Speaker 1: In October nineteen ninety seven, two overlapping groups of friends
Speaker 1: from New York, one known as the Cream Team, the
Speaker 1: other is the Gods, were living in York, Pennsylvania. Three
Speaker 1: of these young men were Danny Steele, Melvin Bethune, and
Speaker 1: Tisheem Crocker. On October fifth, seven, at a corner dice game,
Speaker 1: Melvin and Tysheim spoke to another New York guy about
Speaker 1: a previous beef when gunshots rang out and the crowd dispersed,
Speaker 1: but no one was hurt until about five minutes later
Speaker 1: and two blocks away, when a young man named Raymond
Speaker 1: Clark had been fatally shot. When the investigation of the
Speaker 1: murder led to Danny Steel, he told the police that
Speaker 1: Raymond's death was part of a larger organized action involving
Speaker 1: a disagreement between rival New York gangs. At the dice game,
Speaker 1: he alleged that Melbourne and Tisheem had rounded up some
Speaker 1: muscle from back in New York, including Steel and three others,
Speaker 1: to confront the opposing gang, the Gods. In the lead
Speaker 1: up to this confrontation, they allegedly checked into a motel
Speaker 1: and hatched a plan that allegedly resulted in the death
Speaker 1: of Raymond Clark. Clearly, local law enforcement had only one
Speaker 1: choice to believe Danny Steele and do their part on
Speaker 1: the front lines of America's war on drugs by taking
Speaker 1: as many of these New York gangsters off their streets
Speaker 1: as they possibly could. But this is wrongful conviction. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to rongful conviction. Today, we're going to cover a
Speaker 1: case in which the soul is Sailan who is responsible
Speaker 1: for the murder, got off with less than three years
Speaker 1: for giving false testimony against two innocent men. And I'm
Speaker 1: going to introduce one of those men now. He's calling
Speaker 1: in from a maximum security prison in Pennsylvania. Ty Sheem Crocker.
Speaker 1: Even though I hate the reason why you're at where
Speaker 1: you're at, but I gotta say I'm really happy and
Speaker 1: honored to have you. I'm glad i'm here. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. You're most welcome, and with
Speaker 1: him is his post conviction pro bono attorney. The TCA
Speaker 1: shop is free. Latsia, Welcome to the show. Thank you
Speaker 1: for having me. Jason, You're also very welcome, So Tyshim.
Speaker 1: This crime happened in Pennsylvania, but you're not from there. Originally,
Speaker 1: from the Bronx. Right, so tell me a little bit
Speaker 1: about your childhood. I was born to a teenage mother.
Speaker 1: My mom was sixteen. You know, she wasn't ready to
Speaker 1: be a mother yet, so she put me, enforced the kid,
Speaker 1: and I spent my first four years out in Queens.
Speaker 1: It was like eighty one. She decided she wanted to
Speaker 1: be back and moved back to the Bronx. It was rough,
Speaker 1: we were we were poor. I was pretty much terrified
Speaker 1: at my mom. I was like the only person I
Speaker 1: was skilled around the Asia. Twelve, I was back and
Speaker 1: forced the kids, and out of a president, I just
Speaker 1: became a street kid. So tyshim. He had a pretty
Speaker 1: hard life and it was living in the Bronx. You know,
Speaker 1: this is at the height of the crack epidemic. Friends
Speaker 1: of his are literally dying because my best friend I
Speaker 1: just got cute. I was fourteen. He was fifteen when
Speaker 1: he got CUE. The next day, another one of my
Speaker 1: closest friend, Scott qu and I was offered but rely
Speaker 1: to go to York. So I jumped on the bus.
Speaker 1: What did you do to support yourself to survive out there?
Speaker 1: I started and I started taking back from people old.
Speaker 1: So this is the sort of thing where you did
Speaker 1: the dirty work for the older guys because in theory,
Speaker 1: at least a minor wouldn't get into that much trouble, right.
Speaker 1: That's so it's my understanding that is a pretty low
Speaker 1: level drug dealer him and a lot of the kids.
Speaker 1: He also runs with a group of young people known
Speaker 1: as like the Cream Team. And you know, there's several groups,
Speaker 1: but two of them are called the Gods and the
Speaker 1: other ones the Cream Team. The District Attorney's office trying
Speaker 1: to paint this is some gang, but really cream just
Speaker 1: means cash rules everything around me. So they were Wood
Speaker 1: Tank fans, yes, and I mean anyone who's aware of
Speaker 1: Wu Tang Cash rules everything around me is probably there
Speaker 1: could be their most iconic song and terms like gods
Speaker 1: and earths. Some of the members of Wu Tang are
Speaker 1: really into the theories of the five percent nation where
Speaker 1: those terms come from. And we could get into all
Speaker 1: of that in a totally different podcast. But Wu Tang
Speaker 1: had just come out with their debut album, Entered the
Speaker 1: thirty six Chambers, So guys like Taisheem and Melbourne that
Speaker 1: was the soundtrack of their childhood. The Cream Team and
Speaker 1: the gods were once the kids were growing up together.
Speaker 1: We went to the same schools, the party together, and
Speaker 1: we ended up in hustling. So were you on the
Speaker 1: radar of the York Police before all of this happened.
Speaker 1: I spoke about a week in prison for a couple
Speaker 1: of banks in marijuana that was like eighteen It was
Speaker 1: like forty fucking grand for some weed. Jesus well. I mean,
Speaker 1: this was the nineties when the War on drugs was
Speaker 1: in full swing. It still is, unfortunately large. And if
Speaker 1: you're listening to us right now, you might want to
Speaker 1: check out our new series called The War on Drugs.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have a linked in to bio check it
Speaker 1: out The War on Drugs podcast. And back then, as
Speaker 1: we've seen time and again on this program, even involving
Speaker 1: a low level drug deal and can make that person
Speaker 1: a target for a wrongful conviction. So let's get to
Speaker 1: early October. In the lead up to this dice game
Speaker 1: and the shooting, there was some actual beef that had
Speaker 1: started a few days before between your co defendant, Melvin
Speaker 1: Bethune and a friend of this guy, Ken Do Smith,
Speaker 1: and this served as an allegend motive for what happened later,
Speaker 1: But this was kind of like a small time beef, right.
Speaker 1: There was no conflict that rose to the level of
Speaker 1: want to take a life right, and Kendall Smith wasn't
Speaker 1: the victim anyway, but rather a guy named Raymond skip Clark,
Speaker 1: who I'm guessing was one of the gods as well. No,
Speaker 1: he wasn't a member of the gods. He wasn't even
Speaker 1: friends with Smith. Got night. No gods who at this
Speaker 1: dice game except so the states the here about a
Speaker 1: beef between the Gods and the Cream team is not
Speaker 1: holding up so far. It's full of holes. But this beef, however, inconsequential,
Speaker 1: was something you intended to bring up with Kendy Smith
Speaker 1: when you saw him at the dice game. This was
Speaker 1: October fifth, on the corner of Maple and Duke in
Speaker 1: New York, Pennsylvania, where there was a regular dice game.
Speaker 1: Ken Do Smith was there as well as Melvin Bethune
Speaker 1: Danny Steele. You had just got back from the Bronx
Speaker 1: and a bit before eleven pm you arrived at the
Speaker 1: game and Raymond Clark was there as well. I never
Speaker 1: saw Raymond Clok then, but according to the court documents,
Speaker 1: he was. He was at the dice game. He was
Speaker 1: playing games. I had got to the dice game and
Speaker 1: I told the work I needed to talk to him.
Speaker 1: Before we could talk, shot was fired, he weren't, and
Speaker 1: I ducked. No one knows who fired that shot. He
Speaker 1: came from behind me. When I'm ducked in all end,
Speaker 1: you know it was most shots fired, No one was injured,
Speaker 1: proximately filed him in his laden and two blocks of weight.
Speaker 1: According to shot Shush group, more shots were fined. That
Speaker 1: is a Raymond Clark was shot at. So not only
Speaker 1: had you not even seen the victim at the dice game,
Speaker 1: but at this point you had no idea that anyone
Speaker 1: had even gotten hurt. So shots were fired, everyone scattered,
Speaker 1: total chaos. Did you have a clue to anyone have
Speaker 1: a clue why this was even happening. There's essentially no
Speaker 1: serious beef at the time where they feel like they
Speaker 1: should be targeted for any reason. But they're taking off
Speaker 1: because there's gunfire and they know what gunfire can do.
Speaker 1: So when I got a hotel, But according to the
Speaker 1: States theory, you checked into the hotel before going to
Speaker 1: the dice game, before Raymond Clark's death sometime between like
Speaker 1: ten and eleven PM. That is what they wanted the
Speaker 1: Jewelry and the court to believe. I checked into the
Speaker 1: Super eight at about twelve thirty one in the morning.
Speaker 1: I let mel know what I was going, I let
Speaker 1: any know where I was going, and they spent the
Speaker 1: night with me. And at that not only did you
Speaker 1: not know that Skip Clark was dead, but you also
Speaker 1: didn't know that your boy Danny Steel was about to
Speaker 1: use a shared room at the Super eight as a
Speaker 1: premise for a false statement, which really ends up being
Speaker 1: the basis of the state's entire case. And we'll get
Speaker 1: to that in a bit. But first, what do we
Speaker 1: know about the initial investigation, Like how did they even
Speaker 1: end up coming upon Danny? So we have no idea
Speaker 1: exactly what happened. Tysheim's lawyer, the person who would have
Speaker 1: gotten the box of evidence or whatever he's passed when
Speaker 1: we go to Melvin's attorney, this is over twenty plus
Speaker 1: years ago. He doesn't have that box, so the usual
Speaker 1: trough of information was not available. But what we do
Speaker 1: know about this incident is that there were a thought
Speaker 1: of witnesses, some of whom spoke with you and your
Speaker 1: lead investigator, Kitty Hayley way later. Well, what we find
Speaker 1: out later is that Raymond Clark he's found with drugs
Speaker 1: on his person, and it is noted that he apparently
Speaker 1: owed Danny Steele some money. Turns out, maybe, I think
Speaker 1: like a week after that, Danny was interrogated, and at
Speaker 1: least four people have testified both the trial and in
Speaker 1: post conviction that Danny Steele was the shooter. So that
Speaker 1: should have been it, but instead a story at a
Speaker 1: strategy was being concocted with Danny Steele in order to
Speaker 1: drag more people down the rabbit hole with him, turning
Speaker 1: this tragedy into an opportunity for the authorities to sweep
Speaker 1: the streets from those they considered undesirable, namely Melvin and Tysheim,
Speaker 1: who for months went about their lives, eventually hearing about
Speaker 1: Raymond Clark's death and having no idea that one of
Speaker 1: their friends, Danny, was saving himself from life in prison
Speaker 1: at their expense by creating this phony narrative in which
Speaker 1: members of the Cream team met at the Super eight
Speaker 1: Motel and conspired to confront the gods at this dice
Speaker 1: game about the beef with Melvin, and This group allegedly
Speaker 1: included Taysheem, Melvin, Danny, and three other men from New York,
Speaker 1: one of whom was named Corleone, was a made up figures.
Speaker 1: Danny still ma it up so he could send this
Speaker 1: homazon on somebody shooter. It's like they sat around and
Speaker 1: watched The Godfather and then went and tried a case.
Speaker 1: That's how it feels. Some dynam cor Leone who has
Speaker 1: never been identified, and some other guys from New York.
Speaker 1: They all go to the Super eight Motel and they
Speaker 1: want blood for what happened in Melbourne yesterday. Melbourne was
Speaker 1: disrespected or something and they want blood. So they're all
Speaker 1: going to get guns from a friend's house and then
Speaker 1: they're going to go down there and shoot up the
Speaker 1: gods at a dice game. Now. The theory continued that
Speaker 1: in order to arrive at the dice game before the
Speaker 1: shootings took place around eleven PM, this alleged crew of
Speaker 1: Muscle from the Bronx had to have checked into the
Speaker 1: Super eight Motel by ten thirty PM or earlier in
Speaker 1: order to have time for a thirty to sixty minute
Speaker 1: plotting session as well as picking up the guns but
Speaker 1: when they arrived at the dice game, Tayshim allegedly pointed
Speaker 1: a gun at Kenda Smith and tried to shoot him,
Speaker 1: but the gun allegedly malfunctioned that didn't fire, so the
Speaker 1: rest of this alleged tame team hit squad open fire,
Speaker 1: and everyone at the dice game ran for their lives.
Speaker 1: No one was hurt, and ken Do Smith has since
Speaker 1: gone on the record saying that Tishee never pulled a
Speaker 1: gun on him. Other eyewitnesses also corroborated that the only
Speaker 1: evidence of this version of events is Danny steele statement,
Speaker 1: which continued saying that then he another man and this
Speaker 1: fictitious guy named core Leone chased Raymond Skip Clark, and
Speaker 1: this fictional core Leone guy, not Danny Steele, allegedly shot
Speaker 1: and killed Clark. So that's how Steele shifted total blame
Speaker 1: from himself and alleged that he was just a co conspirator,
Speaker 1: not the lone shooter. Now, Danny Steele, this is important.
Speaker 1: He has charged with the exact same crimes as Melvin
Speaker 1: and Tayshem, so you would think he'd get the exact
Speaker 1: same punishment or close for murder, for conspiracy to commit murder,
Speaker 1: he did two years in the county jail, presumably because
Speaker 1: he couldn't go to state prison because you know, he
Speaker 1: was a known sniff. From what I understand, he had
Speaker 1: also been convicted of perjury twice before. So this is
Speaker 1: the guy on whom the entirety of the state's case
Speaker 1: rests and what they used to issue arrest warrants for
Speaker 1: both Melvine and Taysheim. And at the time, Melvin had
Speaker 1: just pled guilty to some unrelated drug charges. Correct, he
Speaker 1: takes a plea and he's getting ready to go prison,
Speaker 1: and the police come to let him know that he's
Speaker 1: been indicted on these charges, and he's just shocked. There's
Speaker 1: no conversation. They don't take him down to the police
Speaker 1: station and interview him. They had all the information they
Speaker 1: wanted from Danny Steele. Now, Tyshem, you were back in
Speaker 1: New York at the time, and during a routine traffic scop,
Speaker 1: NYPD discovered that you were wanted in New York, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: How did Loan arrested that I was a fugitive? I
Speaker 1: got picked up January fifty which eighth Avenue. I was
Speaker 1: arrested and I haven't been on the street since. And
Speaker 1: while Pete picks me up. I'm extra tited down New
Speaker 1: York when I was charged. When he gets to York
Speaker 1: and he's in the County jail, there's no interview. The
Speaker 1: information and the story has already been told by Danny Steele.
Speaker 1: But there's literally a fifteen minutes drive at one point
Speaker 1: from one drop off location to the jail with a
Speaker 1: police officer. Dennis Williams was the arresting detective. While he's
Speaker 1: driving me to the York County prison, he said, I
Speaker 1: know you didn't kill Rainy Club, but I don't know
Speaker 1: you're part of the Cream team. I can get you
Speaker 1: a deal if you cooperate, and I told him I
Speaker 1: didn't know nothing innocent. A few months after that, they
Speaker 1: offered me another deal five to ten, and I turned
Speaker 1: that down. The day Trouse started, they offered me another deal.
Speaker 1: They were gonna dismiss all degrees and homicide if I
Speaker 1: played guiltin's and aggravated, and so I chunked that down
Speaker 1: to deal. Dennis Williams bit at the end of deal
Speaker 1: ended up. Danny Steele did less than three years in
Speaker 1: the county jail. That's jail, right, not president, And that
Speaker 1: was part of his deal to avoid running into other
Speaker 1: people who he had flipped on previously, and so no
Speaker 1: one was ever charged with being skipped Clark Shooter cor
Speaker 1: Leon certainly wasn't. It's hard to charge a ghost after all.
Speaker 1: And now all three of you had been charged with murder,
Speaker 1: but only by way of conspiracy and accomplish liability. And
Speaker 1: this is why your arrival time at the Super eight
Speaker 1: motel is so important to the States theory, as is
Speaker 1: the part of Danny Steele's Testallize where he alleged that
Speaker 1: you drew a gun on Kendall Smith that never did fire.
Speaker 1: So conspiracy liability acquires proof of an agreement or a
Speaker 1: common design to commit the unlawful act for which the
Speaker 1: person is convicted. So a person cannot be convicted of
Speaker 1: conspiracy from merely being present during the commission of a crime.
Speaker 1: There has to be some step taken, some proof of
Speaker 1: the agreement, you know, and then obviously the crime. For
Speaker 1: accompless liability, it requires more than mere presence during the
Speaker 1: commission of a criminal act, even if the accused knew
Speaker 1: that the crime was to be committed. So we see
Speaker 1: like accomplss liability, like after the fact, you know, someone
Speaker 1: who's helping to conceal or clean something up. So these
Speaker 1: are really what Taishim as well as Melbourne, we're convicted under. Also,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of that prosebratorial case light on
Speaker 1: something called transferred intent, which basically means if I pull
Speaker 1: out a gun and I'm trying to shoot you, but
Speaker 1: I accidentally shoot your friend or someone standing next to you,
Speaker 1: you know it would have been attempted murder because I
Speaker 1: purposefully knowingly was aiming at you. But it's still first
Speaker 1: degree murderer even though I had no intention of killing
Speaker 1: your friend, because the intention had already formed. And so
Speaker 1: throughout the trial we'll hear of transferred intent in those transcripts. So,
Speaker 1: because you were alleged to have met beforehand establishing the intent,
Speaker 1: and then followed through with your part of the supposed
Speaker 1: conspiracy by allegedly pulling a gun on kend Smith, that
Speaker 1: then made you in turn responsible in some degree for
Speaker 1: the murder of Skip Clark, the alleged and result of
Speaker 1: this alleged organized confrontation. Minister, I didn't do it. I
Speaker 1: didn't realize what conspiracy lords accomplished. Liability was. I didn't
Speaker 1: realize when you move pieces on the test board to Atlanta.
Speaker 1: The way you want it to be seen. You can
Speaker 1: make something look like something that it wasn't. We were kids,
Speaker 1: you know, in our adversaries were chrome men season, you know,
Speaker 1: politicians prosecuted, and I did not realize what was going
Speaker 1: on until it was too late, that they had fabricated
Speaker 1: a narrative with Danny Steele to convict you through these
Speaker 1: conspiracy and accomplished liability laws that you were unaware of.
Speaker 1: So Melvin was already in prison for the unrelated drug charges,
Speaker 1: so he didn't bond out, but neither did you. You
Speaker 1: both were being held separately from Danny Steele. But at
Speaker 1: this point you didn't even know about what he had done, right,
Speaker 1: So when did you first realize what he was doing
Speaker 1: to you? The first time I see him is at
Speaker 1: my preliminary here and he's testifying against me. You know,
Speaker 1: he's saying that the leader of the Cream team that
Speaker 1: prior to the Dice Game shooting, that we met at
Speaker 1: a motel and agreed to kill someone. Actually at the
Speaker 1: preliminary here when he said we agreed to step to
Speaker 1: these guys to try to squashed his beef with the
Speaker 1: proceedings is testimony, you know, would constantly change and get
Speaker 1: more dramatic and more incriminating. There were a lot of
Speaker 1: inconsistencies in the telling of these various stories as by
Speaker 1: Danny Steele, But there wasn't necessarily a rigorous, vigorous defense
Speaker 1: from Tai Shim's counsel. Melvin's counsel, when looking at the transcript,
Speaker 1: tended to do a better job right. Both families had
Speaker 1: hired council prior to the January ninety nine trial, but
Speaker 1: only Melvin's family was able to pay and maintain counsel.
Speaker 1: So this attorney that was representing me at the time,
Speaker 1: Alan Smith, you know, he was never paid him full
Speaker 1: and uh, he thought the motion to withdraws council. I
Speaker 1: didn't know that. I could have still been getting counsel
Speaker 1: by the state, which probably would have been a bad
Speaker 1: attorney anyway, as bad as he was. But he never
Speaker 1: did nothing after that, after the judge told him the
Speaker 1: motion was denied, we could see to proceed to trial
Speaker 1: without an investigation, and we're going on. So it sounds
Speaker 1: like you didn't even have an attorney. Absolutely, I didn't
Speaker 1: have an attorney. I didn't have a shoot. I have foods.
Speaker 1: I didn't have family, I didn't have an attorney, tayshim
Speaker 1: would come to the courthouse not the suit, but in
Speaker 1: an orange jumpsuit. So this was not you know, someone
Speaker 1: being able to put forth their best defense and in
Speaker 1: order to combat the state, especially with what we now
Speaker 1: know that they were willing to hide, You're going to
Speaker 1: need a vigorous investigation from zealous attorneys and the whole
Speaker 1: team that would have done things like called ken Do
Speaker 1: Smith to the stand. He has since gone on the
Speaker 1: record that you did not, in fact point a gun
Speaker 1: at him, which directly contradicts the state's narratives. Now, how
Speaker 1: your counsel didn't at least contact can do is just
Speaker 1: it's irresponsible and desire. It's even it's disgusting actually, But
Speaker 1: even more bizarre's how Danny Steele did something on the
Speaker 1: stand that even I've never heard of before. Throughout the trial,
Speaker 1: he kept mentioning that, you know, he wasn'tcentivized, that he's hoping,
Speaker 1: he's hoping that the prosecutors do right by him and
Speaker 1: only give him two to five years in the county,
Speaker 1: and that's exactly what they give him. He literally told
Speaker 1: the judge and jury why his own statement was unreliable.
Speaker 1: He's like, I'm receiving a benefit for lying here. He's
Speaker 1: spelling it out. Now, how are they supposed to trust
Speaker 1: anything he said? But they did. I can't get over this,
Speaker 1: and we already went over what Steele said before the
Speaker 1: shooting at the dice game. He plays Taysheim Melvin himself
Speaker 1: at three other guys, including this core Leone character at
Speaker 1: the Super eight motel between ten and eleven PM for
Speaker 1: this conspiracy meeting, and the manager of the Super eight
Speaker 1: guy named Alfred Milburn corroborated this. Why we're not sure
Speaker 1: because the clerk who actually checked tayshim into the hotel.
Speaker 1: The person who actually knew this information was a woman
Speaker 1: named Terry Flinch, Boss Seiler, and what she told police
Speaker 1: directly and totally contradicted Albert Milburn's phony narrative. She's the
Speaker 1: one who checks Taishi min. She knows this. Now. Raymond
Speaker 1: Clark dies at PM that night, that's when he shot.
Speaker 1: We know this for a fact. She doesn't come on
Speaker 1: and tell eleven PM right. The state spoke to her,
Speaker 1: but they didn't want to hear about how taysheem checked
Speaker 1: at a twelve thirty one o'clock in the morning and
Speaker 1: at this conspiracy meeting, in fact, that never took place.
Speaker 1: She tried to offer help and they didn't want to
Speaker 1: hear it. She had documents, you know, where he signed,
Speaker 1: as well as any telephone calls he would have made
Speaker 1: it out of that room because it's the nineties, and
Speaker 1: they could have turned that over to Tayshiem's lawyers, and
Speaker 1: that never happened, and perhaps these documents, the telephone records
Speaker 1: may have also been time stamped. MS Flinch boss Seiler
Speaker 1: says that the records she maintained for the hotel have
Speaker 1: a bottom section which indicates the exact times the calls
Speaker 1: made from each room, so it's not known if the
Speaker 1: police or prosecutors were in possession of that part of
Speaker 1: the document. But the documents used at trial were the
Speaker 1: only ones that she was asked to review, that she
Speaker 1: was asked to talk about, and they don't have the
Speaker 1: exact times the calls made, and no one from the
Speaker 1: defense went looking for Callogg's. It's totally irresponsible. I mean,
Speaker 1: it would have been helpful to know what time the
Speaker 1: calls were made, but that specifically wasn't in the documents
Speaker 1: used by the state of trial, and from what I understand,
Speaker 1: they deliberately limited Terry Flinch Boss Sailors testimony. She was
Speaker 1: told by the prosecutors, you're not allowed to speak. You're
Speaker 1: going to answer yes or no to my questions. Right.
Speaker 1: They were merely trying to establish that a phone call
Speaker 1: had taken place, but they specifically did not want to
Speaker 1: know when, and they definitely didn't want to know when
Speaker 1: her shifts started or when Tishee, Melvin and Danny were
Speaker 1: checked in because that would have blown up their case.
Speaker 1: They knew about Terry and these phone records, so it
Speaker 1: looks like they knew that they were presenting false testimony. Now,
Speaker 1: the phone call was important to them because it corroborated
Speaker 1: Melvin's presence at the alleged conspiracy meeting. It was alleged
Speaker 1: that he had called his girlfriend at the time, Dave
Speaker 1: Tucker Redman, and told her what his intention was, which
Speaker 1: was to go down to the dice game and shoot
Speaker 1: up the gods. It was also alleged that a fourteen
Speaker 1: year old girl named Nikki Rhodes overheard this conversation. The
Speaker 1: state made a number of false statements during opening and
Speaker 1: closing that they never backed up by calling these alleged witnesses,
Speaker 1: Ducker and Nikki. Our investigator was able to speak with Tucker,
Speaker 1: so she was dating Melvin. She did speak with him
Speaker 1: that night. She never told the prosecutor or the police
Speaker 1: that Melvin was interested in hurting or shooting up the
Speaker 1: young men on the corner plane craps. When she discovered
Speaker 1: what the prosecutor, specifically Prosecutor Kelly, had said in open court,
Speaker 1: she was not present at the time, but she became
Speaker 1: incensed to learn that he claimed she came to court
Speaker 1: willingly she was subpoena to come to court, and that
Speaker 1: he had lied about what she had heard and said
Speaker 1: that evening. When she discovered that the prosecutor during a sidebar,
Speaker 1: had told the judge that her conversation was overheard and
Speaker 1: passed along by Nicki Rhodes, she proclaimed that also to
Speaker 1: be alive. Nicky confirmed that she had no knowledge of
Speaker 1: the interaction between Melvin Bethune and Taker Redman on the
Speaker 1: eight of the shooting in of Skip Clark. She was
Speaker 1: adamant that she was a younger at the time with
Speaker 1: no knowledge of anything related to the crime. She did
Speaker 1: not testify and she was not asked to testify. I
Speaker 1: guess the state strategy was, if you're gonna lie, go big,
Speaker 1: And they were able to hide those lives from these
Speaker 1: alleged witnesses because witnesses aren't typically allowed to sit in
Speaker 1: court and watch the proceedings, But here it seems this
Speaker 1: rule was a convenient way to hide them from what
Speaker 1: was being said about them, Like Kalanda Chance, who had
Speaker 1: told the police that she had been at the scene
Speaker 1: earlier in the evening but left prior to the shooting.
Speaker 1: I knew nothing about it. Now, what did she tell
Speaker 1: your investigator, Kitty Haley? Kalonda Chance? She was provided with
Speaker 1: a copy of the trial transcript and was upset to
Speaker 1: read that the prosecutor was attempting to tie her into
Speaker 1: a web of lies about Melbourne wanting to shoot up
Speaker 1: men on the corner. She never knew about the plan
Speaker 1: to use her as a link between Tacer Redman's conversation
Speaker 1: and the actual shooting. She further claimed that the secutors
Speaker 1: were trying to make two groups of friends, the Cream
Speaker 1: Team and the Guards, look like a hardened criminal gang,
Speaker 1: even though that was not so. But even if you
Speaker 1: want to believe that these two groups were hardened criminal
Speaker 1: organizations help bent on destroying the otherwise decent, hard working
Speaker 1: town of New York, Pennsylvania. The evidence simply doesn't support
Speaker 1: the state's theory. Terry flinch Bus Sailer was the clerk
Speaker 1: who checked Tysheim into the Super eight, and her shift
Speaker 1: started at eleven PM, So even if he was waiting
Speaker 1: there for her shift to start before he checked in,
Speaker 1: there's just not enough time to check in. The Cream
Speaker 1: team have a thirty minute to an hour long meeting
Speaker 1: to conspire about confronting the gods, go to another dress
Speaker 1: to pick up the guns, go to the dice game,
Speaker 1: shoot up the place, and then chase down and kill
Speaker 1: ravend skip Clark by eleven thirty Do all that ship
Speaker 1: in thirty minutes. It's impossible, and they knew it was impossible,
Speaker 1: but they went with the theory. And the judge told
Speaker 1: the Julie that is, I wasn't at that motel prior
Speaker 1: to the shooting, so I cannot be und guilty as
Speaker 1: an account or a co conspirator in this case. But
Speaker 1: while I was on trial, I didn't have the information
Speaker 1: I'm in possession now right they did, and the state
Speaker 1: used testimony that they knew was false in order to
Speaker 1: trick the jury into believing that this alleged conspiracy meeting
Speaker 1: was both plausible and real, and I'm sure Danny's admission
Speaker 1: to his involvement acted as a stamp of legitimacy. Then
Speaker 1: they alluded to this alleged phone confession from Melvine that
Speaker 1: was never actually confirmed or corroborated, and the jury bought
Speaker 1: at Lockstock and Barrel. They convicted you both and sentenced
Speaker 1: you to life in prison. I watched Melbourne cry after
Speaker 1: we was conpicted. I cried. I didn't I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: I was in disbelief. I didn't even know we could
Speaker 1: get life because we didn't kill anybody. No, I'm not
Speaker 1: telling the story. I'm living this story. Prison. There's something
Speaker 1: different than everybody. You know. It's like a hospital. It's
Speaker 1: like a hotel. It's like a hideout. It's like a hangout.
Speaker 1: It's like a hostage situation. It's the words so being able,
Speaker 1: awfully convicted. It's about his funn it's falling off Tony
Speaker 1: Snowy building. It's gonna struggle. I grew up in prison
Speaker 1: as a smarty little kid. I hate to hear to
Speaker 1: day as much as I is. The first day. You
Speaker 1: never get used to it. There's nothing more urgent than
Speaker 1: in freedom, you know what I'm saying. Looked at myself
Speaker 1: like a hostage, frightening, give back to my family, nol
Speaker 1: then trying to make peace with the fact that he
Speaker 1: has a son he'll never watch grow up, that he's
Speaker 1: going to be spending the rest of his life in
Speaker 1: a prison for a crime he didn't come it. I
Speaker 1: don't believe Melvin has ever received legal help. Maybe one
Speaker 1: time for a post conviction relief. I don't know that
Speaker 1: he learned to use the law library and advocate for
Speaker 1: himself like Tyshane did. Every way good moment on fighting
Speaker 1: from my life, and he was giving me the worst attorneys.
Speaker 1: You know, my first attorney was sleeping in the same
Speaker 1: prison hours in what the US when he dropped the bull.
Speaker 1: They gave me another lawyer. She was helpful, but she
Speaker 1: was in over her hair because her expertise was social
Speaker 1: security claims. So it was really me. I had to
Speaker 1: learn the law of myself. So you've taught yourself the law,
Speaker 1: as we often see as absolutely necessary for our guests
Speaker 1: to do, and you also saw it outside help like
Speaker 1: investigators and lawyers, and you've been funding that by writing
Speaker 1: and selling books. Who are you, dude? That's amazing. I mean,
Speaker 1: I see you've written eight books. I've written fifteen books,
Speaker 1: eight published. They're all available for purchase. I just received
Speaker 1: by the your latest book. It's called It Could Happen
Speaker 1: to any of Us, and that's like a mantra of mine.
Speaker 1: So I'm really looking forward to reading it, and we're
Speaker 1: going to make sure to link your books in the bio.
Speaker 1: This is how you've been funding your fight for freedom,
Speaker 1: and I hope our audience will show their support. So
Speaker 1: let's talk about that fight. You mentioned that you had
Speaker 1: some appellate attorneys that were about as useless as your
Speaker 1: own as your original trial lawyer. And in Pennsylvania post conviction,
Speaker 1: I'm not so sure it matters if the lawyers are
Speaker 1: better or not, since the post conviction statutes make the
Speaker 1: fight even more difficult than usual. Now, if I understand
Speaker 1: this correctly, you can find new evidence, even brady material.
Speaker 1: But if that evidence could have possibly been found, that
Speaker 1: means it was available to you and therefore it cannot
Speaker 1: be considered new evidence. For example, since the Super eight
Speaker 1: clerk Terry Flinch, Boss Siler was alive and available to
Speaker 1: be questioned. What she has to say is not considered
Speaker 1: new evidence, and the fact that the state didn't share
Speaker 1: it doesn't make it a Brady violation because you could
Speaker 1: have discovered it on your own or your lawyer could
Speaker 1: have which sounds fucking absurd. And then in this case
Speaker 1: they were codefendants. If Melvin had an attorney who litigated
Speaker 1: something already, the issue can't be raised. So options run
Speaker 1: out very quickly, and doors keep closing, and you've been
Speaker 1: met with denial after denial, even though you've amassed a
Speaker 1: formidable case for actual incense. And two thousands of three
Speaker 1: I found out that Danny still had a secret deal
Speaker 1: with the Commonwealth, the toon and half the five. So
Speaker 1: I found my first pcl or my own in two
Speaker 1: thousand and three. I was unsuccessful because they said that
Speaker 1: this information was in the public domain. And then I
Speaker 1: should I could have voted in the first pcl A,
Speaker 1: the council p c l A with the attorney they
Speaker 1: gave me, who never read the record, never interviewed me,
Speaker 1: never trying to interview anybody. See, this is the kind
Speaker 1: of bullshit I'm talking about. Since the information was in
Speaker 1: the public domain, meaning that it existed among all the
Speaker 1: information in the world and wasn't being kept under lock
Speaker 1: and key. Then it was technically in the public domain
Speaker 1: during his first most conviction motion, and his council didn't
Speaker 1: find it and build a motion around it. So then
Speaker 1: the issue cannot be raised again. I don't even know
Speaker 1: what to say. And then there's only a certain amount
Speaker 1: of time that it can be raised. The judge felt
Speaker 1: like this information was in the public domain between the
Speaker 1: time of me filament and when though closing on my
Speaker 1: first pcol right, and in Pennsylvania back then, you'd only
Speaker 1: get sixty days since legislation, you know day now. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that's really fucking generous. I mean, who does legislation like
Speaker 1: that serve or punished? Think about it. It's not like
Speaker 1: people who are dead to write is guilty are making
Speaker 1: credible cases for actual innocence, or at least not likely.
Speaker 1: So shutting the door on these post conviction motions pretty
Speaker 1: much solely kept the innocent incarcerated. Since that time, though
Speaker 1: that legislation has changed, the presumption and knowledge is no
Speaker 1: longer a reason to foreclose your post conviction motion. Twenty
Speaker 1: years ago, it was today, so much good it does
Speaker 1: for you though. Yeah, yeah, you can't go back. There's retroactivity.
Speaker 1: You can't go back and seach what's already happened. So
Speaker 1: after appealing your denials in two thousand three in the
Speaker 1: state courts, you went federal challenge my conviction on the
Speaker 1: federal level because of constitutional licens around MA. You know,
Speaker 1: the two major issues was that the child Court gave
Speaker 1: the wrong jury instruction as it applied to accomplish liability
Speaker 1: and the sector issues and affected the Sister Council for
Speaker 1: Faith to investigate. Those are my two strongest issues, and
Speaker 1: after two and a half years, three years, I found
Speaker 1: my own hate too, but it was eventually denied. You
Speaker 1: then filed your fourth PCR A petition to two thousand
Speaker 1: twelve because Danny Steele recan to his trial testimony. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you heard that right. Danny Steele was finally doing the
Speaker 1: right thing. He sent me after David statement that he
Speaker 1: had been pressing to give false testimony that he had
Speaker 1: witnessed speed for the gun to do works ahead and
Speaker 1: pull the trigger. He also testified about the fake motel meeting,
Speaker 1: and he was ultimately found to be incredible because he
Speaker 1: was no longer in jeopardy from the Commonwealth, but he
Speaker 1: was still allegedly in jeopardy from his code. Deffits you
Speaker 1: and Melvin, who were both locked up for life while
Speaker 1: he's out there doing whatever he's doing, living the dream.
Speaker 1: You know what I find incredible, the fucking balls on
Speaker 1: these judges, I mean fucking believable. The only evidence in
Speaker 1: the case, besides the Super eight manager who we know
Speaker 1: didn't know his asked from his elbow, the only evidence
Speaker 1: is Danny Steele's word, which apparently no longer matters. I
Speaker 1: guess if anyone could be a good judge of Danny's credibility, though,
Speaker 1: it would be the guys who cooked up the lives
Speaker 1: with him to begin with. Both the prosecute is also
Speaker 1: testified that they need to understand that they says, if
Speaker 1: he testified falsely, it was something he chose to do.
Speaker 1: They didn't encourage them to do it, so he found
Speaker 1: them to be more incredible Danny still, so now you
Speaker 1: find a way to bolster the recantation. You got in
Speaker 1: touch with Ken Do Smith, like your trial attorney should
Speaker 1: have done in the first place, and he was finally
Speaker 1: ready to corroborate any Steel's recantations. So that was the
Speaker 1: focus of your last of your PCR repetitions filed in August,
Speaker 1: and evidentiary hearing was held in August two thousand seventeen.
Speaker 1: And this evidencial here Jim Dell Smith shows up and
Speaker 1: he testifies on the never put a machine gun to
Speaker 1: my heer to pull the children. And I don't know
Speaker 1: why Danny still made that up. Had it happened, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be here today saying it didn't happen. Right, Why
Speaker 1: would he be standing up for his attempted murderer in court.
Speaker 1: So this adds legitimacy to his testimony, which transfers legitimacy
Speaker 1: to Danny Steele's recantation. And this would qualify as new
Speaker 1: evidence in other states, but not in Pennsylvania. This was
Speaker 1: denied as untimely because this witness was available at the
Speaker 1: time of trial. It's like running into a brick wall
Speaker 1: over and over again. Now, meanwhile, at this time, a
Speaker 1: chain of events began involving Melvin's son. Now this must
Speaker 1: have been right after this evidentiary hearing, maybe two thousand seventeen,
Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen, something really bad happened, and then that
Speaker 1: thing was almost made even worse the tc A. Can
Speaker 1: you explain guests who gets found shot multiple times in
Speaker 1: his car? Danny Steele, I mean, he's just riddled with bullets.
Speaker 1: You are. County decides that Melvin Bethune's own son, who
Speaker 1: grew up without his father, was the person who killed
Speaker 1: Danny Steele, that he was so angry about him allegedly
Speaker 1: perjuring himself naming his father, that he decided to lie
Speaker 1: in wait and killed Danny Steele. Well, Melvin Bethune's son
Speaker 1: decided to take this thing to trial, and he prevailed.
Speaker 1: He was found not guilty, and Danny Steele is dead,
Speaker 1: which is very sad, of course, But there are many
Speaker 1: people who may have harbored very bad feelings towards Danny Steele.
Speaker 1: I mean, I wouldn't play Melvin son if he was
Speaker 1: angry with Danny Steele. How I'm angry with Danny's deal,
Speaker 1: even posthumously. But that doesn't mean that Melvin's son murdered anybody.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know all the details, so I
Speaker 1: won't comment on the investigation of the prosecution. I do
Speaker 1: hope that things have changed significantly in York County since
Speaker 1: the time they wrongfully convicted Melbourne. But at the very
Speaker 1: least I'm glad one of the Bethunes appears to have
Speaker 1: had a competent attorney which was also on the horizon
Speaker 1: from Melvin and Taishim. One of your advocates, Omar Jannette,
Speaker 1: was instrumental in getting you the competent attorney who we
Speaker 1: have with us today. The TC CHAV is for you,
Speaker 1: And apparently it started off as a change dot org
Speaker 1: petition that put you on the radar of the Innocence
Speaker 1: Project of Pennsylvania when Lata just happened to be looking
Speaker 1: for some pro bono work and reached out to them,
Speaker 1: And so I contacted Dennison's project and they gave me
Speaker 1: this case. I collected every record I possibly could, and
Speaker 1: of course I realized that Melvin Bethune was also behind
Speaker 1: bars for the same crime as Taishim. And that is
Speaker 1: about the time where I hire Kitty Haley. She went
Speaker 1: back in time. Essentially, she spent weeks and weeks in
Speaker 1: York and talked to you know, people who knew all
Speaker 1: of the players involved Kendo, you know, Bethune's girlfriend, the victim,
Speaker 1: Raymond Clark's mother, Katie Haley, went to New York and
Speaker 1: went and sat with this woman on more than one
Speaker 1: occasion and talked to her about her son and what
Speaker 1: he meant to her. And we have an alpha David.
Speaker 1: She literally said that the prosecutors and she named them,
Speaker 1: told her that Danny Steele was responsible for the murder
Speaker 1: of her son. But they want as many gang members
Speaker 1: as possible off these streets, and so they're going to
Speaker 1: get all three of them. And they're not given Danny
Speaker 1: Steele a deal. They're not doing that. He's going to
Speaker 1: get the same amount of time as the others. Well,
Speaker 1: that's not what happened. You know. I didn't think there
Speaker 1: was room for these prosecutors to get any less likable,
Speaker 1: but trust me, there is even more room. And as
Speaker 1: we've already discussed, Kitty Haley spoke to all the women
Speaker 1: who the prosecutors lied about a trial, Tucker Redmond, Kalona Chance,
Speaker 1: and of course the fourteen year old girl Nicky Rhodes.
Speaker 1: Then she spoke with Terry flinch Boy Tyler, and we
Speaker 1: know that she discovered that Terry began her shift at
Speaker 1: eleven PM and checked tysheim into the Super eight well
Speaker 1: after Skip Clark had already died, which means this entire
Speaker 1: case just fell apart. So I'll meet Kitty Harley the beginning,
Speaker 1: and it was gooding for me when she said, you know,
Speaker 1: you've been telling the same story for twenty years, and
Speaker 1: it felt good. But cit He Hailey gets out there
Speaker 1: in the field. She speaks to Terry and the Motel
Speaker 1: Club from the Superley Motel and she adamantly states that
Speaker 1: she told the prostitution that this theory was flawed, that
Speaker 1: I could not have been there any time prior to
Speaker 1: eleven PM. They said I was there at ten pm,
Speaker 1: but you know where I was at at ten p
Speaker 1: m All my way back from New York. I was
Speaker 1: on the highway at TM TM And she also who
Speaker 1: made one distinct statement. She said that ever is that
Speaker 1: they presented at my trial, something was missing and it
Speaker 1: had to be detached, that it was ripped doorf. The
Speaker 1: ripped doorf piece is called the bottom of a folio,
Speaker 1: a folio that contains information that would have told whoever
Speaker 1: wanted to see it, exactly what time the room was
Speaker 1: rent it, if and when any calls with me, how
Speaker 1: long the calls were, and where they went to the
Speaker 1: jury never got opportunity to see this. The defense is
Speaker 1: never in possession of this, and I didn't even know
Speaker 1: it existed until Kitty Harley furnished the legal team with
Speaker 1: her conclusions and these statements. And so presumably those documents
Speaker 1: are sitting in the District Attorney's office today and that's
Speaker 1: what we're fighting for to get. But also, this woman
Speaker 1: has signing out for David. She's willing to come in.
Speaker 1: And this woman doesn't know anybody, she has no skin
Speaker 1: in the game. Under arrested. Objective party witness is telling
Speaker 1: you that the theories flow, and you decide to perpetuate
Speaker 1: this fraud and allowed for it to go uncorrected for
Speaker 1: twny something is based on my studies, this would be
Speaker 1: considered deliberate and will food deception. No words could do
Speaker 1: this injustice, any justice. So now that we've heard everything
Speaker 1: that Kitty dug up, you all were able to petition
Speaker 1: the courts based on this evidence. And they said that
Speaker 1: this was litigated by Melvin back in two thousand seven,
Speaker 1: and it was denied back then as untimely because Terry
Speaker 1: Flinch boss Silo was available to testify at trial, so
Speaker 1: this couldn't be considered new evidence. And most certainly was
Speaker 1: past the deadline. I mean, what we're seeing in this
Speaker 1: case over and over again is ineffective assistance at trial.
Speaker 1: Absolutely all. It all comes down to the beginning stages trial.
Speaker 1: So at trial, I had a lawyer who had checked
Speaker 1: out on me. But the beautiful thing is he did
Speaker 1: file a Brady. He wrote the action for everything that
Speaker 1: was Schopinzoy. We know today that with some information that
Speaker 1: I mean, there's always been a solid case for Brady
Speaker 1: violations and ineffective assistance here. But so far, I don't
Speaker 1: think it's a stretch to say that you have been
Speaker 1: failed not only by your attorneys along the way, but
Speaker 1: by the entire judicial system. I understand your plans to
Speaker 1: file with the York County Conviction Integrity Units, so we
Speaker 1: hope that they will be able to provide the relief
Speaker 1: that you have so rightfully deserved. But if not, I'm
Speaker 1: afraid your only option might be clemency. You know, you
Speaker 1: have my full support, on the support of our whole team,
Speaker 1: and right now I'm going to ask for our audience
Speaker 1: to lend their support as well. So we're gonna have
Speaker 1: a lot of things linked in the bio, But the
Speaker 1: number one call to action is to sign the petition
Speaker 1: to support your release. I'm literally begging our audience please
Speaker 1: join us on this one. Just go there right now
Speaker 1: and sign a petition. Will take you a minute and
Speaker 1: a half. And now we go to my favorite part
Speaker 1: of the show, which is called closing arguments, where first
Speaker 1: I thank both of you incredible people for being here,
Speaker 1: and now I'm just going to kick back in my chair,
Speaker 1: turn my microphone off and just listen to any final
Speaker 1: thoughts you may have. So let's start with and then Tyshim,
Speaker 1: please take us out into the sunset for you and
Speaker 1: for Melbourne. America as a country and our court system
Speaker 1: has largely been steeped like a tea bag in racism,
Speaker 1: and some people are considered worthy and some people are
Speaker 1: not considered worthy. And I would offer that back in
Speaker 1: the nineties, two young black men from New York are
Speaker 1: really considered outsiders and their lives were not worth a lot.
Speaker 1: I will never know what the prosecutor was thinking. I
Speaker 1: don't know the prosecutor, but I know that the hat
Speaker 1: was hung on somebody who had multiple convictions for perjury,
Speaker 1: who was highly incentivized, who pled guilty to the same
Speaker 1: crime and who served less than three years at a
Speaker 1: county jail. You know that in and of itself is
Speaker 1: a crime. We know that these two young men did
Speaker 1: not commit this crime. And what I can say to
Speaker 1: Taishim as well as Melvin is I'm not giving up
Speaker 1: until they walk out. Just support this is a great cause.
Speaker 1: I fought hard for my freedom for twenty plus years.
Speaker 1: I've been incarcerated almost a quarter century. I'm innocent. I
Speaker 1: was awfully convicted. You can go to change the order
Speaker 1: sign inst petition I was initiated by dj co Gosan.
Speaker 1: Now you can visit my website. I want my life back.
Speaker 1: I want to be free. I want to turn my
Speaker 1: books into movies. I want to help other people awfully convicted.
Speaker 1: I want the one day start my own innocence project
Speaker 1: and be able to help people regain their freedom and
Speaker 1: their voices back and be returned to their families. That
Speaker 1: is that's all I want. Thank you for listening to
Speaker 1: Raval Conviction. I'd like to thank our production team or
Speaker 1: Haul Jeff Claverne and Kevin Wardis with research by Lila Robinson.
Speaker 1: The music in this production was supplied by three time
Speaker 1: OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us
Speaker 1: on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast,
Speaker 1: and on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as well as at
Speaker 1: Lava for Good. On all three platforms, you can also
Speaker 1: follow me on both TikTok and Instagram at It's Jason
Speaker 1: flom Ralevul Conviction is the production of Lava for Good
Speaker 1: podcasts and association with Signal Company Number one