Speaker 1: On August sixteenth, nineteen eighty one, gunshots sprayed into Chicago's
Speaker 1: Petrowsky Park. Three young people were hit and two of
Speaker 1: them died. The victims were affiliated with the Latin Kings,
Speaker 1: and witnesses identified two alleged members of the two sixth
Speaker 1: Street gang, But when one went missing and the other
Speaker 1: was to be tried as a juvenile, the police targeted
Speaker 1: the alleged gang leadership, amassing witness testimony about an alleged
Speaker 1: meeting held by eighteen year old David Ayala and his
Speaker 1: cousin Jimmy Soto, who were both sent away for life.
Speaker 1: But this is wrongful conviction. Wrongful conviction has always given
Speaker 1: voice to innocent people in prison, and now we're expanding
Speaker 1: that voice to you. Call us at eight three three
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Speaker 1: these stories make you feel and what you've done to
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Speaker 1: might just hear yourself in a future episode. Call us
Speaker 1: A three three two oh seven four six sixty six.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. Today we're interviewing David Ayala,
Speaker 1: who served more time than anyone else wrongfully convicted in
Speaker 1: the history of the state that probably has more wrongful
Speaker 1: convictions than any other state in this crazy country of ours.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about Illinois. Forty two years in prison for
Speaker 1: a crime. I think they should have known at a
Speaker 1: minimum from the beginning that he had nothing to do
Speaker 1: with it. And before we get into the story, first
Speaker 1: of all, I want to introduce the man himself, a
Speaker 1: hero of mine and so many other people. David Ayala,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Wrongful Conviction.
Speaker 2: Thank you for the warm welcome.
Speaker 1: And I'm so glad you're here. And I'm so glad
Speaker 1: you're free, finally free. It's sort of a miracle. And
Speaker 1: the miracle is in those small part due to our
Speaker 1: other guests today I name people who are fans of
Speaker 1: the show or just fans of justice. Will recognize Jennifer
Speaker 1: boninga bojin Lag group. Jennifer, welcome back to Wrongful Conviction.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me back.
Speaker 1: And I know you're excited to be here to talk
Speaker 1: about this guy, right yeah. So, David, I want to
Speaker 1: get to know you first though, before we talk about
Speaker 1: what happened to you. You grew up in the Chicago area,
Speaker 1: right yeah.
Speaker 2: I grew up on the southwest side of Chicago, an
Speaker 2: area known as Little Village, predominantly Mexican American working class.
Speaker 2: My home was my parents, three brothers, and my sister.
Speaker 2: We went to Catholic grade school and then at the
Speaker 2: age of nine, my parents divorced and my siblings chose
Speaker 2: to go with my mother. And I was always especially
Speaker 2: close to my father, so I decided to go to
Speaker 2: my father. So we relocated to another part of Little Village.
Speaker 2: It's good neighborhood. There was also gangs there, unfortunately, but
Speaker 2: other than that, it was sort of a normal childhood.
Speaker 1: But a normal childhood during this time in Chicago meant
Speaker 1: gang affiliation based on location, regardless of involvement, and for David,
Speaker 1: that was the two sixth Street gang. In our experience,
Speaker 1: gang affiliation has served as more than enough motivation for
Speaker 1: Cook County Police. The target young man like David and
Speaker 1: his cousin Jimmy Soto, but David stood out even more.
Speaker 2: My best friend was dating the daughter of the police
Speaker 2: commander of that local police district who didn't like who
Speaker 2: his daughter was dating, and he was like my best friend.
Speaker 2: He was always with me, and so that commander put
Speaker 2: the word out. We see these guys give them the treatment.
Speaker 2: The treatment consists of pulling you over without probable call,
Speaker 2: searching your car. Twice. It took me to the rival
Speaker 2: neighborhood land King neighborhood left me there a block away
Speaker 2: from the groups of these land Kings and told them
Speaker 2: you got one down the block and I had to
Speaker 2: run away, so twice they put my life in jeopardy.
Speaker 2: They will harassed me so much. I filled a complaint
Speaker 2: with the Office of Professional Standards and I was coming
Speaker 2: back from that actual police station where I registered my
Speaker 2: complaint and the same group officers pulled me over. I
Speaker 2: had the papers that I had to sign registering the
Speaker 2: complaint and they're all passing that paperwork around and they
Speaker 2: hated me from that point on. They're like, Okay, you're
Speaker 2: gonna file a complaint on us watch and they actually
Speaker 2: used that word watch and I didn't have to wait
Speaker 2: very long to watch picked me up for anything. You're
Speaker 2: standing in front of your house disorader conduct and you're
Speaker 2: not even drinking anything. And it was just constant harassment.
Speaker 2: After being harassed, I was cocky with them. Don't you
Speaker 2: guys got anything better to do than harass me. Every
Speaker 2: single time go saw some crimes, I would advise it
Speaker 2: strongly not to be that way with the officers. One
Speaker 2: thing I learned about the police officers in Chicago. You
Speaker 2: never want to rout of their cage. You will become
Speaker 2: a target.
Speaker 1: And since David and his cousin Jimmy were often seeing together,
Speaker 1: they both were targets. Which brings us to August sixteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one Petrowski Park, which was allegedly the territory
Speaker 1: of the two sixth Street gang rivals of the Latin Kings,
Speaker 1: and shots were fired into the park from a walkway,
Speaker 1: hitting three young people, sixteen year old Julie Limis, eighteen
Speaker 1: year old Hector Valleriano, and nineteen year old Wan Padilla. Tragically,
Speaker 1: one was the only one who survived out of the gate.
Speaker 3: The Chicago Police Department assumed, and not necessarily unjustly, that
Speaker 3: this was a gang related shooting. The victims were associated
Speaker 3: purportedly with the Latin King Street gang.
Speaker 1: And according to the surviving victim, Juan Padia and his
Speaker 1: friend Mario Abarca, shortly before the shooting, a Chicago Animal
Speaker 1: Control van flashed its lights into the park and an
Speaker 1: employee of that agency. Twenty year old JJ Rojas was
Speaker 1: identified as was his friend sixteen year old Victor Rodriguez,
Speaker 1: and later on the name Wally Cruz was thrown in
Speaker 1: the mix, but initially it was just the Jeuve Rodriguez
Speaker 1: and JJ Rojas.
Speaker 2: Moments before this shooting happened, numerous witness identified JJ Rojas
Speaker 2: in the van flashing his light on the crowd, and
Speaker 2: after the shooting happened, Lo and behold, he doesn't report
Speaker 2: to work the next day, He's off the face of
Speaker 2: the map and is gone. And it's still gone to
Speaker 2: this very day.
Speaker 1: Rodriguez, who was arrested on October fifth, about a month
Speaker 1: and a half after the crime, rejuvenile court judge for
Speaker 1: some reason refused to grant the prosecution motion to move
Speaker 1: his case to adult court, and he was released. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, I'm just going to speculate and say,
Speaker 1: maybe they wanted a bigger fish. He was a sixteen
Speaker 1: year old kid. They probably wouldn't have been able to
Speaker 1: get him for life or death sentence or whatever they
Speaker 1: were trying to get out of this case.
Speaker 3: So instead of saying it's possible that Victor Rodriguez, JJ
Speaker 3: Rojas or Wally Cruz on their own committed a crime.
Speaker 3: They decided, no, it's not important enough to get the
Speaker 3: right people. They decided, we're going to use it as
Speaker 3: an opportunity to frame two people who we believe are
Speaker 3: high ranking gang members in the two six Streak gang.
Speaker 3: And they had their eyes on David Ayala. David was
Speaker 3: only eighteen himself. He was in their crosshairs and his
Speaker 3: cousin was Jimmy Soto, who they perceived as this right
Speaker 3: hand man, so they became the prime suspects. Now they
Speaker 3: knew that David Iyola was nowhere near the seam, so
Speaker 3: they could only get him if he was calling the shots.
Speaker 3: And the way they did it was like rounding up
Speaker 3: juveniles then coercing them to regurgitate the narrative that was
Speaker 3: being fed to them.
Speaker 2: And my particular case happened during aorial election and one
Speaker 2: of the platforms of the candidates was to make crime.
Speaker 2: You know their platform, They're going to solve this case.
Speaker 2: And young people were abused, physically abused, mental abuse, They
Speaker 2: were deny their rights, deny their parents, they were lied to.
Speaker 2: This was a terrible abuse of our civil rights.
Speaker 3: They went so far as to in some cases charged
Speaker 3: them with obstruction of justice, and in order to essentially
Speaker 3: get their obstruction of justice charge dismissed, they had to
Speaker 3: get on the bandwagon of the story that the Chicago
Speaker 3: Police Department wanted them to tell, and the story was
Speaker 3: that there had been some gang meeting at David Ayala's
Speaker 3: house earlier that they were all present for.
Speaker 1: Ultimately, nine young men who were allegedly affiliated with the
Speaker 1: two six Street gang were indicted, including the four that
Speaker 1: were brought to trial, David and Jimmy, as well as
Speaker 1: David's cousin Reuben Palomo and eighteen year old Wally Gator Cruz,
Speaker 1: the last of whom ended up testifying against his co
Speaker 1: defendants in exchange for you guests at leniency. This narrative
Speaker 1: continued that by about six pm, all but the four
Speaker 1: co defendants had left David's house when a phone call
Speaker 1: alerted them that the Latin Kings were in Petrovsky Park.
Speaker 1: Cruise said that he was ordered to start David's dark
Speaker 1: Blue band.
Speaker 2: I've never owned a dark blue van in my life.
Speaker 2: And here's the funny part about it. The police went
Speaker 2: and asked my neighbors, does David have a van? Have
Speaker 2: you ever seen a van here? And the neighbors confirmed,
Speaker 2: I've never had a van. They've never seen a van.
Speaker 2: The only event that really came up conclusively was the
Speaker 2: animal control van, but we were taking into custody October fifteen,
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this
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Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts. The state's narrative continued that Cruz allegedly's
Speaker 1: roven armed Jimmy Soto and Ruben Palomo to Petrowsky Park,
Speaker 1: where they first encountered two young women, Isabelle gone Mez
Speaker 1: and Lisa Suarez, who told them that the Latin Kings
Speaker 1: were still in the park. Then they spoke againic allegedly
Speaker 1: with JJ Rojas and Victor Rodriguez, before pulling into an
Speaker 1: alley near the park, where Jimmy and Rubin allegedly exited
Speaker 1: the van with a rifle and a handgun, and Cruise
Speaker 1: heard gunshots. Then the pair returned to the van saying quote,
Speaker 1: we might have hit somebody, and the three sped back
Speaker 1: to David's house, where David allegedly received a phone call
Speaker 1: confirming the two fatalities, and they were put on trial
Speaker 1: in September nineteen eighty two, where the state supported cruise
Speaker 1: with a parade of witnesses.
Speaker 3: Well, there were a parade of witnesses that didn't have
Speaker 3: really even that much to say. Frankly, there were witnesses
Speaker 3: who testified about the shooting what they saw, but not
Speaker 3: any identification testimony, nothing that would suggest that these defendants
Speaker 3: were the people responsible. There was a lot of time
Speaker 3: spent on the crime itself, which was clearly horrific, but
Speaker 3: designed to a flame the passions of the jury and
Speaker 3: that's all fair game, but when it came down to
Speaker 3: the actual evidence, it was scammed.
Speaker 1: But let's just talk about one Isabelle Gomez, right, She
Speaker 1: testified she was in the park with her friend Suarez
Speaker 1: prior to the shooting. She recalled that one of those
Speaker 1: president was a guy named Mario Abarca who was a
Speaker 1: member of the Latin King. She said that she and
Speaker 1: Suarez left and she saw Suarez make a phone call
Speaker 1: that Suarez said she had called Ayala's home. Now it
Speaker 1: goes on that they saw Cruz and Palomo. She said
Speaker 1: Cruz was driving a dark blue van and Palomo was
Speaker 1: in the pastor seat. She couldn't see if anyone else
Speaker 1: was in the rear seat. Goma said that Palomo asked
Speaker 1: who was in the park, and she told him that
Speaker 1: Ebarca was there. She said the cruise drove off toward
Speaker 1: the park and she later heard gunshots. Now, during cross examination,
Speaker 1: get this, this is the key, right. So she said
Speaker 1: that about two or three weeks after the shooting, police
Speaker 1: came to her home to interview her. The detectives came
Speaker 1: every two or three days, and she said the officers
Speaker 1: threatened her. They told her, quote, we are going to
Speaker 1: take you to the park. We are going to tell
Speaker 1: all the people there that you'd set them up, so
Speaker 1: similar to what they were doing to you before, David.
Speaker 1: They were going to drop her off in a place
Speaker 1: where she would likely be killed or who knows what.
Speaker 2: They're going to take her to the Lang King so
Speaker 2: she get raped. So I wasn't angry with her because
Speaker 2: her experience of what she had to endure as a
Speaker 2: young girl should never have happened.
Speaker 1: In addition, Isabelle Gomez said that she and Suarez had
Speaker 1: initially been charged with the murders, but those charges were
Speaker 1: swapped for obstruction of justice charges that would remain until
Speaker 1: after they testified. The state also put on a guy
Speaker 1: named John Erosco, who testified about seeing the animal control
Speaker 1: van that he knew Rojas usually drove, but that he
Speaker 1: said he thought it was a different dark blue van
Speaker 1: that rolled up at the time of the shooting. He
Speaker 1: and the surviving victim, want Padia, testified that they hadn't
Speaker 1: seen the gunman.
Speaker 3: When push came to shove. The only witness who ultimately
Speaker 3: implicated David and Jimmy was this highly incentivized co defendant,
Speaker 3: Wally Cruz, who had negotiated a deal with the state
Speaker 3: to testify against them in exchange for a five year sentence.
Speaker 3: Maybe he was actually involved, Maybe he was just afraid
Speaker 3: that they would falsely accuse him. It's unclear why he
Speaker 3: did this, but we do know that the testimony was
Speaker 3: false and he got a sweetheart deal because of it.
Speaker 2: He says, we had this gang meeting at my house,
Speaker 2: and he names these people being there, and we were
Speaker 2: able to show it's impossible for these people to have
Speaker 2: been at this meeting, as he indicated.
Speaker 3: The defense did a very good job of showing this
Speaker 3: gang meeting never happened. One kid that initially said was
Speaker 3: at the gang meeting was actually in a juvenile facility
Speaker 3: locked up at the time of the alleged gang meeting.
Speaker 3: So if that's not evidence of coercion, I don't know
Speaker 3: what is. Another kid was in the hospital. There were
Speaker 3: medical records showing he was literally in the hospital at
Speaker 3: the time time the alleged meeting took place.
Speaker 1: Now, Alex Gomez was the one who was in Jewvie
Speaker 1: and Robert Via Gomez was the one at the hospital.
Speaker 1: Javier Yakez was at home. Tyrone Ayala was at his mother's.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Sodo's sister Martha, and his girlfriend Diana were at
Speaker 1: David's house that night and they testified that no gang
Speaker 1: meeting took place and neither David nor Jimmy ever left
Speaker 1: the home. In addition, there was Elisa Orosco and Carol
Speaker 1: Choppa who both testified the Cruz told them that he
Speaker 1: planned to falsely testify a trial, but.
Speaker 3: The prosecutions just like they're all gang members and they're
Speaker 3: all liars. You can't believe any of them, but you
Speaker 3: can believe this one gang member, Wally Cruz, who we
Speaker 3: just gave a kiss to in exchange for participating in
Speaker 3: this murder. So it really did turn on Cruz's testimony,
Speaker 3: which again was highly incentivized.
Speaker 2: What point of our trial when the jury was excused,
Speaker 2: the state attorney turned syrus. He gave me the middle finger.
Speaker 2: I was naive to think that justice would prevent because
Speaker 2: of evidence. But they were not emphasizing the evidence. They
Speaker 2: were emphasizing the gang factor. If you want the gangs
Speaker 2: to run your city streets, find these men innocent. If
Speaker 2: you want a secure neighborhood, they have to be found guilty.
Speaker 1: So finally, September thirtieth, nineteen eighty two, after eight hours
Speaker 1: of deliberation, the jury came back and reported that they
Speaker 1: were deadlocked on all but one charge against you and
Speaker 1: your cousin, Jimmy Soto.
Speaker 3: Judges have a way of coercing verdicts, shall we say,
Speaker 3: They have a way of signaling through instructions, through all
Speaker 3: types of means. Go back, keep deliberating, keep deliberating, bring
Speaker 3: us back a verdict. And jurors of human beings, they
Speaker 3: get fatigued. They read the tea leaves, They get the
Speaker 3: impression that their job is to come back and in
Speaker 3: this case, to come back and convict I think deadlocked
Speaker 3: or not. There was probably fewer people on the not
Speaker 3: guilty side than the guilty side, which is typically the case.
Speaker 2: The bailiff was a pretty nice guy. He seen what
Speaker 2: was happening in our court room. He kind of empathized
Speaker 2: with us, and he told me the air ventilation in
Speaker 2: the jury room is malfunctioning. There's miserable conditions in that
Speaker 2: jury room. And so when the jury foreman told the
Speaker 2: judge that he couldn't reach a verdict their deadlocked, the
Speaker 2: judge and tone to them, well, you're going to go
Speaker 2: back and I'm sure you're going to reach a verdict,
Speaker 2: or you could keep deliberating, and then all of a sudden, miraculously,
Speaker 2: forty five minutes later or whatever it was, they reached
Speaker 2: a vertict you not misus verdict. They all averted their eyes,
Speaker 2: every single one of them had their eyes down.
Speaker 3: And so ultimately David Aila and Jimmy Soto are convicted
Speaker 3: in this grave miscarriage of justice in which they both
Speaker 3: are sentenced to mandatory life sentences.
Speaker 2: My brain like blew a gasket. I wasn't like shouting out, oh,
Speaker 2: how did this happen? I was just like stupefied, how
Speaker 2: could this possibly happen? The whole spirit inside of me
Speaker 2: was just like vacuumed out. My attorney came back and said,
Speaker 2: we're going to feel this. And forty two years.
Speaker 3: Past, David Ayala, for no reason other than his perceived status,
Speaker 3: not because he was a difficult prisoner or had a
Speaker 3: bad disciplinary history or anything of that nature, was shipped
Speaker 3: off the TAMS the minute it was opened, which was
Speaker 3: the supermax facility that has since been shut down as
Speaker 3: human rights violation, violation of Eighth Amendment, cruel and unusual conditions,
Speaker 3: where he spent literally seven years in isolation, seventeen years
Speaker 3: without a phone call, no human contact.
Speaker 2: We went literally years with the same people on the
Speaker 2: tie they call it, and it's five sales upstairs, five
Speaker 2: sales downstairs. Were I never saw that person face, I
Speaker 2: heard his voice. I had no idea what he could
Speaker 2: look like. They always put a mentally old person on
Speaker 2: Earth tier, and instead of them getting a treatment, they
Speaker 2: were locked in their cells and made it worse. And
Speaker 2: so now they're hearing voices and everything, and he'd make
Speaker 2: noise all night, and I noticed there was a recipe
Speaker 2: for coping with it, and there was a recipe for disaster,
Speaker 2: recipe for maintaining your sanity. I found what was working
Speaker 2: for me and others was seeing sleep hours, meditate, prey,
Speaker 2: have an exercise routine. The yard is a misnomer. It
Speaker 2: was not a yard. I went seventeen years without stepping
Speaker 2: on earth or seeing a blade of grass. It was
Speaker 2: a concrete box that you couldn't even run laps the
Speaker 2: stay in shape because you run three steps you have
Speaker 2: to turn. That's how small that area was. But at
Speaker 2: least you could have fresh air. They had these high
Speaker 2: concrete walls. All you saw was concrete walls. Your other
Speaker 2: view was to look at the sky and see at
Speaker 2: barbed wire and chaining fence. So everything was a reminder
Speaker 2: you're in prison. And the people that weren't doing those
Speaker 2: things were the people that were the most frustrated, screaming out,
Speaker 2: lashing out. They're losing their minds.
Speaker 3: I have one other client who spent a lot of
Speaker 3: time there. It is not anything that any of us
Speaker 3: can wrap our heads around. But as far as I know, David,
Speaker 3: I was there the day it was opened, and the
Speaker 3: day it was closed, he, I think, not only has
Speaker 3: the unfortunate circumstance of being one of the men who
Speaker 3: has served the longest wrongful conviction in the history of Illinois,
Speaker 3: but also served the longest time at TAM's supermacs in
Speaker 3: complete isolation, which frankly, I don't know how he even
Speaker 3: functions to this day.
Speaker 2: I would like to think that I overcame my conditions,
Speaker 2: but I really didn't, because to this day there's triggers,
Speaker 2: tears come out just remembering the horrible experience. And so
Speaker 2: when there was a movement to close TAMS based on
Speaker 2: the effects that was having, the mental deterioration of the inmates,
Speaker 2: the cost, and there was a movement to close the prison,
Speaker 2: the local officer union threatened the judge. They put a
Speaker 2: court injunction to keep the prison open, and they told
Speaker 2: the judge, listen, you were your constituents. In six months,
Speaker 2: you're for reelection. If you closed this prison, we're going
Speaker 2: to vote you out office. But he had no recourse
Speaker 2: to keep that prison open. When the governor of the
Speaker 2: state of Illinois and the prison director said that prison
Speaker 2: has to be closed. The prison has to be closed.
Speaker 1: In those nearly first two long decades, David's cousin, Jimmy Soto,
Speaker 1: became a legendary jailhouse lawyer at Stateville Penitentiary, and he
Speaker 1: was responsible for sending so many other innocent men home.
Speaker 1: But somehow though, he couldn't develop that kind of traction
Speaker 1: for himself and for David, whose cases were, let's face it,
Speaker 1: inextectably lengked. Meanwhile, in the years following the closure of
Speaker 1: the TAMS facility, David was not reunited with Jimmy.
Speaker 3: Illinois has a agreement with other states that if we
Speaker 3: have a high profile prisoner or someone that we believe
Speaker 3: should be outside the state doing their time because of
Speaker 3: some reason, they will have them doing time elsewhere. And
Speaker 3: David fell into that category because the Illinois Department of Corrections,
Speaker 3: whether it was justified or not, whether it was based
Speaker 3: in fact or not, had designated David as high ranking
Speaker 3: a chief. You know, they have all types of labels,
Speaker 3: and once they have put that label on you, you are
Speaker 3: stuck with it. So he did all of his time
Speaker 3: in Utah. It was extraordinarily difficult, not just for his
Speaker 3: mental state, but also just being able to, for instance,
Speaker 3: keep up with your appeals and access to courts in
Speaker 3: Illinois was so difficult. He's either in isolation or out
Speaker 3: well outside the state of Illinois, communication, etc. So over
Speaker 3: the forty two years that he was fighting this case,
Speaker 3: he had additional challenges that even other prisoners would.
Speaker 1: Not have, so appeal after appeal were denied. First denied
Speaker 1: in eighty six by the First District of Illinois Repellent Court.
Speaker 1: In ninety one, Jimmy acting without a lawyer while the
Speaker 1: post conviction pro se petition legend his child defense attorney
Speaker 1: Pride inadequate legal defense. The lawyer had failed to call
Speaker 1: six other witnesses who would have testified the cruise live,
Speaker 1: but they said they were at your house for the
Speaker 1: gang meeting. Petition will go do other things. But nonetheless
Speaker 1: the petition was dismissed.
Speaker 3: And I'm familiar with Jimmy's case too, the way that
Speaker 3: the system handled his post conviction petitions. They lingered on
Speaker 3: for decades, up and down the courts, back and up
Speaker 3: to the appellate court, back down, judge screws up again,
Speaker 3: goes up. I mean, we're talking decades of just colossal mistakes.
Speaker 3: But eventually David and Jimmy find themselves in twenty fifteen
Speaker 3: back in the Circuit Court on a post conviction petition
Speaker 3: on claims of actual innocence. Perge your testimony in effective
Speaker 3: assistance a council, and there's a strong body of support
Speaker 3: for these claims.
Speaker 1: The petitions contained numerous affidavits from witnesses identifying the actual
Speaker 1: gunman as here we go again, Victor Rodriguez and JJ Rojas.
Speaker 1: Some of them recounted that police officers had slapped and
Speaker 1: hit them until they agreed to say that this meeting,
Speaker 1: this phantom meeting, had taken place. Robert jack Quiz, for instance,
Speaker 1: said police told him that unless he signed a statement,
Speaker 1: he would go to jail for the rest of his life.
Speaker 1: He also said that he had spoken with Cruise after
Speaker 1: Cruise was released from prison, and Cruise admitted to him
Speaker 1: that he had falsely implicated you guys. It goes on
Speaker 1: and on. Isabelle Gomez wrote an affid David that the
Speaker 1: prosecutor had told her exactly what to say to the
Speaker 1: grand jury, and she said that the detectives told me
Speaker 1: if I didn't cooperate, I would be charged with murder.
Speaker 1: She went on to say, this is a quote the
Speaker 1: detectives told me if I didn't cooperate, they would drop
Speaker 1: me off by the Latin Kings so they could rape me.
Speaker 1: At this point, I was so frightened and confused that
Speaker 1: I felt I had no choice but to testify as
Speaker 1: to what I was told. I didn't want to be
Speaker 1: charged with murder or harmed by the Latin Kings end quote.
Speaker 3: And the judge ultimately denies them an evidentiary hearing, which
Speaker 3: was I'm sure a low point for David. I'm sure
Speaker 3: it was a low point for Jimmy, and then they
Speaker 3: had to go back up to the appellate court. God
Speaker 3: knows how many times it was at this juncture. I
Speaker 3: stepped into the case. At that point, with my colleagues
Speaker 3: over there at Lov and Lov, who now represent Jimmy,
Speaker 3: we were able to get the case reversed and sent
Speaker 3: back to the judge for an evidentiary hearing, both on
Speaker 3: actual innocence and in effective assistance a council.
Speaker 2: Jennifer told me, she said, listen, the state is indicating
Speaker 2: that they're not going to contest our petition and they
Speaker 2: just have to go through the procedures to the levels
Speaker 2: of the state's attorney's office. And so we had like
Speaker 2: I don't know, four, maybe five continuances.
Speaker 3: We were sweating it out to the last minute, right.
Speaker 2: David test to understatement, He's really an understatement. It was
Speaker 2: a emotional, mental, spiritual roller coaster. I made the rookie
Speaker 2: mistake of a prisoner where you count down the days
Speaker 2: and you say to yourself, this is going to be
Speaker 2: the final day. And my friends that were touching with
Speaker 2: my family, they were like, well, we want to take
Speaker 2: you to this comedy event on this date here. My
Speaker 2: court day was a week before that. I daydreamed and
Speaker 2: I fantasized my mind, I'm going to be at that event. Well,
Speaker 2: we went to court another continuance. So that night when
Speaker 2: I was counting on going to that event, I was
Speaker 2: just ining to my cell, looking at the ceiling, saying, okay, well,
Speaker 2: this is going to be clear by the next time.
Speaker 2: The next time, I was saying, I want to be
Speaker 2: out there for my daughter's birthday. I'm going to celebrate.
Speaker 2: I'm going to have a father daughter dance. And it
Speaker 2: hadn't cleared yet.
Speaker 3: And the good part of the story is that eventually,
Speaker 3: although they made us sweat it out for a very
Speaker 3: long time, the Cook County State's Attorney's office ultimately threw
Speaker 3: in the towel could not proceed in good faith after
Speaker 3: all of these years, and agree that David and Jimmy
Speaker 3: were both entitled to post conviction relief and then ultimately
Speaker 3: dismissed all charges against them. And even then the judge
Speaker 3: almost didn't want to do it.
Speaker 2: The judge was given like this long spill of what
Speaker 2: was presented before him. He doesn't have to rubber stamp anything,
Speaker 2: and this and that. And after this long spill, he said,
Speaker 2: in light of the state's attorney position, or vacate the
Speaker 2: sentence and then it's over with. I was like, wow,
Speaker 2: did this really just happen. When you go to court,
Speaker 2: you have supporters there and the jubilant and they want
Speaker 2: to scream and they want to reach it to Heaven,
Speaker 2: pump the fish in the air. But when you're dealing
Speaker 2: with a cantigerous judge, you can't even express an outburst
Speaker 2: of joy because you get reprimanded. You just imagine, after
Speaker 2: forty two years of wrong for imprisonment, you awarded your
Speaker 2: freedom and you can't even scream out a joyous exclamation.
Speaker 2: But I felt it. I felt it in my spirit.
Speaker 3: So when they finally vacated his convictions and he was
Speaker 3: going to be released that night, he came to my
Speaker 3: law from this Christmas party.
Speaker 1: I was lucky to meet you at that wonderful celebration
Speaker 1: we had in Chicago. I was just looking at the
Speaker 1: picture on my phone that we took. I think you
Speaker 1: were wearing a Boding Law Group long sleeved t shirt
Speaker 1: because it was December in Chicago, and yeah it with
Speaker 1: a big smile on your face, and oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: It was just so great to be with you and
Speaker 1: Jimmy and Jennifer and the whole team. It's a moment
Speaker 1: I won't forget. So what was it like when you
Speaker 1: finally breathed free air?
Speaker 2: Well, when I was finally released, everything was wondrous to me.
Speaker 2: Everything was wondrous, just looking on the street and seeing
Speaker 2: lights and everything and people walking, pedestrians walking. And after
Speaker 2: I got out of prison about a month later, my
Speaker 2: brother in law, my sister and him have two dogs
Speaker 2: and they asked me if I can walk the dog.
Speaker 2: Seeing the dogs stiff on the ground, I was thinking
Speaker 2: to myself, I wonder what that dog's thinking, and my
Speaker 2: brother and LAG's just trying to rush. He wanted to
Speaker 2: get home. I'm like, let's take a second, let me
Speaker 2: enjoy this here, and he said, okay, he got it.
Speaker 2: He finally understood. I seen the squirrels running round. And
Speaker 2: you know when we went to New Orleans as part
Speaker 2: of the Innocence Conference and we're on a boat and
Speaker 2: I was looking at the moon like these things touched
Speaker 2: me deeply to see a moon, because for years in prison,
Speaker 2: I didn't see a move. So there are blessings now
Speaker 2: after that experience.
Speaker 1: I imagine everything is just I can't imagine. I can't
Speaker 1: even say can imagine. I can't imagine. It's just I'm
Speaker 1: just so happy that you're here. I wish you all
Speaker 1: the best of everything now, today, tomorrow, and for the
Speaker 1: rest of your life. And we're going to have a
Speaker 1: link in the episode description to a GoFundMe that was
Speaker 1: set up for David. I hope that our listeners will
Speaker 1: join me in donating to help him get back on
Speaker 1: his feet. And with that, I want to turn to
Speaker 1: my favorite part of the show, which is called closing arguments,
Speaker 1: and it works like this. First of all, thank you
Speaker 1: Jennifer David, and now I'm going to pick back in
Speaker 1: my chair and close my eyes and just listen to
Speaker 1: anything that you think is left unset. So Jennifer, tradition
Speaker 1: holds you go first, and then this is David's show
Speaker 1: and I want him to take us off into the sunset.
Speaker 1: So Jennifer, over to you.
Speaker 3: David is an incredible person. I've really enjoyed getting to
Speaker 3: know him and what he's endured. I can't even wrap
Speaker 3: my head around. And after he was released from Cook
Speaker 3: County Jail, he had this beautiful gift made for me,
Speaker 3: which is the T shirt that David was wearing when
Speaker 3: he got released from prison from Cook County Jail. He
Speaker 3: had it framed and on it it says to Jennifer Bonjeing,
Speaker 3: I wore this Cook County Jail T shirt as part
Speaker 3: of my Cook County Jail uniform while facing Judge Joyce
Speaker 3: on December fourteenth, twenty twenty three, the day you secured
Speaker 3: my freedom. You and your excellent law group put an
Speaker 3: end of forty two years of wrongful imprisonment. I am
Speaker 3: eternally grateful to you with my love and admiration. David Ayala,
Speaker 3: So even in the mix of it all, even though
Speaker 3: he had no need to do something so special. It
Speaker 3: really is special to me. So that's why it's hanging
Speaker 3: on my office wall.
Speaker 2: For me now after this horrible experience, Like people ask me,
Speaker 2: am I bitter? Am I resentful? No, because like my
Speaker 2: mind is taking in new experiences like walking the dog
Speaker 2: was a new experience, having an umbrella in the rain.
Speaker 2: Tomato sister put a tomato on the table and I
Speaker 2: was like, this is beautiful tomato. She's like, it's a tomato. Dude,
Speaker 2: to you, it's a tomato. You go years in prison.
Speaker 2: What I seeing a full tomato. You're so grateful for
Speaker 2: these things. I recently started working. I work twelve hour
Speaker 2: shifts from six o'clock in the morning six o'clock at night.
Speaker 2: I have friends that are retiring at this age. I'll
Speaker 2: be sixty one next month. I should have had a nestache,
Speaker 2: but when I got my paycheck, I felt proud. This
Speaker 2: is something ironed as a man, and so these things
Speaker 2: that everybody else so you won't think twice of it.
Speaker 2: It's like it's an incredible experience for me, and I think,
Speaker 2: if there's any blessing in this, I was given this
Speaker 2: deep sense of gratitude. It's just it's wondrous to me.
Speaker 2: It's just like I have a deep sense of gratitude
Speaker 2: to have my freedom now after losing all those decades
Speaker 2: in prison.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen
Speaker 1: to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts one
Speaker 1: week early by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our production team Connor
Speaker 1: Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as my fellow executive
Speaker 1: producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Watis, and Jeff Clibern. The music
Speaker 1: in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated
Speaker 1: composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us across all
Speaker 1: social media platforms at Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction.
Speaker 1: You can also follow me on Instagram at It's Jason Flamm.
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction is auction of Lava for Good Podcasts in
Speaker 1: association with Signal Company Number one