Speaker 1: In the late eighties and early nineties, the crack epidemic
Speaker 1: was in full swing, and one of New York's most
Speaker 1: powerful drug gangs was Lenny and Nelson Sopulvida's Wild Cowboys
Speaker 1: a k a. The Red Top Crew. Red Top referred
Speaker 1: to the color of the caps on their crack piles,
Speaker 1: and they're less powerful. Competitors were called Orange Top and
Speaker 1: Yellow Top. Yellow Top began selling out of an alleyway
Speaker 1: on Beakman Avenue in the Bronx, which was Red Top territory.
Speaker 1: Around December sixteenth, in an incident that became known as
Speaker 1: the Quad Murders, Nelson Sepulvida and three others rolled up
Speaker 1: with semi automatics indiscriminately spraying sixty bullets into the alleyway
Speaker 1: on Beakman, killing four and wounded one. Detective Mark Tappins
Speaker 1: was under intense pressure to bring order to the dangerous area,
Speaker 1: and he indicted forty one people as codefendants for several
Speaker 1: drug related incidents, including the Quad murders. Tappin's street sweep
Speaker 1: turned suspects into witnesses, and nine of the forty one
Speaker 1: it went to trial. Five of the codependants were blamed
Speaker 1: for the quad writers, four of whom are inocent, and
Speaker 1: one of those poor souls is Danny Rincon. Alibi witness
Speaker 1: has placed Danny on the other side of a large
Speaker 1: city block at the time of the shooting, including a
Speaker 1: victim's mother and brother, but the jury could not see
Speaker 1: through the trial's circus atmosphere. Dandy was convicted and sentenced
Speaker 1: to a hundred and fifty eight and a third to life.
Speaker 1: Glenn Garber and Para Rossner from the Exoneration Initiative joined
Speaker 1: Danny Rincon, calling it from Attica Prison to tell us
Speaker 1: about the case that they've built for Danny's freedom. This
Speaker 1: is Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm. Hello, n the prepaid
Speaker 1: collect call from an inmate at New York State Department
Speaker 1: of Corrections and commiting supervision. This call is subject to
Speaker 1: recording and monitoring. To accept charges. Press one. Thank you
Speaker 1: for using Securist. You may start the conversation now. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom. Before I introduced
Speaker 1: Danny reren Cohen, who's calling in from prison where he's
Speaker 1: been for a very long time, where he doesn't belong. First,
Speaker 1: I'm going to introduce his legal team. Sarah Rossner Vara
Speaker 1: is an attorney with the Exoneration Initiative. Thank you for
Speaker 1: having us and with us today as well is Glenn Garber.
Speaker 1: And Glenn has been responsible for a large number of
Speaker 1: exonerations as the founder and director of the Exoneration Initiative.
Speaker 1: And it's so great that you're here and so great
Speaker 1: that you're working on Danny's case. That I know that
Speaker 1: you'll be the first one to greet him when he
Speaker 1: gets out, because I know how much this case means you.
Speaker 1: So Glenn Garber, welcome to Wrongful Conviction. Thank you. Jason
Speaker 1: happy to be here. And Danny ring Cohn calling in
Speaker 1: from Attica. So Danny, welcome to Wrongful Convict. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, Jason, thank you for the opportunity. Danny is
Speaker 1: serving what I think a lot of people will agree
Speaker 1: as an absurd sentence. He's serving a hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: eight and a third years to life. But let's not
Speaker 1: start there. Let's start at the beginning. Danny, you grew
Speaker 1: up in Washington Heights in the height of the crack epidemic.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us a little bit about what it
Speaker 1: was like. It was a certainly a volatile neighborhood, a
Speaker 1: troubled time to New York City. There was a you know,
Speaker 1: war on drugs. There was a high crime and murder rate.
Speaker 1: Drugs were prevalent, particularly crack cocaine. And I'm not going
Speaker 1: to say that I am innocent of being involved in drugs.
Speaker 1: What I would never do, what I am wrongly convicted of.
Speaker 1: You know, my parents were working people. My dad worked
Speaker 1: at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center for twenty seven years. My
Speaker 1: mom mads she rest in peace. Excuse me. My mom
Speaker 1: work thirty three years at a ghost actory, and my
Speaker 1: parents worked hard to provide for my brothers and me.
Speaker 1: My parents are still values in US. And I made
Speaker 1: a poor decision in those years to take to the streets,
Speaker 1: which brought nothing but shame, embarrassment, and humiliation of my
Speaker 1: parents and my family. But you know, we were blessed
Speaker 1: in many ways because my parents provided and we had
Speaker 1: what we needed, my brothers and I, and we went
Speaker 1: to school and we had a great upbringing, despite the
Speaker 1: fact that we grew up in a poor neighborhood that
Speaker 1: was flooded and riddled with violence and drugs. But that
Speaker 1: was Washington Heights. In those days, the South Bronx was
Speaker 1: no different. You know. I ventured over to the South
Speaker 1: Bronx at the age of maybe fourteen fifteen years old,
Speaker 1: and what I saw there was not much different than
Speaker 1: what I've seen in my own neighborhood in Washington Heights.
Speaker 1: Even for the violent insanity that was taking place in
Speaker 1: the South Bronx and Washington Heights, that whole section of
Speaker 1: the city in those days. This was a particularly violent
Speaker 1: crime though. This was a crime that became known as
Speaker 1: the Quad murders. So there were rival drug organizations at
Speaker 1: the time in the area in mad Haven, and there
Speaker 1: were three that we can discuss which were actually relevant
Speaker 1: to this incident. There was the Red Top organization, which
Speaker 1: was led by two brothers, Lenny and Nelson sepo Veda,
Speaker 1: and then there was another organization, the Orange Top, which
Speaker 1: Danny was affiliated with, and then there was the Yellow Top.
Speaker 1: Each of these organizations had a separate location where they
Speaker 1: would sell drugs. They had different people that worked for
Speaker 1: each of the groups. They were stepping on each other's toes.
Speaker 1: They were fighting over territory, they were fighting over pricing
Speaker 1: for each of the vials that they were selling, trying
Speaker 1: to undercut the other to take over some territory. So
Speaker 1: it was a drug war so to speak, that was
Speaker 1: going on between these three organizations. This was not some
Speaker 1: small time drug dealing. I mean they were making between
Speaker 1: ten and twenty million dollars a year just the Red
Speaker 1: Top Gang itself, right. The Septas were sort of the
Speaker 1: drug kingpins, if you will, and they were the ones
Speaker 1: who were actually ruling most of that area. BigMan Avenue
Speaker 1: is a small street between St. Mary's Park and a
Speaker 1: Hunt forty street in the Bronx, New York. Let me
Speaker 1: subpurvid a basically rule BigMan Avenue with a nine fist.
Speaker 1: Let me suburvid. At the time of the murders was
Speaker 1: in prison. A good friend of mine, Gerard Her, open
Speaker 1: up a spot on BigMan Avenue and was selling yellow time.
Speaker 1: Nelson Supervida apparently took over while his brother Lenny was
Speaker 1: in prison and felt that Gerard Her was encrouching on
Speaker 1: BigMan Avenue. So in an act of force or discipline
Speaker 1: or what have you, he decided to unleash these individuals,
Speaker 1: included himself, to shoot up this corners, killing four people.
Speaker 1: So what happens is, first of all, it's a freezing
Speaker 1: called night. It was about ten fifteen ten twenty on
Speaker 1: December sixteen, and Nelson Spulvida, who was the architect of
Speaker 1: the quad murders, arrives on the scene with Francisco Medina,
Speaker 1: where Freddy Krueger, a guy named Platinauh who's will Fredo
Speaker 1: de los Angeles Teso or Raphael Perez, and an individual
Speaker 1: known as Crazy Ray converge and start opening fire into
Speaker 1: that alleyway at three Beakman Avenue. These guys, two of them,
Speaker 1: jump out of a car to run up on foot
Speaker 1: Nelson Sepulvido, will Fredo de los Angeles, Rafael Perez, and
Speaker 1: a guy named Crazy Ray. They roll up spray the
Speaker 1: alleyway with sixty rounds from semi automatics, wounding one person
Speaker 1: Janice Brewingtons and killing four Cynthia Cassada, Emmanuel Vieira, one
Speaker 1: unidentified man, and Anthony Green and Danny. You knew Anthony
Speaker 1: Green and his family, his brother Benjamin and his mother Irene.
Speaker 1: I mean, in fact, there part of your alibi. I
Speaker 1: mean again, this is the mother and the brother of
Speaker 1: a victim. It just doesn't get more so other than that, right.
Speaker 1: What we learned later was that the shooters left the
Speaker 1: apartment of Terrell Blair and Brenda Blair on Bagman Avenue.
Speaker 1: Sorelle Blair leaves his apartment and runs up to the
Speaker 1: Green's apartment to tell Benjamin that something's gonna happen to
Speaker 1: his brother down down the block because these guys were
Speaker 1: leaving his apartment and he knew they were discussing. Gerard
Speaker 1: heard his brother and those individuals around Yellowtop there, so
Speaker 1: he was headed up there to warn Benjamin to go
Speaker 1: get his brother out of the way because something was
Speaker 1: going to happen there. Cyrelle Blair has refused to get
Speaker 1: involved in this matter for whatever his reasons are. Can
Speaker 1: you tell us about that night, Like, what were you
Speaker 1: actually doing that evening? I was on Cyprus Avenue in
Speaker 1: Building three seventy and Apartment one gene while I was
Speaker 1: second in a bedroom talking to my brother May also
Speaker 1: rest in peace. He was inconservated in Ranking's Island at
Speaker 1: the time. He had made a phone call prior to
Speaker 1: me taking the coal. I was inside Apartment one B
Speaker 1: in the adjacent building three and have been to course apart.
Speaker 1: While my brother and I were on the phone, I
Speaker 1: heard shooting and it appeared to me that the shooting
Speaker 1: was coming from right out front. I raised the shade
Speaker 1: from the window and I see a girl standing right
Speaker 1: in front of the window, by the name of Pamela Fortune.
Speaker 1: I bang on the window. I tell her, don't you
Speaker 1: hear those people shooting? Get in the building. Moments later,
Speaker 1: within minutes, I'm getting ready to walk out the building.
Speaker 1: In the vestibute of the building, I run into Palm
Speaker 1: Lena Patton Irene Green, who's crying uncontrollably. I know Irene
Speaker 1: Green because she is the mother of two friends of mine,
Speaker 1: Benjamin Green and Anthony Green. She tells me that her
Speaker 1: boy got shot. I offered to help her up to
Speaker 1: her apartment. Lena Patton and pam Fortune said that they
Speaker 1: were going to take up there, so I took her
Speaker 1: to the front of the elevator and I left him there.
Speaker 1: I immediately walked outside. I noticed that Benjamin Green was
Speaker 1: standing in front of the building. In my mind, when
Speaker 1: she said my boy got shot, I thought that it
Speaker 1: was Benjamin because I knew at the time benjam was
Speaker 1: running the streets in those days. Never had it occurred
Speaker 1: to me that it was Anthony. So I approached Benjamin.
Speaker 1: I said to him, Hey, your mother doesn't seem well.
Speaker 1: You need to go in there and check on your mother.
Speaker 1: He tells me my brother got shot. He goes in
Speaker 1: the building to assist his mother. I leave the neighborhood
Speaker 1: that night. The very next day, I was back on
Speaker 1: Cyprus Avenue about ten eleven in the morning, and I
Speaker 1: see that the neighborhood is flooded with investigators and cops.
Speaker 1: Kind of seeing that whole entire area. Yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: you would have a lot of investigators and a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure to get the killers off the streets or
Speaker 1: to get somebody just to make the pressure go away, right,
Speaker 1: And I imagine that had a lot to do with
Speaker 1: how they ended up targeting you, right, absolutely. Mark Teppins
Speaker 1: was pressured to make an arrest in this case and
Speaker 1: he didn't have anything. Teppins was a member of the
Speaker 1: Fort Precinct Detective Squad and he had several open cases
Speaker 1: in the Mount Haven area during that time. In ninety two,
Speaker 1: after the Quad murders, he was assigned to the Bronx
Speaker 1: d A's office to help make the case on the Quad.
Speaker 1: He was under a lot of pressure to close all
Speaker 1: of these cases. And so he used a lot of
Speaker 1: the same witnesses over and over again, sort of a
Speaker 1: witness for higher situation, if you will. These witnesses would
Speaker 1: offer false testimony and exchange for money and reduced charges
Speaker 1: or sentences for their own crimes. In the Quad murder case,
Speaker 1: many of the witnesses he used to implicate Danny and
Speaker 1: his co defendants were members of the Red Top, the
Speaker 1: rivals to Danny's Orange Tops and to those Yellow Tops
Speaker 1: who were the targets of the Quad. They had all
Speaker 1: had a vested interest in Danny getting off the streets,
Speaker 1: so they were more than willing to place him at
Speaker 1: the scene. So let me give you an example. In
Speaker 1: April of Tebbin's received a call from a woman named
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Morrales. Morales, who by the way, had worked for
Speaker 1: the Red Top organization, claimed that she and her family
Speaker 1: were in fear for their lives because the Sepulvedas were
Speaker 1: after them because they'd stolen drugs from them. So Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Morrales said she needed help, and in exchange for that help,
Speaker 1: she told Teban's convenient that she could provide help and
Speaker 1: give him information on a lot of the violence that
Speaker 1: took place on Beakman Avenue, so Tabbin's remember under so
Speaker 1: much pressure. He went immediately to the shelter to where
Speaker 1: she and her three children were and started talking to them,
Speaker 1: and she said that they could give them names of
Speaker 1: the alleged perpetrators of the quad, as well as several
Speaker 1: other homicides that had taken place in the area over time.
Speaker 1: So he calls them down to the d a's office
Speaker 1: and they give statements. Meanwhile, he's providing them protection, he's
Speaker 1: helping them to relocate to a motel. He gives them
Speaker 1: money for living expenses and food, and he later moves
Speaker 1: them to an apartment and starts to pay for their rent.
Speaker 1: So each of them happily gives a statement. One of
Speaker 1: Elizabeth's daughters, Iris Crews, what they used to call her
Speaker 1: Little Iris. She was fourteen years old at the time
Speaker 1: of the quad and she also was an employee of
Speaker 1: the Red Top. She can't even read English at the time,
Speaker 1: but she signed a statement he handed her that she
Speaker 1: saw Danny from her fourth floor apartment window at the
Speaker 1: opposite end of Beakman Avenue, which is where the alley
Speaker 1: was located, and she said she heard fireworks, so she
Speaker 1: leaned out of her window and looks down the road
Speaker 1: through a fire escape and says she can see what
Speaker 1: was going on. Now, if you picture a city block,
Speaker 1: it's pretty long. She can see all the way down
Speaker 1: to the other end of the block in the dark
Speaker 1: because the lights have been blown out, and can see
Speaker 1: that Danny's sitting in a car shooting from the car.
Speaker 1: I mean that sounds a little bit sketchy to me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I would like to actually go to that apartment,
Speaker 1: and I have a funny feeling we would know maybe
Speaker 1: you've already done that. So we actually did do that, Jason,
Speaker 1: and we stood on the street and looked down the block,
Speaker 1: and there's absolutely and we did it in broad daylight.
Speaker 1: There's no way in the dark of night you could
Speaker 1: see all the way down there. We see cases like
Speaker 1: this over and over again where these witness statements are
Speaker 1: so easily proven to be not a false but could
Speaker 1: not be true. It's a different category from false, right
Speaker 1: could not be true because you cannot see from where
Speaker 1: they said they were to where the thing took place.
Speaker 1: But that gets, you know, pretty easily glossed over in
Speaker 1: the course to these proceedings somehow, and Elizza. Morales also
Speaker 1: had a son named Joey Morales who was thirteen at
Speaker 1: the time of the quad and he allegedly saw the
Speaker 1: shooting as well. And he, by the way, was a
Speaker 1: witness in six other cases in which Tappens was the detective.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something about the incredible Joy Morales.
Speaker 1: Joy Morales claims that he went to buy a gallon
Speaker 1: of milk at ten thirty in the evening and witnessed
Speaker 1: the quad murders. In another case, he went to buy
Speaker 1: milk at three thirty in the morning and witnessed a
Speaker 1: guy by the name of Rashi Rice and Angel Kimone
Speaker 1: is comit a robbery and the murder at three thirty
Speaker 1: in the morning that his mother sent him to go
Speaker 1: buy some milk. In another matter, Marion Fraser's case, the
Speaker 1: Incredible Joy Morales claims that he left his house to
Speaker 1: go hang out in the neighborhood at for the afternoon
Speaker 1: and wandered the neighborhood to six o'clock in the morning
Speaker 1: without going home. Thirteen year old kid wondered that neighborhood
Speaker 1: in those years to six o'clock in the morning, where
Speaker 1: at five thirty in the morning he allegedly observes Mami
Speaker 1: and Frasier a bit of murder on huntred and pressure,
Speaker 1: and these people were just so lucky that they have
Speaker 1: to witness one murder after another. That sounds like some
Speaker 1: scarce seller type of stuff. It seems that Tepans has
Speaker 1: got set the one in this name. This episode is
Speaker 1: brought to you by Stand Together. Stand Together is a
Speaker 1: philanthropic community dedicated to helping people improve their lives. For
Speaker 1: more than twenty years, Stand Together and its partners have
Speaker 1: been on the front lines of criminal justice reforms. By
Speaker 1: empowering people to take action, supporting nonprofits, and working with businesses.
Speaker 1: Stand Together tackles the root causes of problems in our
Speaker 1: communities and empowers those closest to the problems to drive solutions.
Speaker 1: Solutions like reducing unjust prison sentences through the First Step Act,
Speaker 1: empowering community based programs and help people re enter society,
Speaker 1: and now working to bridge divides in our communities. To
Speaker 1: learn how you may get involved, visit stand Together dot org.
Speaker 1: Slash conviction Danny, when did you get arrested? And it
Speaker 1: was almost a summer day like it was June six.
Speaker 1: I was on the same street that I was on
Speaker 1: the night of the murders on Cyper's Avenue. As I
Speaker 1: look up, I see Mark Tebbins and he tells me
Speaker 1: that he needed to talk to me, and I said,
Speaker 1: to talk to me about what He said, Well, somebody
Speaker 1: said you robbed him. When I get to the priest
Speaker 1: and he tells me that I'm there for big Monabue
Speaker 1: and so, what do you mean, big Manambe? He said,
Speaker 1: we got information that you was driving the car the
Speaker 1: night of the murder. That's it mean impossible. There's thirty
Speaker 1: forty people that could tell you I was on Cyper's
Speaker 1: Avenue that even that's impossible. I was processed. I was
Speaker 1: taken down to Central Booking and charged with killing four
Speaker 1: people and wounding someone else. And Judge I will grow
Speaker 1: with me, granted me. They of the bells set at
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars. That's kind of low bail for
Speaker 1: someone who they think committed this horrific crime. Is I
Speaker 1: was able to get built out because Benjamin Green and
Speaker 1: his mother, Irene Green, where at my arrangement. And as
Speaker 1: you know, Benjamin is the brothers in. Irene is the
Speaker 1: brother of one of the deceased Anthony Green. And so
Speaker 1: their statement was to quote an open statement that I
Speaker 1: was on Cyprus Avenue in their building and that I
Speaker 1: assisted her that evening, and that I couldn't have been involved.
Speaker 1: The judge, I guess, took that in consideration and granted
Speaker 1: me the bail. Even while I was out on bail,
Speaker 1: I visited the Greenhouse. So how long were you out
Speaker 1: before the trial? So I got arrested and I need
Speaker 1: to I got out on bail. I initially started trial
Speaker 1: in the Bronx, well, at least the Code offenders did,
Speaker 1: and just Ira Globerman, Supreme Court justice in the Bronx,
Speaker 1: granted me the bail. By the way, Ira Globerman did
Speaker 1: not believe that I was guilty of these murders. He's
Speaker 1: told the prosecution and a hearing he said that he's
Speaker 1: seen the evidence of prosecution has and he's not persuaded
Speaker 1: that I am guilty of these murders. And there for
Speaker 1: those reasons, he's gonna separate my case from that of
Speaker 1: the Code offense. He said. The Quote offenders will go
Speaker 1: on trial for U and Mr Rencom because he is
Speaker 1: out on bail, he will go out trials. Seconds that
Speaker 1: never happened, obviously, we was indicted in the superseding indictment
Speaker 1: in New York County. All the charges were later dismissed
Speaker 1: in the Bronx and re indicted in New York County,
Speaker 1: and I was remanded by Snyder and that was ine
Speaker 1: as the trial his thoughts were. A year later, we
Speaker 1: went before Snyder and Leslie Crocker Schneider, you know, was
Speaker 1: an animal judge. I mean, she was notorious for doing
Speaker 1: out the harshness of sentences and wrote the book Life,
Speaker 1: which focused on the Wild Cowboys. Yes, she was notorious.
Speaker 1: Little did anyone know that this tough judge would not
Speaker 1: be Danny's biggest problem. It's important to note that in
Speaker 1: November of ninety three they found an indictment with forty
Speaker 1: one defendants co defendants, and they called it the Wild
Speaker 1: Cowboy Trial, but it was like all the crimes that
Speaker 1: had taken place in that area. So there was a
Speaker 1: big blanket of an indictment that they issued, and all
Speaker 1: that the crowd murder is just one of them, and
Speaker 1: thirty two of those individuals of the played out. They
Speaker 1: played guilty, and nine Danny being one of them, proceeded
Speaker 1: to go to trial. And those five of them were
Speaker 1: convicted of the quad. I can tell you that the
Speaker 1: wrong people that they focused on were Stanley Tooks, Russell Harris,
Speaker 1: Daniel Gonzalez, and Danny Wrencone. And those people are all innocent,
Speaker 1: by the way. In addition to Danny Wrencone, there was
Speaker 1: one guy, will Fredoda Los Angeles, who we believe was
Speaker 1: a an actual perpetrator of the quad. But the theory
Speaker 1: that they went with was clearly wrong. How did they
Speaker 1: come to land on all five of them? Yes, so
Speaker 1: the prosecution came up with this theory that Orange Top
Speaker 1: teamed up with Red Top in an effort to off
Speaker 1: Yellow Top, which was totally false. I mean, in fact,
Speaker 1: Red Top and Orange Top did not get along, and
Speaker 1: Red Top um and put a hit at it actually
Speaker 1: shot Danny. I was the subject of a similar shooting
Speaker 1: at the hands of Lenny se Povator, where I was
Speaker 1: shot six times on that same corner where the quad
Speaker 1: happened just a year before, for the same reasons, because
Speaker 1: I was associated with our rest as we know that
Speaker 1: the murders happened on the Sumber six. Two weeks later,
Speaker 1: I held the New Year's party at Cyper's Avenue. I
Speaker 1: invited the whole Yellow Top crew throughout her. Benjamin Green,
Speaker 1: whose brother had just been killed two weeks earlier, was
Speaker 1: in a party with me. So you know, it just
Speaker 1: the size logic that you know, I would trying to
Speaker 1: ambush these guys and then be partying with them two
Speaker 1: weeks later. But ironically, the people that were actually now
Speaker 1: known to be responsible for the quad we're not present
Speaker 1: or invited to the party. Again, as I said it,
Speaker 1: the size logic um. So there was really a clear
Speaker 1: divide between Red Top and Orange Top, but the prosecution
Speaker 1: just blew through that because they needed to join them
Speaker 1: for their case. So you end up a trial and
Speaker 1: how did the whole thing play out? So the trial
Speaker 1: began in September ninety four, but I never, for the
Speaker 1: life of me, believe that the choad was something that
Speaker 1: I get convicted of. For many reasons. The alleged witnesses
Speaker 1: stories were all over the place, you know, their nagratives
Speaker 1: changed from one telling to the next, and I knew
Speaker 1: that there was just so many people that can place
Speaker 1: me on side Press Avenue. But as the trial moved along,
Speaker 1: I realized that the way Snyder was pushing this trial
Speaker 1: forward and the way she was denying stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: my hopes dwindled more and more that I can get
Speaker 1: a fair trout in front of this woman. And so
Speaker 1: the witnesses got up, understand, and they all testified, and
Speaker 1: one after the other, the Lord's tried their best to
Speaker 1: try to show that these witnesses were all lying for
Speaker 1: a favor and providing testimony and to try to get
Speaker 1: legacy from the prosecutor's office or for you know, whatever reasons.
Speaker 1: But I predominantly wanted to hear the Cruise Morales family
Speaker 1: because I knew I didn't know these people. I knew
Speaker 1: that we were in friends, I knew that these people
Speaker 1: were lying, and I just knew that at some point,
Speaker 1: you know, it's gonna come out, this is gonna come
Speaker 1: out during this trial, that these people they'd not witness
Speaker 1: this and these people just implicating individuals here wrongefully. That
Speaker 1: was my aspiration, But they didn't play out that way.
Speaker 1: They testified, they gave the conflicting narratives that they gave,
Speaker 1: and the jury still accepted it. But I believe that
Speaker 1: the jury accepted the narratives that these witnesses provided simply
Speaker 1: because the way the trial was held. They sat as
Speaker 1: in this courtroom, eight individuals at a defense table. So
Speaker 1: try to picture these guys in your mind. There's three
Speaker 1: defense attorneys, there's an armed camp of court officers and
Speaker 1: investigators and police all surrounding the court room, media all
Speaker 1: over the place. There's eight defense attorneys. A couple of
Speaker 1: the defense attorneys had either paralegal or second chair, and
Speaker 1: there's just this big show going on about how these
Speaker 1: guys were one of the worst groups of individuals that
Speaker 1: committed all these hats acts during the course of seven years.
Speaker 1: It sounds like a circus. I mean, with that many people,
Speaker 1: how could you even begin to present a cohesive defense.
Speaker 1: It's very unusual that they would do more than five
Speaker 1: defendants together in a trial. Anything over five becomes super unwieldy.
Speaker 1: And this was way beyond that. It was a circus.
Speaker 1: And the jury, not hearing from any of the defendants
Speaker 1: in their mind, must have said, then they're all guilty.
Speaker 1: They all did it. Why aren't they getting up there
Speaker 1: and defending themselves. I wanted to testify. I was prepared
Speaker 1: to tell this jury. Look, I was on Cyprus Avenue
Speaker 1: and Irene Green and Benjamin Green had provided information to
Speaker 1: Donald Tucker, Danny's lawyer, about that alibi. Donald Tucker failed
Speaker 1: to do anything with that alibi and investigated further and
Speaker 1: put on alibi witnesses on Danny's behalf. The lawyer Donald
Speaker 1: Tuckle at the time, who was disbarred by the way
Speaker 1: six months seven months after my trial, told me that
Speaker 1: if I forced any witness to come into the quote
Speaker 1: to testify that doesn't want to testify. Whenever I needed
Speaker 1: them to testify, they won't testify for me. And I
Speaker 1: was explained to that if I do testify, would not
Speaker 1: be in my best interests. So I decided to not
Speaker 1: to testify, which I think is one of the worst
Speaker 1: mistakes I've made in my life. But the trial was
Speaker 1: a farce. You have a circus trial with an impossible
Speaker 1: number of people at the defense table in and around defendants, lawyers, paralegals.
Speaker 1: You had a lawyer who was on his way to
Speaker 1: being disbarred. But the moment, the moment when you were convicted,
Speaker 1: what was that like? I gotta tell you that it
Speaker 1: was probably one of the worst days of my life.
Speaker 1: I mean, absent my mother's passing and my brother. I
Speaker 1: think that that was one of the most worst days
Speaker 1: of my life. You know, I sat there and looked
Speaker 1: at I stared at the jury like a blank stare,
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to just makes sense of how did
Speaker 1: they come to the conclusion that I was guilty of
Speaker 1: a quad The reason we sat there was because of
Speaker 1: that quad murder, and I knew I wasn't guilty. I never, never,
Speaker 1: never would have imagined that maybe this twenty years later
Speaker 1: and I'm still sitting here. I knew that. At some
Speaker 1: point I said to myself, you know, Benja mcgreen's family
Speaker 1: will come forward and fortune would come forward and tell
Speaker 1: these people I'm not responsible for this. They can bear
Speaker 1: witness to the fact that I didn't do this, and
Speaker 1: that day hasn't come. You got sent to prison. On
Speaker 1: the day of sentencing, I was taken up to downstay
Speaker 1: from the bullpen. I didn't make it back to Ragge's Island.
Speaker 1: I was processing downstairs. Within the next two three days,
Speaker 1: I was on a bus headed towards Western New York.
Speaker 1: I found myself in Wendy Correctional Facility. I stayed at
Speaker 1: Wendy for about roughly seventy days. I had an opportunity
Speaker 1: at least to see my mother, my mother tracked me
Speaker 1: down and made her way up there, and I saw
Speaker 1: my mother's and there after, seventy some days later, I
Speaker 1: found my stuff where I am today at Attica Correctional Facility,
Speaker 1: and I'm looking for a familiar face, and I run
Speaker 1: into Derek Hamilton's who I had known from Rankers Island
Speaker 1: and who actually was a friend of my brother when
Speaker 1: he rested peace. So I've seen Derek and he tells me, listen,
Speaker 1: you gotta go to the Low Library. But back then
Speaker 1: and I didn't have a clue of what the Low
Speaker 1: Library was and what the Low Library was gonna do
Speaker 1: for me, and I just didn't go. So five years later,
Speaker 1: I leave Attica and I find myself that green Haven.
Speaker 1: I decided that I needed to go to the Low
Speaker 1: Library because they was offering a legal research class, and
Speaker 1: I ended up getting a legal research certificate. Almost four
Speaker 1: years later, I leave green Haven and I find myself
Speaker 1: in Hauburn, and I run into a good friend of
Speaker 1: my name, Shabaka Shakur, who introduced me to other individuals
Speaker 1: that are working in the Low Library of doing things
Speaker 1: that were constructive. And I just made a decision that
Speaker 1: that's what I was gonna do that. I had to
Speaker 1: teach myself how to research, understand, how to seek evidence,
Speaker 1: obtain evidence, and presented I find it to get a
Speaker 1: job in the Low Library around two thousand seven, two eight,
Speaker 1: and then another guy comes into the library that I
Speaker 1: had at the privacy to me. Then Nelson Cruz talking
Speaker 1: about his case. He was talking about how he had
Speaker 1: a role for conviction and he had actually an officer
Speaker 1: who can in substantiate that he was not the shooter
Speaker 1: in his case. Lord behold, Derek Hamilton's arrives to the facility,
Speaker 1: but he's at the shoe now and he sent me
Speaker 1: a message because he heard that I was a kirk
Speaker 1: in the Low Libraries. And so there he gets down
Speaker 1: to the Low Library. Now we're all together. We were
Speaker 1: all roughfully convicted, and because we were all arguing actually witnisence,
Speaker 1: we named the group the A High Team, the actually
Speaker 1: Witnisens Team. So what we would do is brainstorm different cases.
Speaker 1: One of the cases that we brainstorm was in Ree Davis.
Speaker 1: It was a Supreme Court case where the guy was
Speaker 1: convicted rolefully we believe as well, for shooting a police
Speaker 1: officer down in Georgia somewhere and Interestingly, in the decision,
Speaker 1: one of the judge stated was that the guy had
Speaker 1: some alibi winners who weren't given the opportunity to testify,
Speaker 1: and it should be afforded that opportunity. And when I
Speaker 1: read that that, that kind of like gave me energy,
Speaker 1: gave me hope that the witnesses that I have that
Speaker 1: can placed me on typeers Avenue hadn't been given that
Speaker 1: opportunity to testified and should be given that opportunity to testify.
Speaker 1: So Danny actually had a number of post conviction motions
Speaker 1: after he got sentenced to a hundred and fifty eight
Speaker 1: third to life, and the first motion was a Brady
Speaker 1: violation the suppression of exculpatory evidence, which she lost. It
Speaker 1: was another one that was brought based on Leslie Crocker
Speaker 1: Snyder's failure recused herself because she had conflicts associated with
Speaker 1: the case. They lost that. There was a habeas corpus
Speaker 1: petition brought in federal court based on the theory of execution,
Speaker 1: which was that it was one single conspiracy, which was
Speaker 1: the Red Top Orange Top combined, when in reality was
Speaker 1: multiple conspiracies. They lost that. So during those years, you know,
Speaker 1: the people that I would write frequently. Right was Glenn Garber,
Speaker 1: John Edelstein, Ron Koby pleading with them to help me
Speaker 1: with my situation. But unbeknownst to me, there was an
Speaker 1: attorney who believed in my innocence. Was David Tiger and
Speaker 1: David Gohstein who were actually speaking to Glenn for me.
Speaker 1: David Tager, who was the lawyer for Rafael Perez and
Speaker 1: was co counsel to Donald Tucker, Danny's lawyer, came to
Speaker 1: me and said, you've got to get involved in in
Speaker 1: Danny's case. We actually went me and David Tager up
Speaker 1: to see Tessa Rafael Perez to talk to him because
Speaker 1: David was saying that Danny was innocent. And the affid
Speaker 1: David that Tesso signed came about either when I went
Speaker 1: with him or maybe shortly thereafter. In any event, in
Speaker 1: two thousand fourteen, I teamed up with two other lawyers
Speaker 1: to do what was a very substitutive post conviction motion
Speaker 1: of also called a four forty motion, and the lawyers
Speaker 1: were Jonathan Edelstein and Patrick Joyce. And in that motion
Speaker 1: in two thousand fourteen, we had an affidavit from Raphael
Speaker 1: Perez Tesso, who came forward and said that he was
Speaker 1: a shooter in the quad murder. Now, mind you, Tesso
Speaker 1: was not one of the prosecution defendants for the quad murder.
Speaker 1: He was actually at that joint trial, but the prosecution
Speaker 1: did not claim he was associated in any way with
Speaker 1: the quad shooting. But it turns out that Tesso was
Speaker 1: a shooter. And Francisco Medina also came forward a k a.
Speaker 1: Freddie Krueger, and he also signed an affid David and
Speaker 1: said that he was a shooter in the quad murder. Also,
Speaker 1: somebody the prosecution did not target as a defendant for
Speaker 1: the quad murder. I also want to pull something out
Speaker 1: that I think it's very interested in. There was an
Speaker 1: individual by the name of Raoul Focus who was indicted
Speaker 1: by federal prosecutors of the Southern District of New York
Speaker 1: along with several others. They charged seventeen murders. Freddy Krueger,
Speaker 1: who was actually one of the participants in this quad,
Speaker 1: was charged in that indictment as well. In the federal
Speaker 1: government had yet to declare whether or not there was
Speaker 1: going to seek the death penalty in that case. Raould
Speaker 1: Vogg has decided to become a federal cooperator. He admits
Speaker 1: to the federal government that he was involved in the
Speaker 1: quad murders. And in that trial, Raoul Argus testified about
Speaker 1: being the driver and being in the neighborhood and around
Speaker 1: the corner when the shooting took place, and was aware
Speaker 1: of the details of it and knew that Freddy Krueger
Speaker 1: was involved, knew that Tessa was involved, knew that Nelson
Speaker 1: Sepulvida was involved, and knew that Platineau was also involved,
Speaker 1: and says that Danny had nothing to do with the
Speaker 1: quad murder. So we had those three people who were
Speaker 1: all involved in the quad murder, all people the prosecution
Speaker 1: did not target his defendants in the quad murder, and
Speaker 1: they came forward and they said unequivocally that Danny was
Speaker 1: not involved. That really should have been enough to get
Speaker 1: either an exoneration or a hearing where they could have
Speaker 1: testified in front of the court and the court could
Speaker 1: have heard from them. The judge actually denied us even
Speaker 1: hearing on that motion. There was other things also that
Speaker 1: were raised in that motion that were very powerful. There
Speaker 1: were six alibi witnesses that came forward and just to
Speaker 1: hearken back to what Danny was saying a bit. Those
Speaker 1: were witnesses that placed him at that apartment one G
Speaker 1: on Cypress Avenue, over a block and a half away
Speaker 1: from where the quad murder took place at the time
Speaker 1: that the shooting occurred, and those witnesses prepared affidavit's and
Speaker 1: we filed those with our four or fort emotion as well.
Speaker 1: Some interesting features also is David Tager wrote an Affidavid
Speaker 1: and said that tes Raphael Perez had been telling him
Speaker 1: all along from the beginning that he was involved in
Speaker 1: the Quad murders and that Danny was innocent. But David
Speaker 1: toward couldn't reveal that information because he was defending tes
Speaker 1: Oh and he obviously couldn't raise that information and implicate
Speaker 1: him on something that's client did that he wasn't charged with.
Speaker 1: But TESO ultimately allowed David Tuger to come forward with
Speaker 1: this information because justice demanded it. And that gives you
Speaker 1: a sense of why David Tagger was up in arms
Speaker 1: about this, the fact that Danny was erroneously placed in
Speaker 1: the Quad murders. Not only you know, during the trial,
Speaker 1: but also afterwards, why he came to me and why
Speaker 1: he's so adamant that this injustice happened that Danny needed
Speaker 1: to be exonerated. David Goldstein also filled out an affid
Speaker 1: David that was submitted in that for Ford Emotion, and
Speaker 1: talked about Donald Tucker, who was Danny's lawyer, and said
Speaker 1: that he had revealed to Tucker that there is an alibi,
Speaker 1: and Irene Green and Benjamin Green had provided information to
Speaker 1: him about that alibi, and Donald Tucker never brought that
Speaker 1: evidence forward. And one of the claims in that for
Speaker 1: fort Emotion, by the way, was in effective assistance of
Speaker 1: counsel for Tucker's failure to do anything with that alibi.
Speaker 1: Investigated further and put on alibi witnesses on Danny's behalf.
Speaker 1: So unfortunately, two thousand fifteen, Judge Fitzgerald, who got assigned
Speaker 1: to the case, wrote a very bad decision, denying us
Speaker 1: on all grounds and not even giving us our day
Speaker 1: in court. And that's where we're basically at now, where
Speaker 1: we're continue our investigation. We're trying to shore up additional
Speaker 1: aspects of the alibi, we're looking into Tebban's and we're
Speaker 1: at a place right now where we're trying to get
Speaker 1: him back into court with new stuff. And I think
Speaker 1: one of the most important parts of this whole case
Speaker 1: has been the targeting of Danny, basically to get him
Speaker 1: off the street. And I think the witnesses they've used,
Speaker 1: I mean, the judge never seemed to acknowledged the fact
Speaker 1: that all of these people had invested interest in having
Speaker 1: him put away, and that was something that just was
Speaker 1: never brought to light. And I think that that's sort
Speaker 1: of our goal going forward, is to show that they
Speaker 1: all had a motive. We have people with no incentive
Speaker 1: to lie that have cleared him, So I think we
Speaker 1: just need to sort of parse out the facts and
Speaker 1: separate them chronologically and logically to see why we're in
Speaker 1: the situation. It just doesn't make any sense. It just
Speaker 1: doesn't make any freaking sense. And so many of the
Speaker 1: people that Danny referenced are people that we've had on
Speaker 1: the show, people that I consider to be friends, and
Speaker 1: most of them have been exonerated by now or at
Speaker 1: a minimum, freed, and yet he continues to go on
Speaker 1: with Danny. I mean, what a what an inspirational guy
Speaker 1: you are. You were convicted of a horrible crime that
Speaker 1: you didn't commit, killers were allowed to remain free, and
Speaker 1: New York city suffered as a result. Taxpayers continue to
Speaker 1: pay for your wrongful incarceration, and you continue to pay
Speaker 1: with your very life, and all of it is something
Speaker 1: that outrage everybody of good conscience. So the good news
Speaker 1: is we're here, we're shining a light on it. We
Speaker 1: have Glenn and Farah and a whole team of people,
Speaker 1: and I think hopefully we'll build a new legion of
Speaker 1: people with some of the information that we've shared today.
Speaker 1: And how can people get involved? First of all, they
Speaker 1: could write letters to the Manhattan District Attorney's office to
Speaker 1: sid Vance Jr. Um and asked that they'd be sent
Speaker 1: to the Integrity Unit and that they reevaluate the case.
Speaker 1: We went to the Integrity Unit, by the way, and
Speaker 1: they didn't give a ship. Um. They can go to
Speaker 1: their local government representatives and their districts and they could
Speaker 1: say that this is a case that bothers them, and
Speaker 1: asked those people to get involved and maybe write letters
Speaker 1: to the D's office on their behalf. There's also a
Speaker 1: petition that you can sign on change dot org, So
Speaker 1: please scroll down to the bio and get involved. Now,
Speaker 1: we turned to the portion of the show that we
Speaker 1: call closing arguments, First of all, I think are distinguished guests,
Speaker 1: all three of you para roster. Thanks again for being here,
Speaker 1: Thanks for having us, Jason, thank you, and Glenn Garber
Speaker 1: my pleasure and I'm glad that you're featuring this case.
Speaker 1: We really appreciate it. And of course, Danny Um, you
Speaker 1: know we're gonna get to you last, because that's how
Speaker 1: closing arguments works here the show is that we always
Speaker 1: saved the best for last. And but first of all,
Speaker 1: like I said, I just want to thank you for
Speaker 1: being here. Thank you so much, and we're going to
Speaker 1: keep fighting for you. So now, closing arguments is where
Speaker 1: I turned my microphone off, I kicked back in my chair,
Speaker 1: and I asked each of you to share your final
Speaker 1: thoughts with our audience. First of all, thank you so
Speaker 1: much Jason for having us, and thank you for taking
Speaker 1: the time to hear's Danny's story and getting to know
Speaker 1: him and learning as many people as possible here about
Speaker 1: the injustice he has suffered. Already, he spent twenty five
Speaker 1: years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
Speaker 1: As you've heard, there's no there's so much evidence supporting
Speaker 1: his claim of innocence, from statements of the actual perpetrators
Speaker 1: of the quad to the people who were with him
Speaker 1: at the exact time of the shooting. Is clear that
Speaker 1: he was not near or in the alley when the
Speaker 1: shooting occurred. In fact, he was on the phone with
Speaker 1: his brother, who was incarcerated at the moment the shots
Speaker 1: were fired, and he ran to see what had happened.
Speaker 1: He yelled to his friends to come inside, and then
Speaker 1: he saw the mother of one of the victims and
Speaker 1: actually hugged and consoled her. These six people have signed
Speaker 1: affidavit stating that Danny was with them when the shots
Speaker 1: were fired. They all signed statements saying that he did
Speaker 1: not commit the pod murder. He had the misfortune of
Speaker 1: having a lawyer who did not call these witnesses as
Speaker 1: alibi witnesses at trial, despite his repeated requests. He also
Speaker 1: had the misfortune of being tried in front of a
Speaker 1: judge who was predisposed to not liking him. As we
Speaker 1: later found out in a book she authored after the
Speaker 1: trial with no evidence, she blamed him and his co
Speaker 1: defendants for death threats she and her family received during
Speaker 1: the trial. He had the misfortune of being targeted by
Speaker 1: detective who was determined to close his cases as quickly
Speaker 1: as possible. And as we've discussed, we have concerns about
Speaker 1: the detective's use of witnesses in this case and have
Speaker 1: found a pattern of him misusing the same witnesses over
Speaker 1: and over. He has made promises to witnesses and they
Speaker 1: often received reduced penalties for their own crimes and exchange
Speaker 1: for their false testimony. Most of these witnesses were members
Speaker 1: of the rival Red Top organization and they had been
Speaker 1: interest in getting them off the street. So Glen and
Speaker 1: I are really committed to helping him uncover the truth
Speaker 1: in this case and giving Danny as well as the
Speaker 1: families of the victims the justice they deserve. So this
Speaker 1: case is a debacle of justice, and there's exceptionally strong
Speaker 1: evidence of innocence that normally would be enough to at
Speaker 1: least get an evidentiary hearing to be able to open
Speaker 1: the door to the court and establish through live testimony
Speaker 1: the exonerating evidence, and we unfortunately had a judge who
Speaker 1: didn't care when we brought the evidence forward in our
Speaker 1: post conviction motion in two thousand and fourteen. The decision
Speaker 1: that the judge wrote was basically focusing on non substitive
Speaker 1: matters to deny us even the hearing that we needed
Speaker 1: to establish Danny's innocence. We are hopeful that maybe with
Speaker 1: a new DA in Manhattan, or with additional evidence which
Speaker 1: we're developing right now and getting back into court, we
Speaker 1: will get a fair hearing if we have to go
Speaker 1: that far, and we'll get a judge who's actually going
Speaker 1: to care and hear the evidence, because we do think
Speaker 1: that once we ultimately get our day in court, but
Speaker 1: we can bring those witnesses forward, those true killers who
Speaker 1: actually admit to the crime, and the alibi witnesses who
Speaker 1: have never been heard by a fact finder. Once we're
Speaker 1: able to bring those forward in a fair environment, we're
Speaker 1: optimistic that Danny is finally going to get exonerated. Amen,
Speaker 1: and now Danny over to you for closing arguments. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much, Thank you so much, Jason for giving
Speaker 1: me the opportunity. I want to thank Glenn Gabba Slava
Speaker 1: Rosin of the Generation for giving me this opportunity, for
Speaker 1: believing in my innocence, for not giving up on me
Speaker 1: while you know I fight for my life here. You
Speaker 1: know this is a difficult situation. Um being in prison
Speaker 1: is hard enough. For being in prison for a crime
Speaker 1: that you didn't to commit, and doing life for a
Speaker 1: crime that you didn't commit. And you know that you
Speaker 1: look in the mimory morning and you don't have a
Speaker 1: date to be released from this hell. It's pretty it's
Speaker 1: a pretty hard pip to swallow. You know. It weighs
Speaker 1: on my conscience. It makes me make bad decisions at times,
Speaker 1: It makes me lose my temper, and you know, it
Speaker 1: tests my faith, It tests my my mental forty two
Speaker 1: it really you know, doesn't number. I mean and and
Speaker 1: and it affects a lot of you know, other aspects
Speaker 1: of my life. And you know, my personal relationship, my friends,
Speaker 1: relationship with my family and friends. And it's just not right.
Speaker 1: And I know that most of the decisions that I
Speaker 1: make obviously are influenced by this incarceration. But my aim
Speaker 1: is to prove that ultimately one day, that I didn't
Speaker 1: commit this crime, and that there is more than enough
Speaker 1: evidence to substantiate the fact that I commit this crime.
Speaker 1: And I act and urge those who have that evidence
Speaker 1: to please, you know, come forward, come forward and provide
Speaker 1: that evidence. You know, you know, think about what it
Speaker 1: would be for you to sit in prison for twenty
Speaker 1: years for a crying un comit. Think about what it
Speaker 1: would be for a relative of your brother, sister, sibling,
Speaker 1: anybody that you may know that's close to you to
Speaker 1: sit in prison for twenty eight years knowing that that
Speaker 1: person is citizen, while that person with the ways and
Speaker 1: rots in prison. That's not that's not an easy thing.
Speaker 1: It's not fair. I don't think it's sat on anybody.
Speaker 1: Is It's not something that anybody should go through. And
Speaker 1: you know, this is a difficult system. The justice system
Speaker 1: is not just you know, the justice system is about
Speaker 1: who has the wherewith or to to navigate the systems.
Speaker 1: If you have the money, you can locate what you
Speaker 1: want to need it. It appears to be in this system.
Speaker 1: But if you have the evidence, you know, the system
Speaker 1: for some reason tends to undermine it and look for
Speaker 1: ways to discredit the evidence. UM. Something that I faced
Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen when a motion was filed. I might
Speaker 1: behalf based on actual with a system and judged by
Speaker 1: the name of Daniel. This general undermine the evidence. UM
Speaker 1: overlooked the fact that I was sitting in prison for
Speaker 1: a crime that atical it and did away with me,
Speaker 1: you know, and that was wrong and and for those reasons,
Speaker 1: you know, among others, I fight as hard as I
Speaker 1: fight to prove that, you know, I do long around
Speaker 1: my family and friends and not in prison to rout
Speaker 1: away for something that I didn't do. Don't forget to
Speaker 1: give us a fantastic review wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1: it really helps. And I'm a proud donor to the
Speaker 1: Innocence Project, and I really hope you'll join me in
Speaker 1: supporting this very important cause and helping to prevent future
Speaker 1: wrongful convictions. Go to Innocence Project dot org to learn
Speaker 1: how to donate and get involved. I'd like to thank
Speaker 1: our production team, Connor Hall and Kevin Wardis. The music
Speaker 1: in the show is by three time OSCAR nominated composer
Speaker 1: Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful
Speaker 1: Conviction with Jason Flam is a production the Lava for
Speaker 1: Good Podcasts in association with sig Know Company Number one