WEBVTT - #567 Maggie Freleng with Lance Alford 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:07.840 On the night of May twenty second, two thousand and five, 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:11.280 a young man named Salvador Martinez was pushed to the 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:14.720 ground in an alleyway near Dudley Grange Park in Camden, 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:18.040 New Jersey. A few witnesses claimed to have seen two 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:21.680 assailants rifling through his pockets before one of them fatally 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:24.720 shot Salvador, and police took a statement from one of 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:28.840 the witnesses named Carol Laughlin, who would eventually name twenty 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:30.760 four year old Lance. 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:34.879 Alford Karl Laughlan. When she first got asked about the situation, 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:37.000 she said, yeah, I did see the guy's face, but 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:41.279 he's not from Ruanda Aira. I'm from Randa area. Then 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:44.360 she get locked up for all personal charges. Now I'm 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:46.879 going to go see her again. And somehow got my 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:48.639 name man to pitch on. How to get my name 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:50.120 on the pitch? I don't know, And. 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:55.240 Perhaps a more salient question is not how, but whom. 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.920 The person leading this investigation for the Camden County Prosecutor's 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:02.880 Office was Sergeant Martin Devlin, who we've seen in multiple 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:08.319 wrongful conviction cases practicing a similar pattern. Single photo identifications 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:11.399 shown to alleged witnesses with something to gain. 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:15.280 The three eyewitnesses who did testify against Lance at the 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:18.480 trial were shown a single photo of Lance rather than 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:20.800 a photo array. And when you're shown a single photo, 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:25.080 that's a very suggestive form of identification. The police are 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:27.839 telling you this is who we think committed the crime. 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:32.000 By the time Lance was taken to trial, Carol Laughlin's 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:35.880 story had changed to something that was provably false. 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:38.280 Our statement about how you've seen a guy get shot 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:40.280 while he was standing up don't even match up with 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.000 this forensic evidence in the case. And it's still that's 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:45.400 the leader chest to fly on me. Come on, man, 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:50.360 I'm playing games. I playing all my life. I'm Lance 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.120 the mole with some benefit of the client. I'm a 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.920 blocked up Elias six. And that never got out ever since. 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:00.240 From Love of for Good Podcasts, this is wrong Full 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:16.880 conviction with Maggie Freeling today. Lance Alford Camden, New Jersey, 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:20.519 is a small city just over the Delaware River from Philadelphia, 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:24.400 where an industrial boom in the late nineteenth century was 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:27.880 followed by a bust in the mid to late twentieth 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:31.280 century when company is left town for cheaper labor, leaving 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.120 the economy and quality of life too Crumple. 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.440 I was born in Canden nineteen eighty and I know 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:41.480 my mother she was on all was looking two jobs, 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:44.200 tied to low for three kids. She finally decided how 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:47.280 to move out of Candaen into Cherry Hill in nineteen 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:49.120 eighty six eighty seven. 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:54.080 Cherry Hill is an affluent, mostly white suburb, a recipient 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:56.720 of what was known as white flight during the Great 0:02:56.760 --> 0:03:00.680 Migration of the Jim Crow era, when many African Americans 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:05.000 ventured north for potentially kinder communities as opposed to the South, 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.560 only to see large swaths of white folks head to 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.880 the suburbs from the cities, bringing their tax base and 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:13.679 school funding with them. 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:15.720 No, I loved it out there, you know what I mean. 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:18.799 School was out there, good at everything. Moved out there 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:21.560 for a while and were doing good out there. But 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:25.079 my dad got murdered with in nineteen eighty eight in Camden. Yeah, 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:27.240 when I was eight years old. You know, my mom 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:29.600 got a call and she was telling me like, YO, 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.800 got to call your dad got shot. And all I 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:35.840 remember is my mother like taking all three kids to 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.560 the hospital, Cooper Hospital and Camden and it was like 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.200 sorry to tell you that, just get kid's father to 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:43.760 make it, you know what I mean, And I'm like, wow, 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:47.000 I was like seven, eight years old my father passed away. 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:48.640 I'm like, well, I ain't know how to feel. That 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:50.280 was young. It hit me hard, but I ain't know 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:50.760 how to feel. 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.640 In the aftermath of that loss, Lance's mother kept the 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:57.800 kids in Cherry Hill for as long as she could. 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:01.000 In seventh grade, I moved back to camp I say, 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:03.680 ninety two ninety three, comments like it's too hard out here, 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.920 pay the bills to move back to Cambon. So we 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:09.320 back out there in a hard place to go up. 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:11.680 So we're just trying to make ends, meeting survive, That's 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:13.640 what we could. I felt like I had to fill 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:15.720 a void and try to help my mother take care 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:18.160 of us. Me doing that, I was drawing into like 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:20.040 the environment around me, you know what I mean. You 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:23.200 got caught up and selling drugs and everything. But I wasn't. No, 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:24.760 I'm not the type of dude that. I wasn't no 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:27.800 type of like hard gangster do nothing like that. Was 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:29.440 just trying to make money, you know what I mean. 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:33.839 It wasn't long before Lance was pinched for possession, putting 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:36.840 him on the radar of the local authorities, and by 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:39.880 spring two thousand and five, Lance was twenty four years old, 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:43.640 and it appeared that local police were actively trying to 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.279 pin something more serious on him. 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:48.640 Before I got locked up. I remember I was sitting 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:50.800 on the bus stop this at nighttime, like four or 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:52.839 five cop cars caulled over on me or the shit 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:54.880 of the prosecutor want to speak to you. I'm like, 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:57.280 what what you mean? Now? Only you talking about? They 0:04:57.279 --> 0:04:58.839 put me in the course, put me down to the 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.599 station and he put me in a little room behind 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:05.160 a one dough and he gets these people to come 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:06.920 in there and they like try to identify me something 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.440 like them like what are they doing? And all I 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:11.200 heard was number of people saying, no, it's not the guy. 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:13.720 I'm the guy, like look at Ellid Talma, I'm on. 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:14.960 After that, I got locked up for this. 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:18.599 So Lance was dragged into a single person lineup for 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:22.000 either this or something else entirely, we're not sure. But 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:24.479 what we do know is that on the night of 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:27.120 May twenty second, two thousand and five, on a very 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:31.200 narrow street with even narrower alleyways that run between some 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.599 of its row houses, a young man named Salvador Martinez 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:37.920 was fatally shot in one of those alleyways that lead 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:40.880 out to the north side of Dudley Grange Park, a 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.120 park that was known for folks hanging out, drinking and 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.279 drug use. And so there were a number of witnesses 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:51.040 in the area, including two women named Lillian Davis and 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.520 Carol Loughland, as well as a man named Fia Kim, 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:58.280 but that night no one could identify the assailants. 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:02.039 The ihnesses of the crime observed two men wearing hoodies 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:06.640 shoot this man, Salvador Martinez, and it was super dark. 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.600 This was late at night, and all of the eyewitnesses 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:13.040 testified to being very far away from the crime. Didn't 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:15.360 get a super good look. But yeah, just two guys, 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:19.000 one short and one tall, running away from the scene. 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:22.120 But neither of those heights corresponded to Lance, who is 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.680 much taller than even the tall guy. 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:28.440 That was Julia Kingston, one of the students with the 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:31.960 Princeton making an axonery program. She and a fellow student 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:36.200 named Nelson Rogers, among a few others, reinvestigated the case. 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:40.640 There were several really compelling eyewitnesses who were not interviewed 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:45.000 or didn't testify in his trial, and I think they 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:48.080 were latantly overlooked during the investigation process. 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:50.920 Yeah, two of the witnesses who we spoke with, Wanda 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.640 Lane and Keith Pennington, signed affidavits swearing to their presence 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:56.919 on the scene and their confidence that it was not 0:06:57.040 --> 0:06:58.239 Lance who committed the crime. 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:02.640 And so the question becomes what changed for other witnesses 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:04.000 and why Lance. 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:08.200 So Lance was involved in dealing drugs in Camden at 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.080 the time, and so he was already on the police's radar. 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:14.400 And also we have reason to believe that Lance he 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.960 got in an altercation with someone who then was like 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:18.720 out to get him. 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:23.160 He was in an altercation with someone whose father, I think, 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:27.400 then said I'm gonna go get Lance Alfred, and then 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:29.600 I believe went to the police and said it was 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.000 Lance Alfred who shots out on Martinez. That's how he 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:34.080 gets wrapped up in the whole situation. 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:38.200 At that point, it appears that the detectives revisited some 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:41.160 of the witnesses to show them a single photo it 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:41.840 was of Lance. 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:46.600 That's a very suggestive form of identification. Normally a witness 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:49.160 has shown an array of photos and the idea there 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.400 is just to not suggest to them this is who 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:54.920 the police think committed the crime. To make it as 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.560 fair as possible, the detectives in our case, Detective Greer 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:04.640 and Falco as lucidated, had really shoddy investigation techniques, interrogation techniques, 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:08.640 but the whole thing was overseen by Sergeant Marty Devlin, 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:12.400 who has since been put on trial for perjury and 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:15.600 so is known as a pretty dirty cop. 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:19.320 Our listeners may remember Sergeant Martin Devlin from other cases 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:23.920 we've covered, Tony Wright, Jimmy Dennis, Walter Agrod, Troy Coleman, 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:28.160 Pedro Reinoso. All while Devlin was in Philly, and while 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.440 he retired, Devlin went to work as an investigator for 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:34.120 the Camden County Prosecutor's office. 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:36.400 He was the supervios of mar cause I'll see the pattern. 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:38.040 So the things he was going to Philadelphia with the 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.480 seconding people to say what he wanted to say. Coherson people, 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:41.840 you know what I mean. The TAC day he was doing. 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:43.800 It was a real aggressive This guy was a lot 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:45.800 of damage in CANBD and it's Philadelphia. 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:50.000 Lance's attorney Justin Bonas has discovered a cohort of men 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:52.240 out of Camden, some of whom have come to know 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:55.720 each other. While in prison after it appears that Martin 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.480 Devlin helped put them there with the same pattern of 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:03.840 single photo identifications made by coerced or incentivized eyewitnesses. We'll 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.720 link to our coverage of Manfred Younger's case. Another that 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:09.640 Justin brought to us before participating in the Making an 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:11.480 Axonery program with Lance. 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:14.920 As Justin said in our documentary, and when you're shown 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:17.719 a single photo, the police are telling you this is 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:19.240 who we think committed the crime. 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.520 And speaking with Justin, you know, we learned about single 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:27.160 photo identification and how police get around that by claiming 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:31.840 that the witnesses know the person, and so the police 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:37.200 essentially claim that these strangers know Lance from wherever, even 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.160 though there's testimony in Affidavid's kind they come kind of 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.120 after the fact that showed they don't know him at all, 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:46.280 which means that this single photo procedure really is not valid. 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:50.560 And it seems like these investigators were well aware of 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:55.079 how unreliable the identifications were, especially when speaking with witnesses 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:57.359 Lillian Davis and Carol Laughland. 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:01.200 Cal Laughlin once she first got I asked about the situation, 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:03.640 she said, Yeah, I did see the guy's face, but 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.360 he's not from Ruanda area. I'm from Randa area. Then 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.600 she get locked it for all personal charges. They should 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:13.439 go see her again? Is it this guy? Now? She 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:15.240 want to get out of Jesmore and say yeah, come 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:16.480 on man really, But. 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:19.960 Lillian Davis had no reason to cooperate or be pliable. 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.120 She refused to make the idea, even though she stood 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:26.480 right next to Carrol that night. Then Devlyn, Greer and 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:30.040 Falco went to Tia Kim, who was facing charges while 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:33.199 in probation as a sex offender, and it seems in 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:36.199 order to avoid being thrown back in prison, thea Kim 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:39.199 was now ready to cooperate as well, saying that the 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:42.120 two assailants he'd seen running out of the alley had 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:45.040 passed him in the park and now he claimed that 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:48.760 he'd seen Lance's face, and later Kim claimed that he'd 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:52.360 seen the other guy's face too, someone he remembered from 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:54.760 middle school. Zier McDaniels. 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:57.760 Zaia is my cousin. That's my first cousin, has mother 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:00.640 and my mother assistant. This papa lied to me about 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:02.120 what I was there for the station, saying I was 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:04.280 here for warns. You know what I mean, traveling I'm like, 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:06.240 what when they locked me up for us? When they 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.280 cop said you know what you're here for, it's like 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:10.679 here for a murder. I'm like a murder. So I 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.440 knew the dude got shot because I'm just from the area, 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:15.040 but when they put it on me, I'm like, what 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:16.040 the hell y'all talking about it. 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:20.040 Lance was at home with his girlfriend Aisha at the time. 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:22.600 His mother, Gloria, was also at home at the time 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:25.040 with the two of them. And this was over twenty 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:28.199 years ago and Aisha and Lance are no longer involved. 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:30.520 She has gone on to have a family and children 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:34.199 with someone else, and to this day still swears that 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:36.360 she was with Lance that night and he could not 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:37.240 have committed the crime. 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:40.160 I tried to explain so on my side of the story, 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:41.959 but they kind of like like, no, we know what 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:44.640 you know. You know, you get it, like, oh, I've 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:46.080 done something to y'all because they don't want to let 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:47.400 him out. They didn't want to hear me out, so 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:50.679 you know what I mean. I was locked up in 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:53.040 Live six, two thousand and five, and I never got 0:11:53.080 --> 0:12:11.160 out ever since. Naddy. That's the thing. At any time, 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:12.839 I mean, like that was his day time selling job 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:15.079 and all that. I ain't having money for Bell, like 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.520 man that was three hundred and fifty cash. I mean, 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:19.480 I didn't have money for that. 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:24.520 While Lance and Zaire were in pre trial attention, another 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:27.880 alleged witness named Jacob Eller came forward. 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:31.040 This guy came to them five months after the murders, 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:33.400 told employd to called the prosecutal how'd you help me 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:36.360 out of jail? He's telling them the dude so drugged me, 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:38.400 which is allied. I don't even know this guy like that. 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:42.720 Eller, who was seeking leniency in his own charges, claimed 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:46.319 that he'd overheard a discussion about the victim owing Lance 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:48.920 money and claimed that he saw Lance get into his 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:51.320 car with a gun. But on the eve of trial, 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:54.760 it's believed that Eller told investigators he had lied and 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:57.719 did not want to testify, which is then believed to 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:01.280 have had prompted a recorded statement on February twenty first, 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.200 two thousand and seven, where Eller said that he only 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:07.920 wanted to avoid testifying out of fear of reprisal from 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:11.360 the defendants. Strange that they'd get him on the record 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:13.679 about that, right anyway. 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:18.800 My trials started February twenty second, two thousand and seven 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:23.439 and getting the trout. Jury came forward, said one of 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.120 the drawers was talking about my tattoo on my face 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:28.199 because I got a tear drop on my face, and 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.120 my tear drops represent my father getting murdered and my 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:34.360 grandma I'm dying. So one of the drawers took that 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:36.160 ass he got a tattoo and his favorable boy, he 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:38.719 might have did something for the warm. Oh, none of 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:40.920 the jews told another draw about that to the judge. 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:43.040 So the one that brought it up, she said, I'm 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:45.200 talking about his tattoo because I need these certain things. 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:48.599 A tear drop tattoo can mean personal hardship like a 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:51.480 lost loved one, or that one has committed an act 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.280 of violence or murder. So now everyone in the jury 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:57.000 was thinking about the potential meaning of Lance's tear drop 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:00.719 as trial began, where the state presented Jacob Eller, who 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:04.720 testified consistently with his November two thousand and five statement 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:07.480 while the state was ready with his video statement in 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:10.560 case he welched, and when he was cross examined about 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:13.199 his deal, he said that he was seeking justice for 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:17.000 his friend while also trying to secure release. The prosecution 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:21.560 also reminded trial Council at sidebar to back off where 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:25.040 they'd play his video statement from the day prior. Then 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:26.440 the Akim testified. 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:29.320 THEA. Kim was saying he was in a park smoking, 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:31.440 drigging and you need see the guy get shy. You'd 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:33.720 seen his spot. He see two guys all black on 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.800 run from the crime. See he weighed a back in 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:38.760 a park. So they run towards film and keep runing 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:40.280 towards Silm till he's seen a face it. 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:44.320 THEA Kim identified both Lance and Zayre, and on cross trial, 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:47.480 Council was able to raise that Kim was on probation 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.720 for a sex crime facing another charge, and that he 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:54.240 already entered a plea agreement with the prosecution in April 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.320 two thousand and six, but Kim claimed that his testimony 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:00.600 had nothing to do with the deal he got. In addition, 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:03.640 he said that he remembered Zayer from middle school. 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:06.120 I'm like, hold up, how did he go to school? Well, 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:08.800 he seven years older than him, So they conversed him 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:10.800 and say, oh nah, now he must have just say 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:13.480 you see him around the school. I'm like, come on now. 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.800 And Carol Laughlin's testimony had problems as well. 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:20.320 Her statement about how the dude died don't even match 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:22.320 up with that this forensic evidence in the case she 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:24.600 talking about she seen the guy get shot while he 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:26.800 was standing up. The forensic evant said, the dude got 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:28.440 shot while he was on the ground, laying on the ground. 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:30.640 And then you got Lilian Davis, lets me standing right 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:33.880 next to Cheryl Laughlin. Loily and David said she couldn't 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:35.600 see nobody's face, and Karl was standing right next to 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:37.560 her saying the guy ran up to her, and she 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:40.440 got like, what Lillian and David didn't say that, So 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:43.200 why y'all story's not adding up? She giving a totally 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:45.280 different counts. So I'm like, come on now, and they 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:47.360 still let this lady check the fire lie on me. 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:51.760 But Lance still had his alibi witnesses, his girlfriend and mother, 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:53.880 and then my lawyer never called. 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:55.080 Her in there, So they tell you got a thing. 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:57.840 They tell you said the witness cannot be in trial, 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:00.640 have my mother sit outside of trial the whole time, 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:02.560 And I'm like, why are you doing? Why you didn't 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:03.960 call my mother? Might behaved. 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:08.520 Unfortunately, loved ones are often easy to impeach as willing 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.280 to lie, But now neither of the women he loved 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:13.680 could support him through what happened next. 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:16.560 Going to the end of trial, and the jury sent 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:18.920 a note to the judge just may tell and the 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:21.120 one note was like, we want to read all the 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:25.120 witness is testimony back over again. And he basically told 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:27.320 them they couldn't do that because they don't have a 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.400 video of a witness testimony yet. And he told them 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:32.360 it's gonna take it longer to read it over than 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.080 it was before. So I'm like, why would he say that, 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:38.520 Why would he tell him something gonna take longer. Joey 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:40.200 don't want to be there that long anyway. The don't 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:42.560 want to hear that word longer period. So he told 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:44.640 him go back in there. After that, it was like 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:47.040 just to the all charges. They feel like you're getting 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:48.920 the air knocked out of you, like and this is 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:50.200 gonna be my life for the rest of my life. 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:07.200 They sent me in the Jersey State Prison, you know 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:11.360 what I mean, the Maximwell President in Jersey. So get here, 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:13.840 get quarantine for a week. Then they send me to 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:17.480 another unit. Call for a right man. This for a 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:20.000 right unit. It's like an old horse people. I don't 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:21.959 know if you know if anything about this prison right here, 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:25.239 the West compound, this prison when they first built this thing, 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:27.440 and two hundred years ago, two d fify years ago. 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:31.680 This thing is old. Man, it's crazy. And I'm like, whoa, 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:34.359 you got me standing the horse people. It's crazy. Like 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:37.040 it's like I was like messed up in the head 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.360 when I've seen this stuff. It's still old in here, 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:42.440 you know what I mean. You got to actually go 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:44.280 to the bathroom in a metal box in the wall, 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:49.000 you know what I mean. It's crazy. It's it's terrible. Man. Man, 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:50.919 They've been supposed to condemn this spot right here when 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:55.560 I'm at but yeah, it's spooky here, man, crazy, it's crazy. 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:58.399 It's not to laugh, but I laugh to keep myself 0:17:58.440 --> 0:17:59.080 in crying. Man. 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:06.440 Serious, it is serious. They've got these men staying in 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:09.560 what looks like a horse stable, in a structure that 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:12.919 was built during the era of slavery, which really has 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:16.159 never ended since. According to the thirteenth Amendment, both he 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:18.600 and Ziara could now be put to work next to 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:22.240 everyone else in prison for free, so in their effort 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:26.560 to escape enslavement. On appeal, they pointed out that Kim 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:30.720 had entered into another plea agreement with the prosecution just 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:35.760 four days after their trial, which certainly called his credibility 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:36.680 into question. 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:40.960 They had us on the feel at Saint Tom he 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:43.760 only had kim Lan on him. I had two people 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:45.920 on you know what I mean. They gave him a 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:48.480 new trial. They're not my teal. And then when he 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:49.840 got a new trial, he went back to court and 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:52.159 he was like, he was telling me, like, they're not 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:54.600 playing fair. They're not trying to hear us our side 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:57.280 of the story. They still think we built the other stuff. 0:18:57.359 --> 0:18:59.920 So he like they flowed us once. So he said, 0:18:59.920 --> 0:19:01.880 I'm not going back to drought. I'm taking a deal. 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.080 He went back at a good deal again, I think 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:06.639 sixty years, which is still. 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:09.920 So wrong, but at least not as harsh as the 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:12.560 life sentence. Lance still had to fight. 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:15.560 Yes, what they tell you first come down. You gotta 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:17.439 fight for your life, man. You gotta tell all library 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:19.240 and get the knowledge and understand it of your case 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:21.640 and try to know the law. That's what I did. 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.879 Lance filed a post conviction relief motion based on ineffective 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:29.399 assistance of Council, raising how trial council failed to elicit 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:32.240 from Jacob Eller that he told the prosecutor that he'd 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:35.200 lied in his original statement, as well as that trial 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:39.040 council knew about the Kim's post trial plea deal but 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:42.719 failed to confront him with it. Additionally, that trial council 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:46.879 failed to present his alibi or alternate suspects. Apparently there 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.760 were witnesses who named two other individuals that went by 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:53.000 Ghostface and Romulus, but since the evidence to support these 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:55.720 claims were not properly developed or presented in the post 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:59.160 conviction motion, it was denied in twenty eleven. 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:02.359 So denied so much. And after a while he used 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:03.760 to be come numb to it when you get by 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:05.720 time to get to the Feds and the hey, you 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:07.240 come numb to it, like it's gonna be my life. 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:08.920 But I had a feeling. I was like, man, I 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:11.480 just had to keep going, keep fighting. I can't lay down. 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:13.760 So I had to get Affidavid and proved to him 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:16.280 that I had people become a court on my behalf. 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:18.280