WEBVTT - #542 Jason Flom with Nicholas Allen 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:06.400 On February sixth, twenty eleven, a party in a queen's 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:10.119 New York basement turned violent, and when those involved were 0:00:10.160 --> 0:00:14.640 forced out into the exit stairwell, two gunshots were fired 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:19.400 into the door, fatally striking twenty six year old Avalisa Morris. 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:25.520 The police were soon directed toward a couple Felicia Douglas 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:30.040 and O'Neill Mayers, whose argument allegedly ignited the fray. Even 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.680 though O'Neill claims to have left before the gunshots and 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:36.960 didn't match the initial descriptions of the likely shooter, he 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:40.880 was arrested and tried, along with his friend Nicholas Allen, 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:45.199 who had left the party hours before the shooting. This 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:55.279 is wrongful Conviction. You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:57.840 listen to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:01.320 one week early and ad free subscribing to Lava for 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:13.720 Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Welcome back to Ronfuel Conviction, 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:16.200 where our guest is calling in from the country of 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:19.080 Jamaica to tell us about a case that happened near 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:23.200 Jamaica Queens and started with an absolutely senseless act of 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:27.000 violence which was then compounded by convicting at least one, 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:32.160 if not two innocent men, one of them being Nicholas Brucky. Allen, welcome, 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:34.960 Thank you, all right. So tell us about growing up 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:37.160 in Jamaica and coming to the US. 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:40.640 I was born in Kingston, Jamaica. I got four sisters 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.360 and three brothers. Two of them was like babies, and 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:45.600 one of them was born while I was in the States, 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:48.400 so I didn't really actually grew up with those three. 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:50.560 I came to the stage when I was like twelve. 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:54.520 So I just remember where I used to live in Jamaica. 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:56.960 It was like a soccer field next. 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.880 To my home. Soccer was just my love. 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.840 If my friend's playing on the street bearfooted, I will 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:06.000 go out there and also play bearfooted. 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:08.560 So where did the nickname Brockie come from? 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:15.400 In Jamaican culture, we call dribble brooke when you cross 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:21.160 somebody that's basically you brooking everybody. Basically Brookie is somebody 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:23.919 that does just love to dribble and don't like the past. 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:26.720 And it's funny because when I. 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:30.359 Got to the States, my first team, Cambria Heights, it 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:32.639 was a lady that first called me Brookie. 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:35.040 I never told her that was my nickname. In Jamaica. 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:36.760 I never told her that. She just watched me. She 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:39.040 was like, yo, you was a Brookie and. 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:41.000 I'm like, oh, that's what they called me in Jamaica. 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:41.720 That's my name. 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:44.400 But it wasn't soccer that brought him to New York. 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:47.160 At the age of eleven, I was diagnosed with you 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.440 and star a coma. It was a form of cancer. 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:53.680 This was like around two thousand. I started off getting 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:58.200 treatment in Jamaica, but my auntie came into the States 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:01.440 and on the teaching program. She went to the courts 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:05.200 with my dad and my mom did the legal guardianship. 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:06.880 So the lawyer told. 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:08.520 Her when you're in the States and you get your 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:10.800 green card, he's going to get his. When you become 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:14.079 a citizen, he will become citizen. So she had took 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:17.320 me into the States. I did chemoturpy. I had no hair, 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:19.440 so I used to wear a lot of door rags 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:21.480 a lot of time. When I used to play soccer, 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:23.560 it was like I was the sick on. Everybody was 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:27.640 just looking at me. But that never stopped me. I 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.480 play hard. I went to Automotive High School. My own 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:33.280 was a teacher at the school. But yo, they never 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:36.640 seen the playoff until I came. When I came, took 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:38.960 them the playoff the whole four years. 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:41.280 That I was there. I graduated. 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:44.040 Then from there I got in a soccer scholarship to 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:48.880 Globe College. Went for a year and a half and 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:50.560 that's when I got arrested. 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:53.840 And he was arrested along with another young Jamaican man 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:55.120 named O'Neill Mayers. 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:59.680 I met Mayors through guys from my soccer team. They 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.400 were quit mars at Walmart. When I first met him, 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:06.880 I never get any bad vibes. I see that he 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:10.480 always works to take care of his son. You know, 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:14.560 I'm on college and stuff, so I used to love parties, 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:18.480 so you know, me and Mirors sometimes will go to parties. 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:20.479 And that's what was happening at the time of this 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:25.120 tragic shooting. O'Neill's supervisor at Walmart, Damian Skurvin, had planned 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:27.160 a party for his wife Nikki at their friend Mary 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:31.200 Johnson's apartment on February fifth, twenty eleven, even though there 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:34.839 was a competing party nearby at Nicholas's friend named Pouchi 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.599 Poochie's house. Both O'Neill and Nicholas were drawn to the 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:41.480 Skurvans party to see two girls who they had met 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:45.160 the night before, one of whom Britney Goodrich later testified. 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:49.000 Now this previous night, February fourth, they were up really late, 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.599 leading to a midday nap for O'Neil that nearly lasted 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.919 through both parties on February fifth. But Nicholas was close 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:59.240 with Poochie's boyfriend Gabby Francis, so he made sure he 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:00.000 was at Pooci's. 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:02.640 So when I got there, I was pretty much helping 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:06.240 him decoration, helping, cooking the food, stuff like that. So 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:10.640 around twelve midnight, I pull up my friends Cafarri, Samuel, 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:16.400 Dwayne Right, Gabby Francis, and Dennis Cunningham, and I told him, oh, listen, 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:20.080 Damien is having a birthday party for his wife tonight. 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:23.480 Y'all want to go support, and they agreed. They call 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.320 a cab. I got there around twelve ish and I 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:29.280 left like early one. When we got there, I saw 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:32.800 Brittany dancing under the light. The only spot in the 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:35.240 basement had light was where the DJ booth was at, 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:37.040 So I went right up to Brittany. I asked her 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:39.520 how she's doing. I told her I'm not staying. My 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.440 people have a party, so I'm leaving. She put her 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:46.360 number with my phone and I never seen mirrors at 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.479 that party. Never Me and Mirrs was not together. It 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:52.559 was my four friends and we left in a cab 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:54.880 back to Pucci party. For the rest of the night, 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:57.520 we drink, dance, we took pictures. One of the girls 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:00.520 over there took a picture with me and around the 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:01.679 same time as. 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:04.080 The incident, it was just about eight minutes after the 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.000 shooting when Nicholas took a picture with Vanessa Bunton on 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:09.920 a digital camera. Now remember this was twenty eleven when 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:13.560 folks were still transitioning from flip phones, iPods and cameras 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:17.239 to the all in one smartphone that's now ubiquitous. But anyway, 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:19.719 we'll get back to Vanessa Bunton and this picture in 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:23.320 a bit. So let's rewind to about three o'clock in 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:23.800 the morning. 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:27.160 Around three on he called me saying, yo, you just 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:31.120 got up. He's gonna go to Damien wife's Porty Nikki 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.800 on his block because the party actually kept on his block. 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.240 So I said, oh yeah, I was there earlier. 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:39.360 And I got Brittany number. That was it. Around a 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:40.760 little bit before five. 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:43.800 He called me back again, saying the party got shoot up, 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:45.880 asked if I was still at Pucci I said yes, 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:47.920 and he said I'm coming right now. When he came, 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:50.080 he sat in the car and he told me the 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:53.000 girl that he was talking to the day before. He 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:57.520 was talking to her and his girlfriend came over slapped him, 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:01.880 and out of a reflex, he slapped her back and 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:05.599 she went outside crying and stuff. He also said he 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:08.320 noticed the commotions at the door. He said the DJ 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:11.400 got into it with somebody and he just pushed through 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:13.960 the commotions and left. While he got to the front 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:15.960 of the house, he said he heard gunshots and he 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:18.400 just ran home, jump in his car, called me and 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:20.040 came to me at Pouci's. 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:23.200 To exit the basement, O'Neill left through the back door 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:25.840 to a covered stairwall that led to the backyard, where 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:29.679 his girlfriend Felicia Douglass and her friend Vanessa Edwards claimed 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.480 to have seen him, which he doesn't deny. What he 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:35.880 does deny is going back down the stairwell and shooting 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:38.840 at the door. Now. According to the initial police reports, 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.760 also known as DV five's, the guest of honor, Nicki 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:45.040 Scurvin the host Mary Johnson, as well as the victim 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:47.480 of Alisa Morris, pushed a group of three or four 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.640 young men out into the back stairwell and slammed the door, 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:53.000 and the group tried to force their way back in. 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:56.760 I heard that she used her back to prevent the 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.640 guys from coming back and said and shot fired and 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.120 mis Kelly hit her in their head. When the cops 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:06.160 had just came Mary Johnson's she identified a tall, light 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:07.800 skin with braids in his. 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:11.960 Thirties, which doesn't describe O'Neill or Nicholas. 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.760 Also, NICKI Scurvin the morning off the crime. When the 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:18.360 cops came in our DD five, she never mentioned O'Neill. 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:19.840 Mayers never mentioned me at all. 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:22.200 But both of those statements would change by the time 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:25.480 of the grand jury and trial, as would pretty much 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:30.240 everyone else's statements, including O'Neill's girlfriend Felicia Douglas and her 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:33.640 friend Vanessa Edwards. Now. In their first statements, they said 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:36.679 that they had seen O'Neill emerge from the coupvered stairwell, 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:40.280 which is undisputed, but was it before or after the 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:45.800 gunshots well? Either way, Felicia texted O'Neill after giving her statement. 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:48.240 So we were still in the car, he got a 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.560 text from his girlfriend saying that such and such a 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:55.120 diet and you and your friend Brookie did it. So 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.080 he showed me the texts. I'm like, what the hell 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:57.840 is she talking about? 0:08:57.880 --> 0:08:58.040 You know? 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:00.640 But I looked at Mayer's face. I could see like 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:03.600 a worried look. So he tried to call her. She 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:06.640 answered on the fifth call, and she was just crying. 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:09.320 He said, Yo, what's going on? Why you send me 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:12.600 that text? So she was like, they made me do it, 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:15.960 They made me do it. So he said, why would 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:16.640 you tell the police? 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:18.600 I did nothing? Why do you tell the police? Go 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:20.160 tell the police. I didn't do nothing. 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:23.880 We had found out later on that basically the friends 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:25.840 of the victim tell her, yo, listen, you and your 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:27.800 man came here and mess up my party, so you 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:30.360 better go tell the cops that he did that. That's 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:33.199 when she had gave the police on ill number. 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:37.040 But with no views through the stairwells covering the basement 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:41.280 door or any meaningful ballistics evidence, no witnesses or experts 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:43.960 could claim to know who pulled the trigger, and without 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:47.760 the ever important timing aspect had O'Neil been seen before 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:51.480 or after the gunshots, and with no other names being 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.679 mentioned besides O'Neil, he became the target. 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:57.800 So we were still in the car. He looked distressed. 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:00.520 A few minutes later, a detective by the name of 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:04.640 Pearson called him saying that he's a person of interest 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:06.560 and they would like to speak with him. So he said, 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:08.560 all right, no doubt, I'm coming in right now. So 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:11.880 I stayed and I waited for him to come back, 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:12.959 and he never came back. 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:17.160 O'Neill was arrested, and since no one could actually see 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:21.640 the shooting, they used the circumstances. Someone had to place 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:23.760 a gun in his hand in the stairwell at the 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:27.360 time of the crime. So by the grand jury, Vanessa 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.479 Edwards testified that when O'Neill first emerged from the stairwell, 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.240 he had a gun in his hand. Then the group 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:37.440 went back down the covered stairwell and shots were fired. However, 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.400 Felicia's story changed in a different way. 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:43.440 The two statements that she gave to the cops. She 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.640 was saying that she saw Onneila ran up the steps. 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.040 The other statement she had said that she just said 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:52.760 this because she was mad, because Onlyla had slapped her. 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:57.840 She also made a statement to one's lawyer saying that 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:02.559 she was mad and was also forced by the victim 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:05.880 friends tell the cops that she saw on it ran 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:08.880 up the steps, and she also made a statement to 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:12.560 my attorney saying that she never even seen me that 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:13.120 whole night. 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:18.200 And at this point, neither Vanessa Edwards, Nicki Scurvin, nor 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:22.240 Mary Johnson had mentioned Nicholas, only Felicia had done so 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:27.199 in that text that she now just disavowed. Vanessa Edwards 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.200 also maintained that she hadn't seen Nicholas since earlier in 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:34.120 the evening. But Nicholas becomes involved because during the month 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.000 following the shooting, O'Neil had let Nicholas his car. 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:41.280 So a month later I noticed an unmarked car following me. 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:44.600 They passed me, came in front of me, made a 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:48.520 sound stop, forcing me to stop. Then they jumped up 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:51.440 and it was just police everywhere, guns everywhere. 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:54.680 Move Move, motherfuckers. I could shoot you. Move. So I'm like, 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:56.160 I'm not moving. I'm not moving. 0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:59.280 They dragged me out of car, put my face on 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:02.320 the ground with the knee in my face. Detective Pearson 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:04.960 came in, got me and brought me to one thirteen. 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:08.480 Percent, and this detective Timothy Pearson, recently served as a 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:12.040 top aid to New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Apparently 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:14.480 they go way back, and he has faced or is 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:18.600 currently facing allegations ranging from corruption, pay the play schemes, 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:21.760 as well as rape and other sexual misconduct. But there's 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.800 no known history of wrongful convictions, that is until now. 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:28.720 So when I got to one thirteen percint, they asked me, 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:30.839 do you know why I'm here? I'm like, maybe because 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.280 I was driving my friend's car and he was charged 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:36.200 for murder. They said yes, but there is more. The 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:39.440 car was seen leaving the scene that waitness saw me 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:42.400 and O'Neill together that night, So I said, no, that 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.360 can't be true. So he said, O'Neill said I was 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:45.920 with him that. 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:49.840 Night, which yes, they were together, but only after the 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:53.079 shooting when they met up at Pucci's house. Now, always 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:57.439 remember it is legal for the police to lie or mislead. 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.880 I'm hoping that'll change someday, but that's the way it is. 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:04.280 And the reality here was that Nicholas and O'Neill had 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:06.800 been calling each other before they actually met up. 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:07.920 So I'm like, I have. 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:10.960 Proof in my phone that we was actually calling each other. 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:13.840 If you check my call log, you could see recent 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:17.040 call and only called me at three, and he called 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.959 me also at five. It was like a tow way phone. 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:22.320 It was a Walmart phone. So the only thing that 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:25.520 phone could prove is the recent call. So I don't 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:28.439 know if they did check or not, but my phone 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:32.120 end up disappearing, right. I told my lawyer about the phone, 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.040 and they told my lawyer in evidence. 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:37.240 Right days past, my lawyer tried. 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:40.280 To get the phone back again and they said the 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:42.600 phone disappeared. The phone can be found. 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:46.480 I mean, why let perfectly good exculpatory evidence get in 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:51.160 the way of what appears to be manufactured evidence. This 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:55.120 came in the form of another alleged partygoer, the upstairs neighbor, 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:58.440 a guy named Richard Bennett. For the first time, he 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:01.360 claimed to have seen the alleged sailants being pushed out 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.840 of the basement back door. Never mind that from where 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:08.000 he said he was standing, he couldn't have seen that door. 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.400 Then he said he ran upstairs to his apartment. This 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:13.960 is a two family home, so he had to go 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:17.480 out Mary Johnson's front door outside to access his own 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:20.160 front door, and he claimed that this is when he 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.840 saw three alleged assailants. And now he was at the 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:27.120 precinct of view a lineup featuring Nicholas. 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:32.000 He was seeing a Facebook photo off me minutes before 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:36.000 the lineup. This same guy testified at a grandjury that 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:38.520 I have a tattoo on the right side of my neck. 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.400 This same guy said that when me and Oni got 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:43.040 to the front of the house, he said a point 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:45.240 a gun in his face. He said, I said to him, 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:48.400 what's you're looking at, motherfucker? And while he was looking 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:51.560 at me, he saw a tattoo on my neck, with words, 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.240 I don't have no tattoo, never have a tattoo on me. 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:59.200 Ever, nevertheless, now Panessa Edwards and Richard Bennett both placed 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:02.240 O'Neill and the at the scene with guns in their hands. 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:04.800 They charged us with acting in concert. 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:05.840 I was arraigned. 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:08.800 I had a bunch of people in court that was 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:11.520 there with me at Pucci house. It looked like the 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:14.240 judge were considering to give me a bill until the 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.640 district attorney jumped up and said, judge, the victim family 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:21.040 scared for their life, and the judge was like, no bill, 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:24.960 you know, so I was sent to rakas Allen. It 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:28.440 was a new experience for me, so I had to 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:29.640 adapt fast. 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:32.240 I was young. I was like in the jungle. 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.560 I was like around some wild kids that's probably been 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:39.280 to jail more than my fingers, you know. 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:58.520 Nicholas spent three long, miserable years in pre trial detention 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:02.880 on the Notori Complex, not as Riker's Island, which is 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:07.480 just fucking wild. I mean, from March twenty eleven to 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:13.120 November twenty fourteen, not convicted of a freaking thing. This 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:15.600 was around the same time that Khalif Browder, by the 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:18.400 Way Rest in Peace was there for three years pre 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:21.280 trial as well. We're going to link to the Kaliff 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:25.280 Browder documentary in the episode description. Well, luckily Nicholas was 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:28.640 able to survive this ordeal, unlike Khalif. But meanwhile, on 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:32.400 the outside, O'Neil and Nicholas's attorneys had three years to 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:37.640 prepare for cross examinations, and despite Nicholas's phone just magically disappearing, 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:41.360 he still had his alibi, witnesses and the picture with 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:45.360 Vanessa Punton, placing him a fifteen minute drive away from 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:48.640 Mary Johnson's just about eight minutes after the shooting. The 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:52.840 only issue was that in the digital cameras settings AM 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:54.280 had been flipped with PM. 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:57.120 Well, my lawyer was telling me that even though the 0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:59.960 time stamp it's saying PM instead of M. When it's 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.240 time for trial, he would get Vanessa to come and 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:04.359 testify for. 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:07.280 The grand jury. Only the photo was entered into evidence. 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:10.520 In addition, his friend Gabby Francis testified that he was 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:13.040 with Nicholas all night, including when they had gone to 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.800 the Scurvins party and back to Poocies, but Britney Goodrich, 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:19.679 the girl that had traded phone numbers with him, She 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.520 claimed that Nicholas had returned later on in the morning. 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:26.120 There was a weakness go by the name of Larissa White. 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:28.840 She also wrote a statement the morning of the crime. 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:33.040 She also testified in a grand jury, and her testimony 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.240 was that when the shot rang out, she was upstairs 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.959 with Britney Goodrich looking for their coats to leave. So 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:43.520 she contradicts Brittany because Brittany said she was down in 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:45.720 the basement when the shots rang out and that's the 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:46.919 last time she saw me. 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:50.520 Vanessa Edwards also testified that the last time she saw 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:54.080 Nicholas was earlier in the night, which also impeached Brittany, 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:57.680 as well as Nicki Skurvin and Mary Johnson's new statements, 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:00.120 which now aligned with the state's narrative. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:01.000 D five statement. 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:04.280 As Mary Johnson, she gave to the cops she identified 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:08.280 a tall, light skin with braids in his thirties. That 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:12.400 was just disregarded. So my lawyer let her know that 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:16.000 he's not tall, he's not light skin, and you know 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:16.520 what I'm saying. 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:20.080 So her thing was that it was me. I was there. 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:23.840 Also, Nicki Scurvin, minutes after the situation, she never mentioned 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:26.320 ONeill Mayors. She never mentioned me at all. It was 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:29.480 at the Grand Jewelry when she mentioned O'Neill and me. 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:32.840 Then in the first trial, Mary Johnson she said, my 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.440 hair was basically braided up with rubber bands at the tip, 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:39.560 wearing a jeans jacket with a gray shirt. That's was 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:42.080 not my appearance that night. The picture that I took 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:46.560 showed a different appearance. Everybody put me into a different clothing, earstyle. 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:51.679 Everybody description was just off, but hers was funny and ridiculous. 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:56.840 So despite photographic evidence of the contrary, Mary Johnson and 0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:59.959 Nicki Scurvin supported the state's trial narrative, which was that 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:05.159 after O'Neill and Felicia traded slaps, that O'Neill, Nicholas, and 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:08.199 two others were forced to leave the party by the victim, 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:10.959 as well as Mary Johnson and Nicki Scurvin. 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:11.960 Nicki's Curvin. 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:15.000 She testified that she went to you gotta go because 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:17.359 you and your girl messed up my party. 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:18.760 And she said. 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:21.480 One'll tell her leave me alone. And while she grabbed him, 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:24.480 she said, he like swring her hands off him. And 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:27.119 as he did that, she said she saw something that 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:29.600 appears to be a gun in his waist. When she 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:32.840 saw the gun, she said, ONeill said, yo, leave me alone. 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:35.240 You want to mess with badman. Don't mess with badman. 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:38.840 That's the Jamaican term saying that, don't mess with the gangster. 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:40.200 So she said. 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.359 Other people came in shove shove him out. So they 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:45.320 asked her what I was doing. She said, I was 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.560 just there. She said, she got us out, closed the door. 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:51.240 As we're trying to bang the door to come back in, 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.640 the door cracked open and she saw my face, so 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:55.520 she put. 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:56.160 Me on the scene. 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:00.560 Then Vanessa Edwards stuck with her initial statement about O'Neil 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:03.399 emerging from the stairwell, but this time she added a 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:04.560 gun and more. 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:08.640 She testified that she saw one ran up the steps 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:11.400 with a gun in his hand with about four guys, 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:14.879 and the four guys ran back down the steps. She 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:18.520 heard the shots, and then the guys walked back up 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:22.760 and ran down the driveway. So Maloya asked her, did 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:24.919 she ever saw my face before? She said yes, she 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:27.560 saw me that night talking to Brittany. Did you see 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:29.800 him run up the steps with those group of guys? 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:30.280 She said no. 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:32.399 Last time she saw me was the time that I 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:34.199 was talking to Brittany, and she never saw me back that. 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:38.240 Night, which contradicts Mary Johnson and Nikki Scurvin, who claimed 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:41.240 to have seen Nicholas's face when Ava Lisa Morris slammed 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.040 the door shut on the four men before two gun 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:45.520 shots were fired through the door. 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:50.400 There was a hole that's higher and there's another lower hole. 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:54.440 The ballistic detective he was trying to say, I fired 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:57.919 the lower hole and because one was taller, he fired 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:02.840 the higher hole. So like this is just your speculations 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:06.199 or this is a fact. He said, no, it's just 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:08.960