WEBVTT - #237 Jason Flom with Stefon Morant 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.760 Since the release of Stefan Morant's story, there have been 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:05.920 some exciting new developments. This is a re release of 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:11.479 his story with brand new content. In the late eighties 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:14.240 and early nineties, Stefan Morant and his best friend Scott 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.439 Lewis were dealing drugs for local New Haven, Connecticut Kingpinn 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:19.919 Frank Perezi, who was about to go to prison on 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:23.360 a weapons charge. When Perizi asked Scott Lewis to take 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:26.000 out a larger role in his business while he was away, 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:30.160 Scott refused, a decision that altered the course of his 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:34.720 and Stefan's lives. On October eleventh, nineteen ninety, former New Haven, 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:38.440 Connecticut alderman Ricardo Turner and his lover Lamont Fields were 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:42.120 shot and killed while they laid in bed. Detective Vincent 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:44.760 Rouchi is believed to have pinned this double homicide on 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:49.360 Scott Lewis. At Frank Perzi's request, Rauchi pressured Stefan Morant 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:52.440 to implicates Scott Lewis in a murder. He knew nothing 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:58.360 about a false statement that Stefan recanted the very next day. However, 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:02.360 his refusal to participate in Scott Lewis's wrongful conviction sealed 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:06.600 him to the same fate. Rauchi coerced and incentivized another 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:11.120 street dealer, Ovil Ruiz, sending Scott and Stefan away for 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:15.480 seventy years. Eventually, it took an FBI investigation and the 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:19.200 help of law students under Professor Brett Dignam to untangle 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:23.240 Parisi and Rauchi's web of lies, setting Stefan and Scott 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:26.920 free after both had served over twenty years for a 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:45.200 crime they didn't commit. This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:48.960 to wrongful conviction. Fasten your seat belts and listen up, 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:53.760 because the story of Stefan Moran includes a tangled web 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:57.240 of a drug gang, a politician who turned up dead 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:00.560 with his male lover in his bed, a corrupt detective 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:03.040 who was in on the drug dealing as well and 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:07.440 who ended up framing you, Stefan not to mention a 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:11.120 false confession, an incentivized witness who we know now was 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:13.560 mentally ill and who lied through his teeth and changed 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.800 his story multiple times, a mafia kingpin in case all 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:20.400 that other stuff wasn't enough for you, And finally, a 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:23.600 good judge who ironically was named Hate. I mean you 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:27.640 can't even make this stuff up. And our featured guest 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:32.440 today is Stefan Morant, who lived through this nightmare. So Stefan, 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:33.280 welcome to the show. 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:34.040 Thank you. 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:37.920 So let's go back to the beginning. I mean, this 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:44.360 is a Connecticut story and the backs are that on 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:48.760 October eleventh, nineteen ninety, former New Haven alderman named Ricardo 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:52.840 Turner and his lover Lamont Fields, were shot and killed 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:56.799 in their bed, and that's where our story starts. So 0:02:56.840 --> 0:02:59.120 back in nineteen ninety, you were a kid. 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:01.600 You were one about, yes. 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:06.200 And you were you know, you were hustling right, yes, 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:09.359 but you weren't killing anybody, absolutely not, and you certainly 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:14.080 weren't killing Ricardo Turner and Lamont Fields did. Okay, So 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:17.160 how does this start? Because you ended up getting into 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:21.800 the crosshairs of a I want to say corrupt detective. 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:23.480 I mean corrupt would be too light of a word 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:25.880 for this guy, Rauci. I mean you weren't his only victim. 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:28.760 There were tons. Yes, He's sort of like a character 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:32.760 along the lines of that guy out in Brooklyn who 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:35.840 framed so many of those people. Stefan set the stage 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:38.880 for us as to this crazy cast of characters in 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:41.360 the New Haven drug market at the time that this 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.360 double murder went down, because this was a culmination of 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:47.240 a lot of other factors. So can you give us 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:48.000 an overview. 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:50.440 There was a lot of different what you may call, 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:54.560 I guess, organizations, guys selling on different blocks. I was 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.040 working with Scott and he was getting drugs from this 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:59.440 guy by the name of Frank Perisi from out of 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.520 the Fame Heights area. That's who Detective Rochet used to 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:06.480 work for. I think the reason why me and Scott 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:08.720 got framed is because Frank was about to go to prison. 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:10.880 I think he was sentenced to eighteen years. So he 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:13.920 wanted somebody to take over the organization and he picked 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:16.080 Scott to take over the organization, and Scott wanted to 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:18.640 get out of the drug trade. So Scott said that 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:20.760 he would not do it, and next thing you know, 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:23.520 me and Scott are being framed for murder. 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.359 So how did this cross your consciousness? When did you 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:29.560 first become entangled in it? 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:31.640 As a young man, I was living with my mother 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:32.240 at the time. 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:35.960 I happened to call my mother in between seven thirty 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.080 and eight o'clock, me and a couple all of the 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.040 guys whatever he was about to go to a script club. 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:41.480 So I just just calling her not to tell I 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:42.520 was going to script club. 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:44.920 But you just mom, I'm going to strip club. 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.719 We're not doing that. So she tells me that someone 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:51.000 came by. It was a detective, a couple of them. 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:53.359 So she said they wanted me to call, So I 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:55.480 was like, I have no problem with calling them, so 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:58.680 she gave me the number. It happened to be Detective Rachi, 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:01.120 and I think it was the technic was Sweeney at 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:03.400 the time, which came in the case later on, and uh, 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:05.919 just probably by the reason why I'm sending before you 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:08.839 to day because of Detective Sweeney. That's another part of 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:12.000 the story. But so I happened to call him. He's 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:14.640 asking me could I meet him somewhere, and I said, 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:18.000 not a problem. So my court defended mister Lewis and 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:21.080 I and another gentleman. We jumped into a vehicle. He 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.320 dropped me off at a local gas station around the 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:27.839 corner from my mother's home, and he started asking me questions. 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:31.160 I was hesitating by answering anything because I didn't know 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:33.960 what was going on. He opened the back door and 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:37.240 he thrust me in. That was the beginning of a 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:39.719 nightmare of my life. They took me to the new 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:44.279 police precinct, took me to the detective Burrough, held me 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:49.560 there for hours at the time, brought out police reports, statements, 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:52.440 those paper articles, and started asking me the questions about 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:54.360 doing or anything about the double homicide. 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:55.520 I said, I did not. 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:58.240 Had you even heard about it in the neighborhood or anything? 0:05:58.680 --> 0:05:58.800 No? 0:05:58.839 --> 0:05:59.200 I did not. 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:02.760 So this is taking you totally off guard. And you 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:03.680 didn't have a lawyer. 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:04.360 No I did not. 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:06.800 Did you read you your rights because you weren't a 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:07.360 suspect yet? 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:09.680 Or no, I was a suspect, Like I said. We 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:11.960 were at the house drinking and smoking, so we was 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:14.359 a little little nice, you know, before going to the 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:16.400 script club. Instead of spending all the money in the 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:20.800 script club, we just to get high before. So we 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:23.400 were in the police precinct for hours at the time. 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:25.880 They start threatening me with talking about, oh, you could 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:28.279 get the death penalty, we'll put you in the mad 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:30.640 dollar bond. So I'm looking around, like in a room 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.640 such as this, one small little room, you know, how 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.000 do I get out of here? Like if you help us, 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:40.880 we'll help you. We don't want you anyway, we want Lewis. 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:44.359 So and Lewis was Scott Lewis? 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:45.839 Correct, Scott Lewis. 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:50.000 Was your friend, my brother, your brother not from another mother, 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:52.800 from another Okay, so, and he had not been picked 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:53.160 up yet. 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:54.320 No, he wasn't right. 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:56.880 So you're in there by yourself correct. Obviously a scary 0:06:56.920 --> 0:06:59.520 situation going on, and plus you were already a little 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:01.960 impair in the first place. I couldn't have helped, although 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.359 I imagine this would kill your buzz real quick, yes, but 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:10.000 still you didn't have all your wits about you. I mean, listen, 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:12.680 I would like to go back in time to that 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.760 day and shake you by the collar and go, dude, 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:17.960 call a lawyer, like, tell them you want a lawyer. 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:19.760 That's all you had to do, and the question would 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:21.440 have had to stop. But you didn't know that, because 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:22.960 most people don't know. I was one of the reasons 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:24.400 why we do the show, because we wanted to tell 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:27.280 people what to do if they got for a bid 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:29.280 of end up in a situation like yours. So this 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:31.320 questioning goes on and on and on. You don't even know. 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:33.080 You probably have no sense of time at this point. 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:34.240 Did you have a watch or anything? 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:36.400 No, I was, we probably got there, Like I said, 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:38.080 it was like eight I didn't get out of there 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.400 until like probably like five six hours later. After they 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.800 gave me all this information. It was recording me, of course, 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:48.400 and it kept stopping the tap. That's not how we 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:51.960 want it. Need you to write the statement correctly stopping 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:55.080 the tate starting stopping the tap. After they fied me 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:57.480 all this information, so I said, I felt in my 0:07:57.560 --> 0:07:58.440 best interest on. 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:00.720 The way I'm gonna get out of here is to 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:01.760 do what they want me to do. 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.280 Because the key thing for me was what they said 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:06.440 was you, after you write this, you got to come back. 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.680 So now I see a way out. I didn't see 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:11.240 a way out before because they wanted to give me 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:12.680 a way out. I was like, listen, I don't know 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:14.680 anything about the crime. I need to leave here and 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.920 let me go, and they was not letting me go, which. 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:20.320 Is actually against the law as well. They had to 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:22.520 let you go if you have to be let go, right, 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:24.280 I mean, considering they were willing to break so many 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:26.080 other rules, they certainly weren't going to abide by that 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:29.560 one either. So so you give a statement, yes, which 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.360 is a statement that they had basically fed you, correct, 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:35.480 giving details of the crime that you had no idea about. Correct, 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.720 but that we're accurate presumably if they fed them to you. Yes, 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:41.520 and then of course stopping and starting the tape. I mean, 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:43.840 that's right out of a TV show as well. An 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:46.559 amateur scriptwriter would put that in there, you know. And 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.040 so they end up getting what they want. Did they 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:50.920 then arrest you or did they send you home? 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:52.439 No, they'd actually let me go. 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:53.440 That's crazy. 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:53.959 They let me. 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:56.000 They told me to come back because I just signed 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:59.840 a statement. So my godmother name is Emma Jones. She 0:08:59.920 --> 0:09:02.920 was a lawyer at the time, and I immediately went 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:05.079 to her home. When I got there, it was like 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:07.720 three four in the morning, she looked at me and 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:09.199 I looked at her and I told her where I 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:12.360 was coming from. And she said, you did not say 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.720 anything right, And I just put my head down and 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:17.400 she said, first thing in the morning, we're going to 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:22.880 get representation. And my cousin, Detective Pontu was my father's 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:26.920 first cousin. He called my mother and he knew because 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:29.680 at the time of the crime, when it actually happened, 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:31.679 I wasn't even living here. I was living in South Carolina. 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.040 Actually going back and forth from South Carolina North Carolina. 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:37.840 So he was aware that I didn't live here at 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:40.440 the time, so he called my mother. I didn't know 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:42.240 where we camp meant, so he's like, do you have 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:44.760 a statement down here? Tell Stephan come down here. We 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.720 can't the statement. We know that he wasn't here. He 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:50.679 knew he wasn't here, So I went back to the 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:53.440 detective place with my mother. A detective came out and 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:55.360 he was brought the statement off for me to sign it. 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:57.800 I heard over the dispatch because I actually was supposed 0:09:57.800 --> 0:09:59.760 to meet my cousin over there, which was Detective Pontu, 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:05.360 and it was disregard. We got this. So the detective 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:06.920 came out, He's like, you have to sign this. So 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.600 I'm not signing anything. I said, that's bullshit. I'm not 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:13.920 signing it. I'm not signing it because it's a lie, 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.679 it's false information, it's not true. He's like, what if 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.640 you don't sign this, we could charge your conspiracy, and 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:23.400 I mean my mother just she grabbed a pocketbook and 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:24.360 we walk out the door. 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:30.880 Okay, So this is a bizarre story in a number 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:32.520 of levels. One is that they let you go in 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:34.480 the first place, instead of making you sign a statement 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:37.400 right after you had falsely confessed that. I've never heard 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:39.880 that one before. There must have been some reason for it, 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.520 but I don't know what it was. By now, this 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:43.600 is the next day. 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:45.800 Talking about going back to the police station. It was 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:46.640 a couple of days later. 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:48.200 Now by now you knew the details of the crime. 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:50.040 You knew this was a double murder, you know, super 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:54.080 serious situation, probably getting extra attention because of the fact 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:56.920 that one of the dead guys, Ricardo Turner, was a 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:01.640 former alderman, right, so there was probably to solve this crime. 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.199 So now, in these three days that had passed, did 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:07.080 you touch base with Scott Lewis? Did you let him 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:07.719 know what's going on? 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:08.040 Yes? 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:10.600 I called him actually probably the next day, and I 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:13.520 told him about it. So he actually called the police 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.880 precinct and called the detective himself and went down there 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:18.760 and spoke to him. I don't know what the details 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:21.720 of the conversation were, but he went down there himself. 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:26.079 So what happens next? How does it progress from here 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:31.320 to where you end up getting convicted and serving almost 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:32.400 half your life in prison? 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:33.199 Oh? 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:35.760 So what was I doing prior to being convicted m 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:39.560 So after leaving the police precinct, I went on with 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:42.240 my life. I was I was working. I was working 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:44.800 at a piece to place, being a delivery guy. And 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:47.439 the detective Rochet, he's like, used to follow me everywhere. 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:51.400 I moved back and forth, you know, from North Carolina, 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.120 South Carolina. I moved back down there with me and 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:58.000 my kid's mother. I formally got arrested two years later, 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:00.839 so this is nineteen ninety and the crime happened. I 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:07.400 got arrested her in February nineteen ninety two. My kid's mother, 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:11.439 Christie Soben, she was pregnant with my sons and we 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.360 were actually living a favor in North Carolina. Her mother 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:17.040 and father came to pick her up in December of 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:20.560 nineteen ninety one. She was complaining because I was, of 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:22.720 course still in the drug trade. I was going back 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.319 and forth from North Carolina South Carolina, trying to make 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:29.040 ends meet selling a little bit of drugs. So I 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:33.000 called her in nineteen ninety two. It happened to be February, right. 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:36.839 My sons was born in Valentine's Day, twins. One of 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:38.880 the great yeah, one of the greatest days of my life. 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.640 Of course, It was definitely a blessing. I'm like, I 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:46.520 got to get back to Connecticut right, didn't have no warrant, 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.240 didn't have no nothing. The last time I heard from 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:51.880 the detectives when I seen him follow me around in 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.960 the piece of place, in other various places like nightclubs 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.600 and stuff like that. So I didn't see him anymore 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:01.040 because I went back down south. So when I get 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:03.360 here at my mother's home, she lives in New Haven, 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:05.160 I happened to see a K car, you know, the 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:07.800 police detective car. I just knew, you know, what the 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:10.360 detective car looks like. So I seen him and I 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:13.840 just went the opposite way. So I happened to park 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:16.880 on a car in the communal lot in Derby, Connecticut, 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:19.480 and me and my friend name his name is Rob. 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:21.880 After seeing my boys, I was on my way going 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:24.480 back to South Carolina. So I was going to pick 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:27.199 my car up at the communal lot, and I seen 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:30.240 my left tire was flat and looked crazy. 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:32.080 I just felt something. 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:34.439 And then I seen a guy like in a Seville 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.720 with a newspaper up on his face, like nobody reads 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:41.200 a newspaper like that. Something's not right. So anyway, I 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:42.679 get out of the car. As soon as I get 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:44.679 out of the car, police come from everywhere. It's like 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:47.160 a scene out of a movie. My sons was in 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.440 the back, my name was in the back. I was 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:51.360 in the front. I got out the detectives. I was like, 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:52.560 they asked me what was my name? 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:52.920 Myself? 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:55.280 Of course my name is Steffa Morandom. But I say, you, guys, 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:56.680 I got kids in the car. Case you put your 0:13:56.679 --> 0:13:58.520 guns down. It was like I was in control of 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:01.520 the situation, but I wasn't because they put their guns down. 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:03.000 I just told her my name and they were like, oh, 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:06.880 you have an arrestaurant for doublehomicide. I'm like, what now, 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:10.079 I'm arrested for dumb ohomicide. Like I believe if I 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:12.240 would have never came back to Connecticut because what they 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:14.280 was doing they was about to take Scott to trial. 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:17.640 So what they did was rest me so they could 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:20.200 put pressure on me so I could come and testify. 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:23.720 Against mister Lewis. And that's just not how you say. 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.400 They try to put division between the both of us, 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:28.880 and it didn't work. We both ended up, of course, 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.680 getting convicted. I never testified on them because I'm not 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.240 testifying to a lie, but I ended up getting arrested 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:36.680 that day. Detective Rotch, she was the detective that came 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:39.320 him and another detective and picked me up from the 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:40.120 Orange Precinct. 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:44.160 I said, hey, come this bull crap again. So he's like, oh, all. 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:46.120 We want you to do is tell us that mister 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:48.640 Lewis committed this crime. You could go home, this warrant 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:51.360 could go away. I'm like, listen, man, what's my bond? 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:53.400 I just need to know my bond, That's all I 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:55.880 wanna know. I ended up giving my phone call. I 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:58.400 called my mother and she wasn't home, so I called 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:00.520 my aunt. Told my aunt about it, and she called 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:04.680 my mother let her know, and I was in jail 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:06.960 for like a few months, and then my mother she 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:09.080 bonded me out. She put her home up, and I 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.880 stayed out for an additional two years, and then I 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:14.600 went to trial in nineteen ninety four. 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:19.040 The whole thing is really surreal. I mean for a 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:21.960 lot of reasons, but also because of in particular because 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.560 of the elapsed time right because I feel like you're 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:27.920 listening to you talking about it now, it seems like 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:29.680 it was kind of in the tail life. You were 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:31.800 going all your life. You're raising your family, trying to 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:34.000 make m's meat, doing whatever you can, a little of this, 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.240 a little legitimate stuff, some other stuff. But you weren't 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:39.480 killing anybody. You weren't even hurting anybody. They had another 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.080 sort of nefarious weapon in their arsenal, which was this 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:49.280 another name that could only come out of a fictional account, right, 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:53.440 this guy Ovill Ruiz like Ovill, are you kidding me 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:58.640 with this name? Now? Orville Oval like evil and Oval. 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:04.240 Ruiz gave well, let's call it a coerced eyewitness account. 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.560 He was incentivized, he was coerced. They were using the 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:10.880 carrot and a stick. He was promised leniency, and according 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:14.360 to Ruiz, he came up with this story. I imagine 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:16.040 the first time you heard about this was a trial. 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:18.080 Did you know this Ruiz guy? 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:21.760 Yes, I knew of them well when we sold drugs. 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:24.480 He used to sell drugs. We used to sell drugs. Yes, 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:27.400 we wasn't the best of friends, but I know who 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:27.800 he was. 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.280 So Ruiz came up with a pretty interesting story. He 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:34.880 said that this alderman, the former alderman, Ricardo Turner, was 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:39.760 storing drugs and money for Louis, your co defender, for 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:43.120 his operation in the second four apartment that he lived in, 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:46.920 and that he also owed Lewis money. So, according to Oval, 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:50.160 Ruiz I love saying that name over and over again. 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:54.120 On October tenth and eleventh, nineteen ninety. He claimed that 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.120 you and Lewis discussed the idea that Turner might take 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:02.960 the money and run, and therefore Ruiz rode with you 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:05.320 guys to turn his apartment await in the car while 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:08.960 you Again this is his account, his false account, but 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:11.159 his account, he claimed that, armed with a three p 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:14.359 fifty seven and a thirty eight, that you guys forced 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:16.440 your way into Turner's apartment, murdered he and Fields in 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:18.800 their bed, and took the money and the coke got 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:21.719 in the getaway car. Now, this would all be a 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:25.840 little bit more believable if not for the fact that 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:28.159 he was promised leniency if he admitted to being the 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:31.000 getaway driver. And you know, he probably didn't even come 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:32.399 up with this story. They probably came up with it 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:33.080 and gave it to him. 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:36.080 But whatever, Well, you know, at the time I'm be 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:40.280 going to trial this young kid would a background in 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:44.159 mental health issues. My lawyer at the time subpoena in 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:46.480 his records, and this guy was talking about he see 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:50.919 red bean, he see different visions. He's on halladall and 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:54.760 various drugs for his mental health. So he was not 0:17:54.880 --> 0:18:01.240 only thrown and thrusted and given leniency for given false testimony, 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.000 but he also was a mental health patient. You know, 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:06.440 I don't even understand how the jury believed this guy. 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:10.639 So now they had you, guys, they had this guy 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:13.639 that had a false confession. You had no shot at trial, 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:16.720 absolutely not. So you go to trial. You tried separately 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:17.359 from Lewis. 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:20.320 Yes, I had four counts. First, I have five counts, 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:22.840 one count of conspiracy. They dropped that at the beginning 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:25.080 of the trial. Two council aid into benin and two 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:26.080 concert felony murder. 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:30.159 So when the jury came back in, did you have 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:32.760 any hope that they would come to the right answer? 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:35.560 He still believed. Yes, even after everything that happened, you 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:37.160 still believed the justice were going out. 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:40.280 Of course I did have hope because I didn't do it. 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:42.920 So, okay, so take us to that moment. So the 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.120 jury comes in and they read the charges in order, 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:47.719 right right, So you've already had the one charge dropped. 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:49.840 Now you have the first two charges and they go 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:54.280 not guilty, right, So after that second not guilty, I'm like, 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:58.040 You're like, I'm going home, Yes, I mean, and then 0:18:58.080 --> 0:18:59.240 they drop a bomb on you. 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.960 And then a literal almost fell over. Literally I rocked back. 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:06.040 I had to catch myself, and then I looked at 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:12.440