WEBVTT - #214 Jason Flom with Troy Coleman 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:05.760 Troy Coleman split his formative years between California and the 0:00:05.800 --> 0:00:09.520 middle class Philadelphia neighborhood of Mount Airy, but while in Philly, 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:12.280 he attended a rough high school in Germantown, where he 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:17.240 met Byron Johnson, Kareem Nobles, and Darren Keith Johnson. After 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:20.959 Troy graduated, Byron and Kareem were the muscle behind a 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:25.160 cocaine operation that they all ran out of Troy's apartment. However, 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:27.720 a drug drought in the summer of nineteen eighty nine 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:31.720 stimulated desperate behavior all over Philly, and while Troy was 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:35.120 away to Atlantic City on September twenty sixth, nineteen eighty nine, 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:39.920 Kareem allegedly set up a deal with two men, Kevin Jones. 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:40.640 And Arthur Sanders. 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.720 Now. According to Sanders, he waited down the block while 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:48.280 Kevin Jones drove to Troy's apartment in his gray Dodge 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:52.320 with forty thousand dollars to buy cocaine. Nearly two hours later, 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:56.000 Sanders claimed to see two other men driving away in 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:59.280 Kevin Jones's gray Dodge, a light skinned driver and a 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:02.600 darker skin passenger wearing a hat with the brim pull 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:07.480 down low Kevin's body was eventually found in the Gray Dodge. 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:11.480 Sanders agreed that Troy's photo looked like the passenger with 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:15.480 Sander's shaky id and the coerce and incentivized testimony of 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:18.800 Darren Keith Johnson. Troy was sentenced to life in prison. 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:24.560 Despite Darren's nineteen ninety eight recantation and Byron Johnson's twenty 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:28.199 nineteen confession to being the actual passenger in the Gray 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:32.000 Dodge that day, Troy continues to serve life for a 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:36.520 crime for which he was not even in Philadelphia to commit. 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:57.560 This is wrongful conviction with Jason Flamm. Welcome back to 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:00.840 wrongful conviction with Jason Flamm. That's me And today we 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:04.200 have a story that I think is going to rock 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.720 your world in a different kind of way right because 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:11.760 the person that we're interviewing today, Troy Coleman, has been 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:14.520 incarcerated for thirty one years in Pennsylvania for a crime 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.799 he didn't commit. That being said, he wasn't a choir boy. 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:19.440 Some of the people we have on the show, we're 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:22.320 literal acchoir people before they were arrested. 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:23.480 But he is. 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:25.760 Innocent of this crime. He wasn't even the same city 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:30.079 when it happened, or state for that matter. So Troy's 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:34.040 on the phone from prison. Troy, I'm glad you're here, 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:36.280 but I'm sorry you have to be here under these circumstances. 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:37.720 How are you? 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.359 I'm good? Thank you? And with Troy is Jerry Brown, 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:45.760 not the former governor of California, but an esteemed attorney 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:49.280 from Philadelphia. Thank you for joining us on the show today. Jason, 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.720 Let's go back, Troy. You grew up in a middle 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:55.200 class environment, right. 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:58.880 I grew up in Mound Are, Philadelfia, which is a 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:03.079 middle class neighborhood, and I was blessed to live with 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:06.400 my grandmother, who was well off, and we had a 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:10.079 beautiful home, three bedroom home. And you know, everyone who 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:13.480 came from that home came to be very successful, although 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:16.720 went to private school, even my father. And my father 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.520 moved to California, and when he moved to California, I 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.519 was going back and forth from California to Philadelphia from 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:27.520 my grandmother house, which California school curriculum, our junior high 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.919 curriculum was equal to a high school curriculum here in Philadelphia. 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:33.960 But you know, when I came back to high school 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:37.040 here in Philluppia Germantown High School. I was looked at 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:39.480 as kind of nerdy, I guess, you know, because of 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:42.600 the academics. I guess that we came with versus where 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:45.600 was over here at Philadelphia, and you know, you try 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:48.320 your best to fit in and you want to be accepted. 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:52.160 That's where a lot of my de minds came from. 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:55.720 When I had got involved with drugs, not needing to 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.960 didn't have to, you know. Then my family was well 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:01.200 to do. However, you know, just to sit in and 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:03.440 be a part of this particular neighborhood that was in 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:07.160 german Town, which is a little bit wasn't a good 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:09.000 lifestyle that they lived down here. It was a little 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:12.240 more lower class again from Mound areas. So when I 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:15.240 started boxing the DAGs being down there in the gym, 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:18.680 that's how a couple of them guys from around the neighborhood. 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:22.479 After that, subsequently I got involved with them with the 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:26.400 about the age of seventeen sixteen. We started out young 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:28.920 on the quarters, so that's when it began. 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:32.720 So this must have put you on the radar of 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.440 the local police. And we know that in that time 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:39.039 and place, this was a culture that it started with 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:42.560 Frank Rizzo, who as the police chief in Philadelphia from 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:45.520 sixty eight to seventy one. The legacy of brutality and 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:48.520 corruption is widely known, and it thrived in the police 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:52.200 department after he became mayor. Really crazy that that guy 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:54.440 became mayor, but seventy two to eighty and they were 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:56.720 just beating the shit out of everybody back then, and 0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:01.159 it's really it's crazy that this was a major American city. So, Jerry, 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.039 you were a college student at the University of Pennsylvania 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:08.400 at that time, and you experienced were at least aware 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:10.000 of this, Right, this is not hyperbole? 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.200 Right? Oh no, If you had a little bit of 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:16.840 long hair like I did, you every time you walk 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:19.279 down the street at night, you were afraid that you 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:21.760 were going to stop and hassled by the police. And 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:24.360 I'm sure for people of color it was much worse. 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.440 In my research, I mean, these were in the thirty 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.840 ninth District, right, a section of North Philadelphia, which was 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:35.960 a working class, poor black neighborhood. Police routinely made false arrests, 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:39.479 planted drugs, robbed victims, and filed bogus reports to cover 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:42.720 up their actions. So all of this is known now, 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:46.119 it's been documented. This is not us just having a 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:49.160 a there's a trip down a very ugly memory lane 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:49.600 right here. 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.440 In fact, there were fourteen hundred convictions that were overturned 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:55.880 due to the thirty ninth district. But they're not the 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:59.400 only ones. There was the one squad cases, the five 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:03.720 squad cases. I mean, there's been a history in Philadelphia, 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:06.440 you know, and then in the nineties you have one 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:09.400 of the cops that was involved in this case, Martin Devlin. 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:12.080 The number of cases have been overturned because of him. 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.280 It's a very sordid history, right. 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.400 So this of course brings me back to another person 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:20.880 who was wrongful Convictoro's been on our show, Tony Wright, 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:24.680 which was ironically the same cop that was involved in 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:27.920 Troy's case, Martin Devlin. And in the article of Rolling 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.679 Stone magazine about Tony's case, there was a pull quote 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:33.919 that said that in the nineteen eighties or nineties, a 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.680 black man had a better chance of getting justice in Philadelphia, 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:40.039 Mississippi than in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. So let's go to that, 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:43.440 and of course Troy. This of course, what led up 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.440 to this, I think indirectly, is the fact that you 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:49.479 were involved, as you've been very honest about, in the 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:52.279 cocaine business. Can you tell us about that and the 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.800 people that were working under you at the time, because 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:58.679 they come to play a role in your wrongful conviction. 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:01.440 Well, we got involved. It was a couple of guys 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.840 from that neighborhood, particularly down cross the Street, and this 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:08.080 is actually it's called the Jungle. Some of the guys 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:12.239 that's involved Barra Johnson, Garan, Keith Johnson, Raymond Nobles, and 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.680 his street name was Kareem. My street game at the 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:19.880 time was Kassin with his was with his Kareem. So 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:21.600 he was an older guy, he just got out of 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:24.240 jail and all this time everybody looked up to him 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:26.560 as the tough Gert heights On and so forth. To me, 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:28.920 it was like imparative that I get him involved. It's 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.280 somewhat for the muscle as well as Byron. 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:37.520 So you had Byron Johnson, Darren Johnson and Kareem Nobles 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:39.920 were your underlings. They worked for you. 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:43.679 Yes, I guess my little intellect being involved in that 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.840 allowed me to shoot up fast. So I had a 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.960 little apartment down in Mars Street. Klaski Town is what 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:53.160 they called Eron, But we had an apartment in Kulaski 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:55.800 Town and that was just for you know, fun, dealing 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:58.360 with the drug stuff, girls and all that. Raymond Nobles 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:01.040 Koree was actually staying in my part why I lived 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:03.960 in down area. I still had that place in firing 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:06.760 that keys to the apartment between that keys to the apartment, 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:10.240 so people had access to it. At that time, I 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.160 was driving BMW's, had a nice amount of money and 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.320 I was okay. However, these guys that were working for me, 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:20.360 they were okay until a drought came in nineteen eighty nine. 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.920 The drought is when there's thaw drugs, particularly cocaine of 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:26.680 elbow at that time in the city where it could 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.280 be purchased in so and this was a well known 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:34.200 time because the homicidely rose significantly at that time and 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:36.520 it was real bad. So when this drought came about, 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.880 I was okay, these guys, I didn't have anything for him. 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.840 So they actually ran them up for lack of retterfleet. 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:44.480 They just ran them up. They was just doing all 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:47.199 kinds of money stuff. And this day in particular in 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:51.079 which this crime happened, myself and another gentleman by the 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:54.520 name of Richard Crawford. That morning of September twenty sixth, 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:56.440 we went to Atlantic City. And when I was in 0:08:56.480 --> 0:08:59.360 Atlantic City, I think I had no more than nine 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:03.880 ounces of cocaine left, and actually, you know, trusted between 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:06.640 to deal with that when I was going. And when 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:10.120 I left on the twenty sixth, we get to Atlanta 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:14.280 City that morning was getting taking insights, you know, shopping, 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:18.160 talking all that other stuff to girls whatever. So I 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:20.880 was very intoxicated. I wasn't willing to drive back to 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:24.160 the city, so that night we checked it two hotel. 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.679 Okay, so you were in Atlantic City having fun, intoxicated, 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.240 so drunk in fact, that you had a hard time 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:34.160 even remembering which hotel you had checked into and under 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:36.680 what name. And the crazy thing is that the state 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:41.080 eventually used your own shaky memory to impeach you. But 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:44.120 it's so twisted because they actually presented evidence that was 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:48.000 exculpatory because it differed from your memory that you had 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:50.800 in fact stated valleys under your own name. I mean, 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.320 after all, wide, let evidence of you being in Atlantic 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:58.280 City get in the way of prosecuting a man we 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.160 now know and I think they knew that him was innocent. 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:04.839 That should have been the end of this podcast right there, 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:08.640 but it's not. So the crime itself. Back at the 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:12.439 apartment in Philadelphia on September twenty sixth, nineteen eighty nine, 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:15.280 Kareem set up a deal with Kevin Jones and Arthur Sanders. 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:18.320 According to Sanders, he and Kevin Jones arrived in the 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:20.959 area of the apartment in separate cars around one thirty 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:24.920 pm with forty thousand dollars to buy cocaine. Now, Arthur 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.840 Sanders mentioned that the first preliminary hearing of this trial 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:31.120 that he was going to buy this cocaine from Kareem, 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:36.400 not Troy or your street name, Casim, but Kareem, which 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:39.000 is why this case was initially thrown out as it 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:42.319 should have been. But nonetheless, here we are, all these 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:47.240 years later, so again, according to Sanders, Jones continued down 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:50.400 the street in a gray Dodge alone while Sanders waited 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.280 down the block. Then, about an hour and a half later, 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:57.720 Sanders allegedly saw two men driving the gray Dodge passed him, 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:01.360 a light skinned man driving and a darker skinned man 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:03.520 with the brim of his hat pulled down low in 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.920 the passengers receipt. That night, the Jones family came to 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:11.240 Troy's apartment armed looking for Kevin Jones. They threatened Troy's girlfriend. 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.800 The apartment was searched, but alas no Kevin. So at 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.800 this point, Troy, you didn't know it yet, but you 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:19.680 were in a lot of trouble. And I don't mean 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:24.240 what the cops. The cops actually kind of inadvertently saved you. 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.240 When I got back to Philadelphia that next day, I 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:29.360 was stopped by the police. You know, had my license 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:32.280 and registration and everything was legit, but they found a 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:34.199 bag of marijuana in the car. And that might have 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:36.760 been a good thing, because I got arrested that evening 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:39.640 and when I called home, and that's when I heard everything, 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:42.480 everybody saying, yeah, these guys are looking for you if 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:44.520 you stated and want to take it. So when I 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:47.080 was built out, my girlfriend at the time as well 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:50.319 as my mother, had bags in the car and the 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:54.360 tickets with me. And that's the very next day I 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:55.800 was in California. 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:58.200 Okay, So even though you had nothing to do with this, 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:00.480 you had to leave town just to be safe in 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.880 California at least for now. And at this point the 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:06.880 cops aren't even involved yet, and we find out much 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:11.040 later that Kareem. Of course, Kareem was Raymond Nobles killed 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:13.960 Kevin Jones and got Byron Johnson to help him dispose 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:17.200 of the body. These are the two men that Arthur 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:21.520 Sanders allegedly saw rolling by him in the Gray Dodge, 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:24.080 but we don't find that out until much later. Now, 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:27.160 between the time of this crime and when it's investigated, 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:32.960 Kareem Raymond Nobles died. Now call me crazy, but it 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:35.960 just might have been. The Jones has had something to 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:40.040 do with that. So anyway, Now, November twenty first, nineteen 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:42.800 eighty nine, the police discovered Kevin Jones's body in the 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:45.520 trunk of the Gray Dodge and the John Wannamaker parking 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:49.760 lot in Abington Township. The body was bound with electrical cord, 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:53.160 blanket sheets and some insulation. By that time it was 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.760 badly decomposing, but it's clear that his face had been 0:12:56.800 --> 0:13:00.240 struck with a blunt object several times and then one, 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:05.200 and this is important, one hard contact, high velocity gunshot. 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:07.319 When was the cause of death And we'll get to 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:11.479 why that's important later. So anyway, the investigation begins, and initially, 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.360 after being pressured by both the Jones family and the 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:18.840 notoriously corrupt detective Martin Devlin. Arthur Sanders implicated Troy. 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:22.959 According to him, never seen Troy before, and he's sitting 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:24.680 there waiting for a now and a half. Suddenly a 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.120 car comes by. Now, when you I mean just. 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:29.520 Logically, when you think about it, if suddenly you see 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:31.480 a car, first of all, you go, you know, that 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:35.000 car looks familiar, and then in your mind you go, oh, yeah, 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:38.480 that looks like it's Kevin's car. And then he looks 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.880 at the driver and says, that's not Kevin. It's a 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:44.760 light skin guy. Then he looks at the passenger, who 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:48.120 has his hat over his head, and he's able to 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:50.920 identify him. Now, all this is happening in two or 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:54.679 three seconds. According to Sanders testimony. 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.640 Off sad to say that the passenger was a real 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:00.960 sit He had a baseball cap, one pull down over 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:04.440 his forehead, slouts in the seat and in a photo 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:07.400 where you said, I look like the passenger putting me 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:09.360 in the city at the time. However, I'm in the 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.160 Atlantic City. It's a possible identification to me. 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.000 So the inference I would take is that I'm sure 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:19.080 somebody in the police department in Devlin certainly was willing 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:22.640 to do something like this to create false evidence, because 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:23.200 he's done. 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:25.640 It on multiple occasions, as you all know. And there's 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.160 other cases that you didn't mention that I'm aware of, 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:33.080 So he probably said, isn't this the guy? And you know, 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:36.600 Sanders is pretty scared to death anyway, because the family 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:40.160 is really upset with him. This is an element that's 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:44.600 not unwilling to use gun play if necessary. That's kind 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:46.880 of the background of all this and part of the 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:51.640 reason why Arthur Sanders' statement is so flaky, if you will. 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:54.800 He's being pressured by the police to give up somebody 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:57.040 on the one hand, he's being pressured by the family 0:14:57.120 --> 0:14:59.880 on the other, and you know, he says, yeah, that 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.200 it looks like the guy. Now that they are focusing 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:08.200 on Troy Coleman, they start to focus in on his associates, 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:12.480 one of whom is Darren Keith Johnson, who was a 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:17.680 eighteen year old five foot three, one hundred and twenty 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:22.760 five pounds, soaking wet youth essentially who's brought into homicide 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:24.680 and who first says. 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:28.400 I don't know anything about anything, and then they proceed 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.160 to scare the hell out of him by saying, we 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:35.440 know you do, and the homicide cops pressured him to 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.640 give a statement. They told him that if he didn't 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:41.120 give a statement, that he was going to go to jail, 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.480 that he wouldn't see his mother again. I'm sure they 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.240 told him that if he went to prison that he 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:50.200 would be molested there because he was so small. He 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.440 told him that they didn't want the dead guy Kareem Nobles. 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:56.560 Detective Cohen said, we think that he was involved, but 0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:00.440 we want Troy because this apartment was rented by Troy, 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.760 so he's scared to death and he finally gives up trouy. 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.840 Darren Johnson says, yeah, Troy admitted to me he had 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:11.640 to lay somebody down. Those two pieces of evidence Arthur 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:15.400 Sanders sort of ID and Darren Johnson. Now they have 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:17.280 enough to get an arrest warrant. 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:20.760 And this is from Darren Johnson's statement about what Troy 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:24.280 allegedly told him. And now I'm gonna quote, okay ready, 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:29.280 quote I had to lay somebody down over some drugs. 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:31.680 Let me tell you how I did it. I put 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:33.640 my gun up to him and told him to give 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:36.800 it up. I shot him two to the head. End 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:39.360 quote how would I know, but it sure sounds like 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:41.400 it might have been written by somebody other than the 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:43.200 person who was saying it. Okay, and I'll let your 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.280 imagination take it from there. Now, not only is this 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.320 statement not specific to the victim, Kevin Jones, but it 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:53.720 also has a very important hallmark of false statements, which 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:58.120 is factually inaccurate information. As I mentioned earlier, Kevin Jones 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:00.920 was shot once according to the medical examiner a trial, 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:04.000 not twice, and from what I understand, they used both 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:09.200 the carrot and the stick to get this statement from Darren. Subsequently, 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.280 and this will surprise exactly no one in our audience, 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:16.320 he received leniency for multiple drug charges and this quid 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:18.400 pro quot and the fact that it was hidden from 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:21.640 the defense is something that Troy litigated through pro say 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:26.120 postconviction motions but unfortunated no avail. But the point ends 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:29.200 up being moved here as Darren Keith Johnson has signed 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.760 multiple affidavits starting in nineteen ninety eight to recant his testimony, 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:36.840 for which the prosecutor not only threatened him with perjury, 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:39.520 but we find out later that Darren and his mother 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:44.320 received ominous threats from the police to stick to the 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:47.760 original statement. However, back in nineteen ninety, with Arthur Sanders 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:51.680 and Darren Johnson, they moved forward with your arrest Troy, 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:56.120 and on to what ends up being really interesting preliminary hearing. 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:00.639 Yes it was. It was murder, robbery, conspiracy, possession of 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:04.000 the instament of krun. The preliminary here was April twelfth, 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:09.920 nineteen ninety and at this preliminary here in Arthus Sanders rightfully, 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:12.840 I guess he slipped up because he said that we 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.119 were going to see Kareem, and this is throughout the 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:18.280 preliminary here, and that we were going to see Kareem 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:20.119 Kareem and is Raymond Nobles. 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.959 My name was not mentioned, which is probably why Judge Merriweather, 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:27.200 it was a decent judge, decided to dismiss the case 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:30.720 because if you're going to see Kareem, that's not him. 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:34.840 Right, Sanders accidentally told the truth even though he had 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:38.239 been pressured to lie. But they're not nearly done with 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:38.800 you yet. 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:42.280 So after Judge Maryweather dismissed the case, then it was 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:44.960 about a week or two and they rearrested me again 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:49.199 with the same as that inflammation, and they switched to judges, 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:51.159 and they put it before another man I think they 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:53.720 was Judge Eigens, and he held it over for. 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.479 Trial, and it may have ended it in not guilty 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.520 verdict if you hadn't been screwed over by Ed Geiger, 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:04.200 private investigator who your own family had hired. He was 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:06.320 supposed to go down to Atlantic City and gather your 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.720 alibi defense. But instead we now believe that he never 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:12.760 went to Atlantic City or spoke with Richard Crawford, your 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:16.000 alibi witness, Otherwise he would have found out what the 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:19.640 state had already discovered, that you stayed at Bally's under 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:23.040 your own name. Geiger, on the other hand, came back 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:26.560 with no alibi evidence and told you that your alibi witness, 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:30.359 Richard Crawford, wasn't willing to testify on your behalf. But 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:34.000 you don't fully get this picture until two thousand and 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.360 nine though, so at trial you just have your fuzzy, 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:41.280 drunken memory of ac You thought that you had stayed 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:44.679 at the ridgemont In under the name Robert Irving. So 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:48.120 when the state presents Marlene Smith, a Bally's clerk who 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:51.440 testified to you staying at Bally's under your own name, 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:55.119 it actually hurt your credibility and put your rock solid 0:19:55.160 --> 0:20:00.800 alibi on shaky ground. Then the state presents the least chemist, 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:05.440 Lewis Joca, who testified that the betting electrical cord and 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:09.520 insulation that Jones was wrapped in matched items from the apartment, 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:13.040 which just established the setting of the crime, but doesn't 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:17.000 necessarily implicate you, Troy. So what was presented at trial 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:20.520 that convinced the jury that they should find you guilty 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.840 of second degree murder, which, of course they ended up 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:25.240 doing well. 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:27.680 I believe that it was the testimony of Derek and 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:30.880 Junge and coupled with the testimony of Office Sanders. However, 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.199 one of the things that were said in closing was 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:37.560 that testimony page seven to fifty one by the prosecutor. 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:41.160 He said, is in fact Troy was in Atlantic City, 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:43.600 and you believe that he was still involved or he 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:45.600 put these guys up to it, and this is this 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:47.720 is something that was said to the jury. You could 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:51.359 find them guilty of conspiracy and you know, second degree murder. 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.440 So so forth, and then undefeld the murder is actually 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:58.520 saying that as a result of that robbery, a death occurred. 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:01.480 We don't believe that he had the take to kill right, 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:03.200 and that's what secondly we murdered. 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:08.080 Is here, Well, there's certain enumerated felonies, one of which 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:11.200 is robbery, and if you during a robbery, if a 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:16.760 murder occurs, that becomes felony murder, which is unfortunately in Pennsylvania. 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:20.040 Even if you're convicted of second degree murder, it's life. 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:23.600 Troy, can you describe for us that awful and probably, 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:25.400 I mean, I'm guessing must have been the worst moment 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:28.199 of your life when the jury came back in. 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:31.000 I found you guilty, he said guilty. It was like 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:33.560 I was just like shocked. 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:33.879 I was. 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:36.879 It was so shocking to me that the first couple 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:40.560 of years they believe Wait only you know, we lost 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:42.720 a lot of family. My mother died, my grandmother and 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:49.480 my grandmother died. Ah Domino offend the pain and what happened. 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:52.800 But I just couldn't believe in believing year we are 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:53.840 hearing were years later. 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:10.480 This episode is underwritten by Paul Weiss Rifkin, Porton and Garrison, 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:14.160 a leading international law firm. Paul Weiss has long had 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:18.480 an unwavering commitment to providing impactful pro bono legal assistance 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:21.040 to the most vulnerable members of our society and in 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:24.879