Speaker 1: On April tenth, two thousand two, on Lyndon Boulevard in
Speaker 1: the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, a man named Victor Vulcan
Speaker 1: was shot and killed in broad daylight just after school
Speaker 1: had let out. Fortunately, no one else was heard as
Speaker 1: people ran to their buildings for cover, including a young
Speaker 1: father named Gary ben Lass who had had prior run
Speaker 1: ins with the police. Nine one one callers and eye
Speaker 1: witnesses described the shooter with short hair, dark skin, and
Speaker 1: a similar bill to the victim, who was five ten
Speaker 1: and a hundred and sixty eight pounds. However, one alleged witness,
Speaker 1: Anthony Holder, who did not give a description of the shooter,
Speaker 1: set among other falsehoods, that the assailant's nickname was Chuckie.
Speaker 1: Gary ben Lass was known as Chucky, but he was
Speaker 1: over six three and two hundred and fifty pounds with
Speaker 1: a seven inch high afro. A photo of a much
Speaker 1: younger and slimmer Gary with short hair was put into
Speaker 1: a photo array, eliciting an identification from Anthony Holder and
Speaker 1: one other witness. However, once that other witness saw Gary
Speaker 1: a trial, she too jo and all the other witnesses
Speaker 1: in denying Gary's in pop Holders pending charges for which
Speaker 1: it is believed that he received leniency in exchange for cooperation,
Speaker 1: were hidden by the state, and somehow the jury believed
Speaker 1: his bizarre testimony that included a non existent second victim,
Speaker 1: sending Gary away for to life. This is wrongful conviction.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to rangful conviction. Today we have a Brooklyn
Speaker 1: case dating back to two thousand two in which several
Speaker 1: witnesses described a gunman that looked wildly different from our
Speaker 1: guests today, Gary ben Laws, a guy that I came
Speaker 1: to know through my friendship with a previous guest on
Speaker 1: our show, John Asian Velasquez. Gary is joining us from
Speaker 1: sing sing and I'm glad you're here with us even
Speaker 1: though I hate to read and why you're here. But Gary,
Speaker 1: welcome to the show. Thank you, You're very welcome. And
Speaker 1: with him as a band whose voice should probably recognize
Speaker 1: from other appearances here with us where he's been advocating
Speaker 1: for Nelson Cruz, Marcus Wiggins, Vincent Simmons, and so many more.
Speaker 1: Justin bonus, welcome back. It's great to be back on
Speaker 1: the show for ship, all right. So Gary, before we
Speaker 1: get into the reason why we're here today, can you
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about your life growing up.
Speaker 1: I was born July twenty six to a proud single
Speaker 1: mother who migrated from the rural country area of Jamaica,
Speaker 1: West Indies, moved to America where she resided in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: And your nickname was Chucky, right, how I mean, where
Speaker 1: does that come from? At the age of nine, I
Speaker 1: received the nickname Chuckles. Being poor, no father around at school,
Speaker 1: kids could be very cruel, so as a as a
Speaker 1: defense mechanism, I was one of those kids who was old.
Speaker 1: He's like to joke and laugh. That's how I got
Speaker 1: the moniker chuckles. Always have people laughing, always joking, And
Speaker 1: that nickname ended up playing a part in your wrong
Speaker 1: for conviction. But before all of that, in the summer
Speaker 1: of you had your first encounter with one of the
Speaker 1: detectives on this case, Robert Ready. He knows me because
Speaker 1: on my fifties birthday I was jumped, assaulted and hospitalized.
Speaker 1: He was actually the detective on the case, and he
Speaker 1: wanted not just for me, you know, to snitch on
Speaker 1: the guys that hospitalized me, but he wanted me to
Speaker 1: become a neighborhood snitch. So the case against those who
Speaker 1: are assaulted me never went to court, and I never
Speaker 1: became the snitch for detective reading. I said, it's not happening, right,
Speaker 1: So you refused to help Ready, And then the following
Speaker 1: spring you ran into some more trouble, but this time
Speaker 1: you were the assailant at the age of exteen. Much
Speaker 1: of Mention ninety seven, I made a very foolish mistake,
Speaker 1: but I'm not proud. It was a lesson that I
Speaker 1: needed to learn. So because of grown up being poor,
Speaker 1: I followed a friend of mine into a pizzeria to
Speaker 1: rob the pizzeria. I took full responsibility, and I copped
Speaker 1: out to one to three years right. And I've been
Speaker 1: haunted by the NYPD ever since. And I'd like the
Speaker 1: audience to take note here when guilty people usually take
Speaker 1: plea deals it makes sense. I mean, hell, even innocent
Speaker 1: people take plea deals if it makes more sense, which
Speaker 1: it often does in fighting the charges. Like our friend
Speaker 1: Dieter te Hata. So you did a few years as
Speaker 1: a juvenile in a men's present page your debt to society,
Speaker 1: and after your release, he moved back in with your
Speaker 1: mother at to eighteen Lennon Boulevard and flat push where
Speaker 1: you remained on the NYPD's radar leading up to this
Speaker 1: crime in two thousand two. But before we get into
Speaker 1: all those details, justin we've seen this kind of thing
Speaker 1: before more than once, where the cops just crab a
Speaker 1: guy with a record, whether they did a climb or not.
Speaker 1: And as our listeners will surely recognized, Brooklyn, especially in
Speaker 1: the eighties, nineties and into the two thousands, was fraught
Speaker 1: with wrongful conviction cases and issues like like I wouldn't
Speaker 1: submits identification, coerced and incentifized witnesses who made misidentifications, sometimes
Speaker 1: knowingly by the way, and of course crazily corrupted identification procedures.
Speaker 1: And in this case we have all of those factors.
Speaker 1: And at the helm of the investigation we had detectives
Speaker 1: Robert Ready and John McGurran, as well as King's country
Speaker 1: assistant D A. Kyle Reeves. And and I feel like
Speaker 1: I've heard his name before Kyle Reeves, right, yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: Jabbar Washington. I believe Jabbar was exonerated in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eighteen. Kyle Reeves in that case had withheld Brady evidence.
Speaker 1: But and this is on the stand that testified falsely.
Speaker 1: Then Reeves push forward with prosecuting someone for murder. I
Speaker 1: believe it was a fight of some sort, and it
Speaker 1: turned out that the mother of the victim actually sued
Speaker 1: the hospital for medical malpractice, wrongful death, that the hospital
Speaker 1: caused the death. I know that he had some issues.
Speaker 1: He left the d a's office in Brooklyn and went
Speaker 1: to Staten Island, and I know he had some issues
Speaker 1: in Staten Island with witnesses and then left. And now
Speaker 1: he's in private practice, so he has a history of
Speaker 1: prosecuting cases that he shouldn't and to not turning over
Speaker 1: exculpatory material. I mean, I'd like to point out prior
Speaker 1: misconduct just to give the audience an idea of who
Speaker 1: we were dealing with. But to be fair, Reeves doesn't
Speaker 1: really sound like an outlier knowingly prosecuting innocent people and
Speaker 1: hidekicks culpatory evidence to make a stick. It sounds like
Speaker 1: the usual playbook in New York. It's a little different
Speaker 1: because it's a lot harder to catch them, and he's
Speaker 1: been caught. New York is different in that there's usually
Speaker 1: no forensic investigation, no paper right, no paper trail, whereas
Speaker 1: a lot of other places there's a lot of paper here.
Speaker 1: These are very short, choppy statements. The police don't write
Speaker 1: as much down. And then prosecutors, even when the case
Speaker 1: falls apart, they are able to hang their hat on
Speaker 1: somebody like Anthony Holder, who's the only witness that testified
Speaker 1: at trial at Gary Bin laws committed this murder. And
Speaker 1: we're going to talk a lot more about this alleged eyewitness,
Speaker 1: Anthony Holder. And I say alleged because his description of
Speaker 1: the crime conflicted with both reality and with every other eyewitness,
Speaker 1: all of whom corroborated each other, and none of whom
Speaker 1: described or ultimately identified Gary in person. Now, Anthony Holder
Speaker 1: was a building super rights who were intended on Gary's block,
Speaker 1: and he's the guy who's credited with throwing Gary's nicknamed
Speaker 1: Chucky to the cops right into the mix after the crime. Gary,
Speaker 1: did you know this guy Holder? So, Anthony Holder is
Speaker 1: the super of I believe two of the buildings on
Speaker 1: Linden will cross the street from my So I didn't
Speaker 1: live there, but my friends did, so I'm visiting them.
Speaker 1: Anthony Holder never used to like when my friends and
Speaker 1: I will hang out on the stool, So in the
Speaker 1: courtyards of the building. It wasn't like we was causing
Speaker 1: any disruption being disrespectful. Okay, So he didn't like you,
Speaker 1: but he didn't have a real beef with you. But
Speaker 1: maybe he didn't care if he used you to stay
Speaker 1: out of prison. That's what it seems like to me.
Speaker 1: As it becomes clear much later, holder had some pending
Speaker 1: charges for which he like they received leniency for his
Speaker 1: testimony in this case, but a trial, that deal was
Speaker 1: when you've heard this before, that deal was hidden by
Speaker 1: assistant to A Kyle Reeves. And now here we are,
Speaker 1: so let's get to the clime itself. This was April ten,
Speaker 1: two thousand two, a sunny spring day on Linden and
Speaker 1: Boulevard in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Now this is a broad street
Speaker 1: with the east and westbound side a turning lane down
Speaker 1: the middle street, parking on either side, so about five
Speaker 1: lanes of car's wife if you can picture that, And
Speaker 1: there are apartment buildings on either side, so tons of
Speaker 1: people in the area. It's a bustling street scene. And
Speaker 1: the shooting happened in front of two O one Linden Boulevard,
Speaker 1: where you lived, across the street and down the block
Speaker 1: at number two eighteen, So it's about three in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: The weather extremely nice, The blocks are extremely extremely busy,
Speaker 1: people out and enjoying the weather. School is letting out.
Speaker 1: As I am approaching my building, the first blood shock
Speaker 1: light now, and that's when I started seeing everybody starting
Speaker 1: to run, and I ran right into mont building. And
Speaker 1: according to corroborating eyewitness accounts, two men, the victim in
Speaker 1: this case, Victor Vulcan, and the shooter got into an
Speaker 1: argument welcome was shot four or five times, and then
Speaker 1: a mail carrier, a woman named let him in Voting,
Speaker 1: gave police a description, as did another woman named Paula
Speaker 1: edge Hill, who called nine one and spoke to a dispatcher.
Speaker 1: So you had led him in boats and who's the
Speaker 1: mail carrier? And the nine callers who described the shooter
Speaker 1: as all dark skinned, five eight short hair let him
Speaker 1: in Voting actually, in a statement to police, described the
Speaker 1: shooter as similarly built to the victim in the case. Now,
Speaker 1: the victim, Victor Vulcan, was five ten sixty eight pounds,
Speaker 1: so the nine one one call and votings accounts corroborated
Speaker 1: each other. Now, Gary, what did you look like at
Speaker 1: this time? I was about six three, two forty years
Speaker 1: and I had a very large affro and I'm light skinned.
Speaker 1: No one describes the afro. That's the other major major issue.
Speaker 1: I mean, was this like a close cropped afro? How
Speaker 1: much volume are we talking about here? Will have to
Speaker 1: be roughly six seven inches? Okay, so that's a remarkable
Speaker 1: hair do. Like I mean, people aren't going to miss
Speaker 1: a seven inch I afro. But unfortunately, this giant discrepancy
Speaker 1: didn't seem to matter to Anthony Holder or the detectives,
Speaker 1: and later didn't matter either to the prosecutor in the case.
Speaker 1: So what did Anthony Holders statements of police say? This
Speaker 1: alternate version of events, and Anthony Holder says that Chucky
Speaker 1: is talking to some girls. Uh, they say, get at him, Chucky.
Speaker 1: Nobody else describes this, by the way. Then he says
Speaker 1: that Chucky begins to argue with this guy and pulls
Speaker 1: a gun out of the back and then shoots the guy.
Speaker 1: And and Anthony Holder he doesn't describe Gary at all,
Speaker 1: and he never gives a description. See all he does
Speaker 1: Anthony Holder has dropped a nickname, and the police know
Speaker 1: the nickname because they're familiar with Garrett. And we're not
Speaker 1: even sure who brought up the nickname first. Perhaps Anthony
Speaker 1: Holder decided to trade information false information. Let's call it
Speaker 1: what it is, about a neighborhood guy who he didn't
Speaker 1: really like in exchange for leniency in his pending charges,
Speaker 1: or the lead detectives who knew Gary from both previous
Speaker 1: incidents when he was an assault victim who refused to
Speaker 1: snitch and then the robbery. Now, of course I'm referring
Speaker 1: to detectives Robert Ready and John mcgarran. It was recently
Speaker 1: going over the d D fives I come across John
Speaker 1: mcgarnan's d D five. He says that he was at
Speaker 1: two eighteen Linden Boulevard when he received information that the
Speaker 1: shooter is above by the name of Chuckles. Only people
Speaker 1: that does the name Chuckles is people that went to
Speaker 1: elementary school with me. Anthony Holden never said Chuckles. Anthony
Speaker 1: Holders says Chucky. So before John mcgaren we see any
Speaker 1: information ancient in regards to the shooter, he was already
Speaker 1: at two eight teen. The shooting happm at two or
Speaker 1: one Linden Boulevard. We have nine one one calls police
Speaker 1: reports that says the shooter ran into one eighty Linden Boulevard.
Speaker 1: It was never a police call to respond to to
Speaker 1: eight teen. Why are you at to eight two? Right?
Speaker 1: The nine one one call said one eighty Lindon Boulevard.
Speaker 1: But mcgern went straight to your building and claimed to
Speaker 1: hear that the assailant was named Chuckles, your original nickname
Speaker 1: that had evolved into Chucky over time. Exactly. Mcgarren already
Speaker 1: knew who I was, the same way detective really already
Speaker 1: knew who I was. So this isn't definitive proof, but
Speaker 1: it certainly looks like they were immediately directing the investigation
Speaker 1: towards you without cause either way. Your nickname was now
Speaker 1: part of this investigation. And then they take this and
Speaker 1: they and they on with it, and they put a
Speaker 1: photo array together very soon after the shooting. And why
Speaker 1: the photo array was really important is because the picture
Speaker 1: of Gary is of when he was I believe eighteen
Speaker 1: years old. By the time he was twenty one, he
Speaker 1: was much heavier than he was when he was eighteen.
Speaker 1: He didn't even look like the same person, and he
Speaker 1: had short hair when he was eighteen, all right, So
Speaker 1: they showed this misleading photo array with an eighteen year old,
Speaker 1: slimmer looking Gary importantly, with no afro but short hair instead. Right,
Speaker 1: as the witnesses that initially described the assailant, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's so dirty, it's amazing. And the mail carrier
Speaker 1: led him in Bolton looking at this old photograph gave
Speaker 1: up tepid identification, right, and the incentivized alleged witness, Anthony Holder,
Speaker 1: gave an idea as well. Now, Anthony Holder also allegedly
Speaker 1: told him that the shooter had a black Duffel bag.
Speaker 1: No other witnesses reported seeing this, and in the continued
Speaker 1: effort to get to Gary, investigators put pressure on a
Speaker 1: guy from your building named Roger Isaac, who at about
Speaker 1: five eight, dark skinned with short hair, better match the
Speaker 1: description of the shooter, and so he was snatched up
Speaker 1: shortly after the shooting. Roger Isaac, I feel the full
Speaker 1: I really do. He's oblivious to what's going on. They
Speaker 1: jump out on him and say he's being arrested for
Speaker 1: the murder. They bring him down to the station in
Speaker 1: his d D five. He saw me come into the building,
Speaker 1: go back into the palming and come right back out.
Speaker 1: So now they have someone corroborating Holder about you and
Speaker 1: the alleged black bag. And then Roger Isaac allegedly described
Speaker 1: you as five ft eight two hundred pounds, but again
Speaker 1: you're over six ft three and at least two hundred
Speaker 1: forty at the time, and he said thing about your
Speaker 1: impressive afro, which is very talent because the only picture
Speaker 1: that detectives McGurn and ready had at that time was
Speaker 1: from when you were eighteen years old. It looks like
Speaker 1: they still thought that you were under two d pounds
Speaker 1: with short hair. So they brought Roger Isaac down to
Speaker 1: the precinct where he allegedly made this statement implicating you
Speaker 1: carrying this non existent black Duffel bag. And we're getting
Speaker 1: ahead of ourselves here, but at trial, this alleged statement
Speaker 1: from the d D five unravels for the prosecution exactly
Speaker 1: at trial assisted this attorney Kyle Reeves is trying to
Speaker 1: have Roger Isaac testify that he saw me went into
Speaker 1: the building build back into the partment. So he gives
Speaker 1: them the d D five and that's when the cat
Speaker 1: is let out the bag. He did the d D five.
Speaker 1: He said, I don't saying none of this. He says
Speaker 1: that he was in a cell and that the police
Speaker 1: roughed them up, assaulted Mr Roger Isaac, because sounds like
Speaker 1: they might have just written that statement up just for
Speaker 1: him to sign. There was no signature. This is typed up.
Speaker 1: And then you have the offices chimnenship. So there's no
Speaker 1: Roger Isaac right in and saying I do this swear
Speaker 1: of this being authentic. There's none of that. So the
Speaker 1: sham statement in Roger Isaacs d V five blew up
Speaker 1: in Kyle Reeves's face at trial. But in the immediate
Speaker 1: aftermath of the crime, this same d D five corroborated
Speaker 1: Anthony Holder. They had already tricked led him in voting
Speaker 1: into making the I D with that phony Bologny photo array.
Speaker 1: So now they're closing in on you, but you didn't
Speaker 1: even know it. So let's go back to the immediate aftermath.
Speaker 1: Shots rang out, You got to safety, and after things
Speaker 1: calmed down, you went out to handle a few rands
Speaker 1: before or three month old son and his mother arrived
Speaker 1: later on from Queens. Now, at that time you had
Speaker 1: gone to a friends in Bushwick when a neighborhood friend
Speaker 1: paged you to tell you that the police had rated
Speaker 1: your apartment. He say the police just went into the apartment.
Speaker 1: So I called my mother. When she goes home, the
Speaker 1: police are still there. They asked her to sign a
Speaker 1: consent for him to search. They already searched already, so
Speaker 1: now they're using her consent to cover their eyes. So
Speaker 1: the police legally search your apartment looking for this alleged
Speaker 1: black dupple back, but they came up empty, and they
Speaker 1: got your mom to give consent to the search after
Speaker 1: the fact. So at this time, again, I'm not even
Speaker 1: aware that someone even died. It wasn't until there. I
Speaker 1: speak to my mother, she said. Detective really gave her
Speaker 1: his card for me to call. He said a guy
Speaker 1: was signed and killed and they're looking to speak to
Speaker 1: me about it. I have nothing a hide, so I
Speaker 1: called him. He said, people are saying that you killed
Speaker 1: this guy. I said, the time, I don't know what
Speaker 1: you're talking about. I've just had a son. I have
Speaker 1: no reason into the out killing anybody. He said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, let's meet up some react. That's not happening.
Speaker 1: I am not comfortable meeting you guys and check them out.
Speaker 1: You're looking for me because somebody's got killed. He said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, just in the hole would change in mind.
Speaker 1: And this is right after nine eleven, So the police
Speaker 1: had all these sweeping new powers from the Patriot Act,
Speaker 1: and they triangulated your position from the cell signal and
Speaker 1: found you over at your friends in Bushwick. But what's
Speaker 1: weird is that they're looking for the the old version
Speaker 1: of you right there, looking for the eighteen year old,
Speaker 1: slimmer shorthaired Gary from the photo array, not the fully
Speaker 1: grown up, much heavier, twenty one year old Gary with
Speaker 1: the seven inch high afro, who looks nothing close to
Speaker 1: the eyewitness descriptions. So both you and the police are confused. Now,
Speaker 1: can you describe what happened during your arrest. It's like
Speaker 1: one of those seems almost like a die hard movie.
Speaker 1: The whole block is just filled with, you know, squad
Speaker 1: cars and police officers and police officers on the rules
Speaker 1: and the helicopters. As they were going in to the building,
Speaker 1: I was coming out, right, I'm not knowing they're coming
Speaker 1: for me. All right, I'm going to the store, and
Speaker 1: here'll go all these police officers. I look at them,
Speaker 1: they look at me. I'll go. And I walked to
Speaker 1: the store, not running. Walking. As I'm in the store,
Speaker 1: the door opened, and then the head pokes in and
Speaker 1: he said, hey, or did you just come from and
Speaker 1: he recites the building number and I said yes, he
Speaker 1: actually what my name is, and I tell him my
Speaker 1: name is Gary Bella. He said I can can please
Speaker 1: put your hands behind your back? So again I didn't say, Oh,
Speaker 1: my name is George Jeffrey Calvin. So I'm not evading
Speaker 1: being identified. Does this sound like the actions of a
Speaker 1: guilty man. Of course not. But it's crazy because you
Speaker 1: didn't think they were even there for you, and they
Speaker 1: thought they were looking for a guy who could potentially
Speaker 1: fit the description. But as we see here in your case,
Speaker 1: the description really didn't matter to them. They just move
Speaker 1: forward anyway. So you're arrested. Detective really questioned you. You
Speaker 1: told him what you're telling us here today, that you
Speaker 1: had absolutely nothing to do with it, and then they
Speaker 1: put you in a lineup. And that lineup was was
Speaker 1: conducted by Robert Ready and Robert Ready at least one
Speaker 1: time a couple of years after this case admitted to
Speaker 1: essentially taining a lineup in a photo Arry and the
Speaker 1: case was thrown out on that basis. So Robert Ready
Speaker 1: knew who Gary was, and he violated best practices. He
Speaker 1: shouldn't have been involved with the lineup at all, but
Speaker 1: he was. So they save me how to sell, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to go for this lineup. They took the
Speaker 1: colds I was wearing, didn't something else to put on,
Speaker 1: and then they told me to put on a shower
Speaker 1: cap to hide my hair. And that's when I started no.
Speaker 1: I said, hell no, I said, what's I doing? And
Speaker 1: I looked at really and I say, REALLYO, you ain't right,
Speaker 1: and he just like held down his head. At that time,
Speaker 1: I already knew what they was doing, that they was
Speaker 1: dressing me up to fit the description of this person
Speaker 1: that they're looking for. They gave me a jacket. I'm
Speaker 1: not hold on, this is not my clothes. Oh you
Speaker 1: gotta you gotta put it on. And then they they
Speaker 1: hiding my hair, Like what reason would you have to
Speaker 1: hide my hair? This episode is underwritten by A i G,
Speaker 1: a leading global insurance company. A i G is committed
Speaker 1: to corporate social responsibility and is making a positive difference
Speaker 1: in the lives of its employees and in the communities
Speaker 1: where we work and live. In light of the compelling
Speaker 1: need for pro bono legal assistance, and in recognition of
Speaker 1: a i g s commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
Speaker 1: the a i G Pro Bono program provides free legal
Speaker 1: services and other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. So
Speaker 1: they corrupted that lineup, and ultimately both Anthony Holder big surprise,
Speaker 1: and then the mail carrier let him in voting identified you.
Speaker 1: So you spent eighteen long months awaiting trial at Riker's,
Speaker 1: away from your family and your baby son. Your lawyer,
Speaker 1: Daniel F. Lynch got discovery and the machinations of that
Speaker 1: lineup started to become even clearer, confirming what you had feared.
Speaker 1: And I said, I knew it. I noticed is why
Speaker 1: they wanted me to change my clothes. They wanted me
Speaker 1: to hide my head. These witnesses are saying x y
Speaker 1: n Z. If this witness says short here, they cannot
Speaker 1: put me in the lineup with this large afrow, so
Speaker 1: they have me hide it. But now the particular witness
Speaker 1: let him in Brighten, I'm gonna pick her first at
Speaker 1: the grand jury, and they was questioned and let him
Speaker 1: in Broen. She stopped for a second to say as
Speaker 1: if she wasn't sure she picked out the right guy.
Speaker 1: So fast forward to two thousand and three. While I'm
Speaker 1: at trial, they asked her, do you see the shoot
Speaker 1: her in the court room? Let him mc brinen unequivalent
Speaker 1: he is, says no. So she says no at trial
Speaker 1: and at the grand jury she wasn't sure. But then
Speaker 1: at the time of when she's viewing the line up,
Speaker 1: I am presented with the shower cap that's I didn't
Speaker 1: my hear, and with some clothing that's close enough to
Speaker 1: what the shoot had had on the day of the crime.
Speaker 1: Is there any reason why she wouldn't have taken me
Speaker 1: out to witnesses identified Gary in the lineup, and of
Speaker 1: those two witnesses, only one of them identify him, the tron,
Speaker 1: which is Anthony Older. So Letterman Bolton was supposed to
Speaker 1: be a prosecution witness but ended up working in favor
Speaker 1: of Gary's defense, just like Roger Isaac. So at that point,
Speaker 1: as this case was crumbling in front of their eyes,
Speaker 1: all they had left was Anthony Holder, who ended up
Speaker 1: being totally unreliable. And we're gonna get to his testimony
Speaker 1: in a minute. But it doesn't seem like your attorney
Speaker 1: should have had to work very hard to discredit Holder
Speaker 1: with with what was available to him on assisted this
Speaker 1: attorney Kyle Reis witness list. They had Paula Edgehew that
Speaker 1: was the witness that I wanted my attorney to call
Speaker 1: on my behalf. Her phone call and won one call,
Speaker 1: as well as her d D five and her after
Speaker 1: David at the sty seven priests is very much as
Speaker 1: cowartory and tools third party culpability. The description that she
Speaker 1: gave Paula Edgehill states that she looked through her window
Speaker 1: and she saw the shooter and the shooter was a
Speaker 1: medium height, dark skin male, no affro. So that's not
Speaker 1: me right, But neither the prosecution nor your attorney called
Speaker 1: her as a witness. But even without Paula edge Hell,
Speaker 1: you still had let him in Bolton and Roger Isaac
Speaker 1: blow up their part of the state's case. So all
Speaker 1: this left is Anthony Holder, who never actually described the shooter.
Speaker 1: He just used your nickname Chucky, saying that some girls
Speaker 1: were encouraging you to get after him, meaning Victor Vulcan.
Speaker 1: And none of those girls ever surfaced, nor did this
Speaker 1: alleged black duffel bag. What other hall should your defense
Speaker 1: have poked in Holders testimony? The inconsistencies are abound. With
Speaker 1: Anthony Holder. He says, the guys shot with the thirty eight.
Speaker 1: Guy's not shot with the thirty eight. I believe the
Speaker 1: slugs were consistent with Forensically, the description that he gives
Speaker 1: does not match up to the wounds that demand suffers.
Speaker 1: And to be honest with you, I don't really think
Speaker 1: anybody gives a very consistent description of what actually happened
Speaker 1: because of how fast it happened. We don't know if
Speaker 1: Vulcan was standing upright when the first shots ring out right,
Speaker 1: but what we do know is that there was stipling
Speaker 1: on one of the shots on the chest, which would
Speaker 1: indicate that the shooter was very close, within twenty four inches.
Speaker 1: Anthony Holder says that the shooter was four ft away.
Speaker 1: So it would have been helpful if these wild inconsistencies
Speaker 1: were pointed out, impeached the one the only state's witness here.
Speaker 1: It was, in fact, they're only piece of evidence, but
Speaker 1: your attorney was not prepared to do that. However, your
Speaker 1: attorney did present one very powerful witness, Augustine Hinton, who
Speaker 1: had called and corroborated let him in voting, and Paula
Speaker 1: Edgehill's descriptions and versions of events Dustin Hinson states that
Speaker 1: the shooter and the victim is the same height. The
Speaker 1: medical examiner at trial stated that Dictor Volcane sustaining the
Speaker 1: gunshot wound to his chest and there was no vertical
Speaker 1: for ponderance when acts. What can cause that is that
Speaker 1: whoever shot him with the same height as him. So
Speaker 1: Dustin Hinton is right on that. Now, another part of
Speaker 1: his testimony is he states that when the shooting was
Speaker 1: going on, that was ushering some young children away from
Speaker 1: the crime. Now, when you get to Anthony Holder, Anthony
Speaker 1: Holder is a legend that he was the one that
Speaker 1: was ushering his young children away from the crime. But
Speaker 1: he goes on to also say that the shooter also
Speaker 1: is responsible for shooting one of those young children. What
Speaker 1: I think is important about Holder is there's nothing about
Speaker 1: his testimony that's true. The fact that he says a
Speaker 1: little girl was shot at the scene when there's absolutely
Speaker 1: no and my p D record of a small younger
Speaker 1: girl being shot at the scene. A little girl was not.
Speaker 1: This is like a child was shot at the scene,
Speaker 1: Gary been lost to be doing a lot more than life.
Speaker 1: That's testimony had never surfaced at any chime time prior
Speaker 1: to trial. That false testimony only came about when assisted
Speaker 1: Gifted attorney Kyle Weaves elicited that false and inflammatory testimony
Speaker 1: from Anthony Holder and then later turned around and vouched
Speaker 1: for the authenticity of that testimony. He also presented Antony
Speaker 1: Holder as this superrighteous citizen of society. I mean, not
Speaker 1: only should his shaky testimony have been seen through, but
Speaker 1: also they were hiding something, which was that this guy
Speaker 1: had a powerful incentive to lie or to say what
Speaker 1: the authorities wanted him to say, which is that he
Speaker 1: had he was facing pending charges himself. And we know
Speaker 1: that in a lot of these cases where these eyewitnesses
Speaker 1: suddenly are able to make an identification, those charges that
Speaker 1: they're facing magically go away and they're sort of making
Speaker 1: it deal with the devil. Is that what happened here? Yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: absolutely his. He he had pending charges, and from our investigation,
Speaker 1: those charges are sealed, which means at some point they
Speaker 1: were dismissed, but they were pending while he testified. And
Speaker 1: and interestingly enough, Kyle Reeves, when asked if the man
Speaker 1: had any pending charges, said that he'd never been arrested before,
Speaker 1: So that sounds carefully worded. And why would any prosecutor
Speaker 1: lie or mislead the jury about a witness's criminal history
Speaker 1: or pending charges if not to hide a potential deal
Speaker 1: for leniency. And when holders testimony is the only piece
Speaker 1: of evidence against you stacked up against all of the
Speaker 1: independent witnesses whose testimony was in favor of Gary's innocence.
Speaker 1: Plus Anthony Holder made an unfounded charge that a little
Speaker 1: girl had been shot as well. If that's true, then
Speaker 1: why wasn't Gary charged with the attempted murder of a child.
Speaker 1: It's just it's just hard to see how the jury
Speaker 1: could get this so wrong. You had Roger Isaac let
Speaker 1: him in voting, and even without Paula Edgehill, you then
Speaker 1: had Augustin Hinkson. I mean, was the prosecution able to
Speaker 1: say that Hinston was a friend of Gary's or something
Speaker 1: anything to impeach him. I think Augustine Hickson was the
Speaker 1: most reliable person that testified. Augustin Hanksen's relations to Gary's
Speaker 1: is just an acquaintance. Hankston had no dog in the race,
Speaker 1: I believe. Actually Hanson is a nine one one caller.
Speaker 1: That's how they get to Hankson. Hanksen is a real
Speaker 1: world person that's there that they know is there from
Speaker 1: the gate that gives a statement to them. Hanksen is
Speaker 1: adamant that Gary was not there. I don't understand how
Speaker 1: Gary loses other than the fact that maybe the jury
Speaker 1: believed that he shot a little girl. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean that a little girl that definitely wasn't shot.
Speaker 1: It's a miracle that no kids were shot. But the
Speaker 1: fact remains that no kid was shot. But they just
Speaker 1: made up this worry, and it seems to me there's
Speaker 1: at least a good chance that they were doing that
Speaker 1: in order to cast this terrible light on Gary, so
Speaker 1: that if the jury saw through the nonsense that they
Speaker 1: were being fed, they would still say, well, this guy
Speaker 1: is a terrible guy because he shot a child. So
Speaker 1: even if the evidence is shaky as hell, we're still
Speaker 1: gonna go ahead and convict him. Am I am I
Speaker 1: off base here? No? No, not at all. No. I
Speaker 1: think you're hunter per cent right. Holder was a terrible witness,
Speaker 1: but he was enough, you know, he was enough um
Speaker 1: to sink Gary unfortunately, and that's the that's the problem
Speaker 1: with the American justice system, is that a single witness
Speaker 1: like this could actually send a man a prison for life.
Speaker 1: Gary was convicted of second agree murder in November two three.
Speaker 1: So Gary, take us inside the courtroom and inside your
Speaker 1: heart and soul. At that moment, it was, it was unbelievable.
Speaker 1: It was it was heartbreaking. It was so shadowing. My
Speaker 1: my my my life, and my world came to a
Speaker 1: halt at that moment. The day I was sentenced, my
Speaker 1: family has also been sentenced to five years to life.
Speaker 1: They're pretty much shipped of everything I was given. You know,
Speaker 1: this new identity, the identity that the Department of Correction
Speaker 1: wished to know me by. They don't care to know
Speaker 1: who Gary Benloss is, and if Gary Denlos is wrongly convicted,
Speaker 1: they don't care about that. I'm known to the Department
Speaker 1: Corrections that zero three eight s four one five. But
Speaker 1: I'm here to tell everyone that's not who I am
Speaker 1: talking about, a young man who was stripped away from
Speaker 1: his family. There's a void in the lives of my
Speaker 1: mother or my sister, the mother of my son, from
Speaker 1: my grandmother, my uncle's, my aunt's, my cousins. So I'm
Speaker 1: not carrying this sentence alone. There's a void that's in
Speaker 1: the life of my son who had to grow up
Speaker 1: without me there that I had dreams of his father
Speaker 1: coming home, but he will never see that because he
Speaker 1: had passed away before that could happen. This tragedy, it's
Speaker 1: it's almost hard to even process this, right, but I
Speaker 1: know when I was up visiting you, Gary, you showed
Speaker 1: me a letter you had gotten from your son. Are
Speaker 1: Your son grew up without his dad through no vault
Speaker 1: of yours and no vault of his own, and yet Um,
Speaker 1: you managed to be a good father, a great father
Speaker 1: from prisoners, as good as any what could be, and
Speaker 1: he turned out to be a fantastic kid. I saw
Speaker 1: a letter that he wrote to you. Um. That was
Speaker 1: a letter that any father would love to get from
Speaker 1: their child, UM, where he basically said, I love you
Speaker 1: and I wish things were different, but we're gonna make
Speaker 1: up for lost time when you come home. You're my inspiration,
Speaker 1: You're my hero. And that letter, which I could almost
Speaker 1: not read knowing what happened next, was just so beautiful
Speaker 1: and powerful. And the awful truth is that the day
Speaker 1: after that he received that letter, he was killed in
Speaker 1: a writing in an uber, just a passenger in an
Speaker 1: uber in a random hit and run accident. Um, I
Speaker 1: think we should really dedicate this episode to his memory,
Speaker 1: you know, talking about a very very very dark moment,
Speaker 1: and and I had to find first within needs strength.
Speaker 1: It's a tremendous way that I cannot imagine lifting, considering
Speaker 1: the way you had already lifted. Perhaps it's the strength
Speaker 1: that you built over all that time leading up to
Speaker 1: this even heavier moment. Now I had to find that
Speaker 1: light of redemption. First within needs to God needs do
Speaker 1: this perilous place so I can get to that plateau
Speaker 1: where I can say, listen, I'm not going to let
Speaker 1: my time in here go two ways. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to allow my room for conviction to stop me from
Speaker 1: being the man that I'm supposed to be. I'm going
Speaker 1: to fight this. I'm going to win, and I'm also
Speaker 1: going to make sure that I'm in position where I
Speaker 1: can pockets. And I've read a bit about some of
Speaker 1: the good things that you've done with your time on
Speaker 1: the inside, the fact I've witnessed some of them in person.
Speaker 1: I mean I've been up there and seeing you doing
Speaker 1: your thing, um making a difference. Can you tell us
Speaker 1: a little bit about your work? So in two thousands
Speaker 1: six I went and I actually obtained my g D.
Speaker 1: Now I'm helping other individuals to achieve their g ds. UM.
Speaker 1: I became a facilitator for UM a cultural awareness class
Speaker 1: to to see a U organization which is a Caribbean
Speaker 1: African community. I've partacting Alternative violence program where you helped
Speaker 1: to mentor people to find a way to alleviate situations
Speaker 1: without the meedings of violence. Two thousand and twelve, I
Speaker 1: was in the electrical trade program. I actually advanced and
Speaker 1: became I think which is called inmate programming system. So
Speaker 1: how was assistant to the teacher. So I became a
Speaker 1: facilitator and do that also allowed me the opportunity to
Speaker 1: then my apprenticeship through the n c C d R
Speaker 1: of course, where I was able to take the same
Speaker 1: type of tests and courses that a person on the
Speaker 1: outside would so they could become electrician. When I came
Speaker 1: to sim, SIM immediately signed up for the Mercy College
Speaker 1: Hustling program that you have here where I am actually
Speaker 1: going for my bachelor's in behavioral science. I wasn't allowing
Speaker 1: my state of mind conservation to hold me back, and
Speaker 1: I was sitting down the stones for my future and
Speaker 1: I have a looked back. No, you have not, and
Speaker 1: you've brought that same proactive and incredibly positive spirit to
Speaker 1: the work that you've done inside with a group of
Speaker 1: guys called the AI Team, the Actual Innocence Team, good name.
Speaker 1: Long time listeners of the show will remember other members
Speaker 1: of this New York based crew, to with whom are
Speaker 1: already out. I'm talking about Derrick Hamilton, Shabaka Shakor and
Speaker 1: of course Nelson Cruz, Danny Rinkhn and yourself still remain
Speaker 1: inside you. Also, we're friendly with another great friend of
Speaker 1: the show and great personal friend of mine, personal hero,
Speaker 1: I would say, I'm talking about j. J. Velasquez, who
Speaker 1: is another just incredibly inspirational man. Being around these individuals
Speaker 1: also helped to give me a sense of hope and
Speaker 1: courage because now you no longer feel alone. And we'll
Speaker 1: go to a lot of berries, will research cases, and
Speaker 1: we'll see what we can find will be able to
Speaker 1: help us. Oh that right, there's a batter In issue
Speaker 1: that's a Strictment versus Washington issue. Oh that's the way
Speaker 1: the issue, and that's how I started to learn the
Speaker 1: law instinctly that you know is not supposed to happen.
Speaker 1: But now you can put legal theory to it. Now,
Speaker 1: it's more than just going into a coising a piece
Speaker 1: of paper and saying I didn't do it. So you
Speaker 1: fought your case for a while this way, and eventually Derek,
Speaker 1: Shabaka and JJ got out and slowly but surely you've
Speaker 1: got your case in front of our friend justin here.
Speaker 1: So justin, what has happened so far in Gary's post
Speaker 1: conviction fight and where does his case stand? Now? Okay? Well, Gary,
Speaker 1: you know, of course he filed a direct appeal. And
Speaker 1: what's very interesting about Gary's direct appeal is that he's
Speaker 1: we're saying the same thing that we're saying now, right,
Speaker 1: Gary has been consistent since day one. He filed a
Speaker 1: motion to vacate his conviction back in two thousand to
Speaker 1: One of the issues was the fact that Anthony Holder
Speaker 1: had a criminal charge that was pending during the trial
Speaker 1: that was never disclosed. Actually, Kyle Reeves, as per usual,
Speaker 1: I should say, Kyle Reeves, failed to turn that over
Speaker 1: and actually indicated that Anthony Holder had never been arrested
Speaker 1: for in his life, which was totally untrue. That just
Speaker 1: goes along with Kyle Reeves's theme. But as of right now,
Speaker 1: you know, we are really reinvestigating the forensics at the
Speaker 1: scene and pulling all the files from the NYPD and
Speaker 1: the District Attorney's office to prepare for another four forty
Speaker 1: or to go to the conviction Review Unit, which I
Speaker 1: do think would be very interested in this case based
Speaker 1: upon how unreliable the evidence is here that convicted Gary
Speaker 1: and the evidence of innocence. Uh. You know, Jason, I
Speaker 1: think the biggest thing is what makes a case like
Speaker 1: Gary's very strong is the evidence that's in the possession
Speaker 1: of the prosecutor. And when you look at that, including
Speaker 1: Augustine Hanksen led him in Bolton and then a caller,
Speaker 1: three people all say that Gary bin Lost is not
Speaker 1: the shooter here, He's not the person that killed Victor Vulcan.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's overwhelming evidence of innocence in
Speaker 1: comparison to and any holder. And that's what we're working
Speaker 1: on right now is tying that all together, both forensically
Speaker 1: and through our investigation and to see if there's any
Speaker 1: more Brady evidence out there, because there was at least
Speaker 1: one witness that was interviewed that was friends with Victor
Speaker 1: Vulcan that stated that Victor Vulcan had beef with people
Speaker 1: from his own block. He was not from the block
Speaker 1: where he was found murdered at So we you know,
Speaker 1: we are investigating all these claims before we do anything,
Speaker 1: but we're we're evaluating whether we go forward with another
Speaker 1: motion to vacate or go to Brooklyn's conviction review. You know,
Speaker 1: justin what can people do? And I'm sure people are
Speaker 1: listening heartbroken and angry and motivated. So what can people
Speaker 1: do to help bring some semblance of justice? Right Gary
Speaker 1: um I would say start off by reaching out to
Speaker 1: Eriknzals Brooklyn d A's office, and also Gary has a
Speaker 1: change dot org page, and support the petition and continue
Speaker 1: to support people who are like Gary. I think that's
Speaker 1: the biggest problem. There needs to be more support from
Speaker 1: a broader base in the country. Right. It has to
Speaker 1: be more than just the people that have been affected
Speaker 1: by rongful convictions. It has to be people that are
Speaker 1: just regular, average American citizens because they need to understand
Speaker 1: that this could be you, because it could be you.
Speaker 1: It could be your son, it could be your daughter,
Speaker 1: it could it could be anybody. It could be you,
Speaker 1: and people need to stop acting like that's not a
Speaker 1: that's not a fact. We will link in the bio
Speaker 1: to the petition and to other information about the case.
Speaker 1: Please do click on the link in the bio, sign
Speaker 1: the petition and get involved, and will hopefully be able
Speaker 1: to publish an update to this episode sometimes in not
Speaker 1: too distant future, where we get to speak with Gary
Speaker 1: from the outside. And now, of course it's time to
Speaker 1: turn to the closing of our show, which everyone knows
Speaker 1: is called closing arguments, and this is where I thank
Speaker 1: you guys again. I'm going to turn over to you first,
Speaker 1: justin for your thoughts, any other thought do you want
Speaker 1: to share, and then of course hand off to Gary
Speaker 1: and he'll take us off into the sunset. The first
Speaker 1: thing that we really need to consider in this case
Speaker 1: is because it happens over and over and over again
Speaker 1: in identification cases, is where there's a description that does
Speaker 1: not match the person that they end up arresting. Obviously,
Speaker 1: common sense says that the suspect should match the description
Speaker 1: that the witnesses say was the perpetrator, and Gary's case
Speaker 1: is very typical, especially in a place like New York City,
Speaker 1: where the police don't care. They just don't care. They
Speaker 1: get a name, they focus on the name. They don't
Speaker 1: care that that the person that is this name doesn't
Speaker 1: match the description of the perpetrator given by the witnesses.
Speaker 1: That just goes right out the window. People don't think
Speaker 1: that that's true. But Gary is evident to that. And
Speaker 1: I can tell you, as an attorney that practices in
Speaker 1: New York City every day, that that happens all the time,
Speaker 1: and it's still happens in and Gary is a He's
Speaker 1: a spot on case of where the police didn't care,
Speaker 1: and the police didn't care because they knew his name,
Speaker 1: they knew who he was. They focused in on him.
Speaker 1: They put him in a photo array with a photo
Speaker 1: that didn't match anything that looked like him. It matched
Speaker 1: more the description of what the witnesses said the perpetrator
Speaker 1: looked like. And what I mean by that is obviously
Speaker 1: a photo array. All you really have is the head.
Speaker 1: The person had short hair in the photo right right,
Speaker 1: so that at least matched more the description of the perpetrator.
Speaker 1: They went and they went arrested Gary. Then they put
Speaker 1: him in a lineup where he looks nothing like he
Speaker 1: looked in the photo array. And Robert Ready is the
Speaker 1: one that handles the identification and the witnesses somehow identify
Speaker 1: him in the lineup. The person that's running these procedures
Speaker 1: should not be involved with the investigation and they should
Speaker 1: not know who the subject is. And Robert Ready has
Speaker 1: done this before, He's gotten called out, cases have been
Speaker 1: thrown out. He because he suggested and tainted identification procedures.
Speaker 1: And then who does Robert Ready hand the case off
Speaker 1: to Kyle Reeves, whose framed numerous men, scumback of the
Speaker 1: highest order, And and and people need to understand what
Speaker 1: is the d a's job. The d a's job is
Speaker 1: to vet the police's investigation. Kyle Reeves doesn't vet an investigation.
Speaker 1: He takes the investigation and he fixes it. He does
Speaker 1: the opposite of what you're supposed to do. And even
Speaker 1: in the face of descriptions of a perpetrator that are
Speaker 1: eighty pounds less and half a foot shorter than Gary
Speaker 1: ben Laws and having a haircut that doesn't match the
Speaker 1: afro that Gary ben Law says, there's nothing about the
Speaker 1: shooter in this case that matches the description of Gary
Speaker 1: ben Laws, Kyle Reeves still takes this to trial. He
Speaker 1: puts let him in bolting on the stand. She stands
Speaker 1: up in court. He asked him, you see the guy
Speaker 1: that shot the victim, Victor Vulcan here. She says no.
Speaker 1: She says no, her testimony matches her initial description of
Speaker 1: the shoe, which it was not gary Ben Lost. That's
Speaker 1: a non identification. He puts Anthony Holder on the witness stand.
Speaker 1: Anthony Holder gives a ridiculous testimony that is not consistent
Speaker 1: at all with the evidence at the scene, not consistent
Speaker 1: at all with the other witnesses at the scene. Says
Speaker 1: that a little girl was shot at the scene. There
Speaker 1: is no NYPD record of a little girl being shot.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you, if a little if a
Speaker 1: child was shot at the scene, gary Ben Lost to
Speaker 1: be doing a lot more than life, Okay, he would be,
Speaker 1: and there would be absolutely police reports indicating that medical
Speaker 1: reports indicating there wasn't. Anthony Holder completely lies that there's
Speaker 1: not one shred of his testimony that is true. And
Speaker 1: then another witness comes in and says that it wasn't
Speaker 1: gary Ben Lost. That the calls. But what the defense
Speaker 1: failed to do here which they often do, as they
Speaker 1: failed to put on the caller that described the shooter
Speaker 1: as five ft eight dark skin with short hair. The
Speaker 1: defense failed to cross examine led Him in Bolton, even
Speaker 1: though she said that Gary ben Laws wasn't the person
Speaker 1: that she saw fining the weapon that day. The jury
Speaker 1: never heard the description of led Him in Bolton, that
Speaker 1: that the shooter matched the description and body type of
Speaker 1: the victim, who was five hundred and sixty eight pounds.
Speaker 1: That could have definitively proved to the jury. It would
Speaker 1: have overridden the terrible testimony of Anthony Holder. I don't
Speaker 1: even really need to do a reinvestigation here. It's clear
Speaker 1: Gary is innocent. He's been in jails for over twenty
Speaker 1: years at this point. It's a travesty of justice. But
Speaker 1: it's all too often of a story, especially in a
Speaker 1: place like New y York City. I witness identification is
Speaker 1: a real problem in New York City. It's all too
Speaker 1: often of a story. And it is just tragic with
Speaker 1: Gary because he should have never been arrested, should have
Speaker 1: never been charged, and he was just railroaded. The traumatic
Speaker 1: and irreparable effects of wrongful conviction just don't affect those
Speaker 1: wrongfully convicted. It also impacts the lives of their families,
Speaker 1: their communities, and the fabric of our nation. Let explain
Speaker 1: what I mean. I would like to share this letter
Speaker 1: with you all. It was written by my beloved son,
Speaker 1: Isaiah Belos, who was seventeen years old at the time.
Speaker 1: It reads, Dear Sir Madam, I'm writing on behalf of
Speaker 1: my father, Gary Belos. When I was a baby, I
Speaker 1: never really got the chance to spend time and bond
Speaker 1: with my father until I got older. This situation really
Speaker 1: got to me while I was growing up without him.
Speaker 1: He wasn't there when I first picked up a basketball
Speaker 1: and when I first rode a bike. Also, he wasn't
Speaker 1: there when I graduated elementary and middle school. All I
Speaker 1: wish is for me and him to go out and
Speaker 1: bond with each other. Even though he wasn't there for
Speaker 1: my elementary and middle school years, I hope he can
Speaker 1: be there when I graduated from high school. In I
Speaker 1: hope whoever is reading this you find it in your
Speaker 1: heart to give my father early parole. Please thank you
Speaker 1: in advance. The SAILI Isaaiah Benlos. That was written in
Speaker 1: April twenty second of and as you see, I'm still
Speaker 1: in prison, so he never got that wish for me
Speaker 1: to be there for his graduation. In June of the
Speaker 1: month following his graduation, he sent me a car for
Speaker 1: my birthday and if be happy birthday to the real
Speaker 1: O G. I just want to say thank you for
Speaker 1: being real with me, believing in me when no one did,
Speaker 1: still being real and never switching up and sticking it
Speaker 1: through even in these hard times. I know you can't
Speaker 1: be out here with me and wishing things could have
Speaker 1: been different, But I always reminded myself and never regret
Speaker 1: what I have, because then I wouldn't have you in
Speaker 1: my amazing girlfriend and family that I love dealing. I
Speaker 1: appreciate and love you Dad. Hopefully when you get out
Speaker 1: you can make up for lot times. I love your
Speaker 1: pops to tell your son Isaaiah Bengas again those wishes
Speaker 1: will never be manifested because just a day after receiving
Speaker 1: this card from my son, he was in a tragic
Speaker 1: car accident that le declaimed this life. So as I
Speaker 1: leave you, go here with these final thoughts. As I
Speaker 1: studied before, the state of wrongful conviction doesn't just impact
Speaker 1: those wrongfully convicteds, it also affects the families. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to wrongful conviction. I'd like to
Speaker 1: thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff Clyburne and Kevin
Speaker 1: Wardis with research by Lila Robinson. The music in this
Speaker 1: production was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at
Speaker 1: wrong Conviction, as well as at Lava for Good. On
Speaker 1: all three platforms, you can also follow me on both
Speaker 1: TikTok and Instagram at It's Jason Flom. Rob Conviction is
Speaker 1: the production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with
Speaker 1: Signal Company Number one h