Speaker 1: In September of nineteen ninety three, Wilson Rivera and his
Speaker 1: friend Roger Murfick were lying in wait to rub a
Speaker 1: pizza delivery driver in South Detroit. They'd been tipped off
Speaker 1: that the pizza guy was carrying a couple thousand dollars
Speaker 1: in drug money, but the payoff was less than they expected,
Speaker 1: only a few hundred dollars. A few nights later, two
Speaker 1: masked gunmen burst into a nearby house. Twenty year old
Speaker 1: Doug Williams and his mother, Lavanda were both shot and killed.
Speaker 1: The investigator's theory was that Doug had known about the
Speaker 1: robbery and was killed to keep him from snitching. The
Speaker 1: police wasted no time in rounding up some local gang
Speaker 1: members for questioning, including Wilson Rivera.
Speaker 2: They are risk me at my house. I'm under the
Speaker 2: assumption that they're looking for me for the robbery, and
Speaker 2: so when they take me to homicide, I'm thinking that
Speaker 2: this is a trick that they're playing on me, so
Speaker 2: that I could go ahead and admit to the robbery.
Speaker 1: Wilson had a solid alibi for that night, but one
Speaker 1: by one, the other suspects were dropped from the investigation.
Speaker 1: By the time Wilson went to trial, he was the
Speaker 1: only one left.
Speaker 2: My name is Wilson Rivera and for the last thirty
Speaker 2: years I've been seven times for crima. Did not commit from.
Speaker 1: Lava for good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling
Speaker 1: today Wilson Rivera. Wilson Rivera was born in nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: four in southwest Detroit.
Speaker 2: My whole family's porter. My mother was born in Chicago,
Speaker 2: but my father I was born in Puerto Rico, so
Speaker 2: we have family on both sides of the ocean, if
Speaker 2: you will. I spent most of my time as a
Speaker 2: teenager in Detroit, but I was raised in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2: My mother tells me that as a child, she said,
Speaker 2: I was I was a pretty lively individu you. As
Speaker 2: a child, I'm animated, hyper to a degree. Always, she said.
Speaker 2: I always always smiled.
Speaker 1: But the family had its troubles. Both of Wilson's parents
Speaker 1: struggled with substance abuse.
Speaker 2: My father was an alcoholic. He was as far as
Speaker 2: I could remember images, I could see my father being
Speaker 2: a man abuser, getting in domestical youth. My mother ended
Speaker 2: up engaging drugs, drinking, and so her life at that
Speaker 2: time she did. My mother had a lot of personal
Speaker 2: issues and personal demons that she was struggling against that
Speaker 2: she never could deal with at the time, so her
Speaker 2: life was spiraling out of control.
Speaker 1: Wilson's parents separated, and his father ended up moving back
Speaker 1: to Puerto Rico. His mother did her best to care
Speaker 1: for Wilson and his brother Antonio.
Speaker 2: My mother did struggle at the time, but she may
Speaker 2: do with what we had. I don't remember going hungry,
Speaker 2: and we always have something to eat, whether it was
Speaker 2: some wig or food stamps or focus home. I can
Speaker 2: honestly said that we became somewhat of introverts, Me and
Speaker 2: my brother. We could depend on each other, but that
Speaker 2: was about it only because throughout our childhood it was
Speaker 2: always me and hid that were together, Me and my
Speaker 2: older brother. It's alway about one year Antonio.
Speaker 1: For most of his childhood, Wilson went back and forth
Speaker 1: between their mother and Detroit and their father in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty four, when he was ten, they moved
Speaker 1: back to Detroit, but he struggled in school.
Speaker 2: I had the language barrier. We didn't really speak English.
Speaker 2: They placed us in bilingual classes where basically we were
Speaker 2: just put in a classroom and as far as I
Speaker 2: can remember, just left there. That you become kind of
Speaker 2: like ostracized, and I began to resent school. I was
Speaker 2: constantly getting to fight in school and get in trouble.
Speaker 1: The trouble continued through his teens.
Speaker 2: I used to be a member. We were through a
Speaker 2: local street gang, Camel Boys Incorporated CBI, and consequently we
Speaker 2: was involved in a lot of mischievous behavior as in
Speaker 2: the neighborhood, and I started getting trouble shoplifting and things
Speaker 2: of that nature at the time and skipping out of school.
Speaker 1: But soon the neighborhood mischief was escalating into something else.
Speaker 2: About nineteen eighty seven, Southwest Detroit began to receive the
Speaker 2: influx of national gangs. There were two or three primary
Speaker 2: gags for Chicago who ended up coming to Southwest Detroit
Speaker 2: and they began to recruit individuals and what ends up
Speaker 2: happening local street gangs in the neighborhood. We all bended
Speaker 2: us one together and where we were constantly fighting with
Speaker 2: these the gangs.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety, when Wilson was sixteen, one of his
Speaker 1: friends was shot in the face by a member of
Speaker 1: a rival gang. This led to an incident that would
Speaker 1: end up having deep repercussions for Wilson.
Speaker 2: Basically, one of my other friends went and got a weapon,
Speaker 2: a shotgun, and brought me the shotgun and I opened
Speaker 2: fire at the rival gang, and as I fled the scene,
Speaker 2: I came face to face with a member of the
Speaker 2: Detroit Police. I pulled the webinarut and as I pulled
Speaker 2: the webin out, I hope discharged it and it didn't
Speaker 2: hit him. Later on the following day, I was arrested
Speaker 2: and eventually I pled guilty to the offense.
Speaker 1: He was charged with attempt to commit bodily harm on
Speaker 1: a police officer.
Speaker 2: That's what I want you to do, w I'm for.
Speaker 1: Wilson spent over two years at the Maxie Boys Training School,
Speaker 1: a juvenile correction facility about an hour outside of Detroit,
Speaker 1: and when he was released in nineteen ninety three, he
Speaker 1: still hadn't graduated high school, but he did manage to
Speaker 1: find a job in a factory.
Speaker 2: At the time I was working, but then I had
Speaker 2: suffered a hand injury or gusha wound where I couldn't
Speaker 2: really use my hand and keep up with the production.
Speaker 2: So instead of being fired I quit the job, and
Speaker 2: the way that I will survive it would be either
Speaker 2: petty hustle or I will engage in small and I'm
Speaker 2: not minimizing it, but it was what we would consider
Speaker 2: small robberies in the neighborhood, and it would be dope
Speaker 2: dealers or things of the source.
Speaker 1: Wilson got by on the petty crimes and was still
Speaker 1: running with the Camel Boys, but when he was around nineteen,
Speaker 1: his girlfriend told him some news that made him want
Speaker 1: to change his lifestyle.
Speaker 2: I was excited when I found out that Sho was pregnant.
Speaker 2: I wasn't I wouldn't say I was scared, but I
Speaker 2: knew that I want to make like a shift in
Speaker 2: my life. I wanted to be a person for my daughters, and.
Speaker 1: To Wilson, that meant leaving gang life behind, but he
Speaker 1: found that was easier said than done.
Speaker 2: I had started applying for jobs. I wanted to try
Speaker 2: to see if I could get back in the old
Speaker 2: factory where I was working at, but maybe in a
Speaker 2: different position where it then requires for me to work
Speaker 2: in the machines that I had to be working on before. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: though I still live in the same environment. Though the
Speaker 2: neighborhood where I lived at, like my house was smacked.
Speaker 2: It in the middle of basically all the rival gangs
Speaker 2: that I was in fights with, So there was one
Speaker 2: of them things where it was kind of constantly going
Speaker 2: back and forth.
Speaker 1: Wilson was living in the neighborhood, spending his nights at
Speaker 1: his girlfriend's house and leaving early in the morning to
Speaker 1: try and avoid the other gangs.
Speaker 2: I figured that me going home in the mornings would
Speaker 2: be a lot safer as opposed to you know, coming
Speaker 2: home at midnight or late at night time because said
Speaker 2: by that company rival gangs, because he that you're home.
Speaker 1: Wilson had decided to give up the petty crime in
Speaker 1: gang life, but he hadn't found a job yet and
Speaker 1: he was still involved with the same crowd. One of
Speaker 1: his friends, kal Matta, was in a gang called the
Speaker 1: cash Flow Posse, a gang that the Camel Boys had
Speaker 1: an alliance with. Cal also worked at a local pizza shop,
Speaker 1: and one day Cal approached Wilson and his friend Roger
Speaker 1: Murfk with a scheme to make some easy money.
Speaker 2: What he had informed those was that there was a
Speaker 2: guy that was delivering pizzas, but he was doing so
Speaker 2: while at the same time challenge drugs, we were led
Speaker 2: to believe that this person had at least two thousand
Speaker 2: dollars from drug proceeds on himself.
Speaker 1: On September twelfth, nineteen ninety three, Wilson and Roger were
Speaker 1: armed and waiting to rob the pizza guy along his route,
Speaker 1: but he was taking longer than they expected, so they
Speaker 1: thought they might have missed him. Roger knew a guy
Speaker 1: named Douglas Williams who lived across the street, and he
Speaker 1: went over to Doug's house to ask if he could
Speaker 1: use the phone.
Speaker 2: Eventually, the piece that every guy comes and we robbed
Speaker 2: the guy and he didn't have no two thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: He didn't have eight hundred dollars. The individual actually only
Speaker 2: had four hundred dollars. So when Kel comes to the
Speaker 2: apartment after he gets out of work at ten o'clock
Speaker 2: and he asked for his portion of the money, I
Speaker 2: told him he wasn't going to get the money because
Speaker 2: he lied about what the guy had, and so we
Speaker 2: fell out over there.
Speaker 1: And that should have been that robbery and a small
Speaker 1: argument over a few hundred dollars, but it wasn't. Twenty
Speaker 1: year old Douglas Williams lived with his parents, Lavanda and
Speaker 1: Daniel Brown, and three days after the pizza man was robbed,
Speaker 1: two men burst into their house wearing ski masks. One
Speaker 1: of the intruders shot and killed both Doug and Lavanda,
Speaker 1: but Daniel, Doug's father survived. He talked with police shortly afterwards.
Speaker 1: Daniel told them that Doug had known about the armed
Speaker 1: robbery from a few days before.
Speaker 3: Daniel Brown said that his son Doug had told him
Speaker 3: that Wilson Rivera and Roger Murfick were the two individuals
Speaker 3: involved in that armed robbery.
Speaker 1: This is Wilson's post conviction attorney, Rachel Wolfe.
Speaker 3: There was plenty there for the prosecution to latch onto
Speaker 3: and for the police to investigate, because they knew exactly
Speaker 3: who Roger Murfick and Wilson Rivera were at the time.
Speaker 1: And one member of the Detroit Police Department, Officer Gerald Packard,
Speaker 1: had his own reasons for focusing on Wilson. The officer
Speaker 1: that Wilson had shot at back when he was sixteen.
Speaker 1: Officer Ayala was Packard's partner.
Speaker 3: So Officer Packard knew Wilson. He knew that he had
Speaker 3: gotten what I imagine Packard would assume is a short
Speaker 3: sentence for something like that. He is not on the
Speaker 3: homicide team. He was not part of the homicide investigation,
Speaker 3: but he was the one when he heard that Roger
Speaker 3: and Wilson were potentially suspects. He was the one that
Speaker 3: went to Wilson's apartment knocking on the door, and then ultimately,
Speaker 3: once the warrant was obtained, just busted right in to
Speaker 3: the apartment.
Speaker 2: And when they arrest me at my house, I'm under
Speaker 2: the assumption that they're looking for me for the robbery.
Speaker 2: And so when they take me, the homicide Sergeant Morell
Speaker 2: tells me that he's arrested me for murder. I'm thinking
Speaker 2: that this is a trick that they're playing on me
Speaker 2: so that I could go ahead and admit to the robbery.
Speaker 1: But Wilson knew nothing about the homicide. The night of
Speaker 1: the shooting, he had been with his girlfriend and her
Speaker 1: mother at their house. He didn't learn about the shooting
Speaker 1: until the next day, when he found out that Roger
Speaker 1: had also been arrested.
Speaker 2: I've seen Roger aside, and when they put him in
Speaker 2: a bulkin, and that's when I asked Rogers like what's
Speaker 2: going on, and he explained to me what had actually
Speaker 2: taken place with the murder with the ham size. Now again,
Speaker 2: I'm operating under this concept of loads that we have
Speaker 2: within the gang, right, so I'm not going to say nothing.
Speaker 2: They're not going to say nothing, you know, and we
Speaker 2: just take it out and see what happens. In my mind,
Speaker 2: I'm assuming that eventually the facts are going to bear
Speaker 2: me out. Since I don't have nothing to do with it,
Speaker 2: it's just a matter of time before I'm clear. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: if we could see, that's not where I ended up
Speaker 2: taking place.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.
Speaker 1: You can listen to this and all the Lava for
Speaker 1: Good podcasts one week early and ad free by subscribing
Speaker 1: to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Pods cast. In
Speaker 1: the aftermath of the shooting, the Detroit homicide squad, headed
Speaker 1: up by Officer Carrie Russell, rounded up a number of
Speaker 1: local gang members and charged them with the murders. One
Speaker 1: of the first to be arrested with cal Mata.
Speaker 3: They knew they were looking for Wilson and Roger. They
Speaker 3: went to this house that was a known location for
Speaker 3: both the cash Flow Posse gang and the Camel Boys Gang,
Speaker 3: so they they came in, they arrested Cal. At that time,
Speaker 3: he was the only person in that apartment with a
Speaker 3: number of firearms. They also found a ski mask and
Speaker 3: a jacket inside of that apartment that they ultimately seized
Speaker 3: and ended up admitting at trial as well.
Speaker 1: While in custody, Cal told Officer Packard that he had
Speaker 1: heard Wilson and Roger talking about Doug Williams calling him
Speaker 1: a snitch. Cal took that to me and they were
Speaker 1: going to take steps to make sure Doug couldn't report
Speaker 1: them for the robbery. The police also brought in a
Speaker 1: couple of other gang members for questioning, Armando Campos and
Speaker 1: Ephram Garcia. Both of them were in the cash Flow
Speaker 1: Posse and according to Wilson, Ephram was trying to climb
Speaker 1: the ranks in the gang.
Speaker 2: The way that the gang was operating was that in
Speaker 2: order for an individual to move up in the ranks,
Speaker 2: right to either become an enforcer or treasurer or whatever
Speaker 2: other upper echeline in the gang, what they would have
Speaker 2: to do is they would have to what we call
Speaker 2: back then put in work, you know, whether it be
Speaker 2: if you rob somebody, if you shout somebody, he jumped
Speaker 2: somebody in the schools and all that. The reputation of that,
Speaker 2: whatever you do, goes to the gang. So in order
Speaker 2: for Ethom to move up in the ranks in his gang,
Speaker 2: he wanted to put in the work, and in.
Speaker 1: This case, the work was to keep Doug Williams from
Speaker 1: snitching a about the pizza robbery. Wilson says that that
Speaker 1: day at the jail, Roger told him exactly how it
Speaker 1: had gone down.
Speaker 2: And so Roger and Etham go to the house where
Speaker 2: the witness of the robbery was and Ethel kicks down
Speaker 2: the door and opens fire and hits Dug, and then
Speaker 2: Roger comes from the other side and hits Doug. And
Speaker 2: then as Doug's mother attempts to flee that the residence,
Speaker 2: Roger opens fire on him and he hits her as well.
Speaker 1: After what Roger told him, Wilson was confident that the
Speaker 1: truth would come out and he'd be released. But Roger
Speaker 1: never confessed to anyone else, and the homicide team continued
Speaker 1: to question.
Speaker 2: Wilson, and I told him exactly where I was at.
Speaker 2: To him, I was spending the night with my daughter's
Speaker 2: mother and she was at the time twenty half months pregnant.
Speaker 2: In my mind, I know where I was at. So
Speaker 2: I gave him to Alibi and gave him everything where
Speaker 2: I was, that and everything. And my expectation was that
Speaker 2: they were talk through my daughter's mother, but that never
Speaker 2: took place.
Speaker 1: When Armando compost was questioned, he told police that the
Speaker 1: day after the homicide, Roger had turned up at his
Speaker 1: house desperate for money.
Speaker 3: Roger red, I just smoked someone. I just smoked someone.
Speaker 3: I need as much money as possible. I got to
Speaker 3: get out of town. And then, when questioned a little further,
Speaker 3: Armando also said, yeah, he mentioned Wilson too. He mentioned
Speaker 3: Wilson was there too.
Speaker 1: Wilson and Roger were now the primary suspects, and both
Speaker 1: were charged with the murders. In September of nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 1: a joint preliminary hearing was held, at which cal and
Speaker 1: Armando testified. Both repeated what they had told police, but
Speaker 1: when Roger Murphick went to trial in April of nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety four, Armando changed his story.
Speaker 3: Armando recanted everything he had said at the preliminary examination.
Speaker 3: He said, no, I never made those statements. The only
Speaker 3: reason that I made those statements is because I was arrested.
Speaker 3: You know, I was charged. I was threatened by the police.
Speaker 3: I said exactly what they wanted me to say. Roger,
Speaker 3: of course, was acquitted of all of the.
Speaker 1: Charges, but Wilson remained in jail. He went to trial
Speaker 1: a few months later on September sixth, nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 1: The judge was Helen Brown and the prosecutor was Lisa Lindsay.
Speaker 1: As far as physical evidence, there wasn't much for the
Speaker 1: state to present.
Speaker 3: We don't have fingerprints, They didn't fingerprint the shell casings
Speaker 3: or anything in the house at the time. Obviously there's
Speaker 3: no DNA or anything like that. It was a really
Speaker 3: quick homicide.
Speaker 1: Officer Packard and the homicide squad had searched Wilson's home
Speaker 1: the day they arrested him.
Speaker 3: And they find two firearms and two ski masks, one
Speaker 3: of which was black or dark blue in color. The
Speaker 3: other one was a multicolored. Those guns were tested against
Speaker 3: some of the shell casings that were recovered in the house,
Speaker 3: and the there was a bullet I believe recovered from
Speaker 3: Doug's body during the autopsy, and there wasn't a match
Speaker 3: so conclusively neither of the weapons found in Wilson's home
Speaker 3: were involved in the homicide. They were allowed, however, to
Speaker 3: admit them at trial, along with a bunch of ammunition
Speaker 3: that they found in Wilson's home, none of which was
Speaker 3: the right caliber to be involved in the homicide either.
Speaker 1: But they presented it as if it could be.
Speaker 3: They sure did. Yeah, they presented all of that to
Speaker 3: the jury.
Speaker 1: The state relied heavily on police and witness testimony to
Speaker 1: make their case, but there wasn't much of that either.
Speaker 3: Daniel Brown testified to the armed robbery and named these
Speaker 3: two co defendants as perpetrators of that armed robbery, and
Speaker 3: then they also had testimony from one other witness, kal Matta.
Speaker 1: Cal repeated the statement he had given the police that
Speaker 1: he had heard Wilson and Roger talking about getting rid
Speaker 1: of Doug Williams, and that was about it for the
Speaker 1: prosecution's case.
Speaker 2: The officer in charge of the case, you know who,
Speaker 2: was basically the one that was responsible for taking other
Speaker 2: testimonies from all these witnesses and all that she felt
Speaker 2: to shored up for my trial, even though she knew
Speaker 2: my trouble set for that day, and so all of
Speaker 2: these things that was taken place, I'm looking at what
Speaker 2: was going on. I was like, yeah, at least in
Speaker 2: my mind, I was hoping that the judge was going
Speaker 2: to say, you know, I'm going to interfere in this
Speaker 2: thing here and I'm going to dismiss it for the
Speaker 2: lack of evidence, and because of what was going on
Speaker 2: with the prosecute fell to produce their witnesses.
Speaker 1: And not only that, Wilson had an alibi. Remember on
Speaker 1: the night of the murders, he'd been with his girlfriend,
Speaker 1: but she never testified at trial, and surprisingly Armando Compos
Speaker 1: did not appear either.
Speaker 2: So when my attorney at the time, mister Griffin, asked
Speaker 2: to I have a due diligence hearing as to why
Speaker 2: Armando has not shown up to testify, we find out
Speaker 2: that the prosecutor at the time has failed to subpoena
Speaker 2: Armando and so he never showed up to testify because
Speaker 2: he never knew.
Speaker 3: I think ultimately it's entirely possible that Roger was acquitted
Speaker 3: and Wilson was convicted because of the absence of Armando
Speaker 3: Compos's testimony.
Speaker 1: On September ninth of nineteen ninety four, the jury found
Speaker 1: Wilson Rivera guilty of the premeditated murders of Donald Williams
Speaker 1: and Lavanda Brown. He was sentenced to life in prison
Speaker 1: without the possibility of parole.
Speaker 2: After I came to prey sat within the first year,
Speaker 2: I winned for an enimy to get into a fight
Speaker 2: and he got stamped. Eventually he died understad one and
Speaker 2: he basically laid out, and so they locked us down,
Speaker 2: and I told myself, Yeah, that's not going to happen
Speaker 2: to me, you know. So I went into hope defensive postering,
Speaker 2: and any issue that I had, I either was going
Speaker 2: to get into a fight. I wasn't going to wait
Speaker 2: for anybody to stab me to try to kill me
Speaker 2: in prison. And so what I ended up doing I
Speaker 2: started acting O first, so if I felt that we
Speaker 2: had an issue, I would act first. And I actually
Speaker 2: caught a couple of assault tickets in prison. I spent
Speaker 2: several years in mechimum security, several years, and the whole
Speaker 2: you know, I didn't care much about where I was
Speaker 2: at in prison at that time, you know, and had
Speaker 2: just turned twenty and being sentenced to life without parole,
Speaker 2: and the only thing that kind of set me to
Speaker 2: a degree. Balanced out was that I was I wanted
Speaker 2: to see my daughter.
Speaker 1: While Wilson was in jail awaiting trial, his daughter, Sierra
Speaker 1: was born.
Speaker 2: The first time that I got a chance to see
Speaker 2: her was actually doing my sentencing. So the time that
Speaker 2: I'm being sentenced to life without parole, I'm actually paying
Speaker 2: more so attention to my daughter, who basically was just
Speaker 2: a few months old at the time.
Speaker 4: You know, he's been in prison my whole life. So
Speaker 4: what I do know is from the relationship we formed
Speaker 4: with him being in prison.
Speaker 1: This is Wilson's daughter, Sierra Ramirez.
Speaker 4: He's funny, he's intelligent, and I are a lot of like,
Speaker 4: very talkative. He's an encourager. You know, it's only fifteen
Speaker 4: minute phone calls at a time, but I feel pretty
Speaker 4: open when I talk with him.
Speaker 1: What was that like, growing up only knowing your father
Speaker 1: from prison from visiting rooms.
Speaker 4: I guess for me, it was a norm. I didn't
Speaker 4: see it as anything weird because it was all I knew, basically,
Speaker 4: you know, when I started getting old and going to
Speaker 4: my friend's house and I'm like, oh, okay, this is
Speaker 4: a little bit different. You know, there's there's a different
Speaker 4: dynamic that comes from having.
Speaker 3: Your dad in your life.
Speaker 4: And I had him to an extent, but not fully.
Speaker 4: And now as an adult, when I look back, I
Speaker 4: see how that impacted me just as a woman, as
Speaker 4: a girl growing up, you know, as a white how
Speaker 4: it impacted me.
Speaker 1: Did you ever feel angry or resentful towards your dad.
Speaker 4: I did feel some anger with him when I was younger.
Speaker 4: I felt very abandoned and I did tell him I
Speaker 4: was angry at him and felt like he made the
Speaker 4: choice to leave me no, and I was coming. He
Speaker 4: was very receptive, you know, he apologized, and he's definitely
Speaker 4: done what he can as a father to his best
Speaker 4: of his ability. You know, whether when I was young,
Speaker 4: he would send me, you know, we're Hispanic. He would
Speaker 4: send me tapes to learn Spanish, and he would send
Speaker 4: me these books and make me bracelets and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: He's always caught. I've always seen him. He's always sent cards.
Speaker 4: He's definitely done what he can. I give that to
Speaker 4: him for sure.
Speaker 1: Soon after his conviction, Wilson's attorney filed a direct appeal
Speaker 1: based on prosecutorial misconduct and the improper admission of the
Speaker 1: firearms founded his house, which had been found to be
Speaker 1: not connected to the murders. The courts denied the appeal,
Speaker 1: and Wilson knew that if he wanted to get out
Speaker 1: of prison, he would have to dedicate all of his
Speaker 1: time and resources to proving his innocence.
Speaker 2: After about seventeen years in prison, of going to all
Speaker 2: these up and downs and the disappointment was the case,
Speaker 2: I started investing more time in the pace and I
Speaker 2: started working, saving my money that I learned for my
Speaker 2: prison detail and basically I will try to hire my
Speaker 2: private investigators to try to find the information that I
Speaker 2: needed to prove my innocence. I decided to start studying
Speaker 2: the law myself, and eventually I got trained as a
Speaker 2: legal writer or a prison pail. And I did this
Speaker 2: shit in two thousand and ten.
Speaker 1: Then in twenty eighteen, Rachel Wolf began working on Wilson's case.
Speaker 3: It was funny when Wilson and I first met, he
Speaker 3: was worried about me because I was young, and because
Speaker 3: I and he said, this is a quote sound like
Speaker 3: a Republican. So I had to I had to assure
Speaker 3: him that that wasn't going to be an issue. So
Speaker 3: when I first went to meet him. I didn't know
Speaker 3: what to expect, but we clicked right away.
Speaker 1: Initially, Rachel was skeptical about the strength of Wilson's argument.
Speaker 3: You know, how are we going to prove this case
Speaker 3: there is a motive? And people find that very, very convincing.
Speaker 3: So regardless of the strength of the evidence as it exists,
Speaker 3: or the existence of other possible suspects, which there are,
Speaker 3: it's easy for people to latch onto and easy for
Speaker 3: them to say, well, of course he did it. He
Speaker 3: had a reason to do it, you know, without looking
Speaker 3: at any closer at the case.
Speaker 1: So what convinced you of his innocence or what made
Speaker 1: you want to keep digging?
Speaker 3: When I started talking to people, and especially like the
Speaker 3: leaders of the cash Flow posse and some other members
Speaker 3: of you know, some other people who were involved in
Speaker 3: the gang activity at that time, I started just getting
Speaker 3: some information that did not jive with the prosecutor's theory.
Speaker 1: For one thing, remember ephrom Garcia. He was arrested in
Speaker 1: the DPD roundup along with Roger Murfik, and Roger had
Speaker 1: told Wilson straight out that he and Ephram had done
Speaker 1: the killings, But somehow Ephram was dropped from the case
Speaker 1: early on.
Speaker 3: We didn't know at the time. They subjected e from
Speaker 3: Garcia two way polygraph and he failed it, but they
Speaker 3: didn't disclose it to Wilson's defense counsel. He didn't know
Speaker 3: about it at the time of trial. We discovered that
Speaker 3: much later, and that's you know, part of the basis
Speaker 3: from my legal challenge to his case is that he
Speaker 3: should have had this evidence. There was this suspect, and
Speaker 3: we know that e from Garcia was released after that.
Speaker 3: He wasn't investigated for involvement in this homicide any further
Speaker 3: by the Detroit Police Department. They started looking for Roger
Speaker 3: and Wilson, and I don't think they were going to
Speaker 3: change their minds at any point. Yeah, from the description
Speaker 3: he was there, he failed as Polly, but they did.
Speaker 3: They wanted Roger and they wanted Wilson.
Speaker 1: Officer Packard especially wanted Wilson. He hadn't forgotten it was
Speaker 1: Wilson who had shot at his partner, Officer Ayala.
Speaker 3: He was I think central to this case and maybe
Speaker 3: maybe you know, part of the reason they didn't investigate
Speaker 3: e from any further or any other possible suspects. Ephrom
Speaker 3: Garcia was indicted for the exact same homicide five years later.
Speaker 3: He never actually ended up with that homicide conviction. He's
Speaker 3: incarcerated now for several additional homicides.
Speaker 1: They've also uncovered previously undisclosed information about Cal's testimony.
Speaker 3: Cal was on probation, and he also was found and
Speaker 3: arrested with guns and drugs in a known gang location.
Speaker 3: His probation was dismissed very shortly after Wilson's trial and sentencing,
Speaker 3: and he was never charged. He was initially actually charged
Speaker 3: with the homicide, and then ultimately they dismissed that, and
Speaker 3: then they never even charged him with any of the
Speaker 3: other offenses.
Speaker 1: Then there's the matter of proving Wilson's alibi.
Speaker 3: So he had his girlfriend at the time. He was
Speaker 3: with her at her mother's house. He stayed the night there,
Speaker 3: i think until early in the morning, early morning hours,
Speaker 3: We're talking like two am, three am.
Speaker 1: Wilson's girlfriend never testified to this at trial. When Rachel
Speaker 1: interviewed her, she found out why because she was scared.
Speaker 3: She says an individual in a suit approached her in
Speaker 3: the hallway outside of the courtroom and said, look, we're
Speaker 3: holding your brother. He's currently facing these additioninal charges. If
Speaker 3: you go in there and testify, you know, we're going
Speaker 3: to reconsider the severity of the charges in the possible
Speaker 3: sentence against your brother. And so she was too afraid
Speaker 3: to testify, and I think her testimony probably would have
Speaker 3: made a difference.
Speaker 1: Rachel says she's spoken with other potential witnesses from the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: People will have knowledge of what actually happened, but they
Speaker 1: have similar reasons for not coming forward.
Speaker 3: They're all afraid of the police. They're all afraid of
Speaker 3: the prosecutor and of coming into court, just because I
Speaker 3: think that's what their lived experience has taught them to fear.
Speaker 3: They are hesitant to come into court. And that's made
Speaker 3: the investigation of this case a little more difficult as well,
Speaker 3: is that I have witnesses who were willing to provide
Speaker 3: me with information that are not willing to come in
Speaker 3: and testify in court. They're not willing to talk to
Speaker 3: the prosecutor's conviction integrity unit. They're just not going to
Speaker 3: do that.
Speaker 1: That's so interesting. They're more scared of the law enforcement
Speaker 1: than they are of snitching and being a snitch on
Speaker 1: the street.
Speaker 3: Yeah, at least that's what they're telling me.
Speaker 1: According to Rachel, all of this is tied in with
Speaker 1: the culture in the Detroit Police Department at the time.
Speaker 1: People in the community had little reason to trust the
Speaker 1: cops and plenty of reason to fear them.
Speaker 3: They had this practice, they called it witness roundups. You're
Speaker 3: not supposed to arrest somebody without probable cause. But what
Speaker 3: they would do, and they did it in Wilson's case.
Speaker 3: They would go and everybody who they thought was a
Speaker 3: possible witness, they would charged them with the underlying offense.
Speaker 3: So in a homicide investigation, you're all charged with homicide.
Speaker 3: And then they would bring them in, hold them, interview them.
Speaker 1: The place was Detroit Police Headquarters at thirteen hundred Bobian,
Speaker 1: and it was notorious for being the seat of police corruption.
Speaker 3: All the witnesses, all of the clients that I have,
Speaker 3: you say, thirteen hundred Bobian, everybody knows exactly what you're
Speaker 3: talking about. That interview room that they used to take
Speaker 3: people is awful, Like cockroaches are in there. They don't
Speaker 3: give you food. You know, you can't see out, so
Speaker 3: you'll see through the nineteen nineties, these witnesses all testifying
Speaker 3: like I was held for like three days, I was
Speaker 3: charged with the homicide, and of course they weren't involved,
Speaker 3: you know, they weren't, But that's what DPD was doing.
Speaker 3: So in the late nineteen eighties and all throughout the nineties,
Speaker 3: there was significant corruption within the Detroit Police Department.
Speaker 1: In the year two thousand, seven, years after Wilson's conviction,
Speaker 1: the Department of Justice ran an investigation of the DPD
Speaker 1: that turned up a number of significant violations.
Speaker 3: In nineteen ninety five, Carlos Rodriguez, who was one of
Speaker 3: the investigators on Wilson's homicide team, was indicted along with
Speaker 3: four other officers for operating a narcotic spring through the
Speaker 3: fourth Precinct in the city of Detroit. The entire DPD
Speaker 3: forensics lab was shut down in two thousand and eight
Speaker 3: because the investigators had found widespread errors in their analysis.
Speaker 3: And then a few years later, David Pouch, the firearms
Speaker 3: examiner in Wilson's case, was found to have intentionally fabricated
Speaker 3: ballistics evidence to obtain a conviction in a nineteen ninety
Speaker 3: two case, so a year before he testified at Wilson's trial,
Speaker 3: he had intentionally fabricated ballistics evidence that individual to his case.
Speaker 3: His name is Desmond Rix. He was also exonerated on
Speaker 3: that basis.
Speaker 1: With all of this new information to present, Rachel is
Speaker 1: hopeful that Wilson will be granted a new trial.
Speaker 3: Short of a commutation or pardon from the governor. There's
Speaker 3: one other way you can get out of prison when
Speaker 3: you have a life without parole sentence, and that is
Speaker 3: through a motion fu a leaf from judgment. So basically
Speaker 3: what you do is you go back to the state court,
Speaker 3: back to the same court that convicted you in the
Speaker 3: first place, and you say I'm entitled to a new
Speaker 3: trial for this reason, this reason, and this reason. So
Speaker 3: you investigate the hell out of everything because you only
Speaker 3: get one chance. So now that we have all of
Speaker 3: that evidence collected, there are some significant legal challenges that
Speaker 3: we can raise. One of them, of course, is the
Speaker 3: Brady violation. Wilson should have had information that e from
Speaker 3: Garcia was given a polygraph examination and failed it so
Speaker 3: that he would be able to properly investigate that avenue
Speaker 3: of defense, and he wasn't. So that's certainly one of
Speaker 3: our claims. I think we were prepared to go to
Speaker 3: court probably about two years ago, and so we'll be
Speaker 3: moving forward very quickly now.
Speaker 1: And in the meantime, in addition to becoming a prison paralegal,
Speaker 1: Wilson has accomplished another important goal. In May of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, he graduated magna cum laude from Calvin University.
Speaker 2: Was going for a bachelor's degree in Faith and Community
Speaker 2: Leadership with a minor and social work, the highest grade
Speaker 2: I ever completed with the seventh grade. I never went
Speaker 2: to high school, and so being able to kind of
Speaker 2: like accomplish not just a gain in a college degree,
Speaker 2: but with a high GDA three point ninety three, it
Speaker 2: was personally a huge accomplishment and it just gave me
Speaker 2: a huge sense of self work as well.
Speaker 1: So your daughter Sierra was telling me that she was
Speaker 1: able to go to your graduation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to me, right is invaluable. I mean, it's a
Speaker 2: moment there and I look at the picture and that
Speaker 2: I'm still with such a man. I'm extremely proud of
Speaker 2: my daughter that got fishes my heart.
Speaker 4: It was nice, you know, to be able to be
Speaker 4: there and watch him do like kind of like this
Speaker 4: normal thing. It was awesome to see and maybe feel
Speaker 4: proud of him, you know. I feel like it was
Speaker 4: a great example of how he even given his circumstances,
Speaker 4: he was able to accomplish something so great.
Speaker 1: It was very inspiring, and Sierra credits her father with
Speaker 1: inspiring her in other ways.
Speaker 4: I've seen what a wonderful person he is and how
Speaker 4: someone like I said, can make bad choices at one
Speaker 4: point in their life, but then you know they can
Speaker 4: turn that around and not let that define them and
Speaker 4: contain them no matter where they're at, being in prison.
Speaker 4: I think it's important to know your own worth and
Speaker 4: not see other people's decisions as how worthy you are.
Speaker 4: I guess because that's how I felt. I felt like
Speaker 4: I was unworthy of love and I was someone who
Speaker 4: just had this abandonment. And you know, I guess it
Speaker 4: would be that doesn't define who you are as a person.
Speaker 4: I guess for me, it was just you know, learning
Speaker 4: my identity and who I am. Aside from that, you know, So.
Speaker 1: Do you and your dad ever talk about maybe the
Speaker 1: future anything like that.
Speaker 4: He talks to me when you know, if he gets out,
Speaker 4: he would love to move here. Yeah, he would love
Speaker 4: to move here, and you know some time with me
Speaker 4: and I'm my daughter, and you know I may and
Speaker 4: not have been able to have a childhood with him,
Speaker 4: but my children being able to have him around and
Speaker 4: you know, see that side of him that I never
Speaker 4: got to see that I will grow to see. I
Speaker 4: think that would be pretty awesome.
Speaker 1: Wilson believes that his experience gave him a perspective that
Speaker 1: can make a difference to others even while he remains
Speaker 1: behind bars.
Speaker 2: I think people depressed. I think people whommit soul sid.
Speaker 2: I don't think people can't suicide, you know. And so
Speaker 2: this is the environment. And I told myself, well, because
Speaker 2: I have this education, while I'm still fighting to prove
Speaker 2: my innocent, I could be a summer of assistance to
Speaker 2: these individuals around me as well.
Speaker 1: So when you get out, what do you want to do.
Speaker 2: I would love to be able to work with youth
Speaker 2: and games. I would love to be able to step
Speaker 2: out of prison and start programs, mentioning programs, tutoring programs,
Speaker 2: because I know the value of that, Programs that help interpret,
Speaker 2: you know, because I know how that feels not to
Speaker 2: be able to express your feelings because you have the
Speaker 2: you don't have the proper words in English to do so.
Speaker 2: So these are kind of things that I would love
Speaker 2: to be affected in our community as well. I no
Speaker 2: longer kind of view myself as this individual who's just
Speaker 2: in prison and poor me. You know, when I figured
Speaker 2: out that even though I'm still fighting for my freedom
Speaker 2: to prove my innocent, I could still be effective in
Speaker 2: helping other individuals.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to help support Wilson in his fight
Speaker 1: to prove his innocence, go to Freewilson rivera dot com.
Speaker 1: We'll post that link in the episode description. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please support
Speaker 1: your local innocence organizations and go to the links in
Speaker 1: the episode description to see how you can help. I'd
Speaker 1: like to thank our executive producers Jason Flam, Jeff Kempler,
Speaker 1: and Kevin Wortis, as well as senior producer Annie Chelsea,
Speaker 1: producer Kathleen Fink, story editor Hannah Beal, and researcher Shelby Sorels.
Speaker 1: Mixing and sound design are by Jackie Pauley, with additional
Speaker 1: production by Jeff Cleiburn and Connor Hall. The music in
Speaker 1: this production is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on all social media platforms
Speaker 1: at Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction. You can
Speaker 1: also follow me on all platforms at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful
Speaker 1: Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a production of Lava for
Speaker 1: Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number one