WEBVTT - #465 Jason Flom with David Ayala 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:07.440 On August sixteenth, nineteen eighty one, gunshots sprayed into Chicago's 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:11.200 Petrowsky Park. Three young people were hit and two of 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:16.079 them died. The victims were affiliated with the Latin Kings, 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:20.640 and witnesses identified two alleged members of the two. 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:22.320 Sixth Street gang, But. 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.079 When one went missing and the other was to be 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:29.320 tried as a juvenile, the police targeted the alleged gang leadership, 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.640 amassing witness testimony about an alleged meeting held by eighteen 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:36.600 year old David Ayala and his cousin Jimmy Soto, who 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:41.360 were both sent away for life. But this is wrongful conviction. 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:52.440 Wrongful conviction has always given voice to innocent people in prison, 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:56.080 and now we're expanding that voice to you. Call us 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:59.640 at eight three three two oh seven four six sixty six. 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:00.800 Tell us how these. 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.240 Stories make you feel and what you've done to help 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.080 the cause, even if it's something as simple as telling 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.360 a friend or sharing on social media, and you might 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.960 just hear yourself in a future episode. Call us A 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:15.000 three three two oh seven four. 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:15.600 Six sixty six. 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:30.800 Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. Today we're interviewing David Ayala, 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:36.240 who served more time than anyone else wrongfully convicted in 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:39.240 the history of the state that probably has more wrongful 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.520 convictions than any other state in this crazy country of ours. 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.399 I'm talking about Illinois. Forty two years in prison for 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.440 a crime. I think they should have known at a 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:52.120 minimum from the beginning that he had nothing to do 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:55.480 with it. And before we get into the story, first 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:58.800 of all, I want to introduce the man himself, a 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:01.200 hero of mine and so many other people. 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:03.560 David Ayala, Welcome to Wrongful Conviction. 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:05.840 Thank you for the warm welcome. 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:08.000 And I'm so glad you're here. And I'm so glad 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:11.720 you're free, finally free. It's sort of a miracle. And 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:14.240 the miracle is in those small part due to our 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:18.760 other guests today I name people who are fans of 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:22.360 the show or just fans of justice. Will recognize Jennifer 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:25.960 boninga bojin Lag group. Jennifer, welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:27.320 Thanks for having me back. 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:29.440 And I know you're excited to be here to talk 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:33.040 about this guy, right yeah. So, David, I want to 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:35.639 get to know you first though, before we talk about 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:39.320 what happened to you. You grew up in the Chicago area, 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:40.359 right yeah. 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:43.280 I grew up on the southwest side of Chicago, an 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:47.880 area known as Little Village, predominantly Mexican American working class. 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.000 My home was my parents, three brothers, and my sister. 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:53.919 We went to Catholic grade school and then at the 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:57.800 age of nine, my parents divorced and my siblings chose 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:00.760 to go with my mother. And I was always especially 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:02.480 close to my father, so I decided to go to 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:07.480 my father. So we relocated to another part of Little Village. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:11.160 It's good neighborhood. There was also gangs there, unfortunately, but 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:13.880 other than that, it was sort of a normal childhood. 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:17.360 But a normal childhood during this time in Chicago meant 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:21.400 gang affiliation based on location, regardless of involvement, and for David, 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:24.079 that was the two sixth Street gang. In our experience, 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:26.920 gang affiliation has served as more than enough motivation for 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:29.720 Cook County Police. The target young man like David and 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:32.640 his cousin Jimmy Soto, but David stood out even more. 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:37.000 My best friend was dating the daughter of the police 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:40.280 commander of that local police district who didn't like who 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:42.520 his daughter was dating, and he was like my best friend. 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:45.600 He was always with me, and so that commander put 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:47.760 the word out. We see these guys give them the treatment. 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.160 The treatment consists of pulling you over without probable call, 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:54.560 searching your car. Twice, they took me to the rival 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:58.440 neighborhood land King neighborhood, left me there a block away 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:00.960 from the groups of these land Kings and told them 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:02.440 you got one down the block and I had to 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:04.600 run away, so twice they put my life in jeopardy. 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:07.280 They will harassed me so much. I fillowed a complaint 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:11.280 with the Office of Professional Standards and I was coming 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.360 back from that actual police station where I registered my 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.080 complaint and the same group officers pulled me over. I 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:19.640 had the papers that I had to sign registering the 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:23.080 complaint and they're all passing that paperwork around and they 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:25.800 hated me from that point on. They're like, Okay, you're 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:28.520 gonna file a complaint on us watch and they actually 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:30.640 used that word watch and I didn't have to wait 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:31.520 very long to watch. 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:33.599 Picked me up for anything. 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.159 You're standing in front of your house, disorader conduct and 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:39.640 you're not even drinking anything. And it was just constant harassment. 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:42.720 After being harassed, I was cocky with them. Don't you 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.160 guys got anything better to do than harass me. Every 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:47.960 single time go saw some crimes, I would advise it 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.480 strongly not to be that way with the officers. One 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:52.839 thing I learned about the police officers in Chicago you 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:54.440 never want to route of their cage. 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:55.760 You will become a target. 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.160 And since David and his cousin Jimmy were often seeing together, 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.120 they both were targets. Which brings us to August sixteenth, 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:06.440 nineteen eighty one Petrowski Park, which was allegedly the territory 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:09.520 of the two sixth Street gang rivals of the Latin Kings, 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:12.400 and shots were fired into the park from a walkway, 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:16.080 hitting three young people, sixteen year old Julie Limis, eighteen 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:20.360 year old Hector Valleriano, and nineteen year old Wan Padilla. Tragically, 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.599 one was the only one who survived out of the gate. 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:30.080 The Chicago Police Department assumed, and not necessarily unjustly, that 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:34.119 this was a gang related shooting. The victims were associated 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.560 purportedly with the Latin King Street gang. 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:39.680 And according to the surviving victim, Juan Padia and his 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:44.080 friend Mario Abarca, shortly before the shooting, a Chicago Animal 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:47.040 Control van flashed its lights into the park and an 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:50.680 employee of that agency. Twenty year old JJ Rojas was 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:54.800 identified as was his friend sixteen year old Victor Rodriguez, 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:57.760 and later on the name Wally Cruz was thrown in 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.840 the mix, but initially it was just the Jeuve Rodriguez 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:01.960 and JJ Rojas. 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:07.920 Moments before this shooting happened, numerous witness identified JJ Rojas 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:10.479 in the van flashing his light on the crowd, and 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:14.880 after the shooting happened, Lo and behold, he doesn't report 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:16.960 to work the next day, He's off the face of 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:18.279 the map and is gone. 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:19.760 And it's still gone to this very day. 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:24.720 Rodriguez, who was arrested on October fifth, about a month 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:28.080 and a half after the crime, rejuvenile court judge for 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:30.800 some reason refused to grant the prosecution motion to move 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:33.760 his case to adult court, and he was released. 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:34.600 I don't know. 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:36.920 I mean, I'm just going to speculate and say, maybe 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:38.680 they wanted a bigger fish. 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:40.200 He was a sixteen year old kid. 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:42.039 They probably wouldn't have been able to get him for 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:45.320 life or death sentence or whatever they were trying to 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:46.559 get out of this case. 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:51.600 So instead of saying it's possible that Victor Rodriguez JJ 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:56.000 Rojas or Wally Cruz on their own committed a crime. 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:59.159 They decided, no, it's not important enough to get the 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.080 right people. They decided, we're going to use it as 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:07.479 an opportunity to frame two people who we believe are 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.160 high ranking gang members in the two six Streak gang. 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.280 And they had their eyes on David Ayala. David was 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:18.320 only eighteen himself. He was in their crosshairs and his 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:22.720 cousin was Jimmy Soto, who they perceived as this right 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:26.760 hand man, so they became the prime suspects. Now they 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:29.320 knew that David Iyola was nowhere near the seam, so 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:32.960 they could only get him if he was calling the shots. 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:35.400 And the way they did it was like rounding up 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:40.680 juveniles then coercing them to regurgitate the narrative that was 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:41.600 being fed to them. 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:46.160 And my particular case happened during aorial election and one 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:49.360 of the platforms of the candidates was to make crime. 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:51.400 You know, their platform, they're going to solve this case. 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:56.400 And young people were abused, physically abused, mental abuse, They 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.160 were deny their rights, deny their parents, they were lied to. 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.800 This was a terrible abuse of our civil rights. 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:06.400 They went so far as to in some cases charged 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:11.920 them with obstruction of justice, and in order to essentially 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:15.120 get their obstruction of justice charge dismissed, they had to 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:17.680 get on the bandwagon of the story that the Chicago 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:21.680 Police Department wanted them to tell, and the story was 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.680 that there had been some gang meeting at David Ayala's 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:29.360 house earlier that they were all present for. 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:33.040 Ultimately, nine young men who were allegedly affiliated with the 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:35.439 two six Street gang were indicted, including the four that 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:38.000 were brought to trial, David and Jimmy, as well as 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:42.440 David's cousin Reuben Palomo and eighteen year old Wally Gator Cruz, 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:45.320 the last of whom ended up testifying against his co 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:49.440 defendants in exchange for you guests at leniency. This narrative 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:53.760 continued that by about six pm, all but the four 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.800 co defendants had left David's house when a phone call 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.760 alerted them that the Latin Kings were in Petrovsky Park. 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:02.920 Cruise said that he was ordered to start David's dark 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:03.440 blue band. 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:06.040 I've never owned a dark blue van in my life. 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:08.480 And here's the funny part about it. The police went 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:11.360 and asked my neighbors does David have a van? Have 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:13.600 you ever seen a van here? And the neighbors confirmed, 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:15.200 I've never had a van. They've never seen a van. 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.520 The only event that really came up conclusively was the 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:22.160 animal control van, but we were taking into custody October fifteen, 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.640 nineteen eighty one. 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:36.480 You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:39.240 and all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.680 and ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:53.120 on Apple Podcasts. The state's narrative continued that Cruz allegedly's 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:57.200 roven armed Jimmy Soto and Ruben Palomo to Petrowsky Park, 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:00.280 where they first encountered two young women, Isabelle gone Mez 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:02.840 and Lisa Suarez, who told them that the Latin Kings 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:06.360 were still in the park. Then they spoke againic allegedly 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:09.520 with JJ Rojas and Victor Rodriguez, before pulling into an 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:13.640 alley near the park, where Jimmy and Rubin allegedly exited 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:16.480 the van with a rifle and a handgun, and Cruise 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:20.280 heard gunshots. Then the pair returned to the van saying quote, 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:23.240 we might have hit somebody, and the three sped back 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:26.120 to David's house, where David allegedly received a phone call 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:29.840 confirming two fatalities, and they were put on trial in 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.280 September nineteen eighty two, where the state supported cruise with 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:34.679 a parade of witnesses. 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:39.440 Well, there were a parade of witnesses that didn't have 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:43.480 really even that much to say. Frankly, there were witnesses 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:48.280 who testified about the shooting what they saw, but not 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:52.719 any identification testimony, nothing that would suggest that these defendants 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:55.319 were the people responsible. There was a lot of time 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:59.040 spent on the crime itself, which was clearly horrific, but 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.200 designed to a flame the passions of the jury, and 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:04.400 that's all fair game, but when it came down to 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:06.480 the actual evidence, it was scammed. 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.840 But let's just talk about one Isabelle Gomez, right, She 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:12.960 testified she was in the park with her friend Suarez 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:15.200 prior to the shooting. She recalled that one of those 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.720 president was a guy named Mario Abarca who was a 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:21.600 member of the Latin King. She said that she and 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:25.560 Suarez left and she saw Suarez make a phone call 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:29.840 that Suarez said she had called Ayala's home. Now it 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:33.320 goes on that they saw Cruz and Palomo. She said 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:35.800 Cruz was driving a dark blue van and Palomo was 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:37.800 in the pastor seat. She couldn't see if anyone else 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.400 was in the rear seat. Goma said that Palomo asked 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:41.960 who was in the park, and she told him that 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:44.400 Ebarca was there. She said the cruise drove off toward 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:47.360 the park and she later heard gunshots. Now, during cross examination, 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.440 get this this is the key, right. So she said 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:53.880 that about two or three weeks after the shooting, police 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:56.840 came to her home to interview her. The detectives came 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:00.640 every two or three days, and she said the officers 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:03.199 threatened her. They told her, quote, we are going to 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:05.520 take you to the park. We are going to tell 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:08.840 all the people there that you'd set them up, so 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:11.360 similar to what they were doing to you before, David. 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:13.000 They were going to drop her off in a place 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.880 where she would likely be killed or who knows what. 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:19.360 They're going to take her to the Lang King so 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:22.680 she get raped. So I wasn't angry with her because 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:26.080 her experience of what she had to endure as a 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:28.120 young girl should never have happened. 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:32.400 In addition, Isabelle Gomez said that she and Suarez had 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.040 initially been charged with the murders, but those charges were 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.240 swapped for obstruction of justice charges that would remain until 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:41.880 after they testified. The state also put on a guy 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:45.840 named John Erosco, who testified about seeing the animal control 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:49.440 van that he knew Rojas usually drove, but that he 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:52.640 said he thought it was a different dark blue van 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:55.960 that rolled up at the time of the shooting. He 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.000 and the surviving victim, want Padia, testified that they hadn't 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:00.120 seen the gunman. 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:04.840 When push came to shove. The only witness who ultimately 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:10.160 implicated David and Jimmy was this highly incentivized co defendant, 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:14.200 Wally Cruz, who had negotiated a deal with the state 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:18.640 to testify against them in exchange for a five year sentence. 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:21.920 Maybe he was actually involved, Maybe he was just afraid 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:25.240 that they would falsely accuse him. It's unclear why he 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:27.360 did this, but we do know that the testimony was 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:29.800 false and he got a sweetheart deal because of it. 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.520 He says, we had this gang meeting at my house, 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:35.080 and he names these people being there, and we were 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:37.840 able to show it's impossible for these people to have 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:39.559 been at this meeting as he indicated. 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:42.480 The defense did a very good job of showing this 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:46.000 gang meeting never happened. One kid that initially said was 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.199 at the gang meeting was actually in a juvenile facility 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:51.320 locked up at the time of the alleged gang meeting. 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:53.680 So if that's not evidence of coercion, I don't know 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:56.719 what is. Another kid was in the hospital. There were 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.760 medical records showing he was literally in the hospital at 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:01.760 the time the alleged meeting took place. 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:04.840 Now Alex Gomez was the one who was in Jeuvie 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.960 and Robert Ba Gomez was the one at the hospital. 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:12.600 Javier Yakez was at home, Tyrone Ayala was at his mother's. 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:16.400 Jimmy Sodo's sister Martha, and his girlfriend Diana were at 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:19.120 David's house that night and they testified that no gang 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.640 meeting took place and neither David nor Jimmy ever left 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:25.040 the home. In addition, there was Elisa Orosco and Carol 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:28.480 Choppa who both testified the Cruz told them that he 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.960 planned to falsely testify a trial, but. 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.560 The prosecutions just like they're all gang members and they're 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:38.160 all liars. You can't believe any of them, but you 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:41.280 can believe this one gang member Wally Cruz, who we 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:44.080 just gave a kiss to in exchange for participating in 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:48.280 this murder. So it really did turn on Cruz's testimony, 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:50.800 which again was highly incentivized. 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:53.960 What point of our trial when the jury was excused, 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:55.480 the state attorney turned syrus. 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:56.480 He gave me the middle finger. 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.000 I was naive to think that justice would prevent because 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:04.080 of evidence. But they were not emphasizing the evidence. They 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:07.600 were emphasizing the gang factor. If you want the gangs 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:11.680 to run your city streets, find these men innocent. If 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:14.640 you want a secure neighborhood, they have to be found guilty. 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:19.600 So finally, September thirtieth, nineteen eighty two, after eight hours 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.560 of deliberation, the jury came back and reported that they 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:25.960 were deadlocked on all but one charge against you and 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:27.560 your cousin, Jimmy Soto. 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:33.240 Judges have a way of coercing verdicts, shall we say, 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:37.520 They have a way of signaling through instructions, through all 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:41.560 types of means. Go back, keep deliberating, keep deliberating, bring 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.960 us back a verdict. And jurors of human beings, they 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:48.080 get fatigued. They read the tea leaves. They get the 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:50.720 impression that their job is to come back, and in 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:53.480 this case, to come back and convict I think deadlocked 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:58.520 or not. There was probably fewer people on the not 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:02.320 guilty side than the guilty side, which is typically the case. 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:04.960 The bailiff was a pretty nice guy. He seen what 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:07.960 was happening in our court room. He kind of empathized 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:10.520 with us, and he told me the air ventilation in 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:13.720 the jury room is malfunctioning. There's miserable conditions in that 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:16.800 jury room. And so when the jury foreman told the 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:19.200 judge that he couldn't reach a verdict their deadlocked, the 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:21.760 judge and tone to them, well, you're going to go 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:23.120 back and I'm sure you're going. 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:25.840 To reach a verdict, or you could keep deliberating. 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.840 And then all of a sudden, miraculously, forty five minutes 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:30.960 later or whatever it was, they reached a vertict you 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:34.360 not misus verdict. They all averted their eyes, every single 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:35.560 one of them had their eyes down. 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:39.600 And so ultimately David Aila and Jimmy Soto are convicted 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:43.760 in this grave miscarriage of justice in which they both 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:47.360 are sentenced to mandatory life sentences. 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:51.280 My brain like blew a gasket. I wasn't like shouting out, Oh, 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:54.360 how did this happen? I was just like stupefied, How 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:58.160 could this possibly happen? The whole spirit inside of me 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:01.240 was just like vacuumed out. My attorney came back and said, 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:02.000 we're going to feel this. 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:04.359 And forty two years. 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:26.080 Past, David Ayala, for no reason other than his perceived status, 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:29.000 not because he was a difficult prisoner or had a 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:32.760 bad disciplinary history or anything of that nature, was shipped 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:35.280 off the TAMS the minute it was opened, which was 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:38.320 the supermax facility that has since been shut down as 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:43.080 human rights violation, violation of Eighth Amendment, cruel and unusual conditions, 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:47.560 where he spent literally seven years in isolation, seventeen years 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:50.639 without a phone call, no human contact. 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:54.520 We went literally years with the same people on the 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:57.280 tie they call it, and it's five sales upstairs, five 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:01.080 sales downstairs. Were I never saw that person face, I 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:03.640 heard his voice. I had no idea what he could 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.159 look like. They always put a mentally ild person on 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:09.600 Earth Tier, and instead of them getting a treatment, they 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:12.080 were locked in their cells and made it worse. And 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:14.720 so now they're hearing voices and everything. And he'd make 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:18.159 noise all night, and I noticed there was a recipe 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:20.720 for coping with it, and there was a recipe for disaster, 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:25.320 a recipe for maintaining your sanity. I found what was 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:30.040 working for me and others was seeing sleep hours, meditate, prey, 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:33.920 have an exercise routine. The yard is a misnomer. It 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:37.320 was not a yard. I went seventeen years without stepping 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:39.800 on earth or seeing a blade of grass. It was 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:43.240 a concrete box that you couldn't even run laps the 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:45.159 stay in shape because you run three steps, you have 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:47.719 to turn. That's how small that area was. But at 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:49.720 least you could have fresh air. They had these high 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.040 concrete walls. All you saw was concrete walls. Your other 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:55.159 view was to look at the sky and see at 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:58.880 barbed wire and chaining fence. So everything was a reminder 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:01.680 you're in prison. And the people that weren't doing those 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:04.720 things were the people that were the most frustrated, screaming out, 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:07.240 lashing out, they losing their minds. 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:09.200 I have one other client who spent a lot of 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:12.879 time there. It is not anything that any of us 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:15.600 can wrap our heads around. But as far as I know, David, 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:17.680 I was there the day it was opened and the 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:20.520 day it was closed he, I think, not only has 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:24.560 the unfortunate circumstance of being one of the men who 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:27.439 has served the longest wrongful conviction in the history of Illinois, 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:33.320 but also served the longest time at TAM's supermacs in 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:36.880 complete isolation, which frankly, I don't know how he even 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:37.960 functions to this day. 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:40.720 I would like to think that I overcame my conditions, 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:44.240 but I really didn't, because to this day there's triggers, 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:49.600 tears come out just remembering the horrible experience. And so 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:53.439 when there was a movement to close TAMS based on 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:57.159 the effects that was having, the mental deterioration of the inmates, 0:19:57.400 --> 0:19:59.760 the cost, and there was a movement to close the prison, 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:04.119 the local officer union threatened the judge. They put a 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:07.600 court injunction to keep the prison open, and they told 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:11.200 the judge, listen, you were your constituents. In six months, 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:14.919 you're for reelection. If you closed this prison, we're going 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:17.760 to vote you out office. But he had no recourse 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:20.760 to keep that prison open when the governor of the 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:24.040 state of Illinois and the prison director said that prison 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:24.920 has to be closed. 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:26.400 The prison has to be closed. 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:31.800 In those nearly first two long decades, David's cousin, Jimmy Soto, 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:37.440 became a legendary jailhouse lawyer at Stateville Penitentiary, and he 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.280 was responsible for sending so many other innocent men home. 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:43.439 But somehow though, he couldn't develop that kind of traction 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:47.639 for himself and for David, whose cases were, let's face it, 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:51.040 inextectably lengthd Meanwhile, in the years following the closure of 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:53.959 the TAMS facility, David was not reunited with Jimmy. 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:58.000 Illinois has a agreement with other states that if we 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:01.119 have a high profile prisoner or someone that we believe 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:04.760 should be outside the state doing their time because of 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:08.239 some reason, they will have them doing time elsewhere. And 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:12.720 David fell into that category because the Illinois Department of Corrections, 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:17.399 whether it was justified or not, whether it was based 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:22.720 in fact or not, had designated David as high ranking 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:25.800 a chief. You know, they have all types of labels, 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:29.440 and once they have put that label on you, you are 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:31.359 stuck with it. So he did all of his time 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:35.119 in Utah. It was extraordinarily difficult, not just for his 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:39.040 mental state, but also just being able to, for instance, 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:43.040 keep up with your appeals and access to courts in 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:46.680 Illinois was so difficult. He's either in isolation or out 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:50.720 well outside the state of Illinois, communication, etc. So over 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:53.320 the forty two years that he was fighting this case, 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:58.280 he had additional challenges that even other prisoners would. 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:02.520 Not have, so appeal after appeal were denied. First denied 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:05.200 in eighty six by the First District of ILLINOI Appellate Court. 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:08.399