Speaker 1: Since the initial release of our coverage of Troy Coleman's case,
Speaker 1: attorney Joseph Moron has joined Troy's team and was able
Speaker 1: to gain access to the original homicide File or h
Speaker 1: file and the Brady material. It's so significant that we
Speaker 1: had to rearrange this episode to accommodate the new evidence,
Speaker 1: which is inserted throughout. Troy has always maintained his innocence,
Speaker 1: but has never said a word about Darren Johnson and
Speaker 1: Byron Johnson's involvement in this case until they themselves came
Speaker 1: forward supporting his claims at the time of our first release. Now,
Speaker 1: with their admissions, as well as previously discovered Brady material
Speaker 1: and this new homicide file evidence, we can finally see
Speaker 1: a clearer picture of what really happened to Kevin Jones,
Speaker 1: as well as subsequently what happened to mister Troy Coleman.
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 poor 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 with a 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: gave way to desperate behavior all over Philly. While Troy
Speaker 1: was away in Atlantic City, on a September twenty sixth,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, Kareem set up a deal with two men,
Speaker 1: Kevin Jones and Arthur Sanders. Sanders claimed to have waited
Speaker 1: down the block while Kevin Jones drove to Troy's apartment
Speaker 1: and his Gray Dodge with forty thousand dollars to buy cocaine. Then,
Speaker 1: after about ninety minutes, two other men allegedly drove past
Speaker 1: Sanders in Jones's gray Dodge, a light skin driver and
Speaker 1: a dark skinned passenger wearing a hat with the brim
Speaker 1: pole down low. There's new evidence that indicates that the
Speaker 1: victim was alive at this time. Nearly two months later,
Speaker 1: Jones's body was discovered in the gray Dodge, beaten bound
Speaker 1: and shot. Arthur Sanders agreed that Troy Coleman's photo looked
Speaker 1: like the passenger who allegedly drove by him. Two months earlier.
Speaker 1: This shaky id, along with Darren Keith Johnson's coerced and
Speaker 1: incentivized false testimony, sent Troy away for life. Despite Darren's recantation,
Speaker 1: Byron Johnson's confession to being the actual passenger that day,
Speaker 1: and some explosive New Brady material, Troy continues to serve
Speaker 1: life for a crime which he was not even in
Speaker 1: Philadelphia to commit. This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: wrongful conviction with Jason Flomm. 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 where
Speaker 1: literal acchoir people before they were arrested. 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 2: Good afternoon, how are you.
Speaker 1: I'm good?
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: And with Troy is Jerry Brown, not the former governor
Speaker 1: of California, but an esteemed attorney from Philadelphia. Thank you
Speaker 1: for joining us on the show today, Jason Pleas, let's
Speaker 1: go back Troy. You grew up in a middle class environment, right.
Speaker 2: I grew up in Mount Are, Philadelphia, which is a
Speaker 2: middle class neighborhood, and I was blessed to live with
Speaker 2: my grandmother, who was well all. We had a beautiful home,
Speaker 2: bedroom home, and you know, everyone who came from that
Speaker 2: home came to be very successful, although went to private school,
Speaker 2: even my father. And my father moved to California. And
Speaker 2: when he moved to California, I was going back and
Speaker 2: forth from California to Philadelphia from my grandmother house, which
Speaker 2: California school curriculum, our junior high curriculum was equal to
Speaker 2: a high school curriculum here in Philadelphia. But you know,
Speaker 2: when I came back to high school here in Phillyppia
Speaker 2: Germantown High School, I was looked at it as kind
Speaker 2: of dirty. I guess, you know, because the academic type
Speaker 2: guess that we came with versus where was over here
Speaker 2: in Philadelphia, and you know, you try your best to
Speaker 2: fit in and you want to be accepted. That's where
Speaker 2: a lot of my de minds came from when I
Speaker 2: got involved with drugs, not needing to, didn't have to,
Speaker 2: you know. Again, my family was well to do, however,
Speaker 2: you know, just to sit in and be a part
Speaker 2: of this particular neighborhood that was in Germantown, which is
Speaker 2: a little bit once of a good lifestyle. I didn't
Speaker 2: live down here. It was a little more lower class
Speaker 2: again from Mount Area. So when I started boxing the day,
Speaker 2: just being down there in the how a couple of
Speaker 2: them guys from brand the neighborhood. After that, subsequently I
Speaker 2: got invoved with him with the about the age of
Speaker 2: seventeen sixteen. We started out young, one the corners till
Speaker 2: 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. It's really crazy that that
Speaker 1: guy became mayor. But seventy two to eighty, and they
Speaker 1: were just beating the shit out of everybody back then,
Speaker 1: and it's really it's crazy that this was a major
Speaker 1: American city. So, Jerry, you were a college student at
Speaker 1: the University of Pennsylvania at that time and you experienced
Speaker 1: or were at least aware of this. Right, This is
Speaker 1: not hyperbole, right.
Speaker 4: Oh no, if you had a little bit of long
Speaker 4: hair like I did, every time you walk down the
Speaker 4: street at night, you were afraid that you were going
Speaker 4: to stop and hassled by the police.
Speaker 5: And 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 ah
Speaker 1: there's a trip down a very ugly memory lane right here.
Speaker 5: In fact, there were fourteen hundred convictions that were overturned
Speaker 5: due to the thirty ninth district. But they're not the
Speaker 5: only ones. There was the one squad cases, the five
Speaker 5: squad cases. I mean, there's been a history in Philadelphia,
Speaker 5: you know, and then in the nineties you have one
Speaker 5: of the cops that was involved in this case, Martin Devlin.
Speaker 5: The number of cases have been overturned because of him.
Speaker 5: It's a very sordid history, right.
Speaker 1: So this of course brings me back to another person
Speaker 1: who was wrong for the convictor who's been on our show,
Speaker 1: Tony Wright, which was ironically the same cop that was
Speaker 1: involved in Troy's case, Martin Devlin. And in the article
Speaker 1: of Rolling Stone magazine about Tony's case, there was a
Speaker 1: pull quote that said that in the nineteen eighties or nineties,
Speaker 1: a black man had a better chance of getting justice
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, Mississippi than in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. So let's go
Speaker 1: to that and of course, Troy, this of course, what
Speaker 1: led up to this, I think indirectly is the fact
Speaker 1: that you were involved, as you've been very honest about,
Speaker 1: in the cocaine business. Can you tell us about that
Speaker 1: and the people that were working under you at the time,
Speaker 1: because they come to play a role in your wrongful conviction.
Speaker 2: Well, when we got involved, it was a couple of
Speaker 2: guys from that neighborhood, particularly down cross the street. And
Speaker 2: this is actual. He's called the Jungle. Some of the
Speaker 2: guys that's involved, Barmi Johnson, Gary Keith Johnson, Raymond Noble's
Speaker 2: in his street meet was dream. My street meeting at
Speaker 2: the time was caussing his with his Kareem So he
Speaker 2: was an older guy, he just got out of jail
Speaker 2: and all this time everybody looked up to him as
Speaker 2: the tough, gut height and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2: To me, it was like comparative that I get them involved.
Speaker 2: It's somewhat for the muscle as well as Byron.
Speaker 5: So you had Byron Johnson, Darren Johnson and Kareem Nobles
Speaker 5: were your underlings. They worked for you.
Speaker 2: Yes, I guess my little intellect being involved in that
Speaker 2: allowed me to shoot up fast. So I had a
Speaker 2: little apartment down in Mars Street. Plaski Town is what
Speaker 2: they called Aeron. But we had an apartment in Pulaski
Speaker 2: Town and it was just for you know, fun, dealing
Speaker 2: with the drug stuff, girls and all that. The Rayman
Speaker 2: Nobles Koree was actually staying in my apartment live in
Speaker 2: Mount Area. I still had that place in Byron. The
Speaker 2: keys to the apartment kareem at keys to the apartment,
Speaker 2: so people had access to it. At that time when
Speaker 2: I was driving BMW's had a nice amount of money
Speaker 2: and I was okay. However, these guys that were working
Speaker 2: for me, okay until a drought came in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 2: Rout is when there's thot drugs, particularly cocaine of elbow
Speaker 2: at that time. And this was a well known time
Speaker 2: because homicideal rose significantly at that time. So when this
Speaker 2: drought came about, I was okay these guys, I didn't
Speaker 2: have anything for him. So they actually ran them up
Speaker 2: for lack of running fleet. They just ran them up.
Speaker 2: They was just doing all kinds of puny stuff. And
Speaker 2: this day in particularly in which this crime happened, myself
Speaker 2: and another gentleman by the name of Richard Crawford. That
Speaker 2: morning of September twenty sixth we went to Atlantic City.
Speaker 2: And when I was in Atlantic City, I think I
Speaker 2: had no more than nine ounces of cocaine left, and
Speaker 2: I actually, you know, trusted claim to deal with that
Speaker 2: while I was gone. And when I left on the
Speaker 2: twenty six We get to Atlantic City. That morning, was gambling,
Speaker 2: taking insights, you know, shopping, talking to all that other stuff,
Speaker 2: to girls whatever. So I was very intoxicated. I wasn't
Speaker 2: willing to drive back to the city, so that night
Speaker 2: we checked the 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 where you had checked in and under what name.
Speaker 1: And then eventually the prosecution presented evidence that you had
Speaker 1: stayed at Bally's under your own name, using your shaky
Speaker 1: memory to impeach your alibi, which makes no sense. They
Speaker 1: impeach your memory of your alibi with evidence of your alibi,
Speaker 1: But why let evidence of your innocence stop them from
Speaker 1: prosecuting you?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: In fact, what we now know is that the state
Speaker 1: was in possession of even more exculpatory evidence, but we'll
Speaker 1: get to that in just a bit. So anyway, the
Speaker 1: crime itself while you were in Atlantic City. Back at
Speaker 1: the apartment in Philadelphia on September twenty sixth, nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: Kareem had set up a deal with Kevin Jones and
Speaker 1: Arthur Sanders. Now, according to Sanders, he and Jones. Kevin
Speaker 1: Jones arrived in the area of the apartment of separate
Speaker 1: cars around one thirty pm with forty thousand dollars to
Speaker 1: buy cocaine. According to Sanders, while he waged down the block,
Speaker 1: Jones continued alone to the apartment in Gray Dodge. Then,
Speaker 1: about an hour and a half later, Sanders allegedly saw
Speaker 1: two men driving the Gray Dodge past him, a light
Speaker 1: skinned man driving and a darker skinned man with the
Speaker 1: brim of his hat pulled down low at the passenger seat.
Speaker 1: This is who Sanders misidentified as being Troy. However, in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, Byron Johnson admitted to being that passenger, right
Speaker 1: that Kareem had hired him to move a body back.
Speaker 1: At this point in nineteen eighty nine, it is unclear
Speaker 1: whether Kareem or Byron even knew that Kevin Jones was
Speaker 1: still alive in the trunk. And we'll get to how
Speaker 1: we know that in just a bit. It's dramatic, so
Speaker 1: stay tuned. That night, though, the Jones family came to
Speaker 1: Troy's apartment armed looking for Kevin Jones. They threatened Troy's
Speaker 1: girlfriend searched the apartment, but no sign of Kevin at
Speaker 1: this point, Troy, Well, you had no way of knowing
Speaker 1: it yet, but you were in a lot of trouble.
Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about with the cops. The cops
Speaker 1: actually kind of ironically inadvertently saved you.
Speaker 2: I got that to put off. The next day, I
Speaker 2: was stop by the police. You know, had my license
Speaker 2: and registration, everything was legit, but they found a bag
Speaker 2: of marijuana in the car, and that might have been
Speaker 2: a good thing, because I got arrested that evening. I
Speaker 2: want I call it home, and that's when I heard everything,
Speaker 2: everybody saying, these guys are looking for you if you
Speaker 2: stated and want to kiked. So when I was built out,
Speaker 2: my girlfriend at the time as well as my mother
Speaker 2: had bags in the car and the ticket to me.
Speaker 2: And that's that very next day, I was in California.
Speaker 1: Even though you had nothing to do with this, You've
Speaker 1: got to leave town for California just to be safe
Speaker 1: from the Joneses. So you bailed out and hopped on
Speaker 1: a flight on September twenty ninth. Now, between the time
Speaker 1: of the abduction and when the body was discovered, Kareem
Speaker 1: aka Raymond Nobles died. Call me crazy but it might
Speaker 1: have had something to do with the Joneses anyway. So now,
Speaker 1: November twenty first, nineteen nine, the police discovered Kevin Jones's
Speaker 1: body in the trunk of the Gray Dodge and the
Speaker 1: john want to make her parking lot at Abington Township. Now,
Speaker 1: by that time the body was badly decomposing, but it
Speaker 1: was clear that his was struck with a blunt object
Speaker 1: several times and then one, and this is important, one
Speaker 1: hard contact, high velocity gun shot wound was the cause
Speaker 1: of death. And we'll get to why that's important in
Speaker 1: a little bit. The body was bound with electrical cord, blankets, sheets,
Speaker 1: and some insulation. The police chemist Lewis Joka, later testified
Speaker 1: matched items from Troy's apartment. So the investigation began, and
Speaker 1: initially while under pressure from both the Jones family and
Speaker 1: the notoriously like unbelievably like hopelessly terrifyingly corrupt Detective Martin Devlin,
Speaker 1: Arthur Sanders was the first to implicate Troy.
Speaker 5: According to him, never seen Troy before, and he's sitting
Speaker 5: there waiting for now, and he suddenly a car comes by. Now,
Speaker 5: when you I mean, just logically, when you think about it,
Speaker 5: if suddenly you see a car. First of all, you go,
Speaker 5: you know, that car looks familiar, and then in your
Speaker 5: mind you go, oh, yeah, that looks like it's Kevin's car.
Speaker 5: And then he looks at the driver and says, that's
Speaker 5: not Kevin. It's a light skin guy. Then he looks
Speaker 5: at the passenger who has his hat over his head,
Speaker 5: and he's able to identify him. Now, all this is
Speaker 5: happening in two or three seconds. According to Sanders's testimony.
Speaker 2: Office said just said that the passenger, he said he
Speaker 2: had a baseball cap on, pulled down over his foreheads,
Speaker 2: slouched in the seat, and in a photo where he said,
Speaker 2: I look like the passenger putting me in the city
Speaker 2: at the time. However, I'm in the Atlantic City. It's
Speaker 2: a possible identification to me.
Speaker 5: Devlin certainly was willing to do something like this to
Speaker 5: create false evidence, because he's done it on multiple occasions,
Speaker 5: as you all know, And so he probably said, isn't
Speaker 5: this the guy. He's being pressured by the police to
Speaker 5: give up somebody on the one hand, he's being pressured
Speaker 5: by the family on the other, and you know, he says, yeah,
Speaker 5: that looks like the guy, and you know, Sanders is
Speaker 5: pretty scared to death anyway, because the family is really
Speaker 5: upset with him. This is an element that's not unwilling
Speaker 5: to use gunplay if necessary. That's kind of the background
Speaker 5: of all this and part of the reason why Arthur Sanders'
Speaker 5: statement is so flaky, if you will.
Speaker 1: And from what I understand, Sanders had Kevin Jones' pager
Speaker 1: and keys in his possession when Kevin went missing, so
Speaker 1: he probably wanted to direct attention away from himself. Now
Speaker 1: I've been saying allegedly every time I mentioned this passing
Speaker 1: great dodge slightly because it may never have actually happened.
Speaker 1: But even if it did, there's an explanation for the misidentification.
Speaker 1: Troy and Byron look somewhat similar. Now let me be clear,
Speaker 1: I'm not just some white dude over here giving cross
Speaker 1: racial misidentification. Troy, you could back me up here, right, yes, John,
Speaker 1: Now you two don't look exactly alike and not twins,
Speaker 1: but enough to say they look like one another. And
Speaker 1: that's what Arthur Sanders ended up saying. And that's when
Speaker 1: he's trying to identify someone with his hat pulled down
Speaker 1: low for less than three seconds behind glass in a
Speaker 1: car that's passing by over twenty miles an hour. That's
Speaker 1: if we even accept that this passing grade Dodge identification
Speaker 1: even ever happened. It's also entirely possible that this was
Speaker 1: just a complete fabrication from either Devlon Sanders or both
Speaker 1: to direct the attention Steer the attention Toy Troy, who
Speaker 1: was a known entity to police and whose apartment was involved.
Speaker 1: But they knew he was in Atlantic City, and then
Speaker 1: they knew he went to California as well. Now, according
Speaker 1: to police, Byron Johnson was a prime suspect from day one,
Speaker 1: and they maybe, I don't know, maybe they thought they
Speaker 1: could get Troy to flip on him. We're not sure
Speaker 1: and we'll probably never know, but that would never happen.
Speaker 1: Troy was not flipping on anybody. And anyway, Troy was
Speaker 1: in California, so he wasn't even available to be pressured
Speaker 1: to give up his friends. But that didn't change when
Speaker 1: he came back either or for the following thirty long years.
Speaker 1: But back in nineteen eighty nine, with only Arthur Sanders's
Speaker 1: shaky I D, the police needed something more for probable
Speaker 1: cause to arrest Troy.
Speaker 5: Now that they are focusing on Troy Coleman, they start
Speaker 5: focusing on his associates, one of whom is Darren Keith Johnson,
Speaker 5: who was a eighteen year old five foot three, one
Speaker 5: hundred and twenty five pounds, soaking wet youth, essentially who's
Speaker 5: brought into homicide and who first says, I don't know
Speaker 5: anything about anything, and then they proceed to scare the
Speaker 5: hell out of him by saying, we know you do,
Speaker 5: and the homicide cops pressured him to give a statement.
Speaker 5: They told him that if he didn't give a statement
Speaker 5: that he was going to go to jail. He wouldn't
Speaker 5: see his mother again. I'm sure they told him that
Speaker 5: if he went to prison that he would be molested
Speaker 5: there because he was so small. He told him that
Speaker 5: they didn't want the dead guy, Kareem Nobles. Detective Cohen said,
Speaker 5: we think that he was involved, but we want Troy
Speaker 5: because this apartment was rented by Troy. So he's scared
Speaker 5: to death and he finally gives up Troy. Darren Johnson says, yeah,
Speaker 5: Troy admitted to me he had to lay somebody down.
Speaker 5: Those two pieces of evidence Arthur Sanders sort of ID
Speaker 5: and Darren Johnson now they have enough to get an
Speaker 5: 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.
Speaker 2: I did it.
Speaker 1: I put my gun up to him and told him
Speaker 1: to give it up. I shot him two to the
Speaker 1: head end quote. Now, not only is this statement not
Speaker 1: specific to the victim, Kevin Jones, but it also has
Speaker 1: a very important hallmark of false statements, which is factually
Speaker 1: inaccurate information. As I mentioned earlier, Kevin Jones was shot
Speaker 1: once according to the medical examiner a trial, not twice.
Speaker 1: And from what I understand, they used both the carrot
Speaker 1: 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 leaning and see for multiple drug charges and
Speaker 1: this quid pro quote and the fact that it was
Speaker 1: hidden from the defense. It's something that Troy litigated through
Speaker 1: pro say post conviction motions but unfortunated no avail. But
Speaker 1: the point ends up being moved here as Darren Keith
Speaker 1: Johnson has signed multiple affidavits starting in nineteen ninety eight
Speaker 1: to recant his testimony, for which the prosecutor not only
Speaker 1: threatened him with perjury, but we find out later that
Speaker 1: Darren and his mother received ominous threats from the police
Speaker 1: to stick to the original statement. However, back in nineteen ninety,
Speaker 1: with Arthur Sanders and Darren Johnson, they moved forward with
Speaker 1: your arrest Troy, and on to what ends up being
Speaker 1: really interesting preliminary hearing.
Speaker 2: Yes it was. It was murder, robbery, conspiracy and possessional
Speaker 2: baseman of Crown. The preliminary here was April twelfth, nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety and at this preliminary here at altus Sanders rightfully,
Speaker 2: I guess he slipped up because he said that we
Speaker 2: were going to see Kareem, and this is throughout the
Speaker 2: preliminary here, and that we were going to see Kareem,
Speaker 2: Kareem in his Raymond Nobles My name was not mitching right.
Speaker 1: He was going to see Kareem, not Troy or your
Speaker 1: street name, Cassim, but Kareem.
Speaker 5: Which is probably why Judge Merriweather, it was a decent
Speaker 5: judge decided to dismiss the case because if you're going
Speaker 5: 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 2: So after Judge Maryweathers dismissed the case, then it was
Speaker 2: about a week or two and they rearrested me again
Speaker 2: with the same as that inflammation, and they switched to judges,
Speaker 2: and he put it before another man I think they
Speaker 2: was Judge Eigens, and he held.
Speaker 1: It over for trial, and it may have ended in
Speaker 1: a not guilty verdict if you hadn't been screwed over
Speaker 1: by ed Geiger, a private investigator who your family had hired. Now,
Speaker 1: this guy was supposed to have gone down to Atlantic
Speaker 1: City and gathered up your alibi de which would have
Speaker 1: literally been the easiest job ever for a private investigator,
Speaker 1: just asked the hotel. But instead we now believe that
Speaker 1: he never even went to Aletic City or bothered to
Speaker 1: speak with Richard Crawford, your aliby witness. Otherwise he would
Speaker 1: have found out what the state had already discovered, that
Speaker 1: you had stayed at Bally's under your own name, and
Speaker 1: another item that was hidden from the defense that Crawford
Speaker 1: had called home several times from the room Geiger failed
Speaker 1: to gather this critical alibi evidence and further told you
Speaker 1: that Crawford wasn't willing to testify at your behalf, which
Speaker 1: was another lie. Richard Crawford was more than willing, but
Speaker 1: you didn't find that out until two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: almost two decades later. Instead, with your fuzzy, drunken memory
Speaker 1: of AC, you thought that you had stayed at the
Speaker 1: Ridgemont Inn under the name Robert Irving. So when the
Speaker 1: state presented Marlene Smith, a Bally's clerk, who testified to
Speaker 1: you staying at Bally's under your own name, it really
Speaker 1: hurt the credibility of your memory. But it still doesn't
Speaker 1: place you in Philadelphia, Not to mention europe Apartment, you
Speaker 1: were in a different city, in a different state, and
Speaker 1: they knew it. Anyway, What's much worse than this private
Speaker 1: investigator doing essentially nothing is what was hidden by the
Speaker 1: state in order to ensure your wrongful conviction. And now,
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, in light of this new evidence
Speaker 1: from the homicide file, you are being an AC only
Speaker 1: makes you unavailable for Kevin Jones's abduction.
Speaker 6: My name is Joseph Moron. I represent Troy Coleman in
Speaker 6: his ongoing PCRA matters. I'm lead counsel on the case.
Speaker 6: I continue to consult with the Jerome Brown. Recently, we
Speaker 6: were able to access Troy Coleman's homicide file with the
Speaker 6: assistance of the courts, which has information or evidence in
Speaker 6: there that the prosecutor possessed during the course of his case.
Speaker 6: We went through this entire file and we found critical
Speaker 6: pieces of evidence that further substantiate Troy Coleman's innocence. We
Speaker 6: found a search warrant, an affidavit of probable cause where
Speaker 6: the police were trying to get phone records because the
Speaker 6: mother of the victim, Kevin Jones, contacted the police and
Speaker 6: gave him some pretty astonishing information that she spoke to
Speaker 6: her son on September nineteenth of eighty nine, that.
Speaker 5: He told her that he was in fear of the.
Speaker 6: Junior Black Mafia the JBM, that he suspected some type
Speaker 6: of foul play. She did not see him since September nineteenth.
Speaker 6: Subsequent to that, on October nineteenth, a little over three
Speaker 6: weeks after the alleged date of death in this case,
Speaker 6: she told the police that she got a phone call.
Speaker 6: She got a collect call from an individual who indicated
Speaker 6: he was a member of the JBM and that they
Speaker 6: had her son, Kevin Jones, in their custody, that he
Speaker 6: was basically kidnapped and they were holding him ransom, presumably
Speaker 6: about ten thousand dollars. She was initially skeptical. An individual
Speaker 6: got on the phone. She indicates it sounded like her son,
Speaker 6: and then the son referred to a pet name of
Speaker 6: the mother, which further in her mind, solidified that it
Speaker 6: was him. They said that they would call back. They called,
Speaker 6: She asked for more information. She wanted a piece of clothing.
Speaker 6: They thought that was fair, but they were basically working
Speaker 6: out a deal the hold to get money because they
Speaker 6: were holding a ransom. The bottom line is this evidence,
Speaker 6: this information was indicating that Kevin Jones was still alive,
Speaker 6: which completely contradicts the entire prosecution theory. This information was
Speaker 6: known to the police was a critical and crucial piece
Speaker 6: of exculpatory evidence that the prosecution and the detectives and
Speaker 6: police with help.
Speaker 1: You should have also been able to show the jury
Speaker 1: that not only were you not at your apartment on
Speaker 1: September twenty sixth, but also that you weren't even on
Speaker 1: the freaking East Coast from September twenty ninth, nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: passed this phone call on October nineteenth, and passed the
Speaker 1: discovery of the body on November twenty first, all the
Speaker 1: way to the following year. I'm talking about all the
Speaker 1: way to January fourth, nineteen ninety Kevin Jones was still alive,
Speaker 1: that he was killed, that he was found, all while
Speaker 1: you were proved in California, which proves that the prosecution
Speaker 1: presented a case that they knew was horseshit, but a
Speaker 1: trial in nineteen ninety they'd attacked your alibi with this
Speaker 1: differing alibi evidence, which seems like a crazy misdirection plan.
Speaker 1: It's pretty weak. But so tell us what else they
Speaker 1: presented to trick the jury into believing you were guilty.
Speaker 2: Well, I believe that it was the testimony of Derek
Speaker 2: and June and coupled with the testimony of Office Sanders. However,
Speaker 2: one of the things that were said in closing was
Speaker 2: that testimony page seven fifty one by the prosecutor. He said,
Speaker 2: if in fact, Troy was in Atlantic City and you
Speaker 2: believe that he was still involved, or he put these
Speaker 2: guys up to it, and this isn't. This is something
Speaker 2: that was said to the jury, you could find them
Speaker 2: guilty of conspiracy and you know, second degree murder, so
Speaker 2: and so forth, and an undefeldy murder is actually saying
Speaker 2: that as a result of that robbery of death occurred,
Speaker 2: we don't believe that he had the intent to kill, right,
Speaker 2: And that's what second we murdered is Here in.
Speaker 5: Tasmania, well, there's certain enumerated felonies, one of which is robbery,
Speaker 5: and if you during a robbery, if a murder occurs,
Speaker 5: that becomes felony murder, which is unfortunately in Pennsylvania, even
Speaker 5: 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. I
Speaker 1: found you guilty, he said guilty.
Speaker 2: It was like I was just like shocked. I was.
Speaker 2: It was so shocking to me that the first couple
Speaker 2: of years they believe wait only Middlin and you know,
Speaker 2: we lost a lot of family. My mother died, my
Speaker 2: grandmother and my grandmother and died. Is a domino offender
Speaker 2: pain and what happened another but I just couldn't believe
Speaker 2: in believing when we are there more years later. First
Speaker 2: got to give all praise to our creator getting me
Speaker 2: through this and constantly having that hope that you know
Speaker 2: and it will come to it. However, it was a
Speaker 2: time and it actually, to be honest with you, it
Speaker 2: just recently when I h they said I was negative,
Speaker 2: but I know I was positive. I was in the
Speaker 2: Germany with COVID and I was, Oh, I was deadly sick.
Speaker 2: I never ever felt no thing like that. And at
Speaker 2: that time, and this is once ago, I prayed and
Speaker 2: I asked the Lord. I said, if this is I'd
Speaker 2: rather go now. And don't even thought this no more
Speaker 2: than just if you feel I wasn't, you know, suicidal.
Speaker 2: But I was like, I was okay with I was
Speaker 2: okay with Dyan. I just praised and this is the time,
Speaker 2: and I'm not going to If I'm not going to
Speaker 2: go home, I'm breddying. And that was my prayer. In subsequently,
Speaker 2: you know, all of this sudden it was stored a
Speaker 2: little hope for me.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you know, you're hiring other people not to
Speaker 1: give up hope. So I'm glad you're here to talk
Speaker 1: about this, and I'm glad you're fighting. And I think
Speaker 1: now in Pennsylvania there's you know, the progress, 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 2: That conspiracy conviction in nineteen ninety three has since been reversed.
Speaker 2: The Superior Court of pensive that in it of itself
Speaker 2: was a reason to overturn this case and retry me
Speaker 2: or to let me, you know, let me go. However
Speaker 2: that hasn't been the.
Speaker 1: Case, which is just insane to me. I mean, without
Speaker 1: the conspiracy and being in Atlantic City for the abduction,
Speaker 1: in California for the murder and the body dump, how
Speaker 1: are you involved in the murder in any way? Well,
Speaker 1: they continue to try to square that circle with the
Speaker 1: two boga This 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 and quote.
Speaker 1: So in nineteen ninety eight, Darren Johnson wanted to come
Speaker 1: clean and finally recanted and did so in an appid David.
Speaker 1: But as we find out later, he and his mother
Speaker 1: were threatened by the police and the prosecutor openly threatened
Speaker 1: him with perjury. So when he here, we hear this
Speaker 1: too much. It makes me sick. So when he came
Speaker 1: to court in nineteen ninety nine to a firmness recantation,
Speaker 1: he was appointed counsel who told him to plead the
Speaker 1: fifth in order to avoid perjury charges, and he did.
Speaker 1: But obviously he would not need to plead the fifth
Speaker 1: if he was just coming to repeat the lies he
Speaker 1: had told at Troy's trial, right, he wouldn't have been
Speaker 1: there at all. So, Troy, you did most of your
Speaker 1: post conviction litigation pro say meaning by yourself from prison,
Speaker 1: trying to undermine Darren Johnson's trial testimony by proving that
Speaker 1: he was incentivized by a deal for leniency in his
Speaker 1: own drug charges, and that the defense was never notified
Speaker 1: about any such deals, and the prosecution got around this
Speaker 1: by promising Darren a deal unofficially Okay, and suspending the
Speaker 1: charges until after Troy's trial, So they weren't technically hiding
Speaker 1: a deal in exchange for Darren's testimony. They were just
Speaker 1: dangling one and Darren later supported that in your post
Speaker 1: conviction motions.
Speaker 2: When Darren he was asked by the prosecutor David Deza Dario,
Speaker 2: do you have any open cases at this time? Darren
Speaker 2: Keith Johnson said yes, one, five years pulbition. That's a
Speaker 2: direct quote. It was a testimony basically thirty seven. However,
Speaker 2: unbeknownst to us, that was a lie made all his
Speaker 2: criminal history of where he never spent all five years polation.
Speaker 2: But jury is listening to this. Did jury say, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: he has five years folcation? Okay, so he don't have
Speaker 2: any incentive to testify falsely against this guy because he's
Speaker 2: already been sentenced. Again, unberknownst to us, that was a lie.
Speaker 2: Darren actually had an open case at that time, which
Speaker 2: was resolved sixty nine days after I got convicted.
Speaker 1: But unfortunately, so far post conviction litigation on this matter
Speaker 1: has been ignored. The court sided with the DA finding
Speaker 1: him more credible than Darren Johnson. However, that's not the
Speaker 1: last we're going to hear from Darren Johnson. But first
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, you find out what I had
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, that you're investigated at the time of trial
Speaker 1: lied to you about not being able to find any
Speaker 1: alibi evidence in ac and your alibi witness, Richard Crawford
Speaker 1: being unwilling to testify. He lied about both of those
Speaker 1: two things. But you hired another private investigator later on,
Speaker 1: guy named Walter P. Lee, and in two thousand and
Speaker 1: nine he caught up with Richard Crawford.
Speaker 2: Well, my private investigator, Walter Lee went to school interview.
Speaker 2: Rich Crawtey said that's something that he never said to
Speaker 2: Edgeier said, no, one never came to see me and
Speaker 2: told me nothing about Rory. I was whit him in
Speaker 2: Atlantic City, and I would have said that I was
Speaker 2: whitting in Atlantic City and we had his statement nail,
Speaker 2: but he said that never happened. So that ind of
Speaker 2: himself was probablyad for me.
Speaker 5: With Daniell.
Speaker 2: Richard is will sistefied. And this is something this awso significant.
Speaker 2: Michard Crawford called from the hotel. He called home to
Speaker 2: his good wife Shrill the Pross to have those phone
Speaker 2: numbers and those phone calls, and well a couple of
Speaker 2: the phone calls was to Richard Crawford's address on McNay
Speaker 2: Street in Philadelphia. They never took this before.
Speaker 1: What weren't they hiding? The only things David Desiderio was
Speaker 1: presenting was the evidence that he and Martin Devon had fabricated,
Speaker 1: and even that was falling apart. Darren Johnson recant, they
Speaker 1: don't want to hear it. Your investigator, Walter Lee Onearth's
Speaker 1: your alibi witness shedding more light on the state's misdeeds,
Speaker 1: hiding that exculpatory evidence and ambushing you with it to
Speaker 1: undermine the truth which they already knew, which was that
Speaker 1: you were in Atlantic City on September twenty six, and
Speaker 1: they also knew that Kevin Jones was still alive while
Speaker 1: you were in California through until the end of the year,
Speaker 1: until the beginning of next year. However, if that alibi
Speaker 1: wasn't enough for them to stop pursuing you in nineteen ninety,
Speaker 1: why would it stop them in nineteen ninety eight or
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine or ever. Right, so another ten
Speaker 1: years go past, and Byron Johnson, who everyone is scared
Speaker 1: of and wouldn't even think of snitching on In twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: had suffered a non fatal gunshot wound, and I guess
Speaker 1: he didn't want to die without having told the truth.
Speaker 1: He didn't die, and he came forward to confess to
Speaker 1: the part that he played with Kareem.
Speaker 5: And there was a sella named Herb Hartisan who was
Speaker 5: with Byron Johnson who had just been shot. And he said,
Speaker 5: get me to somebody, because I want to be able
Speaker 5: to tell the truth about this. And he came and
Speaker 5: he gave a statement. Walter Lee took the statement from
Speaker 5: Byron Johnson. Byron did that. Kareem Nobles called him. He
Speaker 5: said something about moving some furniture or something like that,
Speaker 5: and he went over and he saw the body and
Speaker 5: Kareem said, look, you help me get rid of this body.
Speaker 5: He'll give you five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: So the two men in the Great Dodge that Sanders
Speaker 1: allegedly saw, where Kareem Nobles and Byron Johnson, the cops
Speaker 1: knew that Kareem was involved, and it's believed that the
Speaker 1: Joneses did too, since he wound up dead before the
Speaker 1: police had a chance to nab him. Byron's confession and
Speaker 1: Darren's recantation impeach Sanders a shaky idea of Troy and
Speaker 1: directly at Byron. This murder happened in Troy's apartment while
Speaker 1: he was partying in ac So other than letting his
Speaker 1: friends use his apartment while he was out of town,
Speaker 1: there's nothing else that connected Troy to the abduction on
Speaker 1: September twenty sixth, and certainly not the murder sometime after
Speaker 1: October nineteenth, while he was in a Mercede, again, California,
Speaker 1: three thousand miles away. But the conflict between Byron's confession
Speaker 1: when he talks about moving a body and Miss Jones's
Speaker 1: statement about the phone call that she received. We just
Speaker 1: assumed that Byron and perhaps Kareem didn't know Kevin was
Speaker 1: still alive.
Speaker 6: When you look at Byron Johnson's confession indicating that he
Speaker 6: was contacted by Kareem Nobles to come to the house
Speaker 6: to move a body, specifically the body being Kevin Jones,
Speaker 6: nobody really gets into the fact of whether Kevin Jones
Speaker 6: is still alive or not. In neither this he what
Speaker 6: could have potentially happened. I mean, Byron Johnson was arrested
Speaker 6: at the end of September September twenty ninth for an
Speaker 6: unrelated robbery was technically out of the loops or to speak.
Speaker 6: So the fact that Kevin Jones could have been still alive,
Speaker 6: he may not have known that. And when he ultimately
Speaker 6: confessed back in nineteen, he is just trying to be
Speaker 6: truthful and telling what he knows. That he was called
Speaker 6: by Kareem to move the body and he did so,
Speaker 6: and he was the one in the car with Kareem.
Speaker 6: It further substantiates that Troy had nothing to do with it.
Speaker 1: When Byron Johnson confessed, Darren Keith Johnson could finally speak
Speaker 1: freely and he gave a sworn AFFI David to Walter
Speaker 1: Peeley and Jerry Brown, which was very powerful but has
Speaker 1: never been heard to this very day in open court.
Speaker 1: So we reached out to Darren to give him a
Speaker 1: chance to finally speak publicly.
Speaker 3: When they first came and got me, they laid out
Speaker 3: some pictures and I picked out Karine and they said no,
Speaker 3: but dead man can tall you know.
Speaker 5: Who did it?
Speaker 3: And they kept pointing at Troy saying he did it.
Speaker 3: He did it. So they kept saying, I said no,
Speaker 3: this man right here then he had kicked the chair,
Speaker 3: and you know, they was getting mad, and they kept
Speaker 3: taking my hand and putting my finger at his picture
Speaker 3: and that. Then when they let me go, I was like, no,
Speaker 3: it's this guy. And then you know, one was behind
Speaker 3: me and the other one was at the desk type
Speaker 3: and they said, we know who did it.
Speaker 5: And they start typing stuff up.
Speaker 3: And they made me sign it, and so they bade
Speaker 3: me say that he confessed to me. And then after
Speaker 3: that I wasn't going to court. And then they kept
Speaker 3: arresting My mother. She said, well, they said that they
Speaker 3: going to arrest you if you don't come in the court.
Speaker 3: And the fat da I know he's a fat white guy.
Speaker 3: I don't remember his name. He said, well, well we
Speaker 3: could get you a probation if you testify what the
Speaker 3: detectives told you. And they all was alive. See Troy
Speaker 3: was in Atlantic City because I remember because I said, YO,
Speaker 3: bring me a pair of Gucci sneaks back and he
Speaker 3: started laughing and he was like, I got you. I
Speaker 3: see y'all.
Speaker 5: When I get back, I.
Speaker 3: Said, all right, you got an innocent man in jail
Speaker 3: for something he didn't do. You know, I've been carrying
Speaker 3: that guilt for for a long time.
Speaker 5: Other than the testimony of these two people, there's not
Speaker 5: one shred of physical evidence that ties Troy Coleman to
Speaker 5: this crime.
Speaker 1: Nothing. And to hear the words of Darren Keith Johnson,
Speaker 1: along with Byron Johnson's confession in which he completely nullified
Speaker 1: Arthur Sanders as shaky id that should end the dates
Speaker 1: case right there, full stop. Then there's this newly discovered
Speaker 1: evidence from the homicide file or h file that indicates
Speaker 1: that Kevin Jones died sometime after October nineteenth, while Troy
Speaker 1: was most certainly on the West coast, coupled with all
Speaker 1: of the exculpatory material that this prosecutor would help and
Speaker 1: the fact that Byron may not have been clear on
Speaker 1: whether Kevin Jones was actually dead when he moved him. Well,
Speaker 1: he was arrested on September twenty ninth, nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: It didn't see the outside until well after Kareem had
Speaker 1: died and couldn't tell him the rest of the story.
Speaker 1: So with that said, we're going to go to Joe
Speaker 1: Moron for the current status of Troy's case.
Speaker 6: So we now have submitted an amended PCRA outlining this
Speaker 6: critical information that we found in the homicide file. We
Speaker 6: have served a copy of this petition to the District Attorney.
Speaker 6: We are waiting for the District Attorney to tell us
Speaker 6: when they will respond, but there is a hearing date
Speaker 6: on July seventh, and based on this information that we
Speaker 6: have now found and the previous information, we are going
Speaker 6: to ask for some form of intervention from the court,
Speaker 6: from the judge to force the District Attorney's hands to
Speaker 6: either have a evidentiary hearing immediately on these issues or
Speaker 6: to respond to our amended petition so that the judge
Speaker 6: can make a ruling regarding mister Colemans. And our concern
Speaker 6: is we're caught into the system of procedure in the courts,
Speaker 6: and that being said, it's not unlikely that the DA's
Speaker 6: office will ask for a sixty and ninety day extension
Speaker 6: to answer or respond to our amended petition, and that
Speaker 6: I believe is unfair. So what we're trying to do
Speaker 6: is push the process through the judge by the judge
Speaker 6: really forcing them to kind of respond.
Speaker 1: Now, well, we've previously been seeing some really great things
Speaker 1: out of the Philadelphia CiU, and we hear at wrongful conviction,
Speaker 1: and I personally want to encourage them to end this
Speaker 1: particular injustice as swiftly as it possibly can. We understand
Speaker 1: that the task of researching and re litigating the last
Speaker 1: thirty forty fifty years worth of corrupt cases in a
Speaker 1: place like Philadelphia, you know, trying to write any percentage
Speaker 1: of those wrongs is a tall, tall order. So I
Speaker 1: just want to say that every one of the hard
Speaker 1: working people at Philadelphia CiU, your hard work is not
Speaker 1: going unappreciated here. But also, we originally released this story
Speaker 1: a year ago. It's pastime to end this nightmare, and
Speaker 1: we hope they will join our call for freedom and justice.
Speaker 1: And with that, we're not going to go to my
Speaker 1: favorite part of the show, which of course, is where
Speaker 1: I first thank all three of you for joining me
Speaker 1: here today and sharing your incredible, harrowing story. And now
Speaker 1: I'm going to kick back in my chair, turn off
Speaker 1: my mic, and just listen to whatever else you guys
Speaker 1: would like to say. Jerry and then Joe, why don't
Speaker 1: you guys lead off and then hand the mic off
Speaker 1: to Troy and he'll take us out into the sunset.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you, Jason for giving me this opportunity to
Speaker 5: address Troy's case. Obviously, there is a lot of facts
Speaker 5: and circumstances here that are extremely troubling. One of the
Speaker 5: problems is back when Troy was arrested, Philadelphia was in
Speaker 5: the midst of one of its worst homicide waves and
Speaker 5: its history. Homicide police wanted to clear cases and do
Speaker 5: it in the most convenient way because they were being
Speaker 5: pressured to do so, and therefore they used some of
Speaker 5: the cases I've seen some shortcuts in order to achieve
Speaker 5: that goal, and one of the shortcuts is that they
Speaker 5: would pressure witnesses, and in this case, they had two
Speaker 5: very good subjects that they could pressurize. So these are
Speaker 5: the only two pieces of evidence that were the heart
Speaker 5: and soul of the Comonwell's case. Once they've been debunked,
Speaker 5: which I believe they have been, it is pretty clear
Speaker 5: that Troy Coleman is not.
Speaker 6: Guilty based on Troy's case and its entirety. And if
Speaker 6: you look back from the day that he was initially
Speaker 6: arrested and you start to take apart all the evidence
Speaker 6: in the case, and you start to realize how the
Speaker 6: prosecutor the DA in this case handled the case, and
Speaker 6: you look at all the evidence that was withheld throughout
Speaker 6: the process, key witnesses, criminal history, phone records, It goes
Speaker 6: on and on and on, and I think at some
Speaker 6: point now that we found this additional information, we're hoping
Speaker 6: that the courts will see through this and some immediate
Speaker 6: intervention will happen to help expedite the process of exonerating
Speaker 6: an innocent man who's been sitting in prison for well
Speaker 6: over thirty years.
Speaker 2: At this time, I would like to say I'm to
Speaker 2: be there with guying to being all precidents to oursord.
Speaker 2: I don't think any thinkers want to come to fruition
Speaker 2: in regards to this case, except by the will of
Speaker 2: our creative God Most High. I would like to thank
Speaker 2: Jason and my attorney and Connor and all that was
Speaker 2: involved in this, my family who has been supported me
Speaker 2: through this, and my message you know at this time
Speaker 2: what got me through these years. I want to push
Speaker 2: education and vocational skills that's needed. I'm a founder and
Speaker 2: facilitator of a group entitled Youth Mister Ackronam and Young
Speaker 2: Offenders Understanding their Habitual Shackles, which is facilitated by myself,
Speaker 2: Kevin Bowman and Dracy Box and we push forward to
Speaker 2: try to help the youth put between eight and eighteen
Speaker 2: and thirty of this enhancing and all holding their education
Speaker 2: and vocational skills. But I'm very grateful for everyone, and
Speaker 2: God willing I can be speaking further about this on
Speaker 2: the street as opposed to from the penitentiary. God will.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. I'd like to
Speaker 1: thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff Cliburn, and Kevin Wardis,
Speaker 1: with research by Lyla Robinson. The music in this production
Speaker 1: was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast, and on Twitter at
Speaker 1: wrong Conviction, as well as at Lava for Good. On
Speaker 1: all three platforms, you can also follow me on both
Speaker 1: TikTok and Instagram at It's Jason Flam. Wrongful Conviction is
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