January 20, 2021 • 44 mins
In the late 80’s and early 90’s, the Sepulveda’s Red Top crew ran the crack game in the South Bronx. When the Yellow Top crew tried to open up shop in an alleyway on Beekman Avenue, Nelson Sepulveda and 3 enforcers sprayed the alleyway with bullets on December 16th, 1991, killing 4 and wounding 1. Danny Rincon, who was with the Orange Top crew, had his whereabouts accounted for, but that didn’t seem to matter to Detective Mark Tebbens.
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https://www.exonerationinitiative.org/
https://wrongfullyconvicted.info/danny-rincon-incarcerated/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
In the late eighties and early nineties, the crack epidemic
was in full swing, and one of New York's most
powerful drug gangs was Lenny and Nelson Sopulvida's Wild Cowboys
a k a. The Red Top Crew. Red Top referred
to the color of the caps on their crack piles,
and they're less powerful. Competitors were called Orange Top and
Yellow Top. Yellow Top began selling out of an alleyway
(00:23):
on Beakman Avenue in the Bronx, which was Red Top territory.
Around December sixteenth, in an incident that became known as
the Quad Murders, Nelson Sepulvida and three others rolled up
with semi automatics indiscriminately spraying sixty bullets into the alleyway
on Beakman, killing four and wounded one. Detective Mark Tappins
(00:45):
was under intense pressure to bring order to the dangerous area,
and he indicted forty one people as codefendants for several
drug related incidents, including the Quad murders. Tappin's street sweep
turned suspects into witnesses, and nine of the forty one
it went to trial. Five of the codependants were blamed
for the quad writers, four of whom are inocent, and
(01:06):
one of those poor souls is Danny Rincon. Alibi witness
has placed Danny on the other side of a large
city block at the time of the shooting, including a
victim's mother and brother, but the jury could not see
through the trial's circus atmosphere. Dandy was convicted and sentenced
to a hundred and fifty eight and a third to life.
(01:27):
Glenn Garber and Para Rossner from the Exoneration Initiative joined
Danny Rincon, calling it from Attica Prison to tell us
about the case that they've built for Danny's freedom. This
is Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm. Hello, n the prepaid
(01:54):
collect call from an inmate at New York State Department
of Corrections and commiting supervision. This call is subject to
recording and monitoring. To accept charges. Press one. Thank you
for using Securist. You may start the conversation now. Welcome
back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom. Before I introduced
(02:15):
Danny reren Cohen, who's calling in from prison where he's
been for a very long time, where he doesn't belong. First,
I'm going to introduce his legal team. Sarah Rossner Vara
is an attorney with the Exoneration Initiative. Thank you for
having us and with us today as well is Glenn Garber.
And Glenn has been responsible for a large number of
(02:37):
exonerations as the founder and director of the Exoneration Initiative.
And it's so great that you're here and so great
that you're working on Danny's case. That I know that
you'll be the first one to greet him when he
gets out, because I know how much this case means you.
So Glenn Garber, welcome to Wrongful Conviction. Thank you. Jason
happy to be here. And Danny ring Cohn calling in
from Attica. So Danny, welcome to Wrongful Convict. Thank you
(03:00):
so much, Jason, thank you for the opportunity. Danny is
serving what I think a lot of people will agree
as an absurd sentence. He's serving a hundred and fifty
eight and a third years to life. But let's not
start there. Let's start at the beginning. Danny, you grew
up in Washington Heights in the height of the crack epidemic.
Can you tell us a little bit about what it
(03:20):
was like. It was a certainly a volatile neighborhood, a
troubled time to New York City. There was a you know,
war on drugs. There was a high crime and murder rate.
Drugs were prevalent, particularly crack cocaine. And I'm not going
to say that I am innocent of being involved in drugs.
What I would never do, what I am wrongly convicted of.
(03:42):
You know, my parents were working people. My dad worked
at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center for twenty seven years. My
mom mads she rest in peace. Excuse me. My mom
work thirty three years at a ghost actory, and my
parents worked hard to provide for my brothers and me.
(04:06):
My parents are still values in US. And I made
a poor decision in those years to take to the streets,
which brought nothing but shame, embarrassment, and humiliation of my
parents and my family. But you know, we were blessed
in many ways because my parents provided and we had
what we needed, my brothers and I, and we went
(04:26):
to school and we had a great upbringing, despite the
fact that we grew up in a poor neighborhood that
was flooded and riddled with violence and drugs. But that
was Washington Heights. In those days, the South Bronx was
no different. You know. I ventured over to the South
Bronx at the age of maybe fourteen fifteen years old,
and what I saw there was not much different than
(04:48):
what I've seen in my own neighborhood in Washington Heights.
Even for the violent insanity that was taking place in
the South Bronx and Washington Heights, that whole section of
the city in those days. This was a particularly violent
crime though. This was a crime that became known as
the Quad murders. So there were rival drug organizations at
(05:10):
the time in the area in mad Haven, and there
were three that we can discuss which were actually relevant
to this incident. There was the Red Top organization, which
was led by two brothers, Lenny and Nelson sepo Veda,
and then there was another organization, the Orange Top, which
Danny was affiliated with, and then there was the Yellow Top.
Each of these organizations had a separate location where they
(05:31):
would sell drugs. They had different people that worked for
each of the groups. They were stepping on each other's toes.
They were fighting over territory, they were fighting over pricing
for each of the vials that they were selling, trying
to undercut the other to take over some territory. So
it was a drug war so to speak, that was
going on between these three organizations. This was not some
small time drug dealing. I mean they were making between
(05:52):
ten and twenty million dollars a year just the Red
Top Gang itself, right. The Septas were sort of the
drug kingpins, if you will, and they were the ones
who were actually ruling most of that area. BigMan Avenue
is a small street between St. Mary's Park and a
Hunt forty street in the Bronx, New York. Let me
subpurvid a basically rule BigMan Avenue with a nine fist.
(06:14):
Let me suburvid. At the time of the murders was
in prison. A good friend of mine, Gerard Her, open
up a spot on BigMan Avenue and was selling yellow time.
Nelson Supervida apparently took over while his brother Lenny was
in prison and felt that Gerard Her was encrouching on
BigMan Avenue. So in an act of force or discipline
(06:37):
or what have you, he decided to unleash these individuals,
included himself, to shoot up this corners, killing four people.
So what happens is, first of all, it's a freezing
called night. It was about ten fifteen ten twenty on
December sixteen, and Nelson Spulvida, who was the architect of
the quad murders, arrives on the scene with Francisco Medina,
(07:01):
where Freddy Krueger, a guy named Platinauh who's will Fredo
de los Angeles Teso or Raphael Perez, and an individual
known as Crazy Ray converge and start opening fire into
that alleyway at three Beakman Avenue. These guys, two of them,
jump out of a car to run up on foot
(07:23):
Nelson Sepulvido, will Fredo de los Angeles, Rafael Perez, and
a guy named Crazy Ray. They roll up spray the
alleyway with sixty rounds from semi automatics, wounding one person
Janice Brewingtons and killing four Cynthia Cassada, Emmanuel Vieira, one
unidentified man, and Anthony Green and Danny. You knew Anthony
(07:45):
Green and his family, his brother Benjamin and his mother Irene.
I mean, in fact, there part of your alibi. I
mean again, this is the mother and the brother of
a victim. It just doesn't get more so other than that, right.
What we learned later was that the shooters left the
apartment of Terrell Blair and Brenda Blair on Bagman Avenue.
(08:08):
Sorelle Blair leaves his apartment and runs up to the
Green's apartment to tell Benjamin that something's gonna happen to
his brother down down the block because these guys were
leaving his apartment and he knew they were discussing. Gerard
heard his brother and those individuals around Yellowtop there, so
he was headed up there to warn Benjamin to go
(08:28):
get his brother out of the way because something was
going to happen there. Cyrelle Blair has refused to get
involved in this matter for whatever his reasons are. Can
you tell us about that night, Like, what were you
actually doing that evening? I was on Cyprus Avenue in
Building three seventy and Apartment one gene while I was
(08:49):
second in a bedroom talking to my brother May also
rest in peace. He was inconservated in Ranking's Island at
the time. He had made a phone call prior to
me taking the coal. I was inside Apartment one B
in the adjacent building three and have been to course apart.
While my brother and I were on the phone, I
heard shooting and it appeared to me that the shooting
(09:10):
was coming from right out front. I raised the shade
from the window and I see a girl standing right
in front of the window, by the name of Pamela Fortune.
I bang on the window. I tell her, don't you
hear those people shooting? Get in the building. Moments later,
within minutes, I'm getting ready to walk out the building.
In the vestibute of the building, I run into Palm
Lena Patton Irene Green, who's crying uncontrollably. I know Irene
(09:36):
Green because she is the mother of two friends of mine,
Benjamin Green and Anthony Green. She tells me that her
boy got shot. I offered to help her up to
her apartment. Lena Patton and pam Fortune said that they
were going to take up there, so I took her
to the front of the elevator and I left him there.
I immediately walked outside. I noticed that Benjamin Green was
(09:58):
standing in front of the building. In my mind, when
she said my boy got shot, I thought that it
was Benjamin because I knew at the time benjam was
running the streets in those days. Never had it occurred
to me that it was Anthony. So I approached Benjamin.
I said to him, Hey, your mother doesn't seem well.
You need to go in there and check on your mother.
He tells me my brother got shot. He goes in
the building to assist his mother. I leave the neighborhood
(10:20):
that night. The very next day, I was back on
Cyprus Avenue about ten eleven in the morning, and I
see that the neighborhood is flooded with investigators and cops.
Kind of seeing that whole entire area. Yeah, I guess
you would have a lot of investigators and a lot
of pressure to get the killers off the streets or
to get somebody just to make the pressure go away, right,
(10:42):
And I imagine that had a lot to do with
how they ended up targeting you, right, absolutely. Mark Teppins
was pressured to make an arrest in this case and
he didn't have anything. Teppins was a member of the
Fort Precinct Detective Squad and he had several open cases
in the Mount Haven area during that time. In ninety two,
after the Quad murders, he was assigned to the Bronx
(11:02):
d A's office to help make the case on the Quad.
He was under a lot of pressure to close all
of these cases. And so he used a lot of
the same witnesses over and over again, sort of a
witness for higher situation, if you will. These witnesses would
offer false testimony and exchange for money and reduced charges
or sentences for their own crimes. In the Quad murder case,
many of the witnesses he used to implicate Danny and
(11:24):
his co defendants were members of the Red Top, the
rivals to Danny's Orange Tops and to those Yellow Tops
who were the targets of the Quad. They had all
had a vested interest in Danny getting off the streets,
so they were more than willing to place him at
the scene. So let me give you an example. In
April of Tebbin's received a call from a woman named
Elizabeth Morrales. Morales, who by the way, had worked for
(11:46):
the Red Top organization, claimed that she and her family
were in fear for their lives because the Sepulvedas were
after them because they'd stolen drugs from them. So Elizabeth
Morrales said she needed help, and in exchange for that help,
she told Teban's convenient that she could provide help and
give him information on a lot of the violence that
took place on Beakman Avenue, so Tabbin's remember under so
(12:07):
much pressure. He went immediately to the shelter to where
she and her three children were and started talking to them,
and she said that they could give them names of
the alleged perpetrators of the quad, as well as several
other homicides that had taken place in the area over time.
So he calls them down to the d a's office
and they give statements. Meanwhile, he's providing them protection, he's
(12:28):
helping them to relocate to a motel. He gives them
money for living expenses and food, and he later moves
them to an apartment and starts to pay for their rent.
So each of them happily gives a statement. One of
Elizabeth's daughters, Iris Crews, what they used to call her
Little Iris. She was fourteen years old at the time
of the quad and she also was an employee of
the Red Top. She can't even read English at the time,
(12:49):
but she signed a statement he handed her that she
saw Danny from her fourth floor apartment window at the
opposite end of Beakman Avenue, which is where the alley
was located, and she said she heard fireworks, so she
leaned out of her window and looks down the road
through a fire escape and says she can see what
was going on. Now, if you picture a city block,
it's pretty long. She can see all the way down
(13:11):
to the other end of the block in the dark
because the lights have been blown out, and can see
that Danny's sitting in a car shooting from the car.
I mean that sounds a little bit sketchy to me. Yeah,
And I would like to actually go to that apartment,
and I have a funny feeling we would know maybe
you've already done that. So we actually did do that, Jason,
and we stood on the street and looked down the block,
(13:32):
and there's absolutely and we did it in broad daylight.
There's no way in the dark of night you could
see all the way down there. We see cases like
this over and over again where these witness statements are
so easily proven to be not a false but could
not be true. It's a different category from false, right
could not be true because you cannot see from where
they said they were to where the thing took place.
(13:53):
But that gets, you know, pretty easily glossed over in
the course to these proceedings somehow, and Elizza. Morales also
had a son named Joey Morales who was thirteen at
the time of the quad and he allegedly saw the
shooting as well. And he, by the way, was a
witness in six other cases in which Tappens was the detective.
Let me tell you something about the incredible Joy Morales.
(14:16):
Joy Morales claims that he went to buy a gallon
of milk at ten thirty in the evening and witnessed
the quad murders. In another case, he went to buy
milk at three thirty in the morning and witnessed a
guy by the name of Rashi Rice and Angel Kimone
is comit a robbery and the murder at three thirty
in the morning that his mother sent him to go
(14:36):
buy some milk. In another matter, Marion Fraser's case, the
Incredible Joy Morales claims that he left his house to
go hang out in the neighborhood at for the afternoon
and wandered the neighborhood to six o'clock in the morning
without going home. Thirteen year old kid wondered that neighborhood
in those years to six o'clock in the morning, where
(14:57):
at five thirty in the morning he allegedly observes Mami
and Frasier a bit of murder on huntred and pressure,
and these people were just so lucky that they have
to witness one murder after another. That sounds like some
scarce seller type of stuff. It seems that Tepans has
got set the one in this name. This episode is
(15:23):
brought to you by Stand Together. Stand Together is a
philanthropic community dedicated to helping people improve their lives. For
more than twenty years, Stand Together and its partners have
been on the front lines of criminal justice reforms. By
empowering people to take action, supporting nonprofits, and working with businesses.
Stand Together tackles the root causes of problems in our
(15:43):
communities and empowers those closest to the problems to drive solutions.
Solutions like reducing unjust prison sentences through the First Step Act,
empowering community based programs and help people re enter society,
and now working to bridge divides in our communities. To
learn how you may get involved, visit stand Together dot org.
Slash conviction Danny, when did you get arrested? And it
(16:11):
was almost a summer day like it was June six.
I was on the same street that I was on
the night of the murders on Cyper's Avenue. As I
look up, I see Mark Tebbins and he tells me
that he needed to talk to me, and I said,
to talk to me about what He said, Well, somebody
said you robbed him. When I get to the priest
and he tells me that I'm there for big Monabue
and so, what do you mean, big Manambe? He said,
we got information that you was driving the car the
(16:35):
night of the murder. That's it mean impossible. There's thirty
forty people that could tell you I was on Cyper's
Avenue that even that's impossible. I was processed. I was
taken down to Central Booking and charged with killing four
people and wounding someone else. And Judge I will grow
with me, granted me. They of the bells set at
a hundred thousand dollars. That's kind of low bail for
(16:56):
someone who they think committed this horrific crime. Is I
was able to get built out because Benjamin Green and
his mother, Irene Green, where at my arrangement. And as
you know, Benjamin is the brothers in. Irene is the
brother of one of the deceased Anthony Green. And so
their statement was to quote an open statement that I
was on Cyprus Avenue in their building and that I
(17:16):
assisted her that evening, and that I couldn't have been involved.
The judge, I guess, took that in consideration and granted
me the bail. Even while I was out on bail,
I visited the Greenhouse. So how long were you out
before the trial? So I got arrested and I need
to I got out on bail. I initially started trial
in the Bronx, well, at least the Code offenders did,
and just Ira Globerman, Supreme Court justice in the Bronx,
(17:39):
granted me the bail. By the way, Ira Globerman did
not believe that I was guilty of these murders. He's
told the prosecution and a hearing he said that he's
seen the evidence of prosecution has and he's not persuaded
that I am guilty of these murders. And there for
those reasons, he's gonna separate my case from that of
the Code offense. He said. The Quote offenders will go
on trial for U and Mr Rencom because he is
(18:01):
out on bail, he will go out trials. Seconds that
never happened, obviously, we was indicted in the superseding indictment
in New York County. All the charges were later dismissed
in the Bronx and re indicted in New York County,
and I was remanded by Snyder and that was ine
as the trial his thoughts were. A year later, we
went before Snyder and Leslie Crocker Schneider, you know, was
(18:25):
an animal judge. I mean, she was notorious for doing
out the harshness of sentences and wrote the book Life,
which focused on the Wild Cowboys. Yes, she was notorious.
Little did anyone know that this tough judge would not
be Danny's biggest problem. It's important to note that in
November of ninety three they found an indictment with forty
(18:47):
one defendants co defendants, and they called it the Wild
Cowboy Trial, but it was like all the crimes that
had taken place in that area. So there was a
big blanket of an indictment that they issued, and all
that the crowd murder is just one of them, and
thirty two of those individuals of the played out. They
played guilty, and nine Danny being one of them, proceeded
(19:07):
to go to trial. And those five of them were
convicted of the quad. I can tell you that the
wrong people that they focused on were Stanley Tooks, Russell Harris,
Daniel Gonzalez, and Danny Wrencone. And those people are all innocent,
by the way. In addition to Danny Wrencone, there was
one guy, will Fredoda Los Angeles, who we believe was
(19:28):
a an actual perpetrator of the quad. But the theory
that they went with was clearly wrong. How did they
come to land on all five of them? Yes, so
the prosecution came up with this theory that Orange Top
teamed up with Red Top in an effort to off
Yellow Top, which was totally false. I mean, in fact,
(19:51):
Red Top and Orange Top did not get along, and
Red Top um and put a hit at it actually
shot Danny. I was the subject of a similar shooting
at the hands of Lenny se Povator, where I was
shot six times on that same corner where the quad
happened just a year before, for the same reasons, because
(20:11):
I was associated with our rest as we know that
the murders happened on the Sumber six. Two weeks later,
I held the New Year's party at Cyper's Avenue. I
invited the whole Yellow Top crew throughout her. Benjamin Green,
whose brother had just been killed two weeks earlier, was
in a party with me. So you know, it just
(20:32):
the size logic that you know, I would trying to
ambush these guys and then be partying with them two
weeks later. But ironically, the people that were actually now
known to be responsible for the quad we're not present
or invited to the party. Again, as I said it,
the size logic um. So there was really a clear
divide between Red Top and Orange Top, but the prosecution
(20:54):
just blew through that because they needed to join them
for their case. So you end up a trial and
how did the whole thing play out? So the trial
began in September ninety four, but I never, for the
life of me, believe that the choad was something that
I get convicted of. For many reasons. The alleged witnesses
stories were all over the place, you know, their nagratives
(21:14):
changed from one telling to the next, and I knew
that there was just so many people that can place
me on side Press Avenue. But as the trial moved along,
I realized that the way Snyder was pushing this trial
forward and the way she was denying stuff. You know,
my hopes dwindled more and more that I can get
a fair trout in front of this woman. And so
(21:36):
the witnesses got up, understand, and they all testified, and
one after the other, the Lord's tried their best to
try to show that these witnesses were all lying for
a favor and providing testimony and to try to get
legacy from the prosecutor's office or for you know, whatever reasons.
But I predominantly wanted to hear the Cruise Morales family
because I knew I didn't know these people. I knew
(21:56):
that we were in friends, I knew that these people
were lying, and I just knew that at some point,
you know, it's gonna come out, this is gonna come
out during this trial, that these people they'd not witness
this and these people just implicating individuals here wrongefully. That
was my aspiration, But they didn't play out that way.
They testified, they gave the conflicting narratives that they gave,
and the jury still accepted it. But I believe that
(22:18):
the jury accepted the narratives that these witnesses provided simply
because the way the trial was held. They sat as
in this courtroom, eight individuals at a defense table. So
try to picture these guys in your mind. There's three
defense attorneys, there's an armed camp of court officers and
investigators and police all surrounding the court room, media all
(22:39):
over the place. There's eight defense attorneys. A couple of
the defense attorneys had either paralegal or second chair, and
there's just this big show going on about how these
guys were one of the worst groups of individuals that
committed all these hats acts during the course of seven years.
It sounds like a circus. I mean, with that many people,
(23:02):
how could you even begin to present a cohesive defense.
It's very unusual that they would do more than five
defendants together in a trial. Anything over five becomes super unwieldy.
And this was way beyond that. It was a circus.
And the jury, not hearing from any of the defendants
(23:23):
in their mind, must have said, then they're all guilty.
They all did it. Why aren't they getting up there
and defending themselves. I wanted to testify. I was prepared
to tell this jury. Look, I was on Cyprus Avenue
and Irene Green and Benjamin Green had provided information to
Donald Tucker, Danny's lawyer, about that alibi. Donald Tucker failed
(23:44):
to do anything with that alibi and investigated further and
put on alibi witnesses on Danny's behalf. The lawyer Donald
Tuckle at the time, who was disbarred by the way
six months seven months after my trial, told me that
if I forced any witness to come into the quote
to testify that doesn't want to testify. Whenever I needed
them to testify, they won't testify for me. And I
(24:06):
was explained to that if I do testify, would not
be in my best interests. So I decided to not
to testify, which I think is one of the worst
mistakes I've made in my life. But the trial was
a farce. You have a circus trial with an impossible
number of people at the defense table in and around defendants, lawyers, paralegals.
(24:27):
You had a lawyer who was on his way to
being disbarred. But the moment, the moment when you were convicted,
what was that like? I gotta tell you that it
was probably one of the worst days of my life.
I mean, absent my mother's passing and my brother. I
think that that was one of the most worst days
of my life. You know, I sat there and looked
(24:49):
at I stared at the jury like a blank stare,
and I'm trying to just makes sense of how did
they come to the conclusion that I was guilty of
a quad The reason we sat there was because of
that quad murder, and I knew I wasn't guilty. I never, never,
never would have imagined that maybe this twenty years later
(25:10):
and I'm still sitting here. I knew that. At some
point I said to myself, you know, Benja mcgreen's family
will come forward and fortune would come forward and tell
these people I'm not responsible for this. They can bear
witness to the fact that I didn't do this, and
that day hasn't come. You got sent to prison. On
(25:30):
the day of sentencing, I was taken up to downstay
from the bullpen. I didn't make it back to Ragge's Island.
I was processing downstairs. Within the next two three days,
I was on a bus headed towards Western New York.
I found myself in Wendy Correctional Facility. I stayed at
Wendy for about roughly seventy days. I had an opportunity
(25:51):
at least to see my mother, my mother tracked me
down and made her way up there, and I saw
my mother's and there after, seventy some days later, I
found my stuff where I am today at Attica Correctional Facility,
and I'm looking for a familiar face, and I run
into Derek Hamilton's who I had known from Rankers Island
and who actually was a friend of my brother when
(26:13):
he rested peace. So I've seen Derek and he tells me, listen,
you gotta go to the Low Library. But back then
and I didn't have a clue of what the Low
Library was and what the Low Library was gonna do
for me, and I just didn't go. So five years later,
I leave Attica and I find myself that green Haven.
I decided that I needed to go to the Low
Library because they was offering a legal research class, and
(26:34):
I ended up getting a legal research certificate. Almost four
years later, I leave green Haven and I find myself
in Hauburn, and I run into a good friend of
my name, Shabaka Shakur, who introduced me to other individuals
that are working in the Low Library of doing things
that were constructive. And I just made a decision that
that's what I was gonna do that. I had to
teach myself how to research, understand, how to seek evidence,
(26:57):
obtain evidence, and presented I find it to get a
job in the Low Library around two thousand seven, two eight,
and then another guy comes into the library that I
had at the privacy to me. Then Nelson Cruz talking
about his case. He was talking about how he had
a role for conviction and he had actually an officer
who can in substantiate that he was not the shooter
in his case. Lord behold, Derek Hamilton's arrives to the facility,
(27:20):
but he's at the shoe now and he sent me
a message because he heard that I was a kirk
in the Low Libraries. And so there he gets down
to the Low Library. Now we're all together. We were
all roughfully convicted, and because we were all arguing actually witnisence,
we named the group the A High Team, the actually
Witnisens Team. So what we would do is brainstorm different cases.
One of the cases that we brainstorm was in Ree Davis.
(27:42):
It was a Supreme Court case where the guy was
convicted rolefully we believe as well, for shooting a police
officer down in Georgia somewhere and Interestingly, in the decision,
one of the judge stated was that the guy had
some alibi winners who weren't given the opportunity to testify,
and it should be afforded that opportunity. And when I
read that that, that kind of like gave me energy,
(28:04):
gave me hope that the witnesses that I have that
can placed me on typeers Avenue hadn't been given that
opportunity to testified and should be given that opportunity to testify.
(28:27):
So Danny actually had a number of post conviction motions
after he got sentenced to a hundred and fifty eight
third to life, and the first motion was a Brady
violation the suppression of exculpatory evidence, which she lost. It
was another one that was brought based on Leslie Crocker
Snyder's failure recused herself because she had conflicts associated with
(28:50):
the case. They lost that. There was a habeas corpus
petition brought in federal court based on the theory of execution,
which was that it was one single conspiracy, which was
the Red Top Orange Top combined, when in reality was
multiple conspiracies. They lost that. So during those years, you know,
(29:13):
the people that I would write frequently. Right was Glenn Garber,
John Edelstein, Ron Koby pleading with them to help me
with my situation. But unbeknownst to me, there was an
attorney who believed in my innocence. Was David Tiger and
David Gohstein who were actually speaking to Glenn for me.
David Tager, who was the lawyer for Rafael Perez and
(29:34):
was co counsel to Donald Tucker, Danny's lawyer, came to
me and said, you've got to get involved in in
Danny's case. We actually went me and David Tager up
to see Tessa Rafael Perez to talk to him because
David was saying that Danny was innocent. And the affid
David that Tesso signed came about either when I went
(29:57):
with him or maybe shortly thereafter. In any event, in
two thousand fourteen, I teamed up with two other lawyers
to do what was a very substitutive post conviction motion
of also called a four forty motion, and the lawyers
were Jonathan Edelstein and Patrick Joyce. And in that motion
in two thousand fourteen, we had an affidavit from Raphael
(30:19):
Perez Tesso, who came forward and said that he was
a shooter in the quad murder. Now, mind you, Tesso
was not one of the prosecution defendants for the quad murder.
He was actually at that joint trial, but the prosecution
did not claim he was associated in any way with
the quad shooting. But it turns out that Tesso was
(30:41):
a shooter. And Francisco Medina also came forward a k a.
Freddie Krueger, and he also signed an affid David and
said that he was a shooter in the quad murder. Also,
somebody the prosecution did not target as a defendant for
the quad murder. I also want to pull something out
that I think it's very interested in. There was an
(31:02):
individual by the name of Raoul Focus who was indicted
by federal prosecutors of the Southern District of New York
along with several others. They charged seventeen murders. Freddy Krueger,
who was actually one of the participants in this quad,
was charged in that indictment as well. In the federal
government had yet to declare whether or not there was
going to seek the death penalty in that case. Raould
(31:22):
Vogg has decided to become a federal cooperator. He admits
to the federal government that he was involved in the
quad murders. And in that trial, Raoul Argus testified about
being the driver and being in the neighborhood and around
the corner when the shooting took place, and was aware
of the details of it and knew that Freddy Krueger
(31:44):
was involved, knew that Tessa was involved, knew that Nelson
Sepulvida was involved, and knew that Platineau was also involved,
and says that Danny had nothing to do with the
quad murder. So we had those three people who were
all involved in the quad murder, all people the prosecution
did not target his defendants in the quad murder, and
(32:05):
they came forward and they said unequivocally that Danny was
not involved. That really should have been enough to get
either an exoneration or a hearing where they could have
testified in front of the court and the court could
have heard from them. The judge actually denied us even
hearing on that motion. There was other things also that
(32:26):
were raised in that motion that were very powerful. There
were six alibi witnesses that came forward and just to
hearken back to what Danny was saying a bit. Those
were witnesses that placed him at that apartment one G
on Cypress Avenue, over a block and a half away
from where the quad murder took place at the time
that the shooting occurred, and those witnesses prepared affidavit's and
(32:49):
we filed those with our four or fort emotion as well.
Some interesting features also is David Tager wrote an Affidavid
and said that tes Raphael Perez had been telling him
all along from the beginning that he was involved in
the Quad murders and that Danny was innocent. But David
toward couldn't reveal that information because he was defending tes
(33:13):
Oh and he obviously couldn't raise that information and implicate
him on something that's client did that he wasn't charged with.
But TESO ultimately allowed David Tuger to come forward with
this information because justice demanded it. And that gives you
a sense of why David Tagger was up in arms
about this, the fact that Danny was erroneously placed in
(33:35):
the Quad murders. Not only you know, during the trial,
but also afterwards, why he came to me and why
he's so adamant that this injustice happened that Danny needed
to be exonerated. David Goldstein also filled out an affid
David that was submitted in that for Ford Emotion, and
talked about Donald Tucker, who was Danny's lawyer, and said
(33:57):
that he had revealed to Tucker that there is an alibi,
and Irene Green and Benjamin Green had provided information to
him about that alibi, and Donald Tucker never brought that
evidence forward. And one of the claims in that for
fort Emotion, by the way, was in effective assistance of
counsel for Tucker's failure to do anything with that alibi.
(34:18):
Investigated further and put on alibi witnesses on Danny's behalf.
So unfortunately, two thousand fifteen, Judge Fitzgerald, who got assigned
to the case, wrote a very bad decision, denying us
on all grounds and not even giving us our day
in court. And that's where we're basically at now, where
we're continue our investigation. We're trying to shore up additional
(34:42):
aspects of the alibi, we're looking into Tebban's and we're
at a place right now where we're trying to get
him back into court with new stuff. And I think
one of the most important parts of this whole case
has been the targeting of Danny, basically to get him
off the street. And I think the witnesses they've used,
I mean, the judge never seemed to acknowledged the fact
that all of these people had invested interest in having
(35:03):
him put away, and that was something that just was
never brought to light. And I think that that's sort
of our goal going forward, is to show that they
all had a motive. We have people with no incentive
to lie that have cleared him, So I think we
just need to sort of parse out the facts and
separate them chronologically and logically to see why we're in
the situation. It just doesn't make any sense. It just
(35:24):
doesn't make any freaking sense. And so many of the
people that Danny referenced are people that we've had on
the show, people that I consider to be friends, and
most of them have been exonerated by now or at
a minimum, freed, and yet he continues to go on
with Danny. I mean, what a what an inspirational guy
you are. You were convicted of a horrible crime that
(35:46):
you didn't commit, killers were allowed to remain free, and
New York city suffered as a result. Taxpayers continue to
pay for your wrongful incarceration, and you continue to pay
with your very life, and all of it is something
that outrage everybody of good conscience. So the good news
is we're here, we're shining a light on it. We
(36:06):
have Glenn and Farah and a whole team of people,
and I think hopefully we'll build a new legion of
people with some of the information that we've shared today.
And how can people get involved? First of all, they
could write letters to the Manhattan District Attorney's office to
sid Vance Jr. Um and asked that they'd be sent
to the Integrity Unit and that they reevaluate the case.
(36:28):
We went to the Integrity Unit, by the way, and
they didn't give a ship. Um. They can go to
their local government representatives and their districts and they could
say that this is a case that bothers them, and
asked those people to get involved and maybe write letters
to the D's office on their behalf. There's also a
petition that you can sign on change dot org, So
please scroll down to the bio and get involved. Now,
(36:52):
we turned to the portion of the show that we
call closing arguments, First of all, I think are distinguished guests,
all three of you para roster. Thanks again for being here,
Thanks for having us, Jason, thank you, and Glenn Garber
my pleasure and I'm glad that you're featuring this case.
We really appreciate it. And of course, Danny Um, you
(37:13):
know we're gonna get to you last, because that's how
closing arguments works here the show is that we always
saved the best for last. And but first of all,
like I said, I just want to thank you for
being here. Thank you so much, and we're going to
keep fighting for you. So now, closing arguments is where
I turned my microphone off, I kicked back in my chair,
and I asked each of you to share your final
(37:35):
thoughts with our audience. First of all, thank you so
much Jason for having us, and thank you for taking
the time to hear's Danny's story and getting to know
him and learning as many people as possible here about
the injustice he has suffered. Already, he spent twenty five
years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
As you've heard, there's no there's so much evidence supporting
his claim of innocence, from statements of the actual perpetrators
(37:56):
of the quad to the people who were with him
at the exact time of the shooting. Is clear that
he was not near or in the alley when the
shooting occurred. In fact, he was on the phone with
his brother, who was incarcerated at the moment the shots
were fired, and he ran to see what had happened.
He yelled to his friends to come inside, and then
he saw the mother of one of the victims and
actually hugged and consoled her. These six people have signed
(38:17):
affidavit stating that Danny was with them when the shots
were fired. They all signed statements saying that he did
not commit the pod murder. He had the misfortune of
having a lawyer who did not call these witnesses as
alibi witnesses at trial, despite his repeated requests. He also
had the misfortune of being tried in front of a
judge who was predisposed to not liking him. As we
later found out in a book she authored after the
(38:38):
trial with no evidence, she blamed him and his co
defendants for death threats she and her family received during
the trial. He had the misfortune of being targeted by
detective who was determined to close his cases as quickly
as possible. And as we've discussed, we have concerns about
the detective's use of witnesses in this case and have
found a pattern of him misusing the same witnesses over
and over. He has made promises to witnesses and they
(39:00):
often received reduced penalties for their own crimes and exchange
for their false testimony. Most of these witnesses were members
of the rival Red Top organization and they had been
interest in getting them off the street. So Glen and
I are really committed to helping him uncover the truth
in this case and giving Danny as well as the
families of the victims the justice they deserve. So this
(39:21):
case is a debacle of justice, and there's exceptionally strong
evidence of innocence that normally would be enough to at
least get an evidentiary hearing to be able to open
the door to the court and establish through live testimony
the exonerating evidence, and we unfortunately had a judge who
(39:42):
didn't care when we brought the evidence forward in our
post conviction motion in two thousand and fourteen. The decision
that the judge wrote was basically focusing on non substitive
matters to deny us even the hearing that we needed
to establish Danny's innocence. We are hopeful that maybe with
a new DA in Manhattan, or with additional evidence which
(40:06):
we're developing right now and getting back into court, we
will get a fair hearing if we have to go
that far, and we'll get a judge who's actually going
to care and hear the evidence, because we do think
that once we ultimately get our day in court, but
we can bring those witnesses forward, those true killers who
actually admit to the crime, and the alibi witnesses who
(40:28):
have never been heard by a fact finder. Once we're
able to bring those forward in a fair environment, we're
optimistic that Danny is finally going to get exonerated. Amen,
and now Danny over to you for closing arguments. Thank
you so much, Thank you so much, Jason for giving
me the opportunity. I want to thank Glenn Gabba Slava
Rosin of the Generation for giving me this opportunity, for
(40:51):
believing in my innocence, for not giving up on me
while you know I fight for my life here. You
know this is a difficult situation. Um being in prison
is hard enough. For being in prison for a crime
that you didn't to commit, and doing life for a
crime that you didn't commit. And you know that you
look in the mimory morning and you don't have a
date to be released from this hell. It's pretty it's
(41:12):
a pretty hard pip to swallow. You know. It weighs
on my conscience. It makes me make bad decisions at times,
It makes me lose my temper, and you know, it
tests my faith, It tests my my mental forty two
it really you know, doesn't number. I mean and and
and it affects a lot of you know, other aspects
of my life. And you know, my personal relationship, my friends,
relationship with my family and friends. And it's just not right.
(41:35):
And I know that most of the decisions that I
make obviously are influenced by this incarceration. But my aim
is to prove that ultimately one day, that I didn't
commit this crime, and that there is more than enough
evidence to substantiate the fact that I commit this crime.
And I act and urge those who have that evidence
to please, you know, come forward, come forward and provide
(41:57):
that evidence. You know, you know, think about what it
would be for you to sit in prison for twenty
years for a crying un comit. Think about what it
would be for a relative of your brother, sister, sibling,
anybody that you may know that's close to you to
sit in prison for twenty eight years knowing that that
person is citizen, while that person with the ways and
rots in prison. That's not that's not an easy thing.
(42:19):
It's not fair. I don't think it's sat on anybody.
Is It's not something that anybody should go through. And
you know, this is a difficult system. The justice system
is not just you know, the justice system is about
who has the wherewith or to to navigate the systems.
If you have the money, you can locate what you
want to need it. It appears to be in this system.
But if you have the evidence, you know, the system
(42:39):
for some reason tends to undermine it and look for
ways to discredit the evidence. UM. Something that I faced
in twenty fourteen when a motion was filed. I might
behalf based on actual with a system and judged by
the name of Daniel. This general undermine the evidence. UM
overlooked the fact that I was sitting in prison for
a crime that atical it and did away with me,
(43:02):
you know, and that was wrong and and for those reasons,
you know, among others, I fight as hard as I
fight to prove that, you know, I do long around
my family and friends and not in prison to rout
away for something that I didn't do. Don't forget to
give us a fantastic review wherever you get your podcasts,
(43:24):
it really helps. And I'm a proud donor to the
Innocence Project, and I really hope you'll join me in
supporting this very important cause and helping to prevent future
wrongful convictions. Go to Innocence Project dot org to learn
how to donate and get involved. I'd like to thank
our production team, Connor Hall and Kevin Wardis. The music
in the show is by three time OSCAR nominated composer
(43:47):
Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at
Wrongful Conviction and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful
Conviction with Jason Flam is a production the Lava for
Good Podcasts in association with sig Know Company Number one
In the late eighties and early nineties, the crack epidemic
was in full swing, and one of New York's most
powerful drug gangs was Lenny and Nelson Sopulvida's Wild Cowboys
a k a. The Red Top Crew. Red Top referred
to the color of the caps on their crack piles,
and they're less powerful. Competitors were called Orange Top and
Yellow Top. Yellow Top began selling out of an alleyway
(00:23):
on Beakman Avenue in the Bronx, which was Red Top territory.
Around December sixteenth, in an incident that became known as
the Quad Murders, Nelson Sepulvida and three others rolled up
with semi automatics indiscriminately spraying sixty bullets into the alleyway
on Beakman, killing four and wounded one. Detective Mark Tappins
(00:45):
was under intense pressure to bring order to the dangerous area,
and he indicted forty one people as codefendants for several
drug related incidents, including the Quad murders. Tappin's street sweep
turned suspects into witnesses, and nine of the forty one
it went to trial. Five of the codependants were blamed
for the quad writers, four of whom are inocent, and
(01:06):
one of those poor souls is Danny Rincon. Alibi witness
has placed Danny on the other side of a large
city block at the time of the shooting, including a
victim's mother and brother, but the jury could not see
through the trial's circus atmosphere. Dandy was convicted and sentenced
to a hundred and fifty eight and a third to life.
(01:27):
Glenn Garber and Para Rossner from the Exoneration Initiative joined
Danny Rincon, calling it from Attica Prison to tell us
about the case that they've built for Danny's freedom. This
is Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm. Hello, n the prepaid
(01:54):
collect call from an inmate at New York State Department
of Corrections and commiting supervision. This call is subject to
recording and monitoring. To accept charges. Press one. Thank you
for using Securist. You may start the conversation now. Welcome
back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom. Before I introduced
(02:15):
Danny reren Cohen, who's calling in from prison where he's
been for a very long time, where he doesn't belong. First,
I'm going to introduce his legal team. Sarah Rossner Vara
is an attorney with the Exoneration Initiative. Thank you for
having us and with us today as well is Glenn Garber.
And Glenn has been responsible for a large number of
(02:37):
exonerations as the founder and director of the Exoneration Initiative.
And it's so great that you're here and so great
that you're working on Danny's case. That I know that
you'll be the first one to greet him when he
gets out, because I know how much this case means you.
So Glenn Garber, welcome to Wrongful Conviction. Thank you. Jason
happy to be here. And Danny ring Cohn calling in
from Attica. So Danny, welcome to Wrongful Convict. Thank you
(03:00):
so much, Jason, thank you for the opportunity. Danny is
serving what I think a lot of people will agree
as an absurd sentence. He's serving a hundred and fifty
eight and a third years to life. But let's not
start there. Let's start at the beginning. Danny, you grew
up in Washington Heights in the height of the crack epidemic.
Can you tell us a little bit about what it
(03:20):
was like. It was a certainly a volatile neighborhood, a
troubled time to New York City. There was a you know,
war on drugs. There was a high crime and murder rate.
Drugs were prevalent, particularly crack cocaine. And I'm not going
to say that I am innocent of being involved in drugs.
What I would never do, what I am wrongly convicted of.
(03:42):
You know, my parents were working people. My dad worked
at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center for twenty seven years. My
mom mads she rest in peace. Excuse me. My mom
work thirty three years at a ghost actory, and my
parents worked hard to provide for my brothers and me.
(04:06):
My parents are still values in US. And I made
a poor decision in those years to take to the streets,
which brought nothing but shame, embarrassment, and humiliation of my
parents and my family. But you know, we were blessed
in many ways because my parents provided and we had
what we needed, my brothers and I, and we went
(04:26):
to school and we had a great upbringing, despite the
fact that we grew up in a poor neighborhood that
was flooded and riddled with violence and drugs. But that
was Washington Heights. In those days, the South Bronx was
no different. You know. I ventured over to the South
Bronx at the age of maybe fourteen fifteen years old,
and what I saw there was not much different than
(04:48):
what I've seen in my own neighborhood in Washington Heights.
Even for the violent insanity that was taking place in
the South Bronx and Washington Heights, that whole section of
the city in those days. This was a particularly violent
crime though. This was a crime that became known as
the Quad murders. So there were rival drug organizations at
(05:10):
the time in the area in mad Haven, and there
were three that we can discuss which were actually relevant
to this incident. There was the Red Top organization, which
was led by two brothers, Lenny and Nelson sepo Veda,
and then there was another organization, the Orange Top, which
Danny was affiliated with, and then there was the Yellow Top.
Each of these organizations had a separate location where they
(05:31):
would sell drugs. They had different people that worked for
each of the groups. They were stepping on each other's toes.
They were fighting over territory, they were fighting over pricing
for each of the vials that they were selling, trying
to undercut the other to take over some territory. So
it was a drug war so to speak, that was
going on between these three organizations. This was not some
small time drug dealing. I mean they were making between
(05:52):
ten and twenty million dollars a year just the Red
Top Gang itself, right. The Septas were sort of the
drug kingpins, if you will, and they were the ones
who were actually ruling most of that area. BigMan Avenue
is a small street between St. Mary's Park and a
Hunt forty street in the Bronx, New York. Let me
subpurvid a basically rule BigMan Avenue with a nine fist.
(06:14):
Let me suburvid. At the time of the murders was
in prison. A good friend of mine, Gerard Her, open
up a spot on BigMan Avenue and was selling yellow time.
Nelson Supervida apparently took over while his brother Lenny was
in prison and felt that Gerard Her was encrouching on
BigMan Avenue. So in an act of force or discipline
(06:37):
or what have you, he decided to unleash these individuals,
included himself, to shoot up this corners, killing four people.
So what happens is, first of all, it's a freezing
called night. It was about ten fifteen ten twenty on
December sixteen, and Nelson Spulvida, who was the architect of
the quad murders, arrives on the scene with Francisco Medina,
(07:01):
where Freddy Krueger, a guy named Platinauh who's will Fredo
de los Angeles Teso or Raphael Perez, and an individual
known as Crazy Ray converge and start opening fire into
that alleyway at three Beakman Avenue. These guys, two of them,
jump out of a car to run up on foot
(07:23):
Nelson Sepulvido, will Fredo de los Angeles, Rafael Perez, and
a guy named Crazy Ray. They roll up spray the
alleyway with sixty rounds from semi automatics, wounding one person
Janice Brewingtons and killing four Cynthia Cassada, Emmanuel Vieira, one
unidentified man, and Anthony Green and Danny. You knew Anthony
(07:45):
Green and his family, his brother Benjamin and his mother Irene.
I mean, in fact, there part of your alibi. I
mean again, this is the mother and the brother of
a victim. It just doesn't get more so other than that, right.
What we learned later was that the shooters left the
apartment of Terrell Blair and Brenda Blair on Bagman Avenue.
(08:08):
Sorelle Blair leaves his apartment and runs up to the
Green's apartment to tell Benjamin that something's gonna happen to
his brother down down the block because these guys were
leaving his apartment and he knew they were discussing. Gerard
heard his brother and those individuals around Yellowtop there, so
he was headed up there to warn Benjamin to go
(08:28):
get his brother out of the way because something was
going to happen there. Cyrelle Blair has refused to get
involved in this matter for whatever his reasons are. Can
you tell us about that night, Like, what were you
actually doing that evening? I was on Cyprus Avenue in
Building three seventy and Apartment one gene while I was
(08:49):
second in a bedroom talking to my brother May also
rest in peace. He was inconservated in Ranking's Island at
the time. He had made a phone call prior to
me taking the coal. I was inside Apartment one B
in the adjacent building three and have been to course apart.
While my brother and I were on the phone, I
heard shooting and it appeared to me that the shooting
(09:10):
was coming from right out front. I raised the shade
from the window and I see a girl standing right
in front of the window, by the name of Pamela Fortune.
I bang on the window. I tell her, don't you
hear those people shooting? Get in the building. Moments later,
within minutes, I'm getting ready to walk out the building.
In the vestibute of the building, I run into Palm
Lena Patton Irene Green, who's crying uncontrollably. I know Irene
(09:36):
Green because she is the mother of two friends of mine,
Benjamin Green and Anthony Green. She tells me that her
boy got shot. I offered to help her up to
her apartment. Lena Patton and pam Fortune said that they
were going to take up there, so I took her
to the front of the elevator and I left him there.
I immediately walked outside. I noticed that Benjamin Green was
(09:58):
standing in front of the building. In my mind, when
she said my boy got shot, I thought that it
was Benjamin because I knew at the time benjam was
running the streets in those days. Never had it occurred
to me that it was Anthony. So I approached Benjamin.
I said to him, Hey, your mother doesn't seem well.
You need to go in there and check on your mother.
He tells me my brother got shot. He goes in
the building to assist his mother. I leave the neighborhood
(10:20):
that night. The very next day, I was back on
Cyprus Avenue about ten eleven in the morning, and I
see that the neighborhood is flooded with investigators and cops.
Kind of seeing that whole entire area. Yeah, I guess
you would have a lot of investigators and a lot
of pressure to get the killers off the streets or
to get somebody just to make the pressure go away, right,
(10:42):
And I imagine that had a lot to do with
how they ended up targeting you, right, absolutely. Mark Teppins
was pressured to make an arrest in this case and
he didn't have anything. Teppins was a member of the
Fort Precinct Detective Squad and he had several open cases
in the Mount Haven area during that time. In ninety two,
after the Quad murders, he was assigned to the Bronx
(11:02):
d A's office to help make the case on the Quad.
He was under a lot of pressure to close all
of these cases. And so he used a lot of
the same witnesses over and over again, sort of a
witness for higher situation, if you will. These witnesses would
offer false testimony and exchange for money and reduced charges
or sentences for their own crimes. In the Quad murder case,
many of the witnesses he used to implicate Danny and
(11:24):
his co defendants were members of the Red Top, the
rivals to Danny's Orange Tops and to those Yellow Tops
who were the targets of the Quad. They had all
had a vested interest in Danny getting off the streets,
so they were more than willing to place him at
the scene. So let me give you an example. In
April of Tebbin's received a call from a woman named
Elizabeth Morrales. Morales, who by the way, had worked for
(11:46):
the Red Top organization, claimed that she and her family
were in fear for their lives because the Sepulvedas were
after them because they'd stolen drugs from them. So Elizabeth
Morrales said she needed help, and in exchange for that help,
she told Teban's convenient that she could provide help and
give him information on a lot of the violence that
took place on Beakman Avenue, so Tabbin's remember under so
(12:07):
much pressure. He went immediately to the shelter to where
she and her three children were and started talking to them,
and she said that they could give them names of
the alleged perpetrators of the quad, as well as several
other homicides that had taken place in the area over time.
So he calls them down to the d a's office
and they give statements. Meanwhile, he's providing them protection, he's
(12:28):
helping them to relocate to a motel. He gives them
money for living expenses and food, and he later moves
them to an apartment and starts to pay for their rent.
So each of them happily gives a statement. One of
Elizabeth's daughters, Iris Crews, what they used to call her
Little Iris. She was fourteen years old at the time
of the quad and she also was an employee of
the Red Top. She can't even read English at the time,
(12:49):
but she signed a statement he handed her that she
saw Danny from her fourth floor apartment window at the
opposite end of Beakman Avenue, which is where the alley
was located, and she said she heard fireworks, so she
leaned out of her window and looks down the road
through a fire escape and says she can see what
was going on. Now, if you picture a city block,
it's pretty long. She can see all the way down
(13:11):
to the other end of the block in the dark
because the lights have been blown out, and can see
that Danny's sitting in a car shooting from the car.
I mean that sounds a little bit sketchy to me. Yeah,
And I would like to actually go to that apartment,
and I have a funny feeling we would know maybe
you've already done that. So we actually did do that, Jason,
and we stood on the street and looked down the block,
(13:32):
and there's absolutely and we did it in broad daylight.
There's no way in the dark of night you could
see all the way down there. We see cases like
this over and over again where these witness statements are
so easily proven to be not a false but could
not be true. It's a different category from false, right
could not be true because you cannot see from where
they said they were to where the thing took place.
(13:53):
But that gets, you know, pretty easily glossed over in
the course to these proceedings somehow, and Elizza. Morales also
had a son named Joey Morales who was thirteen at
the time of the quad and he allegedly saw the
shooting as well. And he, by the way, was a
witness in six other cases in which Tappens was the detective.
Let me tell you something about the incredible Joy Morales.
(14:16):
Joy Morales claims that he went to buy a gallon
of milk at ten thirty in the evening and witnessed
the quad murders. In another case, he went to buy
milk at three thirty in the morning and witnessed a
guy by the name of Rashi Rice and Angel Kimone
is comit a robbery and the murder at three thirty
in the morning that his mother sent him to go
(14:36):
buy some milk. In another matter, Marion Fraser's case, the
Incredible Joy Morales claims that he left his house to
go hang out in the neighborhood at for the afternoon
and wandered the neighborhood to six o'clock in the morning
without going home. Thirteen year old kid wondered that neighborhood
in those years to six o'clock in the morning, where
(14:57):
at five thirty in the morning he allegedly observes Mami
and Frasier a bit of murder on huntred and pressure,
and these people were just so lucky that they have
to witness one murder after another. That sounds like some
scarce seller type of stuff. It seems that Tepans has
got set the one in this name. This episode is
(15:23):
brought to you by Stand Together. Stand Together is a
philanthropic community dedicated to helping people improve their lives. For
more than twenty years, Stand Together and its partners have
been on the front lines of criminal justice reforms. By
empowering people to take action, supporting nonprofits, and working with businesses.
Stand Together tackles the root causes of problems in our
(15:43):
communities and empowers those closest to the problems to drive solutions.
Solutions like reducing unjust prison sentences through the First Step Act,
empowering community based programs and help people re enter society,
and now working to bridge divides in our communities. To
learn how you may get involved, visit stand Together dot org.
Slash conviction Danny, when did you get arrested? And it
(16:11):
was almost a summer day like it was June six.
I was on the same street that I was on
the night of the murders on Cyper's Avenue. As I
look up, I see Mark Tebbins and he tells me
that he needed to talk to me, and I said,
to talk to me about what He said, Well, somebody
said you robbed him. When I get to the priest
and he tells me that I'm there for big Monabue
and so, what do you mean, big Manambe? He said,
we got information that you was driving the car the
(16:35):
night of the murder. That's it mean impossible. There's thirty
forty people that could tell you I was on Cyper's
Avenue that even that's impossible. I was processed. I was
taken down to Central Booking and charged with killing four
people and wounding someone else. And Judge I will grow
with me, granted me. They of the bells set at
a hundred thousand dollars. That's kind of low bail for
(16:56):
someone who they think committed this horrific crime. Is I
was able to get built out because Benjamin Green and
his mother, Irene Green, where at my arrangement. And as
you know, Benjamin is the brothers in. Irene is the
brother of one of the deceased Anthony Green. And so
their statement was to quote an open statement that I
was on Cyprus Avenue in their building and that I
(17:16):
assisted her that evening, and that I couldn't have been involved.
The judge, I guess, took that in consideration and granted
me the bail. Even while I was out on bail,
I visited the Greenhouse. So how long were you out
before the trial? So I got arrested and I need
to I got out on bail. I initially started trial
in the Bronx, well, at least the Code offenders did,
and just Ira Globerman, Supreme Court justice in the Bronx,
(17:39):
granted me the bail. By the way, Ira Globerman did
not believe that I was guilty of these murders. He's
told the prosecution and a hearing he said that he's
seen the evidence of prosecution has and he's not persuaded
that I am guilty of these murders. And there for
those reasons, he's gonna separate my case from that of
the Code offense. He said. The Quote offenders will go
on trial for U and Mr Rencom because he is
(18:01):
out on bail, he will go out trials. Seconds that
never happened, obviously, we was indicted in the superseding indictment
in New York County. All the charges were later dismissed
in the Bronx and re indicted in New York County,
and I was remanded by Snyder and that was ine
as the trial his thoughts were. A year later, we
went before Snyder and Leslie Crocker Schneider, you know, was
(18:25):
an animal judge. I mean, she was notorious for doing
out the harshness of sentences and wrote the book Life,
which focused on the Wild Cowboys. Yes, she was notorious.
Little did anyone know that this tough judge would not
be Danny's biggest problem. It's important to note that in
November of ninety three they found an indictment with forty
(18:47):
one defendants co defendants, and they called it the Wild
Cowboy Trial, but it was like all the crimes that
had taken place in that area. So there was a
big blanket of an indictment that they issued, and all
that the crowd murder is just one of them, and
thirty two of those individuals of the played out. They
played guilty, and nine Danny being one of them, proceeded
(19:07):
to go to trial. And those five of them were
convicted of the quad. I can tell you that the
wrong people that they focused on were Stanley Tooks, Russell Harris,
Daniel Gonzalez, and Danny Wrencone. And those people are all innocent,
by the way. In addition to Danny Wrencone, there was
one guy, will Fredoda Los Angeles, who we believe was
(19:28):
a an actual perpetrator of the quad. But the theory
that they went with was clearly wrong. How did they
come to land on all five of them? Yes, so
the prosecution came up with this theory that Orange Top
teamed up with Red Top in an effort to off
Yellow Top, which was totally false. I mean, in fact,
(19:51):
Red Top and Orange Top did not get along, and
Red Top um and put a hit at it actually
shot Danny. I was the subject of a similar shooting
at the hands of Lenny se Povator, where I was
shot six times on that same corner where the quad
happened just a year before, for the same reasons, because
(20:11):
I was associated with our rest as we know that
the murders happened on the Sumber six. Two weeks later,
I held the New Year's party at Cyper's Avenue. I
invited the whole Yellow Top crew throughout her. Benjamin Green,
whose brother had just been killed two weeks earlier, was
in a party with me. So you know, it just
(20:32):
the size logic that you know, I would trying to
ambush these guys and then be partying with them two
weeks later. But ironically, the people that were actually now
known to be responsible for the quad we're not present
or invited to the party. Again, as I said it,
the size logic um. So there was really a clear
divide between Red Top and Orange Top, but the prosecution
(20:54):
just blew through that because they needed to join them
for their case. So you end up a trial and
how did the whole thing play out? So the trial
began in September ninety four, but I never, for the
life of me, believe that the choad was something that
I get convicted of. For many reasons. The alleged witnesses
stories were all over the place, you know, their nagratives
(21:14):
changed from one telling to the next, and I knew
that there was just so many people that can place
me on side Press Avenue. But as the trial moved along,
I realized that the way Snyder was pushing this trial
forward and the way she was denying stuff. You know,
my hopes dwindled more and more that I can get
a fair trout in front of this woman. And so
(21:36):
the witnesses got up, understand, and they all testified, and
one after the other, the Lord's tried their best to
try to show that these witnesses were all lying for
a favor and providing testimony and to try to get
legacy from the prosecutor's office or for you know, whatever reasons.
But I predominantly wanted to hear the Cruise Morales family
because I knew I didn't know these people. I knew
(21:56):
that we were in friends, I knew that these people
were lying, and I just knew that at some point,
you know, it's gonna come out, this is gonna come
out during this trial, that these people they'd not witness
this and these people just implicating individuals here wrongefully. That
was my aspiration, But they didn't play out that way.
They testified, they gave the conflicting narratives that they gave,
and the jury still accepted it. But I believe that
(22:18):
the jury accepted the narratives that these witnesses provided simply
because the way the trial was held. They sat as
in this courtroom, eight individuals at a defense table. So
try to picture these guys in your mind. There's three
defense attorneys, there's an armed camp of court officers and
investigators and police all surrounding the court room, media all
(22:39):
over the place. There's eight defense attorneys. A couple of
the defense attorneys had either paralegal or second chair, and
there's just this big show going on about how these
guys were one of the worst groups of individuals that
committed all these hats acts during the course of seven years.
It sounds like a circus. I mean, with that many people,
(23:02):
how could you even begin to present a cohesive defense.
It's very unusual that they would do more than five
defendants together in a trial. Anything over five becomes super unwieldy.
And this was way beyond that. It was a circus.
And the jury, not hearing from any of the defendants
(23:23):
in their mind, must have said, then they're all guilty.
They all did it. Why aren't they getting up there
and defending themselves. I wanted to testify. I was prepared
to tell this jury. Look, I was on Cyprus Avenue
and Irene Green and Benjamin Green had provided information to
Donald Tucker, Danny's lawyer, about that alibi. Donald Tucker failed
(23:44):
to do anything with that alibi and investigated further and
put on alibi witnesses on Danny's behalf. The lawyer Donald
Tuckle at the time, who was disbarred by the way
six months seven months after my trial, told me that
if I forced any witness to come into the quote
to testify that doesn't want to testify. Whenever I needed
them to testify, they won't testify for me. And I
(24:06):
was explained to that if I do testify, would not
be in my best interests. So I decided to not
to testify, which I think is one of the worst
mistakes I've made in my life. But the trial was
a farce. You have a circus trial with an impossible
number of people at the defense table in and around defendants, lawyers, paralegals.
(24:27):
You had a lawyer who was on his way to
being disbarred. But the moment, the moment when you were convicted,
what was that like? I gotta tell you that it
was probably one of the worst days of my life.
I mean, absent my mother's passing and my brother. I
think that that was one of the most worst days
of my life. You know, I sat there and looked
(24:49):
at I stared at the jury like a blank stare,
and I'm trying to just makes sense of how did
they come to the conclusion that I was guilty of
a quad The reason we sat there was because of
that quad murder, and I knew I wasn't guilty. I never, never,
never would have imagined that maybe this twenty years later
(25:10):
and I'm still sitting here. I knew that. At some
point I said to myself, you know, Benja mcgreen's family
will come forward and fortune would come forward and tell
these people I'm not responsible for this. They can bear
witness to the fact that I didn't do this, and
that day hasn't come. You got sent to prison. On
(25:30):
the day of sentencing, I was taken up to downstay
from the bullpen. I didn't make it back to Ragge's Island.
I was processing downstairs. Within the next two three days,
I was on a bus headed towards Western New York.
I found myself in Wendy Correctional Facility. I stayed at
Wendy for about roughly seventy days. I had an opportunity
(25:51):
at least to see my mother, my mother tracked me
down and made her way up there, and I saw
my mother's and there after, seventy some days later, I
found my stuff where I am today at Attica Correctional Facility,
and I'm looking for a familiar face, and I run
into Derek Hamilton's who I had known from Rankers Island
and who actually was a friend of my brother when
(26:13):
he rested peace. So I've seen Derek and he tells me, listen,
you gotta go to the Low Library. But back then
and I didn't have a clue of what the Low
Library was and what the Low Library was gonna do
for me, and I just didn't go. So five years later,
I leave Attica and I find myself that green Haven.
I decided that I needed to go to the Low
Library because they was offering a legal research class, and
(26:34):
I ended up getting a legal research certificate. Almost four
years later, I leave green Haven and I find myself
in Hauburn, and I run into a good friend of
my name, Shabaka Shakur, who introduced me to other individuals
that are working in the Low Library of doing things
that were constructive. And I just made a decision that
that's what I was gonna do that. I had to
teach myself how to research, understand, how to seek evidence,
(26:57):
obtain evidence, and presented I find it to get a
job in the Low Library around two thousand seven, two eight,
and then another guy comes into the library that I
had at the privacy to me. Then Nelson Cruz talking
about his case. He was talking about how he had
a role for conviction and he had actually an officer
who can in substantiate that he was not the shooter
in his case. Lord behold, Derek Hamilton's arrives to the facility,
(27:20):
but he's at the shoe now and he sent me
a message because he heard that I was a kirk
in the Low Libraries. And so there he gets down
to the Low Library. Now we're all together. We were
all roughfully convicted, and because we were all arguing actually witnisence,
we named the group the A High Team, the actually
Witnisens Team. So what we would do is brainstorm different cases.
One of the cases that we brainstorm was in Ree Davis.
(27:42):
It was a Supreme Court case where the guy was
convicted rolefully we believe as well, for shooting a police
officer down in Georgia somewhere and Interestingly, in the decision,
one of the judge stated was that the guy had
some alibi winners who weren't given the opportunity to testify,
and it should be afforded that opportunity. And when I
read that that, that kind of like gave me energy,
(28:04):
gave me hope that the witnesses that I have that
can placed me on typeers Avenue hadn't been given that
opportunity to testified and should be given that opportunity to testify.
(28:27):
So Danny actually had a number of post conviction motions
after he got sentenced to a hundred and fifty eight
third to life, and the first motion was a Brady
violation the suppression of exculpatory evidence, which she lost. It
was another one that was brought based on Leslie Crocker
Snyder's failure recused herself because she had conflicts associated with
(28:50):
the case. They lost that. There was a habeas corpus
petition brought in federal court based on the theory of execution,
which was that it was one single conspiracy, which was
the Red Top Orange Top combined, when in reality was
multiple conspiracies. They lost that. So during those years, you know,
(29:13):
the people that I would write frequently. Right was Glenn Garber,
John Edelstein, Ron Koby pleading with them to help me
with my situation. But unbeknownst to me, there was an
attorney who believed in my innocence. Was David Tiger and
David Gohstein who were actually speaking to Glenn for me.
David Tager, who was the lawyer for Rafael Perez and
(29:34):
was co counsel to Donald Tucker, Danny's lawyer, came to
me and said, you've got to get involved in in
Danny's case. We actually went me and David Tager up
to see Tessa Rafael Perez to talk to him because
David was saying that Danny was innocent. And the affid
David that Tesso signed came about either when I went
(29:57):
with him or maybe shortly thereafter. In any event, in
two thousand fourteen, I teamed up with two other lawyers
to do what was a very substitutive post conviction motion
of also called a four forty motion, and the lawyers
were Jonathan Edelstein and Patrick Joyce. And in that motion
in two thousand fourteen, we had an affidavit from Raphael
(30:19):
Perez Tesso, who came forward and said that he was
a shooter in the quad murder. Now, mind you, Tesso
was not one of the prosecution defendants for the quad murder.
He was actually at that joint trial, but the prosecution
did not claim he was associated in any way with
the quad shooting. But it turns out that Tesso was
(30:41):
a shooter. And Francisco Medina also came forward a k a.
Freddie Krueger, and he also signed an affid David and
said that he was a shooter in the quad murder. Also,
somebody the prosecution did not target as a defendant for
the quad murder. I also want to pull something out
that I think it's very interested in. There was an
(31:02):
individual by the name of Raoul Focus who was indicted
by federal prosecutors of the Southern District of New York
along with several others. They charged seventeen murders. Freddy Krueger,
who was actually one of the participants in this quad,
was charged in that indictment as well. In the federal
government had yet to declare whether or not there was
going to seek the death penalty in that case. Raould
(31:22):
Vogg has decided to become a federal cooperator. He admits
to the federal government that he was involved in the
quad murders. And in that trial, Raoul Argus testified about
being the driver and being in the neighborhood and around
the corner when the shooting took place, and was aware
of the details of it and knew that Freddy Krueger
(31:44):
was involved, knew that Tessa was involved, knew that Nelson
Sepulvida was involved, and knew that Platineau was also involved,
and says that Danny had nothing to do with the
quad murder. So we had those three people who were
all involved in the quad murder, all people the prosecution
did not target his defendants in the quad murder, and
(32:05):
they came forward and they said unequivocally that Danny was
not involved. That really should have been enough to get
either an exoneration or a hearing where they could have
testified in front of the court and the court could
have heard from them. The judge actually denied us even
hearing on that motion. There was other things also that
(32:26):
were raised in that motion that were very powerful. There
were six alibi witnesses that came forward and just to
hearken back to what Danny was saying a bit. Those
were witnesses that placed him at that apartment one G
on Cypress Avenue, over a block and a half away
from where the quad murder took place at the time
that the shooting occurred, and those witnesses prepared affidavit's and
(32:49):
we filed those with our four or fort emotion as well.
Some interesting features also is David Tager wrote an Affidavid
and said that tes Raphael Perez had been telling him
all along from the beginning that he was involved in
the Quad murders and that Danny was innocent. But David
toward couldn't reveal that information because he was defending tes
(33:13):
Oh and he obviously couldn't raise that information and implicate
him on something that's client did that he wasn't charged with.
But TESO ultimately allowed David Tuger to come forward with
this information because justice demanded it. And that gives you
a sense of why David Tagger was up in arms
about this, the fact that Danny was erroneously placed in
(33:35):
the Quad murders. Not only you know, during the trial,
but also afterwards, why he came to me and why
he's so adamant that this injustice happened that Danny needed
to be exonerated. David Goldstein also filled out an affid
David that was submitted in that for Ford Emotion, and
talked about Donald Tucker, who was Danny's lawyer, and said
(33:57):
that he had revealed to Tucker that there is an alibi,
and Irene Green and Benjamin Green had provided information to
him about that alibi, and Donald Tucker never brought that
evidence forward. And one of the claims in that for
fort Emotion, by the way, was in effective assistance of
counsel for Tucker's failure to do anything with that alibi.
(34:18):
Investigated further and put on alibi witnesses on Danny's behalf.
So unfortunately, two thousand fifteen, Judge Fitzgerald, who got assigned
to the case, wrote a very bad decision, denying us
on all grounds and not even giving us our day
in court. And that's where we're basically at now, where
we're continue our investigation. We're trying to shore up additional
(34:42):
aspects of the alibi, we're looking into Tebban's and we're
at a place right now where we're trying to get
him back into court with new stuff. And I think
one of the most important parts of this whole case
has been the targeting of Danny, basically to get him
off the street. And I think the witnesses they've used,
I mean, the judge never seemed to acknowledged the fact
that all of these people had invested interest in having
(35:03):
him put away, and that was something that just was
never brought to light. And I think that that's sort
of our goal going forward, is to show that they
all had a motive. We have people with no incentive
to lie that have cleared him, So I think we
just need to sort of parse out the facts and
separate them chronologically and logically to see why we're in
the situation. It just doesn't make any sense. It just
(35:24):
doesn't make any freaking sense. And so many of the
people that Danny referenced are people that we've had on
the show, people that I consider to be friends, and
most of them have been exonerated by now or at
a minimum, freed, and yet he continues to go on
with Danny. I mean, what a what an inspirational guy
you are. You were convicted of a horrible crime that
(35:46):
you didn't commit, killers were allowed to remain free, and
New York city suffered as a result. Taxpayers continue to
pay for your wrongful incarceration, and you continue to pay
with your very life, and all of it is something
that outrage everybody of good conscience. So the good news
is we're here, we're shining a light on it. We
(36:06):
have Glenn and Farah and a whole team of people,
and I think hopefully we'll build a new legion of
people with some of the information that we've shared today.
And how can people get involved? First of all, they
could write letters to the Manhattan District Attorney's office to
sid Vance Jr. Um and asked that they'd be sent
to the Integrity Unit and that they reevaluate the case.
(36:28):
We went to the Integrity Unit, by the way, and
they didn't give a ship. Um. They can go to
their local government representatives and their districts and they could
say that this is a case that bothers them, and
asked those people to get involved and maybe write letters
to the D's office on their behalf. There's also a
petition that you can sign on change dot org, So
please scroll down to the bio and get involved. Now,
(36:52):
we turned to the portion of the show that we
call closing arguments, First of all, I think are distinguished guests,
all three of you para roster. Thanks again for being here,
Thanks for having us, Jason, thank you, and Glenn Garber
my pleasure and I'm glad that you're featuring this case.
We really appreciate it. And of course, Danny Um, you
(37:13):
know we're gonna get to you last, because that's how
closing arguments works here the show is that we always
saved the best for last. And but first of all,
like I said, I just want to thank you for
being here. Thank you so much, and we're going to
keep fighting for you. So now, closing arguments is where
I turned my microphone off, I kicked back in my chair,
and I asked each of you to share your final
(37:35):
thoughts with our audience. First of all, thank you so
much Jason for having us, and thank you for taking
the time to hear's Danny's story and getting to know
him and learning as many people as possible here about
the injustice he has suffered. Already, he spent twenty five
years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
As you've heard, there's no there's so much evidence supporting
his claim of innocence, from statements of the actual perpetrators
(37:56):
of the quad to the people who were with him
at the exact time of the shooting. Is clear that
he was not near or in the alley when the
shooting occurred. In fact, he was on the phone with
his brother, who was incarcerated at the moment the shots
were fired, and he ran to see what had happened.
He yelled to his friends to come inside, and then
he saw the mother of one of the victims and
actually hugged and consoled her. These six people have signed
(38:17):
affidavit stating that Danny was with them when the shots
were fired. They all signed statements saying that he did
not commit the pod murder. He had the misfortune of
having a lawyer who did not call these witnesses as
alibi witnesses at trial, despite his repeated requests. He also
had the misfortune of being tried in front of a
judge who was predisposed to not liking him. As we
later found out in a book she authored after the
(38:38):
trial with no evidence, she blamed him and his co
defendants for death threats she and her family received during
the trial. He had the misfortune of being targeted by
detective who was determined to close his cases as quickly
as possible. And as we've discussed, we have concerns about
the detective's use of witnesses in this case and have
found a pattern of him misusing the same witnesses over
and over. He has made promises to witnesses and they
(39:00):
often received reduced penalties for their own crimes and exchange
for their false testimony. Most of these witnesses were members
of the rival Red Top organization and they had been
interest in getting them off the street. So Glen and
I are really committed to helping him uncover the truth
in this case and giving Danny as well as the
families of the victims the justice they deserve. So this
(39:21):
case is a debacle of justice, and there's exceptionally strong
evidence of innocence that normally would be enough to at
least get an evidentiary hearing to be able to open
the door to the court and establish through live testimony
the exonerating evidence, and we unfortunately had a judge who
(39:42):
didn't care when we brought the evidence forward in our
post conviction motion in two thousand and fourteen. The decision
that the judge wrote was basically focusing on non substitive
matters to deny us even the hearing that we needed
to establish Danny's innocence. We are hopeful that maybe with
a new DA in Manhattan, or with additional evidence which
(40:06):
we're developing right now and getting back into court, we
will get a fair hearing if we have to go
that far, and we'll get a judge who's actually going
to care and hear the evidence, because we do think
that once we ultimately get our day in court, but
we can bring those witnesses forward, those true killers who
actually admit to the crime, and the alibi witnesses who
(40:28):
have never been heard by a fact finder. Once we're
able to bring those forward in a fair environment, we're
optimistic that Danny is finally going to get exonerated. Amen,
and now Danny over to you for closing arguments. Thank
you so much, Thank you so much, Jason for giving
me the opportunity. I want to thank Glenn Gabba Slava
Rosin of the Generation for giving me this opportunity, for
(40:51):
believing in my innocence, for not giving up on me
while you know I fight for my life here. You
know this is a difficult situation. Um being in prison
is hard enough. For being in prison for a crime
that you didn't to commit, and doing life for a
crime that you didn't commit. And you know that you
look in the mimory morning and you don't have a
date to be released from this hell. It's pretty it's
(41:12):
a pretty hard pip to swallow. You know. It weighs
on my conscience. It makes me make bad decisions at times,
It makes me lose my temper, and you know, it
tests my faith, It tests my my mental forty two
it really you know, doesn't number. I mean and and
and it affects a lot of you know, other aspects
of my life. And you know, my personal relationship, my friends,
relationship with my family and friends. And it's just not right.
(41:35):
And I know that most of the decisions that I
make obviously are influenced by this incarceration. But my aim
is to prove that ultimately one day, that I didn't
commit this crime, and that there is more than enough
evidence to substantiate the fact that I commit this crime.
And I act and urge those who have that evidence
to please, you know, come forward, come forward and provide
(41:57):
that evidence. You know, you know, think about what it
would be for you to sit in prison for twenty
years for a crying un comit. Think about what it
would be for a relative of your brother, sister, sibling,
anybody that you may know that's close to you to
sit in prison for twenty eight years knowing that that
person is citizen, while that person with the ways and
rots in prison. That's not that's not an easy thing.
(42:19):
It's not fair. I don't think it's sat on anybody.
Is It's not something that anybody should go through. And
you know, this is a difficult system. The justice system
is not just you know, the justice system is about
who has the wherewith or to to navigate the systems.
If you have the money, you can locate what you
want to need it. It appears to be in this system.
But if you have the evidence, you know, the system
(42:39):
for some reason tends to undermine it and look for
ways to discredit the evidence. UM. Something that I faced
in twenty fourteen when a motion was filed. I might
behalf based on actual with a system and judged by
the name of Daniel. This general undermine the evidence. UM
overlooked the fact that I was sitting in prison for
a crime that atical it and did away with me,
(43:02):
you know, and that was wrong and and for those reasons,
you know, among others, I fight as hard as I
fight to prove that, you know, I do long around
my family and friends and not in prison to rout
away for something that I didn't do. Don't forget to
give us a fantastic review wherever you get your podcasts,
(43:24):
it really helps. And I'm a proud donor to the
Innocence Project, and I really hope you'll join me in
supporting this very important cause and helping to prevent future
wrongful convictions. Go to Innocence Project dot org to learn
how to donate and get involved. I'd like to thank
our production team, Connor Hall and Kevin Wardis. The music
in the show is by three time OSCAR nominated composer
(43:47):
Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at
Wrongful Conviction and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful
Conviction with Jason Flam is a production the Lava for
Good Podcasts in association with sig Know Company Number one
Hosts And Creators
Lauren Bright Pacheco
Maggie Freleng
Jason Flom
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