Speaker 1: In November nineteen eighty seven, Rafael Martinez was lucky to
Speaker 1: survive a gunshot wound to the head, but it changed
Speaker 1: the course of his life. A police report said that
Speaker 1: the shooter's nickname was Chino, and according to some, Rafael
Speaker 1: lay in wait for three years before exacting his revenge. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the crack epidemic was raging, and in response, Congress decided
Speaker 1: to subsidize the misguided policy failure known as the War
Speaker 1: on Drugs in New York. This meant increased funding to
Speaker 1: support investigations like the one that honed in on drug
Speaker 1: activity in Raphael's old apartment building in Upper Manhattan, even
Speaker 1: though he had moved to Queens. According to the street
Speaker 1: level dealers, Rafael controlled the local drug market, so the
Speaker 1: police relied on these smaller fish to catch someone who
Speaker 1: was allegedly a bigger one, tying in a few violent
Speaker 1: offenses to boot, including the murder of a man nicknamed Chino.
Speaker 1: But this is wrongful conviction. Wrongful conviction has always given
Speaker 1: voice to innocent people in prison. Now we're expanding that
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. Today's case. I was tempted
Speaker 1: to call it the dead guy is still alive. I
Speaker 1: know that sounds crazy, but the murder victim is alive
Speaker 1: and well. Our guest today Raphael Martinez. He was charged
Speaker 1: in connection to three violent incidents as well as a
Speaker 1: drug trafficking conspiracy, and so many people testified to support
Speaker 1: this narrative that made Raphael into a murderous drug kingpin,
Speaker 1: like something out of a movie that you would have
Speaker 1: thought there must have been something to it. But when
Speaker 1: you take a closer look at who is testifying and
Speaker 1: why the case falls apart, and how they went about
Speaker 1: constructing the case against him, that's one of the crimes
Speaker 1: we're covering. So we're going to go over that first
Speaker 1: before we get to all of the other absolutely insane details.
Speaker 1: And to help us do that, let's welcome back Raphael's attorney,
Speaker 1: the one and only Justin Bonus.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me again.
Speaker 1: And calling in from Green Haven Penitentiary in New York State.
Speaker 1: Is the man himself, Raphael Martinez. Raphael, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3: Thank you sir.
Speaker 1: Yeah, now, Raffie, are you from the Dominican republicly from
Speaker 1: New York.
Speaker 3: I was born in Manhattan in Harley. Then I grew
Speaker 3: up in the Dominican Republic. Then when I was eighteen,
Speaker 3: I told my parents listen, I would like to go
Speaker 3: back to the United States and finish my education in
Speaker 3: electric engineering. They sent me back to New York in
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty five, had a job in a factory. I
Speaker 3: came to live with my cousin in Washington High one
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty seventh Street. That is a big Dominican community.
Speaker 3: Everybody knew we show the We used to hang out
Speaker 3: in from the building. That was my social life right there.
Speaker 3: But there was a lot of publicy and the drug
Speaker 3: was a major problem. That was the track okay epidemic,
Speaker 3: and everybody was affected one when you or not directly
Speaker 3: or indirectly.
Speaker 1: When Raphael was laid off of a factory job and
Speaker 1: struggling to get by, he too got involved, earning five
Speaker 1: for running an errand once it landed him on five
Speaker 1: years probation, and during that stretch of time, the crack
Speaker 1: epidemic had taken hold of at least one segment of
Speaker 1: most American cities in New York that was primarily Upper
Speaker 1: Manhattan and the Bronx, where, if you remember from the
Speaker 1: stories of Pablo Fernandez and Danny Rincone, both of which
Speaker 1: are going to be linked in the episode description, the
Speaker 1: largest and most feared drug organization at that time was
Speaker 1: led by Lenny and Nelson Sepulveda. They called themselves the
Speaker 1: Red Top Crew, but they were known in the media
Speaker 1: as the Wild Cowboys.
Speaker 2: You had the Wild Cowboys that were out there. Everybody,
Speaker 2: at least on the Eastern Seaboard was coming to Washington
Speaker 2: Heights and the Bronx for cocaine. The amount of money
Speaker 2: that was being made and violence, I mean, I believe
Speaker 2: in the thirtieth Precinct, which is only like a square mile,
Speaker 2: I think at one point they had seventy homicides a
Speaker 2: year in a square mile. I mean, that's just outrageous.
Speaker 1: And Raphael was in fact a random victim of violence.
Speaker 1: One night in November nineteen eighty.
Speaker 3: Seven, I was asleep in my apartment in one fifty
Speaker 3: seven hang a straight bullet. He came through the window
Speaker 3: throuck me in the top on my hand. The fire
Speaker 3: depart I mean had to break the waging, so the
Speaker 3: police and Paramerico came take me to the hospital. I
Speaker 3: lost battle of the brain and the battled the school
Speaker 3: right off the.
Speaker 2: Top and RAFFI has a significant limp. He has trouble
Speaker 2: moving the right side of his body. Police reports said
Speaker 2: that a guy named Chino did shoot him in the head. However,
Speaker 2: Chino was one of the most common Dominican nicknames.
Speaker 1: Which left police with little to go on. Meanwhile, Raphael
Speaker 1: stayed in the hospital until January nineteen eighty eight. He
Speaker 1: had no job, no savings. He lost his apartment on
Speaker 1: West one hundred and fifty seventh Street, so he ended
Speaker 1: up on public assistance while he continued to pursue his degree.
Speaker 3: When I got out of the hospital in nineteen eighty eight,
Speaker 3: I went to leave for my girlfriend and then I
Speaker 3: moved to Wings around nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1: Now, during this time, he and his girlfriend Merlin, got married.
Speaker 1: He worked as a mechanic and started a family, but
Speaker 1: he still kept in touch with the community on West
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty seventh Street. Meanwhile, the crack epidemic
Speaker 1: continued to rage on, and a response, Congress passed the
Speaker 1: Anti Drug Abuse Act in nineteen eighty eight, which funded
Speaker 1: high intensity Drug Trafficking Area task Forces throughout the country.
Speaker 1: Now in New York that meant funding for a coordinated
Speaker 1: effort among detectives and das from all five boroughs on
Speaker 1: drug related cases, and in Washington Heights, NYPD detective James
Speaker 1: Gilmour was empowered to lead a two year investigation starting
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty nine, specifically focusing on drug activity at
Speaker 1: two of Raffi's old apartment buildings, five point fifty and
Speaker 1: six fourteen West one hundred and fifty seven Street.
Speaker 3: They took forty two hours of video surveillance. I only
Speaker 3: appeal in Juang videos. In that video, I'm not doing
Speaker 3: anything in Lilio nothing.
Speaker 1: They also took a ton of photos, also nothing. However,
Speaker 1: Gilmour ran several sting operations between July twenty ninth and
Speaker 1: October twelfth, nineteen ninety one, in which some of the
Speaker 1: people from one hundred and fifty seventh Street who turned
Speaker 1: into cooperators in this case, sold cocaine and firearms to
Speaker 1: undercover agents In the last operation, they arrested a young
Speaker 1: woman from that area named Ira Venus, who was about
Speaker 1: to hop on a flight to Switzerland with several kilos
Speaker 1: of cocaine. Needless to say, she was also ready to cooperate,
Speaker 1: as were those who were scooped up in a mass
Speaker 1: arrest on October twenty second, nineteen ninety one, including two
Speaker 1: of Raffi's brothers, Danny and Julian.
Speaker 2: Raffi has like four brothers, some of them were selling drugs.
Speaker 2: The amount of drugs that they were selling was highly debatable.
Speaker 1: They also picked up Raffi's uncle, Isidoro Medina de Leon,
Speaker 1: whose involvement was even more debatable. But what was different
Speaker 1: about this wholesale arrest was that they made another arrest
Speaker 1: in a different jurisdiction.
Speaker 3: I was arrested getting out of my Blaso residents that
Speaker 3: was in Queens. That was me, Cisel Martine and Lorenzo Martinez.
Speaker 3: They were not droll, whipm money, anything illegal on the call.
Speaker 1: Involvement with anything illegal can make you vulnerable to police coercion,
Speaker 1: which made Raffi's brothers, Danny and Julian, as well as
Speaker 1: others from West one hundred and fifty seventh Street well,
Speaker 1: very vulnerable, including Edwin Mottos, Jordan Pratt, Daniel Cologne, Iravenas,
Speaker 1: Pedro Santiago, Andre Gomez, Roberto Medina, and Manuel Picoon.
Speaker 3: They will have west this withdrawers, we whipons. After they
Speaker 3: gave some of those guys to grow up with a
Speaker 3: with sing they came up with this conspiracy indidates for everybody.
Speaker 1: Gilmore and his team had devised a narrative for any
Speaker 1: willing cooperator to support that. While on five years probation,
Speaker 1: partially disabled, raising a family and living on public assistance
Speaker 1: in Queens, Raphael somehow built a multimillion dollar crack empire
Speaker 1: on West one hundred and fifty seventh Street, rivaling the
Speaker 1: Red Top Crew, and they were called the Jerry Curl Gang.
Speaker 1: Now you might be asking why Rafi, and we'll get
Speaker 1: to that, but first we'll finish covering how.
Speaker 2: There was a lot of surveillance. Okay, with regard to
Speaker 2: the drugs, there's plenty of evidence against the cooperators, but
Speaker 2: there's not so much evidence against Raffi and Lorenzo. With Raffi,
Speaker 2: there's actually a lack of evidence. Even with regard to.
Speaker 3: The drugs, James testifying cold Dah he never saw me
Speaker 3: sending draw or engaging byline.
Speaker 2: And they did not call themselves the Jerry Curl gang.
Speaker 2: That's something that the media came up with before.
Speaker 3: Into the Minigam community has vijity guild at that time
Speaker 3: b when they arrested every divided, they said everybody had
Speaker 3: the same kill style, all that vigitikill game, and they
Speaker 3: admitted in Gold that they made that up.
Speaker 1: The Jerry Curl moniker began and ended with law enforcement,
Speaker 1: and it was used to connect three seemingly unrelated violent
Speaker 1: incidents to drug activity on West one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: seventh Street, and it's alleged overseers Raphael and his co
Speaker 1: defendants Lorenzo and Caesar Martinez. His uncle Isidora Medina de Leon,
Speaker 1: as well as a man named Roberto Gonzalez. The first
Speaker 1: incident was the August twenty ninth, nineteen ninety attempted murder
Speaker 1: of Rafael Espinal on Park Terrace and two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifteenth Street.
Speaker 2: With regard to the attempted murder of Raphael Espinal, there
Speaker 2: was barely any investigation. He named someone else, Espinol. He
Speaker 2: tells the police Rafael Molina is the one that shot me.
Speaker 1: Yet co operators Edwin Mottos and Pedro Santiago alleged that
Speaker 1: Raphael Martinez had ordered his uncle Isidoro to kill Espinal
Speaker 1: for robbing his brother Dandy. Then Matos, Santiago and Raffei's
Speaker 1: brother Julian also testified about a car that got shot
Speaker 1: up on October twenty ninth, nineteen ninety in the Bronx
Speaker 1: at East one hundred and sixty seven Street in College Avenue.
Speaker 1: The deceased was identified as Jose Jimenez, whose nickname was
Speaker 1: thought to be Chino. The surviving victim was Juan Urena
Speaker 1: said the shooter was a man named Franklin. They can
Speaker 1: the area, documented the crime scene, but the case went
Speaker 1: cold for about six months. Decades later, an undisclosed police
Speaker 1: report surface in which a confidential informant appears to have
Speaker 1: been key in shifting Gilmore's investigation to focus on Rafael Martinez.
Speaker 3: The confidential informant pulled the homicide investigator in April nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety one, allegedly, Joseji Mine was the one who shot
Speaker 3: me and therefore I used to have a debute with
Speaker 3: Jose Jimenez As.
Speaker 1: A result, it appears that Raphael's nineteen eighty seven stray
Speaker 1: ball it became the catalyst, placing him at the center
Speaker 1: of Gilmore's drug investigation.
Speaker 2: So the theme here is retribution. That Raffi waits on
Speaker 2: Jose Amnez for close to three years, somehow gets information
Speaker 2: that Jose Amenez is in the Bronx somewhere and Raffi
Speaker 2: Lorenzo and is a door of Medina pull up next
Speaker 2: to Jose, Jimenez and Juan Durana in a car and Raffi,
Speaker 2: who's in the passenger seat, and Lorenzo, who was in
Speaker 2: the back passenger seat, fire into the car and Jose
Speaker 2: and Juan Yaurina got shot.
Speaker 1: Investigators initially tried to get Raffie's brother Danny to testify
Speaker 1: to this version of events.
Speaker 3: People secus wanted him to testify down he went, weaws,
Speaker 3: you say no, and he got bout only for conspiracy.
Speaker 1: To so Danny took his lumps rather than passing the buck.
Speaker 1: Caesar Martinez also faced a similar challenge and chose to
Speaker 1: take his chances at trial as a co defendant. But
Speaker 1: Ralphie's brother Julian became the source of this version of
Speaker 1: events that is simply not supported by the undisputed backs
Speaker 1: of the crime. At least one of the fatal shots
Speaker 1: had a downward trajectory. Now, how would that be possible
Speaker 1: with a seated shooter in a car next to the victims.
Speaker 2: Forensically, that's not possible. The shell casings were found in
Speaker 2: the front of the car. There is medical evidence that
Speaker 2: the shooting was conducted by somebody who was standing, not s.
Speaker 2: There's at least one eye witness account that basically describes
Speaker 2: a man named Franklin Quavis walked in front of the
Speaker 2: car and fired into the car. There's a DD five
Speaker 2: where wandering actually says Franklin from one hundred and seventy
Speaker 2: second in Autobond, which is where Franklin Quavis was from
Speaker 2: in Washington Heights, is the one that fired into the car.
Speaker 1: Yet the police ignored the forensics, ballistics, and again the
Speaker 1: surviving victim for their team of cooperators and their theory.
Speaker 1: And it appears this pattern continued with the murder of
Speaker 1: Jose Reis the building super at six fourteen West one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty seventh Street. According to testimony from Julian Martinez,
Speaker 1: Raphael believed Rees was an informant and put a thirty
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars bounty on his head. Then, around two
Speaker 1: thirty pm on May twenty third, nineteen ninety one, near
Speaker 1: Broadway on one hundred and fifty ninth Street, Jose Reis
Speaker 1: was shot in the back of the head with a
Speaker 1: forty five Then Pedro Santiago showed up for the third
Speaker 1: time with alleged information.
Speaker 2: The interesting thing about Pedro Santiago, who was definitely selling
Speaker 2: a lot of drugs, This individual is caught up in
Speaker 2: a whole different case where he specifically says in that
Speaker 2: other case that he barely knew the Martinez brothers. Then
Speaker 2: he comes in in Raffi and Lorenzo's case and he
Speaker 2: says that by September of nineteen eighty nine, he began
Speaker 2: to work daily with Raffi and Lorenzo and he became
Speaker 2: a lieutenant in their crew. In the other case, he
Speaker 2: said he didn't meet him until midway through nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 1: So which one was it was? Santiago, a lieutenant in
Speaker 1: an alleged drug organization, privuted information about the three separate
Speaker 1: murders between August nineteen ninety and May of ninety one,
Speaker 1: or did he only meet the Martinez brothers after these
Speaker 1: incidents had already taken place.
Speaker 2: This is what I'm saying. I don't know what's true
Speaker 2: in this case. With regard to the witnesses that the
Speaker 2: state puts on.
Speaker 1: Santiago claimed to have seen Lorenzo Martinez meet with his
Speaker 1: co defendant Roberto Gonzalez, then heard the gunshots from about
Speaker 1: a quarter of a mile away.
Speaker 2: I think Pedro Santiago gets a one to three and
Speaker 2: he's cut loose right.
Speaker 1: Away, just like all the other cooperators in this case,
Speaker 1: including David Cologne, who also testified about the rays murder.
Speaker 1: Like Santiago, Cologne claimed that he heard the gunshots, then
Speaker 1: later saw Gonzalez with a gun. Then Cologne claimed that
Speaker 1: he later borrowed a forty five from Gonzalez, then lost
Speaker 1: it when he led it to an unidentified person. How convenient. Then,
Speaker 1: Cologne alleged to Gonzalez wasn't angry since it rid him
Speaker 1: of an alleged murder weapon. Another unverifiable account. The only
Speaker 1: thing we know for sure about the Ray's murder was
Speaker 1: the date, time, place, and caliber of bullet. Because the
Speaker 1: witnesses are so totally unreliable, which is true across this
Speaker 1: entire prosecution.
Speaker 2: Essentially, the cooperators get arrested based upon the investigation into
Speaker 2: the drug dealing, and then all of a sudden, Raffi
Speaker 2: becomes this boss and the murders and the attempted murders
Speaker 2: are what was used to make him look like this animal.
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Speaker 3: There is no physical evident connecting me to anything, but
Speaker 3: by the testimony, win is it? They say, Oh, whatever
Speaker 3: I got arrested with was because Rafael Martine told me
Speaker 3: to do it. Whatever they saw to an Ondacola, they
Speaker 3: charged me to constructing, selling and constructing assessing that growth.
Speaker 3: They only had to connect my mind. They only had
Speaker 3: to say, oh, Raffia was the boss that says that
Speaker 3: was more than enough for them to find me busy.
Speaker 1: Raphael always charged with conspiracy along with various drug and
Speaker 1: fire arm possession and sales charges, as well as the
Speaker 1: attempted murder of Raphael Espinal and the murders of Jose
Speaker 1: Reis and Jose Jimenez. An assistant Da Fernando Camacho tried
Speaker 1: Raphael and his four co defendants for over four months
Speaker 1: in front of the notorious hanging judge Leslie Krockersnider.
Speaker 2: The thing about Leslie Krockersnider just taking it back historically.
Speaker 2: Sometime in the mid eighties, the Manhattan Die's Office created
Speaker 2: this homicide Investigative Unit and a lot of times from
Speaker 2: what I've gathered is they actually would do search warrants
Speaker 2: and feed those search warrants to Leslie Crocker Snider. She
Speaker 2: was somebody who they knew that they could trust in
Speaker 2: handling high profile cases inappropriately.
Speaker 1: By the way, to that point, Richard Giampa, Raphael's attorney,
Speaker 1: found and raised the DD five containing Juan Urina's identification
Speaker 1: of Franklin from one hundred and seventy second Street in
Speaker 1: Audubon as his and Jose Jimenez's shooter.
Speaker 2: But that piece of evidence was suppressed by Leslie Krocker Snyder.
Speaker 2: She told the defense attorneys at trial that, well, if
Speaker 2: they don't know Franklin's last name, then it's not credible
Speaker 2: evidence that Franklin committed this shooting.
Speaker 1: Then it appears she was aware of hidden deals for cooperators.
Speaker 2: The main witnesses all testified that they received certain deals
Speaker 2: free to life, and the second that they testified, they
Speaker 2: were immediately let loose. We have transcripts which shows that
Speaker 2: Leslie Krockersnyder knew what was going on and they were
Speaker 2: given time served, which is vastly different than a three
Speaker 2: to life sentence.
Speaker 1: According to an affidavit from Raphael's ex wife, Marilyn Martinez.
Speaker 1: She recorded Julian Martinez over the phone. When she asked
Speaker 1: why he was lying about his own brother. Julian described
Speaker 1: the coercion and threats being used against him and other cooperators.
Speaker 1: She then described how she sat in court while Judge
Speaker 1: Crocker Snyder and Ada Camacho heard the recording, at the
Speaker 1: end of which Krockersnyder threatened to charge whoever had made
Speaker 1: this illegal recording. Never mind the fact that New York
Speaker 1: is a one party consent state, so that sure seems
Speaker 1: like selective outrage.
Speaker 2: And then you have the fact that Julia Martinez has
Speaker 2: said that the prosecutor actually would bring him into the
Speaker 2: District Attorney's office, that he was baited with food, drugs,
Speaker 2: and he was allowed to have sex with women and
Speaker 2: including his girlfriend.
Speaker 1: It also comes to light many years later that Camacho
Speaker 1: had also promised many of the cooperators safety from deportation.
Speaker 2: A lot of these witnesses weren't here legally. Nobody knew
Speaker 2: that they received benefits which entailed keeping them in the country.
Speaker 2: This is just one thing after another.
Speaker 1: So it appears that all of the cooperators were receiving
Speaker 1: the carrot and the stick importantly out of view from
Speaker 1: the jury.
Speaker 2: Even Rafael Espinol and Juan Urina had convictions that they
Speaker 2: were looking at I mean Janurina, who's in the car
Speaker 2: with him and is so he'd be an eyewitness. He
Speaker 2: does not identify Rafael Lorenzo or isidor Medina. By the way, however,
Speaker 2: he testifies with the benefit of a lawyer because he's
Speaker 2: worried about his drug arrest in Connecticut that he ends
Speaker 2: up getting probation for Espinol testified with a lawyer and
Speaker 2: he had charges.
Speaker 1: Pay And as we mentioned, that's been all initially named
Speaker 1: Raphael Marina as the shooter, but at trial they somehow
Speaker 1: got him to morph Marina into Martinez. So the deck
Speaker 1: was clearly stat starting with Camacho's opening statement that laid
Speaker 1: out totally unfounded theory of Raphael's nineteen eighty seven gunshot wound.
Speaker 3: Camacho, he said it Josehi Ma name used to be
Speaker 3: one on my local. He used to be one of
Speaker 3: my friends, and he went to be apartment and he
Speaker 3: shocked me in the back of my head and a
Speaker 3: store from me fifty thousand dollars and three kilo cocaine. Remember,
Speaker 3: at that time, in nineteen eighty seven, I was only
Speaker 3: twenty years old. My apartment was payed by Wlfarere, and
Speaker 3: I had never been shocked in the back of my head.
Speaker 3: The play bullet thrucked me in the top on my head.
Speaker 2: When they were investigating the murder of Jose Jimenez and
Speaker 2: investigated whether he was the one that shot Raffi, the
Speaker 2: NYPD found that there was no substance to that claim.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't discovered for decades, long after Camacho had
Speaker 1: said these things in front of the jury, and that
Speaker 1: really is the original sin of this entire case, this
Speaker 1: unfounded motive. But nevertheless, they continued pursuing Raphael with a
Speaker 1: team of cooperating witnesses who in reality hadn't actually seen anything.
Speaker 2: Pratt, Venus, and Santiago all testified that they heard Rafi
Speaker 2: admit that he killed Jose Jimenez. Julian, though specifically describes
Speaker 2: how the murder happens. They pull up next to Jose
Speaker 2: Jimenez and they opened fire on the side of the car.
Speaker 1: As was mentioned, the shell casings were found in front
Speaker 1: of the car, and one of the fail shots had
Speaker 1: a downward trajectory, suggesting a standing mobile shooter, but none
Speaker 1: of this was pointed out to the jury. In addition,
Speaker 1: the state's medical examiner, doctor Joseph Vereses, gave testimony that
Speaker 1: in part corroborated this erroneous version of events by saying
Speaker 1: that stippling may have been on the victim's face, which
Speaker 1: is a typical accompanying injury when whenever there's a close
Speaker 1: range gunshot.
Speaker 2: If the cars line up with each other and Raffi
Speaker 2: allegedly reaches across, blows the window out, and shoots the
Speaker 2: span point blank in the head, then there would be
Speaker 2: stippling all over the person's face. The medical examiner testified
Speaker 2: that's stippling. It either can go through glass or it
Speaker 2: can follow through the bullet hole and end up all
Speaker 2: over a person's face. And when we had our medical
Speaker 2: examiner review that, sirra weckt he's never heard of that
Speaker 2: in his sixty years of being a medical examiner, that
Speaker 2: stippling could go through glass. It's a physical impossibility. And
Speaker 2: then specifically, the Emmy noted on his autopsy report that
Speaker 2: he couldn't tell whether it was stippling or dicing. Now
Speaker 2: what dicing is is when a window is blown out
Speaker 2: and you get cuts from the window hitting a person's face,
Speaker 2: which would be more likely in this case because there's
Speaker 2: bullet holes in the front of the windshield and then
Speaker 2: the driver's side window is blown out and the glasses
Speaker 2: found all over the place.
Speaker 1: But only this erroneous potential of stippling was mentioned in
Speaker 1: front of the jury, which supported the close range gunshot theory.
Speaker 1: The jury also heard from the state's ballistic expert, Charles Hopkins,
Speaker 1: who testified that a forty five caliber and a nine
Speaker 1: millimeter we used in the Jamenez murder and were also
Speaker 1: found in the possession of individuals who are affiliated with
Speaker 1: the Martinezes.
Speaker 2: The guy that gets arrested with the forty five is
Speaker 2: not connected to Raffi. The nine comes from Julian. We
Speaker 2: spoke to Julian, and Julian specifically said he bought the
Speaker 2: gun from Kubita, who was a member of Franklin Quavis's crew.
Speaker 1: Just like Juan Urina's identification of Franklin Quavis. The jury
Speaker 1: could and should have benefited from this information, even though
Speaker 1: Julian never said that at trial. Years later, he recanted,
Speaker 1: along with Edwin Mottos and Jordan Pratt Pedro Santiago's testimony
Speaker 1: in another case destroyed his credibility in this one. And
Speaker 1: then there's Iravinus.
Speaker 2: Iravinus said that Raffi tape I don't know how many
Speaker 2: kilos of cocaine on her and sent her to Switzerland.
Speaker 2: And Raffi was in the Dominican Republic on the day
Speaker 2: that happened, so the prosecutor had to concede that she
Speaker 2: lied about that.
Speaker 1: Airline tickets were presented to corroborate Rafi's alibi. In addition,
Speaker 1: Iravinus testified about Raffi's alleged intentions to kill Jose Jimenez.
Speaker 1: For her testimony, she received time served. And believe it
Speaker 1: or not, the Jimenez murder investigation got even worse, but
Speaker 1: we'll get to that later. Now the murder of Jose
Speaker 1: Rees Julian testified about the alleged bounty. Santiago and Cologne
Speaker 1: both testified about what they saw before and after, but
Speaker 1: neither of them claimed to have seen the shooting, rather
Speaker 1: that they had heard it from about a quarter of
Speaker 1: a mile away.
Speaker 3: And Vetos Gonzalez Loyos hee high next witness, and this
Speaker 3: expel took the noise level from a weapon used in
Speaker 3: the murder, and she came to the conclusion that it
Speaker 3: was impossible for the cooperative witnesses to hear that shot
Speaker 3: that Ki Jose Reye all the way down there and
Speaker 3: one fifty seven.
Speaker 1: Which impeached these witnesses enough for the jury, as Lorenzo
Speaker 1: Martinez and Roberto Gonzales were acquitted of that murder. But unfortunately,
Speaker 1: the attorney who Raphael's parents hired right before trial wasn't
Speaker 1: afforded the time to tackle the broad scope of Raffi's charges.
Speaker 2: Richard Jurampo gets hired during the pre trial hearing and
Speaker 2: the judge refuses to give Richard Giampa an adjournment to
Speaker 2: prepare for trial, so right after the pre trial hearing
Speaker 2: they go into trial. And this is all Leslie Crocker's
Speaker 2: stiter is doing. And when Richard Ciampa would fight with her,
Speaker 2: she would punish him and admonish him him.
Speaker 1: In front of the jury, and Fernando Camacho also attacked
Speaker 1: him in front of the jury.
Speaker 3: This is Camacho woting me Teiampa the main has being
Speaker 3: on the case for five months. I offered him an
Speaker 3: opportunity to look at all the evidence. He makes it
Speaker 3: thing like he's being blindsided. He simply thoroughly prepaire. And
Speaker 3: you've seen these as an excules.
Speaker 2: How are you investigating during a four month long trial
Speaker 2: while you're in court from nine to five getting sambaged.
Speaker 2: There's no way he could have won. You don't know
Speaker 2: that the witnesses are getting deals that aren't what they're
Speaker 2: testifying to.
Speaker 1: And then there's the things that Giampa did know that
Speaker 1: Julian Martinez had admitted that the cooperators were being coerced.
Speaker 1: But when Judge Crackerschneider heard the recording, strangely, she took
Speaker 1: issue with the recording, but not the unreliability of the
Speaker 1: state's witnesses. Later, she accused Giampa of paranoid delusions. Yet
Speaker 1: she's the one who suppressed one Urana's identification of an
Speaker 1: alternate suspect.
Speaker 2: Frankie Quavis. He gets murdered in nineteen ninety three. How
Speaker 2: many other people does he's shoot and kill? They knew
Speaker 2: that this guy was the one who killed him. It's
Speaker 2: in a police report that he's the killer.
Speaker 1: So deprived of this kind of critical exculpatory information, the
Speaker 1: deals received by cooperators, calling him a violent drug kingpin,
Speaker 1: while the crack epidemic continued outside the courthouse. It was
Speaker 1: a fatal complay. So on April eighth, nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 1: Raphael was predictably wrongly convicted of various drug and firearm charges,
Speaker 1: also conspiracy, attempted murder and the murder of Jose Jimenez
Speaker 1: and per Judge Cracker Snyder, the sentences were to run consecutively,
Speaker 1: totaling two hundred and thirteen years to life.
Speaker 3: During this sentence, in preceding mister Gamache, this is him
Speaker 3: talking for years how working, low aviving people have been
Speaker 3: coming to this country and to how work they have
Speaker 3: made it being a since Rafael Martine is also successful.
Speaker 3: He was a multimillionaire by the age of twenty five.
Speaker 3: But he didn't do it with sweat and how work.
Speaker 3: He did it with violence and drags. He has taken
Speaker 3: a wonderful concept and may it impure somehow Refaile Maltins
Speaker 3: built an empire on one city, sevenstry and he decided
Speaker 3: that a black belonged to him and at or pure Ergain.
Speaker 3: From nineteen sixty seven to nineteen ninety one, when I
Speaker 3: got arrested, nobody in this world, King said that I
Speaker 3: raised my hand to be violanced for somebody. Since ninety
Speaker 3: one to today, I am living in the world's condition.
Speaker 3: A human being can be placing this place is violent.
Speaker 3: They are all type of rows, contravance weapons. Over thirty
Speaker 3: two years, I have a now tending record. I have
Speaker 3: never raised my hand to help anyone.
Speaker 1: Raphael also continued his education inside the walls, studying theology
Speaker 1: and the law as Lorenzo and Isidoro fought their innocence
Speaker 1: claims alongside him, but they didn't gain any traction on appeal.
Speaker 2: It's very difficult when you have the spending witnesses. I
Speaker 2: mean back in nineteen ninety nine Is the Door. Medina
Speaker 2: actually obtained the first two recantations of the main cooperators.
Speaker 3: In nineteen ninety nine, Jorgan Pratt and Edwin Motto executed
Speaker 3: a NAFIDVI about what they went through with the Digit
Speaker 3: Attorney Office in order for Dane to cooperate on fabricue
Speaker 3: this every day. In my case, all the benefit that
Speaker 3: they got they were allowed to have sex inside the
Speaker 3: Manhattan disc Attorney.
Speaker 2: Out Is the Door. Medina filed a post conviction motion
Speaker 2: that got denied.
Speaker 1: In addition to Edwin Mottos and Jordan Pratt, Julian Martinez
Speaker 1: also recanted in two thousand thirteen, which began a rethinking
Speaker 1: of the crime scene. In addition, an eyewitness of the
Speaker 1: temenous murder named Russell Harris Warren affidavit also naming Franklin Quavis,
Speaker 1: and his description of the crime aligned perfectly with the
Speaker 1: forensics as well.
Speaker 2: You know, Raffi files a blockbuster motion back in twenty
Speaker 2: fifteen with recantations his alibi. This whole crime scene recreation
Speaker 2: where the crime couldn't have happened the way Julian testified.
Speaker 2: Nickeds thrown out, So I get involved. The summer of
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: Justin scoured through the trial transcripts and requested Raffi's files
Speaker 1: from the Manhattan DIA's office, and he found two dd
Speaker 1: fives or police reports that contradicted the state's theory at trial.
Speaker 2: Those police reports contradicted the testimony of Jordan Pratt and Julian,
Speaker 2: which is that Raffi commits this murder in the car
Speaker 2: that's usually driven by the Martinez brothers, which was a
Speaker 2: golden black colored car. There were two eye witnesses from
Speaker 2: above and they say the car that was in the
Speaker 2: area was a white Toyota and those two d D
Speaker 2: fives were not turned over a trial.
Speaker 1: And then looking at the Franklin Quavis, who was known
Speaker 1: to have driven a white Toyota, it became clear that
Speaker 1: he was affiliated with get this none other than the
Speaker 1: leader of the Red Top Crew, Lenny Suppleveda, as well
Speaker 1: as his associate jose Yaka.
Speaker 2: I sent my private investigator out to speak to Lenny
Speaker 2: Suppleveda and jose Yaka, and Lenny, by the way, has
Speaker 2: cooperated many times for the Manhattan District Attorney's office. Lenny
Speaker 2: says that Franklin Quavis was the certified killer and Lenny
Speaker 2: knew him. Back in eighty two, Frankie went to jail
Speaker 2: for manslaughter, came home in nineteen eighty nine. Lenny set
Speaker 2: him up with a block and some drugs, and a
Speaker 2: part of Frankie's crew was a guy named Speedy. Speedy
Speaker 2: gets killed in nineteen eighty nine, either before or after
Speaker 2: Frankie comes home, and Speedy and Frankie were the same age.
Speaker 2: They came up together and Frankie takes vengeance and jose
Speaker 2: Yaka gives an affidavit where Jose the actor specifically says
Speaker 2: that Frankie kills Chino.
Speaker 1: Now, they had Franklin Craavis's motive, but what about Raffi's
Speaker 1: alleged motive. Justin found the confidential informants DD five and
Speaker 1: it turned out that this informant was actually an eyewitness.
Speaker 2: The problem with this individual for the government is that
Speaker 2: essentially this individual says that they're there and that they
Speaker 2: don't see Rafael Martinez at the scene. That's never turned
Speaker 2: over to defense. The police follow up on this allegation
Speaker 2: that Rafael Martinez and Josejmenez have a beef, that Jose
Speaker 2: Jimenez is the one that shot Raffi in eighty seven
Speaker 2: in another DD five, and they determined that there's no
Speaker 2: substance to that allegation, so that Jose Jimenez was not
Speaker 2: the guy that shoots Rafael Martinez in the head in
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty seven. Okay, this is independent evidence that wasn't
Speaker 2: turned over.
Speaker 1: So Raphael never had a motive. And with that, Justin
Speaker 1: and his co counsul Oscar Michelin filed Raffi's initial four
Speaker 1: to forty motion in December twenty twenty The.
Speaker 2: Initial motion of vacate is about Franklin how the witnesses
Speaker 2: lied about the deals they got, and it's about how
Speaker 2: the forensic evidence shows that the way that the witnesses
Speaker 2: testified the crime happened did not happen that way. But
Speaker 2: then what happened an explosion, Okay, I believe it was
Speaker 2: April of twenty twenty one when Lorenzo bumped into a
Speaker 2: guy and sing sing it said, hey, you know the
Speaker 2: guy in your case that you allegedly murdered with your brother,
Speaker 2: I did his appeal.
Speaker 1: Yeah. This is how it gets even worse because, in
Speaker 1: addition to Franklin Quavis, the Bronx DIA was also after
Speaker 1: Josejmanez and his brother Raymond for the murder of Armando
Speaker 1: Speedy Baiaz in nineteen eighty nine. And Josejmanez was clearly
Speaker 1: not killed in October of nineteen ninety because he was
Speaker 1: convicted in nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 2: And we get as a PELI brief and I'm like,
Speaker 2: wait a second, this can't be the case. This is insane.
Speaker 2: I do my due diligence. We get the indictment. We
Speaker 2: then go to the Manhattan dida's office. They they give
Speaker 2: us more information that supports that the brother that's allegedly
Speaker 2: dead is actually alive.
Speaker 1: Justin and Oscar then received some of the Bronx the
Speaker 1: ACE file for the Speedy Bias murder case.
Speaker 2: They gave us specific documents relating to the identity of
Speaker 2: the brothers. Jose Jimenez's nickname was not Chino. Raymond Jimenez's
Speaker 2: nickname was Chino. Jose Jimenez's nickname was Junior. Okay, it
Speaker 2: made us look at the police reports all over again.
Speaker 2: The actual initial police report says that Raymond Jimenez is
Speaker 2: the one that's dead and not Jose Jimenez. And to
Speaker 2: watch the changing of the name when you have this
Speaker 2: confidential informant give up that Rafi has a beef Jose Amenez.
Speaker 2: Now it's Jose Jimenez that's dead. It's outrageous.
Speaker 1: Also in the Bronx file were all the details of
Speaker 1: the Bias murder. How on May fourteenth, nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: Raymond Gino Jimenez handed his brother Jose Junior him as
Speaker 1: a gun and Jose Junior fatally shot Armando Speedy Bias
Speaker 1: in front of twenty four to twenty seven webster Avenue
Speaker 1: in the Bronx. The Jimenez brothers were indicted on August
Speaker 1: third of eighty nine, but then the indictment changed when
Speaker 1: Raymond Chino Jimenez was killed on October twenty ninth, nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety and his brother Jose Junior identified the body the
Speaker 1: next day. There was also documentation of why Jose Junior
Speaker 1: was tried in absentia.
Speaker 2: At Jose Heimenez a sentence in hearing in September nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety one, there were two witnesses that came in that
Speaker 2: gave Affi Davids that explained that Jose Hemenez ran from
Speaker 2: his trial because he was terrified of the guys that
Speaker 2: killed his brother.
Speaker 1: Jose Junior also gave an Affidavid on July twenty second,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one, to the same effect. Either way, Jose
Speaker 1: Junior was alive, convicted, arrested, and sent away for twenty
Speaker 1: five to life. And it appears that this should have
Speaker 1: come to light before or during Raphi's trial.
Speaker 3: In the Middo de trial, oil as king wha or
Speaker 3: say he made a creamin that repel say, oh, I
Speaker 3: don't know if I can pull that up because he's
Speaker 3: already dead. But I will check. I will let you know.
Speaker 3: In the afternoon session he came back at one o'cloud
Speaker 3: and say, oh, he has no creminal repel. Oh, say Jim,
Speaker 3: and it was doing twenty five two lives in New
Speaker 3: York State prisons. How are you going to say he
Speaker 3: has no criminal record.
Speaker 1: Fernando Camacho is currently a judge out in Suffolk County,
Speaker 1: Long Island. So it turns out that not only was
Speaker 1: Jose Junior still alive when Raphael was tried in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty three, but also as far as we know, he's
Speaker 1: still alive and well as we record this episode right
Speaker 1: now in early spring of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: How I know Jose Hemanez is alive in a Dominican
Speaker 2: republic is through his direct appeal. And then you can
Speaker 2: look him up on the New York State Himate locator
Speaker 2: and it says deported twenty sixteen, which lines up perfectly
Speaker 2: to him going in in September of nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 1: And yet no one was ever brought to justice for
Speaker 1: his brother Raymond's murder.
Speaker 2: It's not like they don't have a body. They do
Speaker 2: have a body, right, It's that they didn't care. They
Speaker 2: built this narrative. At some point, whether it was willfully
Speaker 2: or inadvertently, they made a mistake, and then they refused
Speaker 2: to correct it, and then they framed Raffi and Lorenzo
Speaker 2: and their uncle for the murder of a man that's alive.
Speaker 2: The government has actually admitted, they've conceded that Jose Hemenez
Speaker 2: is alive. Their position is that it's not material enough
Speaker 2: to warrann a new trial.
Speaker 1: Jesus, so the dead guy's alive And I'm completely at
Speaker 1: a loss. How is the guy who was killed being alive?
Speaker 1: How's that no material? I mean, I don't know what
Speaker 1: else the DA's office could possibly need to see here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm a little boondoggled by this one, I gotta say.
Speaker 1: And with that, we're going to go to closing arguments.
Speaker 1: I'm going to thank you both for sharing this truly
Speaker 1: insane story. It's literally unlike any other one we've ever done.
Speaker 1: And now I'm going to just sit back in my
Speaker 1: chair and just listen for anything else you want to
Speaker 1: share with me in our amazing audience. We call this
Speaker 1: section closing arguments. Just that I'm going to turn it
Speaker 1: over to you for any takeaways you might have and
Speaker 1: then you turn it over to Rafi and he'll take
Speaker 1: us off into the sunset.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Takeaways are the criminals run the justice system?
Speaker 2: This is criminal and the question is how many people
Speaker 2: were involved with it?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: I mean you have all these police officers, these cooperating
Speaker 2: witnesses that they knew were testifying for. So you have
Speaker 2: a prosecutor who at the very least was not sure
Speaker 2: who was dead. If you're just not sure, say it,
Speaker 2: say I don't know, maybe this was a mistaken identity.
Speaker 2: That's not what he did. He doubled down on it. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: Joseymane is a sitting in stay prison. Everyone should be
Speaker 2: frightened at the power of our government to prosecute people
Speaker 2: like this.
Speaker 3: I just would like to say to Abindrad, I have
Speaker 3: so much respectful him, but I think he shouldn't be
Speaker 3: a sail or hesitate to do the right thing in
Speaker 3: my case, because anyone who knows me will see that
Speaker 3: I am a fine person, very respectful, loving persons and
Speaker 3: everybody is safe around me because I am anything. I
Speaker 3: was prosecuted for allegedly killing jose Jimene. We found that
Speaker 3: he is alive. There is no reason to go anyfo
Speaker 3: is over. I just care about being a free man.
Speaker 3: Please just look at the everything. Maybe days and bifudal
Speaker 3: law is what is going to side me see.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen
Speaker 1: to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts one
Speaker 1: week early by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our production team Connor
Speaker 1: Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as my fellow executive
Speaker 1: producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Cliburn. The music
Speaker 1: in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated
Speaker 1: composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us across all
Speaker 1: social media platforms at Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction.
Speaker 1: You can also follow me on Instagram at It's Jason Flamm.
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts
Speaker 1: and association with Signal Company Number one