Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 2: I'm Connor Hall, one of the producers for Wronfuel Conviction.
Speaker 2: And if you don't follow us on social media, you
Speaker 2: may not have heard, but our good friends Jason Flamm
Speaker 2: and Gliali got married and now for their honeymoon. In
Speaker 2: true Ali Flahm fashion, they're in Texas right now fighting
Speaker 2: to save an innocent man on death row, Robert Robertson.
Speaker 2: He's scheduled for execution on October seventeenth, twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: We'll link his episode in the episode description. And while
Speaker 2: they're away, Jason is generously handed over hosting duties to me,
Speaker 2: and I promised that I wouldn't screw it up, So
Speaker 2: here we go. On July fifteenth, two thousand and eight,
Speaker 2: twenty two year old Mustafa O Maria was gunned down
Speaker 2: in front of his building in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. There
Speaker 2: was confusion whether there was one or two assailants, but
Speaker 2: the descriptions Cohen sided on male, varying shades of black skin,
Speaker 2: between five nine and six feet tall, late teens early twenties. Soon,
Speaker 2: another alleged witness claimed to know the shooter's motive. The
Speaker 2: victim had been sleeping with a woman named Nicki Collier
Speaker 2: and her alleged boyfriend, Rvel Marshall had just gotten out
Speaker 2: of jail. But Arvel stood at five foot five and
Speaker 2: was thirty six years old, not a teenager. Nevertheless, the
Speaker 2: victim's friends identified r Vel as the shooter, sending him
Speaker 2: away for twenty five to life. This is wrongful conviction.
Speaker 3: Wrongful conviction has always given voice to innocent people in prison,
Speaker 3: and now we're expanding that voice to you. Call us
Speaker 3: at eight three three two o seven four six sixty
Speaker 3: six and tell us how these stories make you feel
Speaker 3: and what you done to help the cause, even if
Speaker 3: it's something as simple as telling a friend or sharing
Speaker 3: on social media, and you might just hear yourself in
Speaker 3: a future episode. Call us A three three two o
Speaker 3: seven four six sixty six.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction, where we have another case
Speaker 2: out of Brooklyn, and across from me is a man
Speaker 2: named Rvil Marshall who endured something that well, I mean,
Speaker 2: it was disgusting, unnecessary, should have been completely avoidable, and
Speaker 2: almost was. And we're going to get to that in
Speaker 2: just a minute, but we're just happy to have him home.
Speaker 2: Thanks for doing this, well, you welcome, Amen and you
Speaker 2: may have just heard a familiar voice say, Amen, that's
Speaker 2: justin bonus. You and I probably talk more than most
Speaker 2: people talk to their family, and it's typically about another
Speaker 2: case you're working on. You know, Unfortunately that well never
Speaker 2: dries up. I mean we've worked on how many cases already?
Speaker 4: Marcus Wiggins, Vincent Simmons, Jerome Curry, Raphael Martinez, Garriy Ben Loss.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you for coming back. Absolutely, Yeah, this case
Speaker 2: is no less fucked up.
Speaker 4: The only good part about r Vel's case is he's
Speaker 4: exonerated and we're on the next phase, which is fighting
Speaker 4: to get him compensated. But that's about the only good
Speaker 4: thing about Rvel's case.
Speaker 2: And you and Brownsville and bedsty Hey.
Speaker 1: This is nice. You know, it's kind of rough, but
Speaker 1: it's nice.
Speaker 5: I used to work as Super Marcus as a kid
Speaker 5: packing bags and stuff. I get a little money here
Speaker 5: there because my family was poor. But did that growing
Speaker 5: up at browns with a dead style. You literally get
Speaker 5: tested because especially the Ghattle, the neighborhoods like you would
Speaker 5: have to.
Speaker 2: Fight famously, Mike Tyson's from Brownsville, and then you're like
Speaker 2: coming of age when Mike is getting huge, right, but
Speaker 2: before he was huge, he must have been known around town.
Speaker 1: Yeah he was. He's the right coach screep for your
Speaker 1: a boy tweet Sunny and Blake the shelters no shit,
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 5: Mike trying to help the community, you know, like Heavy
Speaker 5: Dog k used to come through there, give it out, turkeys.
Speaker 1: And shit like that.
Speaker 2: So what's the precinct?
Speaker 1: Seventy seven?
Speaker 2: Some people that you are familiar.
Speaker 4: With Brooklyn North homicide. One of them, if you know,
Speaker 4: James Davis. James Davis was wrong, clear convicted.
Speaker 2: Oh wait Ja Davis.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Legelaide represented felt Okay, yeah, ye ye ye yah yeah.
Speaker 4: So one of the lead detectives there was Jay Wallski
Speaker 4: and then Matthew Hutchinson. Matthew Hutchinson, from my understanding, fabricated
Speaker 4: a statement in James Davis's case, and he's all over
Speaker 4: our Velle's case.
Speaker 2: If you're unfamiliar with James Davis's case, we'll have that
Speaker 2: linked in the episode description as well. Now, Ourvell's case
Speaker 2: really began when he met a young lady in two
Speaker 2: thousand and.
Speaker 1: Three, Jadique will Collier aka Nicky.
Speaker 2: Tell me about meeting her, Like, was there a good time?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: It was a good time. I was, you know, but
Speaker 5: I still feel she has something to do with me
Speaker 5: going to jail. Even though it was a good time,
Speaker 5: I still feel that way.
Speaker 2: And this is in bedsty at the time now that
Speaker 2: you were living.
Speaker 1: Now, I was staying at Brownsville, but I moved to
Speaker 1: current high school. Nicki her baba ah, all right, okay.
Speaker 5: Nicky Moba was originally my girlfriend. Oh, they kept coming
Speaker 5: on to me. I ain't on a best one, it though,
Speaker 5: it just happened. Nicky used to date my brother. She
Speaker 5: got my brother name tattooed on her back. Shit, and
Speaker 5: she was dating by niece baby father.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Now, as most of us are aware, betraying the expectation
Speaker 2: of a monogamous relationship can offense, spark fights, breakups, or,
Speaker 2: as the police believed in this case, murder. But Nicki
Speaker 2: appears to have lived as she pleased and not led
Speaker 2: any of her lovers to have any other expectation, including
Speaker 2: r vel or the victim in this case Mustafo Maria.
Speaker 5: Yeah, she was dated a that will tell she was
Speaker 5: messing with him and I was in rackets.
Speaker 2: Out What were you in for me?
Speaker 5: And my sister tell you we had I got in
Speaker 5: a fight as she lied to the cops and told
Speaker 5: him that I stabbed her, but I didn't stab her.
Speaker 1: I beat that.
Speaker 5: I came home, but she came to visit beat on
Speaker 5: my birthday and she told me she wanted me to
Speaker 5: leave her mother at Bible Hall and she's going to
Speaker 5: leave the victims. Mustafo Barrio.
Speaker 2: I said, okay, and this dude we were talking earlier,
Speaker 2: so he's in the Bloods. And then he's also like
Speaker 2: a handsome guy.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he was a handsome guy. He was messing with
Speaker 5: dudes girls.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Between the victims involvement with the Bloods as well as
Speaker 2: his activity with women who were in otherwise monogamous relationships,
Speaker 2: there may have been some ill will toward him. On
Speaker 2: the night that he died July fifteenth, two thousand and eight,
Speaker 2: sometime before ten pm, in front of his building one
Speaker 2: thirty nine Albany Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: There's not thirty day sent call to the witnesses.
Speaker 4: Right, you know, if you're the cops, you wanted to
Speaker 4: be closer to ten o'clock, right, Arvel? Yeah, because they
Speaker 4: knew Rvel had a pretty good alibi. Between nine thirty
Speaker 4: and nine to forty five, and Rvel didn't have a
Speaker 4: car either, just by the way, so he would have
Speaker 4: had to take in a bus from his mother's house
Speaker 4: in Right all the way to Crown Heights. It's like
Speaker 4: a twenty minute bus trip by itself. But you have
Speaker 4: Mustapha sitting on the stoop and three of his friends,
Speaker 4: a guided by the name of Zakarie, Zaybo and Benison,
Speaker 4: and somebody rolls up to them and head shots their
Speaker 4: friend that around nine thirty at night and then runs away.
Speaker 5: They said he came from D Street and walked along
Speaker 5: Albity Avenue. They ran back on D Street after leave.
Speaker 5: It a scene from Albity Avenue.
Speaker 4: Now, the initial description is somebody between five foot nine
Speaker 4: and six foot Rvel's like five to five okay, three
Speaker 4: inches to a half of foot potentially. We also got
Speaker 4: a description of light skin on the nine to one
Speaker 4: one calls. And then the other description, which is a
Speaker 4: seventeen year old Rvel looked probably forty Rvel right.
Speaker 2: Yep, So the description didn't even come close to Rvel.
Speaker 2: But there were some unresolvable discrepancies between the descriptions from
Speaker 2: Benison and then Zebo and Zakari. Yeah.
Speaker 5: First they said Bel black light skid, seventeen years old,
Speaker 5: wearing the white T shirt blue JS. Then with the
Speaker 5: other twols take it to the priests. They give a statement.
Speaker 5: They said Bel black dog skid, we with the white
Speaker 5: T shirt, dog JS and either hat or Douac. But
Speaker 5: well he went to the DA's office. He fixed it.
Speaker 1: It said that the Bell was black, brown skinned wearing
Speaker 1: all dark clothes.
Speaker 4: Which interestingly matches the video that we're going to talk about.
Speaker 4: And understand this, the three witnesses are testify to trial,
Speaker 4: never say there were two people involved. Yet we have
Speaker 4: a video that shows that there were two people involved.
Speaker 2: As Arvel mentioned, the assailants were traveling west on Dean,
Speaker 2: made a left going south on Albany to where these
Speaker 2: four men were at one thirty nine Albany. So the
Speaker 2: police found a surveillance camera on Dean Street, which didn't
Speaker 2: capture the shooting, but it saw enough to account for
Speaker 2: the discrepancies and the descriptions.
Speaker 4: It's in the middle of the block. Actually, the video
Speaker 4: is pretty good quality and it has an angle that
Speaker 4: goes both ways, so you see the guys what we
Speaker 4: now know are the perpetrators. And a key thing is
Speaker 4: they're both the same size.
Speaker 2: One has light skin, one has dark shind Yeah, well.
Speaker 5: Dual gattle dark clothes and other dual gattle light shirt,
Speaker 5: blue jays. He got a baseball capboard.
Speaker 4: This is what the video shows. These two young guys
Speaker 4: walking down, one guy lifting up, pulling a gun out,
Speaker 4: and you watch them make a left on the Albany.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: How you know what's the shooting is there's two guys walking,
Speaker 4: one with a dog, one or not on Dean and
Speaker 4: they're walking towards Albany. They hear the shots, they stop,
Speaker 4: start walking f pass the other way. Then all of
Speaker 4: a sudden you see the same two guys and the
Speaker 4: guy with the white shirt has a big black thing
Speaker 4: in his hand, which is a gun. And the two
Speaker 4: guys that were on the block here in the shooting,
Speaker 4: they see these two young guys on Dean running towards them.
Speaker 4: They're back on the camera again, running back towards weeks filth.
Speaker 4: This is how we know those are the shooters.
Speaker 2: The police made two copies of the video, one for
Speaker 2: the DA and one for the case file, and then
Speaker 2: made still images from the video of the assailants Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: police alleged that someone named Abraham Omar told them about
Speaker 2: the connection between Nikki Arvel and the victim, but then
Speaker 2: this person seemed to just disappear and then never testified.
Speaker 4: Let's talk about Abraham Omoa.
Speaker 5: Detective Hushis claved he took somebody statement with Juli Vizi.
Speaker 5: It did clave that person provided additional information after they
Speaker 5: called back the last sixty and that person he gave
Speaker 5: a dave to as Abraham Omar.
Speaker 4: He talks about the boyfriend of Nikki that lives at eighteen.
Speaker 1: Was it eighteen ninety six? Specific?
Speaker 4: Were you using that address as where you were on
Speaker 4: probation right, yes, so then they had your name at
Speaker 4: that address too.
Speaker 2: What does Abraham Omar say?
Speaker 5: He basically said, allegedly that he was best friends with
Speaker 5: the victim, and before the victim died, the victim told
Speaker 5: him that he had a problem with a girl named Nikki's.
Speaker 4: Boyfriend, and I tried, my darnedness, and I'm pretty good
Speaker 4: to find the people. By the way, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. There is no Abraham Omar in Brooklyn at all,
Speaker 4: at all.
Speaker 2: He's a fucking fabrication. Yes, yes, because according to like
Speaker 2: you know the court record, and and who's the one?
Speaker 4: There is no nine one one call with Abraham won.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he fabricated Abraham Omar.
Speaker 2: But if Abraham Omar doesn't exist, the nine one one
Speaker 2: call didn't exist. It's possible that all of this information
Speaker 2: might have come from Nicki.
Speaker 1: The ass who's her boyfriend.
Speaker 4: She told me what day was that?
Speaker 1: A lot sixty?
Speaker 5: The same day they allegedly spoke to this Abraham Omar.
Speaker 5: If you read Nikki's statement that was given to Hushinston
Speaker 5: and Wolfski, you could see that they just took certain
Speaker 5: parts out that could incriminate me and put it in
Speaker 5: the alleged Abraham omo statement. They took everything she said
Speaker 5: about be getting out of jail, I will allegedly boost
Speaker 5: by the good, and that I wanted to kill some
Speaker 5: god the block.
Speaker 1: So they just took all that and just put it in.
Speaker 2: The person called Abraham Omar. Yeah, right on this witness
Speaker 2: statement to this person who's best friends with Santa Claus.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2: And then Bennison identified RFL from a photo array.
Speaker 4: And a photo ray is crazy because RFL is the
Speaker 4: only one with corn roast.
Speaker 2: What does everyone else look like?
Speaker 4: Caesars yeah, that's in the photo array.
Speaker 2: What day was it when they picked you up?
Speaker 1: July twenty second and they came VICKI house. I was
Speaker 1: sleep in the living room. I heard beg you.
Speaker 5: I'm thinking it was because of the temporary order protection
Speaker 5: that be A Dicky had to stay away from each
Speaker 5: other because the twenty first Bannigkie was argued. So I
Speaker 5: ain't taking no chance. I jumped out the window, got
Speaker 5: on the roof. As they chased me. A black officer
Speaker 5: came that I knew they used to live with my building,
Speaker 5: and he asked me. He's like, yo, you really don't
Speaker 5: know what's going on. I said, Dawn, I don't know nothing.
Speaker 5: They took me to the priest and I'm actually, what's
Speaker 5: this fun? They didn't tell me. They didn't tell me.
Speaker 5: They didn't tell me. They put me the line up.
Speaker 4: And then in the lineup they had you guys in hats, yeah,
Speaker 4: sitting down, of course.
Speaker 2: Sitting down, so they oh, what how tall is he?
Speaker 2: I don't know, but what was different about the other
Speaker 2: guys in the lineup?
Speaker 1: They was taller than me.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Then after the lineup was over, they took me another rule.
Speaker 5: The haircuffy start offered me Suldas McDonald's and all the
Speaker 5: cigarette stuff. The talk, Wolski said that Ustofo Mario was
Speaker 5: murdered and I'm the one that killed him because I
Speaker 5: found out he was banging my girl.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, yo, what did you talk about?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 1: He said, well, you the word going down for this.
Speaker 5: I don't care what you say. If yn't want to
Speaker 5: tell who did it, you go it down for it.
Speaker 5: I said, I can you tell you without a will
Speaker 5: and they'll say to you without a lawyer, the devil
Speaker 5: was given a lawyer. I was never read by rights.
Speaker 5: I was just arrested.
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Speaker 3: on Apple Podcasts. Freedom Agenda is a proud sponsor of
Speaker 3: this episode of Wrongful Conviction. Freedom Agenda is led by
Speaker 3: people directly impacted by incarceration, and they're organizing to get
Speaker 3: Mayor Eric Adams to follow the law and shut down
Speaker 3: Rikers Island. Right now, thousands of people are awaiting trial
Speaker 3: there in life threatening conditions. Freedom Agenda is committed to
Speaker 3: creating a safer and more just city by winning investments
Speaker 3: in long neglected communities, protecting the rights of people involved
Speaker 3: in the criminal legal system, and ending the cycle of
Speaker 3: violence that Rikers perpetuates. To learn more about the campaign
Speaker 3: to Close Rikers and to sign up for Freedom Agenda's
Speaker 3: mailing list, go to Campaign to Close Rikers dot org, slash,
Speaker 3: get involved, or follow at Freedom Agenda and Why on
Speaker 3: social media.
Speaker 2: Arvel spent nineteen months on Rikers Island pre trial. He
Speaker 2: was going to be tried by Assistant District Attorney Tim
Speaker 2: Goff in front of Judge Vincent del Judas, and he
Speaker 2: was assigned to public defender Alan Stuttman.
Speaker 1: That would receive the visit Stubb in nineteen months.
Speaker 5: The only time about say Stubb is the court public
Speaker 5: defenders they're typically overworked, underpaid.
Speaker 2: But that said, you're telling him exactly what to do.
Speaker 5: He was listened to me a total CD to investigator out.
Speaker 5: Judge fire Tau is the one hyat the investigator. Stubman
Speaker 5: did hie.
Speaker 2: Him right, So you went above del Judis's head. So
Speaker 2: he loved that shit too, right.
Speaker 4: Yes, Two out of three of the witnesses told the
Speaker 4: defense investigator that they knew who to pick out because
Speaker 4: Rvel looked totally different than everybody else in the lineup.
Speaker 2: Do they do that on purpose? You think?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 4: Yeah, did you ask that sarcastic?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Of course. All right, So now I mean, this isn't funny,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, this is crazy. But it gets worse.
Speaker 4: You have this defense investigator, David Walker, who's from Brooklyn,
Speaker 4: new people in the neighborhood, and he had somebody in
Speaker 4: the neighborhood that gave him this information. This individual said
Speaker 4: it was a mistaken identity, like they didn't mean to
Speaker 4: kill the victim, but it was guys from Weeksville, which
Speaker 4: isn't that far from where Nikki lived, right, And the
Speaker 4: description that he gets from the format matches what happens
Speaker 4: on the video, which is it's a hit. It's not
Speaker 4: a crime of passion. Right, this is doing a trial. Well,
Speaker 4: he doesn't ever testify. They found this out before trial.
Speaker 4: Trial attorney does nothing with us.
Speaker 5: By the way, I still remember that statement. It says
Speaker 5: Jamal Jones is the set up man for the shooter.
Speaker 5: He lives at one thirty seven. Mother is a cop,
Speaker 5: They said. Auvel Barshoot, which is me is it his thirties.
Speaker 5: It it's not the shooter.
Speaker 1: They said.
Speaker 5: The shooter is sixty year old Don L. White, also
Speaker 5: lives in Weeksville. They say God named Lewis is the
Speaker 5: ubdillah for the group and he is expanded. His last
Speaker 5: name is adult. They say if Lewis house is checked,
Speaker 5: the gun for the shooter would probably be found there.
Speaker 4: Wow, very vivid description, right.
Speaker 2: And with this vivid narrative available to the defense. In
Speaker 2: December two thousand and nine, Arvell was taken to trial
Speaker 2: on the identifications that had also been exposed by the
Speaker 2: investigator is false and potentially engineered and Rvel didn't even
Speaker 2: know about the surveillance for the jet.
Speaker 5: The DA Colly walked into courtroom with the videos and
Speaker 5: still photos in her head.
Speaker 1: That's how I found out that they exist.
Speaker 4: The stills.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's still photos in the video.
Speaker 5: When I first brought video to the judge attention, I
Speaker 5: went through my lawyer. The DA said he didn't have
Speaker 5: the video. He said he only had still photos that
Speaker 5: he provided to my lawyer months ago. My lawyers said
Speaker 5: they was of no value. The next day, I brought
Speaker 5: it the police report showing that the videosis and still
Speaker 5: photos was made off of it. Then the DA said, yeah,
Speaker 5: he had the video, but he can't open it.
Speaker 1: It won't work.
Speaker 5: So I said, yo, how did you get the still
Speaker 5: photos off the video if the video don't work?
Speaker 1: He said his office had nothing to do with it.
Speaker 5: He said, I was giving the tapes after they made
Speaker 5: copies of the tape they retrieved and all it depicts
Speaker 5: its two individuals just walking down the street.
Speaker 4: Allegedly, what the police tell the prosecutor is they take
Speaker 4: a clip of the video and they say the only
Speaker 4: thing that they see on the video is two guys
Speaker 4: walking on Dean Street. That's it. They don't say that
Speaker 4: these two individuals are the shooters.
Speaker 2: And let's not forget the defense investigator David Walker uncovered
Speaker 2: that one of those assailants may have been the son
Speaker 2: of a cop at the seventy seventh Precinct. So we're
Speaker 2: not sure if the DA saw this video or not.
Speaker 2: Maybe eighty eight Tim guff was presenting some kind of
Speaker 2: plausible deniability ploy about this video to the court. We
Speaker 2: don't know. Nevertheless, they logically follows that the police tech
Speaker 2: guys that produced the still were able to open the videos.
Speaker 2: I'm reading what my researcher extracted from these exchanges, and
Speaker 2: if he had a new excuse every fucking day, every
Speaker 2: time he was like, oh, I can only play it
Speaker 2: on this particular laptop that has this particular software on it.
Speaker 2: You could just install the software.
Speaker 1: That's it. That's fact.
Speaker 2: But he's making fucking excuses every single day.
Speaker 1: Aby single day.
Speaker 5: If the video showed me or he would have been
Speaker 5: happy to play it, but be it that he know
Speaker 5: was to be and know it was the Astra appropritrators.
Speaker 2: They just kept stalling. Meanwhile, they presented the eyewitnesses.
Speaker 4: Zakari is the first one to get on the witness
Speaker 4: stand and they ask him, do you see the shooter
Speaker 4: in the courtroom?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: No, Right, well then I guess that wraps it up.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 4: And you had to understand something. Zacarry before trial identifies
Speaker 4: Rvel in the lineup allegedly. So how does he come
Speaker 4: in at trial and say, no, Rvel isn't the one.
Speaker 4: How does he tell the defense investigator that he couldn't
Speaker 4: make an ID?
Speaker 2: Yep?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 4: The only way that it happens that he does make
Speaker 4: the ID. And again this is when you get into
Speaker 4: all best practices and everything. The investigators that know about
Speaker 4: the investigation shouldn't be involved with the identification. But you
Speaker 4: can only come to one conclusion if this guy's telling
Speaker 4: the defense investigator and then comes in a trial and
Speaker 4: says that Rvel Marshall's not the shooter, right, is that
Speaker 4: he was told that Rvel Marshall was the shooter during
Speaker 4: the lineup that he viewed. And that's why he makes
Speaker 4: the positive identification. You gotta remember, all three witness this
Speaker 4: is their friend that's dead. So if the police are
Speaker 4: telling them that this is the guy that did it,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 2: You got to back that up. I mean, what are
Speaker 2: you gonna dishonor his dead?
Speaker 4: Like now, all of a sudden, Benison comes in and
Speaker 4: he's positive, it's our velt, right. And what's interesting is
Speaker 4: the one thing that Alan Stutman did and Arvell and
Speaker 4: I were talking about this is he cross examines and
Speaker 4: eats Benison up on the fact that you only had
Speaker 4: moments to see this person. It's not like you got
Speaker 4: a good look at him. And Benison in amidst us right,
Speaker 4: the next one that gets on the witness stand is
Speaker 4: Eyeball a positive all of a sudden, right, And we
Speaker 4: know from the defense investigator that these witnesses are all
Speaker 4: saying that they weren't sure of their ID before trial.
Speaker 4: To do with the defense is, so we're going to
Speaker 4: talk about circumstantial evidence. Right, there's a jury instruction that
Speaker 4: described circumstantial evidence. You get up in the morning, there's
Speaker 4: snow on the ground, right, what can we assume it
Speaker 4: snowed last night? Right? First witness gets on the witness stand.
Speaker 4: I don't see the shoot her in the courtroom. The
Speaker 4: next two get up on the witness standard. We're a positive.
Speaker 4: What can we assume happen here?
Speaker 2: They got coached?
Speaker 1: Yeah, this corse?
Speaker 2: So all right, that circus goes on. Yes, your defensive
Speaker 2: investigator already knows his bullshit. Yes, your public defender is
Speaker 2: already cross examined them, and the jury sees this. I mean,
Speaker 2: am I missing anything about this trial other.
Speaker 4: Than affected his alibi? His sister, who, by the way,
Speaker 4: he told you he went to Rikers because he was
Speaker 4: fighting the case because he had an incident with his sister.
Speaker 4: So the sister that he had an incident with is
Speaker 4: his alibi. She comes in and testifies that he was home.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: And then you're fighting to see this video the final straw, though,
Speaker 2: tell me about that interaction with Dell Judas.
Speaker 5: Actually get we played a video to pull my edicist.
Speaker 5: He told me having outbust in order the court officers,
Speaker 5: he scored me out of the court room, and that's
Speaker 5: when I got upset. Star curses said, fuck this, I
Speaker 5: didn't kill nobody. Why the fuck you gotta do this
Speaker 5: to me? You got the evidence right there, it proves
Speaker 5: my edocence. Why you don't wuld to play the video?
Speaker 5: Because you do? It proves my edocence. And then he
Speaker 5: started yelling heavy up, take him out of the court.
Speaker 3: Rule?
Speaker 4: Was this in front of the jury?
Speaker 2: R V Yes, And he says, quote, I've had enough
Speaker 2: for you. All you do is rant. It's like my
Speaker 2: fucking life mother, Like, what the fuck are you talking about?
Speaker 1: Exactly what he said.
Speaker 4: Rvel talked about this video so much he was actually
Speaker 4: found in contempt. And you have to remember this is
Speaker 4: that at that point Rvel hadn't even seen the video.
Speaker 2: Yeah you know, why the fuck would you be so
Speaker 2: interested in seeing something unless you absolutely knew you weren't
Speaker 2: fucking there? Yeah, all right, so I mean the jury
Speaker 2: sees this, yep, are you thinking like, oh, maybe maybe.
Speaker 1: Maybe I got a chance.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it took like forty five minutes to deliverer rate
Speaker 5: if that will be guilty with no evidence, like, yeah,
Speaker 5: we be STARp vertic guilty. I said, y'all people crazy,
Speaker 5: I said, y'all hear me up here, actually judge to
Speaker 5: make the DA play the video, I say, because it's
Speaker 5: full my innocence.
Speaker 1: Did y'all really that crazy? Like y'all really that blind?
Speaker 5: They have being Auburn Clinton Albirah say, say Attica.
Speaker 1: Theom CEOs there they were talking about racist. They racist.
Speaker 1: They don't care, they don't hide it. That jail needs
Speaker 1: to be shut down.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 5: The losses do whatever they want. Lieutenants is down with it. Captors,
Speaker 5: all of them. They just let them do whatever they want.
Speaker 5: To jump people, be people, up to kill people. There,
Speaker 5: it's places, it's crazy, man.
Speaker 2: They have some interesting artwork on their bodies.
Speaker 1: Yes, sir, you already know the bay with the rope.
Speaker 5: You know all types of crazy shit man, the hitless suns, yeah,
Speaker 5: them shits you know these are.
Speaker 4: Correctional Yeah, yeah, why do you take this job?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Oh? I couldn't fucking wait. Like Jesus Christ.
Speaker 5: Cow was always going to take a job where they
Speaker 5: could see they got the upper head or the real motherfucker.
Speaker 5: If I had done this, you would never hear of
Speaker 5: be fighting by case. I was just left it alone.
Speaker 5: I'd be like, you know what, fuck it, I did it.
Speaker 5: Let me do my time. But I know how didn't
Speaker 5: do it. I was going to the little library and
Speaker 5: I learned as much as I could about my case,
Speaker 5: and then I just put it motions. I raised Brady
Speaker 5: a shoot into is Rozario violations, prosecution misconduct, police misconduct,
Speaker 5: and the judge being biased.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, he wasn't able to gain any traction for over
Speaker 2: ten years, but over that time he built evidence to
Speaker 2: support all of his issues claims and ultimately obtained the video.
Speaker 4: Rvel did what he did pro say, and then he
Speaker 4: reached out to Derek Hamilton. You know I work with Derek, right.
Speaker 2: Do you guys know each other from the inside.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to imagine like Auburn, you met Nelson
Speaker 2: in them and the AI team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's where I met Derek Campibell to too.
Speaker 4: He came to me late October early November twenty twenty
Speaker 4: three and I looked at the video and Rvel made
Speaker 4: a clear record that it wasn't turned over. Actually contacted
Speaker 4: his attorney, and there wasn't just the video. There were
Speaker 4: interviews with some of the witnesses weren't turned over, and
Speaker 4: his trial attorney admitted that he never received a video.
Speaker 5: Audio statements, right.
Speaker 4: Audio statements. So Rvel really makes a clear record. And
Speaker 4: I look at this video and I'm like, okay, well
Speaker 4: these are the shooters yep. So then I looked at
Speaker 4: the description of Rvel and I'm like, he doesn't match
Speaker 4: the description. I look at a picture of him and
Speaker 4: I'm like, nobody is going to confuse him for the
Speaker 4: people in the video, even if it's grainy, right, And
Speaker 4: so it was, you know, Brady, the cru had to
Speaker 4: do their investigations. I tried to find Abraham Omar. I
Speaker 4: tried to track down the actual person that owned the
Speaker 4: business that took the video to see if maybe I
Speaker 4: could get even better copy, maybe the raw files of
Speaker 4: the video. I hired it an expert to maybe enhance
Speaker 4: it even more.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: Justin was trying to develop further support for Rvel's claim.
Speaker 2: The Brooklyn Conviction Review Unit conducted interviews, including with Nicki
Speaker 2: and Zebo Zacari, Benison, and his attorney, Alan Stutman.
Speaker 4: The DA's office interviews Alan Stuttman and they show him
Speaker 4: the video and he said he would have used that video.
Speaker 4: He said that he would have shown that to Rvel
Speaker 4: and we would have built a defense around that. So
Speaker 4: not only did they with hul Brady evidence, they created
Speaker 4: a separation between Rvel and his lawyer. They turned Rvel
Speaker 4: against his lawyer, and the lawyers looking at Rvel like,
Speaker 4: you're crazy. The video doesn't mean anything. Yeah, he says,
Speaker 4: I trusted what the DA said. I trusted what the
Speaker 4: police said. I trusted what the judge said. And then
Speaker 4: you got to remember too, this lawyer is an eight
Speaker 4: and B lawyer, and his vouchers get signed by the judge. Okay,
Speaker 4: so there's only but so much pushing. We're gonna get here, right, Yeah,
Speaker 4: gonna get paid, right, So you have that. Then he
Speaker 4: interviews A Carrie and Za Carry says specifically that we
Speaker 4: were unsure and then we were told he's the killer.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 5: After the fact, the cops told him that Nicky boyfriend
Speaker 5: was the shooter. I was locked up and I was
Speaker 5: described as Nicky's boyfriend at that time, So who else
Speaker 5: will he be talking about how would.
Speaker 4: It be, and it goes from a no I D
Speaker 4: to then an ID. Then they interview Niki, and this
Speaker 4: is why RVL believes that Nicky has something to do
Speaker 4: with this, other than some of the things he's already
Speaker 4: laid out. Nicki gives a statement to his defense investigator.
Speaker 4: No one else says there's two people involved other than her.
Speaker 5: Yeah, she knew it was two perpetrated and she also
Speaker 5: knew that they was one of them was young m
Speaker 5: How did she notice? Nicky claimed to have received information
Speaker 5: from her next door neighbor, said that somebody told them
Speaker 5: allegedly that they say two perpetrators.
Speaker 1: How do they.
Speaker 2: Notice because her next door neighbor is Abraham Omar. Yes,
Speaker 2: none other that Abraham strikes again.
Speaker 4: But you know, interestingly, they showed her the video and
Speaker 4: she said, what'd she say, Arvel?
Speaker 1: She said, that's not all aboult of that video.
Speaker 4: Boom I mean, I wish could do we have a
Speaker 4: funk flex that we have a Bomber. I mean it
Speaker 4: took ten months though, once I got on board of
Speaker 4: pushing and RVEL was frustrated. I was frustrated, but at
Speaker 4: the end of the day, the DA's office did the
Speaker 4: right thing, and they admitted that's not him in the video.
Speaker 4: That video had a tremendous amount of value and they
Speaker 4: let him out.
Speaker 1: A blessed man, you know, basically helped me prove that.
Speaker 2: It's August ninth, twenty twenty four. What do you have
Speaker 2: going on?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: You know, what are you living with's life?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 5: Well, I don't have a place to stay right now.
Speaker 5: I'm staying at people houses here and there. You know,
Speaker 5: I'm homeless really right now.
Speaker 1: You know, they just send me back out here with nothing.
Speaker 4: He has a state suit pending, and we're moving on
Speaker 4: civil rights and we're working to try to get r
Speaker 4: VEL stabilized.
Speaker 5: This case stressed my mother out so bad she passed away. Man,
Speaker 5: it stressed my father out, my sister out. They all
Speaker 5: three passed away, and my step father well that's for people.
Speaker 5: They passed away because they wanted to be back home
Speaker 5: so much. All they used to think about was me.
Speaker 5: I gotta letters so I to be baby, come home.
Speaker 5: Have you ever to get hold I don't know how
Speaker 5: much more I could take and then she's gone. Now
Speaker 5: they all got and that was my support while I
Speaker 5: was a jet. There was my support of the street
Speaker 5: that'll have able.
Speaker 2: No, as you've just heard, our Vell has very little support,
Speaker 2: and you can help them stay afloat by donating to
Speaker 2: his GoFundMe. We'll have that linked in the episode description.
Speaker 2: We wish Justin in him all the luck in the
Speaker 2: world and their pursuit of civil litigation. I mean, obviously
Speaker 2: nothing could ever make up the time for our Vel.
Speaker 2: But however, during the interview, Larvell expressed a small measure
Speaker 2: of revenge that he had on Nikki and someone from
Speaker 2: the seventy seventh Precinct that felt pretty cathartic.
Speaker 1: That it was funny.
Speaker 5: By after I got locked up, Dicky started dating a
Speaker 5: guy that woke to seventy seven Precinct as a cop.
Speaker 5: Guess what of a day, little do his RoboCop asked, though, Nick,
Speaker 5: you sent me a neckad picture on my phone.
Speaker 1: Oh bunny boy, Yeah, I hope you hit his shit.
Speaker 5: And I also got a letter from her telling me
Speaker 5: she's gonna leave him to come back to me. Oh man,
Speaker 5: but you know what, I don't want to ask back.
Speaker 5: I ain't even want to steak ass neckert picture. She
Speaker 5: could have kept that shit.
Speaker 2: And with that we go to closing arguments where I'm
Speaker 2: just going to express my gratitude to Rvel and Justin
Speaker 2: as well as to Jason and the team for letting
Speaker 2: me do this, and then I'm going to lock it
Speaker 2: up and listen to anything else. Justin and Rvel have
Speaker 2: to say.
Speaker 4: Everybody says, what would an innocent man say? A menisin,
Speaker 4: you'd scream to the rooftop im medison, I didn't do it,
Speaker 4: and then people on that jury that think this is
Speaker 4: what I would do if I didn't do Rvel Marshall
Speaker 4: did what everybody says that they would do, even though
Speaker 4: they don't have an iota of what it is like
Speaker 4: to be interrogated and arrested and prosecuted. Right, most people
Speaker 4: in this country don't. They don't know. I see I do.
Speaker 4: I've been I've had the police come to try to
Speaker 4: interrogate me, and they have a very good method to
Speaker 4: make you feel like they know something about you when
Speaker 4: they don't, the psychological games that they play. But see,
Speaker 4: he withstood all of the psychological games. He never admitted
Speaker 4: he committed the crime. He said he was innocent from
Speaker 4: the very beginning, had an alibi from the very beginning,
Speaker 4: was in court and when his lawyer wouldn't advocate for him.
Speaker 4: He advocated for himself. He does exactly what everybody said
Speaker 4: that they would do, which is they would tell everybody
Speaker 4: I'm innocent, tell him where I am. Still gets convicted,
Speaker 4: And the worst part about it is he's undermined by
Speaker 4: the prosecutor and it's not just their job to get
Speaker 4: a conviction. They have a duty of candor to the
Speaker 4: court and fairness to the accused. That didn't happen here,
Speaker 4: whether it was because the prosecutors fault himself or the
Speaker 4: cops fault, they cheated every chance that they got. Is
Speaker 4: we know this now because of physical evidence that they
Speaker 4: had to frame him in order to get him arrested
Speaker 4: and then convicted, and they had to coach these witnesses
Speaker 4: to take it all away to the end, to the
Speaker 4: finish line. He does, though, what everybody says they would do,
Speaker 4: which is repeatedly say he innocent. Every chance he got,
Speaker 4: even when he was told not to do it, he
Speaker 4: did it. And he was blasted by the judge in
Speaker 4: front of the jury said he's not credible in front
Speaker 4: of the jury.
Speaker 1: What would y'all have done in my situation? Would y'all
Speaker 1: would is still quiet. Did the time.
Speaker 5: Or fight to prove you, Editus, but you know it
Speaker 5: could be done. Let other people that really out there
Speaker 5: killing people be home so they could kill more people,
Speaker 5: or ask that you put them people away and let
Speaker 5: the Edocon man out.
Speaker 1: Would y'all want them cops to still be working?
Speaker 5: To y'all, communities of the judges and the da I
Speaker 5: don't feel they should have a job anymore, none of
Speaker 5: them because they no good. I hope y'all feel the
Speaker 5: same way I do. And like I said, I'm edocent still,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna always fame instant because I know how you
Speaker 5: do that like that. I never killed nobody in my life,
Speaker 5: and I'm not ashamed to sit.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna kill him. I'm just a god that
Speaker 1: will fight for his rights. That's it. Thank you.
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction.
Speaker 2: You can listen to this.
Speaker 3: And all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early
Speaker 3: and ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus
Speaker 3: on Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our production team,
Speaker 3: Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as my fellow
Speaker 3: executive producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Cleibern. The
Speaker 3: music in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR
Speaker 3: nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us across
Speaker 3: all social media platforms at Lava for Good and at
Speaker 3: Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow me on Instagram at
Speaker 3: it's Jason Flamm. Wrongful Conviction is the production of Lava
Speaker 3: for Good podcasts and association with Signal Company Number one