WEBVTT - #536 Jason Flom with the Virginia 3 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:07.200 On July twelfth, nineteen ninety four, in downtown Newport News, Virginia, 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:11.440 a car full of young men opened fire at another 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:16.040 group outside of a public housing complex. Three young people 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:19.640 were injured, and nineteen year old Stephen Smith was fatally shot. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:25.520 Soon after, fifteen year old Darryl Hunter was implicated, which 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:29.280 then led to his brother Nathaniel and his best friend Reginald, 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:33.600 whose compelling alibis were ignored when they were later identified 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:46.680 by several alleged eyewitnesses. This is Wrongful Conviction. You're listening 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:49.440 to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this and all 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:52.280 the Lava for Good podcasts one week early and ad 0:00:52.320 --> 0:01:03.080 free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.400 Welcome back to Wrong for Conviction. Today, we're covering the 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:12.120 case that I've been obsesseding about for many years, case 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:16.680 I was personally very involved with, and three guys who 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:20.480 have become close to, the Virginia Three. We've covered a 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:22.560 lot of Virginia cases on the podcast, and a lot 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:27.720 of them involved similar situations, false witnesses, misconduct. But first 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:31.560 I'm going to introduce the Virginia Three. Let's see should 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:33.320 we do this in alphabetical order. 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:34.800 My name is Virginal Fletcher. 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.679 I was nineteen years old in nineteen ninety four, falsely convicted, 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:40.440 accused of a crime I didn't commit. 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:44.319 Daryl hunter Well, I was fifteen years old when I 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:45.480 was arrested for the crime. 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:47.280 Then the one and only. 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:49.440 Hello, my name is the thing you Piers. I was 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:51.400 locked up when I was twenty four for something I 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:52.880 had no knowledge. 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:55.440 Of, and you guys were sentenced to hundreds of years 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:59.360 collectively in prison and served between all three of you 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:04.080 almost eight years. But tell us about Newport News around 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:06.400 the time of this crime, which was nineteen ninety four. 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.440 Back in ninety four in Newport News, Yes, to collect 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:12.880 them was real heavy, especially the I where the crime 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:13.560 took place at. 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:15.600 Violence was crazy in the city. 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:18.560 Anybody was just getting harmed and killed, and it was 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:22.560 cops and everything. So the life expectancy of somebody where 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:24.520 I confrom was you know what I'm saying. 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:25.640 Long. 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:30.120 They had the highest murder rate, number three in the world. 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.160 There wasn't closing a lot of these cases because the 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:36.920 Commonwealth Arattorney didn't get They wasn't investigating these cases. There 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:41.160 wasn't testing evidence in these cases. Nevertheless, we fell victim 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:42.160 to this situation. 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:44.480 I had things I wanted to be in life, you 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:46.560 know what I mean, And I didn't even get to 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:46.840 make it. 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:47.520 A high school. 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:49.920 You were the youngest there. Let's start with you. What 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:51.520 were your lives like, you. 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.160 Know, early nineties. Everybody it was a product of environment. 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:57.560 So everybody wanted to be small time petty hustlers or whatever. 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.680 And people hustled just to get closed whatever and chase chicks. 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:03.720 And I'd like to go to school every day because 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:05.960 I'm going to school with these clothes on that I bought. 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:07.000 Every day I got. 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:10.280 Off from school, I watched cartoons, Bugs, Bunny and all that. 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:11.720 Before I ain't got with him. 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:14.200 I got this question asked a lot of times back then. 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:17.120 They were like, why you hanging with little dir He's 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:19.280 fifteen years old, little dirt heart. 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:21.600 Some of the older guys I with the heart. 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:23.400 You guys were next door neighbors, right, You. 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:25.720 Still got my Nintendo too at home? Man, when I 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:27.120 got arrested, I never got to get it back. 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:28.120 It's an antique. 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:30.040 Yeah, I need that shit. I just I'm glad you 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:30.640 said something. 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:32.960 He got money to you, like play games, gamble, Like 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:34.600 what they do now with the kids do now they 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:36.880 play the games. And that's what I was into, Like 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:39.920 skating ring was the thing round our way, and the 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:43.920 game room and smoke blunts and then I come home 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:45.480 and late at night and I had to have beavers 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:49.600 and buttheads when I smoked my bes and but that's 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:50.320 what was going on. 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:52.119 And pop punk golf. Used to go to puppunk golf 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:53.640 a lot. Man. I used to go to pump punk golf. 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:56.240 Yes, all right, right, who would win at pup punk off? 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.600 You would win? Yes, uh, well, you had four years 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:01.760 on him. What else? What were your other interests? Because 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:03.320 you were out of high school by this time. 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:05.720 Being nineteen years old, had a job. I was at 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:09.160 some females. It's a jewelry shooting, dice gambling, hang out, 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:12.200 pup hunt, but most poorly, like still out of trouble. 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:14.240 Like you can't get him to smoke a blunt on 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:15.560 a corner. He not doing it. 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:18.400 And what about you, Nathaniel, You were twenty four, right. 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:20.200 Yes, I was twenty four at the time. I had 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.119 a job. I was taking care of my kids, living 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:25.680 a good life. I did. I was doing good. And 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:28.719 we hang out and go to the movies and do things. 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:31.440 Might hang out with them for hours some but I 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.039 have kids. The day that I don't hang out with them, yeah, 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:37.440 I mean like this is what happened the day that 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:38.920 I don't go because I had a cast on when 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:40.160 they I ain't want to go with them. 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:43.159 Unrelated to the cast on his leg, a neighborhood guy 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:46.760 named Terence Gibbons allegedly had made an attempt on Nathaniel's 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.560 life in May nineteen ninety four. So now there we 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.520 were on the evening of July twelfth, nineteen ninety four, 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:56.080 and Reginald and Daryl were shooting dice without Nathaniel in 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:58.839 uptown Newport News, a predominantly white area. 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:01.640 Mea Darrel was the together all day, so we was 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:04.560 at a little small hotel called green Oaks. There was 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:07.960 some Texico gas station connected to green Oaks, so we 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:10.039 would leave green Oaks to go to testa code. Were 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:11.479 bust some chips, soda some. 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.480 This was about twelve miles north of the crime scene, 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:18.240 which occurred in front of a public housing complex at 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:21.440 the forty seven hundred block of Marshall Avenue. Meanwhile, Nathaniel, 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:24.159 who went by the nickname Muchie, was hanging out locally 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:26.600 with his injured leg. About a quarter of a mile 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:28.480 down Marshall Avenue. 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:30.640 I was walking from forty first Street. I was with 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:33.839 a friend, Lynn Woodsmith. We had a drunk of forty ounce. 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:36.040 I said, man, I'm going back up here because it's 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:38.760 getting dark. So as I'm walking down the street, I 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:40.919 heard gunshot. I don't think none of it, but I 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.280 started hearing ammal lambs and polices and everything going. By 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:47.000 the time I get to the forty fourth Street, people 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:49.960 running everywhere, a car skirted and everything. I keep on 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:52.040 walking up the sidewalk. This little boy was up on 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:55.000 a car. He run from one of the car said moochie, 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:57.440 please save my life. Don't let him kill me. Take 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:00.560 me home. I'm not driving, so walking This lady, I said, can, 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.040 I called him a cab. Her name was Orjrey Evans. 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:05.599 I went into her house and called him a cab. 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:08.520 Sent them on to his mother. Saved his life. 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:12.279 According to witnesses, just a few blocks up on Marshall Avenue, 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:14.760 three to five men got out of a car firing 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:18.560 around one hundred shots, some into the air, others at 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.159 a group of young people on the front porch. Fourteen 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:24.400 year old Maurice Johnson, seventeen year old Alan Stowe's and 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:27.800 twenty one year old Quentin Royal were injured, while nineteen 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:31.920 year old Stephen Smith was fatally shot through his neck. Meanwhile, 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:35.479 Daryl and Reginald were still shooting Dice at the Texicgo station. 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.120 When Darryl, now remember this is nineteen ninety four, he 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:40.720 got a beep, you know, on his beeper telling him 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:41.280 to call home. 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:42.960 It's all was a small time house. So I had 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:44.680 a pager. So I went to the store. 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:46.720 I got some quarters and I called my sister back 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:48.680 and she told me to a crime app. She said, 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:51.280 he's shooting. She put Daddy on the phone. Man brango 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:51.800 ass home. 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.960 I'm like shy, right, so therey they could have got 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:56.040 the phone records as well. 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.680 Yes, I look at like ten thirty five, his mother said, 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:01.599 us at home before eleven o'clock. 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:05.719 We wave uptown the white people neighborhoods. The crime happened downtown. 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:09.240 At the distance from Texico to where we lived at 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:12.120 I say about twenty minutes. So I said, oh, look, 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:13.960 I get him home for letting them clock because less 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:16.120 I'm in real lights. So when I take him home. 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:19.440 Before we pull up on Washing Avenue, we see sirens. 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:21.120 The whole street is lit up. 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:24.360 All you've seen was likes and so many police cars. 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:27.680 We see everybody outside. So he dropped me off at 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:30.880 the house and I stand outside too. She I'm nosy too. 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:32.440 What happened? Somebody got shot? 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:33.160 The news? 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:34.600 Come on now, I'm about to go in there. You know, 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:36.680 I'm gonna watch beefs and butheads. But I'm gonna watch 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:39.440 the news now because it's breaking news. It's messing up 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:41.880 beavers and but heads. I see my neighbor on the 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:45.280 news talking about how he got shot. I say, damn man, 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:47.840 that's boo on the news. What didn't happened? 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:49.160 No night go on. 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:52.240 About four o'clock in the morning, my mom came upstairs. 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:55.240 She said, third of the police, won't you come downstairs? 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:57.640 Go downstairs. So they were like, we need to speak 0:07:57.680 --> 0:07:59.840 to you. I'm looking at my mama, So she was like, all, 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:02.840 let me go get dressed. They take me outside, put 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.200 me in the car and drive off with take me 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:09.440 over town interrogate. I was willing to talk to him. 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:11.640 I don't know what they're talking about. 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:15.400 So it appears that either someone had falsely implicated Daryl, 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:19.880 or perhaps his interrogators Riley and Shepherd, were lying to 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:21.520 him about being implicated. 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.080 I'm to the point where I'm mad, and I was like, well, 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:25.480 go get him and tell him me to come in 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:27.040 here and say it to my face. I don't know 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:28.960 what the hell you talking about. It who you can 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:31.840 check me for gunpowder? Man, I ain't shot nobody. So 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:34.040 when they hear that, I see all types of people 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:36.520 coming in and check my clothes, check my hair, check 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:39.240 my face, checked my whole body. I told the techt 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:42.160 the Spinner, because he came in the room while Riley 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:44.800 and Shepherd was questioning me. I said, we was up 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:46.880 there shooting Dice by the store. I know they got 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:50.920 a surveillance camera in there. He radio police out there 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:53.480 to go to the store. When he asks them people, 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:56.280 he say, the lady was like, gave it the tape. 0:08:56.480 --> 0:08:59.040 Her name was Robin Raimie, rightyes. 0:08:58.800 --> 0:08:59.760 Air white woman. 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.120 She told him everything that we was doing outside in 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.400 stool at the time of the shooting, at the time 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:06.160 of the shoot. 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:07.680 And the detective when it got the tape. 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:09.959 When it got the tape, what they do with the tape, 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:10.520 I don't know. 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:11.520 We don't know. 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:14.559 Detective spent On, tell him go. He ain't take him 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:15.000 back home. 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:17.600 My mom came back up there because she was mad 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:18.840 because they drove off with me. 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:20.880 You ain't got none to worry about with your son. 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:24.880 They had to know you had a solid alibi. Gunshot 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:26.200 residue test. I mean you're on. 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:27.560 Video all white woman. 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:44.400 A white woman, yes, a white woman. Over the course 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:46.760 of the next three weeks, it seems like the police 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:51.680 arrested or detained several individuals from the neighborhood, including Tory Davis, 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:55.080 Clyde Dargan, and Terence Gibbons, who we mentioned was facing 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:59.400 an attempted murder charge on none other than Nathaniel Pierce. Now, 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.280 obviously that charge was known to the defense, but not 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:06.520 Gibbons's other unrelated charges, nor were those that the other 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:10.679 two alleged witnesses were facing, which it appears had been 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:15.120 used to gather statements that were all later recanted, all 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:19.280 of them. Now, interestingly, Terrence Gibbons had a cousin named 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:23.320 Damian Claude who looked similar to one of the victims, 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:26.199 and he and Daryl had had a previous beef. 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:31.600 We had an incident, but the incident was him being 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:35.360 the aggressor. We end up shaking hands and pawow, now 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:37.800 you know what I mean. We had a full blown 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.960 sit down with our parents. Our parents got involved, so 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.040 his mom sent them off the job corp. Next time 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:46.920 I know, they've been using him as a motive. They 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:48.240 say that I was trying to kill him. 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:51.720 And by August fourth, Tory Davis, Clyde Dargan, and Terrence 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:55.400 Gibbons were willing to identify shooters from lineups, so the 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:59.560 police picked up Darryl, Reginald and Nathaniel. 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.200 If He came to the house to get me the post. 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:04.319 They said, well, can we just talk to you for 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:06.120 a minute. I said, y'all can talk to me right here. 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.000 I said, do you got to want He said no, 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:09.840 we don't got a wart. He said, well you coming 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:11.959 right back? I said, coming right back? I ain't going 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.600 nowhere with y'all. He said, yes, she is. They handcuffed me, 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:18.080 but I wasn't underrest. If they just wanted to question me, 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:20.400 why did they handcuff me? So I went down there 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:22.720 and I told them everything that I'd done that day 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:25.040 and where I was at. I had the little boy 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.000 who life I was saved who was right there, who's 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:32.440 seen the crime happen, and the detective, Charles Spinner, I'll 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:35.000 never forget it. They called him Chucky. He told me, said, 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:36.960 what you're telling me is the truth. I'm going to 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:39.640 see that guy's mother right now, he said, And what 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:41.520 you telling me is the truth. I'm gonna be back 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:43.640 to get you. Man. I ain't never see him no more. 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:45.120 I seen him in two thousand and eight. 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:47.200 And we're going to come back to that encounter later. 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:50.080 But it appears that if Spinner had spoken to that 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:54.439 boy and his mother, any record of that is probably 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:59.480 wherever the surveillance video went. So now, on the strength 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:03.839 of cost and incentivized statements, the Virginia three were charged 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:06.480 with one count of first degree murder, three counts of 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:10.000 malicious maiming, as well as gun charges, and fifteen year 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:12.439 old Darryl was going to be charged as an adult, 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:16.880 but his older brother Nathaniel was tried first in January 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:20.280 nineteen ninety five, where he was identified by Davis, Dargan, 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:24.000 and Gibbons, all of whom unbeknownst to the defense Well 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:27.440 it seems like they had various arrangements with the state. 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:30.079 Those were the only three witnesses that come le've had 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:30.760 against him? 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:31.760 What was in your favor? 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:33.840 I had it in my favor that I had a 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.880 cast on my leg. All the perpetrators ran away from 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:38.160 the crime scene. 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:41.359 And that running element was a key piece of Darget's testimony, 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:45.199 even though the cast made it literally impossible. And in addition, 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.840 his attorney pointed out the unrelated charge that they did 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:52.760 know about, that the attempted murder charges against Gibbons had 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:57.520 curiously been dropped by the time of his testimony. Unfortunately, though, 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:00.200 the defense could not find that thirteen year old boy 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.440 whom Nathaniel had saved, and it appears that the detectives 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:07.840 hadn't even tried. Certainly his testimony would have made a huge. 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:11.000 Difference when it came back with the verdict. It was 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:13.520 like nine oh four at night. I had been sitting 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.640 out in a bullpen for hours. I just knew, I 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:19.120 believe the shots said go, don't keep you closed on. 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.560 You'd be going in a few minutes. Everybody in the 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:26.240 courtroom knew I won. They had nothing on me. Literally, 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:28.720 everything that they said was a lot. They'd come back 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:31.240 with a couple of hot sauce, a piece of chicken, 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.640 a Coca Cola and a life sentence plus seventy eight 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:36.080 years and sixty days and sent me. 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:41.080 To prison life plus seventy eight years and sixty days 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.800 and sixty days and sixty days. Apparently he had missed 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:48.520 the court date related to Gibbons' attempted murder proceedings. Now, 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:50.559 perhaps they were trying to give the appearance that the 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:54.480 drop charges were related only to that, even though Nathaniel 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:57.240 could not have been there because he was in custody 0:13:57.440 --> 0:13:59.440 at the time for a driving charge. 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:03.280 Was ready in jail, so I could I a miscought 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.000 and if I'm already in your custody, they gave me 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:08.440 sixty days for that too. I looked back at my mother. 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:12.360 She's like, May I couldn't cry because I know I 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:13.480 hadn't killed nobody. 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:17.520 Meanwhile, Darryl, who had been granted bond, had chosen to 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:19.080 stay in pretrial's attention. 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:21.880 At first, I was like, don't waste no more money 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:23.920 because I ain't do nothing. We gonna beat it because 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:25.880 we had three of the best lawyers and known in 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:26.400 our city. 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:28.480 So I'm thinking I'm going home. 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.200 When they found him guilty, I read it the paper 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:33.440 to common well talking in the paper and they were like, 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:35.160 we coming to get his little brother, Daryl Hunter. 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:37.080 Next. I'm like, oh my god. When I read that, 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:40.440 come and get me out on bond expeditiously. I'm scared. 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:42.240 I'm like, man, y'all gotta come get me. 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:42.520 Man. 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:44.880 You know, I turned into a little kid there. You 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:46.360 know what I'm saying, Like, y'all, I gotta do that. 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:48.040 My mom and dad came and bailed me out. 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:50.040 And then he went to trial next. Yeah, I went 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:51.920 to trial next, and you had a bench trial. 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:54.600 My lawyer told me to a jury, I can beat 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:55.080 the jury. 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:57.080 But I was like, oh uh, Joel, I want to 0:14:57.080 --> 0:14:58.680 I don't want no people to come here because there 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:00.880 might be some people that know the people. That's what 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:03.280 my mind thinking. I want to do it. I'm gonna 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:05.200 take him. I think that was a bad mistake for 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:05.520 me to. 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:09.680 Do Again, the state presented Clyde Dargan, who only identified 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:12.800 Nathaniel as he ran away from the scene, never mind 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:15.200 the cast on his leg, but the judge credited his 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:20.000 testimony anyway. Then Terence Gibbons identified all three of them, 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:24.840 but was discredited with the dropped attempted murder charge. This time, 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:28.840 one of the victims in this case, Maurice Johnson, testified 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:32.200 to something that no one else had ever said. He 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.600 testified that Daryl stood over him and fired. However, he 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:39.680 was contradicted by the physical evidence because no shell casings 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:43.880 were found where he was recovered by first responders. And finally, 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:47.600 Tory Davis said that he was standing across the street 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:50.840 at the gas pump and identified all three. 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:52.960 The judge wanted to go to the crime saying he 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:55.440 wanted to see what he witnessed the city was standing 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:57.640 at would he said, he's seeing me from he went 0:15:57.680 --> 0:15:59.600 out there and say, well, I can see from grossy 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:02.200 streets if I've seen put the deputy over there. Yeah, 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:05.040 I think I can identify somebody if I already knew 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:05.920 he was fixed for. 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:10.479 So despite the testimony of Robin Raymie, the Texico cashier 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:15.680 placing Darryl and Reginalds uptown, the judge credited Davis at Dargan. 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:19.240 It was just tragedy, you know what I'm saying, Like 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:21.000 I ain't even get to make it a high school. 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:23.080 I ain't get to spurns none of that, Like no 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:27.640 prom no nothing. And I had to grow up over 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:30.280 the phone listen to my friends. You know what I'm saying, 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.440 grow up and what happened in school today? That was 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:34.240 like interested in me. 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:35.680 What was your sentence? 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:37.840 It gave me one hundred and twelve. 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:39.280 Years at fifteen years old. 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:41.280 I was sixteen, just turned sixteen. 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:44.840 One hundred and twelve years. What even is that? And 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:46.720 no other country in the world does it this way. 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:50.480 I mean maybe North Korea, I don't know, but so regularly. 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:54.400 You were the last of the three to go to trial. Yes, sir, 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.920 obviously you were very well aware of what had happened. 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.760 Absolutely, I was devastated and then I felt like I 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:02.720 don't have a chance. 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:05.720 I had a jelly trial. My trial last three days. 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:09.640 So the deputy during the time was in listening and 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:12.320 he said, you might got a great shot. I won't 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:14.480 say they got found guilty. The evidence that they was presenting. 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:15.840 It doesn't make any sense. 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:19.760 But again, Dargan only I d Nathaniel with his running story. 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:23.679 Gibbons id'd all of them, but was again impeached, And 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:26.399 this time Davis said that the Commonwealth told him what 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:29.560 to say and that his eyesight was twenty fifty. But 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:32.680 even with that and the alibi testimony, of Robin Raimi. 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:35.480 Somehow regimen was still found guilty. 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:38.800 So after the guilty verdict, I sat there for a second. 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:42.000 I wasn't in disbelief about it because my other two 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:45.080 brothers had already been found guilty. But not only did 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:47.960 they drag us down and found us guilty, but my 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:50.240 father caught a case behind this as well. 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:51.200 Oh my god. 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.399 All he said was that's not fair, my son is innocent. 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:56.800 But he took his words in and said that my 0:17:56.880 --> 0:17:59.640 father had threatened the witnesses after the jury had found 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:00.000 me guilty. 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:01.200 See which was it? Lie? 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:04.320 Was your father convicted? No, sir, they meant to that. 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:07.320 He just got community service. But he shouldn't have had nothing. 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:08.240 What was your sentence? 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:09.639 I had seventy eight years? 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:10.640 Seventy eight years. 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:12.960 Yes, I had a daughter at the time. She was 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:17.080 only four months so for me to leave her in 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:23.560 the world alone and deal with the prison system, it 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:26.040 didn't sept with with me. For like twenty four and 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:29.240 a half years. I cried almost every night. 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:47.119 We lost everything for nothing. 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:50.920