WEBVTT - #463 Jason Flom with Ashunte & Willie Smith 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:05.640 In February of nineteen ninety five, on the East side 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:10.200 of Cleveland, sixteen year old William Marshall survived in arm robbery. 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:18.160 Rumors swirled about a usual suspect named Reggie Lewis. On 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:22.000 March twenty eighth, nineteen ninety five, the victim's cousins, Willie 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:26.920 and Ashante Smith, ran into Reggie, who denied involvement, offering 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:29.600 to go with them to their cousins and clear his name. 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:31.960 Over a week. 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.920 Later, Reggie Lewis's body was found in a wooded area, 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:38.800 and eventually William Marshall blamed Willie and Ashante. 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:42.080 But this is wrongful conviction. 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:52.920 Wrongful conviction has always given voice to innocent people in prison, 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:56.600 and now we're expanding that voice to you. Call us 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:00.520 at eight three three two o seven four and tell 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:03.160 us how these stories make you feel and what you've 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:05.479 done to help the cause, even if it's something as 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.600 simple as telling a friend or sharing on social media, 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:12.200 and you might just hear yourself in a future episode. 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:16.119 Call us A three three two seven four six sixty six. 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:29.600 Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction, where we have a Cleveland 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.120 family that was ripped apart, literally ripped apart by the 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:38.400 wrongful conviction of Ashante and Willie Smith. But before we 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:41.600 introduce them, I want to welcome back their appella, attorney 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.319 Kim Carral, thank you for having me, and of course 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:50.680 the two men who continue to endure the effects of 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:54.200 their own cousins lie, both of whom are calling in 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:58.360 from correctional facilities in Ohio. First, the younger of the two, 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:02.360 Ashante Smith, thank you for having me. And his older 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:04.480 brother Willie, thank you guys both. 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:05.040 For joining us. 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:07.000 Absolutely no problem. 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:11.160 And this goes back to mid nineties nineteen ninety five, 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:15.360 when so called tough on crime politicians had been elected 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.280 around the country to prosecute the war on drugs, which 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:22.480 was really just a war on people, the American people, 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:28.640 when what we had was a humanitarian crisis which became 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:29.880 known as the crack epidemic. 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.320 Not only were we talking about tough on crime politicians 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:35.680 in the nineties, but we were talking about like these 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:40.280 super criminals, particularly juveniles, and so that kind of sets 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:42.320 a tone for this case. Because Willy and a Shanty 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:44.720 were fifteen and nineteen. And when I say that, as 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:46.839 Shanty was like, there're a fifteen year old who looked 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:48.520 like adults and fifteen year old who look like ten 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:50.880 year olds. That's how I would describe as shanty at 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:52.400 that time. I mean he was fifteen, but he was 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:52.960 very young. 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:56.000 I was furteen years old when I left, so I 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:58.480 didn't experience much like My mother was a single parent, 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.240 grady four children. My parents divorced when I was I 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:02.520 was just about four or five years old. 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:05.079 My father, he was kind of a fusive dude. We 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:07.239 would be eating at the table and he might come 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:09.600 in and just flip the whole God damn playball, you 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:12.600 know what I'm saying. Food everywhere. And my mother eventually divorced. 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:15.600 We were living on Kingsmen when I stayed across from 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:19.760 my grandmother. That's before the divorce, and we were moved 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:22.240 down to the projects project. 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:25.160 Housing called Longwood Estates and they basically got settled on 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:27.399 East time of the Firs Street. In you, it's fourth 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:29.480 of us. I was a third child. My second brother 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:32.160 is right. She and my sister Satan. 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.680 And where I'm the oldest of three other siblings. My 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:38.480 mother comes from a big family, so she had her 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:42.280 sisters Andretta kid Agatha and one of her sisters who 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:45.920 was murdered collect Marshall, being you had her brother who 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:48.480 had committed suicide back before I was born. 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:53.720 My understanding is Lucretia Ashantine, Willie's mom. She basically was 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:58.640 the one to find him and that further solidified her 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:03.400 position as I the black sheep in the family. So 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:09.240 Lucretia and her sisters all have children, but really her 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:12.720 children are other than some of the other cousins. And 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:18.359 when one of Lucretia's sisters dies, Grandma takes that child in. 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:20.200 That's William Marshall. 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:24.240 There was always a different type of treatment towards us 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:29.000 being sneels versus how my other cousins was treated by 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:30.080 my grandmother. 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:33.720 But William Marshall really is the golden boy in this 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:36.480 group of cousins to Grandma. 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.159 And our cousins came around, you know, we spent time 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:41.920 with them, and we're all relatively in the same age bracket. 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:45.359 My one cousin, William, one year older than me, and 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.599 then my older cousin Laney, is a few years older 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:48.920 than my. 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.760 Brother, Sean Laney, and his mother and Dretta William Marshall 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:56.280 and his grandma Sarah Marshall, and then Kit Laster who 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.520 married Don laster. They all lived close to each other, 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:02.520 while the Smiths lived about five miles away near the 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:05.440 victim in this case, Reggie Lewis. 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:07.680 I didn't know. I've seen you around the neighborhood. He 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:10.839 was definitely a reputation because at around his time, guys 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:16.040 in the neighborhoods with robbing people, stars jackets, Chicago bulls, jackets, raiders, jackets, 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.000 or they were robbing and shooting and killing people for him. So, 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:21.800 mister Lewis, he was grappling with a drug addiction, which 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:24.159 I believe that led him out into the streets to 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:26.880 rob people to feed his addiction. 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:28.479 Have you ever seen a wire? 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:28.960 Yeah? 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:31.960 Not trying to, you know, disparage him, but I would 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:36.279 describe Reggie as being like what Omar was. He was 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:36.800 a terror. 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:38.600 He was on drugs and he. 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:41.400 Was calls in habit, making a lot of enemies and 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:42.640 doing a lot. 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:45.640 Then in February nineteen ninety five, William Marshall was in 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:48.799 the Smith's neighborhood when a masked gunman attacked. 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.080 I believe it was over like a Mooney Tunes jacket. 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:53.919 He got shot in his back and I think he 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:56.560 came out his neck. He went through surgery. It was serious. 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:57.680 He almost lost his life. 0:05:57.760 --> 0:05:59.520 And so a kid gets rob a gunpoint. No one's 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:01.320 trying to figure out who did it or what happened, 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:04.200 except for the other members of the family, the sort 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:06.440 of cousin group who's trying to protect their own. 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:12.280 The Knight of William shooting Sean. Ronnie Johnson, the friend 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.240 of Sean Laney and a few other guys went through 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.320 my neighborhood and they jumped out on a few guys 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:21.320 in rough house a little bit, and they came up 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:22.520 with Reggie Lewis name. 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.040 And then on March twenty eighth, nineteen eighty five, Willie 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:30.120 and Ashante were driving around with their friends Rasheen Bledsoe 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:32.680 and Clarence Brown, and they ran into Reggie in front 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:34.400 of their friend Chanel Owens' house. 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.400 Chanela Owens comes to the car and basically expresses that 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:41.960 another drug addict named Scott lad Rocket had just jumped 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:43.960 on Reggie beat him up a little bit, and she 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.200 was like, I want Reggie Lewis by my jar and 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:49.159 he won't leave. Everybody jumped out the car, but I 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.120 remember the name. I said, ain't you the one supposed 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:54.560 to be? And he says, I didn't shoot nobody. You 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.440 got me le fed up and we got to fighting. 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:01.039 And then the course of us fighting, he basically like, 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:03.120 I didn't do it, but I know who did. And 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.159 base vlase you could take me to your cousin. He 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:07.960 is seated. I ain't the one that shot in. I 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:10.000 don't know why everybody put my name in that shit. 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:12.480 I ain't had nothing to do with it. It was somebody else. 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:16.160 So I'm like, okay, well let's go. So we get 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:19.120 it to the car. He's not being restrained, he's not 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:21.280 being pushed into the no damn car, none of that. 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:25.520 And we roll out and Chanelle Owen's immediate statement to 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:29.480 the police is that he goes Willingly with Willie and 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:34.000 Ashanti and their two friends. Later, she testifies that they 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:36.520 all get into a fight and they kidnap him. 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:40.040 It was doing today. So I'm assuming that William is 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:42.720 at school or wherever the hell he's supposed to be, 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:45.880 but he's nowhere around. I go to the van various 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.880 station Warrensville to go run down on my cousin Sean. 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:52.960 He walks up to the car. He said, that's Reggie. 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:55.440 I say it's Reggie, right, here. He said, he didn't 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:57.320 have nothing to do with that. Why is y'all putting 0:07:57.320 --> 0:07:59.480 his name in it? And he basically like, oh right, well, look, 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:01.600 we're gonna find out ben. So he gets in the 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:05.040 car and we all go to my uncle's house, Donald 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:09.120 Lasser's house in Kid Marshall's house down the street from 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:12.840 my grandmother's house, Sarah Marshall. So we rolled up in there, 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:17.600 me and the chante and Sean proceeded to my aunt's house. 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:20.080 You know, he wasn't gonna walk up in there with 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:22.800 all these people. She had a fit. And as soon 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.960 as we get up in the house, the whole tone 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:29.400 changed with Sean like, that's the dude, who did it? 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:32.160 Why did you bring you down? Now? He no where 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:36.360 our aunt's day. My aunt chimes in. Kid laughs and 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.360 chimes in at the time like yeah, if he shoot him, 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:42.360 he has shoot us. And you know, I'm saying, hold on, man, 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:44.880 the man said he didn't do it, So you know 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:46.680 what I'm saying, I'm not about to do nothing to 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:49.480 this duty. And I asked him, I say, look, man, 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:51.880 go and check it out with Williams. If he didn't 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:55.280 do it, he cool. Sean says, well, I'll take care 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:55.839 of her from here. 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:59.920 Man and Missus Lewis got the car with Sean Leney, 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.160 Missus Johnson's the food truck, my brother, myself and our 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.360 two friends. We left. We didn't see what it. We 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:07.160 didn't even see them leave, and so. 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:11.120 That is the end of their engagement with what turns 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:12.320 out to be a murder. 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.480 You're listening to Romful Conviction. You can listen to this 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.280 and all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:30.720 and ed free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:36.359 on Apple Podcasts. 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:41.880 Of Horse we ate my grandmother. My brother and I 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:44.720 did see her at a hall restore around three thirty 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:47.679 four o'clock of the evening with our two friends, to say, 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:49.800 two frands, the same white car. We dripped driving these 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:50.320 all day. 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:54.280 Actually she saw them on the other side of town before. 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:58.080 She goes home, which corroborated Willie and Chante's version of events. 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.840 They saw their grandmother shortly after leaving Reggie Lewis with 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:05.640 their cousins. Meanwhile, as that day turned into the next, 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.160 Reggie's mother began to wonder where her son was. 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:11.080 His mother said at trial that we need to hear 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:14.080 from me clawed down to the police department and found 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:17.360 police before and he said a few days later the 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:18.640 body was recovering. 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:22.840 It's April eighth, nineteen ninety five. A kindergarten class is 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:26.120 walking through a public park in Warrensville, which is about 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:29.760 twenty minutes from where the crime occurred, and in the 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:35.400 ravine they find a pretty decomposed human body. Kindergarteners and 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:38.080 so this gets a ton of attention. So once they're 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:40.760 able to identify that it's Reggie Lewis, they start like 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:45.480 a backwards investigation of like, who doesn't like Reggie Lewis, 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:47.640 And they become aware that he's in a fight in 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:50.720 Chanelle Owen's yard. And when they first talked to Shanelle Owens, 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:52.280 she says, yes, he was in a fight in my 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.400 yard with this person. And then he was in a 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:58.280 fight my yard with Willie Nashanti Smith and their two friends, 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:00.160 and he got in the car with that and then 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:00.840 they drove off. 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:04.640 On April nineteenth, nineteen eighty five, despite Chanelle's initial statement 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.320 that Reggie had gotten into the car Willingly, both Willie 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:12.360 and Ashante were arrested for kidnapping and had an additional 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:13.680 assault charge attacked on. 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:17.480 The kick during about six thirty seven o'clock in the morning. 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:20.520 Our team ran in the house and masked on machine guns. 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:22.640 Was terrified and told me and my brother was were arrested. 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.280 Our questions and I was fifteen years old at the time, 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:27.440 but they questioned me anyway before my mother even got there. 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:29.439 But I didn't have that to offer other than the 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:30.920 fact that he got in a fight and we dropped 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:32.240 the guy off, and that was the truth. 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:35.160 I walked through the door. The interrogation wrong that check 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.760 this Spira says, slid out. We know you didn't kill him, 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:42.000 we know you just dropped him off. The first one 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.040 to talk is this one to get the deal. So 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:47.560 what are you saying? If I don't talk, you're going 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:48.480 to put a case on me. 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.640 We didn't completely come out and say who we dropped 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:55.199 him off to. That's true. We didn't do that, And 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:57.840 maybe we should have said we saw mister Lewis leave 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:00.480 with our cousin and his friend and become a listen 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.040 and dead. You know one plus two equals what it does, right. 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.240 I told them, I said, well, shit, it seemed like 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.560 you already know everything. So if you know I dropped 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:12.920 him off. Then you know he was alive, and well, 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:17.240 then what am I here for? You talking to the 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:19.880 wrong dude, And it was like, well that's not like 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:23.520 hot his words, And my mother and my grandfather on 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:27.199 my father's side of the family happened to come in 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:30.280 and sit down and see seeing where it was going, 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:33.240 and told me not to say another word. And I 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.960 have not said another word into this interview today. 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:38.920 Now they do a search in a Chante's room. They 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.679 find a gun, but it doesn't match the bullets that 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:44.400 shot Reggie. 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:48.240 At that time, Me and a Chante are only charged 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:52.520 with kidnapping it, and Shant has an additional charge of assault. 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:55.480 I was you and now out of county jail. They 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:57.280 had me the most their adultter height once until they 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:01.200 found out I was you and now and a salemate 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:03.320 who was about will was about like twenty eight years old. 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:09.240 William Marshall has not been involved or picked up or 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:10.479 charged yet. 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:14.960 An alleged anonymous tip led Detective Sparra to William Marshall. 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:19.680 Whoever made the tip said that they witnessed the murder 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:24.120 in the basement of William's homes that he lived with 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:27.840 from a grandmother and he identified to Sean Laney, William 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:30.120 Marshall and my uncle's and this would led them to 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:31.760 execute the warrant at the home. 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:37.959 They searched William Marshall's house and find blood bullets. I mean, 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:41.400 the house has been cleaned, but there's still remnants of 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:43.559 blood all over the basement, all over. 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:47.240 A nine millimeter bullet was collected and the prology came 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:51.400 back consistent with Reggie Lewis's blood, leading to William Marshall's arrest, 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:55.040 as well as a renewed offer to a Chante and 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:56.960 Willie catcha Sparah. 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:59.320 Was told me he had told my mother that he 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:02.120 knew that me and my brother did not commit this crime. 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:04.840 He said he knew that we were not there, but 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.040 he told me he could not help us if we 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:11.200 could not help him. He implied to me that if 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:14.840 I put myself there and say I saw what happened, 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:17.000 he could help me and my brother. But neither I 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:18.680 nor my brother was willing to put ourselves in that 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:21.040 basement and say that we saw something that we didn't see. 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:22.600 WILLI was willing to do it. 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:27.560 And they basically tell William Marshall they think it had 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:30.480 to have been William Ashanti and they tell William Marshall, 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:33.600 you are going to get raped in prison. Your asshole 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.360 will be the size of a grapefruit. We cannot protect 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:39.160 you in adult prison. If you agree to this one 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:43.000 year deal in the juvenile detention center and testify against 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:46.360 your cousins, you can be done with this. And there's 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:51.240 like the family dynamic here. Grandma wants to protect William Marshall, 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:54.880 who she is raising. Meanwhile, we sort of have black 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:58.240 sheep Lucretia's two sons, and his grandma tells him take 0:14:58.280 --> 0:14:58.640 the deal. 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:02.080 Donald Last and Sarah Marshall were having visits with him, 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:05.360 and we're not having visits with a chante, and they 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:07.440 were prepping him on what to say and what not 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:09.560 to say, and they were getting ready to put the 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:11.240 screws and fuck us all the way around. 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.360 And the statement was carefully crafted to kind of make 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:18.680 William into a passive observer. That Willy and a Shante 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:22.120 dragged Reggie Lewis into their grandma's basement, ordered William to 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:27.560 find some twine. William then gave them phone court and 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:30.840 then went upstairs to be a lookout. They tied Reggie up, 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.880 shot him, ordered William to get some sheets to wrap 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:37.000 the body, and then Willie and a shunte dragged the 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:39.840 body out to the trunk of a car and William 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:42.040 cleaned up the basement that day. 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:47.400 I had never ever saw William Marshall. William Marshall never 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:50.640 saw me. The only person that saw me that day 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:58.920 was Sean Lanny, Ronnie Johnson hit Laster, and my grandmother, 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:02.680 Sarah Marshall, who saw us for when she was coming 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:07.680 out of the hardware store, which inadvertently solidify my alibi. 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:12.320 I feel because if you saw us with these two guys, 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:14.560 and my aunt saw us at her house with these 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:17.280 two guys, that was with us when we dropped this 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:21.280 man off alive, and well, why am I going to trial? 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:26.240 Willie is tried first, And that's largely because Willy is 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:28.200 an adult and ashunty first had to go through the 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:31.040 bindover program. He'd be bound over from juvenile court to 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:35.200 adult court. William Marshall, because he takes this deal, never 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:38.040 gets bound over. He gets a one year sentence for 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:41.080 his role in a murder and then he's done. But 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:46.480 unfortunately for Willie, he didn't have much of a defense. 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:49.480 Oh No, the streets and the other suspects. Was getting 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:52.640 teed that I was convicted of his crime by making 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:56.040 sure that nobody, no witnesses, came up at my trial. 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:58.520 I was naive to believe that you got a subpoena. 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.840 Ay no, not come in the court. Oh excuse me, shit, 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:06.480 because I said, subpoenas out to kid laughter Raa Sheen Blasso, 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:09.640 Clarence Brown. In my mind, it was time to list 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.040 ey voice to sing, and you know, nobody showed. 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:17.680 Up without an alibi. William Marshall's statement went unchallenged. Rather, 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:20.720 it was supported by Chanelle Owens, who had changed her 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:22.720 story to say that Reggie had not gone with the 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:27.400 Smiths willingly. So Willie was convicted in September nineteen ninety five. 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:30.520 You got to put yourself at the time when all 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:32.560 this is going on too. So it was a little 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:35.960 bit of hostility going on because of the oj situation, 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:39.240 you know, and his verdict that it just transpired three 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:42.600 days prior to my verdict. You got you know, CEOs 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:46.320 Deputy Shares making comments, even got the judge chiming in 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:49.639 about that. Basically everybody felt like he got away with something. 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:53.480 So I'm hearing, you know, with this one won't you 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:55.760 know when the jury came back and said that I 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:58.320 was guilty of kidnapping, I knew that it was a lie. 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:00.000 When they said I was not guilty of the first 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:03.600 kind of aggravated murder, I was relieved. And then when 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:06.480 he went to the third kind of aggravated murder and 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:09.840 said I was not guilty of prior calculation and design, 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:13.480 not guilty of the gun specification, and not guilty of 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:16.959 being the principal offender, I was like, whoa hold on, 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:19.800 that's a lot of not guilty. And then they turned 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:24.119 around and went to having a weapon under disability charge 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:27.320 and found me not guilty as that as well, and 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:31.920 an argument ensued with my attorneys with the judge. They 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:34.840 was like, hold on, the state's theory was that this 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:38.840 guy was executed by this guy, and the jury just 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:41.560 said that he didn't have a gun. He's not the 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:44.720 main guy. Did I did not commit this crime with 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:47.600 prior calculation of design, but yet I ended up with 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:50.159 a thirty the life sentence. I ended up going to 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:52.960 jail for a crime that I didn't commit, and that 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:56.520 basically a jury of my peers took the gun out 0:18:56.520 --> 0:18:59.720 of my hand. That William Marshall was so willing to put. 0:18:59.520 --> 0:18:59.960 In my hand. 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:04.160 It sounds like there was a conflict among jurors who 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:08.320 reached a compromise. But hell of a compromise it was. 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:12.240 The result was still thirty the life. And then Ashante 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:14.760 went to trial the following spring of nineteen ninety six. 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:17.119 I was petrified, but I got to be honest with you. 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:20.080 I was going to lie and trying to take a deal. 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:22.720 I was thinking about doing it just to save myself, 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:24.879 because people do this every single day in this system, 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.720 just to save themselves. This is how cool the system is. Well, 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:30.520 I went to trial for my brother to know that 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:32.119 the truth can get out because I was thinking I 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:36.040 was under disillusion that if you told the truth and 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:36.720 it's staying. 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:40.119 By the time Ashante went to trial, his family and 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.920 other alibi witnesses were now willing to testify. 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:46.520 Maybe they thought Willy would be fine because he didn't 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:49.160 do it and they didn't need to put themselves out there, 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:50.959 and so they didn't show up for him. But then 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:53.639 when Willy was convicted, they were like, Oh, this is 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:55.879 our come to Jesus moment. We need to show up 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:57.920 for a Shanti. I don't know what happened but could 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:00.119 be attributable to like more time went by and the 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.600 family had some time to process what was happening. But 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:05.160 by the time as Shunty goes to trial, he has 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:08.840 uncle don Kit has all of these people coming in 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:12.560 to testify that Shunty and Willie were with Reggie Lewis, 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:13.960 but that they laughed. 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:17.560 Yeah, both of our friends was with us the entire time. 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:21.040 They testified to this. At my trial, they testified that 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.920 they witnessed mister Lewis get out of the white car 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:27.320 and get into the Booch truck with our cousin and 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:29.879 his friend. I'm thinking to myself that okay, if the 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:32.160 truth is here, they have to see it now. I'm 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:36.600 going to be found not guilty, and I'm thinking that 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:38.760 they would have some positive ramification for my brother as 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:43.800 well too. Though the opposite happened. The prosecutor played it 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:45.600 as they said, if our two friends. This is seeming 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:48.560 to the bar imagination, despite the fact that six additional 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:52.880 witnesses is saying the same thing that testified at the trial. 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:55.440 And Grandma trying to play the middle ground. She did 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:57.680 if actually she saw them on the other side of 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:01.000 town before she goes home. She testifies she sees him 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:02.720