June 9, 2022 • 32 mins
On June 22, 1994, Crystal Hudson was found murdered in her bedroom closet in Cleveland, Ohio. She died of strangulation after being sexually assaulted. Evin King became the lead suspect by police due to the fact that he was in the apartment when Hudson’s body was found along with the specter of a “premonition” that Hudson’s mother had in regards to the murder. No physical evidence tied King to the crime, and DNA evidence excluded him. In an attempt to explain why King’s DNA did not match, the prosecution built their case upon the idea that the sexual act and murder occurred at different times. The jury convicted King of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
On June twenty first, nineteen, Evan came went to the
East Cleveland apartment of a new friend, Crystel Hudson. Her
daughter welcomed him in to await Cristel's return. Soon they
were joined by Cristel's mother and a friend. Before leaving,
the elder Hudson told them about a premonition that she
had about Evan killing her daughter. Little did they all know,
(00:23):
Cristel's body was already decomposing in the bedroom closet. While
waiting for Crystel, Evan fell asleep, only to be awoken
by her daughter's screams. Upon discovering the body, the autopsy
showed signs of a struggle, rape and strangulation, and a
rape kit collected a great deal of decomposing sperm. The
police held Evan on a previous minor infraction while questioning
(00:46):
him about Cristel's murder. His body and clothing were free
from any of her blood and any sign that he
may have been in a struggle. DNA testing also cleared
him as the source of the sperm. However, in the
summer heat, the decomposition gave the prosecution an opportunity to
create uncertainty about whether the sperm had been deposited at
(01:07):
the time of death. The prosecution presented false testimony to
circumvent the DNA evidence, claiming that the sperm could have
been deposited hours or even days before her death, paying
no mind to the sheer number of sperm which indicated
a more recent deposit. Nearly two decades later, DNA testing
on Crystal's fingernail scrapings confirmed that her killer was also
(01:29):
her rapist. But somehow even that wasn't enough for authorities
to immediately release Evan King. This is wrongful conviction. Welcome
(01:53):
back to wrongful conviction. Today we're going to be interviewing
a man named Evan King who served almost a quarter
century in prison for a crime that I don't want
to say a third grader could have solved it, because
that's not the case. But a third grader would have
known that this was not the man that committed this crime.
All the evidence was in plain sight, and his conviction
(02:14):
was based on a freaking premonition. That's somebody, and I'm
sorry I have to laugh to keep from crying. So
with us today is the man himself. But before I
introduced him, I'm gonna introduce someone who's voice he'll probably
recognize Jennifer bergeron of the Ohio Innocence Project. Jennifer, welcome
back to Wrongful Conviction. Thank you Jason for having me back.
(02:35):
I feel like we could do just multiple seasons and
just interview you because there's so many terrible cases in Ohio,
but this case um is really something and the man
himself survivor not only of almost a quarter century and
some of the worst prisons in the country, but also
cancer survivor. Just a guy that's tough to kill and
easy to love, a guy named Evan King. Evan, welcome
(02:57):
to the show. Thank you for having me. But before
we get into the insanity that Cuyahoga County dished out
and we hear that name again and again on this show,
let's talk about Evan King as a young man before
your life was before you were kidnapped by the state.
Let's call it what it was, right, So what was
your life like growing up? Where did you grow up?
(03:19):
I grew up on the East side of Cleveland, starting
and the projects on fifty five. Did you have a
happy childhood? Your brothers and sisters nine of us, five
boys and four girls. Wow, So you had a big family,
had a whole whole baseball team. And by the time
all this swept you off your feet, what was your
(03:40):
life like? Well, at the time of this, I was
valet at the Omni Hotel and I had ventured into drugs.
You know, I was messing with drugs and selling a
little drugs, you know, just quick money, doing the wrong time,
you know, listening. I believe is that all drugs should
(04:01):
be legal, and no one should ever go to jail
for what they put in their own bodies unless they're
putting somebody else in harm's way. Um, were you ever
involved in any violent crime? I mean, so there was
no reason to suspect that all of a sudden one
day you just snapped and committed this. What was really
a brutal murder which happened in June of involved the
(04:21):
victim and Crystal Hudson. And Crystal was someone who was
known to you, right, Yes, she was known to me.
I had Ben France, would have for about two weeks,
which brings us to the evening, the faithful even of June.
She was already gone at this point, but no one
knew that yet except for the actual rapist and murderer.
(04:42):
But that very night you went to visit Crystal at
her high rise apartment building, and her daughter met you
at the apartment door. She invited you in to wait
for her mom, so, as far as you knew, she
was expected home at some point. Soon you were joined
by Crystal's mother and her best friend, Jean, and none
of you, none of you, none of you had any
idea that Chris, whose body had already begun decomposing in
(05:03):
the bedroom closet down the hall. I mean, this is nuts.
Can you walk us through how this evening unfolded. I
got to the department and her youngest daughter was there,
and I asked her, was a mama here? She said no.
I said, well, I wait on her. You know. So
the youngest daughter when the bag and played, I watched
(05:26):
TV on the couch. Okay, so the body is in
the apartment. There must have been an awful stench. I
didn't notice a smell. Okay, so you're in the apartment.
And then what happens. Christal's mother lived a couple of
floors up, and so did her best friend. They came
down later on that evening. Best friend had a couple
(05:48):
of forty ounces and we're sitting that the kitchen table.
That's where the mother meant and she had a premonition
that I killed her daughter. That's exactly what she said.
I had a permanent And I was like what. And
after a while, the mother decides to go upstairs and
she takes the youngest daughter and left me and Jeanne
(06:10):
in the department. Now, why would she say she had
a premonition? Yet in still you will leave me and
jean in the department, you know, I mean, if you
think I killed your daughter, why wouldn't you put us
out when you left? And even when they was there,
you know, the mother says something about was I cooking
(06:31):
or something, because she was talking about she smells something,
and I say, well, I don't smell nothing, and just
left it at that, and the mother went upstairs with
the youngest daughter. Me and jean sat there drinking the
forty ounces. So when Jeanne left, I set them back
on the couch and I nodded off from the couch
(06:53):
and next thing I know, it's the next morning. Both
of the young daughters come in and that's when I
will up and they say they wanted to get some
clothes with school. They go to the closet and the
oldest daughter starts screaming and I jumped off the couch
and run back down. Say what is it? She pointed
to the close and said, my mother's in the closet. Look,
(07:16):
I am touch nothing not. Took both girls out in
the hallway, backed on the neighbor's door. See it. Called
the police and for our audience, this is a brutal crime.
So just be aware of what you're gonna hear. Is
gonna be, you know, upsetting. And this is where I
want to bring Jennifer, and Jennifer, can you tell us
about the crime itself? So the crime was quite brutal.
(07:37):
Poor Crystal was found strangled to death in her own closet,
basically naked. And this was Cleveland in June, and it
was hot and it wasn't air conditioned, and she'd been
deceased for they decided over twenty four hours before she
was even discovered. And she had been in this high
apartment in Cleveland this whole time. You know, there's lots
(07:57):
of degradation that happens. There was evidence from the very
beginning that she had also been raped at the time
of her death. Evan happened to be in the apartment
unfortunately when she was found, and so I think that's
why he sort of became suspect number one, because he
was there and not waited in all way with the
two daughters while the police game if you were the
(08:20):
actual killer, would you stand there and wait for the
police to arrive. I mean, you're neither dumb nor crazy,
and you'd have to be both to do that. And
not only that, when the detectives did come, they brought
me and set me at the table and say it
without mind asked, of course, now let's say it. No,
I don't mind. The police, so far as I could tell,
(08:42):
never did any actual investigation. They just decided it was him,
in part because Crystal's mother told them she had a
premonition that Evan was going to harm her daughter. Now,
somehow that premonition even came into court, which still boggles
my mind as to how that was introduced evidence, but
it was. I wish this was the only time I
(09:03):
had ever heard of something like a premonition being admitted
into court, but it's not. Maybe instead of courts, we
should all just go to psychics, you know what I mean,
and see if they can figure these things out for us.
I mean it was a combination of laziness. Right, here's
a guy who was in the apartment, okay, must be him,
and then oh, there's a premonition bingo, right, and then
they ran a check on me. I had a couple
(09:23):
of tickets on me, a bench warrant, and after they
did a little investigation up there, they took me from downtown.
So okay, so you get arrested on these bench warrants
and then did they hold you from that time right
up until the trial? When did you find out you
were being charged with the murder? I think it was
seventy two hours later. Yeah, clearly they did a lot
(09:44):
of investigation if they arrested and for murder and that
short amount of time. Once I went to del I
never got out, and the detectives interviewed me a couple
of times over them seventy two hours, and I never
forget the detective asked me, but I take a lot
of de tech tests. I see, it's sure, I take
a lot of detect tests. He never brought it up again.
(10:07):
One of the things that really tripped me out was
when the guy came and took photographs of my body.
I'm standing in that naked. He had me get undressed, right,
my man, Luke, he was like, turn around, he had
his camera in his hand. He was put your hands
up and you know, looking around. He said, you the
(10:27):
first guy. I never took a picture, or if he
didn't take one picture, I didn't have a scratch on me,
no bruises. Now, I'm a light scanned guy. Believe me,
I bruise easy. He didn't take one picture. And I'm
glad you brought that up, because it's important to recognize
that miss Hudson didn't leave this world willingly, right. She
(10:49):
fought there were fingering out scrapings. Right, we find out
later if they knew that, and of course that you know,
she had scratched her attacker. But somehow or other, you
didn't have any scratches en after I got even take
one freaking picture. So okay, this is this is how
ridiculous this really is. And it's made even more so
by virtue of the fact that the biological evidence, and
(11:11):
there was a lot of it, right, and none of
it matched Evan. So how did they square that circle? Yeah,
not only was there no evidence that that Evan actually
committed the crime unless you count the fact that he
was in the apartment in the premonition. But there was
actually evidence at the time of trial that he didn't
commit the crime. They had completed a rape kit on
crystal and did some DNA testing on it even back then,
(11:36):
and there was male DNA present, but it wasn't evan,
so you know, they kind of had to come up
with a way to explain that away because there was also,
as I said before, there was physical evidence that she
had been raped, meaning physical evidence of trauma to her,
you know, intimate areas that suggested and confirmed that she
was raped at the time, but they just kind of
(11:57):
ignored the physical trauma the areas. They basically got around
this evidence by some testimony from some folks from the
coroner's office from Cuyahoga County that we now know well
they would have known it at the time, but no
one paid that close of attention to it. But we
know for sure now was just completely bogus. The big
(12:21):
question was when this semen was deposited. Was it deposited
at the time of death or was it deposited up
to a week earlier. And of course the state came
in and said, well, that could have been there for
up to a week, and so she wasn't raped and murdered.
The problem was that the folks from the Corner's office,
especially one, you know, they were focusing on the wrong
(12:41):
information um that was scientifically invalid at the time to
even look at. They were looking at different fluid levels,
but they should have been looking at sort of the
number of sperm and the amount of semen that there was,
and that's not what they were doing. So they weren't
even following the appropriate practices at that time, and so
that allowed them to go forward with the theory that
(13:01):
she wasn't actually raped and murdered, that she was just murdered,
even though the evidence clearly showed that she was raped
and murdered. So the notorious Kuyahoga County Carner's office was
either unconsciously or consciously presenting false testimony, as they've done before,
they created some wiggle room for the jury to still
believe in you as the assailant. If that sperm had
(13:24):
been deposited earlier than the time of death, perhaps she
had had contentsual sex or even been raped, you know,
hours or even days before she was killed, making it
plausible for the jury to believe that the DNA evidence
from the sperm didn't determine who actually killed her, which
would have left you as still some sort of potential suspect.
Then you can see how the jury got fooled. Yeah,
(13:47):
I mean, you know, Unfortunately for Evan, his defense counsel
didn't effectively cross examine them on this and didn't bring
any expert to sort of debunk it. It wasn't that,
you know, it should have been a battle of the
experts where one was saying one thing and the other
was saying the opposite. They were just flat out wrong,
and nobody called them on it. Evan, who was your
attorney and were they court appointed? Yeah? I never forget
(14:12):
that name, Rockell Russo Wow, what a name. He didn't
present no defense from me, because even my family when
they came to court, they was like, your lawyer ain't
objecting to nothing. He wouldn't object and he was falling
asleep up time. You know, if you feel that lawyer
(14:33):
is selling you out, you gotta let it be known
instead of a lawyer telling you. Because Rockel Russa just
kept telling me I got it. Just sit there, I
got this and I believed him. I sat there and
that was the mistake on my behalf. But you don't
(14:53):
know at the time. Yeah, even if it seemed like
you could see it, then you just didn't know it,
unfortunately until it was too late. But back then, in
that moment, did you still hold out any hope that
the jury was going to see through this false testimony
and believe their own eyes and ears when it came
to the actual evidence in this case, Yeah, of course,
(15:14):
you know. I was thinking, well, I didn't do it,
so they they ain't gonna refine me guilty. I mean,
that's where my mind was. But you know, when you
stand up and then and they come back with a
verdict of guilty, you know you gotta take it and
(15:34):
keep your head held up and walk out that God
said what I wanted to say to the judge. I
definitely told him I'll be back in this courtroom. I'd
never forget what I told. Judge Corgan. What did you
say at the said Mr King, I'm sending you to
fifteen years of life, And he said, do you have
anything to say? I say, you're sentence and an innocent
(15:58):
man to prison while a guilty man walked the streets
of Cleveland. Free pointed to him, and I said, one
day I'll be back in this corproom for you to
set me free. I have to see it that. I
turned and I walked out of my head. He held him.
(16:27):
Any prison is bad because basically you're on guard twenty
four hours a day. I mean, you don't know when
somebody flip out, they flip off for the minus thanks.
Somebody might not be able to get on the phone
and bush you in your head to cut you. Heah.
I mean it's it's crazy on guard twenty four hours
(16:50):
a day, basically, you know. But even you can stay
in prison and keep back in a fool in prison
and be that the rest of your life. For you
got to learn some things or get some help. I
couldn't adapt good to the books as far as the
Gates law, and so I had to start writing letters,
(17:14):
seeing who can give me some help. I was lucky
enough to get in touch with Miss Burst right now, wow,
innocent project gods. So you ended up finally in the
hands of people who cared a lot and were talented lawyers,
and they weren't gonna let go. But one after another,
(17:36):
these courts denied you and it was not that long
ago that justice was finally delayed but not denied. So
Jennifer take us through these denials. So Evan was represented
by a different attorney for a while, and back in
two thousand four I think actually he filed the first
motion for DNA testing, and it took a long time,
(17:58):
but in two thousand eight he asked for DNA testing
on the fingernail scrapings because, as you mentioned, we know
that Crystal Hudson fought back at the time of her death,
and so his theory was, well, if we test these
fingernail scrapings and you find male DNA and it's the
same as the DNA from the semen, then that's going
(18:20):
to confirm what Evans been saying since day one, which
is that he was not the murderer, and that the
person who loved the Semen was actually raped her and
was the murderer. So Evan had filed for DNA testing
and the trial judge had ordered it, saying, I think
I can quote him here, DNA belonging to an unknown
party found under the fingernails of the victim, and then
(18:43):
went on to say would prove the identity of the
real killer. If it matches the DNA from the scene. Okay,
So basically, the trial judge was agreed that if the
fingernail scrapings came back and matched the rape kit, that
that would prove Evans claim. Well, it did exactly that.
I first read what did Joe said about if the
(19:03):
fingernails scripting, Matt, that's it, don't out to you. And
then when it comes back for him to deny me,
that just took me away. I'm like, isn't writing you
say if if this come back the mess that it
eliminates me as the killer, and then it comes back
to do just that, then you say not, even though
(19:26):
he explicitly said before that that's what he was looking for,
but he denied it based on the expert testimony from
the trial. That same expert testimony that we've been talking
about that we know was just complete fogus nonsense. And
so the trial judge said, well, the jury already knew
that the DNA on the rape kit came from someone else,
(19:47):
and you know, the expert said that could have come
out to a week beforehand, so it really doesn't mean anything.
So then he appealed. This was in two thousand twelve,
and the appeal was split three ways. One judge, who
has now in Ohio Supreme Court justice said he'd already
(20:08):
showed he was actually innocent and should be released. And
then there was two other opinions basically saying, well, we
see the DNA results, but there was no expert testimony
contradicting the trial expert testimony. So at this point is
when the Ohio Innocence Project got involved, and with the
(20:29):
help of actually one of our former lawyers, carry Wood,
who worked at the Public Defender's Office, she got an
expert involved and then she got in touch with me.
Long story short, we refiled several things in state court
and we also filed in federal court. The Corner's Office
and the Prosecutor's office refused to give us all of
the information we were asking for, like the additional data
(20:50):
on the DNA testing, and they just flat out refused
to give it to us. So our expert was working
with what he had available, and he produced an affidavit
that's said several things, one that the Corner's office experts
who testified at the trial essentially presented false testimony, and
also the additional information about the fact that they found
(21:11):
male DNA under her fingernails indicated it had to have
been a struggle because most people don't walk around with
DNA under their fingernails belonging to someone else. Um and
the fact that they were able to get a full
profile off the rape kit all those years later also
indicated that semen must have been put there at the
time of death, because it wouldn't be that strong that
much later. So we had three different motions pending and
(21:35):
the trial court level, but eventually, like a year and
a half later, the trial judge finally just denied all
of those, so we had to peel it again. I mean,
it's just insane that you were denied by the trial
court at this point, considering that you were remedying what
they claimed was the reasoning behind the earlier denial involving
the DNA match from the scrapings and the rape kit.
Now you had done it. You had refuted the trial experts,
(21:57):
but the trial court went ahead and moved the gold
hosts again, calling your refuting of the state's false expert
testimony a quote battle of the experts. Of course, you
appealed this denial, and in January two seventeen, the appellate
court agreed with you, reversing the trial court's denial, granting
you access to the DNA test results, which they had
(22:19):
previously been blocking. They granted an upload to codas to
see if you could get a match to another known purpose,
and so far there's no dice with that. But significantly,
you've got an evidential hearing out of this, so you
all start prepping for what you thought was gonna be
an epic battle. Your expert now had access to those
DNA results, so he could go beyond what he'd already
done in the APPI dated, and in two thousand seventeen,
(22:41):
something truly unexpected happened, just completely out of the blue.
One day in April, I was in a meeting and
got got done, and I had like multiple voicemails and
emails and things from one of the people from the
prosecutor's office. I called her back and she told me
that they had reviewed the case and talked to the
(23:05):
corner's office again and had concluded essentially that we were
right and that our expert was right, and that they
were agreeing that they would release Evan. And I think
I fell out of my chair about when that phone,
when I had that conversation because it was so unexpected,
given how they had been fighting everything up until that point.
(23:29):
But of course the first thing I needed to do
was to get ahold of Evan to tell him the news.
So that means that means I think it's not going
to get filed till Monday. But I think that means
you should hopefully be able to be going home soon.
(23:54):
He MEMA moment to process this, I wanted. I wanted
you to know right away, all right, I do. I
knew this did a day, a couple one, babe, But
I do. I cry too because my brother told me,
(24:19):
don't know what, but you know, one thing to show.
I know you're looking down at me, you know, I'm
sure she is, like Ohlwa told you I had complete
play in you. You know, thank you. After told me
(25:01):
I had, I just laid the phone down. In my
mind just tears came out. That's where I'm telling up now,
tears just because at that the only thing that I
(25:22):
really think about it was mom my mom and mind.
Because my mama always told me the Lord's gonna let
you out one day. He just wants you to get
your life together. He held on right, yeah, And when
(25:49):
she told me that it was. There was a lot
of tears that day, but it's the day that I
would never forget. Yeah, we had the call on Friday,
and then it was getting ready to be Easter weekend.
So yeah, as your listeners probably know by now, when
someone is released from prison after they've been wrongkly convicted,
(26:12):
it's obviously amazing, but it's not like their sent home
with you know, any anything to help them readjust to life.
So you know, we had to go into sort of
high gear in our office trying to make sure Evan
had somewhere to go, and he did with his cousin,
who was fantastic. But I was on the phone most
of the weekend trying to make sure all of that
(26:33):
was said, and then wait for them to transfer back
to the county jail, and then I was able to
visit him there the night before we went back to court,
which was amazing, um. And then finally we went back
to court, but then it took hours and hours for
them to process him back out, and then in the meantime,
even after we knew he was coming home, it still
wasn't a relaxing experience because even just simple things like
(26:55):
he needed access to medication that he took daily, and
they weren't letting him come home with any And I
spent the day trying to track down the doctor who
ran the jail to make sure they would at least
release him with a prescription so that we could make
sure he didn't miss any of the doses of the
medication that he needed. They wouldn't even give me the
medication I had then they didn't let you take it out.
(27:17):
And it was crazy, which makes absolutely zero sense on
any level. Right, It's just some bureaucratic insanity on top
of all the other insanity. But luckily you had this
great team behind you and and good family, and so
you walk out into the fresh air. What was that
moment like? And where did you go? Did you did
(27:39):
you go straight to a restaurant or a bar, or
did you hug a tree or what did you go?
When once we got outside, you know, just the air
is different on this side of the defense. It's like
you can breathe again, you know. To Media's God's gift.
I hear you. I mean we hear it in different
ways from every different person who's been through what you've
(28:01):
been through, different variations of it. It's Um, it's it's beautiful.
I mean sad, but it's beautiful. So UM, we're just
happy your your home and you're free, and we wish you,
you know, every blessing that life has to offer going forward.
You certainly deserve it, UM, And I want to before
we go to the closing of the show, first of all,
(28:22):
I want to encourage people to support the Ohio Innocence
Project and we will put a link in the bio
for people who want to donate or get involved in
any way they can. Um, you were the twenty five
person exonerated by the Ohio Innocence Project. It's a remarkable number,
but still it's a tiny number in terms of the
overall innocent people that are remained behind bars. But we're
happy you're here. And now we're going to turn to
(28:45):
the closing of our show, which we call Closing Arguments.
It works like this. I think you both again, Jennifer.
You know, you inspire me and so many other people
by your remarkable advocacy, and it's always great to have
you on the show. And obviously I'm working closely with
the Highly Instance Project on other cases Jhon Jones and others,
and UM I know we're gonna win those two. It
(29:05):
just takes longer than we wanted to, like it always does,
but a closing arguments works like this. I'm gonna finally
stop talking. I'm going to turn my microphone off. Thank
you again, Evan King, Jennifer berge Round for being here
with us closing arguments. I'm gonna just turn my microphone
off and let you say anything else that's left unsaid
that you want to share with our audience. Evan, We're
(29:27):
gonna save you. I mean, you're the man of the hour,
so you're gonna be the last one to speak, if
that's okay, and we're gonna let Jennifer share her thoughts
and then hand the mic off to you and then
take us out into the sunset a rather well. First
of all, I wanted to say thank you for having
me back on. I'm kind of sad that I'm here
because it means that there's more clients whose cases we
can discuss. But I'm so grateful for the light that
(29:51):
you're bringing to cases all over the country, their stories
that deserve to be told. Also, if I may, would
like to put in a plug for two of my
current clients, Carl Willis and Wayne Brady, or there's a
website set up free Wayne and Carl dot com where
that you can go read more information and find all
kinds of information. And then of course I wanted to
(30:12):
say thank you to Evan for being here with me
and you've always inspired me to keep going. And anytime
I'm down and need to pick me up, I like
to watch the video ofs you woo hoo hooing after
you're coming out of the court when you were released,
because it's just a feeling of pure joy that gives
me a smile every time. Thank you, Thank you uh,
(30:34):
first of all to how Innocent Project was the gods
and to me their family, to me for those of
you out there listening, look up to O How Innocent Project.
Some of you have people in love, ones that you
know are innocent, need to be free. You don't know
(30:54):
where to start, Just give him a call and as always,
stay in your lane, try to stay troubled for you,
but the Lord has your back. Just keep your faith
and continue to do the right thing. But one thing
I would like to say came out good out of this.
(31:15):
I haven't messed with the drug cocaine and almost thirty
years now. I've been clean for almost thirty years now.
People who are always talking about you can't stop drugs overnight.
Oh yes you can. When the right thing happened to you,
you can stop in it, Dame. But that all happens
(31:36):
in God's blessings. So with that, thank you for having
me here on your podcasts. As I bade you verywell,
Thank you, Thank you for listening to ronfl Conviction. I'd
like to thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff Clyburn,
(31:59):
and Kevin Ward Us with research by Lila Robinson. The
music in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR
nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on
Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast,
and on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as well as at
Lava for Good. On all three platforms. You can also
(32:19):
follow me on both TikTok and Instagram at It's Jason
flam ralevul Conviction is the production of Lava for Good
Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number one
On June twenty first, nineteen, Evan came went to the
East Cleveland apartment of a new friend, Crystel Hudson. Her
daughter welcomed him in to await Cristel's return. Soon they
were joined by Cristel's mother and a friend. Before leaving,
the elder Hudson told them about a premonition that she
had about Evan killing her daughter. Little did they all know,
(00:23):
Cristel's body was already decomposing in the bedroom closet. While
waiting for Crystel, Evan fell asleep, only to be awoken
by her daughter's screams. Upon discovering the body, the autopsy
showed signs of a struggle, rape and strangulation, and a
rape kit collected a great deal of decomposing sperm. The
police held Evan on a previous minor infraction while questioning
(00:46):
him about Cristel's murder. His body and clothing were free
from any of her blood and any sign that he
may have been in a struggle. DNA testing also cleared
him as the source of the sperm. However, in the
summer heat, the decomposition gave the prosecution an opportunity to
create uncertainty about whether the sperm had been deposited at
(01:07):
the time of death. The prosecution presented false testimony to
circumvent the DNA evidence, claiming that the sperm could have
been deposited hours or even days before her death, paying
no mind to the sheer number of sperm which indicated
a more recent deposit. Nearly two decades later, DNA testing
on Crystal's fingernail scrapings confirmed that her killer was also
(01:29):
her rapist. But somehow even that wasn't enough for authorities
to immediately release Evan King. This is wrongful conviction. Welcome
(01:53):
back to wrongful conviction. Today we're going to be interviewing
a man named Evan King who served almost a quarter
century in prison for a crime that I don't want
to say a third grader could have solved it, because
that's not the case. But a third grader would have
known that this was not the man that committed this crime.
All the evidence was in plain sight, and his conviction
(02:14):
was based on a freaking premonition. That's somebody, and I'm
sorry I have to laugh to keep from crying. So
with us today is the man himself. But before I
introduced him, I'm gonna introduce someone who's voice he'll probably
recognize Jennifer bergeron of the Ohio Innocence Project. Jennifer, welcome
back to Wrongful Conviction. Thank you Jason for having me back.
(02:35):
I feel like we could do just multiple seasons and
just interview you because there's so many terrible cases in Ohio,
but this case um is really something and the man
himself survivor not only of almost a quarter century and
some of the worst prisons in the country, but also
cancer survivor. Just a guy that's tough to kill and
easy to love, a guy named Evan King. Evan, welcome
(02:57):
to the show. Thank you for having me. But before
we get into the insanity that Cuyahoga County dished out
and we hear that name again and again on this show,
let's talk about Evan King as a young man before
your life was before you were kidnapped by the state.
Let's call it what it was, right, So what was
your life like growing up? Where did you grow up?
(03:19):
I grew up on the East side of Cleveland, starting
and the projects on fifty five. Did you have a
happy childhood? Your brothers and sisters nine of us, five
boys and four girls. Wow, So you had a big family,
had a whole whole baseball team. And by the time
all this swept you off your feet, what was your
(03:40):
life like? Well, at the time of this, I was
valet at the Omni Hotel and I had ventured into drugs.
You know, I was messing with drugs and selling a
little drugs, you know, just quick money, doing the wrong time,
you know, listening. I believe is that all drugs should
(04:01):
be legal, and no one should ever go to jail
for what they put in their own bodies unless they're
putting somebody else in harm's way. Um, were you ever
involved in any violent crime? I mean, so there was
no reason to suspect that all of a sudden one
day you just snapped and committed this. What was really
a brutal murder which happened in June of involved the
(04:21):
victim and Crystal Hudson. And Crystal was someone who was
known to you, right, Yes, she was known to me.
I had Ben France, would have for about two weeks,
which brings us to the evening, the faithful even of June.
She was already gone at this point, but no one
knew that yet except for the actual rapist and murderer.
(04:42):
But that very night you went to visit Crystal at
her high rise apartment building, and her daughter met you
at the apartment door. She invited you in to wait
for her mom, so, as far as you knew, she
was expected home at some point. Soon you were joined
by Crystal's mother and her best friend, Jean, and none
of you, none of you, none of you had any
idea that Chris, whose body had already begun decomposing in
(05:03):
the bedroom closet down the hall. I mean, this is nuts.
Can you walk us through how this evening unfolded. I
got to the department and her youngest daughter was there,
and I asked her, was a mama here? She said no.
I said, well, I wait on her. You know. So
the youngest daughter when the bag and played, I watched
(05:26):
TV on the couch. Okay, so the body is in
the apartment. There must have been an awful stench. I
didn't notice a smell. Okay, so you're in the apartment.
And then what happens. Christal's mother lived a couple of
floors up, and so did her best friend. They came
down later on that evening. Best friend had a couple
(05:48):
of forty ounces and we're sitting that the kitchen table.
That's where the mother meant and she had a premonition
that I killed her daughter. That's exactly what she said.
I had a permanent And I was like what. And
after a while, the mother decides to go upstairs and
she takes the youngest daughter and left me and Jeanne
(06:10):
in the department. Now, why would she say she had
a premonition? Yet in still you will leave me and
jean in the department, you know, I mean, if you
think I killed your daughter, why wouldn't you put us
out when you left? And even when they was there,
you know, the mother says something about was I cooking
(06:31):
or something, because she was talking about she smells something,
and I say, well, I don't smell nothing, and just
left it at that, and the mother went upstairs with
the youngest daughter. Me and jean sat there drinking the
forty ounces. So when Jeanne left, I set them back
on the couch and I nodded off from the couch
(06:53):
and next thing I know, it's the next morning. Both
of the young daughters come in and that's when I
will up and they say they wanted to get some
clothes with school. They go to the closet and the
oldest daughter starts screaming and I jumped off the couch
and run back down. Say what is it? She pointed
to the close and said, my mother's in the closet. Look,
(07:16):
I am touch nothing not. Took both girls out in
the hallway, backed on the neighbor's door. See it. Called
the police and for our audience, this is a brutal crime.
So just be aware of what you're gonna hear. Is
gonna be, you know, upsetting. And this is where I
want to bring Jennifer, and Jennifer, can you tell us
about the crime itself? So the crime was quite brutal.
(07:37):
Poor Crystal was found strangled to death in her own closet,
basically naked. And this was Cleveland in June, and it
was hot and it wasn't air conditioned, and she'd been
deceased for they decided over twenty four hours before she
was even discovered. And she had been in this high
apartment in Cleveland this whole time. You know, there's lots
(07:57):
of degradation that happens. There was evidence from the very
beginning that she had also been raped at the time
of her death. Evan happened to be in the apartment
unfortunately when she was found, and so I think that's
why he sort of became suspect number one, because he
was there and not waited in all way with the
two daughters while the police game if you were the
(08:20):
actual killer, would you stand there and wait for the
police to arrive. I mean, you're neither dumb nor crazy,
and you'd have to be both to do that. And
not only that, when the detectives did come, they brought
me and set me at the table and say it
without mind asked, of course, now let's say it. No,
I don't mind. The police, so far as I could tell,
(08:42):
never did any actual investigation. They just decided it was him,
in part because Crystal's mother told them she had a
premonition that Evan was going to harm her daughter. Now,
somehow that premonition even came into court, which still boggles
my mind as to how that was introduced evidence, but
it was. I wish this was the only time I
(09:03):
had ever heard of something like a premonition being admitted
into court, but it's not. Maybe instead of courts, we
should all just go to psychics, you know what I mean,
and see if they can figure these things out for us.
I mean it was a combination of laziness. Right, here's
a guy who was in the apartment, okay, must be him,
and then oh, there's a premonition bingo, right, and then
they ran a check on me. I had a couple
(09:23):
of tickets on me, a bench warrant, and after they
did a little investigation up there, they took me from downtown.
So okay, so you get arrested on these bench warrants
and then did they hold you from that time right
up until the trial? When did you find out you
were being charged with the murder? I think it was
seventy two hours later. Yeah, clearly they did a lot
(09:44):
of investigation if they arrested and for murder and that
short amount of time. Once I went to del I
never got out, and the detectives interviewed me a couple
of times over them seventy two hours, and I never
forget the detective asked me, but I take a lot
of de tech tests. I see, it's sure, I take
a lot of detect tests. He never brought it up again.
(10:07):
One of the things that really tripped me out was
when the guy came and took photographs of my body.
I'm standing in that naked. He had me get undressed, right,
my man, Luke, he was like, turn around, he had
his camera in his hand. He was put your hands
up and you know, looking around. He said, you the
(10:27):
first guy. I never took a picture, or if he
didn't take one picture, I didn't have a scratch on me,
no bruises. Now, I'm a light scanned guy. Believe me,
I bruise easy. He didn't take one picture. And I'm
glad you brought that up, because it's important to recognize
that miss Hudson didn't leave this world willingly, right. She
(10:49):
fought there were fingering out scrapings. Right, we find out
later if they knew that, and of course that you know,
she had scratched her attacker. But somehow or other, you
didn't have any scratches en after I got even take
one freaking picture. So okay, this is this is how
ridiculous this really is. And it's made even more so
by virtue of the fact that the biological evidence, and
(11:11):
there was a lot of it, right, and none of
it matched Evan. So how did they square that circle? Yeah,
not only was there no evidence that that Evan actually
committed the crime unless you count the fact that he
was in the apartment in the premonition. But there was
actually evidence at the time of trial that he didn't
commit the crime. They had completed a rape kit on
crystal and did some DNA testing on it even back then,
(11:36):
and there was male DNA present, but it wasn't evan,
so you know, they kind of had to come up
with a way to explain that away because there was also,
as I said before, there was physical evidence that she
had been raped, meaning physical evidence of trauma to her,
you know, intimate areas that suggested and confirmed that she
was raped at the time, but they just kind of
(11:57):
ignored the physical trauma the areas. They basically got around
this evidence by some testimony from some folks from the
coroner's office from Cuyahoga County that we now know well
they would have known it at the time, but no
one paid that close of attention to it. But we
know for sure now was just completely bogus. The big
(12:21):
question was when this semen was deposited. Was it deposited
at the time of death or was it deposited up
to a week earlier. And of course the state came
in and said, well, that could have been there for
up to a week, and so she wasn't raped and murdered.
The problem was that the folks from the Corner's office,
especially one, you know, they were focusing on the wrong
(12:41):
information um that was scientifically invalid at the time to
even look at. They were looking at different fluid levels,
but they should have been looking at sort of the
number of sperm and the amount of semen that there was,
and that's not what they were doing. So they weren't
even following the appropriate practices at that time, and so
that allowed them to go forward with the theory that
(13:01):
she wasn't actually raped and murdered, that she was just murdered,
even though the evidence clearly showed that she was raped
and murdered. So the notorious Kuyahoga County Carner's office was
either unconsciously or consciously presenting false testimony, as they've done before,
they created some wiggle room for the jury to still
believe in you as the assailant. If that sperm had
(13:24):
been deposited earlier than the time of death, perhaps she
had had contentsual sex or even been raped, you know,
hours or even days before she was killed, making it
plausible for the jury to believe that the DNA evidence
from the sperm didn't determine who actually killed her, which
would have left you as still some sort of potential suspect.
Then you can see how the jury got fooled. Yeah,
(13:47):
I mean, you know, Unfortunately for Evan, his defense counsel
didn't effectively cross examine them on this and didn't bring
any expert to sort of debunk it. It wasn't that,
you know, it should have been a battle of the
experts where one was saying one thing and the other
was saying the opposite. They were just flat out wrong,
and nobody called them on it. Evan, who was your
attorney and were they court appointed? Yeah? I never forget
(14:12):
that name, Rockell Russo Wow, what a name. He didn't
present no defense from me, because even my family when
they came to court, they was like, your lawyer ain't
objecting to nothing. He wouldn't object and he was falling
asleep up time. You know, if you feel that lawyer
(14:33):
is selling you out, you gotta let it be known
instead of a lawyer telling you. Because Rockel Russa just
kept telling me I got it. Just sit there, I
got this and I believed him. I sat there and
that was the mistake on my behalf. But you don't
(14:53):
know at the time. Yeah, even if it seemed like
you could see it, then you just didn't know it,
unfortunately until it was too late. But back then, in
that moment, did you still hold out any hope that
the jury was going to see through this false testimony
and believe their own eyes and ears when it came
to the actual evidence in this case, Yeah, of course,
(15:14):
you know. I was thinking, well, I didn't do it,
so they they ain't gonna refine me guilty. I mean,
that's where my mind was. But you know, when you
stand up and then and they come back with a
verdict of guilty, you know you gotta take it and
(15:34):
keep your head held up and walk out that God
said what I wanted to say to the judge. I
definitely told him I'll be back in this courtroom. I'd
never forget what I told. Judge Corgan. What did you
say at the said Mr King, I'm sending you to
fifteen years of life, And he said, do you have
anything to say? I say, you're sentence and an innocent
(15:58):
man to prison while a guilty man walked the streets
of Cleveland. Free pointed to him, and I said, one
day I'll be back in this corproom for you to
set me free. I have to see it that. I
turned and I walked out of my head. He held him.
(16:27):
Any prison is bad because basically you're on guard twenty
four hours a day. I mean, you don't know when
somebody flip out, they flip off for the minus thanks.
Somebody might not be able to get on the phone
and bush you in your head to cut you. Heah.
I mean it's it's crazy on guard twenty four hours
(16:50):
a day, basically, you know. But even you can stay
in prison and keep back in a fool in prison
and be that the rest of your life. For you
got to learn some things or get some help. I
couldn't adapt good to the books as far as the
Gates law, and so I had to start writing letters,
(17:14):
seeing who can give me some help. I was lucky
enough to get in touch with Miss Burst right now, wow,
innocent project gods. So you ended up finally in the
hands of people who cared a lot and were talented lawyers,
and they weren't gonna let go. But one after another,
(17:36):
these courts denied you and it was not that long
ago that justice was finally delayed but not denied. So
Jennifer take us through these denials. So Evan was represented
by a different attorney for a while, and back in
two thousand four I think actually he filed the first
motion for DNA testing, and it took a long time,
(17:58):
but in two thousand eight he asked for DNA testing
on the fingernail scrapings because, as you mentioned, we know
that Crystal Hudson fought back at the time of her death,
and so his theory was, well, if we test these
fingernail scrapings and you find male DNA and it's the
same as the DNA from the semen, then that's going
(18:20):
to confirm what Evans been saying since day one, which
is that he was not the murderer, and that the
person who loved the Semen was actually raped her and
was the murderer. So Evan had filed for DNA testing
and the trial judge had ordered it, saying, I think
I can quote him here, DNA belonging to an unknown
party found under the fingernails of the victim, and then
(18:43):
went on to say would prove the identity of the
real killer. If it matches the DNA from the scene. Okay,
So basically, the trial judge was agreed that if the
fingernail scrapings came back and matched the rape kit, that
that would prove Evans claim. Well, it did exactly that.
I first read what did Joe said about if the
(19:03):
fingernails scripting, Matt, that's it, don't out to you. And
then when it comes back for him to deny me,
that just took me away. I'm like, isn't writing you
say if if this come back the mess that it
eliminates me as the killer, and then it comes back
to do just that, then you say not, even though
(19:26):
he explicitly said before that that's what he was looking for,
but he denied it based on the expert testimony from
the trial. That same expert testimony that we've been talking
about that we know was just complete fogus nonsense. And
so the trial judge said, well, the jury already knew
that the DNA on the rape kit came from someone else,
(19:47):
and you know, the expert said that could have come
out to a week beforehand, so it really doesn't mean anything.
So then he appealed. This was in two thousand twelve,
and the appeal was split three ways. One judge, who
has now in Ohio Supreme Court justice said he'd already
(20:08):
showed he was actually innocent and should be released. And
then there was two other opinions basically saying, well, we
see the DNA results, but there was no expert testimony
contradicting the trial expert testimony. So at this point is
when the Ohio Innocence Project got involved, and with the
(20:29):
help of actually one of our former lawyers, carry Wood,
who worked at the Public Defender's Office, she got an
expert involved and then she got in touch with me.
Long story short, we refiled several things in state court
and we also filed in federal court. The Corner's Office
and the Prosecutor's office refused to give us all of
the information we were asking for, like the additional data
(20:50):
on the DNA testing, and they just flat out refused
to give it to us. So our expert was working
with what he had available, and he produced an affidavit
that's said several things, one that the Corner's office experts
who testified at the trial essentially presented false testimony, and
also the additional information about the fact that they found
(21:11):
male DNA under her fingernails indicated it had to have
been a struggle because most people don't walk around with
DNA under their fingernails belonging to someone else. Um and
the fact that they were able to get a full
profile off the rape kit all those years later also
indicated that semen must have been put there at the
time of death, because it wouldn't be that strong that
much later. So we had three different motions pending and
(21:35):
the trial court level, but eventually, like a year and
a half later, the trial judge finally just denied all
of those, so we had to peel it again. I mean,
it's just insane that you were denied by the trial
court at this point, considering that you were remedying what
they claimed was the reasoning behind the earlier denial involving
the DNA match from the scrapings and the rape kit.
Now you had done it. You had refuted the trial experts,
(21:57):
but the trial court went ahead and moved the gold
hosts again, calling your refuting of the state's false expert
testimony a quote battle of the experts. Of course, you
appealed this denial, and in January two seventeen, the appellate
court agreed with you, reversing the trial court's denial, granting
you access to the DNA test results, which they had
(22:19):
previously been blocking. They granted an upload to codas to
see if you could get a match to another known purpose,
and so far there's no dice with that. But significantly,
you've got an evidential hearing out of this, so you
all start prepping for what you thought was gonna be
an epic battle. Your expert now had access to those
DNA results, so he could go beyond what he'd already
done in the APPI dated, and in two thousand seventeen,
(22:41):
something truly unexpected happened, just completely out of the blue.
One day in April, I was in a meeting and
got got done, and I had like multiple voicemails and
emails and things from one of the people from the
prosecutor's office. I called her back and she told me
that they had reviewed the case and talked to the
(23:05):
corner's office again and had concluded essentially that we were
right and that our expert was right, and that they
were agreeing that they would release Evan. And I think
I fell out of my chair about when that phone,
when I had that conversation because it was so unexpected,
given how they had been fighting everything up until that point.
(23:29):
But of course the first thing I needed to do
was to get ahold of Evan to tell him the news.
So that means that means I think it's not going
to get filed till Monday. But I think that means
you should hopefully be able to be going home soon.
(23:54):
He MEMA moment to process this, I wanted. I wanted
you to know right away, all right, I do. I
knew this did a day, a couple one, babe, But
I do. I cry too because my brother told me,
(24:19):
don't know what, but you know, one thing to show.
I know you're looking down at me, you know, I'm
sure she is, like Ohlwa told you I had complete
play in you. You know, thank you. After told me
(25:01):
I had, I just laid the phone down. In my
mind just tears came out. That's where I'm telling up now,
tears just because at that the only thing that I
(25:22):
really think about it was mom my mom and mind.
Because my mama always told me the Lord's gonna let
you out one day. He just wants you to get
your life together. He held on right, yeah, And when
(25:49):
she told me that it was. There was a lot
of tears that day, but it's the day that I
would never forget. Yeah, we had the call on Friday,
and then it was getting ready to be Easter weekend.
So yeah, as your listeners probably know by now, when
someone is released from prison after they've been wrongkly convicted,
(26:12):
it's obviously amazing, but it's not like their sent home
with you know, any anything to help them readjust to life.
So you know, we had to go into sort of
high gear in our office trying to make sure Evan
had somewhere to go, and he did with his cousin,
who was fantastic. But I was on the phone most
of the weekend trying to make sure all of that
(26:33):
was said, and then wait for them to transfer back
to the county jail, and then I was able to
visit him there the night before we went back to court,
which was amazing, um. And then finally we went back
to court, but then it took hours and hours for
them to process him back out, and then in the meantime,
even after we knew he was coming home, it still
wasn't a relaxing experience because even just simple things like
(26:55):
he needed access to medication that he took daily, and
they weren't letting him come home with any And I
spent the day trying to track down the doctor who
ran the jail to make sure they would at least
release him with a prescription so that we could make
sure he didn't miss any of the doses of the
medication that he needed. They wouldn't even give me the
medication I had then they didn't let you take it out.
(27:17):
And it was crazy, which makes absolutely zero sense on
any level. Right, It's just some bureaucratic insanity on top
of all the other insanity. But luckily you had this
great team behind you and and good family, and so
you walk out into the fresh air. What was that
moment like? And where did you go? Did you did
(27:39):
you go straight to a restaurant or a bar, or
did you hug a tree or what did you go?
When once we got outside, you know, just the air
is different on this side of the defense. It's like
you can breathe again, you know. To Media's God's gift.
I hear you. I mean we hear it in different
ways from every different person who's been through what you've
(28:01):
been through, different variations of it. It's Um, it's it's beautiful.
I mean sad, but it's beautiful. So UM, we're just
happy your your home and you're free, and we wish you,
you know, every blessing that life has to offer going forward.
You certainly deserve it, UM, And I want to before
we go to the closing of the show, first of all,
(28:22):
I want to encourage people to support the Ohio Innocence
Project and we will put a link in the bio
for people who want to donate or get involved in
any way they can. Um, you were the twenty five
person exonerated by the Ohio Innocence Project. It's a remarkable number,
but still it's a tiny number in terms of the
overall innocent people that are remained behind bars. But we're
happy you're here. And now we're going to turn to
(28:45):
the closing of our show, which we call Closing Arguments.
It works like this. I think you both again, Jennifer.
You know, you inspire me and so many other people
by your remarkable advocacy, and it's always great to have
you on the show. And obviously I'm working closely with
the Highly Instance Project on other cases Jhon Jones and others,
and UM I know we're gonna win those two. It
(29:05):
just takes longer than we wanted to, like it always does,
but a closing arguments works like this. I'm gonna finally
stop talking. I'm going to turn my microphone off. Thank
you again, Evan King, Jennifer berge Round for being here
with us closing arguments. I'm gonna just turn my microphone
off and let you say anything else that's left unsaid
that you want to share with our audience. Evan, We're
(29:27):
gonna save you. I mean, you're the man of the hour,
so you're gonna be the last one to speak, if
that's okay, and we're gonna let Jennifer share her thoughts
and then hand the mic off to you and then
take us out into the sunset a rather well. First
of all, I wanted to say thank you for having
me back on. I'm kind of sad that I'm here
because it means that there's more clients whose cases we
can discuss. But I'm so grateful for the light that
(29:51):
you're bringing to cases all over the country, their stories
that deserve to be told. Also, if I may, would
like to put in a plug for two of my
current clients, Carl Willis and Wayne Brady, or there's a
website set up free Wayne and Carl dot com where
that you can go read more information and find all
kinds of information. And then of course I wanted to
(30:12):
say thank you to Evan for being here with me
and you've always inspired me to keep going. And anytime
I'm down and need to pick me up, I like
to watch the video ofs you woo hoo hooing after
you're coming out of the court when you were released,
because it's just a feeling of pure joy that gives
me a smile every time. Thank you, Thank you uh,
(30:34):
first of all to how Innocent Project was the gods
and to me their family, to me for those of
you out there listening, look up to O How Innocent Project.
Some of you have people in love, ones that you
know are innocent, need to be free. You don't know
(30:54):
where to start, Just give him a call and as always,
stay in your lane, try to stay troubled for you,
but the Lord has your back. Just keep your faith
and continue to do the right thing. But one thing
I would like to say came out good out of this.
(31:15):
I haven't messed with the drug cocaine and almost thirty
years now. I've been clean for almost thirty years now.
People who are always talking about you can't stop drugs overnight.
Oh yes you can. When the right thing happened to you,
you can stop in it, Dame. But that all happens
(31:36):
in God's blessings. So with that, thank you for having
me here on your podcasts. As I bade you verywell,
Thank you, Thank you for listening to ronfl Conviction. I'd
like to thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff Clyburn,
(31:59):
and Kevin Ward Us with research by Lila Robinson. The
music in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR
nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on
Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast,
and on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as well as at
Lava for Good. On all three platforms. You can also
(32:19):
follow me on both TikTok and Instagram at It's Jason
flam ralevul Conviction is the production of Lava for Good
Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number one
Hosts And Creators
Lauren Bright Pacheco
Maggie Freleng
Jason Flom
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