Speaker 1: On Saturday September, the body of nineteen year old Anthony
Speaker 1: Clan was discovered on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio,
Speaker 1: in Rockefeller Park Stone Creek. He had been stabbed in
Speaker 1: the chest three times and his throat was slit on
Speaker 1: the verge of decapitation. The ground around him was undisturbed,
Speaker 1: suggesting that the murder occurred elsewhere. One of the three
Speaker 1: men who came to identify the body on Monday, September
Speaker 1: twenty six and thus began to control the narrative, had
Speaker 1: arguably the most to gain from doing so, a convicted
Speaker 1: rapist and drug dealer named Paul Stoney Lewis, who Anthony
Speaker 1: Clan had once identified in another rape. The two other
Speaker 1: men supported Stoney's narrative at trial. During the investigation of
Speaker 1: fourth man emerged the victims, cuckold Edward Espinoza, who joined
Speaker 1: the narrative and received leniency for the part he played
Speaker 1: in the murder in exchange for his false eyewitness testimony
Speaker 1: against his employer Michael Keenan and his co worker Joji Abrochow. Now,
Speaker 1: some elements of the story were real and occurred on
Speaker 1: Thursday September, but had little to do with the actual
Speaker 1: night of Anthony Klan's murder Friday September. Both Michael Keenan
Speaker 1: and Joe de Ambrosio's whereabouts on Friday night were known,
Speaker 1: and despite Espinosa's two separate and contradictory affidavits and knowing
Speaker 1: about the discrepancy between the two nights, the prosecution nevertheless
Speaker 1: forged ahead, hiding a mountain of exculpatory evidence and sending
Speaker 1: Joe de Ambrosio and Michael Keenan straight to death row.
Speaker 1: This is wrongful conviction with Jason Flam. Welcome back the
Speaker 1: wrongful conviction with Jason Flam. Today you're gonna hear the
Speaker 1: story of Joe d Ambrose. You who is the sixth
Speaker 1: person to be exonerated from Ohio's death throw in America
Speaker 1: to be exonerated, Joe, This story is, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: got so many twists and turns. But let me just
Speaker 1: for the audience's sake, before I even introduce you, let
Speaker 1: me just say this involves a group of cops that
Speaker 1: were so corrupted. Forty four of them were charged with
Speaker 1: taking money and protecting cocaine operations in Cleveland and northern Ohio.
Speaker 1: This goes back to the eighties. Of course, it involves
Speaker 1: a date that was changed in order to make the
Speaker 1: case fit the facts instead of the other way around.
Speaker 1: It involves a dead body found in Dones Creak that
Speaker 1: had been stabbed and split throat and everything. I mean,
Speaker 1: this thing, I'm not even scratuating the surface. I hate
Speaker 1: to say it, but you lived it. So Joe, I'm
Speaker 1: sorry for what you went through, but I'm very, very
Speaker 1: grateful and honored that you're here on the show with
Speaker 1: us today. Thank you very much. And with us is
Speaker 1: a very you unique individual with a unique name as well.
Speaker 1: We have Neil Cokuta, who was one of the great
Speaker 1: heroes in this story, but who was also When I
Speaker 1: say the unique individual, here's a guy who's a nurse,
Speaker 1: a lawyer, and a priest. I mean it almost sounds
Speaker 1: like the punchline and a joke, or the set up
Speaker 1: to a joke. Right, a nurse, a lawyer, and a
Speaker 1: priest walk out a bar. But then it was only
Speaker 1: one guy, hey, and here he is, So Neil Cocute,
Speaker 1: thank you for being here with us today. It's good
Speaker 1: to be with you. And Joe. You're a guy who
Speaker 1: served in the U. S. Army, right, you achieved the
Speaker 1: rank of sergeant. Is that correct? And we're honorably discharged.
Speaker 1: But were you a guy who had had a lot
Speaker 1: of trouble with the law before this crazy thing? Haven't
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about your background, your upbringing.
Speaker 1: I grew up just outside of Cleveland in the suburbs,
Speaker 1: a little town called North Royalton, and the only thing
Speaker 1: that was in that place was bars and gas stations
Speaker 1: and farms. So I could kind of a country boy,
Speaker 1: and I didn't want to stay and be one of
Speaker 1: those three things, so I joined the military as soon
Speaker 1: as I got out of high school. I did my
Speaker 1: four years in the military, and then I got out,
Speaker 1: honorably discharged, sergeant, out of the military. And then this
Speaker 1: thing comes out of the blue. I mean, is it
Speaker 1: fair to say that this could happen to you? Could
Speaker 1: happen to anyone? Oh exactly, I'm the most common Joe
Speaker 1: there could be. Truly. All it takes is one person,
Speaker 1: no other evidence, one person to point their finger at
Speaker 1: you and say they stood there and watched while you
Speaker 1: killed this person, and there you go. It's so nuts
Speaker 1: that you could have ended up on death row just
Speaker 1: because of one person with a lot to gain by saying,
Speaker 1: so write an incentivized person. So I'd like to set
Speaker 1: this stage a bit here. This is the late eighties
Speaker 1: and Little Italy on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio.
Speaker 1: Very reminiscent of Tonya Ponovich's story. Actually, you know, bar culture,
Speaker 1: lots of party and going on, And in this case,
Speaker 1: there's coke drinking and a group of friends and acquaintances,
Speaker 1: some of whom Joe worked with doing landscaping. And then
Speaker 1: there's a bit of crossover from that group into the
Speaker 1: drug business of a guy named Paul Stoney. Lewis So
Speaker 1: Stony was just your local two bit drug dealer down
Speaker 1: in the Little Italy neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland.
Speaker 1: And Anthony Clan was one of these guys that frequented Stony,
Speaker 1: as was a number of the other guys Michael Keenan
Speaker 1: in this case at Espinosa and others hung around together, right,
Speaker 1: And something that needs to be pointed out of here
Speaker 1: was that months before this murder occurred back in Stoney
Speaker 1: allegedly raped Anthony Clan's roommate Chris Longenecker, and Anthony and
Speaker 1: Chris were both scheduled to testify against Stony Lewis, but
Speaker 1: Chris Longenecker was legally blind and misread when they were
Speaker 1: supposed to appear at court, so Stoney was released, leaving
Speaker 1: Clan and Longannecker in danger. Now you mentioned before Mike
Speaker 1: Keenan and Edward Espinoza, who, from what I understand, had
Speaker 1: a landscaping business. Mike Keenan Joe's kind of co defendant
Speaker 1: in this whole mess. He was the owner and Espinoza
Speaker 1: was this foreman and Joe. Around the end of August
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight, you were going to go back into
Speaker 1: the military, but you needed to wait on your discharge
Speaker 1: paperwork to be reissued. And while you waited, you worked
Speaker 1: for Mike Keenan. Do I have that right? Well, I
Speaker 1: needed a job to hold me over, and I grew
Speaker 1: up in the country cutting grasses like in my blood,
Speaker 1: So yeah, I got hired. On September one, September twenty six,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in the jail accused the most teneous crime
Speaker 1: in the world. Right. But before we even get to that,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about Thursday night, September twenty, a
Speaker 1: day before this murder occurred. It was the events of
Speaker 1: that night that were used to predicate the narrative that
Speaker 1: was used against you and Michael Keenan at both of
Speaker 1: your trials. While all along people had seen the victim
Speaker 1: here Anthony Clan alive the following night, Friday September, one
Speaker 1: of whom even gave him cab fair home. But we'll
Speaker 1: get to that later. So let's go back to Thursday.
Speaker 1: On Thursday night of this week, all of these people,
Speaker 1: Eddie Espinoza, Mike Keenan, with Mike Keenan's girlfriend, Anthony Clan,
Speaker 1: Joe da Ambrosio, Paul Stoney Lewis, they were on a
Speaker 1: pub call through the Coventry area of Little Italy, and
Speaker 1: so they were all drinking that night. And Joe admittedly
Speaker 1: was part of this drinking group on Thursday night at
Speaker 1: these different bars, and at one of the bars, Joe,
Speaker 1: where was it where they got into the restroom fight
Speaker 1: that was Coconut Joe's. So Anthony Clan and Eddie Espinoza
Speaker 1: got into a somewhat violent or at least raucous altercation
Speaker 1: in the men's room of the bar. There is some
Speaker 1: suspicion that a Denny Klan was having a sexual relationship
Speaker 1: with Eddie Espinoza's girlfriend. Anyway, that raucous scene at the
Speaker 1: bar caused the bouncer to throw them out, and Eddie
Speaker 1: Espinoza takes a beer bottle, slams it against the bar,
Speaker 1: breaks it in half, and starts threatening people. And so
Speaker 1: they're thrown out and the night moves on, the police come,
Speaker 1: everybody assures them that they're calmed down, there won't be
Speaker 1: any problem, and they go home. So we've got Eddie
Speaker 1: Espinoza who's already in conflict with Tony Klan over something
Speaker 1: which we suspect as a triangular romantic relationship. And we
Speaker 1: got Paul Stoney Lewis, who's involved with Anthony Klan because
Speaker 1: Anthony Klan is a witness to this rape with Christopher Longenecker.
Speaker 1: And you've got both of those people who are involved
Speaker 1: with Anthony Klan from different perspectives. Oh so we're gonna
Speaker 1: come back to Thursday night and what eventually becomes the
Speaker 1: narrative of the case against Joe and Mike Keenan in
Speaker 1: a minute. But first let's talk about what we know.
Speaker 1: On Saturday, September twenty, nineteen year old Anthony Klan's body
Speaker 1: was found by a jagger on the east side of
Speaker 1: Cleveland and Rockefeller Parks, Don't Brook or Don't Creek, depending
Speaker 1: on who you're talking to, the different names for it.
Speaker 1: He had sustained multiple stab wolence to the chest and
Speaker 1: his throat had been slit so deeply that he had
Speaker 1: nearly been decapitated. Now, no murder weapon was ever found,
Speaker 1: and the body went unclaimed until Monday. That Monday, an
Speaker 1: anonymous caller called in to the morgue and asked if
Speaker 1: there was a nineteen year old kid? Does he have
Speaker 1: this color hair, these color eyes, these tattoos and these
Speaker 1: marks on his hands and wrists? And the detective got
Speaker 1: on the phone and the detectives like, yes, we have him.
Speaker 1: Can you come down own and please identify him? The
Speaker 1: guy he wouldn't identify himself, and then he hung up. Wow. Well,
Speaker 1: shortly after that, Stony Foot and Adam Flannic all went
Speaker 1: down to the morgue and identified Anthony. But the thing is,
Speaker 1: how did Stoney know about the defensive wounds on Anthony's
Speaker 1: hands in arms. All there was in the paper was
Speaker 1: a little blurb that an unidentified white male was found
Speaker 1: in Don't Creek and that was it, right, So at least,
Speaker 1: it appears that the person on the phone knew things
Speaker 1: that only someone involved could have possibly known. And then, surprise, surprise,
Speaker 1: right after the Carter's office got this anonymous call, who
Speaker 1: shows up but Paul Stoney, Lewis, James Russell, or as
Speaker 1: Joe called him, Foot, and Adam Flannic, three of the
Speaker 1: witnesses that helped with Joe and Mike Keenan on death throw.
Speaker 1: Now these three men identify the body, and the narrative
Speaker 1: began to build that the murder happened on the night
Speaker 1: you were all out together at the bar, which was Thursday,
Speaker 1: which is when Stony went home early. However, the murder
Speaker 1: actually occurred on Friday. Eventually, investigators caught up with the
Speaker 1: guy who had fought with Clan on Thursday, Tony Klan's
Speaker 1: cuckoled Edward Espinoza, who gave police a false eyewitness account
Speaker 1: claiming to have witnessed Joe and Mike Keenan commit the murder.
Speaker 1: Eddie Espinoza refers to him as little Tony, and supposedly
Speaker 1: little Tony is his best buddy, and he's going to
Speaker 1: do everything he can to protect little Tony all along
Speaker 1: the way, and so Eddie Espinoza gets arrested and taken
Speaker 1: down to the station and he swears out an affidavit
Speaker 1: that lists all of the dates, times, places, people and everything.
Speaker 1: And then when the police come in and look at this,
Speaker 1: they realized that what Eddie Espinoza has put down in
Speaker 1: his the David does not fit the narrative that they
Speaker 1: want to paint of this case, and so they have
Speaker 1: him swear out another half the David that literally gives
Speaker 1: different day, different times, different places, so that the police
Speaker 1: can paint their narrative at both of those after David's
Speaker 1: to this very day, they exist in the file and
Speaker 1: you can put them side by side and you can
Speaker 1: see that somebody coached Eddie Espinoza to change his story up. Wow.
Speaker 1: They were like, no, no, that one's not so great
Speaker 1: a mind doing that over and we'll just give you
Speaker 1: a little bit of there. Within forty eight hours of
Speaker 1: each other, two distinct aff the Davits sworn out by
Speaker 1: Eddie Espinoza. And then how in the world can anybody
Speaker 1: take anything that guy says seriously? After that, well, you know,
Speaker 1: when they want to get somebody, they get somebody, And
Speaker 1: Eddie Espinoza has a violent history. He was also in
Speaker 1: the service, dishonorably discharged for drugs and for violent behavior.
Speaker 1: So you've got a guy with a violent history and
Speaker 1: a motive to kill as the spurned, cuckolded boyfriend of
Speaker 1: the woman with whom Anthony Clan was having an affair,
Speaker 1: and in his narrative events after his fight with Anthony
Speaker 1: Klan at the bar, he and Joe headed back to
Speaker 1: Joe's apartment around one thirty am, at which point Mike
Speaker 1: Keenan drove up and told them that Stony had stolen
Speaker 1: drugs from him. Espinoza grabbed the bat, Joe grabbed a knife,
Speaker 1: and the three of them drove around looking for Paul Stony.
Speaker 1: Lewis Now again, what about this so far as true?
Speaker 1: Guess what, none of this shit evening matters because this
Speaker 1: is Thursday night, not the night of the murder, which
Speaker 1: was Friday. So lies truth. It's utterly meaningless to even
Speaker 1: debate it. Now, another two witnesses supported this narrative, Carolyn
Speaker 1: rosel and her friend you'll remember him, James Russell, you
Speaker 1: know his dictam his foot said that the three men
Speaker 1: knocked on Roselle's door looking for Stoney at around three Am.
Speaker 1: After this encounter, Espinoza's narrative continues, saying that while driving along,
Speaker 1: they eventually saw Anthony Klan walk on the side of
Speaker 1: the road, forced him into the back seat, interrogated him
Speaker 1: about Stoney's whereabouts, and after Espinoza hit him with a bat,
Speaker 1: Clan told them Stoney's address, and the men proceed to
Speaker 1: Stony's apartment building. Now, according to Stoney's neighbor you'll remember him,
Speaker 1: of course, Adam Flannic, he first heard the group yelling
Speaker 1: at at banging on Stoney's door, saying I want my
Speaker 1: dope or I want my coke. So Plannic continued to
Speaker 1: claim to be able to see down into the car
Speaker 1: where you Joe were allegedly pointing a knife up to
Speaker 1: Anthony Clan's jaw, a view that would be totally impossible
Speaker 1: from any advantage point because of how the back seats
Speaker 1: and Kenyans pick up base one another. Well, we still
Speaker 1: don't know what Plantic had to gain from saying that
Speaker 1: maybe he was involved, maybe he was coerced, who knows,
Speaker 1: maybe he was even confused. But what we do know
Speaker 1: is that again, it really just doesn't matter, because Anthony
Speaker 1: Klan was not murdered that night, but the following night. Anyway,
Speaker 1: back to Espinoza's narrative, the three men went back to
Speaker 1: Roselle's where they issued a warning for result to deliver
Speaker 1: to Stony that there was a quote contract out on
Speaker 1: him and that they had Clan in the car who
Speaker 1: was quote dead meat. Espinoza goes on to say the
Speaker 1: Klan eventually escaped from the car. Keenan allegedly then told
Speaker 1: Joe to finish him off, and then Joe allegedly ran
Speaker 1: after Clan. Clan begged for his life while Joe allegedly
Speaker 1: killed him with a knife. Again, this is a bogus
Speaker 1: recollection of Thursday night, and we know this because we
Speaker 1: later found out that Klan was seen alive again at
Speaker 1: Coconut Joe's on Friday night. He got drunk and was
Speaker 1: given kempair by the barmaid. So that was Friday night,
Speaker 1: the night after this alleged Stony Lewis search party happened
Speaker 1: and Joe on Friday, your whereabouts were totally accounted for, correct.
Speaker 1: I was getting near being able to go back into
Speaker 1: the military, and I was getting evicted, so I was
Speaker 1: having an eviction party that night's and there was a
Speaker 1: bunch of people that were over all night long. But
Speaker 1: the problem was, I'm terrible with names. Later, when we
Speaker 1: were able to identify some of the names that Joe
Speaker 1: was talking about people who were indeed at that inviction party,
Speaker 1: one of them mentioned to me that on that Friday night,
Speaker 1: they were all gathered at Joe's apartment and they were
Speaker 1: watching a football game. And so I'm like, who's got
Speaker 1: a Friday night football game? I'm doing this ten years later.
Speaker 1: So I literally ended up doing some research at the
Speaker 1: Cuyahoga County Public Library for old editions of the Cleveland
Speaker 1: Playing Dealer, and I was looking through the high school
Speaker 1: games that were being played on Friday night, and one
Speaker 1: of them was Brush High School on the East side Cleveland,
Speaker 1: and names that we literally discovered later were there. And
Speaker 1: remember watching that particular game, And that's the night that
Speaker 1: the murder actually took place, not the night that was
Speaker 1: sort of substituted. So you had all these people that
Speaker 1: could exonerate you, but you had no way to subpoena
Speaker 1: them to testify because you didn't have full names and numbers,
Speaker 1: nor did you have lawyers who were even particularly interested.
Speaker 1: And then you've got these guys who you've been working
Speaker 1: or just partying with for about the last month, who
Speaker 1: are all spinning a narrative together to close this case
Speaker 1: for the authorities on you and your boss, Mike Keenan,
Speaker 1: And of course I'm talking about Espinosa and Stony Lewis
Speaker 1: would probably have thrown their own mother under the bus
Speaker 1: in order to save themselves from death row. Exactly So,
Speaker 1: because I barely knew any of these people, I think
Speaker 1: myself that it was Paul Stoney, Lewis and Espinoza together
Speaker 1: killed Anthony because they both knew facts that only the
Speaker 1: murder or would know, and then they were able to
Speaker 1: point their finger elsewhere. So three men ultimately were charged
Speaker 1: with this gruesome murder, Michael Keenan, Edward Espinoza, and you, Joe.
Speaker 1: And it's important again to note that exchange for his
Speaker 1: testimony against you and Keenan, who were tried separately, Espinoza
Speaker 1: pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was given the lesser sentence
Speaker 1: of fifteen to seventy five years in prison. So we
Speaker 1: know what his motivation was. And this is a guy
Speaker 1: who we know is a liar. You don't have to
Speaker 1: say he's a liar. You can't signed to sworn affidavits
Speaker 1: that are totally different within forty eight hours of each
Speaker 1: other and not be lying. Okay, let's get to the trial.
Speaker 1: Tell us a little about your representation. It should be
Speaker 1: lack there of representation. If my attorneys would have believed
Speaker 1: me and did a little bit of investigation, I never
Speaker 1: would have been convicted because father Neil, ten years after
Speaker 1: the fact, was finding all this evidence with little work.
Speaker 1: So my attorneys did very little. One was running from
Speaker 1: mayor of a little town at the time and couldn't
Speaker 1: be bothered, and the other one just didn't want anything
Speaker 1: to do with me because they didn't believe me from
Speaker 1: day one that I had nothing to do with this,
Speaker 1: because they were the ones that talked me into going
Speaker 1: with the three judge panel because I didn't know no better.
Speaker 1: You have to do very little work as an attorney
Speaker 1: for a three judge panel case. So the trial took
Speaker 1: place on February nine, and the Cuyahoga Court of Common Pleas,
Speaker 1: as you said, in front of a three judge panel.
Speaker 1: The prosecutor was Carmen Marino. Now important to note that
Speaker 1: no murder weapon was ever found in this case, right
Speaker 1: So how the hell do you send a guy much
Speaker 1: less too to death row with no murder weapon and
Speaker 1: no physical evidence. Well, back then, I used to hunt
Speaker 1: and fish, and I had my hunting knives. So when
Speaker 1: they came and illegally entered my house and arrested me,
Speaker 1: they took my knives, and all three of my knives
Speaker 1: tested negative for blood. Yet throughout the whole trial they
Speaker 1: waved them around and called him the murder weapons. So
Speaker 1: they're parading around false evidence. What the hell else was
Speaker 1: presented against you? Most of the time on the stand
Speaker 1: was covered by Espinosa and Paul Stoney. Lewis you know
Speaker 1: when the two real murderers are taking the stand and
Speaker 1: they're backed up by the prosecutor, and then you throw
Speaker 1: in this joke of a corner we had that all
Speaker 1: she ever did was rubber stamp. Whatever the cops said,
Speaker 1: that was their whole prosecution. And Espinosa said he stood
Speaker 1: there and watched why me and Mike Keenan killed Anthony Klan.
Speaker 1: Stoney says, the night that Anthony was killed was the
Speaker 1: night that we were in the bars. A very very
Speaker 1: important problem with this is that he mixed up September September.
Speaker 1: What it was is they wouldn't say dates. All they
Speaker 1: kept saying is on the night when we went to
Speaker 1: the bar, when we were there, when we were all together,
Speaker 1: nobody used a date. And were you elbowing your lawyer
Speaker 1: going hey, hey, hey, that's the wrong You bet. They
Speaker 1: did bring up the idea that the state was painting
Speaker 1: the wrong day because the day that you were at
Speaker 1: the bar was tequila Knight, right, And so tequila Knight
Speaker 1: was Thursday, not Friday. And you even had the proprietor
Speaker 1: of the bar, Stephen Gaines I believe was his name, Yes,
Speaker 1: Stephen Gaines, literally came and took the stand and said
Speaker 1: these men were there on tequila Night Thursday, not Friday.
Speaker 1: So this discrepancy was actually clearly pointed out. And I mean,
Speaker 1: do you even have any theory whatsoever about how this
Speaker 1: three junge panel could have been so mind and gotten
Speaker 1: this so totally wrong. You know, you've got anybody that
Speaker 1: might have been put on the stand for Joe's case
Speaker 1: were not available at the time of the trial to
Speaker 1: establish that alibi for Joe, or to even be there
Speaker 1: is a character witness, And so you put that up
Speaker 1: against Eddie Espinoza as suspect as he may be, but
Speaker 1: he's claiming to be an eyewitness to this, and it
Speaker 1: literally becomes you know, where's the greater weight of the
Speaker 1: evidence of the credibility? And you know, the three judge panel,
Speaker 1: who were all former prosecutors, have that prosecutorial bent and
Speaker 1: they're going to lean that way to begin with. See,
Speaker 1: the one thing that I made my attorneys do is
Speaker 1: let me testify. And I figured if I could get
Speaker 1: up there and tell the truth, the judges would be like,
Speaker 1: come on this, this case is just wrong, you know,
Speaker 1: and release me. So my attorneys threw me up there cold.
Speaker 1: They didn't give me any preparation. They didn't have checked
Speaker 1: when the prosecutor just tore me to pieces. They kept
Speaker 1: telling me online, I'm just saying all this to save
Speaker 1: my life. But the sad part is they had evidence
Speaker 1: that proved that everything I said was true, and they
Speaker 1: hid it from me. In a blink of an eye,
Speaker 1: my trial is over with. I have the shortest that
Speaker 1: penalty trial in the state of Ohio history, two and
Speaker 1: three quarter days from let's start until you die. You know,
Speaker 1: you hear that they're going to pass thirty thousand bolts
Speaker 1: through your body until you are dead for something I
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with. So I was ordained in
Speaker 1: and I was reading a cat like newsweek called National
Speaker 1: Catholic Reporter, and in that there was a brother Patrick
Speaker 1: Byrd from Texas who had his own death Row penpel ministry,
Speaker 1: and he was looking for people to join him in
Speaker 1: writing to death row inmates. I eventually started writing to many, many,
Speaker 1: many of the inmates and became pen pals with them,
Speaker 1: including Joe and in December Dorothy da Ambrosio, Joe's mother
Speaker 1: passed away here in Cleveland. I found out about it
Speaker 1: through the obituaries in the newspaper, and so on Joe's
Speaker 1: behalf I went to the funeral home to pay my respects,
Speaker 1: and then the next day I actually went to the
Speaker 1: church to con celebrate his mother's funeral mass. And then
Speaker 1: the next time I was down on death Row, I
Speaker 1: asked the corrections officers if I could have just a
Speaker 1: few minutes of Joe's time to express my condolences and
Speaker 1: paint a picture of his mother's funeral for him. At
Speaker 1: this point I was writing everybody, every law school, every
Speaker 1: journalism school, all the news media. I was writing everybody
Speaker 1: trying to get somebody to help me. But now I
Speaker 1: have a human being in my cell and he can't
Speaker 1: run away because he's locked in there with me. So
Speaker 1: he's sitting there trying to explain my mother's funeral to me,
Speaker 1: and I'm thanking him profusely, but I'm like, but you
Speaker 1: don't understand. You have to help me. I didn't do
Speaker 1: what they said I did, and he's like, and I
Speaker 1: don't know. He would go back to talking about my
Speaker 1: mom's funeral, and then I would thank him again, you know,
Speaker 1: and be like, you know, I appreciate and everything, but
Speaker 1: you don't understand. They're trying to put me where she's at.
Speaker 1: They're trying to murder me for something I had nothing
Speaker 1: to do. And that's when the attorney of him kicked in,
Speaker 1: because he's not only a priest, he's an attorney and
Speaker 1: a registered nerve and he had to be all three
Speaker 1: things to do what he did for me. And so
Speaker 1: I took the trial transcript home and I read it
Speaker 1: from cover to cover the first night, and I knew
Speaker 1: that there was at least something wrong because I was
Speaker 1: reading the coroner's testimony and she was describing Anthony Klan's wounds. Now,
Speaker 1: Anthony Clan was sliced ear to ear and then stabbed
Speaker 1: three times in the chest. He was almost decapitated. And
Speaker 1: so she testifies that after these massive holes are created
Speaker 1: in the trachea, that, based on Eddie Espinoza's testimony, Anthony
Speaker 1: is running away from his perpetrators, literally screaming for his life.
Speaker 1: Don't kill me, don't kill me, Please, don't kill me. Now,
Speaker 1: you don't have to be a nurse to understand that
Speaker 1: when your airway is compromised, especially as severely as his was,
Speaker 1: that you're not whispering, let alone screaming any thing. And
Speaker 1: not only that, but they are testified that he had
Speaker 1: six fifty milli liters of blood in his chest cavity.
Speaker 1: And if you saw these wounds, you would know without
Speaker 1: question that he wasn't running at all, that he would
Speaker 1: never have been able to speak, and he would have
Speaker 1: been drowning in his own secretions. And I'm like, somebody
Speaker 1: got away with this testimony, either lying or the cross
Speaker 1: examination just was totally non existent or totally ineffective. And
Speaker 1: I began to ask myself what else could be wrong
Speaker 1: in this case? Tell us about what you found and
Speaker 1: how it led to where we are today. So I
Speaker 1: went down to the records room of the Cuyahoga County
Speaker 1: Justice Center and I started pulling the micro fish files
Speaker 1: of all the major names in this case. And then,
Speaker 1: just as a fluke, I decided to pull Anthony Klan's
Speaker 1: microfish file and came across a notation from a police
Speaker 1: report that Anthony had witnessed a rape in May. And
Speaker 1: then you find out that the rapist is one Paul
Speaker 1: Stoney Lewis. And then in the records they gave the
Speaker 1: name of the rape victim, a guy by the name
Speaker 1: of Christopher Longenecker. Christopher is blind and suffers from cerebral policy,
Speaker 1: but he can read in just a very small sliver.
Speaker 1: And so Christopher Longenecker gets this notice that he needs
Speaker 1: to appear in court for a pre trial, and and
Speaker 1: he does. He shows up at the courthouse on August eleventh,
Speaker 1: but he had misread it. He was supposed to be
Speaker 1: there on August one. And because the only witness didn't
Speaker 1: show up, they released Paul Stoney Lewis, who had been
Speaker 1: in jail down there since May. And now you've got
Speaker 1: a previous rapist just out on his own recognizance, and
Speaker 1: there's one guy out there that can testify him and
Speaker 1: put him in back in jail for a long, long,
Speaker 1: long long time, and that's Anthony Clinton. And all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, Anthony Clan ends up dead and don't creek.
Speaker 1: And the guy that points his finger to Joe is
Speaker 1: Paul Stoney. Lewis the guy who has the most to
Speaker 1: do to save his neck. So that rape was the
Speaker 1: seminal thing that got us back into federal court. And
Speaker 1: Judge Kathleen O'Malley of the District Court here in Cuyahoga County,
Speaker 1: the sixth District Tuggle Court, gave us sweeping discovery which
Speaker 1: literally said we had full access to the police files,
Speaker 1: the corners files, the prosecutors files. Almost nothing could be
Speaker 1: withheld from us. So in July two thousand four and
Speaker 1: an evidentially hearing, they presented the following evidence, none of
Speaker 1: which was given to the defense before Joe's initial trial.
Speaker 1: So two former Cleveland police detectives testified that because no
Speaker 1: grass or weeds were disturbed in the area where Clan's
Speaker 1: body had been found, he believed he was killed elsewhere
Speaker 1: dumped in the creek. Klan's ex roommate Chris Longenecker testified
Speaker 1: that Lewis had raped him shortly before Klan was killed.
Speaker 1: Longnecker said that after hearing of plans murder, Longenecker called
Speaker 1: the police to say that he believed Klan was killed
Speaker 1: because he was likely aware of the rape. The records
Speaker 1: showing that at one time police had had an audio
Speaker 1: recording of a statement from a man named Angelo Cremini,
Speaker 1: who also implicated others in the murder. At the same
Speaker 1: July two thousand and four hearing, Joe's trial lawyer lawyer
Speaker 1: testified that during a pre trial conference with Marino, he
Speaker 1: was not allowed to see any police reports. He was
Speaker 1: allowed to take notes as Marina read selected portions. Huh yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I wonder which ones they selected, and then the alibi
Speaker 1: finally right, the alibi. Other witnesses now testified that on
Speaker 1: the night of September, Joe was not a Cocoa Joe's,
Speaker 1: but rather it was hosting a party at his own
Speaker 1: apartment because he was being evicted. One witness, who was
Speaker 1: pregnant and therefore not drinking, recalled that Joe had passed
Speaker 1: out on his bed. It's really hard. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I've never stabbed anyone, but I don't think I could
Speaker 1: do it while it was passed out, even if I
Speaker 1: wanted to. So there was another piece of evidence that
Speaker 1: came to light for us was we have a witnessed
Speaker 1: by the name of Linda de Blasio, who was a
Speaker 1: barmaid at Coconut Joe's, who testified that Anthony Clan came
Speaker 1: to her bar on Friday night. This would have been
Speaker 1: now twenty four hours after the state said that he
Speaker 1: was dead, and she served Anthony Clan alcohol, served him
Speaker 1: and realized that he was not in any kind of
Speaker 1: shape to get home on his own, so literally gave
Speaker 1: him money for a cab so that he could get home.
Speaker 1: So finally, on March six, Judge O'Malley granted the writ
Speaker 1: because of the failure to turn over exculpatory evidence, that
Speaker 1: conviction was vacated and the new trial was ordered. The U. S.
Speaker 1: Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the ruling,
Speaker 1: saying that the withheld evidence would have quote substantially increased
Speaker 1: reasonable jurors doubt of the Ambrose was guilt and quote.
Speaker 1: The court said the evidence not only contradicted or weakened
Speaker 1: Esponos's testimony, and he was of course the only eyewitness
Speaker 1: for the prosecution, but also demonstrated a motive for Louis
Speaker 1: to kill Klan. And of course the state fought to
Speaker 1: retry you despite the evidence of your innocence that they've
Speaker 1: been withholding since the investigation, and your team sought to
Speaker 1: bar the prosecution from retrying you. And then something weird happens.
Speaker 1: One day before O'Malley ruled not to bar retrial, Edward Espinoza,
Speaker 1: who had been released after serving twelve years, was found
Speaker 1: dead in a Chicago suburb. Now who knows if this
Speaker 1: is a coincidence or not, but anyway, your team renewed
Speaker 1: their motion to borrow retrial, arguing that they would not
Speaker 1: be able to cross examine the only eyewitness against Joel
Speaker 1: with all the newly discovered evidence. The motion was granted,
Speaker 1: and after the state's appeal was ultimately denied, your nightmare
Speaker 1: was finally over. Can you tell us about your first
Speaker 1: taste of freedom. Well, the first time I was actually out,
Speaker 1: I was out on bond, and so that was like
Speaker 1: the first time that I was actually out in fresh
Speaker 1: air without bars around me. I was on that for
Speaker 1: exactly one year before Judge Sentnenberg dismissed the case and
Speaker 1: refused to allow him to retry me. But Joe, where
Speaker 1: was the first place your lawyers took you on the
Speaker 1: day that you were freed? They took me across the
Speaker 1: street from the Justice Center to a bar to have
Speaker 1: a drink. And who was having a fit? You were
Speaker 1: having a because He's like, really, he was in this
Speaker 1: because he was at bars, and now you're going to
Speaker 1: take him to a bar and give him the alcohol.
Speaker 1: And they were like, yes, yes, we are give him
Speaker 1: whatever you want at that point, exactly right, And Jesus,
Speaker 1: I feel like I need a drink after hearing your story.
Speaker 1: There's a part that you guys don't know and never
Speaker 1: made it into the trial records or trial transcripts, But
Speaker 1: it's the smoking gun, and the smoking gun is Teresa Fernaci.
Speaker 1: So Teresa Ferronaci is a woman who lived in Little
Speaker 1: Italy at the time of the murder. Teresa Fernaci knows
Speaker 1: dates and times because she anchors everything that she does
Speaker 1: around her Nieces wedding. So on Friday night, Teresa Fernaci
Speaker 1: is at her Nieces wedding rehearsal and dinner, comes home
Speaker 1: on Friday night early Saturday morning, where she hears a
Speaker 1: violent altercation taking place in the home next to her.
Speaker 1: This is little Italy. They are seth rated by just
Speaker 1: little alleyways that maybe one or two people side by
Speaker 1: side can walk through. And she hears this violent altercation
Speaker 1: taking place and calls the police, and the police logs
Speaker 1: still in existence, indicate that the police responded to her call,
Speaker 1: but when they arrived everything's calm, and so rather than investigate,
Speaker 1: the police just say, well, whatever it is, it's over
Speaker 1: with now. Come Saturday morning and Teresa Fernaci is going
Speaker 1: to her niece's wedding and she's being picked up and
Speaker 1: as she walks out of the house, she glances at
Speaker 1: the street next to her, where Mike Keenan's truck is parked,
Speaker 1: because Eddie Spinoza was Mike Keenan's foreman for his Sunshine
Speaker 1: Landscaping company, and so Eddie Espinoza often borrowed Mike Keenan's
Speaker 1: truck for his own personal use with Mike Keenan's permission,
Speaker 1: And Anthony Klan is in the bed of the truck
Speaker 1: and she calls out to Anthony Klan and he does
Speaker 1: not respond. She thinks that he's sleeping off a drunk
Speaker 1: and so she calls out to Anthony Klan again with
Speaker 1: no response, and she says, you know, because the U. S.
Speaker 1: Marshals interviewed her in Joe's retrial proceedings, that she wishes
Speaker 1: she had gone over to literally check on him because
Speaker 1: she would have found out that he was dead in
Speaker 1: the bed of that truck on Saturday. But she was
Speaker 1: going to be late if she didn't. So she gets
Speaker 1: in the car and she goes off to the wedding
Speaker 1: and there's Anthony Klan in the bed of that truck.
Speaker 1: And the U. S. Marshals say to her, so you
Speaker 1: think you saw Anthony Klan in the bed of that truck,
Speaker 1: And she says, you're not listening to me. She said,
Speaker 1: I know I saw Anthony Klan in the bed of
Speaker 1: that truck and was Saturday as she was going to
Speaker 1: her niece's wedding. But because we never got to a retrial,
Speaker 1: that's not out there. Oh but wait, wait, you you
Speaker 1: didn't near the best part. Guess who losing the apartment
Speaker 1: next to her where the commotion was taking place. Tell me,
Speaker 1: Paul Stoney Lewis saw that on that very same night,
Speaker 1: Friday night to Saturday morning, there is an affidavit from
Speaker 1: a married couple that lived in that same complex. This
Speaker 1: man and woman swore out in affidavit that that very
Speaker 1: same night they heard someone say, we need to dump
Speaker 1: the body in the basement, and so we believe that
Speaker 1: is where Anthony Klan was murdered. We believe he was
Speaker 1: murdered by Paul Lewis and Eddie Spinoza in concert with
Speaker 1: each other. We believe that he was later taken from
Speaker 1: that basement, thrown in the bed of that truck, and
Speaker 1: dropped off the Dones Creek sometimes Saturday morning early afternoon. Joe,
Speaker 1: have you ever received any compensation? We struck a deal
Speaker 1: with the state of Ohio to get me compensation nowhere
Speaker 1: near anything I should have gotten, and I could have
Speaker 1: gotten if I continued to fight it in the courts,
Speaker 1: but I'm getting too old. I needed something to retire on.
Speaker 1: Well listen, I wish you nothing but the best of everything.
Speaker 1: Thank you, and of course, um now we turn to
Speaker 1: our closing of our show, which is appropriately called closing arguments.
Speaker 1: First of all, I thank you once again. I really
Speaker 1: appreciate you being on the podcast today and now closing
Speaker 1: arguments works like this. I turned off my microphone, kicked
Speaker 1: back in my chair and just listen. You get to
Speaker 1: say whatever do you want. Father, With all due respect,
Speaker 1: we're going to save the best for last. The star
Speaker 1: of our show courses Joe. But it's so great to
Speaker 1: have you here. And if you wouldn't mind going first,
Speaker 1: Father and Neil, So I would just say, when it
Speaker 1: comes to the matter of sentencing people to death, to
Speaker 1: be very very very careful. People's lives are at stake here.
Speaker 1: And you know, a lot of people tell me I'm
Speaker 1: the liberal priest that believes everything that the death row
Speaker 1: inmate says, and that is not the truth. And Joe
Speaker 1: would be the first one to tell you that. I
Speaker 1: get letters from around the country and sometimes around the world,
Speaker 1: and many of them from guys right here on Ohio's
Speaker 1: death row saying you need to do for me what
Speaker 1: you did for Joe, and I say to them, I
Speaker 1: didn't do anything for Joe. The evidence freed Joe and
Speaker 1: we just needed to find it and we just needed
Speaker 1: somebody to present it. People think he got away with
Speaker 1: murder on a technicality, and that is not the case.
Speaker 1: This went through district court, federal court, Supreme Court with
Speaker 1: some of the finest jurists in the country, and literally
Speaker 1: the evidence freed him. So don't take things at face value,
Speaker 1: go deep and look, and then ask yourself some serious questions.
Speaker 1: And one of those questions for me would be this,
Speaker 1: do we really want to give our government the power
Speaker 1: and the authority to take someone's life from them when
Speaker 1: the system is so screwed up? Joe, The thing that
Speaker 1: people have to understand is that they're murdering in your name.
Speaker 1: You're paying to have this done. To have the death
Speaker 1: penalty is so ludicrous. Places like Russia abolish their death penalty,
Speaker 1: and we still hang onto it because all it is
Speaker 1: is revenge, and our justice system should not be about revenge.
Speaker 1: It's not supposed to be. So if you're even think
Speaker 1: for a second that the system is so perfect that
Speaker 1: you're willing to bet somebody's life and it could be
Speaker 1: your own, then don't do anything about it. Because, like
Speaker 1: we started out saying, if this could happen to me,
Speaker 1: this could happen to you very easily. But I think
Speaker 1: you need to stand up right now. In Ohio, we
Speaker 1: have two bills that are trying to get the death
Speaker 1: penalty abolished in Ohio, and this is the time to
Speaker 1: do it. People need to stand up and say that
Speaker 1: you don't kill in my name and to stop this
Speaker 1: stupidity that's going on with the death penalty. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom. Please support
Speaker 1: your local innocence organizations and go to the links in
Speaker 1: our bio now to see how you can help. I'd
Speaker 1: like to thank our amazing production team Connor Hall, Justin Golden,
Speaker 1: Jeff Clyburne and Kevin Wardis. The music on this show,
Speaker 1: as always, is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction
Speaker 1: and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction with
Speaker 1: Jason Flam is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts
Speaker 1: and association with Signal Company Number one