeful that we're able to develop at
Speaker 6: least a little bit more evidence that suggest it wasn't
Speaker 6: Jason and in fact it was another individual. It was
Speaker 6: somebody that is you know, is still out there or
Speaker 6: is in prison or whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what kind of evidence are you looking for?
Speaker 6: So in Jason's case, we've attempted to get DNA testing
Speaker 6: on the shell casings at the scene and failed. Rejected
Speaker 6: that because Edward Williams knew Jason Walton and said that
Speaker 6: Jason was the shooter, so it wasn't an eyewitness misidentification.
Speaker 6: In the court's minds, there was no confusion. My position
Speaker 6: is that Edward Williams was mistaken that it wasn't actually Jason,
Speaker 6: and so DNA testing the shell casings would help us
Speaker 6: to figure out who at least loaded the gun that night.
Speaker 1: When that happens, Michael believes it will be a turning
Speaker 1: point in their efforts to prove Jason's innocence. Fran remains
Speaker 1: hopeful to She says Jason's positive attitude has helped her
Speaker 1: gain perspective on the situation.
Speaker 5: He had told me that I should not feel like
Speaker 5: I'm the only mom that has a son who's been
Speaker 5: incarcerated or is incarcerated or accused of committing a crime
Speaker 5: that they did not commit, because I was so afraid
Speaker 5: of what would be said or how people would feel
Speaker 5: about me, how they would feel about the family, and
Speaker 5: how they would feel about my son. And as we're
Speaker 5: finding out, wrongful convictions is everywhere all over the world.
Speaker 2: My mother, my grandmother, who's ninety two years old, tells
Speaker 2: me she misses me and Harry up they come home
Speaker 2: and my son that those are my motivating factors and
Speaker 2: ultimately to clear my name.
Speaker 1: Friend Tyler and Jason's grandmother are all waiting to welcome
Speaker 1: him home and to cook some of his favorite meals.
Speaker 5: Bake salmon, bakchoi, saffron, rice, steam, vegetables, and fried chicken,
Speaker 5: chicken and dumplings, all that good hearty stuff.
Speaker 1: And there's someone else who will be there for Jason
Speaker 1: when he's finally released.
Speaker 2: My wife's name is Diamond Walton. We were friends for
Speaker 2: since maybe two thousand and twelve. Our relationship grew from
Speaker 2: friendships and to a desire to be with each other,
Speaker 2: a love for each other. It came from her always
Speaker 2: motivating me, praying over me, praying with me, speaking life
Speaker 2: into me at times when I was feeling defeated. And see,
Speaker 2: she motivates me a lot to stay focused, to believe
Speaker 2: in myself and know that I can achieve the things
Speaker 2: that I want to achieve, and ultimately that is clearing
Speaker 2: my name and being exonerated. I've never done anything like this,
Speaker 2: and I hope that people relate to me and understand
Speaker 2: that I'm more than a number. I'm more than a
Speaker 2: gang banker. I'm more than a prisoner, an innate, and
Speaker 2: ultimately I'm more than someone that was wrongfully convicted.
Speaker 1: And Jason has lots of plans to get started on
Speaker 1: when that happens, including reviving one of his childhood dreams.
Speaker 2: I would love to still be an attorney. I would
Speaker 2: love to be a part of an organization that I
Speaker 2: can give back. I can help bring hope to people
Speaker 2: that are in this position, that don't have hope, that
Speaker 2: don't believe that they're going to get out, that don't
Speaker 2: trust the system. I don't want that just to be
Speaker 2: the story of my life where all I can say is, Hey,
Speaker 2: I'm someone that was wrongfully convicted. Hopefully I can turn
Speaker 2: this negative into something positive, or I can take something
Speaker 2: positive from it where people can learn. I want to
Speaker 2: be a part of making sure that wrongful conviction ultimately
Speaker 2: becomes something that doesn't exist. I'm sorry if I have
Speaker 2: to put us all out of business. We have else
Speaker 2: to interview with Adam. Be a good day.
Speaker 1: To learn more and see any updates about Jason's case,
Speaker 1: Visit the Innocencenter dot org. We'll have that link in
Speaker 1: the episode description, and please consider making a donation to
Speaker 1: support the Innocent Center and the important work they're doing.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freelink.
Speaker 1: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
Speaker 1: links in the episode description to see how you can help.
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason Flam, Jeff Kempler,
Speaker 1: and Kevin Wortis, as well as senior producer Annie Chelsea,
Speaker 1: producer Kathleen Fink, story editor Hannah Beal, and researcher Shelby Sorels.
Speaker 1: Mixing and sound design are by Jackie Pauley, with additional
Speaker 1: production by Jeff Cliburn and Connor Hall. The music in
Speaker 1: this production is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on all social media platforms
Speaker 1: at Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction. You can
Speaker 1: also follow me on all platforms at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful
Speaker 1: Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a production of Lava for
Speaker 1: Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number one