WEBVTT - #258 Maggie Freleng with Melvin Ortiz 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:07.960 So, Jason, I wanted to ask you about relationships in prison, 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:13.000 like intimate relationships. I'm always so surprised when people are 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:18.360 able to have an intimate romantic relationship and keep it 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:20.680 for decades. Is that something that surprised you. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.800 Yeah, I'd be surprised if I wasn't surprised. You know, 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:28.600 it's it's a remarkable testament, I think, to the people 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:31.280 on both ends of that equation, right, you know, and 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:34.040 of course you know, anyone who's ever been in a 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:37.640 long distance relationship probably knows how that can be tricky. Right, 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:39.879 But you're always and now. 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:42.200 You have people in your business all the time. 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:45.800 It's the opposite of spontaneous and romantic, right, and yet 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:48.240 true love finds away. 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:54.280 When I saw it with that resentencing, he would only 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:57.680 have fourteen years left, Maggie, I saw it to myself, well, 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:00.480 I can wait fourteen years for him. That's what my 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:02.440 gut on my heart was telling me. 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:10.200 From Lava for Good. I'm Maggie Freeling, and this is 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:22.840 wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today, Melvin Ortiz. On the 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:27.160 evening of December twenty third, nineteen ninety seven, two masked 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:31.399 gunmen walked into Effie's Pizza Village in Reading, Pennsylvania to 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:35.160 try and rob it, but things went awry and the 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.839 restaurant's beloved owner, George Klausser, wound up dead. 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:41.880 The family says that the response of the neighbors has 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:45.479 been overwhelming, proving how much the young shop owner meant 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:49.160 to the community that meant so much to him, and 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:51.919 the family says that the pain is made even harder 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:54.800 to bear because the men who killed twenty nine year 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:57.080 old George Klausser are still out there. 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:00.240 About a month later, the police placed a ten ten 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:04.920 thousand dollars reward in the local paper to find those gunmen. 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:08.080 A man came forward saying that seventeen year old Melvin 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:12.720 Ortiz told him that he killed George Klausser. The man's 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:22.399 girlfriend said she witnessed this confession. Melvin was swiftly arrested. 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:27.080 He was charged with second degree murder, robbery, aggravated assault, 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:31.080 reckless endangerment, possession of an instrument of a crime, and 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:33.640 attempted theft by unlawful taking. 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.079 Neighbors on Ortiz's block were just as shocked. 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:39.679 He's a very nice person and we didn't think he 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:40.760 would do something like that. 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:46.120 On June fifteenth, nineteen ninety nine, after a highly publicized trial, 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:50.120 a jury convicted Melvin Ortiz of second degree murder and 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:54.840 sentenced him to life without parole. However, Melvin had a 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:59.639 solid alibi nineteen. Witnesses said he was at a birthday 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:03.000 party and the man who claimed Melvin confessed to him 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.840 had a much more sordid history than the prosecution and 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:09.000 police presented. 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:13.320 Like all this just came out years later after. 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:16.400 I'm in calceration, like he was getting away with it 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:19.720 because you know, he's working with the police stuff like that. 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:22.639 They've made a lot of effort and put a lot 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:26.320 of energy and effort into covering. 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.240 Up for him. My name is Melvin Ortiz. 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:34.760 I've been carcerated for twenty four years for crime I 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:35.440 did not commit. 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:36.920 I am innocent. 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:50.080 Melvin Ortiz was born on January fifth, nineteen eighty to 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:51.920 Maria and Juan Ortiz. 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:55.040 You know, I was born in Puerto Rico and No Macoal, 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:55.760 Puerto Rico. 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.200 He's the youngest of three brothers who loved to rough 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:02.200 house and wrestle. When he was a kid, Melvin dreamed 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.560 of being a boxer. Melvin's parents brought their kids to 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:08.440 church every Sunday and taught their sons right from wrong 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:14.400 at family dinners. Mom's cooking was a favorite. When Melvin 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:17.120 was five, the family moved from Puerto Rico to New 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:19.359 York in search of a better life. 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.800 Well, having language burials has been hard on them. To 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:24.800 get a good job and stuff like that. 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:28.200 So you know, they did pretty much what they could, 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:31.880 you know, to raise us, raise us right, and you know, 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:36.280 to me and my did a fantastic job doing that. 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.040 Their first home was in the Bronx, New York. Melvin 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:42.560 remembers this as an exciting time and. 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:45.680 Singing snow for the first time, so it was fun. 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.960 And then you know that whole experience, which is you know, 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:51.760 as a child was great. 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.360 So how old were you when you moved to Reading, Pennsylvania. 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:58.039 I was about I was very young. 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:05.440 Was probably about the third grade, you know, I think 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:07.640 we said like nine years old something like that. 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:11.160 Melvin's parents said they moved to Reading because Redding had 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:14.960 a large welfare program that assisted poor families like theirs. 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:21.080 Reading Pennsylvania was quite different from the Bronx. They moved 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.599 from a borough with one point two million people to 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:28.240 a city with around seventy five thousand. If you look 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:30.880 at Reading on a map, it's between two bigger cities, 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:35.960 Pennsylvania state capital, Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and there's a lot 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:44.280 of farmland in between. Reading was once a major transportation 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:48.920 hub on the Reading Railroad. Yes, that Reading Railroad from monopoly, 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:52.800 but after the decline of heavy industry and the railroads 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:56.360 which helped Reading prosper, the city was on a decline. 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.960 The population, which reached nearly one hundred and twenty three 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.440 i was in at its peak in the nineteen thirties, 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:06.440 had dropped in half by the eighties, and its economy crumbled. 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:11.400 By twenty eleven, Reading, Pennsylvania was dubbed the poorest city 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:15.320 in America, with forty one percent of the city living 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:20.839 in poverty. Around the time Melvin's family moved to Reading 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:25.320 in the early nineties, other Latino families were also moving in. Today, 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:30.520 sixty one percent of the population identifies as Hispanic or Latino, 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:34.080 but back in the eighties and nineties, Latinos were still 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:37.520 a minority in Reading, and Melvin says that was scary. 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:40.200 There was a park I forgot what the name was, 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:45.120 but we often used to go there to jump in 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:48.480 the river and swim and stuff like that. So there 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:52.160 was like a water plant right next to it. So 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.560 a few times we went behind. 0:06:55.320 --> 0:07:00.960 The water plant and we discovered that there was marking 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:04.760 of the circle with the cross like the KKK things 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.960 that used to go on and up the street where 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:09.920 we used to live, like two blocks up. 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:12.440 There was like a Chapter day. 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:17.080 So yeah, like you see the Confederate flag and stuff 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:19.720 like that, So definitely that. 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:23.560 Was there at that time. You know, I personally experienced 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:25.160 been called a three times in. 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:28.720 My life down there were all living down there, so 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:31.600 seeing those type of things that just make you see 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:36.240 things a little bit different than than other people, especially 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:39.520 with the police and stuff like that. 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:45.960 Melvin wasn't a stranger to the police. In nineteen ninety four, 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:49.920 when Melvin was fourteen, he was arrested for receiving stolen property, 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:53.480 although his parents tried to raise their boys right. Local 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:57.000 residents described Writing as a city that sucks you in 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:01.800 into its system and into its crime. Other robberies had 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:04.320 plagued the city in the weeks before the homicide at 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:08.200 Evie's Pizza. In fact, Evie's Pizza was also robbed just 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:11.559 twelve days before the night of the homicide. 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.120 I really didn't feel comfortable in reading out. It feel 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:16.920 like there was pretty much a future day. 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:22.600 But Melvin's dad did believe in a future for his son. 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:25.480 He found a job Core program that would help Melvin 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:29.160 train for a trade like mechanics or electronics. 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.160 When I got there, what caught my interest was like 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:34.880 plumbing because it dealt a little bit with everything. So 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:37.480 you know, I've seen the things that they build, and 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:39.559 it was it was it just seemed real cool. 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:43.800 The school was about two hours away in Red Rock, Pennsylvania, 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:46.200 and Melvin didn't have his own car, so he and 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:48.480 his brother would take the bus and stay at a 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:49.679 dorm during the week. 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:53.040 And you know, I just felt good about it, you 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:53.360 know what I mean. 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:55.839 I felt like I see myself, you know, doing good, 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.080 doing good in life, and just you know, I felt 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:02.440 like I was on my ticket out at a reading 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:04.600 and to be away from. 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:07.680 All the stuff that was just going on there. 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:12.160 Melvin loved the job Corpse school. He loved meeting new people, 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:14.760 and he made good friends in the dorm across the hall. 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:18.320 He envisioned himself graduating from the program surrounded by the 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:22.040 same love camaraderie and encouragement that he witnessed at one 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:25.800 of the graduations, but mostly he saw himself making his 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:31.720 parents proud. In the winter of nineteen ninety seven, Melvin 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:34.240 came home to spend Christmas with his family. He was 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:38.640 feeling great about life. Things were going smoothly, but on 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:42.480 December twenty third, Melvin's life would change forever. 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:48.320 That morning, I went downtown with my sister in law 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:53.080 and hey, that's when I meant That's when I bumped 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:53.880 into Isaac. 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:57.960 Isaac Figueroa was a close friend of Melvin and his brothers. 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:02.360 So Isi told me he was like, said Watson's birthday 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:05.439 party tonight, and he gave me invitation. I said, sure, 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:07.880 you know you're gonna have to pick me up, So 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:10.920 he picked me up between six and six thirty. 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.560 At the birthday party, there was no drinking or smoking 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:17.480 aloud inside, so Melvin and his brother spent most of 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:20.400 the night outside the door to the apartment, letting people 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:24.079 in and out and talking with people through the window lasterday. 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:26.320 Throughout the whole night, TI like. 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:31.720 N That's when Isaac took Melvin home. Melvin had just 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:33.960 spilled a drink on his pants and wanted to hurry 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:36.440 up and change so he could get back to the party. 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:38.760 He had been crushing on a girl there named Tracy, 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:41.600 and he wanted to flirt with her, so he raced home. 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.679 Quickly pulled off his khaki pants, threw on a pair 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:49.600 of black ones, and headed back with Isaac. Around eleven PM, 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:54.440 Melvin's longtime friend Cynthia Jacques called him a murder had 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.120 happened at Effie's, just a block away from her house. 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.760 She was terrified and asked Melvin to come over and 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:06.760 keep her company. At around seven thirty pm that same night, 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:10.880 two masked gunmen walked into Effie's and tried to rob it. 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.040 They shot the owner, George Klausser, in the side while 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:16.839 he was cleaning the grill. The gunman then struggled to 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:19.720 open the register, but they ultimately gave up after a 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:23.400 few minutes and fled empty handed. George was airlifted to 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.720 a nearby hospital, but by the time he arrived it 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:29.360 was too late. The twenty nine year old, who had 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:32.160 named his restaurant after his wife and lived above it 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:39.840 with his family, was dead. Witnesses described the gunman as 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:43.199 eighteen to twenty four years old. One was five foot 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:46.360 eight one hundred and eighty pounds, the other five foot 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:49.920 six with a thin build. The original police report from 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:54.240 a witness described the gunman as two Hispanic males with 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:58.520 Spanish accents, both masked, one wearing white pants and a 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:03.000 blue hoodie and one wearing black pants and a purple hoodie. 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:07.400 Melvin is a five foot seven Hispanic mail that evening 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:09.760 at the time of the shooting, he was wearing a 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:19.840 black hoodie and khaki pants. Police wanted swift justice for 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:22.920 the klausers, but after a few weeks they had nothing. 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:26.880 That's when police offered a ten thousand dollars reward, and 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:30.319 right away a man came forward saying he knew one 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:33.360 of the gunmen, the man who pulled the trigger, and 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:46.880 his name was Melvin Ortiz. This episode is underwritten by AIG, 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:51.200 a leading global insurance company. AIG is committed to corporate 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:54.920 social responsibility and to making a positive difference in the 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:58.040 lives of its employees and in the communities where we 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.000 work and live. In light of the impelling need for 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:05.720 pro bono legal assistance, and in recognition of AIG's commitment 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:09.720 to criminal and social justice reform, the aig pro bono 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:14.680 program provides free legal services and other support to underrepresented 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:22.920 communities and individuals. The man who came forward to the 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:26.120 police and named Melvin Ortiz as the murderer was nineteen 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:29.360 year old John kelty Jeron. He told them that Melvin 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:32.160 had approached him to ask for help robbing a business 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:35.200 in the area to make some quick money. Kelty Jeroon 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:37.600 said that around midnight on the night of the crime, 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.560 Melvin called him and said, quote, things got messed up 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:43.760 and the gun just went off. 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.120 So when I learned about this warrant that they had 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.439 for me, I was pretty much a shock. 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:54.079 You know, when they told me, especially when they told 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:57.040 me what it was for, and I was like, I 0:13:57.120 --> 0:13:57.920 was taking back. 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:01.559 I'm like, what the police send it onto the Orteze 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:03.280 house looking for Melvin. 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:06.680 I called home and I was like, yo, like what's 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:07.200 going on. 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:10.920 I was spoke to my father and he's like, YO, listen, 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:13.120 you got to come over here. 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:14.319 These people are here for you. 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.320 And I said, well, I'm not you know, I'm not 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:20.560 going over there. I didn't physically tell him that, but 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:23.320 I just told myself that, like, nah, I'm not going 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:24.040 to go over there. 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:27.600 It's just the whole situation just felt wrong. 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:31.120 But Melvin's mom was adamant that it would be easier 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:32.680 if he just turned himself in. 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.680 She said, listen, only the guilty runs, you know what 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:39.360 I mean. And I'm like, well, I gave it, and 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:42.280 I said, okay, we will go down there and fix 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:43.080 the situation. 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:47.800 And and when. 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:50.360 I found out the day that the crime happened, that's 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:51.560 when Isaiah's party. 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:55.080 He knew he didn't commit the crime, but his mom's 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:58.520 advice was also risky. So he was relieved he had 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:02.160 a solid alibi the party, and he decided to go 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:06.240 down to the station with his parents, his pastor, Isaac, 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:08.200 and Isaac's wife Shannon. 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.480 Shannon made a listen of the alibis that was there 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.760 at the party, and we all went down there, and. 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:17.280 They confidently brought the list down to the station. 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:18.480 You know. 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:22.240 But what I didn't think about was that what these 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:25.560 people were going to do, It didn't matter what I 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:28.640 had to say, what type of evidence the alibis that 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:32.120 I that I had to present, and it just it 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:34.160 just it just didn't matter what they one. 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.000 It was to get in an arrest. 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:43.880 Melvin never left the police station that day in fact, 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:46.800 it was the last time he was ever free. 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:56.880 I knew him before he went to prison, but we 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:01.360 really didn't get close until after he was indicted and 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:02.520 had turned himself in. 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:06.680 Victoria Blanco first met Melvin when they were both teenagers. 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:09.760 She was in her last year of high school, and initially, 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:12.960 she says, it was more of a friendship. Victoria says 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:15.840 she started writing Melvin in jail because she thought he 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:16.600 was cute. 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:21.560 And at the same time, you know, I was still 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.120 doing my thing as a teenager, you know, as far 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:27.840 as love life is concerned. I would still go and date, 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:30.040 still had other boyfriends, and I actually would go and 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.760 tell him about dates and boyfriends and things that became 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.440 serious as as I got older. 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:40.160 Victoria and Melvin shared everything over the year he was 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:42.280 in jail awaiting trial, and. 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:45.360 Then he would also still be writing like one or 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:48.400 two girls from inside, and we would see, we would 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:54.280 totally devote, you know, secrets that the other people when 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:57.760 were you know, speaking to or talking to, didn't realize 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:00.000 that we were sharing, you know, sharing our lives together. 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:04.120 But Melvin didn't tell Victoria he was in jail awaiting 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.679 trial for murder. She thought this cute guy she was 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:10.960 building a relationship with was in for something minor. It 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:14.040 was only after a few letters that she found out 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:14.600 the truth. 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:17.080 I guess, as you can imagine. You know, I was 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:19.080 still living at home with my parents, and they were 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:22.760 infuriated by the fact that I was talking to Melvin 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:27.400 because the newspapers portrayed him as this like whole blooded 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:32.000 team killer and this horrible person, and my mom's telling me, 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.760 here to be, you're going to become a murderer too. 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:39.080 But Victoria believed in his innocence, and she wasn't alone 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:43.600 because many people at the time did. Remember Melvin had 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:49.320 nineteen alibi witnesses. So you start writing him while he's 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:52.800 in jail before trial, and then he gets convicted. I mean, 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:54.920 what was going through your head then? 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:02.000 So I was in shock, and that was for me 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:05.119 at the time was obviously extremely difficult. It was literally 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:10.639 like time stood still, and I wish no teenager or 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:12.280 anyone would ever have to go through that. 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:21.439 The trial was chaos. There was so much publicity around 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:26.000 the case that Melvin's court appointed lawyers all recused themselves 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:30.240 due to their own various conflicts of interest, five of them, 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:33.240 one after the other In a small town like reading, 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:37.800 this happens often because the roster of public defenders isn't limited. 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:41.080 If any of them have had anything to do with 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:45.119 any person involved in the case, they must recuse themselves. 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:48.359 And in one instance, the attorney just didn't want to 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:53.720 represent Melvin. Melvin had been demonized in the local papers. Eventually, 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:58.159 Attorney Bill Bespells took over. Although Bespells didn't have a 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:02.040 conflict of interest, keme onto Melvin case late right before trial, 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.840 and he only had a couple of weeks to prepare 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:09.840 his first order of business. In an attempt to counter 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.600 inevitable biased or in trial, Bispells requested a change of 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:17.160 venue and a change of jury, but both requests were denied. 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:21.960 On May twenty fourth, nineteen ninety nine, the trial officially started. 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:26.760 The prosecutor Mark C. Baldwin went first. He called witnesses 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:29.520 who were at Effie's the night of the murder. Rodney 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:33.520 Delp testified that he knew Melvin, saw the robbers and 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:37.240 that Melvin was not one of the robbers. Rodney was 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:40.240 the one who described the gunman's clothing in the police report. 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:43.480 Remember one was in white pants and a blue hoodie. 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:46.320 And the other in black pants and a purple hoodie. 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:49.920 That night, again, Melvin wore a black hoodie and khaki 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:53.080 pants that was not what the shooters were described to 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:57.080 be wearing, and later remember he changed into black pants 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:01.280 after the time of the murder. The prosecut Cushin, suggested 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:05.959 this was Melvin's attempt to avoid recognition. This was a 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:09.639 blow to the prosecution, one of their own witnesses saying 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:13.120 it wasn't Melvin and there was no DNA or any 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:16.719 kind of evidence linking Melvin to the crime, But the 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:22.160 prosecutions still had their star witness, John Celtideron under oath 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:25.800 during trial. John said he was quote good friends with 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:30.199 Melvin and that in December nineteen ninety seven, Melvin suggested 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:32.560 to him that the two of them make quick money 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:37.200 by robbing a local business in the area, like FIE's Pizza. 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:42.480 So let's pause for a moment now. You might be 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:47.520 wondering why John Keltigeroon's account of Melvin's quote confession held 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:50.840 so much weight against nineteen alibi witnesses. 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:51.720 Well. 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:55.560 To start, all, nineteen alibi witnesses were not called to 0:20:55.640 --> 0:21:01.040 testify during the trial. Melvin's attorney Bespels only called four 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:04.280 of them, and two of those four were friends of Melvin's, 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:07.240 a jury might see them as willing to say anything 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:11.080 to protect their friend. Second, John is the son of 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:16.440 Thomas Keltagerone, a Democrat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:21.280 And on top of that, John's girlfriend, Tina Valentin, told 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:26.919 police she also overheard the conversation with Melvin. They both 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:31.679 testified that Melvin confessed to the murder. John and Tina 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:34.560 were not the only witnesses to testify for the prosecution, 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:43.080 but their testimonies held the most weight now for the defense. 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:46.960 Although they didn't call all of the alibi witnesses, they 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:50.480 did call Cynthia Jacques, the woman whose house Melvin went 0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:53.320 to near Effie's because she was scared when she heard 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:57.960 about the murder. Cynthia's testimony was key. Cynthia testified that 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:02.119 it wasn't Melvin who committed the botched robbery. What she 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:05.600 said was that John had actually come to her with 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:08.600 a plan to blame it on someone else and then 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:12.000 collect the ten thousand dollars reward money so the two 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:15.000 of them could run off to Mexico with it. Allegedly, 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:20.000 Cynthia and John were having an affair. After four days 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:23.440 of trial, it was time for the jury to decide. 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:26.600 After only two and a half hours of deliberation, the 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:27.720 jury had a decision. 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:31.600 Nineteen year old Melvin Ortiz sat motionless in the courtroom, 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:35.120 showing no emotion as the jury gave its verdict guilty 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:36.479 of second degree murder. 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:40.679 They ruled in favor of John and Tina's testimonies, and 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:45.040 Melvin was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without 0:22:45.280 --> 0:22:54.040 the possibility of parole. It was a blow to everyone 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:57.560 in Melvin's life, including Victoria. She sat through the trial 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:01.159 for the cute boys she caught feelings for when originally 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:04.760 she didn't even think his case would make it to trial, 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:07.880 and she had to think realistically. 0:23:08.080 --> 0:23:11.520 I actually had made a decision to move on, you know, 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:15.320 and stop stop talking or seeing Melvin, because I knew 0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:19.480 in my heart that our friendship was more than just 0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:23.760 a friendship. I will say to back when I then 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:26.000 turned like eighteen or nineteen, I always knew I'm like, 0:23:26.040 --> 0:23:29.080 I'm like, I want to marry Melbourn's. He's like my 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:32.359 best friend. We talk about everything. So it was around 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:35.720 that time that I think I was about twenty. At 0:23:35.720 --> 0:23:39.040 the time I moved on, not only did I stop 0:23:39.080 --> 0:23:41.480 talking to him, but I actually just left the state 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:44.159 of Pennsylvania. 0:23:45.359 --> 0:23:48.920 Melvin was now a convicted murderer, staring down the rest 0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:52.960 of his life behind bars. Was there ever a point 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:55.879 that you might have lost hope and thought that you know, 0:23:55.960 --> 0:23:57.000 you'd be stuck in there. 0:23:56.880 --> 0:23:58.560 Forever lots of time. 0:23:59.440 --> 0:24:02.360 You know you're gonna have your your week moments, your 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:05.160 your hard days, and when you're gonna feel it hopeless, 0:24:05.400 --> 0:24:07.960 you're gonna feel down, You're gonna feel like, man, I'm 0:24:08.000 --> 0:24:09.080 never gonna get out of here. 0:24:09.520 --> 0:24:13.520 You know, Melvin has petitioned for post conviction relief six 0:24:13.760 --> 0:24:17.560 times from twenty and one to twenty sixteen, and he's 0:24:17.560 --> 0:24:19.320 been denied every time. 0:24:20.119 --> 0:24:22.800