Speaker 1: Troy Coleman split his formative years between California and the
Speaker 1: middle class Philadelphia neighborhood of Mount Airy, but while in Philly,
Speaker 1: he attended a rough high school in Germantown, where he
Speaker 1: met Byron Johnson, Kareem Nobles, and Darren Keith Johnson. After
Speaker 1: Troy graduated, Byron and Kareem were the muscle behind a
Speaker 1: cocaine operation that they all ran out of Troy's apartment. However,
Speaker 1: a drug drought in the summer of nineteen eighty nine
Speaker 1: stimulated desperate behavior all over Philly, and while Troy was
Speaker 1: away to Atlantic City on September twenty sixth, nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: Kareem allegedly set up a deal with two men, Kevin Jones.
Speaker 2: And Arthur Sanders.
Speaker 1: Now. According to Sanders, he waited down the block while
Speaker 1: Kevin Jones drove to Troy's apartment in his gray Dodge
Speaker 1: with forty thousand dollars to buy cocaine. Nearly two hours later,
Speaker 1: Sanders claimed to see two other men driving away in
Speaker 1: Kevin Jones's gray Dodge, a light skinned driver and a
Speaker 1: darker skin passenger wearing a hat with the brim pull
Speaker 1: down low Kevin's body was eventually found in the Gray Dodge.
Speaker 1: Sanders agreed that Troy's photo looked like the passenger with
Speaker 1: Sander's shaky id and the coerce and incentivized testimony of
Speaker 1: Darren Keith Johnson. Troy was sentenced to life in prison.
Speaker 1: Despite Darren's nineteen ninety eight recantation and Byron Johnson's twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen confession to being the actual passenger in the Gray
Speaker 1: Dodge that day, Troy continues to serve life for a
Speaker 1: crime for which he was not even in Philadelphia to commit.
Speaker 1: This is wrongful conviction with Jason Flamm. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: wrongful conviction with Jason Flamm. That's me And today we
Speaker 1: have a story that I think is going to rock
Speaker 1: your world in a different kind of way right because
Speaker 1: the person that we're interviewing today, Troy Coleman, has been
Speaker 1: incarcerated for thirty one years in Pennsylvania for a crime
Speaker 1: he didn't commit. That being said, he wasn't a choir boy.
Speaker 1: Some of the people we have on the show, we're
Speaker 1: literal acchoir people before they were arrested.
Speaker 3: But he is.
Speaker 1: Innocent of this crime. He wasn't even the same city
Speaker 1: when it happened, or state for that matter. So Troy's
Speaker 1: on the phone from prison. Troy, I'm glad you're here,
Speaker 1: but I'm sorry you have to be here under these circumstances.
Speaker 3: How are you?
Speaker 1: I'm good? Thank you? And with Troy is Jerry Brown,
Speaker 1: not the former governor of California, but an esteemed attorney
Speaker 1: from Philadelphia. Thank you for joining us on the show today. Jason,
Speaker 1: Let's go back, Troy. You grew up in a middle
Speaker 1: class environment, right.
Speaker 3: I grew up in Mound Are, Philadelfia, which is a
Speaker 3: middle class neighborhood, and I was blessed to live with
Speaker 3: my grandmother, who was well off, and we had a
Speaker 3: beautiful home, three bedroom home. And you know, everyone who
Speaker 3: came from that home came to be very successful, although
Speaker 3: went to private school, even my father. And my father
Speaker 3: moved to California, and when he moved to California, I
Speaker 3: was going back and forth from California to Philadelphia from
Speaker 3: my grandmother house, which California school curriculum, our junior high
Speaker 3: curriculum was equal to a high school curriculum here in Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: But you know, when I came back to high school
Speaker 3: here in Philluppia Germantown High School. I was looked at
Speaker 3: as kind of nerdy, I guess, you know, because of
Speaker 3: the academics. I guess that we came with versus where
Speaker 3: was over here at Philadelphia, and you know, you try
Speaker 3: your best to fit in and you want to be accepted.
Speaker 3: That's where a lot of my de minds came from.
Speaker 3: When I had got involved with drugs, not needing to
Speaker 3: didn't have to, you know. Then my family was well
Speaker 3: to do. However, you know, just to sit in and
Speaker 3: be a part of this particular neighborhood that was in
Speaker 3: german Town, which is a little bit wasn't a good
Speaker 3: lifestyle that they lived down here. It was a little
Speaker 3: more lower class again from Mound areas. So when I
Speaker 3: started boxing the DAGs being down there in the gym,
Speaker 3: that's how a couple of them guys from around the neighborhood.
Speaker 3: After that, subsequently I got involved with them with the
Speaker 3: about the age of seventeen sixteen. We started out young
Speaker 3: on the quarters, so that's when it began.
Speaker 1: So this must have put you on the radar of
Speaker 1: the local police. And we know that in that time
Speaker 1: and place, this was a culture that it started with
Speaker 1: Frank Rizzo, who as the police chief in Philadelphia from
Speaker 1: sixty eight to seventy one. The legacy of brutality and
Speaker 1: corruption is widely known, and it thrived in the police
Speaker 1: department after he became mayor. Really crazy that that guy
Speaker 1: became mayor, but seventy two to eighty and they were
Speaker 1: just beating the shit out of everybody back then, and
Speaker 1: it's really it's crazy that this was a major American city. So, Jerry,
Speaker 1: you were a college student at the University of Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: at that time, and you experienced were at least aware
Speaker 1: of this, Right, this is not hyperbole?
Speaker 4: Right? Oh no, If you had a little bit of
Speaker 4: long hair like I did, you every time you walk
Speaker 4: down the street at night, you were afraid that you
Speaker 4: were going to stop and hassled by the police. And
Speaker 4: I'm sure for people of color it was much worse.
Speaker 1: In my research, I mean, these were in the thirty
Speaker 1: ninth District, right, a section of North Philadelphia, which was
Speaker 1: a working class, poor black neighborhood. Police routinely made false arrests,
Speaker 1: planted drugs, robbed victims, and filed bogus reports to cover
Speaker 1: up their actions. So all of this is known now,
Speaker 1: it's been documented. This is not us just having a
Speaker 1: a there's a trip down a very ugly memory lane
Speaker 1: right here.
Speaker 4: In fact, there were fourteen hundred convictions that were overturned
Speaker 4: due to the thirty ninth district. But they're not the
Speaker 4: only ones. There was the one squad cases, the five
Speaker 4: squad cases. I mean, there's been a history in Philadelphia,
Speaker 4: you know, and then in the nineties you have one
Speaker 4: of the cops that was involved in this case, Martin Devlin.
Speaker 4: The number of cases have been overturned because of him.
Speaker 4: It's a very sordid history, right.
Speaker 1: So this of course brings me back to another person
Speaker 1: who was wrongful Convictoro's been on our show, Tony Wright,
Speaker 1: which was ironically the same cop that was involved in
Speaker 1: Troy's case, Martin Devlin. And in the article of Rolling
Speaker 1: Stone magazine about Tony's case, there was a pull quote
Speaker 1: that said that in the nineteen eighties or nineties, a
Speaker 1: black man had a better chance of getting justice in Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: Mississippi than in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. So let's go to that,
Speaker 1: and of course Troy. This of course, what led up
Speaker 1: to this, I think indirectly, is the fact that you
Speaker 1: were involved, as you've been very honest about, in the
Speaker 1: cocaine business. Can you tell us about that and the
Speaker 1: people that were working under you at the time, because
Speaker 1: they come to play a role in your wrongful conviction.
Speaker 3: Well, we got involved. It was a couple of guys
Speaker 3: from that neighborhood, particularly down cross the Street, and this
Speaker 3: is actually it's called the Jungle. Some of the guys
Speaker 3: that's involved Barra Johnson, Garan, Keith Johnson, Raymond Nobles, and
Speaker 3: his street name was Kareem. My street game at the
Speaker 3: time was Kassin with his was with his Kareem. So
Speaker 3: he was an older guy, he just got out of
Speaker 3: jail and all this time everybody looked up to him
Speaker 3: as the tough Gert heights On and so forth. To me,
Speaker 3: it was like imparative that I get him involved. It's
Speaker 3: somewhat for the muscle as well as Byron.
Speaker 2: So you had Byron Johnson, Darren Johnson and Kareem Nobles
Speaker 2: were your underlings. They worked for you.
Speaker 3: Yes, I guess my little intellect being involved in that
Speaker 3: allowed me to shoot up fast. So I had a
Speaker 3: little apartment down in Mars Street. Klaski Town is what
Speaker 3: they called Eron, But we had an apartment in Kulaski
Speaker 3: Town and that was just for you know, fun, dealing
Speaker 3: with the drug stuff, girls and all that. Raymond Nobles
Speaker 3: Koree was actually staying in my part why I lived
Speaker 3: in down area. I still had that place in firing
Speaker 3: that keys to the apartment between that keys to the apartment,
Speaker 3: so people had access to it. At that time, I
Speaker 3: was driving BMW's, had a nice amount of money and
Speaker 3: I was okay. However, these guys that were working for me,
Speaker 3: they were okay until a drought came in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 3: The drought is when there's thaw drugs, particularly cocaine of
Speaker 3: elbow at that time in the city where it could
Speaker 3: be purchased in so and this was a well known
Speaker 3: time because the homicidely rose significantly at that time and
Speaker 3: it was real bad. So when this drought came about,
Speaker 3: I was okay, these guys, I didn't have anything for him.
Speaker 3: So they actually ran them up for lack of retterfleet.
Speaker 3: They just ran them up. They was just doing all
Speaker 3: kinds of money stuff. And this day in particular in
Speaker 3: which this crime happened, myself and another gentleman by the
Speaker 3: name of Richard Crawford. That morning of September twenty sixth,
Speaker 3: we went to Atlantic City. And when I was in
Speaker 3: Atlantic City, I think I had no more than nine
Speaker 3: ounces of cocaine left, and actually, you know, trusted between
Speaker 3: to deal with that when I was going. And when
Speaker 3: I left on the twenty sixth, we get to Atlanta
Speaker 3: City that morning was getting taking insights, you know, shopping,
Speaker 3: talking all that other stuff to girls whatever. So I
Speaker 3: was very intoxicated. I wasn't willing to drive back to
Speaker 3: the city, so that night we checked it two hotel.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you were in Atlantic City having fun, intoxicated,
Speaker 1: so drunk in fact, that you had a hard time
Speaker 1: even remembering which hotel you had checked into and under
Speaker 1: what name. And the crazy thing is that the state
Speaker 1: eventually used your own shaky memory to impeach you. But
Speaker 1: it's so twisted because they actually presented evidence that was
Speaker 1: exculpatory because it differed from your memory that you had
Speaker 1: in fact stated valleys under your own name. I mean,
Speaker 1: after all, wide, let evidence of you being in Atlantic
Speaker 1: City get in the way of prosecuting a man we
Speaker 1: now know and I think they knew that him was innocent.
Speaker 1: That should have been the end of this podcast right there,
Speaker 1: but it's not. So the crime itself. Back at the
Speaker 1: apartment in Philadelphia on September twenty sixth, nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: Kareem set up a deal with Kevin Jones and Arthur Sanders.
Speaker 1: According to Sanders, he and Kevin Jones arrived in the
Speaker 1: area of the apartment in separate cars around one thirty
Speaker 1: pm with forty thousand dollars to buy cocaine. Now, Arthur
Speaker 1: Sanders mentioned that the first preliminary hearing of this trial
Speaker 1: that he was going to buy this cocaine from Kareem,
Speaker 1: not Troy or your street name, Casim, but Kareem, which
Speaker 1: is why this case was initially thrown out as it
Speaker 1: should have been. But nonetheless, here we are, all these
Speaker 1: years later, so again, according to Sanders, Jones continued down
Speaker 1: the street in a gray Dodge alone while Sanders waited
Speaker 1: down the block. Then, about an hour and a half later,
Speaker 1: Sanders allegedly saw two men driving the gray Dodge passed him,
Speaker 1: a light skinned man driving and a darker skinned man
Speaker 1: with the brim of his hat pulled down low in
Speaker 1: the passengers receipt. That night, the Jones family came to
Speaker 1: Troy's apartment armed looking for Kevin Jones. They threatened Troy's girlfriend.
Speaker 1: The apartment was searched, but alas no Kevin. So at
Speaker 1: this point, Troy, you didn't know it yet, but you
Speaker 1: were in a lot of trouble. And I don't mean
Speaker 1: what the cops. The cops actually kind of inadvertently saved you.
Speaker 3: When I got back to Philadelphia that next day, I
Speaker 3: was stopped by the police. You know, had my license
Speaker 3: and registration and everything was legit, but they found a
Speaker 3: bag of marijuana in the car. And that might have
Speaker 3: been a good thing, because I got arrested that evening
Speaker 3: and when I called home, and that's when I heard everything,
Speaker 3: everybody saying, yeah, these guys are looking for you if
Speaker 3: you stated and want to take it. So when I
Speaker 3: was built out, my girlfriend at the time as well
Speaker 3: as my mother, had bags in the car and the
Speaker 3: tickets with me. And that's the very next day I
Speaker 3: was in California.
Speaker 1: Okay, So even though you had nothing to do with this,
Speaker 1: you had to leave town just to be safe in
Speaker 1: California at least for now. And at this point the
Speaker 1: cops aren't even involved yet, and we find out much
Speaker 1: later that Kareem. Of course, Kareem was Raymond Nobles killed
Speaker 1: Kevin Jones and got Byron Johnson to help him dispose
Speaker 1: of the body. These are the two men that Arthur
Speaker 1: Sanders allegedly saw rolling by him in the Gray Dodge,
Speaker 1: but we don't find that out until much later. Now,
Speaker 1: between the time of this crime and when it's investigated,
Speaker 1: Kareem Raymond Nobles died. Now call me crazy, but it
Speaker 1: just might have been. The Jones has had something to
Speaker 1: do with that. So anyway, Now, November twenty first, nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty nine, the police discovered Kevin Jones's body in the
Speaker 1: trunk of the Gray Dodge and the John Wannamaker parking
Speaker 1: lot in Abington Township. The body was bound with electrical cord,
Speaker 1: blanket sheets and some insulation. By that time it was
Speaker 1: badly decomposing, but it's clear that his face had been
Speaker 1: struck with a blunt object several times and then one,
Speaker 1: and this is important, one hard contact, high velocity gunshot.
Speaker 1: When was the cause of death And we'll get to
Speaker 1: why that's important later. So anyway, the investigation begins, and initially,
Speaker 1: after being pressured by both the Jones family and the
Speaker 1: notoriously corrupt detective Martin Devlin. Arthur Sanders implicated Troy.
Speaker 4: According to him, never seen Troy before, and he's sitting
Speaker 4: there waiting for a now and a half. Suddenly a
Speaker 4: car comes by. Now, when you I mean just.
Speaker 2: Logically, when you think about it, if suddenly you see
Speaker 2: a car, first of all, you go, you know, that
Speaker 2: car looks familiar, and then in your mind you go, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: that looks like it's Kevin's car. And then he looks
Speaker 2: at the driver and says, that's not Kevin. It's a
Speaker 2: light skin guy. Then he looks at the passenger, who
Speaker 2: has his hat over his head, and he's able to
Speaker 2: identify him. Now, all this is happening in two or
Speaker 2: three seconds. According to Sanders testimony.
Speaker 3: Off sad to say that the passenger was a real
Speaker 3: sit He had a baseball cap, one pull down over
Speaker 3: his forehead, slouts in the seat and in a photo
Speaker 3: where you said, I look like the passenger putting me
Speaker 3: in the city at the time. However, I'm in the
Speaker 3: Atlantic City. It's a possible identification to me.
Speaker 2: So the inference I would take is that I'm sure
Speaker 2: somebody in the police department in Devlin certainly was willing
Speaker 2: to do something like this to create false evidence, because
Speaker 2: he's done.
Speaker 4: It on multiple occasions, as you all know. And there's
Speaker 4: other cases that you didn't mention that I'm aware of,
Speaker 4: So he probably said, isn't this the guy? And you know,
Speaker 4: Sanders is pretty scared to death anyway, because the family
Speaker 4: is really upset with him. This is an element that's
Speaker 4: not unwilling to use gun play if necessary. That's kind
Speaker 4: of the background of all this and part of the
Speaker 4: reason why Arthur Sanders' statement is so flaky, if you will.
Speaker 4: He's being pressured by the police to give up somebody
Speaker 4: on the one hand, he's being pressured by the family
Speaker 4: on the other, and you know, he says, yeah, that
Speaker 4: it looks like the guy. Now that they are focusing
Speaker 4: on Troy Coleman, they start to focus in on his associates,
Speaker 4: one of whom is Darren Keith Johnson, who was a
Speaker 4: eighteen year old five foot three, one hundred and twenty
Speaker 4: five pounds, soaking wet youth essentially who's brought into homicide
Speaker 4: and who first says.
Speaker 2: I don't know anything about anything, and then they proceed
Speaker 2: to scare the hell out of him by saying, we
Speaker 2: know you do, and the homicide cops pressured him to
Speaker 2: give a statement. They told him that if he didn't
Speaker 2: give a statement, that he was going to go to jail,
Speaker 2: that he wouldn't see his mother again. I'm sure they
Speaker 2: told him that if he went to prison that he
Speaker 2: would be molested there because he was so small. He
Speaker 2: told him that they didn't want the dead guy Kareem Nobles.
Speaker 2: Detective Cohen said, we think that he was involved, but
Speaker 2: we want Troy because this apartment was rented by Troy,
Speaker 2: so he's scared to death and he finally gives up trouy.
Speaker 2: Darren Johnson says, yeah, Troy admitted to me he had
Speaker 2: to lay somebody down. Those two pieces of evidence Arthur
Speaker 2: Sanders sort of ID and Darren Johnson. Now they have
Speaker 2: enough to get an arrest warrant.
Speaker 1: And this is from Darren Johnson's statement about what Troy
Speaker 1: allegedly told him. And now I'm gonna quote, okay ready,
Speaker 1: quote I had to lay somebody down over some drugs.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you how I did it. I put
Speaker 1: my gun up to him and told him to give
Speaker 1: it up. I shot him two to the head. End
Speaker 1: quote how would I know, but it sure sounds like
Speaker 1: it might have been written by somebody other than the
Speaker 1: person who was saying it. Okay, and I'll let your
Speaker 1: imagination take it from there. Now, not only is this
Speaker 1: statement not specific to the victim, Kevin Jones, but it
Speaker 1: also has a very important hallmark of false statements, which
Speaker 1: is factually inaccurate information. As I mentioned earlier, Kevin Jones
Speaker 1: was shot once according to the medical examiner a trial,
Speaker 1: not twice, and from what I understand, they used both
Speaker 1: the carrot and the stick to get this statement from Darren. Subsequently,
Speaker 1: and this will surprise exactly no one in our audience,
Speaker 1: he received leniency for multiple drug charges and this quid
Speaker 1: pro quot and the fact that it was hidden from
Speaker 1: the defense is something that Troy litigated through pro say
Speaker 1: postconviction motions but unfortunated no avail. But the point ends
Speaker 1: up being moved here as Darren Keith Johnson has signed
Speaker 1: multiple affidavits starting in nineteen ninety eight to recant his testimony,
Speaker 1: for which the prosecutor not only threatened him with perjury,
Speaker 1: but we find out later that Darren and his mother
Speaker 1: received ominous threats from the police to stick to the
Speaker 1: original statement. However, back in nineteen ninety, with Arthur Sanders
Speaker 1: and Darren Johnson, they moved forward with your arrest Troy,
Speaker 1: and on to what ends up being really interesting preliminary hearing.
Speaker 3: Yes it was. It was murder, robbery, conspiracy, possession of
Speaker 3: the instament of krun. The preliminary here was April twelfth,
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety and at this preliminary here in Arthus Sanders rightfully,
Speaker 3: I guess he slipped up because he said that we
Speaker 3: were going to see Kareem, and this is throughout the
Speaker 3: preliminary here, and that we were going to see Kareem
Speaker 3: Kareem and is Raymond Nobles.
Speaker 5: My name was not mentioned, which is probably why Judge Merriweather,
Speaker 5: it was a decent judge, decided to dismiss the case
Speaker 5: because if you're going to see Kareem, that's not him.
Speaker 1: Right, Sanders accidentally told the truth even though he had
Speaker 1: been pressured to lie. But they're not nearly done with
Speaker 1: you yet.
Speaker 3: So after Judge Maryweather dismissed the case, then it was
Speaker 3: about a week or two and they rearrested me again
Speaker 3: with the same as that inflammation, and they switched to judges,
Speaker 3: and they put it before another man I think they
Speaker 3: was Judge Eigens, and he held it over for.
Speaker 1: Trial, and it may have ended it in not guilty
Speaker 1: verdict if you hadn't been screwed over by Ed Geiger,
Speaker 1: private investigator who your own family had hired. He was
Speaker 1: supposed to go down to Atlantic City and gather your
Speaker 1: alibi defense. But instead we now believe that he never
Speaker 1: went to Atlantic City or spoke with Richard Crawford, your
Speaker 1: alibi witness, Otherwise he would have found out what the
Speaker 1: state had already discovered, that you stayed at Bally's under
Speaker 1: your own name. Geiger, on the other hand, came back
Speaker 1: with no alibi evidence and told you that your alibi witness,
Speaker 1: Richard Crawford, wasn't willing to testify on your behalf. But
Speaker 1: you don't fully get this picture until two thousand and
Speaker 1: nine though, so at trial you just have your fuzzy,
Speaker 1: drunken memory of ac You thought that you had stayed
Speaker 1: at the ridgemont In under the name Robert Irving. So
Speaker 1: when the state presents Marlene Smith, a Bally's clerk who
Speaker 1: testified to you staying at Bally's under your own name,
Speaker 1: it actually hurt your credibility and put your rock solid
Speaker 1: alibi on shaky ground. Then the state presents the least chemist,
Speaker 1: Lewis Joca, who testified that the betting electrical cord and
Speaker 1: insulation that Jones was wrapped in matched items from the apartment,
Speaker 1: which just established the setting of the crime, but doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily implicate you, Troy. So what was presented at trial
Speaker 1: that convinced the jury that they should find you guilty
Speaker 1: of second degree murder, which, of course they ended up
Speaker 1: doing well.
Speaker 3: I believe that it was the testimony of Derek and
Speaker 3: Junge and coupled with the testimony of Office Sanders. However,
Speaker 3: one of the things that were said in closing was
Speaker 3: that testimony page seven to fifty one by the prosecutor.
Speaker 3: He said, is in fact Troy was in Atlantic City,
Speaker 3: and you believe that he was still involved or he
Speaker 3: put these guys up to it, and this is this
Speaker 3: is something that was said to the jury. You could
Speaker 3: find them guilty of conspiracy and you know, second degree murder.
Speaker 3: So so forth, and then undefeld the murder is actually
Speaker 3: saying that as a result of that robbery, a death occurred.
Speaker 3: We don't believe that he had the take to kill right,
Speaker 3: and that's what secondly we murdered.
Speaker 4: Is here, Well, there's certain enumerated felonies, one of which
Speaker 4: is robbery, and if you during a robbery, if a
Speaker 4: murder occurs, that becomes felony murder, which is unfortunately in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 4: Even if you're convicted of second degree murder, it's life.
Speaker 1: Troy, can you describe for us that awful and probably,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm guessing must have been the worst moment
Speaker 1: of your life when the jury came back in.
Speaker 3: I found you guilty, he said guilty. It was like
Speaker 3: I was just like shocked.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 3: It was so shocking to me that the first couple
Speaker 3: of years they believe Wait only you know, we lost
Speaker 3: a lot of family. My mother died, my grandmother and
Speaker 3: my grandmother died. Ah Domino offend the pain and what happened.
Speaker 3: But I just couldn't believe in believing year we are
Speaker 3: hearing were years later.
Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by Paul Weiss Rifkin, Porton and Garrison,
Speaker 1: a leading international law firm. Paul Weiss has long had
Speaker 1: an unwavering commitment to providing impactful pro bono legal assistance
Speaker 1: to the most vulnerable members of our society and in
Speaker 1: support of the public interest, including extensive work in the
Speaker 1: criminal justice area.
Speaker 3: First all prise to our creative getting me through this
Speaker 3: in constan having that hope that you know it will
Speaker 3: come to it. However, it was a time and actually
Speaker 3: be honest with you. Its just recently when they said
Speaker 3: I was negatived by I know, I was posting, I
Speaker 3: was an infirmity with COVID and I was oh, I
Speaker 3: was deadly sick. I never had a film pane like
Speaker 3: at that time. And this is once ago. I pray,
Speaker 3: ask the Lord, I say that this is I re go. Now,
Speaker 3: don't even gorge no more than you see you feel.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't feel suicidal. But I was like, I was
Speaker 3: okay with I was okay with Nan. I just praise
Speaker 3: that this is a time and I'm not going to
Speaker 3: I'm not going to go home. I'm reve and that
Speaker 3: was my praio. Subsequently, you'll all the same. It's going
Speaker 3: a little hope for me, But yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, you're inspiring other people not to give up hope.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad you're here to talk about this, and
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're fighting. And I think now in Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: there's you know, the progress and and then and that
Speaker 1: should give hope, hopefully to you and many many other
Speaker 1: people who need relief in the Pennsylvania criminal system. Talk
Speaker 1: a little about the post conviction litigation, because this is
Speaker 1: a crazy I mean, like a lot of these cases
Speaker 1: are when they go on this long. I mean, it
Speaker 1: should have been reversed. It should have been freed back
Speaker 1: in ninety three.
Speaker 3: That conspiracy commission in nineteen ninety three has since been
Speaker 3: reversed by the Superior Court of Pensivey, that in it
Speaker 3: of itself was a reason to overturn this case and
Speaker 3: retry me or to let me let me go. However
Speaker 3: that hasn't been the case, which is.
Speaker 1: Just insane to me. Without the conspiracy and being in
Speaker 1: Atlantic City, how are you involved in the murder in
Speaker 1: any degree? Well, they continue to square that circle with
Speaker 1: the two bogus witnesses, Arthur Sanders saying you were in
Speaker 1: the car and Darren Johnson saying that you confess to
Speaker 1: having to quote lay somebody down over some drugs. So
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety eight, Darren Johnson wanted to come clean
Speaker 1: and finally recanted, and he did so. In an affidavit,
Speaker 1: But as we find out later, he and his mother
Speaker 1: were threatened repeatedly by the police and the prosecutor openly
Speaker 1: threatened him with perjury. So when he came to court
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety eight to affirm his recantation, he pleaded
Speaker 1: the fifth. Obviously, he would not have needed to plead
Speaker 1: the fifth if he was just going to repeat his
Speaker 1: bogus testimony. So Troy does most of his post conviction
Speaker 1: litigation pro say meaning by himself from his president, acting
Speaker 1: as his own lawyer, trying to undermine Darren Johnson's trial
Speaker 1: testimony by proving that he had been incentivized by a
Speaker 1: deal for leniency in his own drug charges, and that
Speaker 1: the defense had never been notified about any such deals.
Speaker 3: When Darren he was asked by the prosecutor, David Desiderio,
Speaker 3: do you have any open cases at this time? Darren
Speaker 3: Keith Johnson said yes, one five years pulbation. That's a
Speaker 3: direct quote notes of testimony basedly thirty seven. However, unbeknownst
Speaker 3: to us, that was a lie made all his criminal history,
Speaker 3: where he never spent all five years pul viation. The
Speaker 3: jury is listening to this, did jury say oh, okay,
Speaker 3: he has five years folcation. Okay, so he don't have
Speaker 3: any incentive to testify falsely against this guy because he's
Speaker 3: already been sentenced. Again, unberknownst to us that was a lie.
Speaker 3: Darren actually had open case at that time, which was
Speaker 3: resolved sixty on these after I got convicted.
Speaker 1: But unfortunately, so far post conviction litigation on this matter
Speaker 1: has been totally ignored. The court sided with the DA
Speaker 1: finding him more credible than Darren Johnson. However, that's not
Speaker 1: the last we're going to hear from Darren Johnson. But
Speaker 1: first two thousand and nine, you find out what I
Speaker 1: had mentioned earlier, that your investigator at the time of
Speaker 1: trial lied to you about not being able to find
Speaker 1: any alibi evidence in ac and your alibi witness, Richard Crawford,
Speaker 1: being unwilling to testify. But you hired another private investigator
Speaker 1: later on, Walter P. Lee, And in two thousand and
Speaker 1: nine he finally caught up with Richard Crawford.
Speaker 3: Well, my private investigator, Walter Lee went to school interview.
Speaker 3: Rich Crawbey said that's something that he never said to
Speaker 3: Edgeier said, no, one never came to see me and
Speaker 3: told me nothing about I was whitting in Atlantic City,
Speaker 3: and I would have said that I was whitting in
Speaker 3: Atlantic City, and we had his statement nail, but he
Speaker 3: said that never happened, So that d of himself was probably.
Speaker 4: Not for me.
Speaker 3: With Daniell Richards will sistified, and this is something saw
Speaker 3: some significant mid Crawford called from the hotel. He called
Speaker 3: home to his wife shrill. The prosecutor had the phone
Speaker 3: numbers and those phone calls, and a couple of the
Speaker 3: phone calls was to Richard Crawford's address on McNay Street
Speaker 3: in Philadelphia. They never turned this stuffore.
Speaker 1: So now the evidence is mounting and Darren Johnson recants
Speaker 1: and they don't want to hear it. Your investigator, Walter Lee,
Speaker 1: unearthed your alibi witness, shedding even more light on the
Speaker 1: state's misdeeds in this case, hiding that exculpatory evidence and
Speaker 1: ambushing you with it to undermine the truth, which was
Speaker 1: what they had already known, which is that you were
Speaker 1: in Atlantic City, not Philadelphia. However, if that alibi evidence
Speaker 1: wasn't enough for them to stop pursuing you in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety why would it stop them in nineteen ninety eight
Speaker 1: or two thousand and nine or ever, so another ten
Speaker 1: years go past, and Byron Johnson, who everyone was rightfully
Speaker 1: scared of and wouldn't think of snitching on in two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine. Eineteen, had suffered a non fatal gunshot,
Speaker 1: would it. I guess he didn't want to die without
Speaker 1: having told the truth, so he finally came forward. But
Speaker 1: oddly enough he was shot and killed the following year
Speaker 1: on Juneteenth, twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: The person who was actually in the car and the
Speaker 3: passengers even the car, Bynan Johnson, has confessed to this.
Speaker 3: In twenty nineteen, he did come and he confessed to
Speaker 3: the Crown of disposure of the body, helping Kareem and
Speaker 3: everything else, that he was always a prompt respect who
Speaker 3: was never arrested.
Speaker 4: And there was a fellow named Herb Hartisan who was
Speaker 4: with Byron Johnson who had just been shot, and he
Speaker 4: got in touch with the spell of Artisan and he said,
Speaker 4: get me to somebody, because I want to be able
Speaker 4: to tell the truth about this before I die. And
Speaker 4: he knew that the end was near for him and
Speaker 4: he wanted to do the right thing here, and he
Speaker 4: came and he gave a statement. Hartisan I interviewed him,
Speaker 4: took a statement from him. Walter Lee took the statement
Speaker 4: from Byron Johnson. Byron came in. He said that Kareem
Speaker 4: Nobles called him. He said something about moving some furniture
Speaker 4: or something like that, and he went over and he
Speaker 4: saw the dead body and Kareem said, look, you.
Speaker 2: Help me get rid of his body.
Speaker 4: I'll give you five thousand dollars. And Byron goes, okay,
Speaker 4: I mean that's easy money. What he's going to do
Speaker 4: is put the body in a car and drive away
Speaker 4: and leave the car out in Abington at the John
Speaker 4: Wannamaker store, which they did.
Speaker 3: Byron Johnson was actually a prompt suspect in this case
Speaker 3: and actually Baron K. Johnson. As he was interviewed by
Speaker 3: Room and others, he made it clear that the reason
Speaker 3: why they got Barren took five against me is because
Speaker 3: when I was in California, they believed that I want
Speaker 3: to come back. Until everything they had been watched, I
Speaker 3: didn't know enough to till and he said that Byron,
Speaker 3: you know, put him up.
Speaker 4: Bryron Johnson was a very very violent guy, as Darren
Speaker 4: said in his things. He was good with his fist,
Speaker 4: with knives and with guns. And he was scared to
Speaker 4: death of byron reaction if he were to rat him out.
Speaker 4: So I think that he was finally comfortable enough to
Speaker 4: come forward, which is newly discovered evidence he was unwilling
Speaker 4: to state until after Byron died, and he said the
Speaker 4: same thing that Byron said in his statement, which was
Speaker 4: that Nobles called him got him to help him move
Speaker 4: the body. Byron and Darren Johnson essentially corroborate each other
Speaker 4: as to what happened to her, and so did the
Speaker 4: police because the police believed that Kareem Nobles was.
Speaker 1: Involved, So the two men in the Gray Diedes that
Speaker 1: Sanders allegedly saw were Kareem Nobles and Byron Johnson. Byron's
Speaker 1: confession and Darren's recantation impeached Sanders's shaky id. The cops
Speaker 1: new Kareem was involved, and perhaps the Joneses did too,
Speaker 1: since he wound up dead before the police had a
Speaker 1: chance to nab him. This murder happened in Troy's apartment
Speaker 1: while he was party in ac Other than letting his
Speaker 1: friends use his apartment while he was out of town,
Speaker 1: there was literally nothing else that connected Troy to this crime.
Speaker 4: Troy, you know there's no evidence that he was ever
Speaker 4: involved in any violent crimes. The one time he got
Speaker 4: arrested afterwards, when he was stopped, what did they find
Speaker 4: on marijuana? No guns, no nothing. You could be sure
Speaker 4: that he was stopped because he was driving while black
Speaker 4: in Philadelphia, so they would have searched the hell out
Speaker 4: of that car and that's what they found.
Speaker 1: And I want to just read a quick quote here
Speaker 1: from Darren Johnson, because it's one thing for us to
Speaker 1: talk about this one said this and the other one
Speaker 1: said that. But this is from an affid David on
Speaker 1: September third, twenty twenty that he courageously signed, and he
Speaker 1: said quote. Before the trial, the police kept trying to
Speaker 1: get me to come to court, and I really didn't
Speaker 1: want to. I knew my testimony was a lie. They
Speaker 1: and the prosecutor just told me to follow the script.
Speaker 1: They even went to my mother's house and harassed her
Speaker 1: and threatened her and told her to tell me to
Speaker 1: come back to court or something would happen to both
Speaker 1: of us. That's why in nineteen ninety eight, nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: I tried to testify, but again was threatened and I
Speaker 1: chickened out because I was told that I would go
Speaker 1: to jail for several years for perjury. I was still
Speaker 1: frightened because I was small. The public defender they gave
Speaker 1: to me that day told me to plead the fifth
Speaker 1: and I did. Not only was I small, but I
Speaker 1: only had an eighth grade education. Was a whole lot
Speaker 1: less smart than I am now. I regret then not
Speaker 1: having the courage to go through with telling the truth.
Speaker 1: He goes on to say, still quoting someone might say
Speaker 1: that I'm angry with the police and the district attorney
Speaker 1: because they promised me that I probably wouldn't go to
Speaker 1: jail and then I did. That is not the truth.
Speaker 1: I keep coming back, and I'm willing to testify because
Speaker 1: I know this is the truth, and this lie I
Speaker 1: told that Troy's trial has been bothering me for three decades,
Speaker 1: no matter what anyone threatens me with. Now, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to cave in. I should have done this years
Speaker 1: ago and told the truth about Byron, but I was
Speaker 1: afraid he would kill me or have me killed. I
Speaker 1: would like the opportunity for the court to see me
Speaker 1: in person and know it is in my heart that
Speaker 1: Troy Coleman is not guilty. End quote.
Speaker 6: Other than the testimony of these two people, there's not
Speaker 6: one shread of physical evidence that ties Troy Coleman to
Speaker 6: this crime.
Speaker 1: Nothing. And to hear the words I just read from
Speaker 1: Darren Johnson and add that to Byron Johnson's confession where
Speaker 1: he admits to being the passengor of the car. Does
Speaker 1: Arthur Sanders' shaky id even matter anymore? I mean, the
Speaker 1: guy who would actually be in the gray Dodge told
Speaker 1: us it does not. But if that, somehow is still
Speaker 1: not enough for you, consider some of the things that
Speaker 1: are known about Arthur Sanders. He began with not knowing
Speaker 1: Troy Coleman at all, then switched to he knew him
Speaker 1: from around the neighborhood. More importantly, he had Kevin Jones's
Speaker 1: pager and keys in his possession when Kevin went missing.
Speaker 1: To be in possession of a missing, dead guy's things,
Speaker 1: you're gonna want to place blame on someone else quickly.
Speaker 1: So let's say Sanders actually did see these two guys
Speaker 1: in the passing grade Dodge. I've been saying allegedly this
Speaker 1: entire time, as you might have noticed, But let's just
Speaker 1: suppose for a second that it actually happened. That way,
Speaker 1: Troy and Byron do resemble one another. Now, let me
Speaker 1: be clear, I'm not just some random white dude giving
Speaker 1: cross racial misidentification. Troy can back me up here, Troy,
Speaker 1: that tracks right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I will see that.
Speaker 1: Barie Johnson, now you too, don't look exactly like but
Speaker 1: enough to say they look like one another. And that's
Speaker 1: while you're staring right let alone. While if one were
Speaker 1: to see a guy in a passing car behind glass
Speaker 1: at twenty miles an hour for less than three seconds,
Speaker 1: that's if we even accept that this passing Great Didge
Speaker 1: identification actually happen. It's also entirely possible that this was
Speaker 1: a fabrication to steer the investigation and the Jones is
Speaker 1: away from Sanders and at least in the direction of
Speaker 1: Kareem and Byron. So that said, Jerry, where does this
Speaker 1: case stand now currently?
Speaker 4: I have an emotion for discovery that's still open. I
Speaker 4: think I filed a supplemental in April. It's still open.
Speaker 4: The Commonwealth was going to respond to both of them,
Speaker 4: and I think that's where we're at right now.
Speaker 2: From my perspective, it, I mean, the system has to
Speaker 2: play out itself. I think that they're so busy in
Speaker 2: the CiU, which is a conviction integrity unit, that they
Speaker 2: are just overwhelmed. They have thirteen fourteen hundred cases and
Speaker 2: they've got six or eight, maybe ten people working on them.
Speaker 2: They're all homicides.
Speaker 1: Well, we've been seeing some really great things out of
Speaker 1: the philadel your CiU. Patricia Cummings, Larry Krasner. We know
Speaker 1: they're going to keep up the hard work. I mean,
Speaker 1: just think if you had to research and re litigate
Speaker 1: the last thirty to fifty years of corrupt cases at a
Speaker 1: place like Billy Chicago, New Orleans. Trying to right those
Speaker 1: wrongs is no easy tasks. So your hard work is
Speaker 1: not going unappreciated here. Maybe us shining a light on
Speaker 1: a case like Troy's will help bring it to the
Speaker 1: top of their very formidable pile.
Speaker 3: God will.
Speaker 1: So after hearing all of this, Troy, I know I
Speaker 1: want to do all that I can, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: our audience feels the same way. Is there anything that
Speaker 1: they can do?
Speaker 3: If you want to know more about my case, go
Speaker 3: to chroycolmiancase dot com. Everything from the confession to the
Speaker 3: conspiracy reverbs to the we can't testimony of Marrikee Johnson
Speaker 3: to his deal that he received to go to choicolmicase
Speaker 3: dot com to see it for yourself.
Speaker 1: Well, we'll definitely link your site in the episode bio.
Speaker 1: And with that we now go to my favorite part
Speaker 1: of the show, where I first of all, thank both
Speaker 1: of you so much for joining me here and sharing
Speaker 1: your story. And now I'm going to kick back in
Speaker 1: my chair, turn off my microphone and just listen to
Speaker 1: whatever else you'd like to say. No offense, Jerry, but
Speaker 1: we'll be saving the best for last, our guest of honor,
Speaker 1: which means you'll be leading off.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you Jason for giving me this opportunity to
Speaker 4: address Troy's case. Obviously, there is a lot of facts
Speaker 4: and circumstances here that are extremely troubling. One of the
Speaker 4: problems is back when Troy was arrested, Philadelphia was in
Speaker 4: the midst of one of its worst homicide waves and
Speaker 4: its history. Troy was also dealing with a secondary problem
Speaker 4: in that he had a court appointed counsel. He was
Speaker 4: also dealing with homicide police that wanted to clear cases
Speaker 4: and do it in the convenient way because they were
Speaker 4: being pressured to do so, and therefore they used some
Speaker 4: of the cases, I've seen some shortcuts in order to
Speaker 4: achieve that goal, and one of the shortcuts is that
Speaker 4: they would pressure witnesses, and in this case they had
Speaker 4: two very good subjects that they could pressurize.
Speaker 2: So these are the only two pieces of evidence that.
Speaker 4: Were the backbone and the heart and soul of the
Speaker 4: Commonwealth's case. Once they've been debunked, which I believe they
Speaker 4: have been, and there's been new evidence that's come forward
Speaker 4: from Byron Johnson who said that Kareem Nobles told him
Speaker 4: that he was the shooter and asked him to help
Speaker 4: him dispose of the body. Johnson, unfortunately is dead, but
Speaker 4: he's kind of taken the wraps off of Darren Johnson
Speaker 4: because he was scared to death of this man who
Speaker 4: was extremely violent and that's why he died a violent death.
Speaker 4: But in any way, once these pieces have been debunked,
Speaker 4: it is pretty clear that Troy Coleman is not guilty.
Speaker 1: All right, Troy, over to you.
Speaker 3: I would like to thank everyone for a long to
Speaker 3: have this opportunity, and at this time I would like
Speaker 3: to say I'm to be narrow guying, I mean all
Speaker 3: press due to our Lord. I don't think anything is
Speaker 3: going to come to fruition in regards to this case
Speaker 3: except by the will of our creative God, the Most High.
Speaker 3: I would like to thank Jason and my attorney and
Speaker 3: Connor and all that was involved in this, my family
Speaker 3: who has been supported me through this and my message
Speaker 3: or I like to have a takeaway even if you
Speaker 3: know it's just not about me, but you know at
Speaker 3: this time what got me through these years. And I
Speaker 3: want to encourage a lot of the youth because we're
Speaker 3: actually going through about with our youth today with killing
Speaker 3: and crime and all that is. I want to push
Speaker 3: education and vocational skills that's needed. I'm a founder and
Speaker 3: facilitator of a group of titled Youth Mister Acronym and
Speaker 3: Young Offenders Understanding their habitual Shackles, which is facilitated by myself,
Speaker 3: Technic Boweman and Tracy Box, and we push forward to
Speaker 3: try to help the youth put between agent and eighteen
Speaker 3: and three this and or holding their education and vocational skills.
Speaker 3: I would also like to lasts like Ceichester, which is
Speaker 3: one of the most progressive jails right now for criminal
Speaker 3: justice reform, and at this institution we have more guys
Speaker 3: who went out on commutation, and I would like to
Speaker 3: also move back that I need to file for commutation
Speaker 3: under actual innocence. Perchance it's the falling, definitely, God willing,
Speaker 3: they won't. But this jail has been good for and
Speaker 3: they allow me to do this podcast, and I'm very
Speaker 3: grateful for that. And I hope that other institutions can
Speaker 3: mirror what's going on at our institution here. So I
Speaker 3: would like to take Tastipintendent Islamis and Superintendent east Sign
Speaker 3: and w Wall because these are smart progressives here that
Speaker 3: you know, push for education and vocation and allowing you know,
Speaker 3: college courses and stuff goals if it's not going to
Speaker 3: double jobs. But I'm very grateful for everyone, and God
Speaker 3: will not get me speak about this on the street
Speaker 3: as opposed to you know, for the peditetary that will
Speaker 3: in Icula.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm.
Speaker 1: Please support your local innocence projects and go to the
Speaker 1: link in our bio to see how you can help.
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff Clyburn,
Speaker 1: and Kevin Wardis. The music on the show as always
Speaker 1: is by three time Oscar nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be
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Speaker 1: Flamm is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts and
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