May 9, 2024 • 39 mins
On the evening of June 7, 2011, police responded to a shooting at a gas station in Chicago, IL, and found one victim dead and another wounded. Relying on various conflicting statements from eyewitnesses, and questionable incoming tips, police focused on 18-year-old Darien Harris as their main suspect. Some eyewitnesses identified Darien in a photo line-up while others did not. Nevertheless Darien was sentenced to 76 years in prison for the shooting with no physical evidence tying him to the crime.
To learn more and get involved, visit:
https://www.change.org/p/governor-j-b-pritzker-grant-samuel-karim-executive-clemency
https://www.instagram.com/kingchucky_freedareal/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
On June seventh, twenty eleven, twenty three year old Rondel
Moore was driving down South Stony Island Avenue in Chicago
with his friend and his brother. Rondell was having car trouble,
so they pulled into a gas station. While Rondell and
another man looked under the hood, a black sedan pulled
into the lot. A gunman exited the sedan and opened
(00:26):
fire on Rondel's car. Two men were injured, and Rondel
Moore was fatally shot. An APB went out for a
black sedan in the area and a young man in
a black sedan was arrested. Eventually, that young man said
that he had dropped off someone nicknamed King Chucky at
the gas station. Police scoured social media and found Darien
(00:49):
Harris aka King Chucky, who was subsequently identified from a
lineup by three witnesses and sentenced to seventy six years.
But this is a wrongful conviction. Wrongful conviction has always
(01:09):
given voice to innocent people in prison, and now we're
expanding that voice to you. Call us at eight three, three,
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to help the cause, even if it's something as simple
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really appreciated hearing from our audience so much so that
(01:31):
we've included one of the messages at the end of
this episode. So stick around for that, and if you
have something to say, we definitely want to hear it,
and you might just hear yourself in a future episode.
Call us A three three, two oh seven, four six
sixty six. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction today's story. You're
(01:59):
going to be stunned at one particular aspect of this case.
That is like it would be more appropriate for a
movie that was set up as a comedy than something
so deadly serious as this case. It's my great honor
to introduce our two guests today. First of all, a
name fans of the show will recognize Lauren Myers Koff
(02:21):
Maller of the Exoneration Project in Illinois. Lauren, welcome back
to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Thank you so much. Jason, I'm excited to be back
with a newly released client.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Darien Harris. Darien, I'm so sorry for what you've been
through that brought you to this microphone today, but we're
honored to have you here as well.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, I appreciate you allowed me to be here on
your platform as well.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
So let's go back even before this murder that you
ended up being charged with. You're only eighteen at the time,
so there's not that much to even cover. But what
was your life like before this title wave of insanity?
Speaker 3 (02:59):
A family, good, supportive family, you know, but the sisters.
I was in high school, I was playing sports, you know.
I was living my life basically and just having a
good life, you know. And no matter what I was
doing while I was outside and having fun with my friends,
I wasn't doing no crams or nothing like that. I
was just being a typical teenager and just enjoying my life.
(03:20):
And I was set to graduate from high school the
week before I got locked up and I got to
set in to Georgia State.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Sounds like you had a pretty bright future. You were
into music as well, right, you.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Know, at the time, just being creative. We were just
raving about things we come up seeing and things like
homies might be doing something. Was just having fun, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Around that time, Darien appeared in a RapidIO with a
few other guys, some of them were tied up with gangs,
and it seems like gang tensions and the hand fisted
approach of the Cook County police were at play in
this wrong for conviction. There was a shooting on June seventh,
twenty eleven, at a gas station on South Stony Island Avenue.
If you're looking at it on a map, there's a
McDonald on the corner above it to the north, and
(04:02):
then Jackson Park across the street to the east. The
gas station is a rectangular lot with a depot at
the center, and just before eight thirty that evening, twenty
three year old Rondel Moore was fatally shot and found
towards the backside of the depot.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
The victim had gone to the gas station with some
friends and his brother. They were having issues with the
car and this black BMW comes into the parking lot.
What the police say happened is someone gets out of
the black car, goes over and shoots at the victim,
Rondell Moore, and then there are a few other people
(04:37):
who are shot. There's Marcus Diggs, Quincy Woollard, and then
the victim's brother, Ronald claimed that he was shot at,
but the video doesn't really bear that out. So Rondell
is the only one who is killed, and most of
the people said that they didn't see who was shooting.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Both Marcus Diggs and Quincy Wollard could not identify their shooter,
but Rondell's brother Ronald. The gas station attended Joe Tony
and two alleged witnesses, Dexter Saffold and Aaron Jones, all
later made identifications and gave their own versions of events. Luckily,
there was surveillance footage.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
There is surveillance video of the crime. You can't make
out much about the person committing the crime, you can't
see his face, but you can learn some details that
really helped to kind of unravel the case and show
what really happened.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
At fourteen seconds after eight twenty seven pm, a black
sedan pulled into the gas station from the north and
stopped at the south end, ready to pull back out
onto South Stony Island Avenue. The shooter got out of
the car and walked out a frame as he got
close to Rondell's car and shots were fired. All the
witnesses agreed that Rondell ran west toward the back of
(05:44):
the depot, and his friend Marcus Diggs ran north towards
the McDonald's at eight twenty seven forty seven. The shooter
also ran to the backside of the depot, then ten
seconds later ran to the south end of the lot,
where we're not sure if he got back into the
black sedan, but either way he fled south. The shooting
was reported on a few nine one one calls, including
(06:06):
from an alleged onlooker named Dexter Saffold and an APB
went out at eight thirty pm for a black sedan
and the police pulled one over in the area.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Now, initially, the brother of the victim ran to this
black car that was pulled over nearby, yelling you killed
my brother. You killed my brother. So they take that guy,
the driver, into custody, Aaron Jones.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
According to Ronald Moore's initial statement, the shooter had dark
skin of mohawk and fled in the black sedan. Aaron
Jones did not have a mohawk and was alone. Maybe
this was not the correct black sedan. Ronald later changed
his statement, saying that he just assumed that the shooter
got into the black sedan, which left Aaron Jones still
in suspicion of being connected to the shooter and right
(06:50):
for police coercion. As the investigation continued, the statements from
Aaron Jones, Ronald Moore, and Dexter Saffold all shifted each
time they spoke, leaving only one witness whose story remained consistent.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
The gas station attendant. His name was Jody Tony, and
so right away when the police came, they talked to
him and he said, I saw this happen. I know
who was the shooter because he was in the gas
station an hour before this happened and he was threatening
me and threatening to blow my head off. So I
saw him when he did this, and you know, I
could identify him.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Jody Tony was later called in to view a lineup.
In the meantime, investigators followed up with Dexter Saffold, who
had called nine to one one.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
So he witnesses a shooting, allegedly doesn't stick around back
at his apartment. They go to talk to him. He's
what they call an independent witness, so he's not tied
to any one. It's not like the brother, it's not
like someone who would have, you know, some kind of
motivation potentially to lie.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Strangely, Saffold made claims that are not supported by the
surveillance footage, and his statements changed along the way.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
And changed in important ways, including what the perpetrator was wearing.
He described the perpetrator's wearing a black shirt, all this stuff.
In the video you can see he's wearing like a
gray tank top or a light colored tank top. What
has hair looked like.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Saffold said that the shooter had his hair and twists,
meaning braids or dreads, which conflicts with Ronald Moore, who
said the shooter had worn a mohawk.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And one of the things about Dexter Saffold that the
video showed was that he claimed he was eighteen feet away,
but he was actually eighty feet away, and you can
see that because at some point right after the shooting happens,
you can see his scooter in the top of one
of the frames.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Saffold pulled into frame a full minute after the shooter
left the scene. So it's not clear what he saw,
if anything, including that the shooter ran right by him
while chasing the victim behind the station, which was contradicted
by the surveillance footage. And somehow there's room for Saffold
to become even more absurd, but we'll get to that later.
What's interesting is that even though Ronald Moore and Dexter
(08:53):
Saffold disagreed on the hair mohawk versus twists and then
later a low haircut, they agreed on the hype.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
A discription of the shoot was fast seven.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And does that describe you in any way?
Speaker 3 (09:07):
No, at the time I was six ' two. I
never had had a low headcut. They don't scrab me
it out.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Then the investigation received one more lead.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
From the police reports. A couple of people who were
close with the victim, Rondell. His girlfriend and one of
his friends both said that he had been shot at
a couple days prior by some people from the East
Block set of the gangster Disciples. So they said that
the guy who had shot at Rundell, that it was
(09:39):
this guy Dony.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Coincidentally, both Dooney and one of his known associates, a
guy nicknamed Slim, had appeared in a rap video with
Darien aka Kingchucky.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
You know I did music and shot music video, so
you know I was around these people or whatever.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
The brother of the victim, he brings this rap video
to the police and said someone said the shooter was
in here. And then ends up pointing out Darien.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
It appears this information made its way to Aaron Jones.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
He's being interrogated for murder. They get him to say
that it was someone named Slim at first. The next
day that changes to someone named Chucky.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
And then again Aaron Jones originally said, we looked just
like literally like when they showed a music video we
used to. I said, he like, do it look just like.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I don't know if there was some confusion from the
outset as to who it was because they were both
in this video, or it was just because Darien was
in a video with some guys that Rundell was feuding with.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Perhaps they're similar looking faces, had Ronald confused. After all,
there was this huge height discrepancy, and either way, the
investigators chose to ignore the Doony and Slim lead to
focus singularly on Darien, who had no record and therefore
no photos in the system. So they pulled pictures from
social media and got Aaron Jones to identify Darien as
(11:03):
the man who had flagged him down for a ride
to the gas station, which was enough for the rest warrant.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
They came to a mom crib like, hey were looking
for your son. He's been implicated in the murder. And
she called me like, what did you do? Did you
do anything? I'm like, I ain't doing nothing. She was like, well,
let's they want to talk to him, Like, okay, let's
go talk home. Got none to had, and I got
me a lawyer and I went down there and they
tried to talk to me, and I told him I
have none to say because I don't know nothing, and
y'all nothing to create something off of what me saying,
(11:31):
so therefore I have nothing to say. I'm with my
lawyer and.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
You're doing exactly well. I think any good lawyer would
recommend that they do people do more or less what
you did, which you say, I'm not talking and I
want a lawyer.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
She came down there and she was like, don't say nothing,
and they ain't want to talk to me because I
ain't want to talk to them. And then she left,
and then they tried to bring me and put me
in a lineup, and I was like, I don't want
to go into land up without my lawyer. They was like,
you have to go on the line up, and I
went in like three full lineups and I remember one
line up, I was number three. They said it was
number five and then never came up, and they put
(12:03):
me in to suggest Atlanta. I'm in Atlanta. I'm the
only person as young with no facial everybody else older
than me and everything. So it's it's like if y'all
giving a description of something, look he's right here.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
So with his own potential murder charges Aaron Jones again,
I d Darien and then they dragged in the gas
station attended Jody Tony.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
When they brought himTo the station, they showed him a
picture of Darien and said, you know, this is the
guy we have as a shooter, and he said that
is not the shooter. They had him look at the lineup.
He did not pick out dary and he said the
shooter is not in that lineup, and they tried to
get him to identify Dariy and he said he wouldn't
do it, and they tried to pressure him and all
of that, and he wouldn't do it. He was never
called a trial. So we later got an affidavid from
(12:47):
him where he identifies who the actual shooter.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Was, but that was many years later. For now, Jody
Tony was ignored for Dexter Saffold and the victim's brother,
Ronald Moore. Despite saffold stubious accounts, the police valued his
id and then Ronald. Why would the brother of the
victim id someone that doesn't match his own initial description
(13:11):
both height and hair.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Sometimes in the streets like guys or rather lead other
guys out there.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
We've had that in several cases where when we find
out why they implicated the wrong person, it was because
they wanted to take care of it themselves.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
He put me in a situation because you feel like,
ba't me not doing it? They would have let me go.
But that's not how the system works here. Once they
get any type of name, they don't care to do
their job to make sure the case is closed. They
just make up create things to get you out the way.
And that's why so many guys that's wrongfully convicted, that's
in the conserrated right now because police don't do their
(13:47):
job and the state's attorney don't care, and they get immunity.
So you think they care if they create a situation
just to make somebody go to jail just to close
their case, they don't.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
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Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah. I was in the police station for about two days.
Then I was taken to Cook County and process. Then
I wasn't prepared for it, but in a way I
had a little bit of street smarts because you know
that's where I come from. You know, this is my neighborhood,
is how to grow up. But the gym's around about
real grown me in fighting, real murders too, And they
got knaves and they game banging and gang fights go on,
(14:50):
drug dealing going on, and rapes going on. So you
have to learn to adapt to your surroundings situation of
what's going on. Or get you get cute, you get rip,
you get beat up, you get extoreded. And that's how Jill.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Is sounds like hell on Earth. And so there you are.
What did they set bail? You never saw the streets again.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
They didnam on bonn and said I was a minister society,
I shouldn't be let out on the streets. And I
never called a case of damn my life. I bet
you've been arrested. I was encountered three years three years.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Jesus Christ Darien was charged with aggravated battery with a firearm,
attempted murder, and first degree murder, and at the grand jury, Jones, Moore,
and Saffold reaffirmed their identifications. But now Ronald said that
he saw Jones drop Darien off at the gas station
and then leave, so a new inconsistency. And then he
(15:44):
said that he recognized Darien from this rap video, even
though we know that he hadn't seen that video until
after the shooting.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
There were a ton of issues with his identification. He
initially accused someone else and then he also was in
the backseat of his car and claimed the shooter pointed
the gun at him, but the video shows that the
shooter didn't point the gun at him, So there are
a ton of issues with him and with his testimony.
The brothers' statements and dexter saffold statements, those changed every
(16:14):
time they told what happened.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
This time, Saffold said that he had chased after the
shooter on his scooter, which is not supported by the video.
But importantly, Saffold explained why he wrote a Scooter that
his diabetes had caused a stroke, and we'll get to
why that's important later. At Darien's bench trial in front
of Judge Nicholas Ford.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
This judge is notorious in the end, was run off
the bench in Cook County because of his actions in
a lot of cases, and then he ended up a
Trump appointee an immigration judge in California and was run
off the bench there for being racist, ableist, etc. And
(16:56):
so he's currently not a judge, but he has a
long history of problems with his judicial conduct.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Darien's bench trou began in March of twenty fourteen. Again
Ronald Moore testified about seeing Jones drop Darien off and
leave that he recognized Darien from the rap video, and
then he made an in court identification. Next up was
Aaron Jones, but that didn't go as a prosecution had planned.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
He starts testifying and then he immediately recants and he says,
you know what, man, fuck this. None of this happened.
The police made me say this. They threatened me. What
would you do. I had a newborn baby. Darien was
never in my car. This never happened. And the judge says,
I'm holding you in direct contempt just because he's recanting,
Maybe because he's cursing. I don't know. The state had
(17:46):
not asked him to hold Aaron Jones in contempt. But
Aaron Jones says, do whatever you need to do to me, man,
I don't care anymore. This is wrong. So that basically
ends the state's questioning of him.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
During the crossing examination, mister Jones elaborated, saying that the
police had told him what to say or he would
quote rot in prison for the rest of his life.
Jes said that the police showed him your photograph there
and told him to pick you as the gunman, of
course Jones. The detective then testifies that he interviewed them
multiple times and never threatened them. But what we expect you.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Have Aaron Jones, They said, the police officer, Devin Jones
can hurst him to say what he said. You have
the aud witness from the gas station, Jody Tunya. They
said that Devin Jones can hurst him to say what
he said. You got the victim's brother. This original statement
did the shooter was fast seven and all that, But
he changed the statement once he talked to detective Devin Jones.
So you have to say, Alficer basically colhurst him into
(18:45):
what to say with this overlooked.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Though, then the state put on Dexter Saffold, who appears
to be a willing participant in story time with Detective
Devin Jones. But that's even worse than that.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
As he's testifying, the defense council asks him about his
vision because he's diabetic and there are often vision issues
with that, and he starts looking at the state and
this is all on the record, it's in the transcripts,
and the defense council says to the judge, can you
order him to answer? He keeps looking at the state
and the witness. Dexter says, I thought that medical was
(19:20):
supposed to be private. The judge said, well, usually it is,
but your ability to see is critical to the case,
so you have to answer. And he says he doesn't
have any vision issues. And that's where the case really unraveled,
because on post conviction is discovered that he at the
time was permanently and legally blind.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
At the state's attorney KNWDA, this person was legally bland.
So he said, I thought my medical was private. How
did he know that his medical was private? I mean
he told him that.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
But neither the defense nor the judge knew that, as
was made abundantly clear by Judge Ford's closing statement as
he sentenced Darien to seventy six years.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
He said aloud that he don't believe nobody else. He's
based in this fan based on the old man. That's
yourself of testimony. You have an old man that seems credible,
that seems honest, like he said, and he don't have
nothing to rebut what he's saying. And at the time
the judge didn't know that he was legally blind. He
(20:17):
went on record to say that he trust this person,
and y'all knew this person was legally blind. Y'all made
him look like an asshole. And my out day was
twenty eighty two. And it's like that's a hard pill
to swallow. It's like, Wow, I'm really sentenced to seventy
six years for a crime I didn't commit. You hear
(20:51):
so much about prison, like I was paranoid. I was
going through so much because I'm like, only, first of all,
there supposed to be in here. The second of all,
these are a living dish. Is like I understand that
I'm convicted of a crime at the end of damn human.
This is not how you should treat humans. They send
me the pontiac. I was a pontiac for three months.
That's what mentally a lot of people, they ain't never
coming back. That's what.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Like gas.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
They cut their stomach up and rip their tests out.
They stick chicken bones and they dick hole and try
to piss and their stomach blow up. They be on
the yard, they play with feces, They put feces in
their mouth shit and they mouth and spit it on
each other. They go outside with a plastic bag full
of shit and be squirting it back and forth on
each other like it's wow down there, Like it be
(21:35):
men having sex on the yard, like it's wow down there.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
It's hard to bathom that this shit goes on in
this country, but it's going on right now. It's really
sickening the whole freaking thing. So I don't know how
the hell you managed to maintain your sanity, but I'm
glad you did. And now I want to hear about
how the hell you manage to find a way out,
because that's the miracle, right. I mean, we never hear
about the guys who lost their minds in there, who
(22:00):
gave up, Oh, who did drugs or killed themselves or
got killed. Right, there's a lot of innocent guys that
fit that category. But then there's guys like you who
somehow or other found the strength to reach out. Well.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
I had a mentor of His name is Samuel Kareem,
and he had life in jail. So coming into that
sale with him, you know, I know he was real
good with the loss. I gave him my paperwork and
he started reading and he only read like the first
sixty pages. Was like, I don't have to read it
no more. And say why he said, because that's your
way out of jail. Man. That man led he can't see.
I'm like, how do you know that? He said, because
(22:34):
I'm a diabetic. He landed back the ability to see.
That's why he was stuttering. I'm like, I don't know
what you're telling me about whatever, and I blew it off.
And then afterwards I asked him like, hey, you gonna
read like I don't have to read no more. So
I'm like, all right, whatever, we I'm gonna let my
lawyer take care of it. Then, and that's when he
started giving me cases and I didn't. I read them,
but I didn't comprehend what I was reading. So that's
(22:55):
when he went to his mentor, Michael Sullivan told him, like, man,
you got to teach him how to be a man first,
because he won't comprehend what he reading until you teach
him a different way of life. So therefore he doubled
back and we start having long conversations, and that's when
he started teaching me how to be a man. He
started teaching me about responsibilities, economics, politics, financial stability, emotional stability,
(23:19):
mental stability, ways of life, the worth of a woman,
everything that I need to succeed in life as a man,
to grow and also to found my purpose in life
as well, and that's where I started at. Then that's
when I doubled back on the legal work and he
gave me a black auditionary and I started reading legal work,
and his way of teaching me was comparing it to
(23:40):
real life situations, and that's how I started understanding. So
he made me order my discovery and they gave my
discovery redacted because they can't give it to me unredacted.
And I sat there and I went through every piece
of paperwork, and that's when I found the gas station attendant,
Jody Tony, I found a lot of more things, and
that's when I started writing a lot of lawyers. And
(24:00):
Jody Garvey wrote.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Me back, and I believe Darien. You told you were
a Pellet lawyer. What Samuel said that Dexter Staffold was blind.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
My new lawyer, Jody Garvey went to Dester Staffold and say,
pointed out right now in Atlanta, up with the private vestigat.
He said, I can't I need a special apparatus that
magnifies the image on the paper. That means that in
the police station they had to give you a special apparatus,
or they circled and told you what to say. At trial,
you know, they give you the paper and they say
do you recognize his paper? He post a look at
(24:30):
the paper and say yes, is that your signature? Yes?
Is that what you wrote? Repeat what you wrote? Which
number pigeons to circle out? How did he do all
that in court with no special apparatus? That shows you
that he was conhearsed in the back on what to say.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
But despite Dexter Saffold's blindness as well as Jody Tony,
Darien's conviction was affirmed on appeal. Then Darien met Lauren
around twenty nineteen, who was able to find more new evidence,
starting with Dexter Saffold's litigation history.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Dexter Staffold had filed so many discrimination lawsuits basically alleging
that different organizations, colleges, whatever, had discriminated against him because
of being blind. So he had attached to these lawsuits
his own vision records, medical records related to his blindness
(25:18):
over the span. I mean he was filing these starting
back in like two thousand and two till twenty twenty
one maybe after, and attaching all this stuff to prove
he was blind. So that's where we got the evidence
that he was blind. It was from his own filings.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
In February twenty twenty two, Lauren and Jody Garvey filed
a post conviction petition to vacate Darien's conviction, and they
attached a report from an ophthalmologist and professor doctor Vina Raigi,
who determined that Saffold had advanced glaucoma by twenty eleven
and had less than five degrees of central vision in
(25:54):
both eyes and in addition to his legal blindness, the
time of day that this shooting occurred, made Saffold even
less reliable.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Jody Garby had already gotten some halfa davids from an
investigator had talked to Dexter Saffold, and he told the
investigator that he had told the prosecution about his vision issues.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
So it appears the prosecution knowingly put on a blind eyewitness,
and then when he purjured himself about his ability to see,
they did not bother to correct the record. Lauren also
sought the help of doctor and Nancy.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Franklin, an eyewitness expert, to show all of the issues.
Any sort of police coergion what made any sort of
identification in this case unreliable from the get go, regardless
of blindness, although that obviously played a big role. Also,
Jody Garby had already gotten some HALFI davids from Darien's
girlfriend at the time, who was his alibi witness, confirming
(26:49):
that he was at home watching the NBA finals, affi
davits from Jody Tony like I said, he was confirming
that it wasn't Darien, and he identified the actual shooter.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Tony, the gas station attendant, the only eyewitness whose statements
didn't shift with the police narrative, said that the shooter
had come into the station before the shooting and threatened him,
and he identified him from a photo. It was a
young man named Devonte Pippen aka Slim, who not only
appeared in the rap video but was also later a
victim of gang violence in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
So we had all this evidence, it was already such
a thin case. No physical evidence ever tied Darien to
the crime. The description just didn't even match. The judge
didn't hear from Jody Tony, who had always said he
could see it and he knew who did it, and
it always said it wasn't Darien. So all of this
just really put it over the edge. So this is
(27:42):
December fifth, twenty twenty three. We go to court and
they agree to v kate Darien's conviction based on all
the evidence presented in the post conviction petition. But they're
going to retry him and they want him held without bond.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Again.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
What they were going to retry him with is beyond me.
I don't know what their plan was. They never told
me if they were planning to call the blind eyewitness
again or what the plan was there. But that's when Jason,
that's when you got involved because.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Well, I feel very grateful that I was in the
right place at the right time, and that I have,
you know, a real lasting friendship with Kim Fox, who's
been doing her level best against powerful forces that are
lined against her. And you know, her job is no picnic,
trust me, but you know, it happens that she's got
(28:32):
such a big office, so many you know, adas and
others working for her that sometimes one of them just
you know, probably many of them don't share her vision
or her convictions. For lack of a better word. Of course,
when Kim heard about this case, she did the right thing.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
I get a call, I think the very next day
saying that they are not going to move forward with
the case, and they were very apologetic about it. We
were already doing up in court December nineteenth, twenty twenty three,
to argue some bond issues.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
When I came to court, now I was thinking it's
a regular court day. Lauren came up like, soy, you
had the good news, and I was like, yeah, what
they gonna give me a bond or something. She was like, no,
They're gonna throw everything out. And I was like, like
I was shocked, Like I ain't even believe it, and
I was just like, wow, I really didn't feel real
at all.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
You know, Darien has been out just a few months
now and is you know, trying to rebuild his life
and put everything back together after so many years gone.
And you know, I'm he can talk about it. I mean,
it's a struggle for all of our clients to do that,
so we're just trying to do what we can to
(29:44):
help them with that. We filed for a certificate of innocence,
so we'll keep you posted on that on our end.
But you know, he's working through everything.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
When you've been going so long, you've been removed from society,
you've been moved from the world that you once knew.
Me coming home personally, I'm in a whole new world
for me to be free. It don't feel like I'm
free because mentally it's hard for me to understand and
adapt to what's going on. Because I got out of
jail with nothing, and I had slight a little small donations, yeah,
(30:16):
from the company that Lauren put me into it where
they gave me two thousand dollars and things like that.
You know, that's cool, that's helpful. But while I was
at in maximum penitentiaries. I couldn't take no trades for electrician, plumbing,
ac construction, nothing, So what do I come home with.
I can't come home with no degrees, no school out
(30:36):
of nothing. So the only things that I know is
the things that I took the time after studying those books.
That's the only things that I know. But it takes
money to make that type of money. And they put
us in these situations hoping that we do reoffend. That's
why they put us out here like this. Why not
put us out and say, and we got jobs waiting
on y'all, good jobs, not no twelve thirteen dollars an
(30:57):
hour job, because as a grown man, especially with kids,
what is that going to pay? We need real jobs,
we need real help, and we don't have that.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
To preaching today. I'll tell you that much. And and
we appreciate it. We need to hear this stuff. And
what's the name again? This is a real hero in
this case. Another one is your mentor what was his
name again?
Speaker 3 (31:17):
His name is Samuel Kareem ka R I M. He's
currently located in Stateville Correctional Center. And honestly, that's the
guy that changed me. That's the guy that I'm fighting
to get out of jail because he's the smartest man
I ever met. He has a training out of mask
all day every day, he read his books, study case law.
(31:37):
He grows man so much. Just the type of man
that we need out here in these communities to start
changing things, to start creating opportunities not only for us,
but for everybody as a whole, where we come together
as one. That's what we lack coming up. We lack
role models, we lack positive man in our life and
things like that.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Darren asked that we win in competition for clemency for
his mentor, Samuel Kareem, So we're going to have that
length in the episode description. And in addition to his advocacy,
Darien is making music, also starting a nonprofit and launching a.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Podcast, Justice is Blind. It's a podcast for me to
give a platform to everybody that's incoscerated all over the
world to call in and tell their story, rather they
was wrongfully convicted, or the trauma that they're going through
a jail all the way the police treating them, or
they just want to be heard because in jail, with
our silence and don't nobody listen to us, don't nobody
give us a chance. Everybody look at us as criminals,
(32:31):
but everybody in jail not bad people. People could change.
A sin is a sining, a crime is a crime.
People may have committed their crimes and people may have
done their things, but at the end of the day,
they're human, They make mistakes. Give them a chance to
write they wrong. So that's when I'm creating this platform
for them, guys in jail to speak out and to
have a voice. And also I'm starting um for perfect
Call surviving a struggle for guys that's incarcerated as well
(32:54):
the partner or with the law firm and everybody that's
wrongfully convicted I had their case over would look to
have their case tooking so they can have legal support.
And also I'm going to create programs link up with
people to have construction, electrician, plumbing, everything of that nature,
so when guys get out of jail, they have a
good job to come home too. And trying to find
(33:17):
a way to find them like affordable has look at
like a house of complex or something for a gas
to state that don't have nowhere to go. Everything is
currently in the making right now, should be done within
the next few months, but you can follow me on
Instagram at k at n g c ch u Cky
Underscore fr E d A R e A L. And
(33:39):
I have a go fundme which is called Justice is Blind,
or you just put in Dariel Harriy's and support me
and my cars to just help me out with living
expenses and for the non for profit.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Well, we're gonna link your Instagram and the GoFundMe as well,
and with that we're gonna go to my favorite part
of the show where first of all, I think both
of you, Lauren and Darien, you're both heroes to me
and so many other people, and so I appreciate you
joining us here today. And now I'm just going to
kick back in my chair with my microphone off and
just listen to anything else you feel is left to
(34:14):
be said. So Lauren, tradition holes that you go first,
and Darien you take us off into the sunset.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I just hope that people listen to this episode and
they take away from the fact that this kind of
thing can really happen to anyone. Darien had never committed
a crime, he had never been arrested. He was a
good kid. The only thing was where he lived. I mean,
he got picked up just by virtue of living in
a certain neighborhood, being a certain color, and the evidence
(34:42):
was made to fit him. And he had a really
bright future in front of him that was stolen from him,
and he lost out on so much time that he
is never going to get back in very very formative years.
We are actually very lucky in his case, which is
crazy to say that we were able to get him
out when he can still build a life and build
(35:04):
a family. And Darien wants I think last count sixteen
kids crazy. He wants a lot of children. We'll see
after he has one how he feels about that. But
he'll be a wonderful dad. He has so many things
he wants to do to change the world, and he's
already starting to do it. And I'm just so proud
to know him, and i can't wait to see all
the things that he's going to accomplish. Someone with the
(35:27):
kind of light that Darien has, they can't keep that
down and they can't snuff it out. So I'm just
so grateful to be here today with him and to
be a witness to his life.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
I just want to say that I appreciate Lauren the
most because she stepped in and did everything and just
still on the business for real. And Jody Garf, he
helped me out a lot as well. And I just
want to let everybody know that everything that I'm doing
to help free to jails and those people that's growfully
and convicted, or even the people that is serving a
town doing this for the black families and the mothers
(36:00):
that have to go through this because they are incarcerated
as well. You know, they're not the only people that's concerated.
And I understand what it means to be in jail
and be stereotypes. So if I can get out and
show them that all black people that come from jail
not this and not that, I want to become that
stereotype to show them like we not that type of people.
Like it's people that can actually change. It's people that
(36:22):
can come from where I come from and make better
themselves as well and be not all the same. You know,
it's actually good people still left in this world. I'm
just looking to help everybody. I know my purpose in
life is to help people, So I'm gonna follow my
purpose and chase my dreams. I'm gonna continue to help
everybody and do everything I gotta do and make a
positive change. I'm just gonna continue to stick to doing me.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Thank you for listening to Wrong for 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
(37:10):
nominated 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.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
Hi. My name is Amanda Graham. I've written down what
I want to say so I don't start rambling. But
I began listening to Wrongful Conviction about exactly eight year ago.
I was on a hunt for a new podcast to
binge on, and I became hooked. I was so shocked
by these stories. The story that changed my life, though,
was episode three forty eight with Zabian Johnson. At this
(37:53):
same time that this aired, an old high school friend
of mine was on her second trial for the death
of an infant in her care. From the day I
heard she was arrested, I knew in my guts no
way she would hurt a baby, and I believed there
had to be some other explanation. So suddenly things began
making sense to me. I'm actually an RN, and so
(38:14):
I questioned everything I had been taught about SBS and
began plummeting into research. I spent hours and hours and hours.
I made a binder with highlighted points, case files with
similar details, a list of ways convictions were overturned. I
listened to every podcast about every case I could find.
I passed on what I had learned to Ali, the defendant,
(38:36):
but it was too late. The trial had already began.
She was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to
fifty years in prison. There is so much that is
wrong in this case. This sparked a fire in me.
I closed and sold my business. I got a certificate
in legal nurse consulting from the University of Georgia. I
provided her new attorney with data and case information. I've
(38:58):
spoken out publicly in her defense, and I'm hoping in
some way to be able to help other people who
have been wrongfully convicted of murder by shaking baby syndrome
and change the way these cases are handled. Your podcasting
connection to this case has truly changed my life.
On June seventh, twenty eleven, twenty three year old Rondel
Moore was driving down South Stony Island Avenue in Chicago
with his friend and his brother. Rondell was having car trouble,
so they pulled into a gas station. While Rondell and
another man looked under the hood, a black sedan pulled
into the lot. A gunman exited the sedan and opened
(00:26):
fire on Rondel's car. Two men were injured, and Rondel
Moore was fatally shot. An APB went out for a
black sedan in the area and a young man in
a black sedan was arrested. Eventually, that young man said
that he had dropped off someone nicknamed King Chucky at
the gas station. Police scoured social media and found Darien
(00:49):
Harris aka King Chucky, who was subsequently identified from a
lineup by three witnesses and sentenced to seventy six years.
But this is a wrongful conviction. Wrongful conviction has always
(01:09):
given voice to innocent people in prison, and now we're
expanding that voice to you. Call us at eight three, three,
two oh seven, four six sixty six and tell us
how these stories make you feel and what you've done
to help the cause, even if it's something as simple
as telling a friend or sharing on social media. We've
really appreciated hearing from our audience so much so that
(01:31):
we've included one of the messages at the end of
this episode. So stick around for that, and if you
have something to say, we definitely want to hear it,
and you might just hear yourself in a future episode.
Call us A three three, two oh seven, four six
sixty six. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction today's story. You're
(01:59):
going to be stunned at one particular aspect of this case.
That is like it would be more appropriate for a
movie that was set up as a comedy than something
so deadly serious as this case. It's my great honor
to introduce our two guests today. First of all, a
name fans of the show will recognize Lauren Myers Koff
(02:21):
Maller of the Exoneration Project in Illinois. Lauren, welcome back
to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Thank you so much. Jason, I'm excited to be back
with a newly released client.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Darien Harris. Darien, I'm so sorry for what you've been
through that brought you to this microphone today, but we're
honored to have you here as well.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, I appreciate you allowed me to be here on
your platform as well.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
So let's go back even before this murder that you
ended up being charged with. You're only eighteen at the time,
so there's not that much to even cover. But what
was your life like before this title wave of insanity?
Speaker 3 (02:59):
A family, good, supportive family, you know, but the sisters.
I was in high school, I was playing sports, you know.
I was living my life basically and just having a
good life, you know. And no matter what I was
doing while I was outside and having fun with my friends,
I wasn't doing no crams or nothing like that. I
was just being a typical teenager and just enjoying my life.
(03:20):
And I was set to graduate from high school the
week before I got locked up and I got to
set in to Georgia State.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Sounds like you had a pretty bright future. You were
into music as well, right, you.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Know, at the time, just being creative. We were just
raving about things we come up seeing and things like
homies might be doing something. Was just having fun, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Around that time, Darien appeared in a RapidIO with a
few other guys, some of them were tied up with gangs,
and it seems like gang tensions and the hand fisted
approach of the Cook County police were at play in
this wrong for conviction. There was a shooting on June seventh,
twenty eleven, at a gas station on South Stony Island Avenue.
If you're looking at it on a map, there's a
McDonald on the corner above it to the north, and
(04:02):
then Jackson Park across the street to the east. The
gas station is a rectangular lot with a depot at
the center, and just before eight thirty that evening, twenty
three year old Rondel Moore was fatally shot and found
towards the backside of the depot.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
The victim had gone to the gas station with some
friends and his brother. They were having issues with the
car and this black BMW comes into the parking lot.
What the police say happened is someone gets out of
the black car, goes over and shoots at the victim,
Rondell Moore, and then there are a few other people
(04:37):
who are shot. There's Marcus Diggs, Quincy Woollard, and then
the victim's brother, Ronald claimed that he was shot at,
but the video doesn't really bear that out. So Rondell
is the only one who is killed, and most of
the people said that they didn't see who was shooting.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Both Marcus Diggs and Quincy Wollard could not identify their shooter,
but Rondell's brother Ronald. The gas station attended Joe Tony
and two alleged witnesses, Dexter Saffold and Aaron Jones, all
later made identifications and gave their own versions of events. Luckily,
there was surveillance footage.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
There is surveillance video of the crime. You can't make
out much about the person committing the crime, you can't
see his face, but you can learn some details that
really helped to kind of unravel the case and show
what really happened.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
At fourteen seconds after eight twenty seven pm, a black
sedan pulled into the gas station from the north and
stopped at the south end, ready to pull back out
onto South Stony Island Avenue. The shooter got out of
the car and walked out a frame as he got
close to Rondell's car and shots were fired. All the
witnesses agreed that Rondell ran west toward the back of
(05:44):
the depot, and his friend Marcus Diggs ran north towards
the McDonald's at eight twenty seven forty seven. The shooter
also ran to the backside of the depot, then ten
seconds later ran to the south end of the lot,
where we're not sure if he got back into the
black sedan, but either way he fled south. The shooting
was reported on a few nine one one calls, including
(06:06):
from an alleged onlooker named Dexter Saffold and an APB
went out at eight thirty pm for a black sedan
and the police pulled one over in the area.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Now, initially, the brother of the victim ran to this
black car that was pulled over nearby, yelling you killed
my brother. You killed my brother. So they take that guy,
the driver, into custody, Aaron Jones.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
According to Ronald Moore's initial statement, the shooter had dark
skin of mohawk and fled in the black sedan. Aaron
Jones did not have a mohawk and was alone. Maybe
this was not the correct black sedan. Ronald later changed
his statement, saying that he just assumed that the shooter
got into the black sedan, which left Aaron Jones still
in suspicion of being connected to the shooter and right
(06:50):
for police coercion. As the investigation continued, the statements from
Aaron Jones, Ronald Moore, and Dexter Saffold all shifted each
time they spoke, leaving only one witness whose story remained consistent.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
The gas station attendant. His name was Jody Tony, and
so right away when the police came, they talked to
him and he said, I saw this happen. I know
who was the shooter because he was in the gas
station an hour before this happened and he was threatening
me and threatening to blow my head off. So I
saw him when he did this, and you know, I
could identify him.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Jody Tony was later called in to view a lineup.
In the meantime, investigators followed up with Dexter Saffold, who
had called nine to one one.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
So he witnesses a shooting, allegedly doesn't stick around back
at his apartment. They go to talk to him. He's
what they call an independent witness, so he's not tied
to any one. It's not like the brother, it's not
like someone who would have, you know, some kind of
motivation potentially to lie.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Strangely, Saffold made claims that are not supported by the
surveillance footage, and his statements changed along the way.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
And changed in important ways, including what the perpetrator was wearing.
He described the perpetrator's wearing a black shirt, all this stuff.
In the video you can see he's wearing like a
gray tank top or a light colored tank top. What
has hair looked like.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Saffold said that the shooter had his hair and twists,
meaning braids or dreads, which conflicts with Ronald Moore, who
said the shooter had worn a mohawk.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And one of the things about Dexter Saffold that the
video showed was that he claimed he was eighteen feet away,
but he was actually eighty feet away, and you can
see that because at some point right after the shooting happens,
you can see his scooter in the top of one
of the frames.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Saffold pulled into frame a full minute after the shooter
left the scene. So it's not clear what he saw,
if anything, including that the shooter ran right by him
while chasing the victim behind the station, which was contradicted
by the surveillance footage. And somehow there's room for Saffold
to become even more absurd, but we'll get to that later.
What's interesting is that even though Ronald Moore and Dexter
(08:53):
Saffold disagreed on the hair mohawk versus twists and then
later a low haircut, they agreed on the hype.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
A discription of the shoot was fast seven.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And does that describe you in any way?
Speaker 3 (09:07):
No, at the time I was six ' two. I
never had had a low headcut. They don't scrab me
it out.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Then the investigation received one more lead.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
From the police reports. A couple of people who were
close with the victim, Rondell. His girlfriend and one of
his friends both said that he had been shot at
a couple days prior by some people from the East
Block set of the gangster Disciples. So they said that
the guy who had shot at Rundell, that it was
(09:39):
this guy Dony.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Coincidentally, both Dooney and one of his known associates, a
guy nicknamed Slim, had appeared in a rap video with
Darien aka Kingchucky.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
You know I did music and shot music video, so
you know I was around these people or whatever.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
The brother of the victim, he brings this rap video
to the police and said someone said the shooter was
in here. And then ends up pointing out Darien.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
It appears this information made its way to Aaron Jones.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
He's being interrogated for murder. They get him to say
that it was someone named Slim at first. The next
day that changes to someone named Chucky.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
And then again Aaron Jones originally said, we looked just
like literally like when they showed a music video we
used to. I said, he like, do it look just like.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I don't know if there was some confusion from the
outset as to who it was because they were both
in this video, or it was just because Darien was
in a video with some guys that Rundell was feuding with.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Perhaps they're similar looking faces, had Ronald confused. After all,
there was this huge height discrepancy, and either way, the
investigators chose to ignore the Doony and Slim lead to
focus singularly on Darien, who had no record and therefore
no photos in the system. So they pulled pictures from
social media and got Aaron Jones to identify Darien as
(11:03):
the man who had flagged him down for a ride
to the gas station, which was enough for the rest warrant.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
They came to a mom crib like, hey were looking
for your son. He's been implicated in the murder. And
she called me like, what did you do? Did you
do anything? I'm like, I ain't doing nothing. She was like, well,
let's they want to talk to him, Like, okay, let's
go talk home. Got none to had, and I got
me a lawyer and I went down there and they
tried to talk to me, and I told him I
have none to say because I don't know nothing, and
y'all nothing to create something off of what me saying,
(11:31):
so therefore I have nothing to say. I'm with my
lawyer and.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
You're doing exactly well. I think any good lawyer would
recommend that they do people do more or less what
you did, which you say, I'm not talking and I
want a lawyer.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
She came down there and she was like, don't say nothing,
and they ain't want to talk to me because I
ain't want to talk to them. And then she left,
and then they tried to bring me and put me
in a lineup, and I was like, I don't want
to go into land up without my lawyer. They was like,
you have to go on the line up, and I
went in like three full lineups and I remember one
line up, I was number three. They said it was
number five and then never came up, and they put
(12:03):
me in to suggest Atlanta. I'm in Atlanta. I'm the
only person as young with no facial everybody else older
than me and everything. So it's it's like if y'all
giving a description of something, look he's right here.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
So with his own potential murder charges Aaron Jones again,
I d Darien and then they dragged in the gas
station attended Jody Tony.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
When they brought himTo the station, they showed him a
picture of Darien and said, you know, this is the
guy we have as a shooter, and he said that
is not the shooter. They had him look at the lineup.
He did not pick out dary and he said the
shooter is not in that lineup, and they tried to
get him to identify Dariy and he said he wouldn't
do it, and they tried to pressure him and all
of that, and he wouldn't do it. He was never
called a trial. So we later got an affidavid from
(12:47):
him where he identifies who the actual shooter.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Was, but that was many years later. For now, Jody
Tony was ignored for Dexter Saffold and the victim's brother,
Ronald Moore. Despite saffold stubious accounts, the police valued his
id and then Ronald. Why would the brother of the
victim id someone that doesn't match his own initial description
(13:11):
both height and hair.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Sometimes in the streets like guys or rather lead other
guys out there.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
We've had that in several cases where when we find
out why they implicated the wrong person, it was because
they wanted to take care of it themselves.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
He put me in a situation because you feel like,
ba't me not doing it? They would have let me go.
But that's not how the system works here. Once they
get any type of name, they don't care to do
their job to make sure the case is closed. They
just make up create things to get you out the way.
And that's why so many guys that's wrongfully convicted, that's
in the conserrated right now because police don't do their
(13:47):
job and the state's attorney don't care, and they get immunity.
So you think they care if they create a situation
just to make somebody go to jail just to close
their case, they don't.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
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
on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah. I was in the police station for about two days.
Then I was taken to Cook County and process. Then
I wasn't prepared for it, but in a way I
had a little bit of street smarts because you know
that's where I come from. You know, this is my neighborhood,
is how to grow up. But the gym's around about
real grown me in fighting, real murders too, And they
got knaves and they game banging and gang fights go on,
(14:50):
drug dealing going on, and rapes going on. So you
have to learn to adapt to your surroundings situation of
what's going on. Or get you get cute, you get rip,
you get beat up, you get extoreded. And that's how Jill.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Is sounds like hell on Earth. And so there you are.
What did they set bail? You never saw the streets again.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
They didnam on bonn and said I was a minister society,
I shouldn't be let out on the streets. And I
never called a case of damn my life. I bet
you've been arrested. I was encountered three years three years.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Jesus Christ Darien was charged with aggravated battery with a firearm,
attempted murder, and first degree murder, and at the grand jury, Jones, Moore,
and Saffold reaffirmed their identifications. But now Ronald said that
he saw Jones drop Darien off at the gas station
and then leave, so a new inconsistency. And then he
(15:44):
said that he recognized Darien from this rap video, even
though we know that he hadn't seen that video until
after the shooting.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
There were a ton of issues with his identification. He
initially accused someone else and then he also was in
the backseat of his car and claimed the shooter pointed
the gun at him, but the video shows that the
shooter didn't point the gun at him, So there are
a ton of issues with him and with his testimony.
The brothers' statements and dexter saffold statements, those changed every
(16:14):
time they told what happened.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
This time, Saffold said that he had chased after the
shooter on his scooter, which is not supported by the video.
But importantly, Saffold explained why he wrote a Scooter that
his diabetes had caused a stroke, and we'll get to
why that's important later. At Darien's bench trial in front
of Judge Nicholas Ford.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
This judge is notorious in the end, was run off
the bench in Cook County because of his actions in
a lot of cases, and then he ended up a
Trump appointee an immigration judge in California and was run
off the bench there for being racist, ableist, etc. And
(16:56):
so he's currently not a judge, but he has a
long history of problems with his judicial conduct.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Darien's bench trou began in March of twenty fourteen. Again
Ronald Moore testified about seeing Jones drop Darien off and
leave that he recognized Darien from the rap video, and
then he made an in court identification. Next up was
Aaron Jones, but that didn't go as a prosecution had planned.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
He starts testifying and then he immediately recants and he says,
you know what, man, fuck this. None of this happened.
The police made me say this. They threatened me. What
would you do. I had a newborn baby. Darien was
never in my car. This never happened. And the judge says,
I'm holding you in direct contempt just because he's recanting,
Maybe because he's cursing. I don't know. The state had
(17:46):
not asked him to hold Aaron Jones in contempt. But
Aaron Jones says, do whatever you need to do to me, man,
I don't care anymore. This is wrong. So that basically
ends the state's questioning of him.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
During the crossing examination, mister Jones elaborated, saying that the
police had told him what to say or he would
quote rot in prison for the rest of his life.
Jes said that the police showed him your photograph there
and told him to pick you as the gunman, of
course Jones. The detective then testifies that he interviewed them
multiple times and never threatened them. But what we expect you.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Have Aaron Jones, They said, the police officer, Devin Jones
can hurst him to say what he said. You have
the aud witness from the gas station, Jody Tunya. They
said that Devin Jones can hurst him to say what
he said. You got the victim's brother. This original statement
did the shooter was fast seven and all that, But
he changed the statement once he talked to detective Devin Jones.
So you have to say, Alficer basically colhurst him into
(18:45):
what to say with this overlooked.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Though, then the state put on Dexter Saffold, who appears
to be a willing participant in story time with Detective
Devin Jones. But that's even worse than that.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
As he's testifying, the defense council asks him about his
vision because he's diabetic and there are often vision issues
with that, and he starts looking at the state and
this is all on the record, it's in the transcripts,
and the defense council says to the judge, can you
order him to answer? He keeps looking at the state
and the witness. Dexter says, I thought that medical was
(19:20):
supposed to be private. The judge said, well, usually it is,
but your ability to see is critical to the case,
so you have to answer. And he says he doesn't
have any vision issues. And that's where the case really unraveled,
because on post conviction is discovered that he at the
time was permanently and legally blind.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
At the state's attorney KNWDA, this person was legally bland.
So he said, I thought my medical was private. How
did he know that his medical was private? I mean
he told him that.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
But neither the defense nor the judge knew that, as
was made abundantly clear by Judge Ford's closing statement as
he sentenced Darien to seventy six years.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
He said aloud that he don't believe nobody else. He's
based in this fan based on the old man. That's
yourself of testimony. You have an old man that seems credible,
that seems honest, like he said, and he don't have
nothing to rebut what he's saying. And at the time
the judge didn't know that he was legally blind. He
(20:17):
went on record to say that he trust this person,
and y'all knew this person was legally blind. Y'all made
him look like an asshole. And my out day was
twenty eighty two. And it's like that's a hard pill
to swallow. It's like, Wow, I'm really sentenced to seventy
six years for a crime I didn't commit. You hear
(20:51):
so much about prison, like I was paranoid. I was
going through so much because I'm like, only, first of all,
there supposed to be in here. The second of all,
these are a living dish. Is like I understand that
I'm convicted of a crime at the end of damn human.
This is not how you should treat humans. They send
me the pontiac. I was a pontiac for three months.
That's what mentally a lot of people, they ain't never
coming back. That's what.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Like gas.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
They cut their stomach up and rip their tests out.
They stick chicken bones and they dick hole and try
to piss and their stomach blow up. They be on
the yard, they play with feces, They put feces in
their mouth shit and they mouth and spit it on
each other. They go outside with a plastic bag full
of shit and be squirting it back and forth on
each other like it's wow down there, Like it be
(21:35):
men having sex on the yard, like it's wow down there.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
It's hard to bathom that this shit goes on in
this country, but it's going on right now. It's really
sickening the whole freaking thing. So I don't know how
the hell you managed to maintain your sanity, but I'm
glad you did. And now I want to hear about
how the hell you manage to find a way out,
because that's the miracle, right. I mean, we never hear
about the guys who lost their minds in there, who
(22:00):
gave up, Oh, who did drugs or killed themselves or
got killed. Right, there's a lot of innocent guys that
fit that category. But then there's guys like you who
somehow or other found the strength to reach out. Well.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
I had a mentor of His name is Samuel Kareem,
and he had life in jail. So coming into that
sale with him, you know, I know he was real
good with the loss. I gave him my paperwork and
he started reading and he only read like the first
sixty pages. Was like, I don't have to read it
no more. And say why he said, because that's your
way out of jail. Man. That man led he can't see.
I'm like, how do you know that? He said, because
(22:34):
I'm a diabetic. He landed back the ability to see.
That's why he was stuttering. I'm like, I don't know
what you're telling me about whatever, and I blew it off.
And then afterwards I asked him like, hey, you gonna
read like I don't have to read no more. So
I'm like, all right, whatever, we I'm gonna let my
lawyer take care of it. Then, and that's when he
started giving me cases and I didn't. I read them,
but I didn't comprehend what I was reading. So that's
(22:55):
when he went to his mentor, Michael Sullivan told him, like, man,
you got to teach him how to be a man first,
because he won't comprehend what he reading until you teach
him a different way of life. So therefore he doubled
back and we start having long conversations, and that's when
he started teaching me how to be a man. He
started teaching me about responsibilities, economics, politics, financial stability, emotional stability,
(23:19):
mental stability, ways of life, the worth of a woman,
everything that I need to succeed in life as a man,
to grow and also to found my purpose in life
as well, and that's where I started at. Then that's
when I doubled back on the legal work and he
gave me a black auditionary and I started reading legal work,
and his way of teaching me was comparing it to
(23:40):
real life situations, and that's how I started understanding. So
he made me order my discovery and they gave my
discovery redacted because they can't give it to me unredacted.
And I sat there and I went through every piece
of paperwork, and that's when I found the gas station attendant,
Jody Tony, I found a lot of more things, and
that's when I started writing a lot of lawyers. And
(24:00):
Jody Garvey wrote.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Me back, and I believe Darien. You told you were
a Pellet lawyer. What Samuel said that Dexter Staffold was blind.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
My new lawyer, Jody Garvey went to Dester Staffold and say,
pointed out right now in Atlanta, up with the private vestigat.
He said, I can't I need a special apparatus that
magnifies the image on the paper. That means that in
the police station they had to give you a special apparatus,
or they circled and told you what to say. At trial,
you know, they give you the paper and they say
do you recognize his paper? He post a look at
(24:30):
the paper and say yes, is that your signature? Yes?
Is that what you wrote? Repeat what you wrote? Which
number pigeons to circle out? How did he do all
that in court with no special apparatus? That shows you
that he was conhearsed in the back on what to say.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
But despite Dexter Saffold's blindness as well as Jody Tony,
Darien's conviction was affirmed on appeal. Then Darien met Lauren
around twenty nineteen, who was able to find more new evidence,
starting with Dexter Saffold's litigation history.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Dexter Staffold had filed so many discrimination lawsuits basically alleging
that different organizations, colleges, whatever, had discriminated against him because
of being blind. So he had attached to these lawsuits
his own vision records, medical records related to his blindness
(25:18):
over the span. I mean he was filing these starting
back in like two thousand and two till twenty twenty
one maybe after, and attaching all this stuff to prove
he was blind. So that's where we got the evidence
that he was blind. It was from his own filings.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
In February twenty twenty two, Lauren and Jody Garvey filed
a post conviction petition to vacate Darien's conviction, and they
attached a report from an ophthalmologist and professor doctor Vina Raigi,
who determined that Saffold had advanced glaucoma by twenty eleven
and had less than five degrees of central vision in
(25:54):
both eyes and in addition to his legal blindness, the
time of day that this shooting occurred, made Saffold even
less reliable.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Jody Garby had already gotten some halfa davids from an
investigator had talked to Dexter Saffold, and he told the
investigator that he had told the prosecution about his vision issues.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
So it appears the prosecution knowingly put on a blind eyewitness,
and then when he purjured himself about his ability to see,
they did not bother to correct the record. Lauren also
sought the help of doctor and Nancy.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Franklin, an eyewitness expert, to show all of the issues.
Any sort of police coergion what made any sort of
identification in this case unreliable from the get go, regardless
of blindness, although that obviously played a big role. Also,
Jody Garby had already gotten some HALFI davids from Darien's
girlfriend at the time, who was his alibi witness, confirming
(26:49):
that he was at home watching the NBA finals, affi
davits from Jody Tony like I said, he was confirming
that it wasn't Darien, and he identified the actual shooter.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Tony, the gas station attendant, the only eyewitness whose statements
didn't shift with the police narrative, said that the shooter
had come into the station before the shooting and threatened him,
and he identified him from a photo. It was a
young man named Devonte Pippen aka Slim, who not only
appeared in the rap video but was also later a
victim of gang violence in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
So we had all this evidence, it was already such
a thin case. No physical evidence ever tied Darien to
the crime. The description just didn't even match. The judge
didn't hear from Jody Tony, who had always said he
could see it and he knew who did it, and
it always said it wasn't Darien. So all of this
just really put it over the edge. So this is
(27:42):
December fifth, twenty twenty three. We go to court and
they agree to v kate Darien's conviction based on all
the evidence presented in the post conviction petition. But they're
going to retry him and they want him held without bond.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Again.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
What they were going to retry him with is beyond me.
I don't know what their plan was. They never told
me if they were planning to call the blind eyewitness
again or what the plan was there. But that's when Jason,
that's when you got involved because.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Well, I feel very grateful that I was in the
right place at the right time, and that I have,
you know, a real lasting friendship with Kim Fox, who's
been doing her level best against powerful forces that are
lined against her. And you know, her job is no picnic,
trust me, but you know, it happens that she's got
(28:32):
such a big office, so many you know, adas and
others working for her that sometimes one of them just
you know, probably many of them don't share her vision
or her convictions. For lack of a better word. Of course,
when Kim heard about this case, she did the right thing.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
I get a call, I think the very next day
saying that they are not going to move forward with
the case, and they were very apologetic about it. We
were already doing up in court December nineteenth, twenty twenty three,
to argue some bond issues.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
When I came to court, now I was thinking it's
a regular court day. Lauren came up like, soy, you
had the good news, and I was like, yeah, what
they gonna give me a bond or something. She was like, no,
They're gonna throw everything out. And I was like, like
I was shocked, Like I ain't even believe it, and
I was just like, wow, I really didn't feel real
at all.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
You know, Darien has been out just a few months
now and is you know, trying to rebuild his life
and put everything back together after so many years gone.
And you know, I'm he can talk about it. I mean,
it's a struggle for all of our clients to do that,
so we're just trying to do what we can to
(29:44):
help them with that. We filed for a certificate of innocence,
so we'll keep you posted on that on our end.
But you know, he's working through everything.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
When you've been going so long, you've been removed from society,
you've been moved from the world that you once knew.
Me coming home personally, I'm in a whole new world
for me to be free. It don't feel like I'm
free because mentally it's hard for me to understand and
adapt to what's going on. Because I got out of
jail with nothing, and I had slight a little small donations, yeah,
(30:16):
from the company that Lauren put me into it where
they gave me two thousand dollars and things like that.
You know, that's cool, that's helpful. But while I was
at in maximum penitentiaries. I couldn't take no trades for electrician, plumbing,
ac construction, nothing, So what do I come home with.
I can't come home with no degrees, no school out
(30:36):
of nothing. So the only things that I know is
the things that I took the time after studying those books.
That's the only things that I know. But it takes
money to make that type of money. And they put
us in these situations hoping that we do reoffend. That's
why they put us out here like this. Why not
put us out and say, and we got jobs waiting
on y'all, good jobs, not no twelve thirteen dollars an
(30:57):
hour job, because as a grown man, especially with kids,
what is that going to pay? We need real jobs,
we need real help, and we don't have that.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
To preaching today. I'll tell you that much. And and
we appreciate it. We need to hear this stuff. And
what's the name again? This is a real hero in
this case. Another one is your mentor what was his
name again?
Speaker 3 (31:17):
His name is Samuel Kareem ka R I M. He's
currently located in Stateville Correctional Center. And honestly, that's the
guy that changed me. That's the guy that I'm fighting
to get out of jail because he's the smartest man
I ever met. He has a training out of mask
all day every day, he read his books, study case law.
(31:37):
He grows man so much. Just the type of man
that we need out here in these communities to start
changing things, to start creating opportunities not only for us,
but for everybody as a whole, where we come together
as one. That's what we lack coming up. We lack
role models, we lack positive man in our life and
things like that.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Darren asked that we win in competition for clemency for
his mentor, Samuel Kareem, So we're going to have that
length in the episode description. And in addition to his advocacy,
Darien is making music, also starting a nonprofit and launching a.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Podcast, Justice is Blind. It's a podcast for me to
give a platform to everybody that's incoscerated all over the
world to call in and tell their story, rather they
was wrongfully convicted, or the trauma that they're going through
a jail all the way the police treating them, or
they just want to be heard because in jail, with
our silence and don't nobody listen to us, don't nobody
give us a chance. Everybody look at us as criminals,
(32:31):
but everybody in jail not bad people. People could change.
A sin is a sining, a crime is a crime.
People may have committed their crimes and people may have
done their things, but at the end of the day,
they're human, They make mistakes. Give them a chance to
write they wrong. So that's when I'm creating this platform
for them, guys in jail to speak out and to
have a voice. And also I'm starting um for perfect
Call surviving a struggle for guys that's incarcerated as well
(32:54):
the partner or with the law firm and everybody that's
wrongfully convicted I had their case over would look to
have their case tooking so they can have legal support.
And also I'm going to create programs link up with
people to have construction, electrician, plumbing, everything of that nature,
so when guys get out of jail, they have a
good job to come home too. And trying to find
(33:17):
a way to find them like affordable has look at
like a house of complex or something for a gas
to state that don't have nowhere to go. Everything is
currently in the making right now, should be done within
the next few months, but you can follow me on
Instagram at k at n g c ch u Cky
Underscore fr E d A R e A L. And
(33:39):
I have a go fundme which is called Justice is Blind,
or you just put in Dariel Harriy's and support me
and my cars to just help me out with living
expenses and for the non for profit.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Well, we're gonna link your Instagram and the GoFundMe as well,
and with that we're gonna go to my favorite part
of the show where first of all, I think both
of you, Lauren and Darien, you're both heroes to me
and so many other people, and so I appreciate you
joining us here today. And now I'm just going to
kick back in my chair with my microphone off and
just listen to anything else you feel is left to
(34:14):
be said. So Lauren, tradition holes that you go first,
and Darien you take us off into the sunset.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I just hope that people listen to this episode and
they take away from the fact that this kind of
thing can really happen to anyone. Darien had never committed
a crime, he had never been arrested. He was a
good kid. The only thing was where he lived. I mean,
he got picked up just by virtue of living in
a certain neighborhood, being a certain color, and the evidence
(34:42):
was made to fit him. And he had a really
bright future in front of him that was stolen from him,
and he lost out on so much time that he
is never going to get back in very very formative years.
We are actually very lucky in his case, which is
crazy to say that we were able to get him
out when he can still build a life and build
(35:04):
a family. And Darien wants I think last count sixteen
kids crazy. He wants a lot of children. We'll see
after he has one how he feels about that. But
he'll be a wonderful dad. He has so many things
he wants to do to change the world, and he's
already starting to do it. And I'm just so proud
to know him, and i can't wait to see all
the things that he's going to accomplish. Someone with the
(35:27):
kind of light that Darien has, they can't keep that
down and they can't snuff it out. So I'm just
so grateful to be here today with him and to
be a witness to his life.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
I just want to say that I appreciate Lauren the
most because she stepped in and did everything and just
still on the business for real. And Jody Garf, he
helped me out a lot as well. And I just
want to let everybody know that everything that I'm doing
to help free to jails and those people that's growfully
and convicted, or even the people that is serving a
town doing this for the black families and the mothers
(36:00):
that have to go through this because they are incarcerated
as well. You know, they're not the only people that's concerated.
And I understand what it means to be in jail
and be stereotypes. So if I can get out and
show them that all black people that come from jail
not this and not that, I want to become that
stereotype to show them like we not that type of people.
Like it's people that can actually change. It's people that
(36:22):
can come from where I come from and make better
themselves as well and be not all the same. You know,
it's actually good people still left in this world. I'm
just looking to help everybody. I know my purpose in
life is to help people, So I'm gonna follow my
purpose and chase my dreams. I'm gonna continue to help
everybody and do everything I gotta do and make a
positive change. I'm just gonna continue to stick to doing me.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Thank you for listening to Wrong for 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
(37:10):
nominated 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.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
Hi. My name is Amanda Graham. I've written down what
I want to say so I don't start rambling. But
I began listening to Wrongful Conviction about exactly eight year ago.
I was on a hunt for a new podcast to
binge on, and I became hooked. I was so shocked
by these stories. The story that changed my life, though,
was episode three forty eight with Zabian Johnson. At this
(37:53):
same time that this aired, an old high school friend
of mine was on her second trial for the death
of an infant in her care. From the day I
heard she was arrested, I knew in my guts no
way she would hurt a baby, and I believed there
had to be some other explanation. So suddenly things began
making sense to me. I'm actually an RN, and so
(38:14):
I questioned everything I had been taught about SBS and
began plummeting into research. I spent hours and hours and hours.
I made a binder with highlighted points, case files with
similar details, a list of ways convictions were overturned. I
listened to every podcast about every case I could find.
I passed on what I had learned to Ali, the defendant,
(38:36):
but it was too late. The trial had already began.
She was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to
fifty years in prison. There is so much that is
wrong in this case. This sparked a fire in me.
I closed and sold my business. I got a certificate
in legal nurse consulting from the University of Georgia. I
provided her new attorney with data and case information. I've
(38:58):
spoken out publicly in her defense, and I'm hoping in
some way to be able to help other people who
have been wrongfully convicted of murder by shaking baby syndrome
and change the way these cases are handled. Your podcasting
connection to this case has truly changed my life.
Hosts And Creators
Lauren Bright Pacheco
Maggie Freleng
Jason Flom
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Dateline NBC
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!