WEBVTT - #181 Jason Flom with Danny Rincon 0:00:02.200 --> 0:00:05.000 In the late eighties and early nineties, the crack epidemic 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:07.280 was in full swing, and one of New York's most 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:11.400 powerful drug gangs was Lenny and Nelson Sepulvida's Wild Cowboys 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:15.160 aka the Red Top Crew. Red Top referred to the 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:17.880 color of the caps on their crackpiles, and their less 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:22.200 powerful competitors were called Orange Top and Yellow Top. Yellowtop 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:24.599 began selling out of an alleyway on Beakman Avenue in 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:28.320 the Bronx, which was Red Top territory. On December sixteenth, 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:31.600 nineteen ninety one, in an incident that became known as 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:35.680 the Quad Murders, Nelson Sepulvida and three others rolled up 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:40.639 with semi automatics indiscriminately spraying sixty bullets into the alleyway 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:45.199 on Beakman, killing four and wounding one. Detective Mark Tebins 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:48.320 was under intense pressure to bring order to the dangerous area, 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.360 and he indicted forty one people as co defendants for 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:56.040 several drug related incidents, including the Quad murders. Teppens's street 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:59.480 sweep turned suspects into witnesses, and nine of the forty 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:02.160 one in dit it went to trial. Five of the 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:04.920 codependants were blamed for the quad riders, four of whom 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:08.280 are innocent, and one of those poor souls is Danny 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:12.040 rin Khone. Alibi witnesses placed Danny on the other side 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:14.280 of a large city block at the time of the shooting, 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:18.760 including a victim's mother and brother, but the jury could 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:23.040 not see through the trial's circus atmosphere. Danny was convicted 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:25.840 and sentenced to one hundred and fifty eight and a 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.840 third to life. Glenn Garber and Farah Rossner from the 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:33.240 Exoneration Initiative joined Danny rin Kon calling it from Attica 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:36.080 Prison to tell us about the case that they've built 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:40.759 for Danny's freedom. This is Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm. 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:53.040 Hello. 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:57.960 This is a prepaid collect cast an inmate at New 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:02.120 York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. This call 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:04.080 is subject to recording and monitoring. 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:06.320 To accept charges. Press one. 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:08.800 Thank you, Producing Sekurus. 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.000 You may start the conversation now. 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.680 Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm. Before I 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:18.680 introduce Danny ring Kahn, who's calling in from prison where 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:22.440 he's been for a very long time, where he doesn't belong. First, 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:26.120 I'm going to introduce his legal team. Sarah Rossner Farah 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:28.760 is an attorney with the Exoneration Initiative. 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:30.600 Thank you for having us and. 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:34.720 With us today as well is Glenn Garber. And Glenn 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:39.000 has been responsible for a large number of exonerations as 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:42.200 the founder and director of the Exoneration Initiative. And it's 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.320 so great that you're here and so great that you're 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:46.320 working on Danny's case that I know that you'll be 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:48.080 the first one to greet him when he gets out, 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:49.720 because I know how much this case meets you. So 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.280 Glenn Garber, welcome to wrongful Conviction. Thank you. 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:53.720 Jason happy to be here. 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:58.200 And Danny ring Khon calling in from Attica. So Danny, 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:00.239 welcome to wrongful Conviction. 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:02.720 Thank you so much, Jason, thank you for the opportunity. 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:05.240 Danny is serving what I think a lot of people 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:08.520 will agree is an absurd sentence. He's serving one hundred 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.400 and fifty eight and a third years to life. But 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:14.720 let's not start there. Let's start at the beginning. Danny, 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.520 you grew up in Washington Heights in the height of 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.040 the crack epidemic. Can you tell us a little bit 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:21.040 about what it. 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:25.240 Was like It was certainly a volatile neighborhood, a troubled 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:27.320 timed in New York City. There was a you know, 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:30.480 war on drugs. There was a high crime and murder rate. 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:34.440 Drugs were prevalent, particularly crack cocaine. And I'm not going 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.720 to say that I am innocent of being involved in drugs, 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:41.760 but I would never do what I am wrongly convicted of. 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:46.040 You know, my parents were working people. My dad worked 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:50.160 at Columbia Presbyteria Medical Center for twenty seven years. My 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:56.720 mom makes you rest in peace. Excuse me. My mom 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:02.440 worked thirty three years at a ghost and my parents 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:06.520 worked hard to provide for my brothers and me. My 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:11.040 parents are still values in US. And I made a 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:14.160 poor decision in those years to take to the streets, 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:18.640 which brought nothing but shame, embarrassment, and humiliation of my 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.600 parents and my family. But you know, we were blessed 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:24.800 in many ways because my parents provided and we had 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:26.640 what we needed, my brothers and I and we went 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.400 to school and we had a great upbringing, despite the 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:31.719 fact that we grew up in a poor neighborhood that 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.200 was flooded and riddled with violence and drugs. But that 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:36.400 was Washington Heights. 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:37.000 In those days. 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:38.520 The South Bronx was no different. 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:38.840 You know. 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:42.039 I ventured over to the South Bronx at the age 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:46.400 of maybe fourteen fifteen years old, and what I saw 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:49.440 there was not much different than what I seen in 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:51.760 my own neighborhood in Washington Heights. 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:56.560 Even for the violent insanity that was taking place in 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.400 the South Bronx and Washington Heights, that whole section of 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:02.800 the city in those days. This was a particularly violent 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:06.160 crime though. This was a crime that became known as 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:07.240 the Quad murders. 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.880 So there were rival drug organizations at the time in 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:13.839 the area in mod Haven, and there were three that 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.560 we can discuss which were actually relevant to this incident. 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:19.560 There was the Red Top organization, which was led by 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:23.240 two brothers, Lenny and Nelson Seppovita, and then there was 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.760 another organization, the Orange Top, which Danny was affiliated with, 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:29.640 and then there was the Yellow Top. Each of these 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:32.599 organizations had a separate location where they would sell drugs. 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.600 They had different people that worked for each of the groups. 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.159 They were stepping on each other's toes. They were fighting 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.120 over territory, they were fighting over pricing for each of 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:43.159 the vials that they were selling, trying to undercut the 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:45.560 other to take over some territory. So it was a 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:47.800 drug war so to speak, that was going on between 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:49.080 these three organizations. 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:51.240 This was not some small time drug dealing. I mean 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:54.240 they were making between ten and twenty million dollars a 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:56.479 year just the Red Top Gang itself, right. 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.799 The Sepovetas were sort of the drug kingpins, if you will, 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:02.359 and they were the ones who were actually ruling most 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:03.240 in that area. 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:07.279 BigMan Avenue is a small street between Saint Mary's Park 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:09.719 and one hundred and forty fourth Street in the Bronx, 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:13.560 New York. Let me Supervador basically ruled Big Maan Avenue 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:15.919 with a nine and fifth Let me Supervada. At the 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.000 time of the murders was in prison. A good friend 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.440 of mine, Gerard Herd, opened up a spot on BigMan 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:27.000 Avenue and was selling yellow time. Nelson Sepervador apparently took 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.919 over while his brother Lenny was in prison and felt 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:34.960 that Gerard her was encrouching on BigMan Avenue. So in 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.000 an act of force or discipline or what have you, 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:44.119 he decided to unleash these individuals, include himself, to shoot 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:45.599 up this corner, killing four people. 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:47.000 So what happens is. 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:49.640 First of all, it was a freezing called night. It 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:53.520 was about ten fifteen ten twenty on December sixteenth, and 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:57.600 Nelson Saipolvite, who was the architect of the quad murders, 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:02.880 arrives on the scene with Francisco Medina or Freddy Krueger, 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.840 a guy named Platino who is Wilfredo de los Angeles 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:11.400 Tezo or Rafael Perez, and an individual known as Crazy 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:17.200 Ray converge and start opening fire into that alleyway at 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:19.120 three forty eight Peakman Avenue. 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:21.400 These guys, two of them jump out of a car 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:26.120 two run up on foot Nelson Sepulvido, Wilfredo de los Angeles, 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:29.960 Rafael Perez and a guy named Crazy Ray. They roll 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:34.440 up spray the alleyway with sixty rounds from semi automatics, 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:40.040 wounding one person Janice Brewington, and killing four Cynthia Cassada, 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:44.800 Emmanuel Vieira, one unidentified manned Anthony Green and Danny. You 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:48.640 knew Anthony Green and his family, his brother Benjamin and 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:52.640 his mother Irene. I mean, in fact, they're part of 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:56.120 your alibi. I mean again, this is the mother and 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:59.760 the brother of a victim. It just doesn't get more 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:01.120 so that right. 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.600 What we learned later was that the shooters left the 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:08.440 apartment of Terrell Blair and Brenda Blair on Beekman Avenue. 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.440 Sorel Blair leaves his apartment and runs up to the 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.160 Greens apartment to tell Benjamin that something's gonna happen to 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:17.640 his brother down the block because these guys were leaving 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:21.200 his apartment and he knew they were discussing. Jera heard 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:25.600 his brother and those individuals around Yellow Chop there, so 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:28.720 he was headed up there to warn Benjamin to go 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:30.520 get his brother out of the way because something was 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:35.600 gonna happen there. Cyrel Blair has refused to get involved 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:38.600 in this matter for whatever his reasons are. 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:41.400 Can you tell us about that night? Like, what were 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:42.680 you actually. 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:46.640 Doing that evening? I was on Cyprus Avenue in Building 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.240 three seventy, an apartment in one gene while I was 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:52.560 sickond in a bedroom talking to my brother. May he 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:56.280 also rest in peace. He was incarcerrated in Raking's Island 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:58.480 at the time. He had made a phone call. Prior 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:00.800 to me taking the call, I was inside Apartment one 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:03.599 B in the adjacent building three point fifty four and 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:06.800 mide Ya Beenurecour's apartment. While my brother and I were 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:09.800 on the phone. I her shooting, and it appeared to 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.040 me that the shooting was coming from right out front. 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.760 I raised the shade from the window and I see 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:17.920 a girl standing right in front of the window by 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:20.880 the name of Pamela Fortune. I bang on the window. 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:23.600 I tell her, don't you hear those people shooting? Get 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:26.720 in the building. Moments later, within minutes, I'm getting ready 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.160 to walk out the building. In the vestibule of the building, 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:35.160 I run into Pam Lena Patten Irene Green, who's crying uncontrollably. 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:38.480 I know Irene Green because she is the mother of 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.520 two friends of mine, Benjamin Green and Anthony Green. She 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.560 tells me that her boy got shot. I offered to 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:48.040 help her up to her apartment. Lena Patten and Pam 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.600 Fortune said that they were going to take upstairs, so 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:52.920 I took her to the front of the elevator and 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.319 I left him there. I immediately walk outside. I noticed 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.280 that Benjamin Green was standing in front of the building. 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:01.400 In my mind, and when she said my boy got shot, 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:03.600 I thought that it was Benjamin because I knew at 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:05.880 the time Benjamin was running the streets in those days. 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:08.960 Never had it occurred to me that it was Anthony. 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:12.040 So I approached Benjamin. I said to him, Hey, your 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.040 mother doesn't seem well. You need to go in there 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:16.480 and check on your mother. He tells me my brother 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:19.000 got shot. He goes in the building to assist his mother. 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:23.360 I leave the neighborhood that night. The very next day, 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:26.360 I was back on Cyprus Avenue about ten to eleven in 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:29.480 the morning, and I see that the neighborhood is flooded 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:33.120 with investigators and cops. Canda seeing that whole entire. 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:35.360 Area, Yeah, I guess you would have a lot of 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:38.480 investigators and a lot of pressure to get the killers 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:40.840 off the streets or to get somebody just to make 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:43.200 the pressure go away, right, And I imagined that had 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:45.720 a lot to do with how they ended up targeting you, Right. 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:50.440 Absolutely, Mark Tepans was pressure to make an arrest in 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:52.560 this case and he didn't have anything. 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:55.680 Tippins was a member of the fortieth Precinct Detective Squad 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:57.760 and he had several open cases in the Mount Haven 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:01.640 area during that time too. After the Quad murders, he 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:04.199 was assigned to the bronx DA's office to help make 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:06.400 the case on the Quad. He was under a lot 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:08.880 of pressure to close all of these cases, and so 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:11.080 he used a lot of the same witnesses over and 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:14.000 over again, sort of a witness for higher situation, if 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.280 you will. These witnesses would offer false testimony in exchange 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:20.480 for money and reduced charges or sentences for their own crimes. 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:23.280 In the Quad murder case, many of the witnesses he 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:26.320 used to implicate Danny and his co defendants were members 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.360 of the Red Top, the rivals to Danny's Orange Tops 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:31.360 and to those Yellow Tops who were the targets of 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:34.080 the Quad. They had all had a vested interest in 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:35.800 Danny getting off the street, so they were more than 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:37.360 willing to place them at the scene. 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:38.840 So let me give you an example. 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:42.480 In April of nineteen ninety two, Tebens received a call 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:46.000 from a woman named Elizabeth Morales. Morales, who by the way, 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:48.240 had worked for the Red Top organization, claimed that she 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:51.160 and her family were in fear for their lives because 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:54.360 the Sepulvedas were after them because they'd stolen drugs from them. 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:58.120 So Elizabeth Morales said she needed help, and in exchange 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:00.839 for that help, she's told Tebans conveniently that she could 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:03.600 provide help and give him information on a lot of 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:06.600 the violence that took place on Beakman Avenue. So Tebbins 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:10.160 remember under so much pressure, he went immediately to the 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.240 shelter to where she and her three children were and 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:15.240 started talking to them, and she said that they could 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:17.600 give them names of the alleged perpetrators of the quad, 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.319 as well as several other homicides that had taken place 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.760 in the area over time. So he calls them down 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:26.600 to the DA's office and they give statements. Meanwhile, he's 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:30.280 providing them protection, he's helping them to relocate to a motel. 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.080 He gives them money for living expenses and food, and 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:35.160 he later moves them to an apartment and starts to 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:38.040 pay for their rent. So each of them happily gives 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.000 a statement. One of Elizabeth's daughters, Iris Cruise, what they 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:43.560 used to call their little Iris. She was fourteen years 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:45.680 old at the time of the quad, and she also 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:48.240 was an employee of the Red Top. She can even 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:50.559 read English at the time, but she signed a statement 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.839 he handed her that she saw Danny from her fourth 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.120 floor apartment window at the opposite end of Beakman Avenue, 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:59.800 which is where the alley was located, and she said 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:02.840 she heard fireworks. So she leaned out of her window 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:05.080 and looks down the road through a fire escape and 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:07.560 says she can see what was going on. Now, if 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:10.520 you picture a city block, it's pretty long. She can 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:12.240 see all the way down to the other end of 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:14.400 the block in the dark because the lights have been 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:16.319 blown out, and can see that Danny's sitting in a 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:19.640 car shooting from the car. I mean that sounds a 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:20.760 little bit sketchy to me. 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:24.079 Yeah, And I would like to actually go to that apartment, 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:26.120 and I have a funny feeling we would know maybe 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:26.880 you've already done that. 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:30.200 So we actually did do that, Jason, and we stood 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:32.800 on the street and looked down the block and there's 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:34.160 absolutely no And we did. 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:34.880 It in broad daylight. 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.400 There's no way in the dark of night you could 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:38.559 see all the way down there. 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.840 We see cases like this over and over again where 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:45.040 these witness statements are so easily proven to be not 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:47.120 a false, but could not be true. It's a different 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:49.200 category from false, right could not be true because you 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:51.960 cannot see from where they said they were to where 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:55.760 the thing took place. But that gets pretty easily glossed 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:59.480 over in the course to these proceedings somehow and eliciteth. 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:02.840 Morales also had a son named Joey Morales who was 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:06.040 thirteen at the time of the quad and he allegedly 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:08.480 saw the shooting as well. And he, by the way, 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:11.959 was a witness in six other cases in which Teppens 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:12.600 was the detective. 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:15.920 Let me tell you something about the incredible Joy Morales. 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:18.680 Joey Morales claims that he went to buy a gallon 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:22.080 of milk at ten thirty in the evening and witnessed 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:25.640 the quad murders. In another case, he went to buy 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:29.160 milk at three point thirty in the morning and witnessed 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.680 a guy by the name of Rashi Rice and Angel 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:33.960 kinyone is committed a robbery and a murder at three 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:36.000 thirty in the morning that his mother sent him to 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:40.160 go buy some milk. In another matter, Marion Frasier's case, 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:43.120 the Incredible Joey Morales claims that he left his house 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:45.840 to go hang out in the neighborhood at fort the 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:50.320 afternoons and wondered the neighborhood to six o'clock in the 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:54.160 morning without going home. Thirteen year old kid wandered that 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.280 neighborhood in those years to six o'clock in the morning. 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:00.760 We're at five point thirty in the morning. He allegedly 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:04.320 observes Madamia Frasier, I'm bitter murder one hundred and forty pressure. 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:06.280 And these people were just so lucky that they have 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:08.440 to witness one murder after another. That sounds like some 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:09.760 Scarcella type of stuff. 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:11.960 It seems that Evans has got sell as the one 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:12.440 in the same. 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.640 This episode is brought to you by Stand Together. Stand 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:29.400 Together is a philanthropic community dedicated to helping people improve 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:32.440 their lives. For more than twenty years, Stand Together and 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:34.800 its partners have been on the front lines of criminal 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:39.359 justice reform. By empowering people to take action, supporting nonprofits, 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:43.160 and working with businesses. Stand Together tackles the root causes 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:46.080 of problems in our communities and empowers those closest to 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:50.520 the problems to drive solutions. Solutions like reducing unjust prison 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:54.480 sentences through the First Step Act, empowering community based programs 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:57.680 and help people re enter society, and now working to 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:01.120 bridge divides in our communities. To learn how you may 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:10.640 get involved, visit standtogether dot org, slash conviction. Danny, when 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:11.480 did you get arrested? 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.680 It was almost a summer day, like it was June sixth, 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:17.720 nineteen ninety two. I was on the same street that 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:19.880 I was on the night of the murders, on Typer's Avenue. 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:21.600 As I look up, I see Mark Tebans and he 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:23.680 tells me that he needed to talk to me, And 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:25.480 I said, to talk to me about what. He said, well, 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:27.640 somebody said you robbed them. When I get to the 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:30.240 priest and he tells me that I'm there for Big Monamue. 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:31.640 I said, what do you mean Big Minavenue. He said, 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:34.920 we got information that you was driving the car the 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:38.640 night of the murders. That said me, impossible. There's thirty 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:40.440 forty people that can tell you I was on Cyper's 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:44.080 Avenue that evening. That's impossible. I was processed. I was 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:47.720 taken down to Central Booking and charged with killing four 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:51.960 people and wounding someone else, and Judge Ira Growboman granted 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:54.640 me the bill was said at one hundred thousand dollars. 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.120 That's kind of low bail for someone who they think 0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:59.600 committed this horrific crime. 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.200 I was able to get bailed out because Benjamin Green 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:06.359 and his mother Irene Green, were at my arrangement, and 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:08.840 as you know, Benjamin is the brother of Irene is 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:11.280 the mother of one of the deceased, Anthony Green. And 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:14.119 so their statement was to quote an open statement that 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:16.320 I was on Cyprus Avenue in their building and that 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:18.800 I assisted her that evening, and that I couldn't have 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.000 been involved. The judge, I guess, took that in consideration 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:24.560 and granted me the bail. Even while I was out 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:26.480 on bail, I visited the Green house. 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:28.600 So how long were you out before the trial? 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:30.880 So I got arrested in ninety two, I got out 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:34.600 on bail. I initially started trial in the Bronx, well, 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:37.960 at least the co defendants did, and just Ira Globerman, 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:40.239 a Supreme Court justice in the Bronx, who granted me 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:44.119 the bail. By the way, Ira Globerman did not believe 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:46.320 that I was guilty of these murders. He's told the 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:49.280 prosecution and a hearing he said that he's seen the 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:52.320 evidence of prosecution has and he's not persuaded that I 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:54.760 am guilty of these murders, and that for those reasons 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:57.840 he's going to separate my case from that of the 0:17:57.840 --> 0:17:59.600 Code offantas he said, the cod defenders will go on 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.520 trial first, and mister rincomm because he is out on bail, 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:06.200 he'll go on trial's second. That never happened. Obviously, we 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:09.040 was indicted in the superseding indictment in New York County. 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:11.720 All the charges were later dismissed in the Bronx and 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:14.840 reindicted in New York County, and I was remanded by Snyder, 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:20.280 and that was in ninety three, and the trial that 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:21.400 had starts a year later. 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:24.080 We went before Snyder and Leslie Crocker. 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:27.280 Schneider, you know, was an animal judge. I mean, she 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:31.840 was notorious for doing out the harshness of sentences and 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:34.600 wrote the book twenty five to Life, which focused on 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:35.600 the Wild Cowboys. 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:37.240 Yes, she was notorious. 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:40.639 Little did anyone know that this tough judge would not 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.959 be Danny's biggest problem. It's important to note that in 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:47.159 November of ninety three they found an indictment with forty 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:50.840 one defendants co defendants, and they called it the Wild 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:53.560 Cowboy Trial. But it was like all the crimes that 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:55.520 had taken place in that area. So there was a 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.399 big blanket of an indictment that they issued and all 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:00.960 that the crowd murders was just one of them, and 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:03.640 thirty two of those individuals of the forty one play 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:06.959 out they pled guilty and nine, Danny being one of them, 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:10.119 proceeded to go to trial, and of those, five of 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:11.480 them were convicted of the quad. 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:13.720 I can tell you that the wrong people that they 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:19.400 focused on were Stanley Tukes, Russell Harris, Daniel Gonzalez, and 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:22.040 Danny ron Cone, and those people are all innocent, by 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:24.520 the way. In addition to Danny ron Cone, there was 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:27.959 one guy, Wilfredo de Los Angeles, who we believe was 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:32.080 an actual perpetrator of the quad. But the theory that 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:34.119 they went with was clearly wrong. 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:37.560 How did they come to land all five of them? 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:40.920 Yeah, So the prosecution came up with this theory that 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:44.679 Orange Top teamed up with Red Top in an effort 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:49.680 to off Yellow Top, which was totally false. I mean, 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:53.280 in fact, Red Top and Orange Top did not get 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.040 along and Red Top had put a hit at we 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:58.120 actually shot Danny in. 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:02.719 Nineteen ninety was the subject of a similar shooting at 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:04.920 the hands of Lenny Separvator, where I was shot six 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:08.800 times on that same corner where the quad happened. Just 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.600 a year before for the same reasons, because I was 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:15.119 associated with Orisa. As we know that the murders happened 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:19.040 on December sixteen, nineteen ninety one. Two weeks later, I 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:22.440 held a New Year's party at Cyprus Avenue. I invited 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:25.760 the whole Yellow Top crew to about her. Benjamin Green, 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:29.439