April 18, 2024 • 41 mins
Authorities believe Rafael Martinez, his brothers Lorenzo Martinez, Daniel Martinez and Isidoro Medina-DeLeon killed Jose ‘Chino’ Jiminez because Mr. Jiminez shot Mr. Martinez in 1987 in Washington Heights, NY. However, Mr. Jiminez was never killed and is in fact alive and well to this day. Nevertheless, Rafael was convicted of murder and is presently serving consecutive sentences totaling 213 years.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
In November nineteen eighty seven, Rafael Martinez was lucky to
survive a gunshot wound to the head, but it changed
the course of his life. A police report said that
the shooter's nickname was Chino, and according to some, Rafael
lay in wait for three years before exacting his revenge. Meanwhile,
the crack epidemic was raging, and in response, Congress decided
(00:26):
to subsidize the misguided policy failure known as the War
on Drugs in New York. This meant increased funding to
support investigations like the one that honed in on drug
activity in Raphael's old apartment building in Upper Manhattan, even
though he had moved to Queens. According to the street
level dealers, Rafael controlled the local drug market, so the
(00:47):
police relied on these smaller fish to catch someone who
was allegedly a bigger one, tying in a few violent
offenses to boot, including the murder of a man nicknamed Chino.
But this is wrongful conviction. Wrongful conviction has always given
(01:12):
voice to innocent people in prison. Now we're expanding that
voice to you. Call us at eight three three, two
oh seven, four six sixty six and leave us a message.
Tell us how these powerful, often tragic stories make you
feel outraged, inspired, motivated. We want to know. We may
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(01:34):
A three three, two oh seven, four six sixty six.
Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. Today's case. I was tempted
to call it the dead guy is still alive. I
(01:55):
know that sounds crazy, but the murder victim is alive
and well. Our guest today Raphael Martinez. He was charged
in connection to three violent incidents as well as a
drug trafficking conspiracy, and so many people testified to support
this narrative that made Raphael into a murderous drug kingpin,
(02:17):
like something out of a movie that you would have
thought there must have been something to it. But when
you take a closer look at who is testifying and
why the case falls apart, and how they went about
constructing the case against him, that's one of the crimes
we're covering. So we're going to go over that first
(02:38):
before we get to all of the other absolutely insane details.
And to help us do that, let's welcome back Raphael's attorney,
the one and only Justin Bonus.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Thank you for having me again.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And calling in from Green Haven Penitentiary in New York State.
Is the man himself, Raphael Martinez. Raphael, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Thank you sir.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, now, Raffie, are you from the Dominican republicly from
New York.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
I was born in Manhattan in Harley. Then I grew
up in the Dominican Republic. Then when I was eighteen,
I told my parents listen, I would like to hook
back to the United States and finish my education in
electric engineering. They sent me back to New York in
nineteen eighty five, had a job in a factory. I
(03:25):
came to live with my cousin in Washington High one
hundred and fifty seventh Street. That is a big Dominican community.
Everybody knew we show the We used to hang out
in from the building. That was my social life right there.
But there was a lot of publicy and the drug
was a major problem. That was the track okay epidemic,
(03:49):
and everybody was affected one when you or not directly
or indirectly.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
When Raphael was laid off of a factory job and
struggling to get by, he too got involved, earning five
for running an errand once it landed him on five
years probation, and during that stretch of time, the crack
epidemic had taken hold of at least one segment of
most American cities in New York that was primarily Upper
Manhattan and the Bronx, where, if you remember from the
(04:14):
stories of Pablo Fernandez and Danny Rincone, both of which
are going to be linked in the episode description, the
largest and most feared drug organization at that time was
led by Lenny and Nelson Sepulveda. They called themselves the
Red Top Crew, but they were known in the media
as the Wild Cowboys.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
You had the Wild Cowboys that were out there. Everybody,
at least on the Eastern Seaboard was coming to Washington
Heights and the Bronx for cocaine. The amount of money
that was being made and violence, I mean, I believe
in the thirtieth Precinct, which is only like a square mile,
I think at one point they had seventy homicides a
year in a square mile. I mean, that's just outrageous.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
And Raphael was in fact a random victim of violence.
One night in November nineteen eighty.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Seven, I was asleep in my apartment in one fifty
seven hang a straight bullet. He came through the window
throck me in the top on my hand. The fire
depart I mean had to break the waging, so the
police and Paramerico came take me to the hospital. I
lost battle of the brain and the battled the school
right off the.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Top and RAFFI has a significant limp. He has trouble
moving the right side of his body. Police reports said
that a guy named Chino did shoot him in the head. However,
Chino was one of the most common Dominican nicknames.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Which left police with little to go on. Meanwhile, Raphael
stayed in the hospital until January nineteen eighty eight. He
had no job, no savings. He lost his apartment on
West one hundred and fifty seventh Street, so he ended
up on public assistance while he continued to pursue his degree.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
When I got out of the hospital in nineteen eighty eight,
I went to leave for my girlfriend and then I
moved to Wings around nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Now, during this time, he and his girlfriend Merlin, got married.
He worked as a mechanic and started a family, but
he still kept in touch with the community on West
one hundred and fifty seventh Street. Meanwhile, the crack epidemic
continued to rage on, and a response, Congress passed the
Anti Drug Abuse Act in nineteen eighty eight, which funded
high intensity Drug Trafficking Area task Forces throughout the country.
(06:13):
Now in New York that meant funding for a coordinated
effort among detectives and das from all five boroughs on
drug related cases, and in Washington Heights, NYPD detective James
Gilmour was empowered to lead a two year investigation starting
in nineteen eighty nine, specifically focusing on drug activity at
two of Raffi's old apartment buildings, five point fifty and
(06:34):
six fourteen West one hundred and fifty seven Street.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
They took forty two hours of video surveillance. I only
Appria in Wang videos. In that video, I'm not doing
anything in Lilio nothing.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
They also took a ton of photos, also nothing. However,
Gilmour ran several sting operations between July twenty ninth and
October twelfth, nineteen ninety one, in which some of the
people from one hundred and fifty seventh Street who turned
into cooperators in this case, sold cocaine and firearms to
undercover agents in the last operation, they arrested a young
(07:09):
woman from that area named Ira Venus, who was about
to hop on a flight to Switzerland with several kilos
of cocaine. Needless to say, she was also ready to cooperate,
as were those who were scooped up in a mass
arrest on October twenty second, nineteen ninety one, including two
of Raffi's brothers, Danny and Julian.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Raffi has like four brothers, some of them were selling drugs.
The amount of drugs that they were selling was highly debatable.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
They also picked up Raffi's uncle, Isidoro Medina de Leon,
whose involvement was even more debatable. But what was different
about this wholesale arrest was that they made another arrest
in a different jurisdiction.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
I was arrested getting out of my Blaso residents that
was in Queens. That was me, Cisel Martine and Lorenzo Martinez.
They were not droll, whipm money, anything illegal on the call.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Involvement with anything illegal can make you vulnerable to police coercion,
which made Raffi's brothers, Danny and Julian, as well as
others from West one hundred and fifty seventh Street well,
very vulnerable, including Edwin Mottos, Jordan Pratt, Daniel Cologne, Iravenas,
Pedro Santiago, Andre Gomez, Roberto Medina, and Manuel Picoon.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
They will have west this withdrawers, we whipons. After they
gave some of those guys to grow up with a
with sing they came up with this conspiracy indidates for everybody.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Gilmore and his team had devised a narrative for any
willing cooperator to support that. While on five years probation,
partially disabled, raising a family and living on public assistance
in Queens, Raphael somehow built a multimillion dollar crack empire
on West one hundred and fifty seventh Street, rivaling the
Red Top Crew, and they were called the Jerry Curl Gang.
(08:57):
Now you might be asking why Rafi, and we'll get
to that, but first we'll finish covering how.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
There was a lot of surveillance. Okay, with regard to
the drugs, there's plenty of evidence against the cooperators, but
there's not so much evidence against Raffi and Lorenzo. With Raffi,
there's actually a lack of evidence. Even with regard to
the drugs.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
James testifying cold Dah he never saw me sending draw
or engaging byline.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
And they did not call themselves the Jerry Curl gang.
That's something that the media came up with before into hand.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
The Minigam community has virjity guild at that time. B
when they arrested every divided, they said everybody had the
same kill style, all that vigitikill game, and they admitted
in Gold that they made that up.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
The Jerry Curl moniker began and ended with law enforcement,
and it was used to connect three seemingly unrelated violent
incidents to drug activity on West one hundred and fifty
seventh Street, and it's alleged overseers Raphael and his co
defendants Lorenzo and Caesar Martinez. His uncle Isidora Medina de Leon,
as well as a man named Roberto Gonzalez. The first
(10:10):
incident was the August twenty ninth, nineteen ninety attempted murder
of Rafael Espinal on Park Terrace and two hundred and
fifteenth Street.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
With regard to the attempted murder of Raphael Espinal, there
was barely any investigation. He named someone else, Espinol. He
tells the police, Rafael Molina is the one that shot me.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yet co operators Edwin Mottos and Pedro Santiago alleged that
Raphael Martinez had ordered his uncle Isidoro to kill Espinal
for robbing his brother Dandy. Then Matos, Santiago and Rafe's
brother Julian also testified about a car that got shot
up on October twenty ninth, nineteen ninety in the Bronx
at East one hundred and sixty seven Street in College Avenue.
(10:50):
The deceased was identified as Jose Jimenez, whose nickname was
thought to be Chino. The surviving victim was Juan Urena
said the shooter was a man named Franklin. They can
the area, documented the crime scene, but the case went
cold for about six months. Decades later, an undisclosed police
report surface in which a confidential informant appears to have
been key in shifting Gilmore's investigation to focus on Rafael Martinez.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
The confidential informant pulled the homicide investigator in April nineteen
ninety one, allegedly, Joseji Mine was the one who shot
me and therefore I used to have a debute with
Jose Jimenez As.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
A result, it appears that Raphael's nineteen eighty seven stray
ball it became the catalyst, placing him at the center
of Gilmore's drug investigation.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
So the theme here is retribution. That Raffi waits on
Jose Amnez for close to three years, somehow gets information
that Jose Amenez is in the Bronx somewhere and Raffi
Lorenzo and is a door of Medina pull up next
to Jose Jmenez and Juan Durana in a car and Raffi,
who's in the passenger seat, and Lorenzo, who was in
(12:03):
the back passenger seat, fire into the car and Jose
and Juan Yaurina got shot.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Investigators initially tried to get Raffie's brother Danny to testify
to this version of events.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
People secus wanted him to testify down he went, weaws,
you say no, and he got bout only for conspiracy.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
To so Danny took his lumps rather than passing the buck.
Caesar Martinez also faced a similar challenge and chose to
take his chances at trial as a co defendant. But
Ralphie's brother Julian became the source of this version of
events that is simply not supported by the undisputed backs
of the crime. At least one of the fatal shots
had a downward trajectory. Now, how would that be possible
(12:46):
with a seated shooter in a car next to the victims.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Forensically, that's not possible. The shell casings were found in
the front of the car. There is medical evidence that
the shooting was conducted by somebody who was standing, not s.
There's at least one eye witness account that basically describes
a man named Franklin Quavis walked in front of the
car and fired into the car. There's a DD five
(13:09):
where wandering actually says Franklin from one hundred and seventy
second in Autobond, which is where Franklin Quavis was from
in Washington Heights, is the one that fired into the car.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yet the police ignored the forensics, ballistics, and again the
surviving victim for their team of cooperators and their theory.
And it appears this pattern continued with the murder of
Jose Reis the building super at six fourteen West one
hundred and fifty seventh Street. According to testimony from Julian Martinez,
Raphael believed Rees was an informant and put a thirty
(13:42):
five hundred dollars bounty on his head. Then, around two
thirty pm on May twenty third, nineteen ninety one, near
Broadway on one hundred and fifty ninth Street, Jose Reis
was shot in the back of the head with a
forty five Then Pedro Santiago showed up for the third
time with alleged information.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
The interesting thing about Pedro Santiago, who was definitely selling
a lot of drugs, This individual is caught up in
a whole different case where he specifically says in that
other case that he barely knew the Martinez brothers. Then
he comes in in Raffi and Lorenzo's case and he
says that by September of nineteen eighty nine, he began
(14:20):
to work daily with Raffi and Lorenzo and he became
a lieutenant in their crew. In the other case, he
said he didn't meet him until midway through nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
So which one was it was? Santiago, a lieutenant in
an alleged drug organization, privuted information about the three separate
murders between August nineteen ninety and May of ninety one,
or did he only meet the Martinez brothers after these
incidents had already taken place.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
This is what I'm saying. I don't know what's true
in this case. With regard to the witnesses that the
state puts on.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Santiago claimed to have seen Lorenzo Martinez meet with his
co defendant Roberto Gonzalez, then heard the gunshots from about
a quarter of a mile away.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
I think Pedro Santiago gets a one to three and
he's cut loose right.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Away, just like all the other cooperators in this case,
including David Cologne, who also testified about the rays murder.
Like Santiago, Cologne claimed that he heard the gunshots, then
later saw Gonzalez with a gun. Then Cologne claimed that
he later borrowed a forty five from Gonzalez, then lost
it when he led it to an unidentified person. How convenient. Then,
(15:27):
Cologne alleged to Gonzalez wasn't angry since it rid him
of an alleged murder weapon. Another unverifiable account. The only
thing we know for sure about the Ray's murder was
the date, time, place, and caliber of bullet. Because the
witnesses are so totally unreliable, which is true across this
entire prosecution.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Essentially, the cooperators get arrested based upon the investigation into
the drug dealing, and then all of a sudden, Raffi
becomes this boss and the murders and the attempted murders
are what was used to make him look like this animal.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
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(16:38):
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(16:58):
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Speaker 3 (17:19):
There is no physical evident connecting me to anything, but
by the testimony, win is it? They say, Oh, whatever
I got arrested with was because Rafael Martine told me
to do it. Whatever they saw to an Ondacola, they
charged me to constructing, selling and constructing assessing that growth.
(17:42):
They only had to connect my mind. They only had
to say, oh, Raffia was the boss that says that
was more than enough for them to find me busy.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Raphael al was charged with conspiracy along with various drug
and fire arm possession and sales charges, as well as
the attempted murder of Raphael Espinal and the murders of
Jose Reis and Jose Jimenez. An assistant Da Fernando Camacho
tried Raphael and his four co defendants for over four
months in front of the notorious hanging judge Leslie Krockersnider.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
The thing about Leslie Krockersnider just taking it back historically.
Sometime in the mid eighties, the Manhattan Die's Office created
this homicide investigative unit, and a lot of times from
what I've gathered is they actually would do search warrants
and feed those search warrants to Leslie Crockersnider. She was
somebody who they knew that they could trust in handling
(18:37):
high profile cases inappropriately.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
By the way, to that point, Richard Giampa, Raphael's attorney,
found and raised the DD five containing Juan Urina's identification
of Franklin from one hundred and seventy second Street in
Audubon as his and Jose Jimenez's shooter.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
But that piece of evidence was suppressed by Leslie Krocker Snyder.
She told the defense attorneys at trial that, well, if
they don't know Franklin's last name, then it's not credible
evidence that Franklin committed this shooting.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Then it appears she was aware of hidden deals for cooperators.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
The main witnesses all testified that they received certain deals
free to life, and the second that they testified, they
were immediately let loose. We have transcripts which shows that
Leslie Krockersnyder knew what was going on and they were
given time served, which is vastly different than a three
to life sentence.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
According to an affidavit from Raphael's ex wife, Marilyn Martinez.
She recorded Julian Martinez over the phone. When she asked
why he was lying about his own brother. Julian described
the coercion and threats being used against him and other cooperators.
She then described how she sat in court while Judge
Crocker Snyder and Ada Camacho heard the recording, at the
(19:48):
end of which Krockersnyder threatened to charge whoever had made
this illegal recording. Never mind the fact that New York
is a one party consent state, so that sure seems
like selective outrage.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
And then you have the fact that Julia Martinez has
said that the prosecutor actually would bring him into the
District Attorney's office, that he was baited with food, drugs,
and he was allowed to have sex with women and
including his girlfriend.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
It also comes to light many years later that Camacho
had also promised many of the cooperators safety from deportation.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
A lot of these witnesses weren't here legally. Nobody knew
that they received benefits which entailed keeping them in the country.
This is just one thing after another.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So it appears that all of the cooperators were receiving
the carrot and the stick importantly out of view from
the jury.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Even Rafael Espinol and Juan Urina had convictions that they
were looking at I mean Janurina, who's in the car
with him and is so he'd be an eyewitness. He
does not identify Rafael Lorenzo or isidor Medina. By the way, however,
he testifies with the benefit of a lawyer because he's
worried about his drug arrest in Connecticut that he ends
(20:54):
up getting probation for Espinol testified with a lawyer and
he had charges.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Pay And as we mentioned, that's been all initially named
Raphael Marina as the shooter, but at trial they somehow
got him to morph Marina into Martinez. So the deck
was clearly stat starting with Camacho's opening statement that laid
out totally unfounded theory of Raphael's nineteen eighty seven gunshot wound.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Camacho, he said it Josehi Ma name used to be
one on my local. He used to be one of
my friends, and he went to be apartment and he
shocked me in the back of my head and a
store from me fifty thousand dollars and three kilo cocaine. Remember,
at that time, in nineteen eighty seven, I was only
(21:38):
twenty years old. My apartment was paid by Wlfarere, and
I had never been shocked in the back of my head.
The play bullet thrucked me in the top on my head.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
When they were investigating the murder of Jose Jimenez and
investigated whether he was the one that shot Raffi, the
NYPD found that there was no substance to that claim.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
But that wasn't discovered for decades, long after Camacho had
said these things in front of the jury, and that
really is the original sin of this entire case, this
unfounded motive. But nevertheless, they continued pursuing Raphael with a
team of cooperating witnesses who in reality hadn't actually seen anything.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Pratt, Venus, and Santiago all testified that they heard Rafi
admit that he killed Jose Jimenez. Julian, though specifically describes
how the murder happens. They pull up next to Jose
Jimenez and they opened fire on the side of the car.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
As was mentioned, the shell casings were found in front
of the car, and one of the fail shots had
a downward trajectory, suggesting a standing mobile shooter, but none
of this was pointed out to the jury. In addition,
the state's medical examiner, doctor Joseph Vereses, gave testimony that
in part corroborated this erroneous version of events by saying
that stippling may have been on the victim's face, which
(22:57):
is a typical accompanying injury when whenever there's a close
range gunshot, if.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
The cars line up with each other and Raffi allegedly
reaches across, blows the window out, and shoots the span
point blank in the head, then there would be stippling
all over the person's face. The medical examiner testified that's stippling.
It either can go through glass or it can follow
through the bullet hole and end up all over a
(23:23):
person's face. And when we had our medical examiner review that,
sirra weckt he's never heard of that in his sixty
years of being a medical examiner, that stippling could go
through glass. It's a physical impossibility. And then specifically, the
Emmy noted on his autopsy report that he couldn't tell
whether it was stippling or dicing. Now what dicing is
(23:45):
is when a window is blown out and you get
cuts from the window hitting a person's face, which would
be more likely in this case because there's bullet holes
in the front of the windshield and then the driver's
side window is blown out and the glasses found all
over the place.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
But only this erroneous potential of stippling was mentioned in
front of the jury, which supported the close range gunshot theory.
The jury also heard from the state's ballistic expert, Charles Hopkins,
who testified that a forty five caliber and a nine
millimeter we used in the Jamenez murder and were also
found in the possession of individuals who are affiliated with
(24:21):
the Martinezes.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
The guy that gets arrested with the forty five is
not connected to Raffi. The nine comes from Julian. We
spoke to Julian, and Julian specifically said he bought the
gun from Kubita, who was a member of Franklin Quavis's crew,
just like.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Juan Urina's identification of Franklin Quavis. The jury could and
should have benefited from this information, even though Julian never
said that at trial. Years later, he recanted, along with
Edwin Mottos and Jordan Pratt Pedro Santiago's testimony in another
case destroyed his credibility in this one. And then there's Iravinus.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Iravinus said that Raffi tape I don't know how many
kilos of cocaine on her and sent her to Switzerland.
And Raffi was in the Dominican Republic on the day
that happened, so the prosecutor had to concede that she
lied about that.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Airline tickets were presented to corroborate Raffi's alibi. In addition,
Iravinus testified about Raffi's alleged intentions to kill Jose Jimenez.
For her testimony, she received time served. And believe it
or not, the Jimenez murder investigation got even worse, but
we'll get to that later. Now the murder of Jose
Rees Julian testified about the alleged bounty. Santiago and Cologne
(25:30):
both testified about what they saw before and after, but
neither of them claimed to have seen the shooting, rather
that they had heard it from about a quarter of
a mile away.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
And Vetos Gonzalez Loyos Hee high next witness, and this
expel took the noise level from a weapon used in
the murder, and she came to the conclusion that it
was impossible for the cooperative witnesses to hear that shot
that ki Jose Reye all the way down there and
(26:01):
one fifty seven RII.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Which impeached these witnesses enough for the jury as Lorenzo
Martinez and Roberto Gonzales were acquitted of that murder. But unfortunately,
the attorney who Raphael's parents hired right before trial wasn't
afforded the time to tackle the broad scope of Raffi's charges.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Richard Jurampo gets hired during the pre trial hearing and
the judge refuses to give Richard Giampa an adjournment to
prepare for trial, so right after the pre trial hearing
they go into trial. And this is all Leslie Crocker's
stiter is doing. And when Richard Ciampa would fight with her,
she would punish him and admonish him him in front.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Of the jury, and Fernando Camacho also attacked him in
front of the jury.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
This is Camacho woting me te Giampa, the main has
being on the case for five months. I offered him
an opportunity to look at all the evidence. He makes
it thing like he's being blindsided. He simply thoroughly prepaire.
And you've seen these as an excules.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
How are you investigating during a four month long trial
while you're in court from nine to five getting sambaged.
There's no way he could have won. You don't know
that the witnesses are getting deals that aren't what they're
testifying to.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
And then there's the things that Giampa did know that
Julian Martinez had admitted that the cooperators were being coerced.
But when Judge Crackerschneider heard the recording, strangely, she took
issue with the recording, but not the unreliability of the
state's witnesses. Later, she accused Giampa of paranoid delusions. Yet
she's the one who suppressed one Urana's identification of an
(27:40):
alternate suspect.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Frankie Quavis. He gets murdered in nineteen ninety three. How
many other people does he's shoot and kill? They knew
that this guy was the one who killed him. It's
in a police report that he's the killer.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
So deprived of this kind of critical exculpatory information, the
deals received by cooperators, calling him a violent drug kingpin
while the crack epidemic continued outside the courthouse. It was
a fatal complay. So on April eighth, nineteen ninety three,
Raphael was predictably wrongly convicted of various drug and firearm charges,
(28:14):
also conspiracy, attempted murder and the murder of Jose Jimenez
and per Judge Cracker Snyder, the sentences were to run consecutively,
totaling two hundred and thirteen years to life.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
During this sentence in proceeding mister Gamache, this is him
talking for years how working, low aviving people have been
coming to this country and to how work they have
made it being a since Rafael Martine is also successful.
He was a multimillionaire by the age of twenty five.
(28:50):
But he didn't do it with sweat and how work.
He did it with violence and drags. He has taken
a wonderful concept and may it impure somehow Reshile Martins
built an empire on one city, sevenstry and he decided
that the black belonged to him and out of pure
(29:15):
hiero gain from nineteen sixty seven to nineteen ninety one,
when I got arrested nobody in this world. King said
(29:36):
that I raised my hand to be violanced for somebody.
Since ninety one to today, I am living in the
world's condition a human being can be placing this place
is violent. They are all type of rows, contravance weapons.
Over thirty two years, I have at now tending record
(29:58):
I have never raised my hand to help anyone.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Raphael also continued his education inside the walls, studying theology
and the law as Lorenzo and Isidoro fought their innocence
claims alongside them, but they didn't gain any traction on appeal.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
It's very difficult when you have the spending witnesses. I mean,
back in nineteen ninety nine, Is the Door Medina actually
obtained the first two recantations of the main cooperators.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
In nineteen ninety nine, Jorgan Pratt and Edwin Motto executed
a NAFIDVI about what they went through with the Digit
Attorney Office in order for Dane to cooperate on fabricue
this every day. In my case, all the benefit that
they got they were allowed to have sex inside the
(30:48):
Manhattan disc Attorney.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Out is the Door. Medina filed a post conviction motion
that got denied.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
In addition to Edwin Mottos and Jordan Pratt, Julian Martinez
also recanted in two thousand thirteen, which began a rethinking
of the crime scene. In addition, an eyewitness of the
temenous murder named Russell Harris Warren affidavit also naming Franklin Quavis,
and his description of the crime aligned perfectly with the
forensics as well.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
You know, Raffi files a blockbuster motion back in twenty
fifteen with recantations his alibi. This whole crime scene recreation
where the crime couldn't have happened the way Julian testified.
Nickeds thrown out, so I get involved. The summer of
twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Justin scoured through the trial transcripts and requested Raffi's files
from the Manhattan DIA's office, and he found two dd
fives or police reports that contradicted the state's theory at trial.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Those police reports contradicted the testimony of Jordan Pratt and Julian,
which is that Raffi commits this murder in the car
that's usually driven by the Martinez brothers, which was a
golden black colored car. There were two eye witnesses from above,
and they say the car that was in the area
was a white Toyota and those two d D fives
(32:03):
were not turned over a trial.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
And then looking at the Franklin Quavis, who was known
to have driven a white Toyota, it became clear that
he was affiliated with get this none other than the
leader of the Red Top Crew, Lenny Suppleveda, as well
as his associate jose Yaka.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
I sent my private investigator out to speak to Lenny
Suppleveda and jose Yaka, and Lenny, by the way, has
cooperated many times for the Manhattan District Attorney's office. Lenny
says that Franklin Quavis was a certified killer and Lenny
knew him. Back in eighty two, Frankie went to jail
for manslaughter, came home in nineteen eighty nine. Lenny set
(32:42):
him up with a block and some drugs, and a
part of Frankie's crew was a guy named Speedy. Speedy
gets killed in nineteen eighty nine, either before or after
Frankie comes home, and Speedy and Frankie were the same age.
They came up together and Frankie takes vengeance and jose
Yaka gives an affidavit where Jose the actor specifically says
that Frankie kills Chino.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Now, they had Franklin Craavis's motive, but what about Raffi's
alleged motive. Justin found the confidential informants DD five and
it turned out that this informant was actually an eyewitness.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
The problem with this individual for the government is that
essentially this individual says that they're there and that they
don't see Rafael Martinez at the scene. That's never turned
over to defense. The police follow up on this allegation
that Rafael Martinez and Josejmenez have a beef, that Jose
(33:35):
Jimenez is the one that shot Raffi in eighty seven
in another DD five, and they determined that there's no
substance to that allegation, so that Jose Jimenez was not
the guy that shoots Rafael Martinez in the head in
nineteen eighty seven. Okay, this is independent evidence that wasn't
turned over.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
So Raphael never had a motive. And with that, Justin
and his co counsul Oscar Michelin filed Raffi's initial four
to forty motion in December twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
The initial motion of Vacate is about Franklin how the
witnesses lied about the deals they got, and it's about
how the forensic evidence shows that the way that the
witnesses testified the crime happened did not happen that way.
But then what happened an explosion, Okay, I believe it
was April of twenty twenty one when Lorenzo bumped into
a guy and sing sing it said, hey, you know
(34:23):
the guy in your case that you allegedly murdered with
your brother, I did his appeal.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Yeah. This is how it gets even worse because, in
addition to Franklin Quavis, the Bronx DIA was also after
Josejmanez and his brother Raymond for the murder of Armando
Speedy Baiaz in nineteen eighty nine. And Josejmanez was clearly
not killed in October of nineteen ninety because he was
convicted in nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
And we get as a PELI brief and I'm like,
wait a second, this can't be the case. This is insane.
I do my due diligence, We get the indictment. We
then go to the Manhattan Dida's office. They they give
us more information that supports that the brother that's allegedly
dead is actually alive.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Justin and Oscar then received some of the Bronx the
ACE file for the Speedy Bias murder case.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
They gave us specific documents relating to the identity of
the brothers. Jose Jimenez's nickname was not Chino. Raymond Jimenez's
nickname was Chino. Jose Jimenez's nickname was Junior. Okay, It
made us look at the police reports all over again.
The actual initial police report says that Raymond Jimenez is
(35:37):
the one that's dead and not Jose Jimenez. And to
watch the changing of the name when you have this
confidential informant give up that Rafi has a beef Jose Amenez.
Now it's Jose Jimenez that's dead. It's outrageous.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Also in the Bronx file were all the details of
the Bias murder. How on May fourteenth, nineteen eighty nine,
Raymond Gino Jimenez handed his brother Jose Junior him as
a gun and Jose Junior fatally shot Armando Speedy Bias
in front of twenty four to twenty seven Webster Avenue
in the Bronx. The Jimenez brothers were indicted on August
third of eighty nine, but then the indictment changed when
(36:13):
Raymond Chino Jimenez was killed on October twenty ninth, nineteen
ninety and his brother Jose Junior identified the body the
next day. There was also documentation of why Jose Junior
was tried in absentia.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
At Jose heimenez a sentence in hearing in September nineteen
ninety one, there were two witnesses that came in that
gave affidavids that explained that Jose Heimenez ran from his
trial because he was terrified of the guys that killed
his brother.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Jose Junior also gave an affidavid on July twenty second,
nineteen ninety one to the same effect. Either way, Jose
Junior was alive, convicted, arrested, and sent away for twenty
five to life. And it appears that this should have
come to light before or during Raphi's trial.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
In the Middo de trial, oil as king wha or
say he made a creamin that repels say, oh, I
don't know if I can pull that up because he's
already dead, but I will check. I will let you know.
In the afternoon session he came back at one o'cloud
(37:19):
and say, oh, he has no creminal repel. Oh, say Jim,
and it was doing twenty five two lives in New
York State prisons. How do you wanna say he has
no criminal record.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Fernando Camacho is currently a judge out in Suffolk County,
Long Island. So it turns out that not only was
Jose Junior still alive when Raphael was tried in nineteen
eighty three, but also as far as we know, he's
still alive and well as we record this episode right
now in early spring of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
How I know Jose Hemanez is alive in a Dominican
Republic is through his direct appeal. And then you can
look him up on the New York State Himate locator
and it says deported twenty sixteen, which lines up perfectly
to him going in in September of nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
And yet no one was ever brought to justice for
his brother Raymond's murder.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
It's not like they don't have a body. They do
have a body, right, It's that they didn't care. They
built this narrative. At some point, whether it was willfully
or inadvertently, they made a mistake, and then they refused
to correct it. And then they framed Raffi and Lorenzo
and their uncle for the murder of a man that's alive.
(38:37):
The government has actually admitted, they've conceded that Jose Hemenez
is alive. Their position is that it's not material enough
to warrann a new trial.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Jesus, so the dead guy's alive And I'm completely at
a loss. How is the guy who was killed being alive?
How's that no material? I mean, I don't know what
else the DA's office could possibly need to see here. Yeah,
I'm a little boondoggled by this one, I gotta say.
And with that, we're going to go to closing arguments.
(39:12):
I'm going to thank you both for sharing this truly
insane story. It's literally unlike any other one we've ever done.
And now I'm going to just sit back in my
chair and just listen for anything else you want to
share with me in our amazing audience. We call this
section closing arguments. Just that I'm going to turn it
over to you for any takeaways you might have, and
(39:34):
then you turn it over to Rafi and he'll take
us off into the sunset.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
I don't know. Takeaways are the criminals run the justice system?
This is criminal and the question is how many people
were involved with it? Right? I mean you have all
these police officers, these cooperating witnesses that they knew were
testifying for. So you have a prosecutor who at the
very least was not sure who was dead. If you're
(40:00):
just not sure, say it, say I don't know, maybe
this was a mistaken identity. That's not what he did.
He doubled down on it. Meanwhile, Joseymane is a sitting
in stay prison. Everyone should be frightened at the power
of our government to prosecute people like this.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
I just would like to say to Abindrad, I have
so much respectful him, but I think he shouldn't be
a sail or hesitate to do the right thing in
my case, because anyone who knows me will see that
I am a fine person, very respectful, loving persons and
(40:38):
everybody is safe around may be because I am anything. I
was prosecuted for allegedly killing jose Jimene. We found that
he is alive. There is no reason to go anyfo
is over. I just care about being a free man.
Please just look at the everything every days and bifudal
(41:01):
law is what is going to side me see.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen
to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts one
week early by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on
Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our production team Connor
Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as my fellow executive
producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Cliburn. The music
in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated
(41:32):
composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us across all
social media platforms at Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction.
You can also follow me on Instagram at It's Jason Flamm.
Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts
and association with Signal Company Number one
In November nineteen eighty seven, Rafael Martinez was lucky to
survive a gunshot wound to the head, but it changed
the course of his life. A police report said that
the shooter's nickname was Chino, and according to some, Rafael
lay in wait for three years before exacting his revenge. Meanwhile,
the crack epidemic was raging, and in response, Congress decided
(00:26):
to subsidize the misguided policy failure known as the War
on Drugs in New York. This meant increased funding to
support investigations like the one that honed in on drug
activity in Raphael's old apartment building in Upper Manhattan, even
though he had moved to Queens. According to the street
level dealers, Rafael controlled the local drug market, so the
(00:47):
police relied on these smaller fish to catch someone who
was allegedly a bigger one, tying in a few violent
offenses to boot, including the murder of a man nicknamed Chino.
But this is wrongful conviction. Wrongful conviction has always given
(01:12):
voice to innocent people in prison. Now we're expanding that
voice to you. Call us at eight three three, two
oh seven, four six sixty six and leave us a message.
Tell us how these powerful, often tragic stories make you
feel outraged, inspired, motivated. We want to know. We may
even include your story in a future episode. Call us
(01:34):
A three three, two oh seven, four six sixty six.
Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. Today's case. I was tempted
to call it the dead guy is still alive. I
(01:55):
know that sounds crazy, but the murder victim is alive
and well. Our guest today Raphael Martinez. He was charged
in connection to three violent incidents as well as a
drug trafficking conspiracy, and so many people testified to support
this narrative that made Raphael into a murderous drug kingpin,
(02:17):
like something out of a movie that you would have
thought there must have been something to it. But when
you take a closer look at who is testifying and
why the case falls apart, and how they went about
constructing the case against him, that's one of the crimes
we're covering. So we're going to go over that first
(02:38):
before we get to all of the other absolutely insane details.
And to help us do that, let's welcome back Raphael's attorney,
the one and only Justin Bonus.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Thank you for having me again.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And calling in from Green Haven Penitentiary in New York State.
Is the man himself, Raphael Martinez. Raphael, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Thank you sir.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, now, Raffie, are you from the Dominican republicly from
New York.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
I was born in Manhattan in Harley. Then I grew
up in the Dominican Republic. Then when I was eighteen,
I told my parents listen, I would like to hook
back to the United States and finish my education in
electric engineering. They sent me back to New York in
nineteen eighty five, had a job in a factory. I
(03:25):
came to live with my cousin in Washington High one
hundred and fifty seventh Street. That is a big Dominican community.
Everybody knew we show the We used to hang out
in from the building. That was my social life right there.
But there was a lot of publicy and the drug
was a major problem. That was the track okay epidemic,
(03:49):
and everybody was affected one when you or not directly
or indirectly.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
When Raphael was laid off of a factory job and
struggling to get by, he too got involved, earning five
for running an errand once it landed him on five
years probation, and during that stretch of time, the crack
epidemic had taken hold of at least one segment of
most American cities in New York that was primarily Upper
Manhattan and the Bronx, where, if you remember from the
(04:14):
stories of Pablo Fernandez and Danny Rincone, both of which
are going to be linked in the episode description, the
largest and most feared drug organization at that time was
led by Lenny and Nelson Sepulveda. They called themselves the
Red Top Crew, but they were known in the media
as the Wild Cowboys.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
You had the Wild Cowboys that were out there. Everybody,
at least on the Eastern Seaboard was coming to Washington
Heights and the Bronx for cocaine. The amount of money
that was being made and violence, I mean, I believe
in the thirtieth Precinct, which is only like a square mile,
I think at one point they had seventy homicides a
year in a square mile. I mean, that's just outrageous.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
And Raphael was in fact a random victim of violence.
One night in November nineteen eighty.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Seven, I was asleep in my apartment in one fifty
seven hang a straight bullet. He came through the window
throck me in the top on my hand. The fire
depart I mean had to break the waging, so the
police and Paramerico came take me to the hospital. I
lost battle of the brain and the battled the school
right off the.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Top and RAFFI has a significant limp. He has trouble
moving the right side of his body. Police reports said
that a guy named Chino did shoot him in the head. However,
Chino was one of the most common Dominican nicknames.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Which left police with little to go on. Meanwhile, Raphael
stayed in the hospital until January nineteen eighty eight. He
had no job, no savings. He lost his apartment on
West one hundred and fifty seventh Street, so he ended
up on public assistance while he continued to pursue his degree.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
When I got out of the hospital in nineteen eighty eight,
I went to leave for my girlfriend and then I
moved to Wings around nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Now, during this time, he and his girlfriend Merlin, got married.
He worked as a mechanic and started a family, but
he still kept in touch with the community on West
one hundred and fifty seventh Street. Meanwhile, the crack epidemic
continued to rage on, and a response, Congress passed the
Anti Drug Abuse Act in nineteen eighty eight, which funded
high intensity Drug Trafficking Area task Forces throughout the country.
(06:13):
Now in New York that meant funding for a coordinated
effort among detectives and das from all five boroughs on
drug related cases, and in Washington Heights, NYPD detective James
Gilmour was empowered to lead a two year investigation starting
in nineteen eighty nine, specifically focusing on drug activity at
two of Raffi's old apartment buildings, five point fifty and
(06:34):
six fourteen West one hundred and fifty seven Street.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
They took forty two hours of video surveillance. I only
Appria in Wang videos. In that video, I'm not doing
anything in Lilio nothing.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
They also took a ton of photos, also nothing. However,
Gilmour ran several sting operations between July twenty ninth and
October twelfth, nineteen ninety one, in which some of the
people from one hundred and fifty seventh Street who turned
into cooperators in this case, sold cocaine and firearms to
undercover agents in the last operation, they arrested a young
(07:09):
woman from that area named Ira Venus, who was about
to hop on a flight to Switzerland with several kilos
of cocaine. Needless to say, she was also ready to cooperate,
as were those who were scooped up in a mass
arrest on October twenty second, nineteen ninety one, including two
of Raffi's brothers, Danny and Julian.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Raffi has like four brothers, some of them were selling drugs.
The amount of drugs that they were selling was highly debatable.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
They also picked up Raffi's uncle, Isidoro Medina de Leon,
whose involvement was even more debatable. But what was different
about this wholesale arrest was that they made another arrest
in a different jurisdiction.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
I was arrested getting out of my Blaso residents that
was in Queens. That was me, Cisel Martine and Lorenzo Martinez.
They were not droll, whipm money, anything illegal on the call.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Involvement with anything illegal can make you vulnerable to police coercion,
which made Raffi's brothers, Danny and Julian, as well as
others from West one hundred and fifty seventh Street well,
very vulnerable, including Edwin Mottos, Jordan Pratt, Daniel Cologne, Iravenas,
Pedro Santiago, Andre Gomez, Roberto Medina, and Manuel Picoon.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
They will have west this withdrawers, we whipons. After they
gave some of those guys to grow up with a
with sing they came up with this conspiracy indidates for everybody.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Gilmore and his team had devised a narrative for any
willing cooperator to support that. While on five years probation,
partially disabled, raising a family and living on public assistance
in Queens, Raphael somehow built a multimillion dollar crack empire
on West one hundred and fifty seventh Street, rivaling the
Red Top Crew, and they were called the Jerry Curl Gang.
(08:57):
Now you might be asking why Rafi, and we'll get
to that, but first we'll finish covering how.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
There was a lot of surveillance. Okay, with regard to
the drugs, there's plenty of evidence against the cooperators, but
there's not so much evidence against Raffi and Lorenzo. With Raffi,
there's actually a lack of evidence. Even with regard to
the drugs.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
James testifying cold Dah he never saw me sending draw
or engaging byline.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
And they did not call themselves the Jerry Curl gang.
That's something that the media came up with before into hand.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
The Minigam community has virjity guild at that time. B
when they arrested every divided, they said everybody had the
same kill style, all that vigitikill game, and they admitted
in Gold that they made that up.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
The Jerry Curl moniker began and ended with law enforcement,
and it was used to connect three seemingly unrelated violent
incidents to drug activity on West one hundred and fifty
seventh Street, and it's alleged overseers Raphael and his co
defendants Lorenzo and Caesar Martinez. His uncle Isidora Medina de Leon,
as well as a man named Roberto Gonzalez. The first
(10:10):
incident was the August twenty ninth, nineteen ninety attempted murder
of Rafael Espinal on Park Terrace and two hundred and
fifteenth Street.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
With regard to the attempted murder of Raphael Espinal, there
was barely any investigation. He named someone else, Espinol. He
tells the police, Rafael Molina is the one that shot me.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yet co operators Edwin Mottos and Pedro Santiago alleged that
Raphael Martinez had ordered his uncle Isidoro to kill Espinal
for robbing his brother Dandy. Then Matos, Santiago and Rafe's
brother Julian also testified about a car that got shot
up on October twenty ninth, nineteen ninety in the Bronx
at East one hundred and sixty seven Street in College Avenue.
(10:50):
The deceased was identified as Jose Jimenez, whose nickname was
thought to be Chino. The surviving victim was Juan Urena
said the shooter was a man named Franklin. They can
the area, documented the crime scene, but the case went
cold for about six months. Decades later, an undisclosed police
report surface in which a confidential informant appears to have
been key in shifting Gilmore's investigation to focus on Rafael Martinez.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
The confidential informant pulled the homicide investigator in April nineteen
ninety one, allegedly, Joseji Mine was the one who shot
me and therefore I used to have a debute with
Jose Jimenez As.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
A result, it appears that Raphael's nineteen eighty seven stray
ball it became the catalyst, placing him at the center
of Gilmore's drug investigation.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
So the theme here is retribution. That Raffi waits on
Jose Amnez for close to three years, somehow gets information
that Jose Amenez is in the Bronx somewhere and Raffi
Lorenzo and is a door of Medina pull up next
to Jose Jmenez and Juan Durana in a car and Raffi,
who's in the passenger seat, and Lorenzo, who was in
(12:03):
the back passenger seat, fire into the car and Jose
and Juan Yaurina got shot.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Investigators initially tried to get Raffie's brother Danny to testify
to this version of events.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
People secus wanted him to testify down he went, weaws,
you say no, and he got bout only for conspiracy.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
To so Danny took his lumps rather than passing the buck.
Caesar Martinez also faced a similar challenge and chose to
take his chances at trial as a co defendant. But
Ralphie's brother Julian became the source of this version of
events that is simply not supported by the undisputed backs
of the crime. At least one of the fatal shots
had a downward trajectory. Now, how would that be possible
(12:46):
with a seated shooter in a car next to the victims.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Forensically, that's not possible. The shell casings were found in
the front of the car. There is medical evidence that
the shooting was conducted by somebody who was standing, not s.
There's at least one eye witness account that basically describes
a man named Franklin Quavis walked in front of the
car and fired into the car. There's a DD five
(13:09):
where wandering actually says Franklin from one hundred and seventy
second in Autobond, which is where Franklin Quavis was from
in Washington Heights, is the one that fired into the car.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yet the police ignored the forensics, ballistics, and again the
surviving victim for their team of cooperators and their theory.
And it appears this pattern continued with the murder of
Jose Reis the building super at six fourteen West one
hundred and fifty seventh Street. According to testimony from Julian Martinez,
Raphael believed Rees was an informant and put a thirty
(13:42):
five hundred dollars bounty on his head. Then, around two
thirty pm on May twenty third, nineteen ninety one, near
Broadway on one hundred and fifty ninth Street, Jose Reis
was shot in the back of the head with a
forty five Then Pedro Santiago showed up for the third
time with alleged information.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
The interesting thing about Pedro Santiago, who was definitely selling
a lot of drugs, This individual is caught up in
a whole different case where he specifically says in that
other case that he barely knew the Martinez brothers. Then
he comes in in Raffi and Lorenzo's case and he
says that by September of nineteen eighty nine, he began
(14:20):
to work daily with Raffi and Lorenzo and he became
a lieutenant in their crew. In the other case, he
said he didn't meet him until midway through nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
So which one was it was? Santiago, a lieutenant in
an alleged drug organization, privuted information about the three separate
murders between August nineteen ninety and May of ninety one,
or did he only meet the Martinez brothers after these
incidents had already taken place.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
This is what I'm saying. I don't know what's true
in this case. With regard to the witnesses that the
state puts on.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Santiago claimed to have seen Lorenzo Martinez meet with his
co defendant Roberto Gonzalez, then heard the gunshots from about
a quarter of a mile away.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
I think Pedro Santiago gets a one to three and
he's cut loose right.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Away, just like all the other cooperators in this case,
including David Cologne, who also testified about the rays murder.
Like Santiago, Cologne claimed that he heard the gunshots, then
later saw Gonzalez with a gun. Then Cologne claimed that
he later borrowed a forty five from Gonzalez, then lost
it when he led it to an unidentified person. How convenient. Then,
(15:27):
Cologne alleged to Gonzalez wasn't angry since it rid him
of an alleged murder weapon. Another unverifiable account. The only
thing we know for sure about the Ray's murder was
the date, time, place, and caliber of bullet. Because the
witnesses are so totally unreliable, which is true across this
entire prosecution.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Essentially, the cooperators get arrested based upon the investigation into
the drug dealing, and then all of a sudden, Raffi
becomes this boss and the murders and the attempted murders
are what was used to make him look like this animal.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this
and all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early
and ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus
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Speaker 3 (17:19):
There is no physical evident connecting me to anything, but
by the testimony, win is it? They say, Oh, whatever
I got arrested with was because Rafael Martine told me
to do it. Whatever they saw to an Ondacola, they
charged me to constructing, selling and constructing assessing that growth.
(17:42):
They only had to connect my mind. They only had
to say, oh, Raffia was the boss that says that
was more than enough for them to find me busy.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Raphael al was charged with conspiracy along with various drug
and fire arm possession and sales charges, as well as
the attempted murder of Raphael Espinal and the murders of
Jose Reis and Jose Jimenez. An assistant Da Fernando Camacho
tried Raphael and his four co defendants for over four
months in front of the notorious hanging judge Leslie Krockersnider.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
The thing about Leslie Krockersnider just taking it back historically.
Sometime in the mid eighties, the Manhattan Die's Office created
this homicide investigative unit, and a lot of times from
what I've gathered is they actually would do search warrants
and feed those search warrants to Leslie Crockersnider. She was
somebody who they knew that they could trust in handling
(18:37):
high profile cases inappropriately.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
By the way, to that point, Richard Giampa, Raphael's attorney,
found and raised the DD five containing Juan Urina's identification
of Franklin from one hundred and seventy second Street in
Audubon as his and Jose Jimenez's shooter.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
But that piece of evidence was suppressed by Leslie Krocker Snyder.
She told the defense attorneys at trial that, well, if
they don't know Franklin's last name, then it's not credible
evidence that Franklin committed this shooting.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Then it appears she was aware of hidden deals for cooperators.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
The main witnesses all testified that they received certain deals
free to life, and the second that they testified, they
were immediately let loose. We have transcripts which shows that
Leslie Krockersnyder knew what was going on and they were
given time served, which is vastly different than a three
to life sentence.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
According to an affidavit from Raphael's ex wife, Marilyn Martinez.
She recorded Julian Martinez over the phone. When she asked
why he was lying about his own brother. Julian described
the coercion and threats being used against him and other cooperators.
She then described how she sat in court while Judge
Crocker Snyder and Ada Camacho heard the recording, at the
(19:48):
end of which Krockersnyder threatened to charge whoever had made
this illegal recording. Never mind the fact that New York
is a one party consent state, so that sure seems
like selective outrage.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
And then you have the fact that Julia Martinez has
said that the prosecutor actually would bring him into the
District Attorney's office, that he was baited with food, drugs,
and he was allowed to have sex with women and
including his girlfriend.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
It also comes to light many years later that Camacho
had also promised many of the cooperators safety from deportation.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
A lot of these witnesses weren't here legally. Nobody knew
that they received benefits which entailed keeping them in the country.
This is just one thing after another.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So it appears that all of the cooperators were receiving
the carrot and the stick importantly out of view from
the jury.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Even Rafael Espinol and Juan Urina had convictions that they
were looking at I mean Janurina, who's in the car
with him and is so he'd be an eyewitness. He
does not identify Rafael Lorenzo or isidor Medina. By the way, however,
he testifies with the benefit of a lawyer because he's
worried about his drug arrest in Connecticut that he ends
(20:54):
up getting probation for Espinol testified with a lawyer and
he had charges.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Pay And as we mentioned, that's been all initially named
Raphael Marina as the shooter, but at trial they somehow
got him to morph Marina into Martinez. So the deck
was clearly stat starting with Camacho's opening statement that laid
out totally unfounded theory of Raphael's nineteen eighty seven gunshot wound.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Camacho, he said it Josehi Ma name used to be
one on my local. He used to be one of
my friends, and he went to be apartment and he
shocked me in the back of my head and a
store from me fifty thousand dollars and three kilo cocaine. Remember,
at that time, in nineteen eighty seven, I was only
(21:38):
twenty years old. My apartment was paid by Wlfarere, and
I had never been shocked in the back of my head.
The play bullet thrucked me in the top on my head.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
When they were investigating the murder of Jose Jimenez and
investigated whether he was the one that shot Raffi, the
NYPD found that there was no substance to that claim.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
But that wasn't discovered for decades, long after Camacho had
said these things in front of the jury, and that
really is the original sin of this entire case, this
unfounded motive. But nevertheless, they continued pursuing Raphael with a
team of cooperating witnesses who in reality hadn't actually seen anything.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Pratt, Venus, and Santiago all testified that they heard Rafi
admit that he killed Jose Jimenez. Julian, though specifically describes
how the murder happens. They pull up next to Jose
Jimenez and they opened fire on the side of the car.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
As was mentioned, the shell casings were found in front
of the car, and one of the fail shots had
a downward trajectory, suggesting a standing mobile shooter, but none
of this was pointed out to the jury. In addition,
the state's medical examiner, doctor Joseph Vereses, gave testimony that
in part corroborated this erroneous version of events by saying
that stippling may have been on the victim's face, which
(22:57):
is a typical accompanying injury when whenever there's a close
range gunshot, if.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
The cars line up with each other and Raffi allegedly
reaches across, blows the window out, and shoots the span
point blank in the head, then there would be stippling
all over the person's face. The medical examiner testified that's stippling.
It either can go through glass or it can follow
through the bullet hole and end up all over a
(23:23):
person's face. And when we had our medical examiner review that,
sirra weckt he's never heard of that in his sixty
years of being a medical examiner, that stippling could go
through glass. It's a physical impossibility. And then specifically, the
Emmy noted on his autopsy report that he couldn't tell
whether it was stippling or dicing. Now what dicing is
(23:45):
is when a window is blown out and you get
cuts from the window hitting a person's face, which would
be more likely in this case because there's bullet holes
in the front of the windshield and then the driver's
side window is blown out and the glasses found all
over the place.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
But only this erroneous potential of stippling was mentioned in
front of the jury, which supported the close range gunshot theory.
The jury also heard from the state's ballistic expert, Charles Hopkins,
who testified that a forty five caliber and a nine
millimeter we used in the Jamenez murder and were also
found in the possession of individuals who are affiliated with
(24:21):
the Martinezes.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
The guy that gets arrested with the forty five is
not connected to Raffi. The nine comes from Julian. We
spoke to Julian, and Julian specifically said he bought the
gun from Kubita, who was a member of Franklin Quavis's crew,
just like.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Juan Urina's identification of Franklin Quavis. The jury could and
should have benefited from this information, even though Julian never
said that at trial. Years later, he recanted, along with
Edwin Mottos and Jordan Pratt Pedro Santiago's testimony in another
case destroyed his credibility in this one. And then there's Iravinus.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Iravinus said that Raffi tape I don't know how many
kilos of cocaine on her and sent her to Switzerland.
And Raffi was in the Dominican Republic on the day
that happened, so the prosecutor had to concede that she
lied about that.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Airline tickets were presented to corroborate Raffi's alibi. In addition,
Iravinus testified about Raffi's alleged intentions to kill Jose Jimenez.
For her testimony, she received time served. And believe it
or not, the Jimenez murder investigation got even worse, but
we'll get to that later. Now the murder of Jose
Rees Julian testified about the alleged bounty. Santiago and Cologne
(25:30):
both testified about what they saw before and after, but
neither of them claimed to have seen the shooting, rather
that they had heard it from about a quarter of
a mile away.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
And Vetos Gonzalez Loyos Hee high next witness, and this
expel took the noise level from a weapon used in
the murder, and she came to the conclusion that it
was impossible for the cooperative witnesses to hear that shot
that ki Jose Reye all the way down there and
(26:01):
one fifty seven RII.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Which impeached these witnesses enough for the jury as Lorenzo
Martinez and Roberto Gonzales were acquitted of that murder. But unfortunately,
the attorney who Raphael's parents hired right before trial wasn't
afforded the time to tackle the broad scope of Raffi's charges.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Richard Jurampo gets hired during the pre trial hearing and
the judge refuses to give Richard Giampa an adjournment to
prepare for trial, so right after the pre trial hearing
they go into trial. And this is all Leslie Crocker's
stiter is doing. And when Richard Ciampa would fight with her,
she would punish him and admonish him him in front.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Of the jury, and Fernando Camacho also attacked him in
front of the jury.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
This is Camacho woting me te Giampa, the main has
being on the case for five months. I offered him
an opportunity to look at all the evidence. He makes
it thing like he's being blindsided. He simply thoroughly prepaire.
And you've seen these as an excules.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
How are you investigating during a four month long trial
while you're in court from nine to five getting sambaged.
There's no way he could have won. You don't know
that the witnesses are getting deals that aren't what they're
testifying to.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
And then there's the things that Giampa did know that
Julian Martinez had admitted that the cooperators were being coerced.
But when Judge Crackerschneider heard the recording, strangely, she took
issue with the recording, but not the unreliability of the
state's witnesses. Later, she accused Giampa of paranoid delusions. Yet
she's the one who suppressed one Urana's identification of an
(27:40):
alternate suspect.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Frankie Quavis. He gets murdered in nineteen ninety three. How
many other people does he's shoot and kill? They knew
that this guy was the one who killed him. It's
in a police report that he's the killer.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
So deprived of this kind of critical exculpatory information, the
deals received by cooperators, calling him a violent drug kingpin
while the crack epidemic continued outside the courthouse. It was
a fatal complay. So on April eighth, nineteen ninety three,
Raphael was predictably wrongly convicted of various drug and firearm charges,
(28:14):
also conspiracy, attempted murder and the murder of Jose Jimenez
and per Judge Cracker Snyder, the sentences were to run consecutively,
totaling two hundred and thirteen years to life.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
During this sentence in proceeding mister Gamache, this is him
talking for years how working, low aviving people have been
coming to this country and to how work they have
made it being a since Rafael Martine is also successful.
He was a multimillionaire by the age of twenty five.
(28:50):
But he didn't do it with sweat and how work.
He did it with violence and drags. He has taken
a wonderful concept and may it impure somehow Reshile Martins
built an empire on one city, sevenstry and he decided
that the black belonged to him and out of pure
(29:15):
hiero gain from nineteen sixty seven to nineteen ninety one,
when I got arrested nobody in this world. King said
(29:36):
that I raised my hand to be violanced for somebody.
Since ninety one to today, I am living in the
world's condition a human being can be placing this place
is violent. They are all type of rows, contravance weapons.
Over thirty two years, I have at now tending record
(29:58):
I have never raised my hand to help anyone.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Raphael also continued his education inside the walls, studying theology
and the law as Lorenzo and Isidoro fought their innocence
claims alongside them, but they didn't gain any traction on appeal.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
It's very difficult when you have the spending witnesses. I mean,
back in nineteen ninety nine, Is the Door Medina actually
obtained the first two recantations of the main cooperators.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
In nineteen ninety nine, Jorgan Pratt and Edwin Motto executed
a NAFIDVI about what they went through with the Digit
Attorney Office in order for Dane to cooperate on fabricue
this every day. In my case, all the benefit that
they got they were allowed to have sex inside the
(30:48):
Manhattan disc Attorney.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Out is the Door. Medina filed a post conviction motion
that got denied.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
In addition to Edwin Mottos and Jordan Pratt, Julian Martinez
also recanted in two thousand thirteen, which began a rethinking
of the crime scene. In addition, an eyewitness of the
temenous murder named Russell Harris Warren affidavit also naming Franklin Quavis,
and his description of the crime aligned perfectly with the
forensics as well.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
You know, Raffi files a blockbuster motion back in twenty
fifteen with recantations his alibi. This whole crime scene recreation
where the crime couldn't have happened the way Julian testified.
Nickeds thrown out, so I get involved. The summer of
twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Justin scoured through the trial transcripts and requested Raffi's files
from the Manhattan DIA's office, and he found two dd
fives or police reports that contradicted the state's theory at trial.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Those police reports contradicted the testimony of Jordan Pratt and Julian,
which is that Raffi commits this murder in the car
that's usually driven by the Martinez brothers, which was a
golden black colored car. There were two eye witnesses from above,
and they say the car that was in the area
was a white Toyota and those two d D fives
(32:03):
were not turned over a trial.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
And then looking at the Franklin Quavis, who was known
to have driven a white Toyota, it became clear that
he was affiliated with get this none other than the
leader of the Red Top Crew, Lenny Suppleveda, as well
as his associate jose Yaka.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
I sent my private investigator out to speak to Lenny
Suppleveda and jose Yaka, and Lenny, by the way, has
cooperated many times for the Manhattan District Attorney's office. Lenny
says that Franklin Quavis was a certified killer and Lenny
knew him. Back in eighty two, Frankie went to jail
for manslaughter, came home in nineteen eighty nine. Lenny set
(32:42):
him up with a block and some drugs, and a
part of Frankie's crew was a guy named Speedy. Speedy
gets killed in nineteen eighty nine, either before or after
Frankie comes home, and Speedy and Frankie were the same age.
They came up together and Frankie takes vengeance and jose
Yaka gives an affidavit where Jose the actor specifically says
that Frankie kills Chino.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Now, they had Franklin Craavis's motive, but what about Raffi's
alleged motive. Justin found the confidential informants DD five and
it turned out that this informant was actually an eyewitness.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
The problem with this individual for the government is that
essentially this individual says that they're there and that they
don't see Rafael Martinez at the scene. That's never turned
over to defense. The police follow up on this allegation
that Rafael Martinez and Josejmenez have a beef, that Jose
(33:35):
Jimenez is the one that shot Raffi in eighty seven
in another DD five, and they determined that there's no
substance to that allegation, so that Jose Jimenez was not
the guy that shoots Rafael Martinez in the head in
nineteen eighty seven. Okay, this is independent evidence that wasn't
turned over.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
So Raphael never had a motive. And with that, Justin
and his co counsul Oscar Michelin filed Raffi's initial four
to forty motion in December twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
The initial motion of Vacate is about Franklin how the
witnesses lied about the deals they got, and it's about
how the forensic evidence shows that the way that the
witnesses testified the crime happened did not happen that way.
But then what happened an explosion, Okay, I believe it
was April of twenty twenty one when Lorenzo bumped into
a guy and sing sing it said, hey, you know
(34:23):
the guy in your case that you allegedly murdered with
your brother, I did his appeal.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Yeah. This is how it gets even worse because, in
addition to Franklin Quavis, the Bronx DIA was also after
Josejmanez and his brother Raymond for the murder of Armando
Speedy Baiaz in nineteen eighty nine. And Josejmanez was clearly
not killed in October of nineteen ninety because he was
convicted in nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
And we get as a PELI brief and I'm like,
wait a second, this can't be the case. This is insane.
I do my due diligence, We get the indictment. We
then go to the Manhattan Dida's office. They they give
us more information that supports that the brother that's allegedly
dead is actually alive.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Justin and Oscar then received some of the Bronx the
ACE file for the Speedy Bias murder case.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
They gave us specific documents relating to the identity of
the brothers. Jose Jimenez's nickname was not Chino. Raymond Jimenez's
nickname was Chino. Jose Jimenez's nickname was Junior. Okay, It
made us look at the police reports all over again.
The actual initial police report says that Raymond Jimenez is
(35:37):
the one that's dead and not Jose Jimenez. And to
watch the changing of the name when you have this
confidential informant give up that Rafi has a beef Jose Amenez.
Now it's Jose Jimenez that's dead. It's outrageous.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Also in the Bronx file were all the details of
the Bias murder. How on May fourteenth, nineteen eighty nine,
Raymond Gino Jimenez handed his brother Jose Junior him as
a gun and Jose Junior fatally shot Armando Speedy Bias
in front of twenty four to twenty seven Webster Avenue
in the Bronx. The Jimenez brothers were indicted on August
third of eighty nine, but then the indictment changed when
(36:13):
Raymond Chino Jimenez was killed on October twenty ninth, nineteen
ninety and his brother Jose Junior identified the body the
next day. There was also documentation of why Jose Junior
was tried in absentia.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
At Jose heimenez a sentence in hearing in September nineteen
ninety one, there were two witnesses that came in that
gave affidavids that explained that Jose Heimenez ran from his
trial because he was terrified of the guys that killed
his brother.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Jose Junior also gave an affidavid on July twenty second,
nineteen ninety one to the same effect. Either way, Jose
Junior was alive, convicted, arrested, and sent away for twenty
five to life. And it appears that this should have
come to light before or during Raphi's trial.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
In the Middo de trial, oil as king wha or
say he made a creamin that repels say, oh, I
don't know if I can pull that up because he's
already dead, but I will check. I will let you know.
In the afternoon session he came back at one o'cloud
(37:19):
and say, oh, he has no creminal repel. Oh, say Jim,
and it was doing twenty five two lives in New
York State prisons. How do you wanna say he has
no criminal record.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Fernando Camacho is currently a judge out in Suffolk County,
Long Island. So it turns out that not only was
Jose Junior still alive when Raphael was tried in nineteen
eighty three, but also as far as we know, he's
still alive and well as we record this episode right
now in early spring of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
How I know Jose Hemanez is alive in a Dominican
Republic is through his direct appeal. And then you can
look him up on the New York State Himate locator
and it says deported twenty sixteen, which lines up perfectly
to him going in in September of nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
And yet no one was ever brought to justice for
his brother Raymond's murder.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
It's not like they don't have a body. They do
have a body, right, It's that they didn't care. They
built this narrative. At some point, whether it was willfully
or inadvertently, they made a mistake, and then they refused
to correct it. And then they framed Raffi and Lorenzo
and their uncle for the murder of a man that's alive.
(38:37):
The government has actually admitted, they've conceded that Jose Hemenez
is alive. Their position is that it's not material enough
to warrann a new trial.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Jesus, so the dead guy's alive And I'm completely at
a loss. How is the guy who was killed being alive?
How's that no material? I mean, I don't know what
else the DA's office could possibly need to see here. Yeah,
I'm a little boondoggled by this one, I gotta say.
And with that, we're going to go to closing arguments.
(39:12):
I'm going to thank you both for sharing this truly
insane story. It's literally unlike any other one we've ever done.
And now I'm going to just sit back in my
chair and just listen for anything else you want to
share with me in our amazing audience. We call this
section closing arguments. Just that I'm going to turn it
over to you for any takeaways you might have, and
(39:34):
then you turn it over to Rafi and he'll take
us off into the sunset.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
I don't know. Takeaways are the criminals run the justice system?
This is criminal and the question is how many people
were involved with it? Right? I mean you have all
these police officers, these cooperating witnesses that they knew were
testifying for. So you have a prosecutor who at the
very least was not sure who was dead. If you're
(40:00):
just not sure, say it, say I don't know, maybe
this was a mistaken identity. That's not what he did.
He doubled down on it. Meanwhile, Joseymane is a sitting
in stay prison. Everyone should be frightened at the power
of our government to prosecute people like this.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
I just would like to say to Abindrad, I have
so much respectful him, but I think he shouldn't be
a sail or hesitate to do the right thing in
my case, because anyone who knows me will see that
I am a fine person, very respectful, loving persons and
(40:38):
everybody is safe around may be because I am anything. I
was prosecuted for allegedly killing jose Jimene. We found that
he is alive. There is no reason to go anyfo
is over. I just care about being a free man.
Please just look at the everything every days and bifudal
(41:01):
law is what is going to side me see.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen
to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts one
week early by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on
Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our production team Connor
Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as my fellow executive
producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Cliburn. The music
in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated
(41:32):
composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us across all
social media platforms at Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction.
You can also follow me on Instagram at It's Jason Flamm.
Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts
and association with Signal Company Number one
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