WEBVTT - #526 Ben Bowlin with Sonny Bharadia 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.720 This episode of Wrongful Conviction includes discussion of sexual assault 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:11.920 and suicide. Please listen with caution and care. On November eighteenth, 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.920 two thousand and one, a Georgia woman found a burglar 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:18.959 in her home who blindfolded and tied her down. He 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:23.599 bizarrely claimed to be an Islamic militant before completing the 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:28.560 burglary and a sexual assault. The victim described her attacker 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.440 as black, and she eventually chose a man named Sterling 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:36.200 Flint from a photo lineup. Separately, a man named Sonny 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:40.159 Baradia reported Sterling Flint for stealing a Chevy Tahoe and 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:44.720 a motorcycle, and while investigating that, the police found the 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:49.440 sexual assault victim's property in Sterling's house. But Sterling's girlfriend 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:52.879 was a former sheriff's deputy and they both said that 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:57.040 Sonny Baradia had asked him to hold the stolen items. 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:01.040 Even though Sonny wasn't black, the police chose to believe 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:06.120 that he was an Islamic militant. This is wrongful conviction. 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:14.920 You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.679 and all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:21.080 and ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:33.959 on Apple Podcasts. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction this story today. 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:35.360 First of all, it's going to make you want to 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:39.120 jump through your headset whatever you're listening to this on, 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:42.959 and strangle somebody, because well, I've been wanting to do 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:45.000 something like that ever since I first heard about it 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:48.680 years ago, and I'm so glad that Suddy Barati is 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:50.720 here with us today to tell it. But before I 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:53.840 introduced Studdy, I want to introduce my co host, Ben Bolan. 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:56.600 Many of you will know, he's one of my favorite 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.080 podcasters and probably one of yours as well, and we're 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:02.880 so thrilled to have him on this season of Rawful Conviction. 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:03.840 Thank you so much. 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:06.400 This is and anger that we all share, like you 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:09.800 were saying, wanting to jump through the headset. We're going 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:13.760 to talk about some gross miscarriages of justice, but I 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:16.240 don't know, Jason, what better way to begin than to 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:17.320 speak with the man. 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:20.360 Himself, Sonny, Thanks so much for being here, Thank you. 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:22.760 And to help tell this story. We're also joined by 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:25.399 Sonny's pro bono attorney, Olivia Vigiletti. 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.560 Welcome, Thank you so much, and this story begins in 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:30.320 the metro Atlanta area. 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:32.600 Yes, suburbs. I grow up of Stone Mountain. I mean 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:34.400 growing up out a pretty good childhood. I mean I 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:37.320 had parents now're married, you know, red with things like holidays, 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:39.840 go camping, Daisy World, did all that growing up. I mean, 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.760 play sports, eleague, baseball, stuff like that, hanging out my 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:43.560 friends and stuff. 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:44.440 I mean that was it. 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:47.079 And by the time this happened in September two thousand 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:49.200 and one, Sonny was in his mid twenties. 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:51.320 The fall this happened, I was working. I was going 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:54.320 to school and go to gym Rediley. I was doing 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:56.639 that sheet metal work. I mean does a good job 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.320 because like at that time probably like seventy five dollars 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:01.919 now doing it. And he gave me opportunities to move 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:03.360 up in a job. And so for me at the 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:05.120 time that was good and was something stable. 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:07.840 Yeahs an hour, it was good money. Yes, this is 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:09.480 how you were able to afford a tahoe and some 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:11.839 other nice things. Right, So you're doing all right. 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:14.720 And you also had a side interest. 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:16.120 In cars vehicles. 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:19.079 Yeah, yeah, yes, my little side thing was I like 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:20.520 to buy cars and fix the myself. 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.560 And Sunny was very generous with his talents, especially with 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:27.280 his close friends Ray Sewan and Keisha Pitts. While it 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:31.920 seems some acquaintances took advantage of Sonny's generosity, one of 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:36.000 them was a guy named Sterling Flint. But before Sterling 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:39.800 enters the story, a different friend who stayed in Beuford, 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.120 South Carolina, had asked to borrow Sonny's shabby tahoe. 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:45.400 I let a friend of mine use my car because 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:47.120 his car was in the shop. I'm like sure, just 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:48.960 like two three days a camp, and it ended up 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:51.600 being a breach of trust. Like when Friday came, it's 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:54.280 like a cell phone was cut off so he won't respond. 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:57.040 And I knew it was his mother's house in South Carolina, 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:00.120 so I got all his ex wife, got his mother's address, 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.680 and I called to Cab County Police explain what happened 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.320 to my vehicle. And I remember clearly being a Saturday, 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.840 November seventeenth, two thousand and one, I met a friend 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:12.840 of mine named Rayshawn's house exactly from Brooklyn, and so 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:14.400 I just to go check on his wife when he's 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:16.520 out of town in New York working and take his 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:17.480 wife's kids. 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:22.400 Out that night Sunny, his girlfriend Alitia Colbert and Rayshawn's wife, Kesha. 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:25.120 They all went out together with their kids for the 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:29.039 opening weekend of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:32.000 they watched to drive it now. They got home very 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:33.799 late around midnight. 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:37.160 So the next day being Sunday, which was a day 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:39.800 a crime. November eighteenth, two thousand and one. I'm at 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:43.239 my girlfriend's house. About ten o'clock, my cell phone rings 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:46.680 and it's a detective from Beauford County, South Carolina, and 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:48.560 he told me he has my vehicle in his impound 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:51.360 and I can pick it up Monday through Friday. So 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:54.560 that day I dropped my girlfriend's daughter to Mova's house. 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:57.640 I took my girlfriend, took her to Wendy's. I went 0:04:57.680 --> 0:04:59.560 through the drive through day on cameras. I got her 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:02.240 something to and I dropped across street to a job 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:04.920 and then a comma from ray Sean, and I asked 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:06.520 him I'll pick up a socket set from his house 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:08.160 because I was working on his car out bought from 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:10.640 auction a while back. So I get the soaka set 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:12.440 a little left, like twelve o'clock and I go to 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:14.560 a friend of mine's house. I had a car park 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:17.119 there which I was working on and around four thirty 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:19.800 five o'clock I stopped by Ray Shawn's dropped a soakka 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:20.279 set off. 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.599 So Sonny's whereabouts were accounted for in the Metro Atlanta area, 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:26.279 over two hundred and fifty miles away from the scene 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:30.080 of the crime, which was in a Savannah suburb called Thunderbolt, Georgia. Now, 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:34.160 remember this happened not even ten weeks after nine to eleven, 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.720 when average Americans were just learning the names of militant 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:42.200 groups like Al Qaeda, and this fear of terrorist cells 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:45.400 operating in the US was at a fever pitch. So 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.760 with that backdrop, it's believed that an acquaintance of Sonny's 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:51.920 named Sterling Flint, committed a burglary in the early afternoon 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:53.720 of November eighteenth, two thousand and one. 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:58.000 Basically, this was a daytime burglary gone wrong. Sterling Flint 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:01.000 breaks into the house and he's stealing electronics and the 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.640 victim comes home, so he very quickly blindfolds her and 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.240 he tells her this very scary story about how he's 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:10.800 part of al Qaeda and he was sent here for her, 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:13.320 and she says in her original police statement that he 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:15.200 was pretending to be on the phone with someone else 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:18.159 who's maybe like instructing him what to do next, but 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:19.920 she knew that there was no one actually on the phone. 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:22.240 She could hear the dial tone, and he tells her 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.640 he needs to commit what he calls a fake rape 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:29.320 to make this other person happy, so that she's scared quiet, 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:31.520 and he's holding her at knife point and does some 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:33.200 assault of things to her. 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:34.359 Be aware. 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:38.760 The following language is graphic and maybe disturbing. This is 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.400 from the victim's statement. The victim says, this man tied 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:47.320 her up to the bed, performed oral sex on her, masturbated, ejaculated, 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.400 cleaned up after himself had then left with a number 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:54.320 of electronic items and a suitcase. When the victim freed 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:58.600 herself and removed the blindfold, she noticed it was two forty. 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:02.119 Pm, fortunately for some Before she gets blindfolded, she sees 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:03.760 he's wearing blue and white bat and gloves, and she 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:07.440 tells the police that but the GBI the Georgia labs 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:11.000 at the time were only testing fluids. The labs weren't 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:14.280 doing touch DNA testing, so they scan all the evidence 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:16.000 that they have. They don't find any fluids. They say 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:18.520 there's nothing to test, and that's really important. 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:20.680 We're going to hold onto that detail for later, But 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:23.040 at that time all they had to go on was 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:26.880 her description. Now, remember the attacker was partially masked, she 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:30.120 had only seen his eyes shortly before she was blindfolded, 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.240 and the victim was white, which made this a cross 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:38.840 racial identification situation, whether with the actual attacker as described 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:40.760 by the victim or with Sonny. 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:43.080 The victim's description of the guy was a black mail 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:47.280 bushy bras bushy musta's darskin ruskin face five six, one fifty. 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:48.840 I was like one eighty five. I just go to 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:50.680 gym like four days a week at a time. So 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:52.720 you're not saying one hundred fifty pounds. You're not said 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:53.480 I was a black mail. 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:58.400 After all, Sonny's ethnicity is Indian, which I guess if 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:01.920 you're a racist and you're all suit not good at 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:05.000 being racist, then that makes Sunny a member of al 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:09.320 Qaeda somehow. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. At this point, 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:13.000 they had made a composite sketch of a black man. Meanwhile, 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.760 Sunny was headed just a short distance north of Savannah, Georgia, 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:20.520 to Beauford County, South Carolina to get his car back. However, 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.000 the only friend he could scramble to come with him 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:25.480 to drive one of the vehicles back home she had 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:26.720 a problem with her license. 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.320 We finally get a Buford like five pm on November nineteenth, 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.520 and I picked my vehicle up and just randomly startling. 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:35.560 Flint called me at that time, and I've only seen 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:37.440 this coup once or twice. So he's like, where am 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:38.880 I at? I said him in Bufford and he's like, 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:41.000 were you like thirty minutes from me. It's like light 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:43.240 bulb goes off in a head. I was like, hey, man, 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:45.600 is any way you go on Atlanta soon? Because I 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:47.600 got a scirrel me took me to get my car, 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:49.800 but she has some type of issue of license. 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:51.360 I think she had a DUI or something. 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:53.880 So I didn't want to getting pulled over going back 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:55.800 to Atlanta driving behind me, you know, So I asked 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:57.520 me to drive my vehicle back and he's like sure. 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:00.000 So we met him and his girlfriend at a restaurant. 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:02.960 We ate dinner, and he left on his motorcycle and 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:04.840 I follow his girlfriend to his house. So when we 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.319 get to his house, she introduced me her roommate with 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:09.800 he was a Chatham County share steputy, and she tells 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:11.880 me she used to be a Chatham County shaf's deputy. 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:15.719 Now it appears that Sterling's girlfriend, Ashley Dold's affiliation to 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:18.160 law enforcement may have played a role in this case. 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:20.800 But at this point in the story, Sterling Flint parked 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:23.760 his motorcycle at home. He got into Chabby Tahoe and 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:26.360 was supposed to follow Sonny back to his friend's house 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:27.000 at Atlanta. 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:29.360 When we entered one of the interstates in Atlanta, my 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:32.120 vehicle disappeared. I don't see him on the highway no more. 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:34.160 But finally when I get to my friend's house, I'll 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:36.679 keep calling. His phone is not answering. Probably about three 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:38.599 o'clock in the morning, he calls. He says that he 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:41.440 stopped for gas and he ran into a friend of 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:43.640 his aid and seen in some yours and he'll beat in. 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:45.040 A few So she left the doornlock. 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:47.000 So I don't wake up, probably about seven o'clock, and 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:48.800 it's like, you know, you have that feeling like you 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:50.080 just know something's not right. 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:52.600 And so by eleven o'clock in the morning, he calls. 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:55.720 He says he stopped at his mom's house and he'll 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:57.680 beat in a few and I clearly looked at a. 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:00.000 Phone number on the call ide I wrote the number down. Well, 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.280 well I'm waiting. I'm waiting. He never comes. 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:05.240 So going into the next morning, I caught his mother's 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:07.240 house and I'm like asking if he's there, and she's 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:09.560 like no, and I said, my name's Sonny. I said, 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:11.520 your son has my vehicle. Can you ask him bring 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:13.440 it back by twelve o'clock noon. If he doesn't, I'm 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:16.120 report of stolen. So right before noon, I hear my 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:18.920 friend on the phone arguing with somebody and yelling and stuff. 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:20.920 So I asked what's going on. She's like, that's Sterling 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.040 and she's saying his threatening to kill her. So I 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:24.920 grabbed the phone. He said, it's going to kill my 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:27.000 family because he's got my home address, because I've got 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:29.520 mail in my car and is in kill mcgarthin and 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:30.000 kill me. 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:31.440 So I called a police. 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:35.360 Suddy made a police report that Sterling Flint had stolen 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:40.200 his Chevy Tahoe and made terroristic threats. Now, at some point, 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:43.960 the burglary and sexual assault victim viewed a photo lineup 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:48.640 and identified Sterling Flint as her attacker. So now Sterling 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:52.880 is wanted by Thunderbolt PD in Chatham County for terroristic 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:56.400 threats into Cab County, as well as in Clayton County 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.040 where he first made off with the Chevy Tahoe. 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:02.840 So this whole time, I'm calling Sterring. Finally answers, he says, 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.600 gonna run my truck off a cliff, gonna kill my family. 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:08.160 And I said, man, I work for everything I have, 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:10.400 and you got a motorcycle, it's like if that bike 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:13.200 is hot, and you mentioned the stolen And a couple 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:15.439 of days later there was a messed with my parents' 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:18.800 voicemail for me to call this Detective Underwood in Cobb 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:22.280 County and he asked for Sterling Flint and I'm like, yes, 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:24.200 that's the guy still my vehicles. And he's like, the 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:26.360 reason I came looking for your vehicles involved in a 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:29.400 burger in Cobb County and the residents came home, Sterling 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:31.960 Flint was in the house. He assaulted the guy fled 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:34.000 in a tahoe, which was my vehicle, so to report 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:36.080 the tag number. When he ran the tag, it showed 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:37.680 up in my name, but it also showed up it 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:39.840 was stolen. A week prior and goes, well, your vehicle 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:42.160 was in a high speed chase with Atlanta Pede last night. 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:44.679 Black Mail jumped out of the vehicle, fled on foot, 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:47.160 and my vehicle went down a hill hit the telephone pole. 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:49.720 He's like, they're looking for him now, so he asked 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:51.400 me to get in touch with him, and I'm like, well, 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:53.120 is this girlfriend's phone number if that'll help. 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:57.600 So Detective Underwood called Chatham County shared Ashley Dole's phone number, 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.160 but they already knew her and they went looking for 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:01.400 the stolen motorcycle. 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:04.520 When the police show up to Sterling Flint's house, the 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:07.520 victims stolen items are inside of his house and we 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:09.959 know that they're her items because he stole some luggage 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:11.440 and I had her name on it, so we know 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.560 they're her items. And the batting gloves she describes to 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:16.720 the police are with the stolen items. 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:19.480 When he found his stuff at her house, she called 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:22.040 him on the phone and he tells her say, I 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:22.920 brought the stuff there. 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:27.760 Sterling Flint says, I am holding these items for Sonny Bradia. 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:30.560 I'merstaying his girlfriend was ex Chaman County. Shaf Stepani roommates 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:33.680 a Chatham County. Shaf Steppye telling a Thunderbolt police officer, 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:36.240 which is a Chatham County that I brought this stuff there. 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:38.640 Now the whole storyline changed from a blackmail to. 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:41.280 Me, it's kind of brilliant, right because he's like, Hey, 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:43.320 let me get out of this crap that I did, 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:45.800 and let me implicate this guy that's giving me trouble 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:48.360 for stealing his car. The police should have said, well, 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:50.560 that's absurd. That doesn't make sense. Sonny is the one 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:53.600 who sent us over here. Why would Sonny tell the police, hey, 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:56.920 go check out this guy when he's holding stolen items 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:58.439 for Sunny. It doesn't make any sense. 0:12:58.720 --> 0:12:59.000 Lost. 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:02.720 The victim had already identified sterling Flint from a photo array, 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:06.000 so this case literally came with instructions. 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:09.320 But when we're thinking about how to secure a conviction, 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.439 they only had the victims who was blindfolded for most 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:15.240 of it. They only had her identification. Well, if Sterling 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:18.000 Flint is willing to testify against Sonny, then now they 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:20.480 have two witnesses that would speak against Sonny, where there's 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.400 only maybe one witness that would speak against Sterling Flint. 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:26.680 But then the lead detective on the burglary and sexual 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.640 assault and thunderbolt. Detective Henry Trey Connors brought the victim 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:34.160 in to view a second photo lineup. This time Sterling 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:35.800 Flint wasn't even in it. 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:40.040 Every photo on a lineup was blurred and they will blackmails. 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:42.640 One guy had one eye and I was the only 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:45.720 clear photo on a lineup. She has circled photo number four, 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.640 which was me. Another lineup she circled Sterling Flint and 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:51.040 somebody else and so she identified three different people, but 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:52.400 one person did crime. 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:54.360 Which is a traumatized person who didn't get a good 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:58.160 look at the perpetrator. We're talking about crossracial identification. There's 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.600 a lot of research that showed is that all humans 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:05.960 of all races are worse at identifying strangers of other 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:08.840 races than they are strangers of their own race. 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:10.840 I think it one step further, Olivia, which is that 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:15.600 multiple studies have shown that, particularly in instances where someone 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:17.240 has either been a victim or a witness to a 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:20.920 violent crime, cross racial identification has been proven to be 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:24.960 less accurate than guessing, which means, as crazy as it sounds, 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.720 a person who wasn't even there, just by virtue of guessing, 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:31.800 would have a better chance of identifying the actual perpetrator 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:33.320 than somebody who was. 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:36.280 Yeah, it's understandable that she made that mistake, it's not 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:38.520 understandable that the police rolled with it. 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:41.360 So the next day, which was Friday, November thirty, if 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:44.200 I got arrest in this served me a warrant from bravery, 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:47.920 sexual assault actively to sodom and kidnapping. I'm laughing, thinking 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:50.480 as candid camera, like this some kind of sordid joke, 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:53.200 you know, But when they pulled the guns out on 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:57.000 knew this was serious and sex goes, you know why 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:00.200 I arrested you, and I'm like why he goes Ashley. 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:01.720 Which is Sterling Flint's girlfriend. 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:04.840 Next chers deputy, I arrest you because of what she said, 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:07.600 not because of what the victim said. I didn't know 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:23.000 what to think. They placed me under the wrist. He 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:25.360 said a crime happened in Thunderbolt. I've never heard this 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:29.040 time in my life. Had these boots on one and 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:31.480 as like it's going to be a long time. 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:34.320 Before season boots agin. I never forget that. 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:39.800 Sunny couldn't bond out and spent about a year and 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:43.760 a half in pre trialed attention while Sterling Flint, the 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:47.040 man whose whereabouts were unknown during the crime, The man 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:50.760 who was fending off several other burglary charges as well 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:54.560 as a charge for Sonny stolen vehicle and a motorcycle. 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:58.440 The guy who was originally identified by the victim and 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:02.040 had her belongings. He was able to shift the blame 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:05.520 onto Sonny, and he appeared to have everyone's help in 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:07.800 doing so. 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:12.480 Sterling Flint took a plea to receiving stolen property right 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:14.960 because that's his story that he received these things from Sonny. 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:17.240 As far as I know, that's the deal he got 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:20.400 to testify against Sonny. Of course, there's these other separate 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:23.240 crimes in a separate county, and so he was working 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:25.880 on that. He is, actually, if you can believe it, 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:29.960 a jailhouse informant in another Georgia Innocence Project case where 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:32.920 he cut a deal to completely fabricate a story against 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:33.760 another man. 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:37.080 And that man's name is Eric Hurd. Now, over twenty 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:39.640 percent of the first two hundred and fifty DNA exonerations 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:43.000 in history involved the use of jail house informants, which 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:47.280 isn't hard to believe considering how much these jailhouse snitches 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.960 or informants have to gain from there, and said device testimony. 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:54.840 But it appears that the lead detective had a motivation 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:59.720 to ignore this more compelling suspect, instead choosing to pursue 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:02.000 what was an impossible narrative. 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:05.000 We go to my plumbing hearing and the detectives. His 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:07.120 old events were when I came to Savannah to pick 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:09.239 my vehicle up from the impound. He said, I did 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:12.320 all that Sunday record, show all my vehicles an impound Sunday. 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:14.160 I didn't even have my vehicle that Sunday. I came 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:14.960 to Savannah that. 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:18.760 Monday, and then we did a video audio statement in 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.320 front of an attorney and he's saying my account for 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:23.919 that day, and I'm like, look, these are my witnesses. 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:26.880 I said, I went through Wedndays that morning to have cameras. 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:29.160 I went through this quick trip gas station to have cameras. 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:31.920 It's gonna be substantiate. These are my witnesses. He didn't 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:34.280 care about none of that. In his mind. I'm a Muslim, 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:36.280 I come did this and he goes that. He called 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:38.240 home ob security said this guy's terrorists. You need to 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:40.359 check on him. This is literally what the guy said. 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:44.640 So it seems that this detective, Henry Trey Carter's, well, 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.119 he thought that Sonny's complexion made him a better fit 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:52.600 for Al Qaeda than Sterling and Flint. This still wouldn't 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:56.560 have been acceptable if Sunny was Muslim or Arab, But 0:17:56.680 --> 0:18:00.800 to make matters even more absurd, Sunny is an Indian 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:05.199 American Evangelical Christian, not a black man, as the victim 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:07.040 had described to this detective. 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:09.800 Yeah, the lead detective got arrest before my trial on 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:13.080 something else he had going on. The original police statement disappeared, 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:15.560 which before my name was put into it, the victim 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:19.280 description of the guy was a blackmail The photo lineups disappeared. 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:24.159 Trial council's whole strategy was to show the two photo 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.720 arrays where the victim identifies Sterling, Flint and one other 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:30.640 black man. She does a second photo array where Sterling 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:32.639 Flint is not a part of it, and she identifies Sonny. 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.400 He's going to show how ridiculously dissimilar these people look 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:39.240 and that she identified everyone, and it destroys the case. 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:41.560 And that's his whole plan. Well, he doesn't get the 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:44.800 photo arrays before trial. He expects the prosecution to show 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:47.359 up with the photo arrays at trial and they don't. 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:49.720 He's seen them, but DA doesn't have a copy of 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.280 When I was testifying the trial attorney, he stated, like 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:55.800 on his little ad lib starts on out of lineups, 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:58.560 how I was only clear a photo, that every photo 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.240 on a lineup was blurred, and they will blackmails. 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:01.920 He said. 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:03.919 He talked to the chief police at that time and 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:06.399 he goes chief police said that he laughed about it. 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.440 He's like, this case is nonsensical. Just the things didn't 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:09.880 add up. 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:14.720 Trial Council's whole strategy is gone. So he, with no preparation, 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:18.679