February 23, 2023 • 47 mins
On November 21, 1997, Gene Artis and his sister Yvonne Giles were shot and killed at their apartment in Suffolk, VA. Six-year-old Travone Artis was the only witness who saw his mother and uncle get murdered, and he unequivocally told authorities that a relative of his was the shooter. Despite this, 18 year old Lerico Kearney became a suspect when police found out he and Gene gambled together.There was no physical evidence linking Lerico to this crime, but with the help of multiple jailhouse snitches, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
On November twenty first, nineteen ninety seven, a Suffolk County,
Virginia man known for drug dealing and gambling named Gene
Artists and his sister, Yvonne Giles were both fatally shot
in front of Yvon's six year old son, Treyvon. The
boy was discovered in his blood soaked T shirt and
underwear outside of the house shortly after the shooting around
ten pm. Trayvon gave a very descriptive police report, but
(00:25):
later became unable to remember the details of the tragic event.
In a court of law. However, Gene Artist's girlfriend and
several other associates began making police statements that named another
man involved in the drug trade, Larrico Kearney, collectively saying
that he shot Jean to recover a large gambling loss.
Shortly before his trial, another drug dealer claimed that Lorico
(00:47):
had plotted to rob Gene Artists of the gambling scoreps
in order to repay him for a drug den Lorico
was convicted, but a constitutional violation triggered a new trial
in which three new witnesses joined the Commonwealth's case. With
this many people willing to testify, revealing the statements of
the only person who actually saw the murders, wouldn't even
(01:07):
have seemed like it was necessary. But this is wrongful conviction.
Welcome back to wrongful conviction. Today we have another case
out of Virginia, which, again the entire substance of the
(01:29):
state's case was built upon the words of incentivized witnesses
receiving leniency on their own charges, by the way, all
while ignoring the only actual credible witness and the most
likely suspect. I Meanwhile, the man who they focused on
instead is calling in today, over twenty five long years
later from Greensville Correctional Facility of Virginia. Larco Kearney, I'm
(01:51):
sorry you're with us today under the circumstances, but all
of us here at wrongful Conviction are happy in honor
that you're joining us today. Thank yoll just forgiving me
this opportunity, you know, to share my story. Yeah, you're
most welcoming. Also joining us, and you'll remember him from
our converage of Terrence Hobbs is Lenny Singleton, who did
his own stint a legal conviction but a crazy sentence
(02:14):
of the thousand and three hundred and ten years for
having stolen a little over five hundred dollars. No one
was hurt, and no weapon was used. Lenny was a
jailhouse lawyer and then benefited from a conditional pardon and
soon joined the Coga Shaw Law firm, from which he
and his wife, Vandy crusade for the wrongfully convicted. So, Lenny,
(02:36):
welcome back to the show. Oh, thank you, it's great
to be here. I think our audience will agree that
this is very similar to Terrence Hobbs's case, not the
story itself, but the patterns of the investigation and the
misconduct and the prosecution. The towns in which they occurred
were less than twenty miles apart, by the way, Whereas
I alluded to in the opening, you have a crime
(02:58):
that occurred in the drug culture of the nineties and
an investigation that bent over backwards to ignore the most
likely suspect, turning instead to incentivized and or coerced witness
testimony in exchange for sentence reductions and things like that.
The similarities of the cases are striking, from which it's
easy to see that there's patterns here. Right. We see
(03:20):
these all over the country, but they it seems like
there's a cluster of them in Virginia. I don't know
that we could just focus on Virginia. I think this
is a widespread issue where snitches, and most of them
do this for a living. They're always in trouble and
they know how to work the system. They know who
to call, they know who to get in contact with.
(03:42):
I've seen several cases in Virginia where guys will see
someone on TV on the news, call someone and say, look,
I'm in the pod with this guy and I overheard
him saying this, that and the other, when in fact
those things have never happened. But it is a culture
in Virginia that needs to be stopped for sure, because
(04:03):
I've never seen one that actually was true. They're always
working to get a deal, get a time, because as
you could clearly see in the letters that Laurco's attorney
was able to obtain these inmates writing folk telling them
I'll say whatever you need me to say, just let
me get this certain deal. I will quote for those
(04:26):
letters later. It's really egregious. And of course, I guess
this doesn't only happen in Virginia. It happens in all
fifty states, but some states have even enacted laws in
order to only allow this kind of testimony if it's
corroborated by some physical evidence, of which there usually is none,
and this case is no exception. But before we get
into all of that, Larco, you grew up in kind
(04:46):
of like in two different places, mostly with your mom
and Surrey, Virginia, and then part of the time with
your father and your grandparents and Suffolk, Virginia. Is that right?
I'm a realist from Suffol, Virginia. My mom was a
single parrent. You know. My dad, you know, it was
you know, ind and out in the streets. You know,
he was in and out the jail. My mother's job
carried her for different places. So I moved from Suffolk
(05:06):
to Windsor, and eventually I moved to Surrey County. But
I was still, you know, visiting my grandmother and my
father on the weekends. And like I said, you know,
my father, you know he told drugs, and me watching
my father, you know, you see the so called drug
because they're wearing nice clothes, driving nice cars, and you know,
I thought that was cool. And this is something I've
heard before when a young person growing up around that
(05:28):
scene quickly notices that everyone who's not selling drugs is
struggling to get by while the ones who are involved
in the trade have seemingly comfortable lives and money in
your pocket. Yeah. Back in those days, seriously, yeah, you
know when crack cocaine hit. Yeah, they were the heroes
in the neighborhood actually, sadly, and the only ones with
(05:49):
any real economic power, until, of course they got caught
and sent away from some ungodly sentence, like Larico's father.
But my father went to prison in nineteen ninety five.
He had fifty four years under the old with parole.
He was denied a couple of times. He ended up
doing sixteen years or four months. And what did life
look like for you after he went away? I understand
(06:09):
you had moved out of your mom's in with your
father and your grandparents. It's just me, my grandmother or
my grandfather. I'm indozing in the streets. There's nothing you
know to glorified, you know, be proud of. But I
was in don't buying the son of drugs, right, So
you were probably already on the radar of local law enforcement.
But have you ever been arrested before? I was arrested
in October of ninety seven, I had a possession of cocaine,
(06:33):
assault on the alser, and other traffic valition that came
with that same incident one month before this happened. Whoa,
WHOA Back up a second. There the assault of a
police officer. What happened in that case? I think that
in the process of them restraining me, I think he
may have hurt his finger. Oh Jesus Christ. I mean so,
(06:53):
since the arrest was the impetus for the officers injury,
they of course, you know, some sort of cities or
gaslighting moves, they got to charge you with assault of
an officer, which makes you sound like a super violent
person when in actuality he had injured himself, Yes, sir.
And so now with this arrest and the alleged assault,
(07:14):
and I'm putting that in quotation marks of a police
officer just a month before the murders. From what I understand,
this put you on house arrest with an ankle monitor
with only supervised outings. So, needless to say, you're a
well known entity to the local police. We were right
for the picking, so to speak. Right, you were an
easy fall guy for them. And one of the deceased
in this case was also known to both of you
(07:34):
and the police, which is the guy named David Eugene
artists who went by a GENA. What was your relationship
to Gene? We would running to each other on a
regular basis, you know, like I said, he was on
drug dealer in the earlier and Gene would you know always,
you know, looked the entice people to gamble, to shoot
dice because he was he was good at it. I
guess that's how he supported himself, no gambling and seven drugs.
(07:55):
And it was part of the state's theory that he
had enticed you into a few games in which you
had lost big money. Did you used to gamble with Gene?
I never person to gamble with Gene because I knew,
I knew how good Gene was. Yeah, some of those
guys man, he come up with these techniques. There's a
way you can actually set the dice and increase the
probability of a certain number. Gene probably he was good
(08:18):
with dice. He knew how to set him. He knew
I'd increase his chances at winning. So you knew better
than to play with Gene. Had your father was and
the one who gave you that advice, he actually did
on you know, more than one occasion. He actually did.
You had even turned him down in front of two
individuals who eventually were coerced into testifying against you. I'm
talking about Casey Davis and Travis Chalk. The morning that
(08:40):
Gene Artist was killed, he came to the house trying
to entice us to gamble. Of course all of us
said no, right, but the authorities eventually coerced those two
men into making false statements about you, saying that you
were in possession of a black forty five caliber byrom
the day before, and then in the morning the twenty first,
that you had said, quote, if he don't have g
(09:00):
or better, I'm gonna kill him because I'm tired of
him winning my money and coming with no money and quote.
Chalk went on to say that you and Jean shot
dice for about an hour and then agreed to pause
the game and pick it up later. The authorities were
also successful in getting Jean's girlfriend at the time to
say that you had once lost something like five thousand
(09:21):
dollars to Gene in the dice game, but that also
had never happened. His girlfriend at the time, her name
was Sabrina Northfleet, I think that she had some child depended,
or she had a situation going on, you know, That's
why she fabricated a story which never happened, seeing me
gamble with Jane in the place that, as God as
my witness, I had never my life been too. But
(09:41):
there was something that she testified too that was true,
which was seeing you and Jeane together earlier on in
the night that he was murdered, when she pulled up
to Gene and a gas station and you had asked
him for a ride home. I was at the sub
shot that was across the street from the gas station
to Gene Artists, was at asked for a rat and
she had pulled up in that gas station too. I
guess her Gene they had an argument, but she did
(10:04):
see me sitting in the car with Gene. He was
just giving me a ride home, so he dropped you
off at your grandparents. You later walked down the street
to be with one of your kids at the child's
mother's house. Both the child's mother and grandmother later testified
to your whereabouts during the murders of Gene Artists at
his sister EVONN. Giles, which was November twenty first, nineteen
ninety seven. They were both shot while at home sometime
(10:25):
between nine and ten pm, and apparently there was a
pizza delivery before the murders. The pizza delivery person, Teresa Rix,
saw two men arguing on their way into the residence
at one sixteen Franklin Street, neither of which she recognized
as Uiko. So there was another witness to this entire
harrowing scene, this whole ordeal. There was one person who
(10:46):
was there and who actually saw the killer, six year
old treyvon Artists, who lived in the apartment with his
mother and his uncle. At about ten pm the night
of November twenty first, ninety seven, Tryvonne was found standing
outside of that one sixteen Franklin Street address, wearing nothing
but a shirt and his underwear, with his mother's blood
(11:06):
on his clothes, and he led a neighbor to the
bodies in the apartment. Okay, first, let's take a second
to recognize that this is a frightened little boy in
a terrifying situation. Now, the neighbor that took him back
inside was his mother's boyfriend, Jody Cross, and by now
the police had been called. Tray Vaughan gave a statement
to the police at eleven PM, so this wasn't long after,
(11:27):
in which he stated clearly and unequivocally that a relative
of his named Gregory Artists, not Lrico, had been in
the apartment and had shot and killed his mother, Yvonne Giles,
right in front of him. He repeated these statements to
the police twice more the next day, and he's crystal
(11:48):
clear with the police about what happened. Can you read
some of the report for us? They question, did you
see the man that shot your mom? He said yes,
and they asked him. Is his name Jody Cross? He says, no,
that's my mom's boyfriend. Did Gregory Artists shoot your mom? Yes?
Did you see Gregory Artist shoot your mom? Yes? How
(12:09):
do you know Gregory Artists? He has been to my
house before and played cards with my uncle. Rayvon gives
the police details. He says, I've spent time at his house,
his kids and I play together. He knows this guy.
So they ask him, tell me, in your own words,
what you know about this offense? And I guess this
(12:32):
is the next day, he says, Trayvon Artists advised he
was in his mom's bedroom with her watching TV when
he heard David and Gregory Artists arguing. They were arguing
over a card game. Gregory said that David was cheating again.
Jeane's full name is David Eugene Artists, so the name
(12:55):
David and Jean referred to the same man. He says
that Jean had a small silver gun and that Gregory
had a big black gun that Jean shot Gregory, and
Gregory shot at Jeanne. Him and his mom went into
Trayvon's closet to hide. When no more shots were fired,
(13:15):
him and his mom got out of the closet and
went down the hall. He followed his mom once they
were in the front fourrier, Gregory and David were standing
there and two more shots were fired and he fell
dead on the floor. Gregory then walked up to me
and my mom and he was told by Gregory, I'm
(13:35):
going to shoot and kill your mom now. And remember
Gregory Artists killed your mom and that's when he shot her,
this says in the neck area, and she fell on
the floor by the window and he shot her again.
Gregory then left out the house and then they asked
him to describe Gregory Artists, and he describes them to
the tea. He says that Gregory Artist was a black male,
(13:59):
darker with two birthmarks or moles on each side of
his forehead and white freckles. He's about fifty years old.
Gregory lives in North Carolina, the two story house and
lives with his mom. It's just awful for this little kid.
And then the authorities appear to have completely ignored him
except for the description of the murder weapon, a big
(14:21):
black gun which they knew to be a forty five
from the fragments they pulled from his mother's skull. Now
seven hundred thousand cast was also found at the scene,
I believe five hundred and fifty of which was in
Gene Artist's pocket, in addition to some drugs, So the
idea that this was a robbery sprung on by dice
game losses to a fellow drug dealer is absurd. But
(14:42):
instead of just going to North Carolina and arresting Gregory Artists,
Detective ec Harris appears to use genes involvement in drugs
as an opportunity to target other guys in that business,
including yourself, for either a wrongful conviction or a false
statement to use in a wrongful conviction. And as we mentioned,
you were on house arrest at the time for that
cocaine possession and the bogus assault charge when they came
(15:05):
to see you, and you had been seeing a gene
at the gas station that night, so your name was
floating around in the rumor mill, so to speak. So
I guess, you know, my name was in this rumor mill,
and they realized that I was on house arrest, they
gave me a valiation because I was actually out of
my house, you know, that weekend that this crime happened.
So I was taking the jail, and I guess the
(15:26):
prosecutors or whoever had planned me to sale with an informant.
His name was Brad Parker, and he tried to question
me about these homicides, and I explained to the gentleman like, no,
that's not what I'm locked up for. The following week,
I was giving a barn, so I was out again.
Later on he ended up writing to the prosecutors or
whatever and telling them that I admitted to him while
(15:47):
I was in that sale about committing these crimes. So
I think all investigations everything stem from there. And he
wasn't the only one willing to offer false statements against
you in your codefending Quintin Parish aka QP. Eventually a
laundry list of people was compiled, including Casey Davis, Travis Chalk,
Sabrina Norfleet, as well as two other guys, Tony Booth
(16:09):
and Willie Hardy. But was this statement from Brad Parker
how they originally obtained your arrest laurrant No. One wasn't
Brad Parkle. They had got a statement from a Willie
Hardy state in that I made a lair's profession to
him about committing these murders. He was a suspect in
his crime, him and my co defendant, Quinn Persh. So
it turned out that he and Quinton Parish were childhood
(16:29):
buddies who grew up on the same block. But Quinton
refused to give false statements, unlike Willy Hardy. So you
were arrested on December twenty eighth, nineteen ninety seven, and
your family hired an attorney named Ken Melvin, who was
very effective. Now. Hardy testified to this false statement at
a preliminary hearing in June of ninety eight, but ended
up catching his own charges and hired William P. Robinson
(16:49):
the same attorney as his buddy Quintin Parish, you're a
co defendant. Hardy admitted to his attorney Robinson that he
had given false testimony against you and your attorney Ken
Melvine was president. They recorded this conversation where he admitted
to lying about Luriko Kearney. Willie Hardy said he had
been threatened and harassed by detectives every day, threatening to
(17:12):
charging with the crime for which Kearney is incarcerating. So
now with this recording, your attorney filed a motion for
dismissal of all charges against you, and eventually there was
a hearing. Meanwhile, the prosecution was scrambling to find a
new star witness and they found another guy from the
Suffolk drug game, Tony Booth. I ran into him one
time and in Wester Time, What a reason to jail? Well,
(17:34):
when was on the basketball According to jail, he had
hired Kenne Milon and he asked me about how Kenne
mel was doing on my case, and I was like, yeah,
he's doing a good job. Maybe a couple of days
later he was transferred from the Western Time What a
Reason to jail to Chesterpeake. That's when I later learned
you know that you know he had hopped on my case, right,
so he hired Ken Melvin for his own charges and then,
using this conversation on the yard as a pretext for
(17:56):
an alleged confession, began working with the state as a
witness in or a case, presenting Ken Melbourne with a
conflict of interest. And now this attorney, who had been
super effective thus far, was likely to be forced to
drop you as a client. All this may or may
not have been engineered by the prosecution. Smells like an onion.
Might be an onion. But for now, let's get back
(18:18):
to the hearing to dismiss your charges. Based on the
recording which Willie Hardy admitted to perjuring himself at your
preliminary hearing. What happened when they got him understand fearing
he would be charged with perjury, he said he'd been
through a lot and he'd been shot, so he couldn't
remember anything. Now, George Westbrook Parker said, it's a possibility
that before mister Kearney trial comes up, he may regain
(18:41):
its memory back. And so this judge Westbrook Parker ruled
the Kearney's indictment would not be dismissed. Because the witness
did not recant, even though they had a recording that
he said he was lying about it. So now on
this day the postcule to put it in emotion to
have mister Melbourne just qualified from my case. Could they
now have another witness, which was Tony Booth. Mister Melvin
(19:19):
was disqualified off my case. It was strategic, you know.
I guess they felt still with the case that they had,
it would have been offered them to get a conviction
on me. I had ken of Melvin's my attorney. So
that was September of ninety nine, and as your first
trial was fast approaching, your codefendant, Quentin Parish, probably seeing
what you both were up against, decided to take an
alpha play to avoid a potential life sentence. And that's
(19:41):
how they get a lot of guys too. They scare
with that. I could see him very easily pleading out,
even though he had nothing to do with it, just
because he was afraid he would never get out. But Lorico,
you weren't backing down even though you were facing a
similar faith. Yeah, I had two council of capital murder
and two council of use of a foul. So eighth
theory of his crime was circumstantial evidence of Rico's alleged
(20:05):
riff with Gene Artists over some gambling debt. Now, Lorico
tells us that this whole disagreement over a gambling between
he and Jean was impossible because he knew better than
the play dice with a guy that was a real hustler, right,
Jeane was that guy need want to lose his money.
But the state fabricated statements to the contrary from Sabrina Northfleet,
(20:29):
Travis Chalk, and Casey Davis. Sabrina Northfleet gave a false
testimony witness in Jeene to win five thousand dollars from
me around September of that year, so that, you know,
provided a false motive for them. Travis Chalk gave a
testimony that he was at you know, my house before
these murders happened. He said, when Jeane pulled up, I
made a statement to him. If Jeane didn't have a
(20:50):
thousand dollars a better I would kill him because I'm
tired of Jeane winning my money and coming with no money.
And we went in the house to gamble, and the
gentleman that was in the driveway with him at the time,
whose name Miss Casey Davis. He testified to seeing me
with the forty five caliber firearm on overn with twenty.
A firearms identification expert testified that the forty five caliber
(21:12):
bullet killed Miss Giles is saying that they were fired
from the same weapon, and some cartridge casings were found,
both of a forty five and a three eighty caliber. Right,
No bullets or fragments were found in Gene, but two
different casings likely came from the exchange between Gene and
Gregory Artists. So they've fabricated the motive and the means
(21:34):
and now they placed you with Gene, which is actually
something that was true. Sabrina Norfleet saw you two guys
together at the gas station that night. Yeah, she's seen
us together at the East Coast gas station. She just
played to him about the argument, and you know, she
told them that I was the last person you know,
seeing with Gene Artists. And my thing is this, you know,
(21:55):
y'all charged me with another individual. So would it come
in a do y'all think me with mister Hers. She's
telling y'all it was just me and Jeane together. Right.
Part of the state's evidence was this mister Travis Chalk,
who said that he had seen Jean driving alone in
a white Chevy, and that Larco and Quentin Parish known
(22:17):
as QP, they were in a white mitsub she Gallant
hiding towards Franklin Street following him. So he was supposed
to be in Jean's car, but now he's in a
different car with another guy following Jeane. Which way is it, guys?
I mean he can't have it both ways? Travis Truck
several years later, Gavin HALFI David that all of it
(22:38):
was alive. In fact, I do have that Affidavid. Travis
Chalk said, I never saw Lorico Kearney with a gun,
nor did he say anything about killing anyone over some
gambling debts, as stated to me by a detective E. C. Harris.
He says that that detective led to say I saw
(23:01):
Lorico Kearney with the type of gun that was used
in the murders, and that he harassed me almost daily,
and that he came with papers to encourage me to sign,
threatening me with incarceration if I did not cooperate. Travis
Chalk said, I was young and afraid, and I was
(23:22):
given paperwork as to what the same court by Detective
ec Harris. Obviously, the jury didn't benefit from this knowledge,
just as they had not benefited from Willie Hardy's admissions
from the preliminary hearing. Man the Commonwealth brought in another
steaming pile of conflicting testimony from Tony Booth. Now the
motive isn't just about being mad about losing five grands
(23:43):
of Jean. Now it was five grand that he needed
to pay mister Booth for drugs. Tony Booth said that
I sold drugs for him. I owed him money and
I told him that, you know, I had to kill
some people to get the money back. I lost the
money gambling. And the testimony that he gave it didn't
matter the evidence. He just said, I said I held
the guns to the people's head while PC he said PC,
(24:06):
and Coda for his name was QOT. He was saying
PC and PC first deal pockets of money and drugs.
You know why I held the guns to him and
killed him out to the you know, gene artists. He
had cracked cocaine's five hundred and fifty dollars in cash
in his pocket at the time of his death. So
the testimony that Tony Booth gave. It didn't even match
the evidence, right. If you had robed Jeane to pay
Tony as he alleged, then Jean's pockets that have been
(24:29):
full of money and drugs. You don't have to be
Sherlock Holmes to figure this out. Yeah. Absolutely. Booth was
awaiting sentencing for his own charges, which was a projected
two hundred and eighty months well over twenty three years,
and that sentencing was suspended until he fulfilled his obligation
at your first and second trials, Tony Booths, you guessed
it ended up serving only five years now, Larrico's public
(24:53):
defender courtesy of Tony Boothmind you, Michael Rosenberg poked holes
in booths story inspredibility on cross examination. That's could, But
what else was presented in your favor? The defense caught
an eternity you know, to get understand explaining to the
jury about the pre boggain that Tona Booth had entered
into know about him looking for a centers production. Also,
(25:16):
a witness, Teresa Ricks, testified she was a pizza delivery
person who had delivered a pizza to one sixteen Franklin
Street in the hours before the murders, and she did
see two black men, one heavy set, one medium, bill
entered the house after arguing with each other getting out
of their car. And this Miss Ricks testified that neither
(25:37):
of these men were Lark o'kearney, who she knew from school.
They went to school together, my son's mother and her mother.
They actually testified on my behalf to saying that you
know I was there for my baby mother's house, you
know at the time that disillared defense had happened. Well,
she actually testified on my behalf too. You know, she
told the jury that you know, she was in the
driveway when I came from my baby mother's house. Unfortunate
(26:00):
only loved ones don't make convincing alibi witnesses, as they're
easily explained away as someone who might be willing to lie.
But his attorney was in possession of the statement from
the only witness who should have mattered, which was Treyvon,
and Trayvon was who pointed the finger directly at Gregory Artists.
Yet this alternate and much more likely suspect was never
(26:21):
presented to the jury. Among so much more, the fact
that as Laura didn't bring up any physical evidence, and
none of it pointed to Larrico. Was just astounding to me.
They took fingerprints from the crime scene, and to this
day they haven't tried to match those fingerprints to anyone
except Lorico Kearney. I mean, what about Gregory artists. Apparently
(26:41):
no one was interested enough, so the jury came to
a predictable conclusion. I mean, I didn't have any idea
that I could be actually convicted of that crime. You know,
I had how hopes, Like I said, I was born home,
my family in the court room. I didn't think it
was anywhere that they could find me guilty. I mean,
I couldn't believe it. I was in shock like I
was known. I cannot feel like you know, I let
(27:02):
everybody down even though it was beyond my control. And
your verdict that the first trial was really odd. You
were found guilty of first degree murder, but only of
Evan Giles along with the related firearm charge, you know,
because you had Casey Davis testified he seen me with
the forty five caliber weapon. I guess they said, you know,
the forty five callible fragment of a bullet was found
(27:24):
in the school. It was a compromise thirty right forty
five caliber bullet fragments were only pulled from Vane Giles's skull,
and maybe they weren't totally convinced of your guilt, so
they acquitted you for the murder of Gene Artists cold
comfort there, but you were still sentenced to life for
the Evan Giles homicide plus three years for the gun charge.
But your public defender, a new one who you had
(27:46):
been assigned, Joseph Winston, was actually able to appeal. This
verdict didn't win since the only person who could contradict
Tony Booth was you, and the Commonwealth's attorney unconstitutionally arguing
to the jury that you should have testified. This constituted
a clear violation of your Fifth Amendment rights, so they
properly declared it a mistrial. I was convicted in February
(28:09):
of two thousand. My case was overturned Junior Ruary twenty nine,
two thousand and two. That hadn't been in prison at
that time but fifteen months, but I had been around
guys that had actually been down with twenty and twenty
five years. Now. I finally get that paper brook saying
that my case was overturned, and I shared that with
a few individuals, and you know, like some people were
happen for me, like you know, we've been way like
(28:29):
to get paper brook like this for twenty plus years.
And it was basically telling me, though, take advantage of
the opportunity. And when I did go back to court,
they offered me a plea. Boggain it. They just convicted you,
but now they're offering you a plea. That kind of
feels like they had a little bit of a guilty
conscience maybe, like they knew this conviction was bullshit. So
(28:49):
now Joseph Winston was off your case, you were transferred
to jail, and a new public defender named Dwayne Struthers
was assigned to your case. No, he came to see
me and actually, wouldout be interested in taking a pleae deal?
You know, I told him no, lesson to be time third,
you know, because you know, I mean, I didn't do this,
and that's what I'm explaining to him. He asked me
where they would all for ten years to third? Would
(29:11):
you be interested in that? And at the time I
had been inconcrated a little bit over five years, and
I said, with this five years, it already did be
included with this ten and he didn't know. So without
a potential five year deal or time served, you were
ready for a second chance to fight for your innocence
in court, and that meant the state got a second
chance too. So you were initially in protective custody or
(29:31):
the PC pot as it's known, and then you got
transferred into the general population, where you made some new acquaintances,
notably Ronald Bruckings and Raymond Copeland. They tried to, you know,
befriend me. So I had been in there with them
maybe a couple of months, and all of a sudden
they put me back in this protective custody part and
Bookers and Copner came to visit, and you know, they
(29:52):
enticed them to lie. And I know you've read them.
I've got the letters that they vote to the prosecutor
and to the Detective ec Hurst to meet in the head.
So mister Brooking says to the Commonwealth Attorney, mister Jamieson, Hello,
mister Jamison, I'm hoping to find you and yours and
the best of health, highest of spirits, the highest of spirits.
(30:13):
It's a crazy kit. I'm writing you in concern of
the visit received from you today, I feel as if
we did not reach a very clear understanding about having
my jeep returned and the charges dropped. Now I'm waiting
on an appeal. This you could stop, just have the
(30:37):
federal courts to withdraw their appeal and drop the case.
I have never had a violent charge, so this should
not be hard. I have gave my life to the Lord. Oh,
and I'm willing to help you as best as I can.
If I'm going to take the stand, I need to
know my charges are being dropped. I just want to
(31:00):
chance to start my new found life in Christ over
on the outside. If you give me another chance, I
will not let you down. Sincerely, Yours in Christ, while
I put my hand on the Bible, swear to tell
the truth, and then lie my ass off to help
the state ruin another man's life, just like Jesus would do.
(31:22):
I mean, apparently, mister Brookins pretended to be a friend
of Lorico's father, and then he took a look at
Lorico's transcripts, all in this twisted attempt to concoct a
believable alleged confession in exchange for his own charges being
dropped and the return of his jeep, and then along
comes mister Brookings cellmate or blockmaid, Raymond Copeland. Raymond Copeland,
(31:44):
he was sentenced to ten years. In the letter that
he wrote to the prosecutor, he was seeking to have
his ten years sentence cut to three, you know, for
his testimony and basically saying he can be as convincing
and moving as possible to help burying me. And also
that he had testified in another murder case for this
prosecutor before. Right, So this is a trial tested bullshit artist,
(32:06):
So letty please read from the letter mister Copeland wrote
about the meeting he had with the Commonwealth Attorney just
six days before his own proceedings Raymond Copeland. He says,
I am writing in concern about our last meeting, which
took place on January twenty eight, two thousand and three,
where you mention not making any promises, and I can
respect that, but perhaps we need to discuss my situation
(32:29):
more clearly. I am participating in a double murder trial.
I know others are involved that have a lot more
time and more serious crimes than I do, so I
want you to know I'm not trying to wait until
I get to prison before my requests are granted. I
(32:50):
was sentenced by Westbrook Parker, which you may be familiar with.
I know from experience. If you can talk with Parker,
who's the judge, I can get everything I've asked for
because I'm not asking for much. I can't go to
any prison because of possible retaliation for my testimony. Now,
(33:15):
before I take the witness stand, all I'm asking is
your word off the record. Please contact me and let
me rehearse my testimony. And also I need to evaluate
my situation as far as how I will be rewarded
(33:36):
rehearse my testimony. Rehearse my testimony. There was also a
third jailhouse snitch, Christopher Joyner, but we were unable to
obtain any damning letters from him. However, in Virginia there's
no parole, and Joinner's fifty four year sentence appears to
have magically disappeared as he was released. In fact, years ago,
he alleged that he overheard incriminating statements from Larrico while
(33:59):
he was on the phone. So now that everyone was
well rehearsed, you went back to trial in February two
thousand and three. There was still no physical evidence tying
Larrico to the scene. Fingerprints that they believe would be
probative just didn't match. Lariko Kearney, Sabrina Northfleet, Travis Chalk,
Casey Davis, and Tony Booth returned. So this much was
exactly the same, minus the Fifth Amendment violation. And now
(34:22):
there were three new lying jailhouse snitches. And in addition
to their sentence productions and letters to the Commonwealth Attorney,
there were even more reasons to find their testimonies totally unreliable.
Brooke's testifact that I said I kicked the door in,
and that was known throughout the trial, like whoever had
(34:42):
committed this crime, It was no forced insue, they knew
the victims struggles. He did point that out, and the prosecutor,
you know, just made up some bogus three like showed
them a pitch of a door in the back of
the apartment, like, look at that door. Don't look like
somebody was trying to get out their doors. So clearly
Brookins misunderstood the facts that he was supposed to regurgitate
for the state. But what about Copeland. Copelan's testimon was
(35:04):
basically the same because they was in the same bluff
and of course they got together. They you know, the
goal with what they would saying, including the same mistakes
that proved they didn't know what the fuck they were
talking about. Now, Christopher Joyner, he was in the protective
custody pod with you because he was also cooperating on
a number of other cases, which does not bode while
for his credibility either. And he alleged overhearing you say
(35:25):
incriminating things while on the phone. Now, you had taken
a phone call while he was in ear shot one
day when you had returned from motion hearing in which
you found out that Brookers and Copeland were going to
testify against you. My child was a start that Monday,
and I found out that Friday, so I came back.
I used the phone. I called my stepfather, displaying to
him you know what it happened to court and everything
(35:46):
that you know, he heard me say on the phone,
and my stepfather he wrote it down and put his
own little twist and spin on it. He actually test
the fact that I professed to Brookings and Copeland bout
you know, me doing a murdle. I was bragging or
saying that I was like OJ Simpson, It's just with
some bogus stuff he was saying. It didn't even make sense.
And like we mentioned, he too received a sentence reduction
(36:08):
for his OJ Simpson references. Now, the defense called the
Albi witnesses again your loved ones, as well as the
pizza delivery person, in addition to other people who Copeland
and Brookns had previously test the lie about. But the
difference with this trial was Treyvon who was now eleven
years old because five years had gone by. You called
him to the stand to get him to recount what
he had already said at the statements to police, which
(36:29):
was the Gregory Artists had murdered gene artist Andy von
Giles right in front of him alone. I tried to
call him as my witness at the second trial, and
I'm trying to get him to testify to what he said, well,
at least get the statement presented to the jury. And
you know, they scow was the jury, and they did
what you call the proper and they placed them on
the stand. He just said he didn't remember anything. Do
(36:49):
you know. They showed him the statement and he, like
I guess he may have been coached, but he just
said he couldn't remember and the judge said that I
couldn't get the statement into the jury because I couldn't
have each my own witness. So they didn't allow the
statement to get into the jury. And once again, the
jury did not hear the most important witness statement, the
one taken from the only eyewitness to the crime, just
moments after it happened. Now, who knows if he was
(37:11):
coached or coerced by the state or maybe by his
own family. After all, Gregory Artists was his relative. It's
even possible that the memory was so painful that the
associative amnesia took over it. Either way, the jury didn't
hear what we all know he had said right after
he saw his uncle and mother fatally shot. Instead, the
state pieced together, coerced or incentivized witness statements people with
(37:34):
no knowledge or the crime. That's the state's case. That's
it floating on the hope that the jury might think, well, yeah,
they can't all be lying. And I understand the Commonwealth
attorney did something that showed that they knew. You tell
me what you think, but it seems like they knew
how fraudulent this prosecution was. They passed a plea deal
to your attorney, Dwayne Struther's. Even after all this, after
(37:57):
the common Will presented the case, they asked and would
not be willing pleaded the second degree murdle. And again
I asked him, like, you know how much time it discurred?
And from his actions, you know the way he looked
at me, he wanted me to gamble with the jury.
I've already had been convicted once and I knew it
was a possibility that, you know, I could get life
from prison again, and your attorney didn't properly advise you
(38:19):
about this, but second degree murderer carries a sentence of
five to forty years, not life, not in Virginia. And
I refused it. And here I am sitting again, you know,
I get convicted again. I ended up with life. I mean,
it must have felt like deja vu all over again.
It definitely did. I'm like, this can't be happening like
a second time. It's like I just felt like defeated,
(38:41):
and I know this time my fight would be a
whole lot harder. It's very rare that you see anybody
get three trials being convicted the second time. But it
was hard going back to waters with I just can
remember the ride that I had when my first trial
was overturned and they curried me back to the jail.
I was in tears for really because or the prison
conditions and all the people that I'm going to leave behind,
(39:02):
Like I would never see this again. Guys, don't get
these this opportunity I'm about to get and like I said,
the whole rat back to that jail, I was the teals.
I was like, this is the child of my life
that's over with. And it didn't happen that way. You know,
(39:23):
me being convicted the second time, I knew. I knew
my fight would be you know, a whole lot harder.
Of course, I went through the litigation process, and my
family later on down the line, you know, put out
more money from me trying to get me out. I
just always try to be positive and keep their hope
like one day, like like justice would prevail and I
would be able to, you know, walk out these prison doors.
That return trip to prison was February two thousand and three.
(39:45):
It's now February two thousand and twenty three, and you're
still there. But like you said, the fight is not over.
Your first attempt was for ineffective assistance. Of counsel Dwayne
Struthers yet had a series of like this for their
actions from the state bar, like the two thousand and
three Then his license was suspended for two years in
two thousand and six because you know, he failed to
(40:06):
you know, communicate with his class and you know, he
didn't pursue cases diligently. So I was hoping when I
found his haber's claim against him, that they would overturn
my case just based on the lack of competence of
Dwayne Struggles. And I did get the evidentiary heard owned
Struggles and competency because of them offered me the police
bargain for second degree murder and he didn't know how
much time that it curred. The district court granted to
(40:29):
hear my issue on that claim back in two thousand
and eight. But the thing where I didn't get any
relief on that issue is because you know, the calling
Wealth Attorney Philip ferguson the head call Weelf attorney and
Suffolk at that time, he testified that in Suffolk he
has a policy that all pre bogglins must be reviewed
and signed by him, and he wasn't going to give
the authorization, so that's why the judge then he didn't
(40:51):
ruin of my favor, and so that rendered the point moved,
not that there aren't plenty of other points to raise
it by their effective assistance, because at the second trial
he did not point out that the only witness to
the murder, young Trayvon, did not point you out in court.
It seems like seeing you in court should have jarred
something loose if you, in fact had killed his mother,
but you didn't. And once again, the fact that none
(41:13):
of the fingerprints taken from the scene that they felt
were probitive, none of them were a match for you
because you weren't there, But this was not raised, as
was the fact that the fingerprints have never been tested
against Gregory artists, which is insane. So, Lenny, I know
you've been on this case since your release brought you
to the Western branch of the John A. Cogshal Law Firm.
(41:33):
And in another stunning, awful setback for this case, Attorney
Cogo Show, a legend in the innocence community and a
friend to me and you guys and so many others,
passed away suddenly in June twenty twenty two. May he
rest in peace. So where does that leave Larco's case.
So once again the law firm of John Ay Cogshaw
(41:55):
filed Loreco's petition on January fifth, two was in twenty
two to the Secretary of Commonwealth Office. That petition primarily
dealt with the statements made by Trayvon Artists the day
of the murders and the following day when they interviewed
him again. Of course, we know there was no physical
(42:15):
evidence that pointed to Larrico Curnie's guilt, and that Trayvon
Artist definitively told the detectives who killed his mom and uncle.
That was the foundation upon which this petition was established,
along with the convicted felons who came forward with false
testimony in order to get deals. And fortunately we were
(42:37):
able to get an affidavit from mister Travis Chalk, who
said he just wanted to clear his conscience, and he
came forward and said it was all a lie. Everything
he said was a lie. He didn't see Larrico Kearney
with a gun. He didn't see Larico Kearney following Jane Artists.
He was told exactly what to say by this detective
(42:57):
when he went to court, and he said as much
in the affidavit. The petition also details everything you've heard here,
the inconsistencies and contradictions between the false witnesses and between
the statements and the facts of the crime. So what
does the petition seek? A conditional pardon on behalf of
Larco Kearney. His petition is awaiting review because of the
(43:18):
long list of people who file before him. From what
we've been told, they're so swamp that it's going to
be a long process. So we're hoping to get as
much airplay as possible for mister Kearney to hopefully change
this wrongful conviction. Well, you have all of our support,
and hopefully our audience will lead a hand as well.
There's currently a petition alerting the governor of this wrongful conviction,
(43:41):
pleading for his team to take notice of the grave
injustice that this is. So please do it right now.
Click the link in the episode bio and get involved.
And now we go to my favorite part of the show.
It's called, of course, closing arguments, where I first of all,
thank you guys for being here and sharing this harrowing story.
(44:02):
And then I'm going to turn my microphone off, leave
my headphones on kick back in my chair and just
listen to any closing thoughts you may have. So let's
kick it off with Lenny and then close it out
with Ulrico. Once again, we have a case where the
only evidence that the Commonwealth has in a double murder
(44:25):
is convicted felons. It's a sad state of affairs when
we are putting people away for life based on convicted
felons getting deals. It's time for us to do something,
especially in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It's time for prosecutors
to bear some of this weight for using convicted felons
(44:48):
that they know have extensive criminal records and they know
they're getting deals. It's time for the prosecution to possibly
suffer as a result of this. I mean, it's the
only way that I can see that this situation will
ever change. It's a sad day that somebody like larco
Kearney has been in the prison system for twenty five
(45:10):
years or more for something he did not do. There
is no evidence to support it. It's time for this
to change. I mean, I would just like to say
thank y'all for allowing me the opportunity to share my
story with the world. Again. This is a situation that
anybody can find theirself in. Anybody can come forward and
just say you said anything, it's not right without the
(45:33):
supporting evidence. But twenty five plus years in prison, you know,
I'm still healthy. I still have hope that someday, you know,
the justice will prevail and I would be able to
walk off this prison and be with the people that
love me, try to build, you know, a relationship with
my children. I would like to see my daughter walk
down the out and like I said, just wanted to,
you know, just go out there and just be a
(45:54):
pillow to my community and try to help others that
may be lost so they won't end up in the
same position. And then I'm in again. I just expressed
my condolences to know the artist family what they have
went through. You know, nobody deserved to that. But I
shouldn't spend the rest of my life in prison based
on you know, people trying to help their whole situations.
And I'm just looking forward to the day, like I said,
(46:15):
I'm releasing and I feel in my heart that you know,
Josepha prevailed and the right thing will be done, you know,
my heart and my courage. I'm just too big just
to die in Prison. Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction.
I'd like to thank our production team Connor Hall, Cheff
Clyburn and Kevin Wards, with research by Lila Robinson. The
(46:39):
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
follow me on both TikTok and Instagram at It's Jason
(47:00):
plot Raleval Conviction is the production of Lava for Good
Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number one
On November twenty first, nineteen ninety seven, a Suffolk County,
Virginia man known for drug dealing and gambling named Gene
Artists and his sister, Yvonne Giles were both fatally shot
in front of Yvon's six year old son, Treyvon. The
boy was discovered in his blood soaked T shirt and
underwear outside of the house shortly after the shooting around
ten pm. Trayvon gave a very descriptive police report, but
(00:25):
later became unable to remember the details of the tragic event.
In a court of law. However, Gene Artist's girlfriend and
several other associates began making police statements that named another
man involved in the drug trade, Larrico Kearney, collectively saying
that he shot Jean to recover a large gambling loss.
Shortly before his trial, another drug dealer claimed that Lorico
(00:47):
had plotted to rob Gene Artists of the gambling scoreps
in order to repay him for a drug den Lorico
was convicted, but a constitutional violation triggered a new trial
in which three new witnesses joined the Commonwealth's case. With
this many people willing to testify, revealing the statements of
the only person who actually saw the murders, wouldn't even
(01:07):
have seemed like it was necessary. But this is wrongful conviction.
Welcome back to wrongful conviction. Today we have another case
out of Virginia, which, again the entire substance of the
(01:29):
state's case was built upon the words of incentivized witnesses
receiving leniency on their own charges, by the way, all
while ignoring the only actual credible witness and the most
likely suspect. I Meanwhile, the man who they focused on
instead is calling in today, over twenty five long years
later from Greensville Correctional Facility of Virginia. Larco Kearney, I'm
(01:51):
sorry you're with us today under the circumstances, but all
of us here at wrongful Conviction are happy in honor
that you're joining us today. Thank yoll just forgiving me
this opportunity, you know, to share my story. Yeah, you're
most welcoming. Also joining us, and you'll remember him from
our converage of Terrence Hobbs is Lenny Singleton, who did
his own stint a legal conviction but a crazy sentence
(02:14):
of the thousand and three hundred and ten years for
having stolen a little over five hundred dollars. No one
was hurt, and no weapon was used. Lenny was a
jailhouse lawyer and then benefited from a conditional pardon and
soon joined the Coga Shaw Law firm, from which he
and his wife, Vandy crusade for the wrongfully convicted. So, Lenny,
(02:36):
welcome back to the show. Oh, thank you, it's great
to be here. I think our audience will agree that
this is very similar to Terrence Hobbs's case, not the
story itself, but the patterns of the investigation and the
misconduct and the prosecution. The towns in which they occurred
were less than twenty miles apart, by the way, Whereas
I alluded to in the opening, you have a crime
(02:58):
that occurred in the drug culture of the nineties and
an investigation that bent over backwards to ignore the most
likely suspect, turning instead to incentivized and or coerced witness
testimony in exchange for sentence reductions and things like that.
The similarities of the cases are striking, from which it's
easy to see that there's patterns here. Right. We see
(03:20):
these all over the country, but they it seems like
there's a cluster of them in Virginia. I don't know
that we could just focus on Virginia. I think this
is a widespread issue where snitches, and most of them
do this for a living. They're always in trouble and
they know how to work the system. They know who
to call, they know who to get in contact with.
(03:42):
I've seen several cases in Virginia where guys will see
someone on TV on the news, call someone and say, look,
I'm in the pod with this guy and I overheard
him saying this, that and the other, when in fact
those things have never happened. But it is a culture
in Virginia that needs to be stopped for sure, because
(04:03):
I've never seen one that actually was true. They're always
working to get a deal, get a time, because as
you could clearly see in the letters that Laurco's attorney
was able to obtain these inmates writing folk telling them
I'll say whatever you need me to say, just let
me get this certain deal. I will quote for those
(04:26):
letters later. It's really egregious. And of course, I guess
this doesn't only happen in Virginia. It happens in all
fifty states, but some states have even enacted laws in
order to only allow this kind of testimony if it's
corroborated by some physical evidence, of which there usually is none,
and this case is no exception. But before we get
into all of that, Larco, you grew up in kind
(04:46):
of like in two different places, mostly with your mom
and Surrey, Virginia, and then part of the time with
your father and your grandparents and Suffolk, Virginia. Is that right?
I'm a realist from Suffol, Virginia. My mom was a
single parrent. You know. My dad, you know, it was
you know, ind and out in the streets. You know,
he was in and out the jail. My mother's job
carried her for different places. So I moved from Suffolk
(05:06):
to Windsor, and eventually I moved to Surrey County. But
I was still, you know, visiting my grandmother and my
father on the weekends. And like I said, you know,
my father, you know he told drugs, and me watching
my father, you know, you see the so called drug
because they're wearing nice clothes, driving nice cars, and you know,
I thought that was cool. And this is something I've
heard before when a young person growing up around that
(05:28):
scene quickly notices that everyone who's not selling drugs is
struggling to get by while the ones who are involved
in the trade have seemingly comfortable lives and money in
your pocket. Yeah. Back in those days, seriously, yeah, you
know when crack cocaine hit. Yeah, they were the heroes
in the neighborhood actually, sadly, and the only ones with
(05:49):
any real economic power, until, of course they got caught
and sent away from some ungodly sentence, like Larico's father.
But my father went to prison in nineteen ninety five.
He had fifty four years under the old with parole.
He was denied a couple of times. He ended up
doing sixteen years or four months. And what did life
look like for you after he went away? I understand
(06:09):
you had moved out of your mom's in with your
father and your grandparents. It's just me, my grandmother or
my grandfather. I'm indozing in the streets. There's nothing you
know to glorified, you know, be proud of. But I
was in don't buying the son of drugs, right, So
you were probably already on the radar of local law enforcement.
But have you ever been arrested before? I was arrested
in October of ninety seven, I had a possession of cocaine,
(06:33):
assault on the alser, and other traffic valition that came
with that same incident one month before this happened. Whoa,
WHOA Back up a second. There the assault of a
police officer. What happened in that case? I think that
in the process of them restraining me, I think he
may have hurt his finger. Oh Jesus Christ. I mean so,
(06:53):
since the arrest was the impetus for the officers injury,
they of course, you know, some sort of cities or
gaslighting moves, they got to charge you with assault of
an officer, which makes you sound like a super violent
person when in actuality he had injured himself, Yes, sir.
And so now with this arrest and the alleged assault,
(07:14):
and I'm putting that in quotation marks of a police
officer just a month before the murders. From what I understand,
this put you on house arrest with an ankle monitor
with only supervised outings. So, needless to say, you're a
well known entity to the local police. We were right
for the picking, so to speak. Right, you were an
easy fall guy for them. And one of the deceased
in this case was also known to both of you
(07:34):
and the police, which is the guy named David Eugene
artists who went by a GENA. What was your relationship
to Gene? We would running to each other on a
regular basis, you know, like I said, he was on
drug dealer in the earlier and Gene would you know always,
you know, looked the entice people to gamble, to shoot
dice because he was he was good at it. I
guess that's how he supported himself, no gambling and seven drugs.
(07:55):
And it was part of the state's theory that he
had enticed you into a few games in which you
had lost big money. Did you used to gamble with Gene?
I never person to gamble with Gene because I knew,
I knew how good Gene was. Yeah, some of those
guys man, he come up with these techniques. There's a
way you can actually set the dice and increase the
probability of a certain number. Gene probably he was good
(08:18):
with dice. He knew how to set him. He knew
I'd increase his chances at winning. So you knew better
than to play with Gene. Had your father was and
the one who gave you that advice, he actually did
on you know, more than one occasion. He actually did.
You had even turned him down in front of two
individuals who eventually were coerced into testifying against you. I'm
talking about Casey Davis and Travis Chalk. The morning that
(08:40):
Gene Artist was killed, he came to the house trying
to entice us to gamble. Of course all of us
said no, right, but the authorities eventually coerced those two
men into making false statements about you, saying that you
were in possession of a black forty five caliber byrom
the day before, and then in the morning the twenty first,
that you had said, quote, if he don't have g
(09:00):
or better, I'm gonna kill him because I'm tired of
him winning my money and coming with no money and quote.
Chalk went on to say that you and Jean shot
dice for about an hour and then agreed to pause
the game and pick it up later. The authorities were
also successful in getting Jean's girlfriend at the time to
say that you had once lost something like five thousand
(09:21):
dollars to Gene in the dice game, but that also
had never happened. His girlfriend at the time, her name
was Sabrina Northfleet, I think that she had some child depended,
or she had a situation going on, you know, That's
why she fabricated a story which never happened, seeing me
gamble with Jane in the place that, as God as
my witness, I had never my life been too. But
(09:41):
there was something that she testified too that was true,
which was seeing you and Jeane together earlier on in
the night that he was murdered, when she pulled up
to Gene and a gas station and you had asked
him for a ride home. I was at the sub
shot that was across the street from the gas station
to Gene Artists, was at asked for a rat and
she had pulled up in that gas station too. I
guess her Gene they had an argument, but she did
(10:04):
see me sitting in the car with Gene. He was
just giving me a ride home, so he dropped you
off at your grandparents. You later walked down the street
to be with one of your kids at the child's
mother's house. Both the child's mother and grandmother later testified
to your whereabouts during the murders of Gene Artists at
his sister EVONN. Giles, which was November twenty first, nineteen
ninety seven. They were both shot while at home sometime
(10:25):
between nine and ten pm, and apparently there was a
pizza delivery before the murders. The pizza delivery person, Teresa Rix,
saw two men arguing on their way into the residence
at one sixteen Franklin Street, neither of which she recognized
as Uiko. So there was another witness to this entire
harrowing scene, this whole ordeal. There was one person who
(10:46):
was there and who actually saw the killer, six year
old treyvon Artists, who lived in the apartment with his
mother and his uncle. At about ten pm the night
of November twenty first, ninety seven, Tryvonne was found standing
outside of that one sixteen Franklin Street address, wearing nothing
but a shirt and his underwear, with his mother's blood
(11:06):
on his clothes, and he led a neighbor to the
bodies in the apartment. Okay, first, let's take a second
to recognize that this is a frightened little boy in
a terrifying situation. Now, the neighbor that took him back
inside was his mother's boyfriend, Jody Cross, and by now
the police had been called. Tray Vaughan gave a statement
to the police at eleven PM, so this wasn't long after,
(11:27):
in which he stated clearly and unequivocally that a relative
of his named Gregory Artists, not Lrico, had been in
the apartment and had shot and killed his mother, Yvonne Giles,
right in front of him. He repeated these statements to
the police twice more the next day, and he's crystal
(11:48):
clear with the police about what happened. Can you read
some of the report for us? They question, did you
see the man that shot your mom? He said yes,
and they asked him. Is his name Jody Cross? He says, no,
that's my mom's boyfriend. Did Gregory Artists shoot your mom? Yes?
Did you see Gregory Artist shoot your mom? Yes? How
(12:09):
do you know Gregory Artists? He has been to my
house before and played cards with my uncle. Rayvon gives
the police details. He says, I've spent time at his house,
his kids and I play together. He knows this guy.
So they ask him, tell me, in your own words,
what you know about this offense? And I guess this
(12:32):
is the next day, he says, Trayvon Artists advised he
was in his mom's bedroom with her watching TV when
he heard David and Gregory Artists arguing. They were arguing
over a card game. Gregory said that David was cheating again.
Jeane's full name is David Eugene Artists, so the name
(12:55):
David and Jean referred to the same man. He says
that Jean had a small silver gun and that Gregory
had a big black gun that Jean shot Gregory, and
Gregory shot at Jeanne. Him and his mom went into
Trayvon's closet to hide. When no more shots were fired,
(13:15):
him and his mom got out of the closet and
went down the hall. He followed his mom once they
were in the front fourrier, Gregory and David were standing
there and two more shots were fired and he fell
dead on the floor. Gregory then walked up to me
and my mom and he was told by Gregory, I'm
(13:35):
going to shoot and kill your mom now. And remember
Gregory Artists killed your mom and that's when he shot her,
this says in the neck area, and she fell on
the floor by the window and he shot her again.
Gregory then left out the house and then they asked
him to describe Gregory Artists, and he describes them to
the tea. He says that Gregory Artist was a black male,
(13:59):
darker with two birthmarks or moles on each side of
his forehead and white freckles. He's about fifty years old.
Gregory lives in North Carolina, the two story house and
lives with his mom. It's just awful for this little kid.
And then the authorities appear to have completely ignored him
except for the description of the murder weapon, a big
(14:21):
black gun which they knew to be a forty five
from the fragments they pulled from his mother's skull. Now
seven hundred thousand cast was also found at the scene,
I believe five hundred and fifty of which was in
Gene Artist's pocket, in addition to some drugs, So the
idea that this was a robbery sprung on by dice
game losses to a fellow drug dealer is absurd. But
(14:42):
instead of just going to North Carolina and arresting Gregory Artists,
Detective ec Harris appears to use genes involvement in drugs
as an opportunity to target other guys in that business,
including yourself, for either a wrongful conviction or a false
statement to use in a wrongful conviction. And as we mentioned,
you were on house arrest at the time for that
cocaine possession and the bogus assault charge when they came
(15:05):
to see you, and you had been seeing a gene
at the gas station that night, so your name was
floating around in the rumor mill, so to speak. So
I guess, you know, my name was in this rumor mill,
and they realized that I was on house arrest, they
gave me a valiation because I was actually out of
my house, you know, that weekend that this crime happened.
So I was taking the jail, and I guess the
(15:26):
prosecutors or whoever had planned me to sale with an informant.
His name was Brad Parker, and he tried to question
me about these homicides, and I explained to the gentleman like, no,
that's not what I'm locked up for. The following week,
I was giving a barn, so I was out again.
Later on he ended up writing to the prosecutors or
whatever and telling them that I admitted to him while
(15:47):
I was in that sale about committing these crimes. So
I think all investigations everything stem from there. And he
wasn't the only one willing to offer false statements against
you in your codefending Quintin Parish aka QP. Eventually a
laundry list of people was compiled, including Casey Davis, Travis Chalk,
Sabrina Norfleet, as well as two other guys, Tony Booth
(16:09):
and Willie Hardy. But was this statement from Brad Parker
how they originally obtained your arrest laurrant No. One wasn't
Brad Parkle. They had got a statement from a Willie
Hardy state in that I made a lair's profession to
him about committing these murders. He was a suspect in
his crime, him and my co defendant, Quinn Persh. So
it turned out that he and Quinton Parish were childhood
(16:29):
buddies who grew up on the same block. But Quinton
refused to give false statements, unlike Willy Hardy. So you
were arrested on December twenty eighth, nineteen ninety seven, and
your family hired an attorney named Ken Melvin, who was
very effective. Now. Hardy testified to this false statement at
a preliminary hearing in June of ninety eight, but ended
up catching his own charges and hired William P. Robinson
(16:49):
the same attorney as his buddy Quintin Parish, you're a
co defendant. Hardy admitted to his attorney Robinson that he
had given false testimony against you and your attorney Ken
Melvine was president. They recorded this conversation where he admitted
to lying about Luriko Kearney. Willie Hardy said he had
been threatened and harassed by detectives every day, threatening to
(17:12):
charging with the crime for which Kearney is incarcerating. So
now with this recording, your attorney filed a motion for
dismissal of all charges against you, and eventually there was
a hearing. Meanwhile, the prosecution was scrambling to find a
new star witness and they found another guy from the
Suffolk drug game, Tony Booth. I ran into him one
time and in Wester Time, What a reason to jail? Well,
(17:34):
when was on the basketball According to jail, he had
hired Kenne Milon and he asked me about how Kenne
mel was doing on my case, and I was like, yeah,
he's doing a good job. Maybe a couple of days
later he was transferred from the Western Time What a
Reason to jail to Chesterpeake. That's when I later learned
you know that you know he had hopped on my case, right,
so he hired Ken Melvin for his own charges and then,
using this conversation on the yard as a pretext for
(17:56):
an alleged confession, began working with the state as a
witness in or a case, presenting Ken Melbourne with a
conflict of interest. And now this attorney, who had been
super effective thus far, was likely to be forced to
drop you as a client. All this may or may
not have been engineered by the prosecution. Smells like an onion.
Might be an onion. But for now, let's get back
(18:18):
to the hearing to dismiss your charges. Based on the
recording which Willie Hardy admitted to perjuring himself at your
preliminary hearing. What happened when they got him understand fearing
he would be charged with perjury, he said he'd been
through a lot and he'd been shot, so he couldn't
remember anything. Now, George Westbrook Parker said, it's a possibility
that before mister Kearney trial comes up, he may regain
(18:41):
its memory back. And so this judge Westbrook Parker ruled
the Kearney's indictment would not be dismissed. Because the witness
did not recant, even though they had a recording that
he said he was lying about it. So now on
this day the postcule to put it in emotion to
have mister Melbourne just qualified from my case. Could they
now have another witness, which was Tony Booth. Mister Melvin
(19:19):
was disqualified off my case. It was strategic, you know.
I guess they felt still with the case that they had,
it would have been offered them to get a conviction
on me. I had ken of Melvin's my attorney. So
that was September of ninety nine, and as your first
trial was fast approaching, your codefendant, Quentin Parish, probably seeing
what you both were up against, decided to take an
alpha play to avoid a potential life sentence. And that's
(19:41):
how they get a lot of guys too. They scare
with that. I could see him very easily pleading out,
even though he had nothing to do with it, just
because he was afraid he would never get out. But Lorico,
you weren't backing down even though you were facing a
similar faith. Yeah, I had two council of capital murder
and two council of use of a foul. So eighth
theory of his crime was circumstantial evidence of Rico's alleged
(20:05):
riff with Gene Artists over some gambling debt. Now, Lorico
tells us that this whole disagreement over a gambling between
he and Jean was impossible because he knew better than
the play dice with a guy that was a real hustler, right,
Jeane was that guy need want to lose his money.
But the state fabricated statements to the contrary from Sabrina Northfleet,
(20:29):
Travis Chalk, and Casey Davis. Sabrina Northfleet gave a false
testimony witness in Jeene to win five thousand dollars from
me around September of that year, so that, you know,
provided a false motive for them. Travis Chalk gave a
testimony that he was at you know, my house before
these murders happened. He said, when Jeane pulled up, I
made a statement to him. If Jeane didn't have a
(20:50):
thousand dollars a better I would kill him because I'm
tired of Jeane winning my money and coming with no money.
And we went in the house to gamble, and the
gentleman that was in the driveway with him at the time,
whose name Miss Casey Davis. He testified to seeing me
with the forty five caliber firearm on overn with twenty.
A firearms identification expert testified that the forty five caliber
(21:12):
bullet killed Miss Giles is saying that they were fired
from the same weapon, and some cartridge casings were found,
both of a forty five and a three eighty caliber. Right,
No bullets or fragments were found in Gene, but two
different casings likely came from the exchange between Gene and
Gregory Artists. So they've fabricated the motive and the means
(21:34):
and now they placed you with Gene, which is actually
something that was true. Sabrina Norfleet saw you two guys
together at the gas station that night. Yeah, she's seen
us together at the East Coast gas station. She just
played to him about the argument, and you know, she
told them that I was the last person you know,
seeing with Gene Artists. And my thing is this, you know,
(21:55):
y'all charged me with another individual. So would it come
in a do y'all think me with mister Hers. She's
telling y'all it was just me and Jeane together. Right.
Part of the state's evidence was this mister Travis Chalk,
who said that he had seen Jean driving alone in
a white Chevy, and that Larco and Quentin Parish known
(22:17):
as QP, they were in a white mitsub she Gallant
hiding towards Franklin Street following him. So he was supposed
to be in Jean's car, but now he's in a
different car with another guy following Jeane. Which way is it, guys?
I mean he can't have it both ways? Travis Truck
several years later, Gavin HALFI David that all of it
(22:38):
was alive. In fact, I do have that Affidavid. Travis
Chalk said, I never saw Lorico Kearney with a gun,
nor did he say anything about killing anyone over some
gambling debts, as stated to me by a detective E. C. Harris.
He says that that detective led to say I saw
(23:01):
Lorico Kearney with the type of gun that was used
in the murders, and that he harassed me almost daily,
and that he came with papers to encourage me to sign,
threatening me with incarceration if I did not cooperate. Travis
Chalk said, I was young and afraid, and I was
(23:22):
given paperwork as to what the same court by Detective
ec Harris. Obviously, the jury didn't benefit from this knowledge,
just as they had not benefited from Willie Hardy's admissions
from the preliminary hearing. Man the Commonwealth brought in another
steaming pile of conflicting testimony from Tony Booth. Now the
motive isn't just about being mad about losing five grands
(23:43):
of Jean. Now it was five grand that he needed
to pay mister Booth for drugs. Tony Booth said that
I sold drugs for him. I owed him money and
I told him that, you know, I had to kill
some people to get the money back. I lost the
money gambling. And the testimony that he gave it didn't
matter the evidence. He just said, I said I held
the guns to the people's head while PC he said PC,
(24:06):
and Coda for his name was QOT. He was saying
PC and PC first deal pockets of money and drugs.
You know why I held the guns to him and
killed him out to the you know, gene artists. He
had cracked cocaine's five hundred and fifty dollars in cash
in his pocket at the time of his death. So
the testimony that Tony Booth gave. It didn't even match
the evidence, right. If you had robed Jeane to pay
Tony as he alleged, then Jean's pockets that have been
(24:29):
full of money and drugs. You don't have to be
Sherlock Holmes to figure this out. Yeah. Absolutely. Booth was
awaiting sentencing for his own charges, which was a projected
two hundred and eighty months well over twenty three years,
and that sentencing was suspended until he fulfilled his obligation
at your first and second trials, Tony Booths, you guessed
it ended up serving only five years now, Larrico's public
(24:53):
defender courtesy of Tony Boothmind you, Michael Rosenberg poked holes
in booths story inspredibility on cross examination. That's could, But
what else was presented in your favor? The defense caught
an eternity you know, to get understand explaining to the
jury about the pre boggain that Tona Booth had entered
into know about him looking for a centers production. Also,
(25:16):
a witness, Teresa Ricks, testified she was a pizza delivery
person who had delivered a pizza to one sixteen Franklin
Street in the hours before the murders, and she did
see two black men, one heavy set, one medium, bill
entered the house after arguing with each other getting out
of their car. And this Miss Ricks testified that neither
(25:37):
of these men were Lark o'kearney, who she knew from school.
They went to school together, my son's mother and her mother.
They actually testified on my behalf to saying that you
know I was there for my baby mother's house, you
know at the time that disillared defense had happened. Well,
she actually testified on my behalf too. You know, she
told the jury that you know, she was in the
driveway when I came from my baby mother's house. Unfortunate
(26:00):
only loved ones don't make convincing alibi witnesses, as they're
easily explained away as someone who might be willing to lie.
But his attorney was in possession of the statement from
the only witness who should have mattered, which was Treyvon,
and Trayvon was who pointed the finger directly at Gregory Artists.
Yet this alternate and much more likely suspect was never
(26:21):
presented to the jury. Among so much more, the fact
that as Laura didn't bring up any physical evidence, and
none of it pointed to Larrico. Was just astounding to me.
They took fingerprints from the crime scene, and to this
day they haven't tried to match those fingerprints to anyone
except Lorico Kearney. I mean, what about Gregory artists. Apparently
(26:41):
no one was interested enough, so the jury came to
a predictable conclusion. I mean, I didn't have any idea
that I could be actually convicted of that crime. You know,
I had how hopes, Like I said, I was born home,
my family in the court room. I didn't think it
was anywhere that they could find me guilty. I mean,
I couldn't believe it. I was in shock like I
was known. I cannot feel like you know, I let
(27:02):
everybody down even though it was beyond my control. And
your verdict that the first trial was really odd. You
were found guilty of first degree murder, but only of
Evan Giles along with the related firearm charge, you know,
because you had Casey Davis testified he seen me with
the forty five caliber weapon. I guess they said, you know,
the forty five callible fragment of a bullet was found
(27:24):
in the school. It was a compromise thirty right forty
five caliber bullet fragments were only pulled from Vane Giles's skull,
and maybe they weren't totally convinced of your guilt, so
they acquitted you for the murder of Gene Artists cold
comfort there, but you were still sentenced to life for
the Evan Giles homicide plus three years for the gun charge.
But your public defender, a new one who you had
(27:46):
been assigned, Joseph Winston, was actually able to appeal. This
verdict didn't win since the only person who could contradict
Tony Booth was you, and the Commonwealth's attorney unconstitutionally arguing
to the jury that you should have testified. This constituted
a clear violation of your Fifth Amendment rights, so they
properly declared it a mistrial. I was convicted in February
(28:09):
of two thousand. My case was overturned Junior Ruary twenty nine,
two thousand and two. That hadn't been in prison at
that time but fifteen months, but I had been around
guys that had actually been down with twenty and twenty
five years. Now. I finally get that paper brook saying
that my case was overturned, and I shared that with
a few individuals, and you know, like some people were
happen for me, like you know, we've been way like
(28:29):
to get paper brook like this for twenty plus years.
And it was basically telling me, though, take advantage of
the opportunity. And when I did go back to court,
they offered me a plea. Boggain it. They just convicted you,
but now they're offering you a plea. That kind of
feels like they had a little bit of a guilty
conscience maybe, like they knew this conviction was bullshit. So
(28:49):
now Joseph Winston was off your case, you were transferred
to jail, and a new public defender named Dwayne Struthers
was assigned to your case. No, he came to see
me and actually, wouldout be interested in taking a pleae deal?
You know, I told him no, lesson to be time third,
you know, because you know, I mean, I didn't do this,
and that's what I'm explaining to him. He asked me
where they would all for ten years to third? Would
(29:11):
you be interested in that? And at the time I
had been inconcrated a little bit over five years, and
I said, with this five years, it already did be
included with this ten and he didn't know. So without
a potential five year deal or time served, you were
ready for a second chance to fight for your innocence
in court, and that meant the state got a second
chance too. So you were initially in protective custody or
(29:31):
the PC pot as it's known, and then you got
transferred into the general population, where you made some new acquaintances,
notably Ronald Bruckings and Raymond Copeland. They tried to, you know,
befriend me. So I had been in there with them
maybe a couple of months, and all of a sudden
they put me back in this protective custody part and
Bookers and Copner came to visit, and you know, they
(29:52):
enticed them to lie. And I know you've read them.
I've got the letters that they vote to the prosecutor
and to the Detective ec Hurst to meet in the head.
So mister Brooking says to the Commonwealth Attorney, mister Jamieson, Hello,
mister Jamison, I'm hoping to find you and yours and
the best of health, highest of spirits, the highest of spirits.
(30:13):
It's a crazy kit. I'm writing you in concern of
the visit received from you today, I feel as if
we did not reach a very clear understanding about having
my jeep returned and the charges dropped. Now I'm waiting
on an appeal. This you could stop, just have the
(30:37):
federal courts to withdraw their appeal and drop the case.
I have never had a violent charge, so this should
not be hard. I have gave my life to the Lord. Oh,
and I'm willing to help you as best as I can.
If I'm going to take the stand, I need to
know my charges are being dropped. I just want to
(31:00):
chance to start my new found life in Christ over
on the outside. If you give me another chance, I
will not let you down. Sincerely, Yours in Christ, while
I put my hand on the Bible, swear to tell
the truth, and then lie my ass off to help
the state ruin another man's life, just like Jesus would do.
(31:22):
I mean, apparently, mister Brookins pretended to be a friend
of Lorico's father, and then he took a look at
Lorico's transcripts, all in this twisted attempt to concoct a
believable alleged confession in exchange for his own charges being
dropped and the return of his jeep, and then along
comes mister Brookings cellmate or blockmaid, Raymond Copeland. Raymond Copeland,
(31:44):
he was sentenced to ten years. In the letter that
he wrote to the prosecutor, he was seeking to have
his ten years sentence cut to three, you know, for
his testimony and basically saying he can be as convincing
and moving as possible to help burying me. And also
that he had testified in another murder case for this
prosecutor before. Right, So this is a trial tested bullshit artist,
(32:06):
So letty please read from the letter mister Copeland wrote
about the meeting he had with the Commonwealth Attorney just
six days before his own proceedings Raymond Copeland. He says,
I am writing in concern about our last meeting, which
took place on January twenty eight, two thousand and three,
where you mention not making any promises, and I can
respect that, but perhaps we need to discuss my situation
(32:29):
more clearly. I am participating in a double murder trial.
I know others are involved that have a lot more
time and more serious crimes than I do, so I
want you to know I'm not trying to wait until
I get to prison before my requests are granted. I
(32:50):
was sentenced by Westbrook Parker, which you may be familiar with.
I know from experience. If you can talk with Parker,
who's the judge, I can get everything I've asked for
because I'm not asking for much. I can't go to
any prison because of possible retaliation for my testimony. Now,
(33:15):
before I take the witness stand, all I'm asking is
your word off the record. Please contact me and let
me rehearse my testimony. And also I need to evaluate
my situation as far as how I will be rewarded
(33:36):
rehearse my testimony. Rehearse my testimony. There was also a
third jailhouse snitch, Christopher Joyner, but we were unable to
obtain any damning letters from him. However, in Virginia there's
no parole, and Joinner's fifty four year sentence appears to
have magically disappeared as he was released. In fact, years ago,
he alleged that he overheard incriminating statements from Larrico while
(33:59):
he was on the phone. So now that everyone was
well rehearsed, you went back to trial in February two
thousand and three. There was still no physical evidence tying
Larrico to the scene. Fingerprints that they believe would be
probative just didn't match. Lariko Kearney, Sabrina Northfleet, Travis Chalk,
Casey Davis, and Tony Booth returned. So this much was
exactly the same, minus the Fifth Amendment violation. And now
(34:22):
there were three new lying jailhouse snitches. And in addition
to their sentence productions and letters to the Commonwealth Attorney,
there were even more reasons to find their testimonies totally unreliable.
Brooke's testifact that I said I kicked the door in,
and that was known throughout the trial, like whoever had
(34:42):
committed this crime, It was no forced insue, they knew
the victims struggles. He did point that out, and the prosecutor,
you know, just made up some bogus three like showed
them a pitch of a door in the back of
the apartment, like, look at that door. Don't look like
somebody was trying to get out their doors. So clearly
Brookins misunderstood the facts that he was supposed to regurgitate
for the state. But what about Copeland. Copelan's testimon was
(35:04):
basically the same because they was in the same bluff
and of course they got together. They you know, the
goal with what they would saying, including the same mistakes
that proved they didn't know what the fuck they were
talking about. Now, Christopher Joyner, he was in the protective
custody pod with you because he was also cooperating on
a number of other cases, which does not bode while
for his credibility either. And he alleged overhearing you say
(35:25):
incriminating things while on the phone. Now, you had taken
a phone call while he was in ear shot one
day when you had returned from motion hearing in which
you found out that Brookers and Copeland were going to
testify against you. My child was a start that Monday,
and I found out that Friday, so I came back.
I used the phone. I called my stepfather, displaying to
him you know what it happened to court and everything
(35:46):
that you know, he heard me say on the phone,
and my stepfather he wrote it down and put his
own little twist and spin on it. He actually test
the fact that I professed to Brookings and Copeland bout
you know, me doing a murdle. I was bragging or
saying that I was like OJ Simpson, It's just with
some bogus stuff he was saying. It didn't even make sense.
And like we mentioned, he too received a sentence reduction
(36:08):
for his OJ Simpson references. Now, the defense called the
Albi witnesses again your loved ones, as well as the
pizza delivery person, in addition to other people who Copeland
and Brookns had previously test the lie about. But the
difference with this trial was Treyvon who was now eleven
years old because five years had gone by. You called
him to the stand to get him to recount what
he had already said at the statements to police, which
(36:29):
was the Gregory Artists had murdered gene artist Andy von
Giles right in front of him alone. I tried to
call him as my witness at the second trial, and
I'm trying to get him to testify to what he said, well,
at least get the statement presented to the jury. And
you know, they scow was the jury, and they did
what you call the proper and they placed them on
the stand. He just said he didn't remember anything. Do
(36:49):
you know. They showed him the statement and he, like
I guess he may have been coached, but he just
said he couldn't remember and the judge said that I
couldn't get the statement into the jury because I couldn't
have each my own witness. So they didn't allow the
statement to get into the jury. And once again, the
jury did not hear the most important witness statement, the
one taken from the only eyewitness to the crime, just
moments after it happened. Now, who knows if he was
(37:11):
coached or coerced by the state or maybe by his
own family. After all, Gregory Artists was his relative. It's
even possible that the memory was so painful that the
associative amnesia took over it. Either way, the jury didn't
hear what we all know he had said right after
he saw his uncle and mother fatally shot. Instead, the
state pieced together, coerced or incentivized witness statements people with
(37:34):
no knowledge or the crime. That's the state's case. That's
it floating on the hope that the jury might think, well, yeah,
they can't all be lying. And I understand the Commonwealth
attorney did something that showed that they knew. You tell
me what you think, but it seems like they knew
how fraudulent this prosecution was. They passed a plea deal
to your attorney, Dwayne Struther's. Even after all this, after
(37:57):
the common Will presented the case, they asked and would
not be willing pleaded the second degree murdle. And again
I asked him, like, you know how much time it discurred?
And from his actions, you know the way he looked
at me, he wanted me to gamble with the jury.
I've already had been convicted once and I knew it
was a possibility that, you know, I could get life
from prison again, and your attorney didn't properly advise you
(38:19):
about this, but second degree murderer carries a sentence of
five to forty years, not life, not in Virginia. And
I refused it. And here I am sitting again, you know,
I get convicted again. I ended up with life. I mean,
it must have felt like deja vu all over again.
It definitely did. I'm like, this can't be happening like
a second time. It's like I just felt like defeated,
(38:41):
and I know this time my fight would be a
whole lot harder. It's very rare that you see anybody
get three trials being convicted the second time. But it
was hard going back to waters with I just can
remember the ride that I had when my first trial
was overturned and they curried me back to the jail.
I was in tears for really because or the prison
conditions and all the people that I'm going to leave behind,
(39:02):
Like I would never see this again. Guys, don't get
these this opportunity I'm about to get and like I said,
the whole rat back to that jail, I was the teals.
I was like, this is the child of my life
that's over with. And it didn't happen that way. You know,
(39:23):
me being convicted the second time, I knew. I knew
my fight would be you know, a whole lot harder.
Of course, I went through the litigation process, and my
family later on down the line, you know, put out
more money from me trying to get me out. I
just always try to be positive and keep their hope
like one day, like like justice would prevail and I
would be able to, you know, walk out these prison doors.
That return trip to prison was February two thousand and three.
(39:45):
It's now February two thousand and twenty three, and you're
still there. But like you said, the fight is not over.
Your first attempt was for ineffective assistance. Of counsel Dwayne
Struthers yet had a series of like this for their
actions from the state bar, like the two thousand and
three Then his license was suspended for two years in
two thousand and six because you know, he failed to
(40:06):
you know, communicate with his class and you know, he
didn't pursue cases diligently. So I was hoping when I
found his haber's claim against him, that they would overturn
my case just based on the lack of competence of
Dwayne Struggles. And I did get the evidentiary heard owned
Struggles and competency because of them offered me the police
bargain for second degree murder and he didn't know how
much time that it curred. The district court granted to
(40:29):
hear my issue on that claim back in two thousand
and eight. But the thing where I didn't get any
relief on that issue is because you know, the calling
Wealth Attorney Philip ferguson the head call Weelf attorney and
Suffolk at that time, he testified that in Suffolk he
has a policy that all pre bogglins must be reviewed
and signed by him, and he wasn't going to give
the authorization, so that's why the judge then he didn't
(40:51):
ruin of my favor, and so that rendered the point moved,
not that there aren't plenty of other points to raise
it by their effective assistance, because at the second trial
he did not point out that the only witness to
the murder, young Trayvon, did not point you out in court.
It seems like seeing you in court should have jarred
something loose if you, in fact had killed his mother,
but you didn't. And once again, the fact that none
(41:13):
of the fingerprints taken from the scene that they felt
were probitive, none of them were a match for you
because you weren't there, But this was not raised, as
was the fact that the fingerprints have never been tested
against Gregory artists, which is insane. So, Lenny, I know
you've been on this case since your release brought you
to the Western branch of the John A. Cogshal Law Firm.
(41:33):
And in another stunning, awful setback for this case, Attorney
Cogo Show, a legend in the innocence community and a
friend to me and you guys and so many others,
passed away suddenly in June twenty twenty two. May he
rest in peace. So where does that leave Larco's case.
So once again the law firm of John Ay Cogshaw
(41:55):
filed Loreco's petition on January fifth, two was in twenty
two to the Secretary of Commonwealth Office. That petition primarily
dealt with the statements made by Trayvon Artists the day
of the murders and the following day when they interviewed
him again. Of course, we know there was no physical
(42:15):
evidence that pointed to Larrico Curnie's guilt, and that Trayvon
Artist definitively told the detectives who killed his mom and uncle.
That was the foundation upon which this petition was established,
along with the convicted felons who came forward with false
testimony in order to get deals. And fortunately we were
(42:37):
able to get an affidavit from mister Travis Chalk, who
said he just wanted to clear his conscience, and he
came forward and said it was all a lie. Everything
he said was a lie. He didn't see Larrico Kearney
with a gun. He didn't see Larico Kearney following Jane Artists.
He was told exactly what to say by this detective
(42:57):
when he went to court, and he said as much
in the affidavit. The petition also details everything you've heard here,
the inconsistencies and contradictions between the false witnesses and between
the statements and the facts of the crime. So what
does the petition seek? A conditional pardon on behalf of
Larco Kearney. His petition is awaiting review because of the
(43:18):
long list of people who file before him. From what
we've been told, they're so swamp that it's going to
be a long process. So we're hoping to get as
much airplay as possible for mister Kearney to hopefully change
this wrongful conviction. Well, you have all of our support,
and hopefully our audience will lead a hand as well.
There's currently a petition alerting the governor of this wrongful conviction,
(43:41):
pleading for his team to take notice of the grave
injustice that this is. So please do it right now.
Click the link in the episode bio and get involved.
And now we go to my favorite part of the show.
It's called, of course, closing arguments, where I first of all,
thank you guys for being here and sharing this harrowing story.
(44:02):
And then I'm going to turn my microphone off, leave
my headphones on kick back in my chair and just
listen to any closing thoughts you may have. So let's
kick it off with Lenny and then close it out
with Ulrico. Once again, we have a case where the
only evidence that the Commonwealth has in a double murder
(44:25):
is convicted felons. It's a sad state of affairs when
we are putting people away for life based on convicted
felons getting deals. It's time for us to do something,
especially in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It's time for prosecutors
to bear some of this weight for using convicted felons
(44:48):
that they know have extensive criminal records and they know
they're getting deals. It's time for the prosecution to possibly
suffer as a result of this. I mean, it's the
only way that I can see that this situation will
ever change. It's a sad day that somebody like larco
Kearney has been in the prison system for twenty five
(45:10):
years or more for something he did not do. There
is no evidence to support it. It's time for this
to change. I mean, I would just like to say
thank y'all for allowing me the opportunity to share my
story with the world. Again. This is a situation that
anybody can find theirself in. Anybody can come forward and
just say you said anything, it's not right without the
(45:33):
supporting evidence. But twenty five plus years in prison, you know,
I'm still healthy. I still have hope that someday, you know,
the justice will prevail and I would be able to
walk off this prison and be with the people that
love me, try to build, you know, a relationship with
my children. I would like to see my daughter walk
down the out and like I said, just wanted to,
you know, just go out there and just be a
(45:54):
pillow to my community and try to help others that
may be lost so they won't end up in the
same position. And then I'm in again. I just expressed
my condolences to know the artist family what they have
went through. You know, nobody deserved to that. But I
shouldn't spend the rest of my life in prison based
on you know, people trying to help their whole situations.
And I'm just looking forward to the day, like I said,
(46:15):
I'm releasing and I feel in my heart that you know,
Josepha prevailed and the right thing will be done, you know,
my heart and my courage. I'm just too big just
to die in Prison. Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction.
I'd like to thank our production team Connor Hall, Cheff
Clyburn and Kevin Wards, with research by Lila Robinson. The
(46:39):
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
follow me on both TikTok and Instagram at It's Jason
(47:00):
plot Raleval 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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