May 30, 2022 • 33 mins
On September 19, 1998, Donna Brown was closing a Taco Bell in Adel, GA after her second day on the job. As she left, she was robbed and fatally shot. Two witnesses, one a jailhouse snitch and one a respondent to a $5000 reward, implicated Devonia Inman. Despite their subsequent recantations, several alibi witnesses and an obvious other suspect, Devonia was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life without parole. The real perpetrator went on to kill two others. Maggie speaks to Devonia Inman, Jessica Cino J.D., Devonia’s advocate, Dinah Ray, his mother and David Ray, his stepfather.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jason, I've been thinking a lot about post incarceration, and
I'm wondering if you have thought about people getting released
from prison, particularly people who were wrongfully convicted, and how
they adapt once they're out. You Know, My thing, Maggie
is that I think that the overwhelming majority of people
(00:23):
coming out of prison, innocent or guilty, all they need
is a chance, right, and if you open that door
a crack, they're gonna go marching through it and and
they're going to, you know, do the best they can
do with the time they have. It's a lot more
(00:45):
to it and just being free, because the prison part
it was hard, but it's not harder than being thrown
back into a big old ocean and you don't know
what's in it or we'st there no more from lava
(01:12):
for good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today
Davonna Inman. In the early morning of September nine, Donna
Brown closed up a taco bell in adel Georgia. She
(01:33):
was walking through the parking lot to her car carrying
cash she needed to deposit for work when she was
robbed and shot dead almost immediately. Twenty year old Devonia
Inman became a suspect when his girlfriend's sister told police
Davonna had come over that night with a whole lot
of money. Davonna had an alibi, though he was with
(01:55):
his family, including his grandmother and girlfriend, at the time
of the murder, but sue when other people came forward
implicating Davonia, and he was arrested and charged with the
murder of Donna Brown. He faced the death penalty. After
a flimsy trial at best, Davonia was convicted of murder.
(02:17):
Years later, DNA evidence would exonerate him and identify the
true killer, but that was only after a decade of
legal battles with the Attorney General, who sought to uphold
his conviction. Still, Davonna is forgiving of him and of
others who sought the death penalty. I forget him too,
because everybody deserves mercy, even the people that you think
(02:43):
are bad. You know, ye had to forgive people for
page today, dupe. My name is Davona Tyrone Emmin and
I was incarcerated for twenty three years for something that
I didn't do. The oldest of four kids, Davannia Inman,
(03:09):
was born on his grandparents couch in Adel Georgia on
August nine. Adel is a small town of about five
thousand people in rural Georgia, close to the Panhandle of
Florida and Tallahassee. Davinia was a happy kid, Ah, silly kid,
(03:32):
you know, showing off the dressing up. This is Davonna's mom, Dinah.
He was a loving Karen person who you know, he
would do anything for just about anybody. When Davonia was
a toddler, his parents divorced and he moved with his
mom to Sacramento, California. His mom, Dina, remarried a military
(03:53):
man named David Ray, who raised Vannia like his own son.
Here's David. I'm a member of mostly about the birthday parties.
He always, no matter what, he wanted to be the
center kitchen, even if it wasn't his birthday. But did
we just love having fun and just opened up gifts
and and eating cake. Little Davonna dreamed of being in
(04:18):
the military, just like his stepdad who was stationed in
the army. I like you to dress up and play
army all the time. Yes, he was putting on my
big clothing. Yes, and we just like go out and
play with war. And he really liked that. I can
picture him just like as a little boy, dressing up
in military clothes. Were you proud of him? Would you?
(04:39):
Were you? Did you want him to go into the military? Yes,
I was fine with it. I ain't gonna say I
wanted him to, but he wanted to. Davanna also dreamt
of doing some kind of computer technician or mechanic work.
His mom would see him putting his mechanical mind to
work on his dirt bikes. He liked to ride them
around and have fun and take him apart and see
(05:02):
how they come apart and try to put them back together.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it did. He put them back
together sometimes sometimes he did. Davonna would still travel back
and forth to Adel on occasion, and in had a
son with a woman from Adele. He named him Travinsky.
(05:25):
As Davanna got older, he started running with the wrong
crowd and getting into trouble and sacramento petty crimes like
car theft. Eventually, Dinah had enough and sent him back
to Adel to live with his grandmother. But Davonna's time
with his grandmother was short lived. It was only a
month and a half after he got back to Adel
that he would be arrested for murder. In the early
(05:56):
morning of September nineteenth, Donna Brown was closing up a
Taco bell in eight oh Donna was forty years old,
a single mother with a seven year old son. It
was only her second day as the new manager. Around
two am, Donna was walking through the parking lot to
her car. She was carrying over seventeen hundred dollars in
cash she was going to deposit at a bank when
(06:18):
she was robbed at gunpoint. She was fatally shot. The
killer took off with her money and her car Davanna.
At the time, he was with his family, including his
grandmother and his girlfriend, Christie. Since Adl was a small
town with limited resources, the police department was ill equipped
to deal with the homicide, so they called in the
(06:39):
Georgia Bureau of Investigation the g b I for help.
Two days later, Devonia was picked up for questioning and
Donna Brown's murder, and he was held on an unrelated charge.
Investigators eventually found Donna's car abandoned in a Pizza Hut
parking lot. Inside the car was crucial evidence the police
initially did not collect, but we'll get to that later.
(07:03):
Both the g b I and local law enforcement sort
of sweep the town and start, you know, asking a
whole bunch of questions. This is attorney Jessica Cino. She's
not Davonna's attorney, but she's his friend and advocate. She
came across Davanna's case in while visiting the offices of
the Georgia Innocence Project. Needing fresh eyes on the case,
(07:23):
Jessica gathered her students from Georgia State University College of
Law in Atlanta, and they dove in. After looking it over,
Jessica was convinced that Davonna was innocent. To me, the
case represented this uh perfect storm of everything that could
possibly go wrong in a case. Jessica says that right
(07:45):
after Donna Brown's murder, the police and gb I canvassed
the town and started asking questions. They eventually wound up
talking to what Jessica calls a quote frequent flyer. Mean
authorities know her very well. She's probably served as a
confidential informant on different individuals at a certain point, and
she tells them, you know, you need to talk to
(08:07):
Davanna Inman. This woman's name was Marquetta Thomas, the sister
of Davanna's girlfriend, Christie Marquetta, told police that Davanna came
to her home with an unusually large amount of cash
the night of the homicide, so that right there sort
of seals Davanna's faith. Police also interviewed employees at the
(08:28):
Taco Bell where Donna worked, including a woman named Larcia Chapman.
Laricia left work early that night and claimed not to
have seen anything, but a month later her story changed.
Larissa now told police that she had seen someone hiding
in the bushes outside of the restaurant and that she
recognized that person as Davanna. So now you know, you've
(08:49):
got Marquette Thomas, who puts Stavania, you know, having the
money from the robbery and you know, essentially confessing to
to the crime to her at least intimating that he
did the Taco Bell thing. And then you have Laritia Chapman,
who puts him at the scene of the crime. So
Davionna is, you know, swiftly arrested. After his arrest, months
(09:15):
passed without any indictment. But then two other key witnesses
came forward. One is a woman named Virginia Tatum, and
she is a newspaper delivery person. She gives a statement
to the police, later testifying to the same in court
that on the night of the crime, she saw somebody
(09:35):
driving Donna Brown's car across that inner State from the
Taco Bell to the Pizza Hut, and it whips around
the corner at high speed at like two in the morning.
But she can state with absolute, absolute certainty that the
driver of the car is Divine Emmon. She could see
down to the detail of the earring in his ear
(09:57):
and necklace around his neck. Jessica Leaves, Virginia, was motivated
to come forward by a newspaper ad offering a five
thousand dollar reward for information leading to the arrest. Her
story places Davannia in the victim's car, transporting it from
Taco Bell to Pizza Hut. Last, but not least, someone
who had been incarcerated alongside Davonia comes forward. Rince says
(10:20):
that Davana confessed to him. So now we've got a
jail house snitched. That man's name was Kwamie Spaulding. So
you've got Marquetta Thomas Luritia Chapman the jail house snitch,
and you've got Virginia Tatum All linking Davonia to the crime.
On January, almost exactly four months after Donna Brown was killed.
(10:45):
Davonia Inman is indicted for armed robbery, theft, a legal
possession of a firearm, and capital murder. This episode is
underwritten by a i G, a leading global insurance company.
A i G is committed to corporate social responsibility and
(11:07):
to making a positive difference in the lives of its
employees and in the communities where we work and live.
In light of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance,
and in recognition of a i g's commitment to criminal
and social justice reform, the a i G pro Bono
Program provides free legal services and other support to underrepresented
(11:29):
communities and individuals. On June eleven, two, one over two
years since he was arrested, Davanna's trial began. The prosecutor
was d A. Bob Ellis, who sought the death penalty
against Davanna. Interestingly enough, this sounds like an air tight
(11:56):
case for the prosecution. The problem is that once the
case actually starts to get going, it falls into pieces
like it's in shambles. On the stand. Two of the
prosecution's witnesses recanted their stories Marcatta Thomas, the sister of
Davanna's girlfriend, who said she'd seen Davonnia with a lot
(12:16):
of cash the night of the murder, and Laricia Chapman,
who said she saw Davonna in the bushes at Taco Bell.
Marcatta admits that she made up her story because she
disapproved of the relationship Davonna had with her sister, and
Laritia says officers pressured her, actually threatening to take her
child away if she did not implicate Davonia in the crime. So,
(12:37):
with no physical evidence against Ivanna, the prosecution now had
just the statement of Virginia Tatum and apparently has uh,
you know, superhero style eyesight to be able to describe
the level of detail of a car going around a
corner at like thirty and the testimony of Kwamie Spalding,
the jailhouse informant who said Davonna had can Fest to him.
(13:01):
Cawami was given a deal to testify a lighter sentence,
and this was not disclosed to the defense or the jury.
Davonna's attorney, Melinda Ryles, presented Devonia's alibi that he was
with his grandmother and girlfriend at the time of the murder,
but it wasn't enough. Davonia was swiftly convicted, but the
(13:22):
jury did not give him the death penalty. They decide
for life without opportunity for parole, which I've spoken to
a few of the jurors on the original case and
asked the exact question, which is, why didn't you give
him the death penalty, to which both of them replied, well,
we thought he might not be guilty, so we didn't
(13:44):
want to sentence him to death just in case, which
shows they had reasonable doubt. If the jury has doubt,
they are instructed not to convict. Yet despite that, and
despite Davonna pleading his innocence, they did. Nobody will believe me.
Was a close family, my mom, my dad, my auntie,
(14:07):
and that's about it. Everybody else either knew the truth
and I was afraid to do something about it or
just didn't care. How does that feel? Depressing? Sad in
a way because you could have stopped something, you know,
(14:28):
a long time ago before you were arrested. Have you
ever thought about wrongful convictions? No, it is you never
think something like that would happen. Davonna was twenty three
years old when he was sentenced. To prison. He was
the oldest of his siblings, but still his mother's baby boy.
(14:52):
I felt like my life was destroyed. You know, you
took my child away from me, and I felt there
was nothing I could do. I didn't know who to
turn to. I mean, the whole family was in disbelief.
(15:15):
We can't believe it. During his first years in prison,
Devonia passed his time by appealing the conviction, but his
appeals were unsuccessful because the one thing we know about
the criminal justice system is that it is absolutely designed
to keep you in prison once you have been found guilty,
right that whole presumption of innocence is gone. So trying
(15:37):
to overturn a conviction was an incredibly high, if not
impossible bar. Devonna says he was prepared to die in prison.
Even watching TV, one of the only luxuries incarcerated people
have reminded him of his bleak reality. When you have
your life tooking away, it's like you can't do those scenes.
Some more so, it's like, m do you try to
(16:02):
forget about, forget about a life that you could have had,
persons the life that you have. Focus your mind on
what's surround you. Because four walls can drive you crazy.
The only way you can drive you crazy if you
(16:24):
take it about what the world is doing. However, Davonia persisted.
He continued to reach out to any innocence organizations he
(16:44):
could find for assistance. Eventually, nearly ten years after his conviction,
Davonna heard back from the Georgia Innocence Project and they
wanted to help. Now, innocence projects usually have a fairly
high bar for accepting cases. Often that means being a
case where DNA is able to prove someone's innocence conclusively
(17:04):
and at the same time possibly find the true perpetrator.
But there was no DNA used to convict Davonnia, So
you might be wondering why did the Georgia Innocence Project
take it. Well, actually there was DNA evidence, but it
wasn't discovered until years after Devonna's conviction. When Donna Brown's
(17:28):
car was found in the Pizza Hut parking lot and
returned to her family, they found something inside, a makeshift
mask made from the leg of a pair of sweatpants
with two eye holes cut into it that police never collected.
The Georgia Innocence Project jumped on this new evidence as
a potential source of DNA in Davon's attorneys from the
(17:52):
Georgia Innocence Project requested DNA testing of the mask, and
it was granted. When the DNA came out, I already
knew that it was just gonna be mine. I wanted
to see the faces of the people who said it
was me and what they would look like. Would they
look at me, you know, and looked me in the eyes,
(18:16):
you know, and you don't really have to say anything.
You could just look me in the eyes in it
and tell itself of how you feel, you know. I mean,
I gotta be a hard thing to live with, you know,
sitting somebody to prison for something they didn't do. The
(18:37):
DNA actually came back with a match to a man
named Hercules Brown. In fact, at trial, Davonna's attorneys fought
and were denied the opportunity to present Hercules Brown as
an alternate suspect because Brown had already been on the
radar of Davina's team even before trial that he was
the true killer of Donna Brown. And that's thanks to
(19:00):
who witness testimonies saying he was talking about the murder.
You know. They uncover various statements from witnesses who say
that Hercules admitted to killing Donna Brown. And here's the thing.
He worked at Taco Bell with Donna Brown and was
an employee there. And one of the former employees of
(19:22):
Taco Bell wanted to testify and Devon's trial, and her
statement basically was that, you know, before the Taco Bell
crime occurred, Hercules approached her with a scheme to rob it,
basically an inside job, and they would split the money.
And she said absolutely not, and she actually quit to
(19:43):
avoid dealing with Hercules. Her replacement is Donna Brown. Now,
ten years after Devonia's conviction, the DNA comes back linking
Hercules Brown to Donna Brown's murder. Devonia's mom, Dina, remembers
getting the news. She was at lunch with David, her husband,
and we just started screaming and crying, you know, and
(20:03):
we just knew he was coming home. But that didn't happen. Instead,
motions had to be filed for a new trial, which
could take another few years. Devanny's request was denied, then
another motion was filed, followed by another denial. I was
like one let down another let down. We were just
(20:31):
couldn't believe that he wasn't coming home. What was that
like to wait for so long when we knew at
that point for sure you didn't do this by DNA.
I guess it was like sad in the way, but
(20:52):
it was more anger because it's like you didn't take
long to put me here, but you want to check
long to let me free when I proved my innocence.
So I feel like it was it was wrong. Meanwhile,
(21:14):
the real killer was still free to commit crimes, including
the one that put Hercules Brown as a potential perpetrator
in the mind of Davania's defense. At the end of
two thousand, there is a heinous crime in this town
and two beloved members who run this convenience store in
a dell are brutally murdered and beaten to death with
(21:38):
baseball bats. The two people who perpetrate the crime or
seeing fleeing the scene in broad daylight, and they are
quickly identified and arrested, and one of those individuals was
Hercules Brown. Had they arrested Hercules originally for the taco
bell crime, there are at least two people who would
(21:58):
still be alive today. Like the most brutal murder of
that town had ever seen. Would not have happened if
they had originally arrested the right person. And there's a
third murder that Hercules has been linked to that still
remains unsolved today. Davona waited and waited for good news.
(22:28):
By he had been imprisoned for nearly two decades, and
for ten of those years, this new DNA evidence implicating
another person for the crime he had been convicted of,
was being ignored. So Davonia remained trapped in prison because
every time his attorney's filed a motion for a new
trial based on the DNA evidence, Attorney General Chris Carr
(22:49):
would oppose and defend the conviction. But then, in a
surprising move, Presiding Justice David Namius and then Chief Justice
Harold Milton both wrote legal opinions urging Attorney General Card
to stop defending Davannia's conviction. Namius wrote, quote, of the
multitude of cases in which a new trial has been denied,
(23:12):
in men's case is the one that causes me the
most concern that an innocent person remains convicted and sentenced
to serve the rest of his life in prison. Finally,
in Davonia was granted in evidentiary hearing a few months later,
his conviction was vacated and he was granted a new trial.
(23:33):
By this time, by the way, one of the prosecutors
in Devonia's case, back in two thousand one, Bob Ellis,
had been indicted and disbarred for sleeping with a confidential informant.
The other prosecutor is indicted on federal drug charges eventually
and ends up moving to Alabama. And then one of
(23:55):
the jurors had some sort of relationship where if one
of the witnesses like he he had hired her for
exotic dancing, and you know, still gets to stay on
the jury. Like you just can't. You can't write this
in a fiction book because it's unbelievable. And a third witness,
(24:16):
the jailhouse informant, Kwamie Spalding, had also recanted. The case
against Avonia had completely fallen apart. Attorney General Carr finally
stopped upholding the conviction, and eventually Davonna's charges were dismissed.
On December, Davonia walked out of prison a freeman. So
(24:40):
when he did come home and you got that news,
did you think it was going to be like this? No?
I didn't. I thought, I don't know I was asking
Davonia's mom about his sadness and depression. You can hear
it in his voice. The happy fund center of attention
kid is parents described is no more. He's withdrawn, soft spoken,
(25:04):
and looked like he had tears in his eyes the
whole time we spoke. I mean, I often wondered when
he comes home, will his memories be of all the
fun things we did as a family, or would they
be of his prison life? But I thought he would
(25:29):
get home in it. You know, we all get back
to this big, happy family that couldn't be, that's always together.
But Dinah's dreams of everything going back to normal wouldn't
come true. Davonia came home a broken man. It's just
(25:49):
everybody feels I'm just supposed to be happy because you're
out of prison. Wow, that isn't a real scenario or
a real you know, feeling yeah, you're happy to be
out that you're not, but the things that you're going
through is even more sadder. What has that done to you? Sleepless,
(26:19):
I have to be really tired to go to sleep,
So I might be up for two three days and
then go to sleep, because it's just like you'll remember
certain things that happened, or when somebody got stabbed, or
you have like flashbacks of it seeing it and it
(26:43):
wakes you up, or you know, are you talking your
sleep or whatever. Then you're still doing that outside of prison.
It's slowed down now, But yeah, on I just feel
like being in there for so long, it's like you're
(27:06):
accustomed to one way. So when you come out here,
people just misunderstand because they don't know what you've been
through or what you know what I mean, So it
kind of seems like they seem weird to you, and
you seem weird to them. Jessicasino believes that the years
(27:37):
behind bars for a crime he didn't commit has taken
a toll on Devonia's mental health. You know, you've spent
twenty three years in a prison system where every piece
of your life is scripted. You can't do anything without
the permission of the guards that you know, um, you
have to navigate other prisoners. I mean, it was a
(27:57):
traumatic experience. He had a very difficult time in the
prison system. He's coming out into a world that he
doesn't know, um and to a family you know that
wave and support him to pieces. But at the same time,
it's a family that has grown without him. At the moment,
(28:19):
Davon has focused more on picking up the pieces of
his life. He works at FedEx now, but he says
it's the interpersonal relationships that are the hardest to navigate.
Given how people he knew, like his then girlfriend's sister Marcatta,
had lied about him, it is understandable that he would
struggle with trusting others, and Davonna has had a lot
(28:40):
of relationships to navigate, especially the one with his son Travinsky.
So what's that like to now have this new responsibility
of being a dad to a twentysomething year old. What
are some of the what are some of the hardships
you guys have? Mm hmmm. Me being occupied, you know,
(29:01):
like with the daily stuff that I'd be wanting to
do and happen to you know, talk to him or whatever,
because he'd be wanting to talk and stuff like that.
But I'll be busy a lot. I go to work
and you know, you can't really you really just don't
(29:26):
want to get on the phone, Like who wants to
just be on the phone all day. Davona got his
driver's license right after getting out of prison and says
driving is his favorite thing to do right now, the
freedom to just get out and explore wherever he wants
without permission. I think the most gooddest feeling is walking
(29:48):
outside in the middle of the night and get in
the car and just going somewhere. Davonna says he's been
all over in just a few months, including to Richmond,
San Francisco, and Reno. He says he'd like to get
his g e D someday, but is having difficulties signing
up without proper documentation after twenty three years in prison.
He'd also like to mend the relationship with his son
(30:09):
once he settles down more now that he has his freedom.
Dyvonne wants people to be aware of the shortcomings of
our criminal justice system and of the needed reform to
help individuals with their reentry. It's a lot more to
it and just being free. There's a lot more to
(30:30):
it than just helping someone get out praiser for something
that they didn't do. You can't just stop and Okay,
now our job is done, because is even bigger tasked
and the prison thing, you know, it's becoming, you know,
(30:56):
accepted back into a society. On both parties. You know
the world and you and people should pay more attention
to that then to pass or what you had to overcome.
Because the prison part it was hard, but it's not
(31:21):
harder than being thrown back into a big old ocean
and you don't know what's in it or what's there
no more. If you want to help Davonia, please go
(31:44):
to Mighty cause dot com and search Davona inmant Davona
is seeking funds to help get back on his feet
next time. Unwrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling Faye Jacobs. They
arrested me and charge me with capital felony murder and
set my bond at one million dollars. Okay, I'm sixteen,
(32:07):
and I'm like, I had never been to jail before
in my life, and so I'm scared. I'm very scared.
Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.
Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
links in our bio to see how you can help.
(32:29):
I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason Flam and
Kevin Wurdis, as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea
researcher Lila Robinson story editor Sonya Paul, with additional production
by Jeff Cleiburne and Connor Hall. The music in this
production is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
(32:51):
on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at
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Instagram and Twitter at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie
Freeling is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in
association with Signal Company Number one
Jason, I've been thinking a lot about post incarceration, and
I'm wondering if you have thought about people getting released
from prison, particularly people who were wrongfully convicted, and how
they adapt once they're out. You Know, My thing, Maggie
is that I think that the overwhelming majority of people
(00:23):
coming out of prison, innocent or guilty, all they need
is a chance, right, and if you open that door
a crack, they're gonna go marching through it and and
they're going to, you know, do the best they can
do with the time they have. It's a lot more
(00:45):
to it and just being free, because the prison part
it was hard, but it's not harder than being thrown
back into a big old ocean and you don't know
what's in it or we'st there no more from lava
(01:12):
for good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today
Davonna Inman. In the early morning of September nine, Donna
Brown closed up a taco bell in adel Georgia. She
(01:33):
was walking through the parking lot to her car carrying
cash she needed to deposit for work when she was
robbed and shot dead almost immediately. Twenty year old Devonia
Inman became a suspect when his girlfriend's sister told police
Davonna had come over that night with a whole lot
of money. Davonna had an alibi, though he was with
(01:55):
his family, including his grandmother and girlfriend, at the time
of the murder, but sue when other people came forward
implicating Davonia, and he was arrested and charged with the
murder of Donna Brown. He faced the death penalty. After
a flimsy trial at best, Davonia was convicted of murder.
(02:17):
Years later, DNA evidence would exonerate him and identify the
true killer, but that was only after a decade of
legal battles with the Attorney General, who sought to uphold
his conviction. Still, Davonna is forgiving of him and of
others who sought the death penalty. I forget him too,
because everybody deserves mercy, even the people that you think
(02:43):
are bad. You know, ye had to forgive people for
page today, dupe. My name is Davona Tyrone Emmin and
I was incarcerated for twenty three years for something that
I didn't do. The oldest of four kids, Davannia Inman,
(03:09):
was born on his grandparents couch in Adel Georgia on
August nine. Adel is a small town of about five
thousand people in rural Georgia, close to the Panhandle of
Florida and Tallahassee. Davinia was a happy kid, Ah, silly kid,
(03:32):
you know, showing off the dressing up. This is Davonna's mom, Dinah.
He was a loving Karen person who you know, he
would do anything for just about anybody. When Davonia was
a toddler, his parents divorced and he moved with his
mom to Sacramento, California. His mom, Dina, remarried a military
(03:53):
man named David Ray, who raised Vannia like his own son.
Here's David. I'm a member of mostly about the birthday parties.
He always, no matter what, he wanted to be the
center kitchen, even if it wasn't his birthday. But did
we just love having fun and just opened up gifts
and and eating cake. Little Davonna dreamed of being in
(04:18):
the military, just like his stepdad who was stationed in
the army. I like you to dress up and play
army all the time. Yes, he was putting on my
big clothing. Yes, and we just like go out and
play with war. And he really liked that. I can
picture him just like as a little boy, dressing up
in military clothes. Were you proud of him? Would you?
(04:39):
Were you? Did you want him to go into the military? Yes,
I was fine with it. I ain't gonna say I
wanted him to, but he wanted to. Davanna also dreamt
of doing some kind of computer technician or mechanic work.
His mom would see him putting his mechanical mind to
work on his dirt bikes. He liked to ride them
around and have fun and take him apart and see
(05:02):
how they come apart and try to put them back together.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it did. He put them back
together sometimes sometimes he did. Davonna would still travel back
and forth to Adel on occasion, and in had a
son with a woman from Adele. He named him Travinsky.
(05:25):
As Davanna got older, he started running with the wrong
crowd and getting into trouble and sacramento petty crimes like
car theft. Eventually, Dinah had enough and sent him back
to Adel to live with his grandmother. But Davonna's time
with his grandmother was short lived. It was only a
month and a half after he got back to Adel
that he would be arrested for murder. In the early
(05:56):
morning of September nineteenth, Donna Brown was closing up a
Taco bell in eight oh Donna was forty years old,
a single mother with a seven year old son. It
was only her second day as the new manager. Around
two am, Donna was walking through the parking lot to
her car. She was carrying over seventeen hundred dollars in
cash she was going to deposit at a bank when
(06:18):
she was robbed at gunpoint. She was fatally shot. The
killer took off with her money and her car Davanna.
At the time, he was with his family, including his
grandmother and his girlfriend, Christie. Since Adl was a small
town with limited resources, the police department was ill equipped
to deal with the homicide, so they called in the
(06:39):
Georgia Bureau of Investigation the g b I for help.
Two days later, Devonia was picked up for questioning and
Donna Brown's murder, and he was held on an unrelated charge.
Investigators eventually found Donna's car abandoned in a Pizza Hut
parking lot. Inside the car was crucial evidence the police
initially did not collect, but we'll get to that later.
(07:03):
Both the g b I and local law enforcement sort
of sweep the town and start, you know, asking a
whole bunch of questions. This is attorney Jessica Cino. She's
not Davonna's attorney, but she's his friend and advocate. She
came across Davanna's case in while visiting the offices of
the Georgia Innocence Project. Needing fresh eyes on the case,
(07:23):
Jessica gathered her students from Georgia State University College of
Law in Atlanta, and they dove in. After looking it over,
Jessica was convinced that Davonna was innocent. To me, the
case represented this uh perfect storm of everything that could
possibly go wrong in a case. Jessica says that right
(07:45):
after Donna Brown's murder, the police and gb I canvassed
the town and started asking questions. They eventually wound up
talking to what Jessica calls a quote frequent flyer. Mean
authorities know her very well. She's probably served as a
confidential informant on different individuals at a certain point, and
she tells them, you know, you need to talk to
(08:07):
Davanna Inman. This woman's name was Marquetta Thomas, the sister
of Davanna's girlfriend, Christie Marquetta, told police that Davanna came
to her home with an unusually large amount of cash
the night of the homicide, so that right there sort
of seals Davanna's faith. Police also interviewed employees at the
(08:28):
Taco Bell where Donna worked, including a woman named Larcia Chapman.
Laricia left work early that night and claimed not to
have seen anything, but a month later her story changed.
Larissa now told police that she had seen someone hiding
in the bushes outside of the restaurant and that she
recognized that person as Davanna. So now you know, you've
(08:49):
got Marquette Thomas, who puts Stavania, you know, having the
money from the robbery and you know, essentially confessing to
to the crime to her at least intimating that he
did the Taco Bell thing. And then you have Laritia Chapman,
who puts him at the scene of the crime. So
Davionna is, you know, swiftly arrested. After his arrest, months
(09:15):
passed without any indictment. But then two other key witnesses
came forward. One is a woman named Virginia Tatum, and
she is a newspaper delivery person. She gives a statement
to the police, later testifying to the same in court
that on the night of the crime, she saw somebody
(09:35):
driving Donna Brown's car across that inner State from the
Taco Bell to the Pizza Hut, and it whips around
the corner at high speed at like two in the morning.
But she can state with absolute, absolute certainty that the
driver of the car is Divine Emmon. She could see
down to the detail of the earring in his ear
(09:57):
and necklace around his neck. Jessica Leaves, Virginia, was motivated
to come forward by a newspaper ad offering a five
thousand dollar reward for information leading to the arrest. Her
story places Davannia in the victim's car, transporting it from
Taco Bell to Pizza Hut. Last, but not least, someone
who had been incarcerated alongside Davonia comes forward. Rince says
(10:20):
that Davana confessed to him. So now we've got a
jail house snitched. That man's name was Kwamie Spaulding. So
you've got Marquetta Thomas Luritia Chapman the jail house snitch,
and you've got Virginia Tatum All linking Davonia to the crime.
On January, almost exactly four months after Donna Brown was killed.
(10:45):
Davonia Inman is indicted for armed robbery, theft, a legal
possession of a firearm, and capital murder. This episode is
underwritten by a i G, a leading global insurance company.
A i G is committed to corporate social responsibility and
(11:07):
to making a positive difference in the lives of its
employees and in the communities where we work and live.
In light of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance,
and in recognition of a i g's commitment to criminal
and social justice reform, the a i G pro Bono
Program provides free legal services and other support to underrepresented
(11:29):
communities and individuals. On June eleven, two, one over two
years since he was arrested, Davanna's trial began. The prosecutor
was d A. Bob Ellis, who sought the death penalty
against Davanna. Interestingly enough, this sounds like an air tight
(11:56):
case for the prosecution. The problem is that once the
case actually starts to get going, it falls into pieces
like it's in shambles. On the stand. Two of the
prosecution's witnesses recanted their stories Marcatta Thomas, the sister of
Davanna's girlfriend, who said she'd seen Davonnia with a lot
(12:16):
of cash the night of the murder, and Laricia Chapman,
who said she saw Davonna in the bushes at Taco Bell.
Marcatta admits that she made up her story because she
disapproved of the relationship Davonna had with her sister, and
Laritia says officers pressured her, actually threatening to take her
child away if she did not implicate Davonia in the crime. So,
(12:37):
with no physical evidence against Ivanna, the prosecution now had
just the statement of Virginia Tatum and apparently has uh,
you know, superhero style eyesight to be able to describe
the level of detail of a car going around a
corner at like thirty and the testimony of Kwamie Spalding,
the jailhouse informant who said Davonna had can Fest to him.
(13:01):
Cawami was given a deal to testify a lighter sentence,
and this was not disclosed to the defense or the jury.
Davonna's attorney, Melinda Ryles, presented Devonia's alibi that he was
with his grandmother and girlfriend at the time of the murder,
but it wasn't enough. Davonia was swiftly convicted, but the
(13:22):
jury did not give him the death penalty. They decide
for life without opportunity for parole, which I've spoken to
a few of the jurors on the original case and
asked the exact question, which is, why didn't you give
him the death penalty, to which both of them replied, well,
we thought he might not be guilty, so we didn't
(13:44):
want to sentence him to death just in case, which
shows they had reasonable doubt. If the jury has doubt,
they are instructed not to convict. Yet despite that, and
despite Davonna pleading his innocence, they did. Nobody will believe me.
Was a close family, my mom, my dad, my auntie,
(14:07):
and that's about it. Everybody else either knew the truth
and I was afraid to do something about it or
just didn't care. How does that feel? Depressing? Sad in
a way because you could have stopped something, you know,
(14:28):
a long time ago before you were arrested. Have you
ever thought about wrongful convictions? No, it is you never
think something like that would happen. Davonna was twenty three
years old when he was sentenced. To prison. He was
the oldest of his siblings, but still his mother's baby boy.
(14:52):
I felt like my life was destroyed. You know, you
took my child away from me, and I felt there
was nothing I could do. I didn't know who to
turn to. I mean, the whole family was in disbelief.
(15:15):
We can't believe it. During his first years in prison,
Devonia passed his time by appealing the conviction, but his
appeals were unsuccessful because the one thing we know about
the criminal justice system is that it is absolutely designed
to keep you in prison once you have been found guilty,
right that whole presumption of innocence is gone. So trying
(15:37):
to overturn a conviction was an incredibly high, if not
impossible bar. Devonna says he was prepared to die in prison.
Even watching TV, one of the only luxuries incarcerated people
have reminded him of his bleak reality. When you have
your life tooking away, it's like you can't do those scenes.
Some more so, it's like, m do you try to
(16:02):
forget about, forget about a life that you could have had,
persons the life that you have. Focus your mind on
what's surround you. Because four walls can drive you crazy.
The only way you can drive you crazy if you
(16:24):
take it about what the world is doing. However, Davonia persisted.
He continued to reach out to any innocence organizations he
(16:44):
could find for assistance. Eventually, nearly ten years after his conviction,
Davonna heard back from the Georgia Innocence Project and they
wanted to help. Now, innocence projects usually have a fairly
high bar for accepting cases. Often that means being a
case where DNA is able to prove someone's innocence conclusively
(17:04):
and at the same time possibly find the true perpetrator.
But there was no DNA used to convict Davonnia, So
you might be wondering why did the Georgia Innocence Project
take it. Well, actually there was DNA evidence, but it
wasn't discovered until years after Devonna's conviction. When Donna Brown's
(17:28):
car was found in the Pizza Hut parking lot and
returned to her family, they found something inside, a makeshift
mask made from the leg of a pair of sweatpants
with two eye holes cut into it that police never collected.
The Georgia Innocence Project jumped on this new evidence as
a potential source of DNA in Davon's attorneys from the
(17:52):
Georgia Innocence Project requested DNA testing of the mask, and
it was granted. When the DNA came out, I already
knew that it was just gonna be mine. I wanted
to see the faces of the people who said it
was me and what they would look like. Would they
look at me, you know, and looked me in the eyes,
(18:16):
you know, and you don't really have to say anything.
You could just look me in the eyes in it
and tell itself of how you feel, you know. I mean,
I gotta be a hard thing to live with, you know,
sitting somebody to prison for something they didn't do. The
(18:37):
DNA actually came back with a match to a man
named Hercules Brown. In fact, at trial, Davonna's attorneys fought
and were denied the opportunity to present Hercules Brown as
an alternate suspect because Brown had already been on the
radar of Davina's team even before trial that he was
the true killer of Donna Brown. And that's thanks to
(19:00):
who witness testimonies saying he was talking about the murder.
You know. They uncover various statements from witnesses who say
that Hercules admitted to killing Donna Brown. And here's the thing.
He worked at Taco Bell with Donna Brown and was
an employee there. And one of the former employees of
(19:22):
Taco Bell wanted to testify and Devon's trial, and her
statement basically was that, you know, before the Taco Bell
crime occurred, Hercules approached her with a scheme to rob it,
basically an inside job, and they would split the money.
And she said absolutely not, and she actually quit to
(19:43):
avoid dealing with Hercules. Her replacement is Donna Brown. Now,
ten years after Devonia's conviction, the DNA comes back linking
Hercules Brown to Donna Brown's murder. Devonia's mom, Dina, remembers
getting the news. She was at lunch with David, her husband,
and we just started screaming and crying, you know, and
(20:03):
we just knew he was coming home. But that didn't happen. Instead,
motions had to be filed for a new trial, which
could take another few years. Devanny's request was denied, then
another motion was filed, followed by another denial. I was
like one let down another let down. We were just
(20:31):
couldn't believe that he wasn't coming home. What was that
like to wait for so long when we knew at
that point for sure you didn't do this by DNA.
I guess it was like sad in the way, but
(20:52):
it was more anger because it's like you didn't take
long to put me here, but you want to check
long to let me free when I proved my innocence.
So I feel like it was it was wrong. Meanwhile,
(21:14):
the real killer was still free to commit crimes, including
the one that put Hercules Brown as a potential perpetrator
in the mind of Davania's defense. At the end of
two thousand, there is a heinous crime in this town
and two beloved members who run this convenience store in
a dell are brutally murdered and beaten to death with
(21:38):
baseball bats. The two people who perpetrate the crime or
seeing fleeing the scene in broad daylight, and they are
quickly identified and arrested, and one of those individuals was
Hercules Brown. Had they arrested Hercules originally for the taco
bell crime, there are at least two people who would
(21:58):
still be alive today. Like the most brutal murder of
that town had ever seen. Would not have happened if
they had originally arrested the right person. And there's a
third murder that Hercules has been linked to that still
remains unsolved today. Davona waited and waited for good news.
(22:28):
By he had been imprisoned for nearly two decades, and
for ten of those years, this new DNA evidence implicating
another person for the crime he had been convicted of,
was being ignored. So Davonia remained trapped in prison because
every time his attorney's filed a motion for a new
trial based on the DNA evidence, Attorney General Chris Carr
(22:49):
would oppose and defend the conviction. But then, in a
surprising move, Presiding Justice David Namius and then Chief Justice
Harold Milton both wrote legal opinions urging Attorney General Card
to stop defending Davannia's conviction. Namius wrote, quote, of the
multitude of cases in which a new trial has been denied,
(23:12):
in men's case is the one that causes me the
most concern that an innocent person remains convicted and sentenced
to serve the rest of his life in prison. Finally,
in Davonia was granted in evidentiary hearing a few months later,
his conviction was vacated and he was granted a new trial.
(23:33):
By this time, by the way, one of the prosecutors
in Devonia's case, back in two thousand one, Bob Ellis,
had been indicted and disbarred for sleeping with a confidential informant.
The other prosecutor is indicted on federal drug charges eventually
and ends up moving to Alabama. And then one of
(23:55):
the jurors had some sort of relationship where if one
of the witnesses like he he had hired her for
exotic dancing, and you know, still gets to stay on
the jury. Like you just can't. You can't write this
in a fiction book because it's unbelievable. And a third witness,
(24:16):
the jailhouse informant, Kwamie Spalding, had also recanted. The case
against Avonia had completely fallen apart. Attorney General Carr finally
stopped upholding the conviction, and eventually Davonna's charges were dismissed.
On December, Davonia walked out of prison a freeman. So
(24:40):
when he did come home and you got that news,
did you think it was going to be like this? No?
I didn't. I thought, I don't know I was asking
Davonia's mom about his sadness and depression. You can hear
it in his voice. The happy fund center of attention
kid is parents described is no more. He's withdrawn, soft spoken,
(25:04):
and looked like he had tears in his eyes the
whole time we spoke. I mean, I often wondered when
he comes home, will his memories be of all the
fun things we did as a family, or would they
be of his prison life? But I thought he would
(25:29):
get home in it. You know, we all get back
to this big, happy family that couldn't be, that's always together.
But Dinah's dreams of everything going back to normal wouldn't
come true. Davonia came home a broken man. It's just
(25:49):
everybody feels I'm just supposed to be happy because you're
out of prison. Wow, that isn't a real scenario or
a real you know, feeling yeah, you're happy to be
out that you're not, but the things that you're going
through is even more sadder. What has that done to you? Sleepless,
(26:19):
I have to be really tired to go to sleep,
So I might be up for two three days and
then go to sleep, because it's just like you'll remember
certain things that happened, or when somebody got stabbed, or
you have like flashbacks of it seeing it and it
(26:43):
wakes you up, or you know, are you talking your
sleep or whatever. Then you're still doing that outside of prison.
It's slowed down now, But yeah, on I just feel
like being in there for so long, it's like you're
(27:06):
accustomed to one way. So when you come out here,
people just misunderstand because they don't know what you've been
through or what you know what I mean, So it
kind of seems like they seem weird to you, and
you seem weird to them. Jessicasino believes that the years
(27:37):
behind bars for a crime he didn't commit has taken
a toll on Devonia's mental health. You know, you've spent
twenty three years in a prison system where every piece
of your life is scripted. You can't do anything without
the permission of the guards that you know, um, you
have to navigate other prisoners. I mean, it was a
(27:57):
traumatic experience. He had a very difficult time in the
prison system. He's coming out into a world that he
doesn't know, um and to a family you know that
wave and support him to pieces. But at the same time,
it's a family that has grown without him. At the moment,
(28:19):
Davon has focused more on picking up the pieces of
his life. He works at FedEx now, but he says
it's the interpersonal relationships that are the hardest to navigate.
Given how people he knew, like his then girlfriend's sister Marcatta,
had lied about him, it is understandable that he would
struggle with trusting others, and Davonna has had a lot
(28:40):
of relationships to navigate, especially the one with his son Travinsky.
So what's that like to now have this new responsibility
of being a dad to a twentysomething year old. What
are some of the what are some of the hardships
you guys have? Mm hmmm. Me being occupied, you know,
(29:01):
like with the daily stuff that I'd be wanting to
do and happen to you know, talk to him or whatever,
because he'd be wanting to talk and stuff like that.
But I'll be busy a lot. I go to work
and you know, you can't really you really just don't
(29:26):
want to get on the phone, Like who wants to
just be on the phone all day. Davona got his
driver's license right after getting out of prison and says
driving is his favorite thing to do right now, the
freedom to just get out and explore wherever he wants
without permission. I think the most gooddest feeling is walking
(29:48):
outside in the middle of the night and get in
the car and just going somewhere. Davonna says he's been
all over in just a few months, including to Richmond,
San Francisco, and Reno. He says he'd like to get
his g e D someday, but is having difficulties signing
up without proper documentation after twenty three years in prison.
He'd also like to mend the relationship with his son
(30:09):
once he settles down more now that he has his freedom.
Dyvonne wants people to be aware of the shortcomings of
our criminal justice system and of the needed reform to
help individuals with their reentry. It's a lot more to
it and just being free. There's a lot more to
(30:30):
it than just helping someone get out praiser for something
that they didn't do. You can't just stop and Okay,
now our job is done, because is even bigger tasked
and the prison thing, you know, it's becoming, you know,
(30:56):
accepted back into a society. On both parties. You know
the world and you and people should pay more attention
to that then to pass or what you had to overcome.
Because the prison part it was hard, but it's not
(31:21):
harder than being thrown back into a big old ocean
and you don't know what's in it or what's there
no more. If you want to help Davonia, please go
(31:44):
to Mighty cause dot com and search Davona inmant Davona
is seeking funds to help get back on his feet
next time. Unwrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling Faye Jacobs. They
arrested me and charge me with capital felony murder and
set my bond at one million dollars. Okay, I'm sixteen,
(32:07):
and I'm like, I had never been to jail before
in my life, and so I'm scared. I'm very scared.
Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.
Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
links in our bio to see how you can help.
(32:29):
I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason Flam and
Kevin Wurdis, as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea
researcher Lila Robinson story editor Sonya Paul, with additional production
by Jeff Cleiburne and Connor Hall. The music in this
production is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
(32:51):
on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at
Wrongful Conviction, as well as at Lava for Good. On
all three platforms, you and also follow me on both
Instagram and Twitter at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie
Freeling is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in
association with Signal Company Number one
Hosts And Creators
Lauren Bright Pacheco
Maggie Freleng
Jason Flom
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