WEBVTT - #280 Jason Flom with Eduardo Dumbrique and John Klene 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:05.720 In the eighties and nineties, Los Angeles gang culture was 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:08.680 much more nuanced than anyone outside of it bothered to know. 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:12.799 For some, gangs meant socializing, while the criminal activity of 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:16.759 others colored all affiliated with the same broad brush gangs 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:19.079 were viewed as a problem that needed a swift and 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.439 harsh solution, and it seems that simply connecting it defended 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:25.599 to a gang was enough to get a conviction. While 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:28.320 fifteen year old de Duardo Dombrica and eighteen year old 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.440 John Clennie were affiliated with LAWNDEL thirteen for the girls, 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:36.480 parties and camaraderie, three older LAWNDEL thirteen members, Santo Alvarez, 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.440 Lester Momlre, and Chad Landrum were in it for the 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:43.840 drugs and violence. On June twenty eighth, nineteen ninety seven, 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:47.320 Antonio Alarkan, a rival gang member, was killed in a 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:51.920 dry by shooting. A few days later, to escape unrelated charges, 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:55.000 Santo Alvarez used his knowledge of that drive by to 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:59.920 blame Duardo and John. A few weeks later, Alvarez, Monmore, 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:02.960 and Landrum committed another murder, and the police were happy 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:05.280 to pin Alvarez's role on a woman who knew the 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:09.200 deceased rather than their star witness against Eduardo and John. 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:13.280 With Alvarez's statement and a corrupt identification process that was 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:16.840 immediately recanted and protested by the witness, the two boys 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:20.160 were taken to trial. Chad Landrum was willing to confess 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:23.440 to the drive bye, but his continued violence behind bars 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:28.119 kept him unavailable. Despite both Alvarez and the witness's less 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:31.960 than willing participation to trial, the prosecutor and the detectives 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:34.399 were able to harp on at Duardo and John's gang 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:38.360 affiliation in order to send them away for life without parole. 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:53.760 This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction today. 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:56.400 Recovering a case, it gives us a peek into the 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.160 gang world of Los Angeles in the nineteen nineties and 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:01.840 the way and will which the LAPD and the Prosecutor's 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:04.720 office dealt with that issue. We have two men that 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:08.360 were affected by those policies when they were just boys. 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:11.840 There's a third wrongfully convicted person, Susan Mellen, from a 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:14.880 related crime. She's not recording with us today, but their 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:19.200 amazing lawyer is one of the founders of Innocence Matters. 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:23.280 Deirdre O'Connor, Welcome to Wrongful Conviction. Thank you for having 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:27.760 me and now our guests of honor, the two men themselves. 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:31.000 You know, I always say this, but it's true. I'm 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:33.720 sorry that you guys are here because of why you're here, 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.720 but I'm really happy to have you on Wrongful Conviction today. 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:40.919 So I'm going to introduce John Clenney first. John, thank 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.200 you for being here with us today on Wrongful Conviction. 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:46.359 Thanks for having me, And of. 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:49.800 Course Ed Dobrique, thank you for joining. 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:51.840 Us, Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.400 So you two guys grew up together. Can you give 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:56.560 us a little background there. 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:00.800 I've known Ed since I was about maybe fifteen. We 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:06.680 both grew up in Londale, California. Londeal's kind of typical 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:11.000 middle class city in the South Bay. You know, it 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:13.880 has its little areas that aren't so great, and it's 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:15.920 some areas are decent. 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:19.400 So it's about ten minutes fifteen minutes from the beach. 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:22.519 I think it's a nice city. It's got a good 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:23.200 high school. 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:25.840 So growing up in Lawndale, there was a gang in 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:27.919 your neighborhood called the Lowndale thirteen. 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:30.640 Well, we grew up there, and we were part of that. 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.160 So you too grew up in the gang culture of 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:35.240 Los Angeles in the eighties and nineties and really came 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:37.120 of age in the nineties. And I think it's news 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:39.720 to some people that the word gang and gang culture 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.320 in general is a bit more nuanced than most of 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:44.880 the country realized back then. You know, many of our 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:47.080 listeners are old enough to remember seeing news reports of 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:49.880 the violence associated with gangs, and that's pretty much all 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.640 anyone outside of that culture knew about it at the time. 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.800 Only negative connotations, of course, So society reacted to that 0:03:56.880 --> 0:04:01.840 perception by electing quote unquote tough on crime politicians who 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:06.040 implemented these kinds of ham fisted policing tactics, which of 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:10.040 course had very real effects, as you can both attest 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:12.200 to locking people up for the sake of doing it, 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:14.120 but not the right people, and in too many cases 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:16.400 it's the wrong people, like in yours. But gang culture 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:19.760 was not just criminality and violence, right, It was much 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.920 more nuanced than that. Would you say that's an accurate depiction. 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:25.640 Yeah, for sure. Even in a single gang it may 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:28.240 be like, you know, some people are just families, some 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:30.960 people are just friends. Of course, you have a criminal 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:34.320 element to it, but that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.680 is involved in crime. The term gang is not a 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:40.719 good one, but it's like when you're young and growing 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:44.800 up and you experience the friendship and the camaraderie, and 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:46.960 I mean that's kind of where you end up at, 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:49.680 especially if you're growing up, like in a neighborhood, you 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:50.800 know where gangs are there. 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:53.400 You know, not everybody is on the same page, not 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.480 everybody gets along. We were having fun, you know, whether 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:59.400 we're trying to get girls, trying to have a good time, 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.360 that's what it was. But you definitely had other guys 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:05.640 that their version of fun or you know, what they 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:08.799 would do is drugs and violence. 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:10.919 What I think is true for all gangs, right is 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.520 that there are little subsets inside the gangs where people 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:19.800 gravitate towards certain activities, you know, chasing girls, maybe scoring 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:21.920 some weed, that kind of thing. And there was that 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.320 kind of group, and then there were the people like Payaso, 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:29.640 which is Santo Alvarez, or Ghost Chad Landrum or Wicked 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:34.200 lester Monlore that were really wanting to make a name 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.600 for themselves. They were getting high all the time and 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.560 doing some real vicious stuff, and they were the ones 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:44.760 out there doing the drive bys and the kind of 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:49.000 gratuitous violence that everybody associates gangs with. 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:50.880 Did you get along with these guys? 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:55.680 We know them. They're all significantly older than us. I 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:58.320 knew Lester when I was growing up a little bit, 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.680 like just as a younger kid, but he kind of 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:04.800 went the drug y kind of violent route, and I 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.640 just was there for kind of like the camaraderie and 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:11.520 the friendships and the fun. I saw Santos on my 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:14.800 block a lot here and there, and my neighbor that 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:18.640 lived in the backhouse, I guess he got his radio stolen, 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:21.760 you know, out of his car in my driveway, you know, 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:26.120 and I always pretty much suspected Santos as being the 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:28.000 one that stole it. 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.040 You know. Okay, so so much for camaraderie. So this 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.479 kind of accurately paints a picture of the divide that's 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.320 at the crux of this story. And I mean by 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:40.359 that the larger perception of gangs in the nineties, and 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:43.119 then how the issue was dealt with, like I said, 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:46.240 in a ham fisted kind of way, by detectives like 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.400 the ones in this case. There was Sergeant Riggs, but 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:53.520 also Marcella Win in a related case Deirdre. Have either 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:57.240 of them had any other wrongful convictions that they've been tied. 0:06:57.040 --> 0:07:02.360 To Win certainly does. She's burial offender. There's at least 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:07.040 five known people ob Anthony and Reggie Cole case. They 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:10.680 were code defendants. It was Wynn's first murder case at 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:12.120 South Bay Homicide. 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:14.720 Yeah, we covered that case here on Rafel conviction and 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:16.000 we'll have it linked in the bio. 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:20.160 Then she had these two guys, Ed and John. Now 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:23.360 she had a tangential role in that, but had she 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.320 done the right thing, these guys would not have been 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:29.760 in custody. She also had the Susan Mellon case where 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:33.920 she relied on a non reliable person obviously unreliable, there 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.440 was no question about it. And then she had another case, 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:41.120 the Michelle Pulo's case, she relied on the same unreliable 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:43.200 witness that she used against Susan Mellon. 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.360 That is really disgusting tactic that we see over and 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:51.240 over again revisiting and reusing the same useful liars like 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:54.080 Mark Tevins did in The Bronx and Upper Manhattan and 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:57.679 this kid Joey Morales, who was a witness in six 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:01.440 different murders in each time he was out getting milk 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:04.920 for his mom. And Danny Ringclen, who we interviewed on 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:08.320 this podcast, which is still in prison three decades later 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:12.920 because of this fake witness, and of course Mark Tevans. 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:15.920 It looks like Win was cut from the same cloth. 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:19.320 She was a terrible detective and didn't follow the rules 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:19.840 at all. 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:22.560 Now, as far as Sergeant Riggs is concerned, you're going 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:24.800 to see what he does in this case in terms 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:29.120 of the identification process, and one can only surmise that 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:31.600 if he was so comfortable running rough shot over a 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:35.040 witness who was protesting at the identification in the courtroom 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:38.640 and in post conviction, Yeah, while at the identification, he's 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.880 literally going, I can't see that far. I can't do 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:45.240 this identification for you because I can't see. So this 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:48.240 guy tried to stand up and do the right thing 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:51.920 and was overruled and overridden and bullied by these cops. 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.640 So it's fair to say that this is something that 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:56.760 this particular officer had done before. 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:59.400 The one thing I would say, Jason, in these in 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:02.280 these gags cases, you know, all bets are off with 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:04.960 these detectives, they can do whatever they want because they 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:07.960 know that nobody has any sympathy. All they have to 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:11.520 do is say the word gang member, and the prosecutors, 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:15.560 the jurors, judges, everybody rallies around a conviction. So the 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.320 rules are completely different in a gang case. And that's 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:23.240 why you see detectives violate the rules as much as 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:24.320 they do because they can. 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.160 Get away with it, right. They violate the rules while 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.480 lumping every gang member in under the umbrella of quote 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:34.000 violent gang member, regardless of what subset of the gang 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.360 that individual identified with. And what happened in this case, 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:42.360 as happens unfortunately all over the country tragically, is that 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:45.920 you have a violent character like Santo Alvarez who conveniently 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:50.160 trades false information for his own freedom, and then he 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:54.360 and they remain free, I mean, other people like him 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.959 to commit more acts of violence while getting innocent folks 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:01.240 wrongfully convicted. And according to the fall information that Alvarez 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:04.760 eventually gave the police. This story began to unfold on 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:07.480 the day before the incident in question, June twenty seventh, 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:09.880 nineteen ninety seven, when a few kids from around the 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:13.480 Lowndal thirteen neighborhood who were not in any way affiliated, 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:16.400 were the victims of a drive by. This was allegedly 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:19.520 perpetrated by members of the Lil Watts Gang. Now none 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:22.240 of this was ever investigated or substantiated, but this story 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:24.839 from Santo Alvarez was used as the alleged motive for 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:29.079 a retaliatory drive by the following night. But did either 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:31.840 of you guys even know the kids who were shot 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:34.200 or shot at the night before, and particularly did you 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:36.760 know nineteen year old Luis Madrano. 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:40.079 I didn't know the guy. Those guys were not associates 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.560 of Londo. They were not friends of Londo that I 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:45.800 know of. But somehow, I guess to maybe create a 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:49.920 motive for our case, they got brought into that as 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:52.400 being a good way to say, oh, yeah, these guys 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:53.640 are retaliating for this. 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:56.600 And what happened the following night June twenty eight, nineteen 0:10:56.640 --> 0:10:59.200 ninety seven, was that a member of the Little Watts Gang, 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.640 twenty five year old Antonio Alakhan, was at an autobody 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:06.000 shop and while outside using the payphone next door, out 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.240 of sight of those in the autobody shop, he was 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:11.319 killed by a drive by shooter. Jeju what else can 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:12.040 you tell us? 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.400 Allar Khan had a truck that was being worked on 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.440 over a period of time at the shop, and the 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:22.560 shop owner, Daniel Curiel, was at the shop that night 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:25.160 with a couple of other people in the shop and 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:28.560 Aller Khan happened to stop by, and while he was there, 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:30.679 I think he got a page and he wanted to 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:34.040 use the phone to call this woman who turned out 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:37.720 to be his mistress. So he was offered to use 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.880 the inside phone, but he declined and decided to go 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:44.880 outside because he wanted privacy. So he went out of 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:48.600 the shop. There's an adjacent building and there's a payphone 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:50.920 outside of that, and he went to the payphone to 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:55.480 speak with his mistress, and then suddenly a car pulled up. 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:59.520 Somebody got out of the car and just unloaded multiple 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:03.400 shots and he was killed really, probably before he had 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:06.200 any chance to react in any way. And then the 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.480 shooter got back in the car and the car drove off, 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:13.160 and as it drove off, it passed the opening of 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:18.120 the body shop garage door. So basically there's the storefront 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:20.880 on the corner adjacent to it is the body shop, 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:23.920 but the body shop sits in from the sidewalk so 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.960 that there's parking in front of it. So when you're 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:30.200 inside the body shop with the door open and looking out, 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:33.600 you would not have a direct line to the phone 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:37.120 booth because the wall of the building would be blocking it. 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:40.920 But once the car moved forward, they would be able 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:42.199 to see the car. 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:45.439 Pass by right, So no one actually got a good 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:47.640 look at the shooter, including the shop owner, who told 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:51.440 detectives that, but detectives cajoled him anyway into making an 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:56.080 id that he has never supported. Curiel even demonstrated later 0:12:56.160 --> 0:13:00.520 at trial that he can't reliably see twenty feet in 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:03.000 front of him. Can you talk a bit about his 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:03.800 vantage point. 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:07.199 Curio's working on a car with his back to the street. 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:11.360 He hears the sound of the gunshots going off, but 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:15.520 he thought it was fireworks, and because of the echoing effect, 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:18.400 he thought it was coming from the back. So he 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:20.680 goes to the back and he looks out to see 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:23.800 what's going on back there, and that's when he realizes 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:26.840 it's coming from the front. And by then the car 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:31.480 is moving past the shop, so he would have been 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:34.200 I think more than twenty feet away from the car 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:35.880 at the time that he first observed it. 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:39.600 So what he and others did see was that this 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:42.160 was a black or dark green colored sedan and that 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.920 the front passenger had yelled some kind of gang epithet 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.520 at Alar Khan as they drove off. So this shooting 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.360 happened around eleven pm on June twenty eighth, nineteen ninety seven. 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:53.240 And from looking into this case, I realized that this 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:57.560 state has some other significance and most of our audience 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:00.960 will remember this like I do, because early that same night, 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:06.320 Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear off during a heavyweight 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:11.520 championship fight. So people remember that night very very clearly. 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:15.400 In fact, you guys were friends. Ed was fifteen, John 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:17.480 was eighteen, and you were hanging out to watch the 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:18.240 fight together. 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:20.960 Is that right, Yes, sir, Yeah, on the day of 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:23.000 had you know, barbecue invited me. 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:25.920 It was actually a great night. You know, we'd never 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:29.680 seen something like that before, right, It was pretty memorable. 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:35.000 There was multiple people there, you know, cooking, eating, drinking it. 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:36.080 It was a good night. 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:39.640 Yeah, that was insane. I remember calling my friends and 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:41.880 family just to check if they had seen it. 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:45.840 Yeah, people called the house a few people and they're like, 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:48.040 what the hell happened seeing it on the news, and 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.480 you know if they didn't watch the fight, you know. 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:54.560 Right, they knew you were watching and called to ask 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.120 about it. You were seen on the front lawn talking 0:14:57.160 --> 0:14:59.160 on your cordless phone by a neighbor as well, who 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:01.760 got home reundled. So not only the people at the party, 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:05.480 but also those that called you and your neighbor, they 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:07.920 all placed you at home at the time of the shooting, 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:10.480 which was about an eight to twelve minute drive away 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:12.520 from your home. And this shooting was alleged to be 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:14.680 in retaliation for the shooting of some kid you didn't 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:18.160 even know. Now, this case was being investigated by Sergeant DORYL. 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:18.600 Riggs. 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:22.880 Several days go by, and on July first, Santo Alvarez 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:25.840 Akapayaso got picked up for possession of a weapon and 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:29.440 a hypodermic needle by Torrence PD. And this is when 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:30.280 the story start. 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:34.840 So basically, Santos Alvarez is in jail, trying to find 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:37.920 his way out of jail, starts telling the I believe 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.120 it was a Torrance Police department where he was at. 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:44.200 You know, hey, I know something about a murder that happened, 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:48.640 and they called the Sheriff's Homicide. 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:50.680 Right so Torrence PD called over to La County Sheriff's 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:54.000 Homicide Department and Sergeant Riggs came to interview Santo Alvarez, 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:57.200 and they started asking about this dark colored car, maybe black, 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:01.400 perhaps green, and while distancing himself from Londeale gang activity, 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:03.560 he said that the only person he can think of 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:05.560 from Londale with a car like that was a guy 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.840 named Robert Caputo. And he said that he saw the 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:10.600 two of you in Kaputo's car on the day of 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:12.480 the murder, among other things. 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:18.200 But also Santo Alvarez creates this story that he saw 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:23.240 me the day of the murder and I was upset 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:27.920 about that shooting from the prior day of Luis Madrano 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.480 and that I wanted to retaliate, and then he said 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:33.880 that he saw me, like you know, a few days 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.960 later or whatever, and says that he overhears me talking 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:41.840 to someone else saying that I shot someone or blasted 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:44.520 that for or something like along those lines is what 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:48.000 he used. So with that, from my understanding, they let 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:51.960 him out. Then they go back to the witnesses. I 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:54.760 feel they put pressure the most on probably Daniel Curriel 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.680 since he was a shop owner and showed him six 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:02.560 packs and coerced him and who identifying us because of 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:04.000 what Santos said. 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:06.720 So you mentioned that Alva said that we were in 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:10.400 Carpudle's car, right, but computer had turned that car in 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:13.000 or sold it. They could tell there that he was 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:15.920 lying about that, and that's a significant thing to lie 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.080 about it. You said they were in a car that 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.000 the guy doesn't have exactly. 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:23.520 Capudle had sold it in February nineteen ninety seven, about 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.840 five or six months before the shooting. Yet Riggs and 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.120 his partner Garcia brought a six pack photo array over 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:33.359 to Curiel with the purpose of getting him to id 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:37.719 YouTube as if they couldn't spot that lie about Capudo's 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:41.800 car right off the bat. This bogus photo lineup happened 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:45.240 on July tenth, I believe, before Ed's arrest, and Curiel 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:48.440 has always disputed this, but Riggs says that he identified 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:50.760 Ed as the shooter and John is the front passenger. 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:53.760 He held a gang epithet. So what really happened here? 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:58.520 Well, Riggs convinces him basically, look, you're never going to 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:00.560 have to go to court. We don't even need you 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:03.160 this is just to help our case a little bit. 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:07.000 We already got these guys, but in reality he was 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:12.560 their entire case. So he convinces Curiel to say, all right, 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:14.679 I'll sign for you today. 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:18.920 My arrest July tenth, nineteen ninety seven, on my way 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:22.119 to the gym with a friend, and he noticed that 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:25.800 there was cow cars behind us, and there was three 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:29.600 of them, and then there was three coming in front 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:32.919 of us. It had a bad feeling, like this is 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:36.720 not a traffic ticket. They pulled us over, pulled the 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:39.960 guns out, drive us off the car, and one of 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:42.680 my mom's friends happened to be driving by, and so 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:47.280 she was across the street just observing. But I was 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:50.240 trying to communicate with her to call my mom. Dude. 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:52.119 I didn't want my mom not to know what happened 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:54.520 to me either, you know. So I was fifteen. They 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:56.000 tried me as an adult, and they sent me to 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:59.240 the county jail, and I found myself in a very 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:04.640 binding section of the ale and that was my kind 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:22.879 of introduction to the system. 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:29.480 Three weeks after the Alercan shooting, Santo Alvarez, Lester Moanler, 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:33.040 and Chad Landrum were hanging out in this house that 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:36.159 had been vacated that was referred to as the Melon 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:39.880 Patch because the family that owned it their last name 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:43.080 was Melon. So they break in the back. They're getting high. 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:47.439 A homeless guy, Richard Daly, who had prior connection with 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:51.080 the woman who used to live there, Susan Mellon, stops by. 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:55.280 They're originally partying with him, and then all of a sudden, 0:19:55.680 --> 0:20:00.879 Chad Landrum viciously attacks Daily maxis head multiple times with 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:04.560 a hammer and kills him. And then with the help 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:09.879 of Santo and Lester, they wrap up the body and 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:13.840 bring it to an alley in San Pedro, where they 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:17.360 set it on fire in hopes of destroying any evidence. 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:19.800 Said well, enable the police to connect them. 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:22.080 Right, And you all didn't find out about this until 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:24.920 post conviction, even though the person who prosecuted both Ed 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:28.840 and John prosecuted this case as well. And we talked 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:31.800 a bit about her before. But the Daily murder fell 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:35.880 on Marcella Win's desk, right, All of these informants came 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:38.399 to her saying it was Piasso ghost and wicked with 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:41.480 the hammer right in the Melon Patch, open and shut, right, 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.000 But that's not what happened. This person Susan Mellon ended 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:48.119 up getting dragged into it in Piaso's stead right instead 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:50.119 of him. How did that happen? 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:53.680 Well, I think initially when she takes the path of 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:57.040 least resistance in all of her investigations, So when people 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:00.359 were handing up the three gang members, she was going 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:02.920 to pursue that and go after them. She even submitted 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:06.199 an Affi David for arrest warrants for all three of them. However, 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:09.400 she doesn't want to do any heavy lifting, so there 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:15.359 wasn't enough evidence for the DA to pursue Piasso and 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:19.159 Wynn didn't do the investigation she needed to build a 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:21.760 case against them. So at the same time that it 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:25.000 was becoming clear that she'd have to work to get 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:30.119 Piasso further implicated in it, this other tweaker, June Patty, 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:33.560 came along and said, Hey, I got some information on Melon. 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:36.199 You can pursue her. And so Wind shifted gears and 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:39.159 went after Melon. And while she was doing this, she 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:44.159 was in communication with Riggs about Piasso's role as a 0:21:44.200 --> 0:21:47.600 witness as their star witness in that case. So in 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:50.760 those conversations that were never documented, the substance of that 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:55.440 was never documented. Clearly these detectives made decisions that benefited 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:58.639 both of them. So Riggs was allowed to use Piasso 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:03.040 in the Alarkan shooting, and Win was free to pursue Melon, 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:06.080 another innocent person, for the Daily murder. 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:10.040