Speaker 1: We initially released Stephen Carrington's story on June tenth, twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Last we spoke, Stephan had been paroled while fighting to
Speaker 1: clear his name in the King's County Conviction Reviewing Unit. Finally,
Speaker 1: four years later, they concluded that we and all of
Speaker 1: you already knew that Stephan is innocent, and the DA
Speaker 1: agreed to support his motion to vacate the conviction and
Speaker 1: dismissed all charges. Here's our original coverage.
Speaker 2: It was a new year, nineteen ninety five, and Stephen
Speaker 2: Carrington was a young man with a short criminal history
Speaker 2: who had just gotten out of prison. He had recently
Speaker 2: gotten married, a young father, was training to be an emt.
Speaker 2: After having paid his debt to society. His life was
Speaker 2: getting back on track. On the morning of January second,
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety five, Stephan's brother Mark stood outside out of
Speaker 2: a lumberyard in Brooklyn as Shannon France and another man arrived.
Speaker 3: Mister Franz pulled the.
Speaker 2: Twenty five, announcing a stick up as the other man,
Speaker 2: Rob's customer, Hugh Keys, the store clerk, tries to grab
Speaker 2: mister France's weapon and was shot. Mister Franz loots the
Speaker 2: strong box and the two men fled, leaving mister Keyes alive.
Speaker 2: A confidential informant would tell the lead investigator, Detective Calabreeze,
Speaker 2: the names of three men who were seen by the
Speaker 2: lumberyard at the time of the crime, Shannon France, Eddie West,
Speaker 2: and Mark Carrington. However, when he searched for Mark Carrington,
Speaker 2: Stephan popped up at the same address, and with his
Speaker 2: criminal record, Calabrizzi added his photo into an array. Hugh
Speaker 2: Keys gave a shaky identification, and in the absence of
Speaker 2: any physical evidence whatsoever connecting him to the crime, Stephan
Speaker 2: went to trial right next to the trigger man, Shannon France.
Speaker 2: The Carringtons hired a lawyer to protect both of their sons,
Speaker 2: but it turned out to be to the detriment of
Speaker 2: one of them. Was never called to testify a trial,
Speaker 2: and twenty years later, finally free Stephen Carrington is out
Speaker 2: on parole but still fighting to clear his name of
Speaker 2: a crime that he simply didn't commit. This is wrongful
Speaker 2: conviction with Jason Flamm. Wrongful conviction has always given voice
Speaker 2: to innocent people in prison, and now we're expanding that
Speaker 2: voice to you. Call us at eight three three two
Speaker 2: oh seven, four six sixty six, and tell us how
Speaker 2: these stories make you feel and what you've done to
Speaker 2: help the cause, even if it's something as simple as
Speaker 2: telling a friend or sharing on social media, and you
Speaker 2: might just hear yourself in a future episode. Call us
Speaker 2: eight three three two oh seven four six sixty six.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Wrong for Conviction with Jason Flum. That's me,
Speaker 2: I'm your host, and today we have a story and
Speaker 2: an outcome that we're gonna hope that who knows, maybe
Speaker 2: somebody out there can be helpful with because we are
Speaker 2: fighting to prove the innocence of the man who's sitting
Speaker 2: right in front of me now, Stephan Carrington. Stepan as
Speaker 2: I always say, I'm sorry you're here, but I'm happy
Speaker 2: you're here.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you, but I'm happy that I'm here having
Speaker 4: an opportunity to set the record straight and probably clear
Speaker 4: my name.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what we're here for.
Speaker 2: Let's go back to that original faithful day, January second,
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety five. What happened that day in the lumber store.
Speaker 4: Basically, all my knowledge of this saga story that took
Speaker 4: place I learned through reading trial minutes, from hearing from
Speaker 4: people in the street and things of that nature, because
Speaker 4: you know, I wasn't dead when it took place. On
Speaker 4: that day, they said that two individuals into the lumber
Speaker 4: yard at a parent robbery which resulted to a homicide.
Speaker 4: One of the employees at the lumberyard try to take
Speaker 4: a weapon from this individual and subsequently this guy shot
Speaker 4: him twice and ultimately he died. Eventually he died. The
Speaker 4: two individuals fled the scene. My brother was the lookout
Speaker 4: and subsequently the person that is my co defendant, Shannon,
Speaker 4: his girlfriend best friend is the one that gave his name,
Speaker 4: photos and everything to the police. There's a third individual
Speaker 4: who name was Eddie West. And I have to say
Speaker 4: that neither my brother or Eddie West was ever interviewed, questioned,
Speaker 4: sought after by the police department.
Speaker 2: So Eddie West was the other guy in the store.
Speaker 4: Now, Eddie West was one of the individuals that they
Speaker 4: mentioned that was out on the corner during the time
Speaker 4: the robbery was committed.
Speaker 2: Okay, Shannon France though, was he had some involvement in
Speaker 2: the crime? Is that right?
Speaker 4: They found his fingerprints on the cash box inside the lumberyard.
Speaker 2: That's not a good signce. No, they didn't find yours.
Speaker 4: No, they have no physical evidence or anything linking me
Speaker 4: to the crime, besides having a sibling who was mentioned
Speaker 4: to be outside with the individuals who was involved.
Speaker 2: So these guys go, they robbed the lumberyard, and they
Speaker 2: shot a clerk named Lloyd Campbell. Yes, both in the
Speaker 2: head and in the back.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 2: And then they found the strong box, they looted it.
Speaker 2: The two guys fled the scene. Your brother was either
Speaker 2: there or not as a lookout whatever he was doing.
Speaker 2: He was apparently not in the store, that is correct.
Speaker 2: So how did your name come to be associated because
Speaker 2: it's sort of a leap to say, Okay, well they
Speaker 2: got your brother, now they're going to just go after you.
Speaker 4: Well, I could tell you from the police reports the
Speaker 4: officers during the investigation when they received these names and
Speaker 4: photos of these individuals. There was an address on the photo,
Speaker 4: which was a promotional photo. At the time, I had
Speaker 4: a recording studio and we used to you know, wrench
Speaker 4: studio time out to individuals. One of the group, Shannon,
Speaker 4: my co defendant. He was an individual who was in
Speaker 4: the rap group which my brother was affiliated with a
Speaker 4: part of, and they had promotional photos up and down
Speaker 4: the avenue, the same avenue that these guys went and
Speaker 4: committed this crime on. It so happened that they committed
Speaker 4: a crime across the street from his girlfriend's business, and
Speaker 4: his girlfriend best friend is the one that saw him
Speaker 4: out there and eventually gave his name in the photos
Speaker 4: to the police, to the detective Calabrise. When Calabriese was
Speaker 4: doing his investigation, all he did was run the address
Speaker 4: through the police system, and my name came back because
Speaker 4: I was parole to that address. So when they discovered
Speaker 4: that I was on parole, the whole case shifted to me.
Speaker 4: Detective Calibres is quoted as saying that he had a
Speaker 4: gut feeling I was involved. He felt that I matched
Speaker 4: the description my brother was involved. He felt that if
Speaker 4: I wasn't involved, I knew something about it. And because
Speaker 4: I had a prior and I was on parole, they
Speaker 4: came for me.
Speaker 2: But you matched the description of the actual shooter, No
Speaker 2: or the lookout. No, whose description did you match?
Speaker 4: He said? I matched the individual who robbed another patron
Speaker 4: of this lumber yard, mister yu Keys. I didn't know
Speaker 4: what he was talking about. In my mind, I believed
Speaker 4: that eventually whatever they were trying to do with, you know,
Speaker 4: resolve itself because I didn't have I had nothing to
Speaker 4: do with any crime. This situation, you know, had me
Speaker 4: think about this one phrase, you know, and it always
Speaker 4: stuck with me that you never get a second chance
Speaker 4: to make a first impression. And because of my past
Speaker 4: is why I'm here today now. I'm not a goodie
Speaker 4: two shoe. I wasn't and that is only because I
Speaker 4: try to fit in with individuals I wanted, you know,
Speaker 4: to be down. I brought up my father's a pastor.
Speaker 4: I brought up in church. I went to church majority
Speaker 4: of my life and I wouldn't lie, you know, I
Speaker 4: hated church. I was forced to go every day. I
Speaker 4: wouldn't say a worse experience, but just not to do
Speaker 4: what normal kids do was kind of tough for me
Speaker 4: because I was a free spader. Like so, when I
Speaker 4: was like seventeen, I try to move out and so
Speaker 4: I started selling drugs with my best friend and that's
Speaker 4: how I got into the life of criminality and things
Speaker 4: of that nature. And subsequently I did get rested for
Speaker 4: drug seale robbery and I went to Rackas Island and
Speaker 4: I had a traumatic experience. I got jumped, got stabbed,
Speaker 4: got robbed, and as time went on, I knew that
Speaker 4: this wasn't for me. Prison wasn't something that I wanted
Speaker 4: to do. It wasn't a lifestyle that I wanted to live.
Speaker 4: And if you know, selling drugs all these other stuff
Speaker 4: was going to lead me to prison, then I had
Speaker 4: to do away with that, and not just those activities,
Speaker 4: but also the people that I used to associate with,
Speaker 4: And that's what I did.
Speaker 2: You were really putting your life on track at this time,
Speaker 2: which is sort of an added element of tragedy. You
Speaker 2: had gone through some training to be an EMT right, Yes,
Speaker 2: that's correct, your young father, that's correct, and basically married,
Speaker 2: recently married. Yeah, so you had your whole life in
Speaker 2: front of you.
Speaker 4: I had changed my life. I'd cut off all my friends.
Speaker 4: You know. I had a new born, my daughter. She
Speaker 4: was only seven months when they took me from home.
Speaker 2: It's sickening, I mean, and let's set the record straight
Speaker 2: by talking about your alibi, which is a bit of
Speaker 2: a sensitive topic. I mean, you were a married man,
Speaker 2: but your alibi involves another woman, right.
Speaker 4: Sad to say, And unfortunately, the day that they accused
Speaker 4: me of committing this crime. I was in the hospital
Speaker 4: with my wife, and I was also with another female
Speaker 4: friend before I was in the hospital with my wife.
Speaker 2: Right, like you said earlier, you had a recording studio
Speaker 2: set up in your parents' basement. A young lady came
Speaker 2: to visit you there and spent the night. Yes, Now,
Speaker 2: unbeknownst to you, your daughter had developed an ear infection.
Speaker 2: I was taken to the hospital that morning. Now there's
Speaker 2: no cell phones back then. Your wife was calling around
Speaker 2: looking for you, and she gets a hold of your mother,
Speaker 2: who walks the phone to you downstairs.
Speaker 4: That's correct.
Speaker 2: You spoke with your wife, assured her that you were
Speaker 2: at your way, and then you shower and get the help.
Speaker 4: When I got there, you know, basically, my wife is
Speaker 4: just like here, she's your responsibility. Now I had all
Speaker 4: and so you know, I did everything with her till
Speaker 4: the doctors wanted to come in. She had an air affection,
Speaker 4: so they wanted to do an X ray. Now, this
Speaker 4: is one of the things that baffled me, even to today,
Speaker 4: with all the technology and stuff that they have, my
Speaker 4: hands got captured in this X ray. When people read
Speaker 4: this case, really sit down and read this case, they
Speaker 4: wonder how did you get convicted?
Speaker 2: You had a solid alibi.
Speaker 4: I trial. One person testified against me, and I had
Speaker 4: four or five alibi witnesses that testified. The one person
Speaker 4: that testified against me mister Yu Keys, And I feel
Speaker 4: for him because I know that he's been duped because
Speaker 4: he told the nine one one operator when he called
Speaker 4: them during the day, that the crime was committed, about
Speaker 4: being robbed, about the individual being shot, what have you,
Speaker 4: And when they asked him to give a description enough
Speaker 4: the individual, he told him that he couldn't. He said
Speaker 4: he never looked at the individual, that he never looked
Speaker 4: at the person that robbed them. Wow, because he was
Speaker 4: afraid too, because he seeing what happened to the guy
Speaker 4: that got shot, he was afraid for his life. He
Speaker 4: also told that to the first police that came on
Speaker 4: the scene. But yet here it is Detective Calabrese is
Speaker 4: saying that this individual picked my picture up and said,
Speaker 4: this is the guy that robbed me. The district attorney
Speaker 4: is saying that the witness didn't say that. The witness
Speaker 4: said that I looked like the individual that robbed them.
Speaker 4: But in all the police reports, it's saying that the
Speaker 4: witness said that I'm the guy that robbed them. But
Speaker 4: in court, the district attorney is saying that the witness
Speaker 4: said that I looked like the guy that robbed them,
Speaker 4: and if he sent me in person, he would be
Speaker 4: able to identify me. But here's the catch. The witness
Speaker 4: get on the stand and said that he never made
Speaker 4: no identification of me prior to my arrest. So how
Speaker 4: did I become a suspect?
Speaker 3: Right? Which one is it?
Speaker 4: Right? Three different opinions about one identification? Now, who should
Speaker 4: you believe the detective who was saying that he positively
Speaker 4: identified me as the person that robbed them, the district
Speaker 4: attorney who was saying that the witness said I looked
Speaker 4: like the individual, but he will be able to identify
Speaker 4: me if he see me in person. Or the witness
Speaker 4: who said that he never made no identification when the
Speaker 4: police came to his house on numerous occasions. Who should
Speaker 4: we believe this guy? He didn't know me. The only
Speaker 4: thing that he knew, which he told the police, was
Speaker 4: that the guy was dark skinned and.
Speaker 2: Stocky, described half of your neighborhood.
Speaker 4: When they ask him, well how tall is this guy?
Speaker 4: He don't know. Is he taller than you? I don't know.
Speaker 4: Is he shorter than you, I don't know. Did he
Speaker 4: have a bed, I don't know. Did he have a mustache?
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 2: But he didn't see him.
Speaker 4: What do you know? He was dark skinned and stocky.
Speaker 4: They showed him the tape, and on the tape, you
Speaker 4: can't make the features out of the individuals, the two perpetrators.
Speaker 4: You can't really make facial features out of anybody on
Speaker 4: the tape. But the perpetrators had on hats and hoodies
Speaker 4: and three quarter length copes. And he stated that he
Speaker 4: couldn't see these individuals. He didn't know what the person
Speaker 4: looked like. He don't know if they had a bed, mustache, anything.
Speaker 4: He was just dusking and stocky. So when you look
Speaker 4: at the tape, all you see is shapes and sizes.
Speaker 2: That's not enough.
Speaker 4: He couldn't even identify hisself on the tape. During trial,
Speaker 4: the district attorney had to reference something of what he
Speaker 4: had on wait.
Speaker 2: Hold on the witness. This tape was so grainy that
Speaker 2: the guy couldn't identify himself.
Speaker 4: Yes, when the district attorney asked him to point to
Speaker 4: himself on the tape, he pointed to someone else. Wow,
Speaker 4: and then the disc attorney says something like this, is
Speaker 4: that you with the checkerboard shirt? Or who's in the
Speaker 4: checkerboard shirt or something of that effect, right led him
Speaker 4: to basically say, oh, and then that's me standing right here.
Speaker 2: Okay, I've heard enough about that. Now we know that's
Speaker 2: completely unreliable and out. That should have been out the
Speaker 2: window right off the bat. One of the things that
Speaker 2: sticks with me is the idea that Detective Calibreeds claimed
Speaker 2: that he could recognize you from a security tape because
Speaker 2: he could recognize your walk.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I believe that was the lynch pin that's that
Speaker 4: sealed my fate, because he got understanding and he pointed
Speaker 4: me out in court and he said this is the guy.
Speaker 4: And they asked him how he knows and he says
Speaker 4: that he could tell that it was me because of
Speaker 4: how I walked. And the tape doesn't show the perpetrator
Speaker 4: from his waist down, and they showed this tape in court.
Speaker 4: But yet, you know, I believe that that was the
Speaker 4: nail in the coffin for me, because he's an officer.
Speaker 4: They have a tape, and people believe even when I
Speaker 4: was appealing and I know that these judge never viewed
Speaker 4: the tape, but because of the language and the dialogue
Speaker 4: in the trial transcript, they even denied certain of my
Speaker 4: appeals because they saying you were clearly sint on the tape.
Speaker 2: The idea that anyone could identify anyone else short of
Speaker 2: someone who does have a physical, you know, impairment for
Speaker 2: war impairment exactly that's what I was looking for, is preposterous.
Speaker 2: I mean, the fact that they would even present that
Speaker 2: as evidence, it's ridiculous. But they did, and the consequences
Speaker 2: are not funny at all, they're very real. So there's
Speaker 2: there's that, and then there's the fact that you know,
Speaker 2: we know, we know what happened at the trial. That
Speaker 2: you know your brother was not allowed to testify. That
Speaker 2: is correct because your lawyer didn't submit his name on
Speaker 2: the witness list.
Speaker 4: That is right.
Speaker 2: Had he been able to, we don't. We never will
Speaker 2: never know what he would have said in the moment,
Speaker 2: but there's a realistic chance that he might have said
Speaker 2: something that could have exonerated you.
Speaker 4: Well, well, at that time, my opinion and believe is
Speaker 4: that he wanted to come forward and he did come
Speaker 4: to court to testify, and what I realized later is
Speaker 4: that my lawyer sent them home. When they started to
Speaker 4: question my parents about my brother and his whereabouts, they
Speaker 4: answered truthfully that he was here, came to court today
Speaker 4: to testify, and the district attorney stopped the proceeding and
Speaker 4: asked for a sidebar so they can discuss certain things
Speaker 4: which the sonographer records. And at this sidebar, the district
Speaker 4: attorney wanted to bring up my lawyer on charges for
Speaker 4: lyon about the whereabouts of my brother, because early that
Speaker 4: morning he said he don't know where my brother was.
Speaker 4: He never seen them, he never met him. And then
Speaker 4: it was discovered later the same day that my brother
Speaker 4: was at his office that morning and he sent them home.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's a big lie.
Speaker 4: And it's in the trial transcripts taking it up.
Speaker 2: And he didn't forget that he saw your brother that day.
Speaker 4: No, No, I mean because it was right. It was
Speaker 4: early that morning and trial was on and my brother
Speaker 4: came to testify at that time. I believe the best. Now,
Speaker 4: I understand why a person would be apprehensive for coming
Speaker 4: forward and trying to tell the truth about what really
Speaker 4: took place or who was involved on things of that nature.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, he's your little brother. You know, he
Speaker 2: must have had a lot of conflicted emotions. I can't
Speaker 2: imagine being in his place. He's trying to save his
Speaker 2: own life at the same time, you know, he's got
Speaker 2: I'm sure a lot of guilt about putting you in
Speaker 2: this situation in the first place, because you talk about
Speaker 2: how you never would have been in the system if
Speaker 2: you hadn't have done certain things when you were younger.
Speaker 2: But you also would have never been in this situation
Speaker 2: if your brother hadn't have been involved in this thing
Speaker 2: in the first place.
Speaker 4: I think that I had set a bad president for
Speaker 4: my brother. I believe I was part of the influence. Now.
Speaker 4: I don't know if he looked up to me, but
Speaker 4: I believe that some of my actions are friends that
Speaker 4: I had that was around probably also roughed off on him. Unfortunately,
Speaker 4: I wasn't around for him when he started to engage
Speaker 4: in activities and pick certain people as friends that I
Speaker 4: could have probably said, you know, those are the guys
Speaker 4: you shouldn't thing. Because what I try to do was
Speaker 4: distance myself from everyone that was in my neighborhood at
Speaker 4: that point in time when I started to clear my
Speaker 4: life up.
Speaker 2: I mean, you basically took the fall for your brother.
Speaker 4: Well, I wouldn't say that I took the fall. They
Speaker 4: gave it to me, right.
Speaker 2: Your last hope was that your lawyer was going to
Speaker 2: do a good job representing you and that the truth
Speaker 2: was going to come out. That's correct, and you were
Speaker 2: going to go back and get a hold your life.
Speaker 2: But in fact, your lawyer was compromised.
Speaker 4: Yes, as it seems. I mean, he was kind of
Speaker 4: like conflicted in between his duties as a lawyer to
Speaker 4: me and also to the people that were paying him
Speaker 4: to represent me.
Speaker 2: And the people that were paying him were your parents. Yes,
Speaker 2: it's almost like they had a Sophie's choice. They had
Speaker 2: to choose what they did choose and if they had
Speaker 2: to choose to save one child for me.
Speaker 4: It is basically, and this was never spoken. This is
Speaker 4: just my thoughts as I got a little older and
Speaker 4: probably start to piece things together that you know, he
Speaker 4: had to pass. You know, he was in trouble before.
Speaker 4: Maybe he could handle this and we would support him.
Speaker 4: But my brother, he's the baby, and you know, the
Speaker 4: cops wasn't looking for him. They already gave him a
Speaker 4: clean slave and said they didn't want him even the
Speaker 4: district attorney said that they had nothing to convict him on,
Speaker 4: so they look for the easy choice, the person that
Speaker 4: had the record. If we can't get his brother, then
Speaker 4: we're going to get him.
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Speaker 4: You served twenty three years.
Speaker 2: Twenty three years in maximum security prisons in New York State. Yes,
Speaker 2: was there a worst moment and was there a best moment?
Speaker 4: I mean I had a lot of not a lot
Speaker 4: of bad moments, but this a few. One of my
Speaker 4: worst moments was when I was in green Haven in
Speaker 4: two thousand and nine ten. I was in college. I
Speaker 4: was taking Christian Ministry Human Services theology course. I was
Speaker 4: working in the barbershop and this particular day, I was
Speaker 4: coming from study hall that I have my books and
Speaker 4: I'm going back to my cell. I saw a crate
Speaker 4: and I was like, let me take the crate and
Speaker 4: put my school books in because if anything happened to
Speaker 4: the school boos, I have to pay for him. This
Speaker 4: is an old maximum security prison, so they have leaks
Speaker 4: and waters dripping all over the place. Sometimes your toilet overfloor,
Speaker 4: your sink overfloor. So long story short of officers see
Speaker 4: me with the crate, tell me to put it back.
Speaker 4: I can't have it, and I complied. Supposedly he must
Speaker 4: have spoke to another officer because another officer calls me
Speaker 4: back and started going crazy on me, like what are
Speaker 4: you touching here? You know, don't eff in this, don't
Speaker 4: eff in that. And you know, I just stood there.
Speaker 4: I figured, you know, okay, he got his buddies here,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna just listen to him, you know, comply, and
Speaker 4: you know, hopefully, you know, I can go to my
Speaker 4: cell and lock in. And that wasn't the case, you know.
Speaker 4: So after he started to berate me about you know,
Speaker 4: touching stuff and his you and all this other stuff,
Speaker 4: I said, okay, you know, I'm sorry. You know, here's
Speaker 4: the create and I turned to leave. And I think
Speaker 4: at this point in time he felt like I was
Speaker 4: dismissing him, you know, or I left without his authority
Speaker 4: saying okay, you go, and he took offense to me
Speaker 4: turning to leave, and he jumped on me. They beat
Speaker 4: me up. You see my elbow I left elbow.
Speaker 2: Yep, got a giant nodding it right.
Speaker 4: My shoulders still hurt to this day. They beat up
Speaker 4: my elbows, they beat up my shoulders, they beat me up,
Speaker 4: They dragged me to the box, and they try to
Speaker 4: charge me with assault. And that was like for me,
Speaker 4: the worst day because everything that I was doing, I
Speaker 4: never had no physical altercations while I was in with inmates,
Speaker 4: all officers, anything of that nature. And I'm fighting my
Speaker 4: case and the only thing that's coming to my mind
Speaker 4: is that maybe I have an opportunity to get out
Speaker 4: of the prison for my case. But if they try
Speaker 4: to convict me for assault on the staff, which mostly
Speaker 4: everybody gets convicted of, you know, I just seen my
Speaker 4: lights go out. It's your word against officer words. And
Speaker 4: more than one officer is going to say that you
Speaker 4: didn't what you didn't do. And it's funny to me
Speaker 4: because it's like I'm saying to myself, like God, how
Speaker 4: does stuff and keep happening to me? And my parents.
Speaker 4: They're so religious that you know they would hit you
Speaker 4: with you haven't submitted to God yet, you haven't let go.
Speaker 4: You're being tested, You're going through the fire, and you
Speaker 4: know I cried like a baby because I seen my
Speaker 4: lights go out. And maybe this was also the opportunity
Speaker 4: that I seen God working in my life, because subsequently,
Speaker 4: guys that knew me, that locked on the company with me,
Speaker 4: they had wrote this Attorney's General Office, they inspect the General.
Speaker 4: They had wrote prison Legal Services, and I never knew
Speaker 4: that people probably watched me or cared about me like
Speaker 4: that I'm talking about inmates, HEARDing, criminals or whatever, and
Speaker 4: they inspect the general. When the inspect the generals came
Speaker 4: to see me, and I had written to them again
Speaker 4: because one of the guys inside the shoe area had
Speaker 4: told me, listen, you need to write these people. You
Speaker 4: need to write this person. Da da da da dad.
Speaker 4: So I was getting advice from individuals or who I
Speaker 4: have to write, who I have to contact to try
Speaker 4: to get from underneath this, and so I wrote them
Speaker 4: as well. And when they came to see me, you know,
Speaker 4: we talk. He says, well, we have to do our
Speaker 4: investigation and stuff of that nature. And then they came
Speaker 4: to see me, and I guess this is the first
Speaker 4: time in my life that I could say that I've
Speaker 4: seen the hand of God, because when he called me
Speaker 4: and they interviewed me. He says, I have good news
Speaker 4: and bad news. The good news is that we're not
Speaker 4: going to charge you with assault on staff because I've
Speaker 4: read all the reports that came in. I read the
Speaker 4: police reports, and I read not just your report, but
Speaker 4: I got several letters written from other inmates who have
Speaker 4: witnessed what took place. And I know that you didn't
Speaker 4: have contact with these individuals because they brought you to
Speaker 4: the box and it says your story and their story
Speaker 4: adds up, and none of the police stories adds up.
Speaker 4: But you have to go through the format I still
Speaker 4: had the hearing to go to, and this is how
Speaker 4: corrupt the Department of Corrections is. I remember the officer
Speaker 4: that had the altercation with me, that smacked me in
Speaker 4: my face and hit me with the sticks and all that.
Speaker 4: And there was two other officers there, but I didn't
Speaker 4: remember the two. And the reason why I remember the
Speaker 4: one is because he was my company officer. He's there
Speaker 4: every day. The officer that comes in the hearing was
Speaker 4: in the officer that hit me or I had the
Speaker 4: altercation with. It was somebody else. And we're going through
Speaker 4: the formalities and questioning the officer and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: So the officer said that we were standing the right shoulder,
Speaker 4: the right shoulder, and I took my left hand and
Speaker 4: punched them on the left side of his face. That
Speaker 4: caused him to bust his head on the pipes and
Speaker 4: bust his head open. And when I started to play
Speaker 4: if we stand the right shoulder to shoulder and I
Speaker 4: hit him with my left hand on the left side
Speaker 4: of his face, how is that possible. I would have
Speaker 4: to go over It's not come back and hit him,
Speaker 4: and you know so, so I asked the officer to
Speaker 4: demonstrate this punch. Can you demonstrate how I hit you
Speaker 4: with my left hand on the left side of your
Speaker 4: face if we stand the right shoulder the right shoulder,
Speaker 4: I would like for you to demonstrate this. And the
Speaker 4: hearing officer said that there will be no demonstrations in here,
Speaker 4: so he never got to demonstrate, and I, you know, objected,
Speaker 4: and I told him that it's impossible that that can
Speaker 4: take place. Long story short, the officer that wrote the
Speaker 4: report or that they brought in that said he wrote
Speaker 4: the report. I asked him, did he see the police
Speaker 4: hit me? And he said yes. So then I asked him, then,
Speaker 4: why is it not written in the report that the
Speaker 4: police struck me. The lieutenant looks and he's like, I said,
Speaker 4: It's not in the ticket, is not in the two
Speaker 4: firm reports. It's not in any document that was given
Speaker 4: to me. So the lieutenant asked the CEO, why is that?
Speaker 4: And maybe at this time he was afraid. I don't
Speaker 4: know what it is, but I believe that at this
Speaker 4: point in time, this is when I've seen God worked
Speaker 4: in my life. And he tells the truth. He says,
Speaker 4: I didn't write the report. The lieutenant said, you didn't
Speaker 4: write the report. He said, no, I didn't write the report.
Speaker 4: He said, who wrote the report? He said, a sergeant
Speaker 4: such and such wrote the report? He said, where was
Speaker 4: the sergeant when the incident happened. He wasn't there. The
Speaker 4: sergeant wrote the report, made another officer sign it and
Speaker 4: sait in the hearing as the officer who witnessed what
Speaker 4: took place and knew nothing about it. And they dismissed
Speaker 4: the case.
Speaker 2: Amen to that, or you might not be here now.
Speaker 2: So and we know now that you paroled. And I
Speaker 2: want to get to that, because that's a really extraordinary
Speaker 2: story in and of itself. I think it says a
Speaker 2: lot about what the parole board really thought about your
Speaker 2: claims of innocence. But before we get to that, I
Speaker 2: want to talk about what was going on on the outside.
Speaker 2: Because there was a guy in the neighborhood. I mean,
Speaker 2: can we mention his name?
Speaker 4: Well, for legal purposes, you know, I wouldn't like to
Speaker 4: mention his name. It called my case is still being
Speaker 4: reviewed by the Convention Review Unit. So, but this individual
Speaker 4: was a childhood friend of mine. We haven't seen each
Speaker 4: other in years, and he had moved away from the neighborhood.
Speaker 4: And when he came back to the neighborhood, he was looking,
Speaker 4: you know, for old friends. And you know, subsequently he
Speaker 4: was looking for me and heard that I was in prison.
Speaker 4: So he wanted to know why, and the whole story
Speaker 4: came out and he couldn't believe it. You know, he
Speaker 4: took it upon himself to try to help me.
Speaker 3: How do you do that?
Speaker 4: Well, the individual who actually committed a crime used to
Speaker 4: see him all the time, and because he's still living
Speaker 4: in the neighborhood, mostly people that knew both of us,
Speaker 4: he would ask them, you know, how they felt about him.
Speaker 4: It was he still you know, like welcome or they
Speaker 4: still had love for him, knowing that I was in
Speaker 4: prison serving time for a crime that he committed. And
Speaker 4: my friend, he was like he couldn't believe this, and
Speaker 4: he's like, this guy just keep saying that he did it.
Speaker 4: He did it, and he's the reason why you in prison.
Speaker 4: You know, he wrote me a letter. I showed you
Speaker 4: the letter that he wrote. And he took it upon
Speaker 4: himself too to record this individual, to tape them saying
Speaker 4: the same things about me being in prison for a
Speaker 4: crime he committed, and even went as far as that
Speaker 4: he used to he does security bouncing work because he's
Speaker 4: six eight, three hundred and something pounds, and this is
Speaker 4: God again in my life. He so happened to be
Speaker 4: working doing security at a spot where detective Calibri's, the
Speaker 4: leading detective in my case, was also working. What's the
Speaker 4: odds of that?
Speaker 2: Pretty long?
Speaker 4: And he spoke to Calibres about the case and told
Speaker 4: him that he had the wrong person in prison for
Speaker 4: the crime. What Calbri's say, Calabris just told him tell
Speaker 4: his brother to come forward and he can get out.
Speaker 4: That was his words. See, because Calabri's knew and he
Speaker 4: had told me as much. When he brought me in,
Speaker 4: you know, because he was like, where's your brother, weighs
Speaker 4: his friends, and I'm like, I don't know. I'm not
Speaker 4: my brother's keeper. You know, I don't live with my brother.
Speaker 4: I live with my wife. But he didn't care about that.
Speaker 4: And you know, once things start to unravel in the
Speaker 4: conviction review unit and they start to review my case,
Speaker 4: they reached out to him two to three weeks after
Speaker 4: they reviewed my case and next thing, you know, self
Speaker 4: inflicted wound somewhere in his car. You know, he took
Speaker 4: his own life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like his conscience may have gotten to him.
Speaker 2: And we'll never know because he didn't leave a note
Speaker 2: or anything, right, but the timing seems.
Speaker 4: Really to be suspicious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the conviction review unit starts looking into
Speaker 2: your case, it's inevitable that they're going to find out
Speaker 2: what happened. Because the conviction Review Unit in Brooklyn, I
Speaker 2: can say this, they don't fuck around. But these guys
Speaker 2: are under the leadership of American Zales and before that
Speaker 2: Ken Thompson. They are committed to finding and identifying and
Speaker 2: resolving wrong for conviction cases. And they've been doing it
Speaker 2: and walking the walk and so once they took over
Speaker 2: investigating your case. Yeah, Detective Calabrizi must have known that
Speaker 2: some of his misdeeds were going to become public.
Speaker 4: Yes, he did everything from interviewing the witnesses to getting
Speaker 4: the fillers for the lineups, conducting the lineup. I mean,
Speaker 4: nobody else did anything. His name is on all the reports.
Speaker 2: So the guy who holds the key is dead.
Speaker 3: Now you went to the parole board.
Speaker 2: Yes, and you did exactly the opposite of what All
Speaker 2: the smartest people you knew were the most the wisest people,
Speaker 2: I should say, were advising you to do right.
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna lie, you know. I was very apprehensive
Speaker 4: and rustle with it. You know. As my wife was here,
Speaker 4: she would tell you, you know, because knowing what I
Speaker 4: know now, I had told her and I told her
Speaker 4: before that if I had a chance to do this
Speaker 4: all over again, I probably would have copped out to
Speaker 4: something less right.
Speaker 2: So I was gonna say is when you go to
Speaker 2: the parole board, the general rule, and this is with
Speaker 2: very very rare exceptions, the parole board wants to hear
Speaker 2: you express remorse for the crime, whether you committed it
Speaker 2: or not. They don't know whether you committed it. They
Speaker 2: don't have time to reinvestigate it. In New York State,
Speaker 2: the parole board is reviewing ten thousand cases, around ten
Speaker 2: thousand cases a year, and there's only somewhere between twelve
Speaker 2: and nineteen people for the entire state in panels of three.
Speaker 2: So they have a few minutes to look into your case.
Speaker 2: They don't have time to go through it, even like
Speaker 2: we're doing now. So it would be great if they did,
Speaker 2: but they don't. They're only human beings, They only you know,
Speaker 2: they don't have so much time in the day. So
Speaker 2: the logical thing to do for somebody like you who's
Speaker 2: desperate to get out and get back with your family
Speaker 2: and get back on, you know, to your life, is
Speaker 2: to just plead guilty. And then they're most likely going
Speaker 2: to say, okay, well you've served twenty three years and
Speaker 2: you've done you know, ministry and all that. There's other
Speaker 2: stuff in prison. Yeah you can go home now. But
Speaker 2: you didn't know.
Speaker 4: And I mean I wrestled with it. I prayed about
Speaker 4: it because I want to go home. You know, what
Speaker 4: should I do? I mean, even though all these years
Speaker 4: I'm telling them I didn't commit the crime, now I'm
Speaker 4: up for parole. What do I do Do I go
Speaker 4: in there and put on a show and say that
Speaker 4: I'm remorse and I'm sorry and that you know, you know,
Speaker 4: I don't know what to say but the truth. And
Speaker 4: I wrestle with it. And I mean, like people is
Speaker 4: telling me, don't go in there and tell them that
Speaker 4: you didn't do it. They're going to hit you, They're
Speaker 4: going to give you more time. And I say, well,
Speaker 4: I'm going in there and I'm going to tell them
Speaker 4: what I've been telling them since the beginning. I didn't
Speaker 4: commit the crime, but I understand why it's possible for
Speaker 4: individual like me to be considered for a crime such
Speaker 4: as this, you know. And I'm gonna give them my
Speaker 4: story about my past, how I came to be here today,
Speaker 4: and what I've done since I was incarcerated, and what
Speaker 4: I plan to do when I get out. And for
Speaker 4: that whole ten days after that, I had to wait
Speaker 4: to get the results, seven to ten days. It was
Speaker 4: the worst week of my life. No no sleep because
Speaker 4: that whole week I already felt because the way that
Speaker 4: they spoke to me inside the parole board, I felt
Speaker 4: that there wasn't going to release me. My counselor gives
Speaker 4: me the envelope. I opened it, and to be honest,
Speaker 4: my eyes are teared up because I'm and I'm looking
Speaker 4: for the worst. And it's sad to say I'm looking
Speaker 4: for denial. I'm just looking for any word with a
Speaker 4: D for denial, refuse, whatever. And I didn't see and
Speaker 4: my counselors like you okay, I said, yeah, I just
Speaker 4: I can't find the decision. So he's like, well, give
Speaker 4: it to me, and he highlights it he knew before
Speaker 4: and he gave it back to me, and I couldn't
Speaker 4: believe it. They let me go and I'll be lying
Speaker 4: out of there, you know, call my family and told
Speaker 4: him and there was overjoyed, but it was it's still
Speaker 4: a lot now just thinking about it.
Speaker 2: I can't imagine. Nobody can imagine that hasn't been through it.
Speaker 4: You know, that was the best moment for me in prison.
Speaker 4: That and learning some stuff about myself because you know,
Speaker 4: like I became the director of that used as system
Speaker 4: program and I used to mentor teens that used to
Speaker 4: bring high school kids in and I used to speak
Speaker 4: to them about my life, life story, about how I
Speaker 4: end up serving a life. Scientists for a quim I
Speaker 4: didn't commit and how easy it is full you to
Speaker 4: find yourself in situations like this by the company that
Speaker 4: you keep in, the choices that you make, and the
Speaker 4: bro shure that I penned had the title. You know,
Speaker 4: you never get a second chance for first impression.
Speaker 2: It's been an extraordinary experience for me getting to know
Speaker 2: you and learning about your story. Of course, you know,
Speaker 2: I thank you for coming in and sharing it, and
Speaker 2: I think that through your words it's going to inspire
Speaker 2: a lot of people to keep fighting whatever they're up against.
Speaker 2: And now it's time for my favorite part of the show.
Speaker 2: Fans of the podcast know that this is the time
Speaker 2: when I turn off my microphone and just sit back
Speaker 2: and leave your microphone on. For closing arguments.
Speaker 4: I guess the one of the most things that I
Speaker 4: could possibly say is for jurors, because district attorneys is
Speaker 4: going to be them. They trying to win cases. Officers
Speaker 4: are trying to lock people up. But as a juror,
Speaker 4: it is your job to discern the truth, to find
Speaker 4: the truth, and sometimes I guess they get more clouded
Speaker 4: by what took place as opposed to what is the truth,
Speaker 4: and so emotions come into play with everything as opposed
Speaker 4: to rational and that's why you can find individuals such
Speaker 4: as myself in positions like this where you can do
Speaker 4: time for a crime you didn't commit, because people's emotions
Speaker 4: are more tied up in the event, but not trying
Speaker 4: to find the actual truth when they sit on jerors
Speaker 4: on jury. I believe part of that outside of what
Speaker 4: the district attorney did it detective did, the jurors are
Speaker 4: the ones who has the final say, and if they
Speaker 4: don't use rationale to decipher the truth from the garbage
Speaker 4: that is being spewed out there, that's why there's so
Speaker 4: many of us in prison. Ruefully, anyone out there that
Speaker 4: is going through a situation such as this, just continue fighting.
Speaker 4: No one knows what the future holds and his hope.
Speaker 2: Don't forget to give us a fantastic review wherever you
Speaker 2: get your podcasts.
Speaker 3: It really helps.
Speaker 2: And I'm a proud donor to the Innocence Project and
Speaker 2: I really hope you'll join me in supporting this very
Speaker 2: important cause and helping to prevent future wrongful convictions. Go
Speaker 2: to Innocence Project dot org to learn how to donate
Speaker 2: and get involved. I'd like to thank our production team
Speaker 2: Connor Hall and Kevin Wartis. The music in the show
Speaker 2: is by three I'm Oscar nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be
Speaker 2: sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and
Speaker 2: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason
Speaker 2: Flam is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts and
Speaker 2: association with Signal Company Number one