October 11, 2024 • 36 mins
On the night of July 15, 2008, 22-year-old Moustapha Oumaria was shot and killed while hanging out with three friends outside his Crown Heights, NY home. The three friends described the shooter as a black male wearing a white t-shirt and dark pants. When shown a photographic lineup, they identified Arvell Marshall as the shooter. But police had in their possession video surveillance footage that clearly showed that someone else was responsible for the murder. Nevertheless, Arvell was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm Connor Hall, one of the producers for Wronfuel Conviction.
And if you don't follow us on social media, you
may not have heard, but our good friends Jason Flamm
and Gliali got married and now for their honeymoon. In
true Ali Flahm fashion, they're in Texas right now fighting
to save an innocent man on death row, Robert Robertson.
(00:26):
He's scheduled for execution on October seventeenth, twenty twenty four.
We'll link his episode in the episode description. And while
they're away, Jason is generously handed over hosting duties to me,
and I promised that I wouldn't screw it up, So
here we go. On July fifteenth, two thousand and eight,
(00:47):
twenty two year old Mustafa O Maria was gunned down
in front of his building in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. There
was confusion whether there was one or two assailants, but
the descriptions Cohen sided on male, varying shades of black skin,
between five nine and six feet tall, late teens early twenties. Soon,
(01:09):
another alleged witness claimed to know the shooter's motive. The
victim had been sleeping with a woman named Nicki Collier
and her alleged boyfriend, Rvel Marshall had just gotten out
of jail. But Arvel stood at five foot five and
was thirty six years old, not a teenager. Nevertheless, the
(01:29):
victim's friends identified r Vel as the shooter, sending him
away for twenty five to life. This is wrongful conviction.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Wrongful conviction has always given voice to innocent people in prison,
and now we're expanding that voice to you. Call us
at eight three three two o seven four six sixty
six and tell us how these stories make you feel
and what you done to help the cause, even if
it's something as simple as telling a friend or sharing
on social media, and you might just hear yourself in
(02:08):
a future episode. Call us A three three two o
seven four six sixty six.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction, where we have another case
out of Brooklyn, and across from me is a man
named Rvil Marshall who endured something that well, I mean,
it was disgusting, unnecessary, should have been completely avoidable, and
almost was. And we're going to get to that in
(02:44):
just a minute, but we're just happy to have him home.
Thanks for doing this, well, you welcome, Amen and you
may have just heard a familiar voice say, Amen, that's
justin bonus. You and I probably talk more than most
people talk to their family, and it's typically about another
case you're working on. You know, Unfortunately that well never
(03:05):
dries up. I mean we've worked on how many cases already?
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Marcus Wiggins, Vincent Simmons, Jerome Curry, Raphael Martinez, Garriy Ben Loss.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Well, thank you for coming back. Absolutely, Yeah, this case
is no less fucked up.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
The only good part about r Vel's case is he's
exonerated and we're on the next phase, which is fighting
to get him compensated. But that's about the only good
thing about Rvel's case.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
And you and Brownsville and bedsty Hey.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
This is nice. You know, it's kind of rough, but
it's nice.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
I used to work as Super Marcus as a kid
packing bags and stuff. I get a little money here
there because my family was poor. But did that growing
up at browns with a dead style. You literally get
tested because especially the Ghattle, the neighborhoods like you would
have to.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Fight famously, Mike Tyson's from Brownsville, and then you're like
coming of age when Mike is getting huge, right, but
before he was huge, he must have been known around town.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah he was. He's the right coach screep for your
a boy tweet Sunny and Blake the shelters no shit,
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Mike trying to help the community, you know, like Heavy
Dog k used to come through there, give it out, turkeys.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
And shit like that.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
So what's the precinct?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Seventy seven?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Some people that you are familiar.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
With Brooklyn North homicide. One of them, if you know,
James Davis. James Davis was wrong, clear convicted.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Oh wait Ja Davis.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Yeah, Legelaide represented felt Okay, yeah, ye ye ye yah yeah.
So one of the lead detectives there was Jay Wallski
and then Matthew Hutchinson. Matthew Hutchinson, from my understanding, fabricated
a statement in James Davis's case, and he's all over
our Velle's case.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
If you're unfamiliar with James Davis's case, we'll have that
linked in the episode description as well. Now, Ourvell's case
really began when he met a young lady in two
thousand and.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Three, Jadique will Collier aka Nicky.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Tell me about meeting her, Like, was there a good time?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (05:02):
It was a good time. I was, you know, but
I still feel she has something to do with me
going to jail. Even though it was a good time,
I still feel that way.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
And this is in bedsty at the time now that
you were living.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Now, I was staying at Brownsville, but I moved to
current high school. Nicki her baba ah, all right, okay.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Nicky Moba was originally my girlfriend. Oh, they kept coming
on to me. I ain't on a best one, it though,
it just happened. Nicky used to date my brother. She
got my brother name tattooed on her back. Shit, and
she was dating by niece baby father.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Now, as most of us are aware, betraying the expectation
of a monogamous relationship can offense, spark fights, breakups, or,
as the police believed in this case, murder. But Nicki
appears to have lived as she pleased and not led
any of her lovers to have any other expectation, including
r vel or the victim in this case Mustafo Maria.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
Yeah, she was dated a that will tell she was
messing with him and I was in rackets.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Out What were you in for me?
Speaker 5 (06:09):
And my sister tell you we had I got in
a fight as she lied to the cops and told
him that I stabbed her, but I didn't stab her.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
I beat that.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
I came home, but she came to visit beat on
my birthday and she told me she wanted me to
leave her mother at Bible Hall and she's going to
leave the victims. Mustafo Barrio.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I said, okay, and this dude we were talking earlier,
so he's in the Bloods. And then he's also like
a handsome guy.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
Yeah, he was a handsome guy. He was messing with
dudes girls.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Between the victims involvement with the Bloods as well as
his activity with women who were in otherwise monogamous relationships,
there may have been some ill will toward him. On
the night that he died July fifteenth, two thousand and eight,
sometime before ten pm, in front of his building one
thirty nine Albany Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
There's not thirty day sent call to the witnesses.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Right, you know, if you're the cops, you wanted to
be closer to ten o'clock, right, Arvel? Yeah, because they
knew Rvel had a pretty good alibi. Between nine thirty
and nine to forty five, and Rvel didn't have a
car either, just by the way, so he would have
had to take in a bus from his mother's house
in Right all the way to Crown Heights. It's like
(07:23):
a twenty minute bus trip by itself. But you have
Mustapha sitting on the stoop and three of his friends,
a guided by the name of Zakarie, Zaybo and Benison,
and somebody rolls up to them and head shots their
friend that around nine thirty at night and then runs away.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
They said he came from D Street and walked along
Albity Avenue. They ran back on D Street after leave.
It a scene from Albity Avenue.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Now, the initial description is somebody between five foot nine
and six foot Rvel's like five to five okay, three
inches to a half of foot potentially. We also got
a description of light skin on the nine to one
one calls. And then the other description, which is a
seventeen year old Rvel looked probably forty Rvel right.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yep, So the description didn't even come close to Rvel.
But there were some unresolvable discrepancies between the descriptions from
Benison and then Zebo and Zakari. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
First they said Bel black light skid, seventeen years old,
wearing the white T shirt blue JS. Then with the
other twols take it to the priests. They give a statement.
They said Bel black dog skid, we with the white
T shirt, dog JS and either hat or Douac. But
well he went to the DA's office. He fixed it.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
It said that the Bell was black, brown skinned wearing
all dark clothes.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Which interestingly matches the video that we're going to talk about.
And understand this, the three witnesses are testify to trial,
never say there were two people involved. Yet we have
a video that shows that there were two people involved.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
As Arvel mentioned, the assailants were traveling west on Dean,
made a left going south on Albany to where these
four men were at one thirty nine Albany. So the
police found a surveillance camera on Dean Street, which didn't
capture the shooting, but it saw enough to account for
the discrepancies and the descriptions.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
It's in the middle of the block. Actually, the video
is pretty good quality and it has an angle that
goes both ways, so you see the guys what we
now know are the perpetrators. And a key thing is
they're both the same size.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
One has light skin, one has dark shind Yeah, well.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
Dual gattle dark clothes and other dual gattle light shirt,
blue jays. He got a baseball capboard.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
This is what the video shows. These two young guys
walking down, one guy lifting up, pulling a gun out,
and you watch them make a left on the Albany.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Right.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
How you know what's the shooting is there's two guys walking,
one with a dog, one or not on Dean and
they're walking towards Albany. They hear the shots, they stop,
start walking f pass the other way. Then all of
a sudden you see the same two guys and the
guy with the white shirt has a big black thing
in his hand, which is a gun. And the two
guys that were on the block here in the shooting,
(10:12):
they see these two young guys on Dean running towards them.
They're back on the camera again, running back towards weeks filth.
This is how we know those are the shooters.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
The police made two copies of the video, one for
the DA and one for the case file, and then
made still images from the video of the assailants Meanwhile,
police alleged that someone named Abraham Omar told them about
the connection between Nikki Arvel and the victim, but then
this person seemed to just disappear and then never testified.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Let's talk about Abraham Omoa.
Speaker 5 (10:44):
Detective Hushis claved he took somebody statement with Juli Vizi.
It did clave that person provided additional information after they
called back the last sixty and that person he gave
a dave to as Abraham Omar.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
He talks about the boyfriend of Nikki that lives at eighteen.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Was it eighteen ninety six? Specific?
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Were you using that address as where you were on
probation right, yes, so then they had your name at
that address too.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
What does Abraham Omar say?
Speaker 5 (11:14):
He basically said, allegedly that he was best friends with
the victim, and before the victim died, the victim told
him that he had a problem with a girl named Nikki's.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Boyfriend, and I tried, my darnedness, and I'm pretty good
to find the people. By the way, you know what
I mean. There is no Abraham Omar in Brooklyn at all,
at all.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
He's a fucking fabrication. Yes, yes, because according to like
you know the court record, and and who's the one?
Speaker 4 (11:43):
There is no nine one one call with Abraham won.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah, he fabricated Abraham Omar.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
But if Abraham Omar doesn't exist, the nine one one
call didn't exist. It's possible that all of this information
might have come from Nicki.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
The ass who's her boyfriend.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
She told me what day was that?
Speaker 1 (12:00):
A lot sixty?
Speaker 5 (12:01):
The same day they allegedly spoke to this Abraham Omar.
If you read Nikki's statement that was given to Hushinston
and Wolfski, you could see that they just took certain
parts out that could incriminate me and put it in
the alleged Abraham omo statement. They took everything she said
about be getting out of jail, I will allegedly boost
by the good, and that I wanted to kill some
(12:23):
god the block.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
So they just took all that and just put it in.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
The person called Abraham Omar. Yeah, right on this witness
statement to this person who's best friends with Santa Claus.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
And then Bennison identified RFL from a photo array.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
And a photo ray is crazy because RFL is the
only one with corn roast.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
What does everyone else look like?
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Caesars yeah, that's in the photo array.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
What day was it when they picked you up?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
July twenty second and they came VICKI house. I was
sleep in the living room. I heard beg you.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
I'm thinking it was because of the temporary order protection
that be A Dicky had to stay away from each
other because the twenty first Bannigkie was argued. So I
ain't taking no chance. I jumped out the window, got
on the roof. As they chased me. A black officer
came that I knew they used to live with my building,
and he asked me. He's like, yo, you really don't
know what's going on. I said, Dawn, I don't know nothing.
They took me to the priest and I'm actually, what's
(13:18):
this fun? They didn't tell me. They didn't tell me.
They didn't tell me. They put me the line up.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
And then in the lineup they had you guys in hats, yeah,
sitting down, of course.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Sitting down, so they oh, what how tall is he?
I don't know, but what was different about the other
guys in the lineup?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
They was taller than me.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
Then after the lineup was over, they took me another rule.
The haircuffy start offered me Suldas McDonald's and all the
cigarette stuff. The talk, Wolski said that Ustofo Mario was
murdered and I'm the one that killed him because I
found out he was banging my girl.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And I'm like, yo, what did you talk about?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Man?
Speaker 1 (13:54):
He said, well, you the word going down for this.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
I don't care what you say. If yn't want to
tell who did it, you go it down for it.
I said, I can you tell you without a will
and they'll say to you without a lawyer, the devil
was given a lawyer. I was never read by rights.
I was just arrested.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this
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and ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus
on Apple Podcasts. Freedom Agenda is a proud sponsor of
this episode of Wrongful Conviction. Freedom Agenda is led by
people directly impacted by incarceration, and they're organizing to get
(14:49):
Mayor Eric Adams to follow the law and shut down
Rikers Island. Right now, thousands of people are awaiting trial
there in life threatening conditions. Freedom Agenda is committed to
creating a safer and more just city by winning investments
in long neglected communities, protecting the rights of people involved
in the criminal legal system, and ending the cycle of
(15:10):
violence that Rikers perpetuates. To learn more about the campaign
to Close Rikers and to sign up for Freedom Agenda's
mailing list, go to Campaign to Close Rikers dot org, slash,
get involved, or follow at Freedom Agenda and Why on
social media.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Arvel spent nineteen months on Rikers Island pre trial. He
was going to be tried by Assistant District Attorney Tim
Goff in front of Judge Vincent del Judas, and he
was assigned to public defender Alan Stuttman.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
That would receive the visit Stubb in nineteen months.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
The only time about say Stubb is the court public
defenders they're typically overworked, underpaid.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
But that said, you're telling him exactly what to do.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
He was listened to me a total CD to investigator out.
Judge fire Tau is the one hyat the investigator. Stubman
did hie.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Him right, So you went above del Judis's head. So
he loved that shit too, right.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yes, Two out of three of the witnesses told the
defense investigator that they knew who to pick out because
Rvel looked totally different than everybody else in the lineup.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Do they do that on purpose? You think?
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Yeah, did you ask that sarcastic?
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Of course. All right, So now I mean, this isn't funny,
you know, I mean, this is crazy. But it gets worse.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
You have this defense investigator, David Walker, who's from Brooklyn,
new people in the neighborhood, and he had somebody in
the neighborhood that gave him this information. This individual said
it was a mistaken identity, like they didn't mean to
kill the victim, but it was guys from Weeksville, which
isn't that far from where Nikki lived, right, And the
(16:58):
description that he gets from the format matches what happens
on the video, which is it's a hit. It's not
a crime of passion. Right, this is doing a trial. Well,
he doesn't ever testify. They found this out before trial.
Trial attorney does nothing with us.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
By the way, I still remember that statement. It says
Jamal Jones is the set up man for the shooter.
He lives at one thirty seven. Mother is a cop,
They said. Auvel Barshoot, which is me is it his thirties.
It it's not the shooter.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
They said.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
The shooter is sixty year old Don L. White, also
lives in Weeksville. They say God named Lewis is the
ubdillah for the group and he is expanded. His last
name is adult. They say if Lewis house is checked,
the gun for the shooter would probably be found there.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Wow, very vivid description, right.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
And with this vivid narrative available to the defense. In
December two thousand and nine, Arvell was taken to trial
on the identifications that had also been exposed by the
investigator is false and potentially engineered and Rvel didn't even
know about the surveillance for the jet.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
The DA Colly walked into courtroom with the videos and
still photos in her head.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
That's how I found out that they exist.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
The stills.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Yeah, there's still photos in the video.
Speaker 5 (18:13):
When I first brought video to the judge attention, I
went through my lawyer. The DA said he didn't have
the video. He said he only had still photos that
he provided to my lawyer months ago. My lawyers said
they was of no value. The next day, I brought
it the police report showing that the videosis and still
photos was made off of it. Then the DA said, yeah,
he had the video, but he can't open it.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
It won't work.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
So I said, yo, how did you get the still
photos off the video if the video don't work?
Speaker 1 (18:39):
He said his office had nothing to do with it.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
He said, I was giving the tapes after they made
copies of the tape they retrieved and all it depicts
its two individuals just walking down the street.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Allegedly, what the police tell the prosecutor is they take
a clip of the video and they say the only
thing that they see on the video is two guys
walking on Dean Street. That's it. They don't say that
these two individuals are the shooters.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
And let's not forget the defense investigator David Walker uncovered
that one of those assailants may have been the son
of a cop at the seventy seventh Precinct. So we're
not sure if the DA saw this video or not.
Maybe eighty eight Tim guff was presenting some kind of
plausible deniability ploy about this video to the court. We
don't know. Nevertheless, they logically follows that the police tech
(19:29):
guys that produced the still were able to open the videos.
I'm reading what my researcher extracted from these exchanges, and
if he had a new excuse every fucking day, every
time he was like, oh, I can only play it
on this particular laptop that has this particular software on it.
You could just install the software.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
That's it. That's fact.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
But he's making fucking excuses every single day.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Aby single day.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
If the video showed me or he would have been
happy to play it, but be it that he know
was to be and know it was the Astra appropritrators.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
They just kept stalling. Meanwhile, they presented the eyewitnesses.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Zakari is the first one to get on the witness
stand and they ask him, do you see the shooter
in the courtroom?
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
No, Right, well then I guess that wraps it up.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
And you had to understand something. Zacarry before trial identifies
Rvel in the lineup allegedly. So how does he come
in at trial and say, no, Rvel isn't the one.
How does he tell the defense investigator that he couldn't
make an ID?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Right?
Speaker 4 (20:29):
The only way that it happens that he does make
the ID. And again this is when you get into
all best practices and everything. The investigators that know about
the investigation shouldn't be involved with the identification. But you
can only come to one conclusion if this guy's telling
the defense investigator and then comes in a trial and
says that Rvel Marshall's not the shooter, right, is that
(20:50):
he was told that Rvel Marshall was the shooter during
the lineup that he viewed. And that's why he makes
the positive identification. You gotta remember, all three witness this
is their friend that's dead. So if the police are
telling them that this is the guy that did it,
you know.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
You got to back that up. I mean, what are
you gonna dishonor his dead?
Speaker 4 (21:09):
Like now, all of a sudden, Benison comes in and
he's positive, it's our velt, right. And what's interesting is
the one thing that Alan Stutman did and Arvell and
I were talking about this is he cross examines and
eats Benison up on the fact that you only had
moments to see this person. It's not like you got
(21:29):
a good look at him. And Benison in amidst us right,
the next one that gets on the witness stand is
Eyeball a positive all of a sudden, right, And we
know from the defense investigator that these witnesses are all
saying that they weren't sure of their ID before trial.
To do with the defense is, so we're going to
talk about circumstantial evidence. Right, there's a jury instruction that
(21:50):
described circumstantial evidence. You get up in the morning, there's
snow on the ground, right, what can we assume it
snowed last night? Right? First witness gets on the witness stand.
I don't see the shoot her in the courtroom. The
next two get up on the witness standard. We're a positive.
What can we assume happen here?
Speaker 2 (22:06):
They got coached?
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, this corse?
Speaker 2 (22:08):
So all right, that circus goes on. Yes, your defensive
investigator already knows his bullshit. Yes, your public defender is
already cross examined them, and the jury sees this. I mean,
am I missing anything about this trial other.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
Than affected his alibi? His sister, who, by the way,
he told you he went to Rikers because he was
fighting the case because he had an incident with his sister.
So the sister that he had an incident with is
his alibi. She comes in and testifies that he was home.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
And then you're fighting to see this video the final straw, though,
tell me about that interaction with Dell Judas.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
Actually get we played a video to pull my edicist.
He told me having outbust in order the court officers,
he scored me out of the court room, and that's
when I got upset. Star curses said, fuck this, I
didn't kill nobody. Why the fuck you gotta do this
to me? You got the evidence right there, it proves
my edocence. Why you don't wuld to play the video?
(23:07):
Because you do? It proves my edocence. And then he
started yelling heavy up, take him out of the court.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Rule?
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Was this in front of the jury?
Speaker 2 (23:13):
R V Yes, And he says, quote, I've had enough
for you. All you do is rant. It's like my
fucking life mother, Like, what the fuck are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Exactly what he said.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Rvel talked about this video so much he was actually
found in contempt. And you have to remember this is
that at that point Rvel hadn't even seen the video.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah you know, why the fuck would you be so
interested in seeing something unless you absolutely knew you weren't
fucking there? Yeah, all right, so I mean the jury
sees this, yep, are you thinking like, oh, maybe maybe.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Maybe I got a chance.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
Yeah, it took like forty five minutes to deliverer rate
if that will be guilty with no evidence, like, yeah,
we be STARp vertic guilty. I said, y'all people crazy,
I said, y'all hear me up here, actually judge to
make the DA play the video, I say, because it's
full my innocence.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Did y'all really that crazy? Like y'all really that blind?
Speaker 5 (24:25):
They have being Auburn Clinton Albirah say, say Attica.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Theom CEOs there they were talking about racist. They racist.
They don't care, they don't hide it. That jail needs
to be shut down.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Man.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
The losses do whatever they want. Lieutenants is down with it. Captors,
all of them. They just let them do whatever they want.
To jump people, be people, up to kill people. There,
it's places, it's crazy, man.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
They have some interesting artwork on their bodies.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yes, sir, you already know the bay with the rope.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
You know all types of crazy shit man, the hitless suns, yeah,
them shits you know these are.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
Correctional Yeah, yeah, why do you take this job?
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Oh? I couldn't fucking wait. Like Jesus Christ.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
Cow was always going to take a job where they
could see they got the upper head or the real motherfucker.
If I had done this, you would never hear of
be fighting by case. I was just left it alone.
I'd be like, you know what, fuck it, I did it.
Let me do my time. But I know how didn't
do it. I was going to the little library and
I learned as much as I could about my case,
(25:36):
and then I just put it motions. I raised Brady
a shoot into is Rozario violations, prosecution misconduct, police misconduct,
and the judge being biased.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Unfortunately, he wasn't able to gain any traction for over
ten years, but over that time he built evidence to
support all of his issues claims and ultimately obtained the video.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
Rvel did what he did pro say, and then he
reached out to Derek Hamilton. You know I work with Derek, right.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Do you guys know each other from the inside.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
So I'm going to imagine like Auburn, you met Nelson
in them and the AI team.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yeah, that's where I met Derek Campibell to too.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
He came to me late October early November twenty twenty
three and I looked at the video and Rvel made
a clear record that it wasn't turned over. Actually contacted
his attorney, and there wasn't just the video. There were
interviews with some of the witnesses weren't turned over, and
his trial attorney admitted that he never received a video.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
Audio statements, right.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Audio statements. So Rvel really makes a clear record. And
I look at this video and I'm like, okay, well
these are the shooters yep. So then I looked at
the description of Rvel and I'm like, he doesn't match
the description. I look at a picture of him and
I'm like, nobody is going to confuse him for the
people in the video, even if it's grainy, right, And
so it was, you know, Brady, the cru had to
(26:59):
do their investigations. I tried to find Abraham Omar. I
tried to track down the actual person that owned the
business that took the video to see if maybe I
could get even better copy, maybe the raw files of
the video. I hired it an expert to maybe enhance
it even more.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Well.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Justin was trying to develop further support for Rvel's claim.
The Brooklyn Conviction Review Unit conducted interviews, including with Nicki
and Zebo Zacari, Benison, and his attorney, Alan Stutman.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
The DA's office interviews Alan Stuttman and they show him
the video and he said he would have used that video.
He said that he would have shown that to Rvel
and we would have built a defense around that. So
not only did they with hul Brady evidence, they created
a separation between Rvel and his lawyer. They turned Rvel
against his lawyer, and the lawyers looking at Rvel like,
you're crazy. The video doesn't mean anything. Yeah, he says,
(27:51):
I trusted what the DA said. I trusted what the
police said. I trusted what the judge said. And then
you got to remember too, this lawyer is an eight
and B lawyer, and his vouchers get signed by the judge. Okay,
so there's only but so much pushing. We're gonna get here, right, Yeah,
gonna get paid, right, So you have that. Then he
(28:12):
interviews A Carrie and Za Carry says specifically that we
were unsure and then we were told he's the killer.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
After the fact, the cops told him that Nicky boyfriend
was the shooter. I was locked up and I was
described as Nicky's boyfriend at that time, So who else
will he be talking about how would.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
It be, and it goes from a no I D
to then an ID. Then they interview Niki, and this
is why RVL believes that Nicky has something to do
with this, other than some of the things he's already
laid out. Nicki gives a statement to his defense investigator.
No one else says there's two people involved other than her.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
Yeah, she knew it was two perpetrated and she also
knew that they was one of them was young m
How did she notice? Nicky claimed to have received information
from her next door neighbor, said that somebody told them
allegedly that they say two perpetrators.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
How do they.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Notice because her next door neighbor is Abraham Omar. Yes,
none other that Abraham strikes again.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
But you know, interestingly, they showed her the video and
she said, what'd she say, Arvel?
Speaker 1 (29:20):
She said, that's not all aboult of that video.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
Boom I mean, I wish could do we have a
funk flex that we have a Bomber. I mean it
took ten months though, once I got on board of
pushing and RVEL was frustrated. I was frustrated, but at
the end of the day, the DA's office did the
right thing, and they admitted that's not him in the video.
That video had a tremendous amount of value and they
(29:45):
let him out.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
A blessed man, you know, basically helped me prove that.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
It's August ninth, twenty twenty four. What do you have
going on?
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Like?
Speaker 2 (29:55):
You know, what are you living with's life?
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Like?
Speaker 5 (29:57):
Well, I don't have a place to stay right now.
I'm staying at people houses here and there. You know,
I'm homeless really right now.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
You know, they just send me back out here with nothing.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
He has a state suit pending, and we're moving on
civil rights and we're working to try to get r
VEL stabilized.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
This case stressed my mother out so bad she passed away. Man,
it stressed my father out, my sister out. They all
three passed away, and my step father well that's for people.
They passed away because they wanted to be back home
so much. All they used to think about was me.
I gotta letters so I to be baby, come home.
Have you ever to get hold I don't know how
(30:36):
much more I could take and then she's gone. Now
they all got and that was my support while I
was a jet. There was my support of the street
that'll have able.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
No, as you've just heard, our Vell has very little support,
and you can help them stay afloat by donating to
his GoFundMe. We'll have that linked in the episode description.
We wish Justin in him all the luck in the
world and their pursuit of civil litigation. I mean, obviously
nothing could ever make up the time for our Vel.
(31:07):
But however, during the interview, Larvell expressed a small measure
of revenge that he had on Nikki and someone from
the seventy seventh Precinct that felt pretty cathartic.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
That it was funny.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
By after I got locked up, Dicky started dating a
guy that woke to seventy seven Precinct as a cop.
Guess what of a day, little do his RoboCop asked, though, Nick,
you sent me a neckad picture on my phone.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Oh bunny boy, Yeah, I hope you hit his shit.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
And I also got a letter from her telling me
she's gonna leave him to come back to me. Oh man,
but you know what, I don't want to ask back.
I ain't even want to steak ass neckert picture. She
could have kept that shit.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
And with that we go to closing arguments where I'm
just going to express my gratitude to Rvel and Justin
as well as to Jason and the team for letting
me do this, and then I'm going to lock it
up and listen to anything else. Justin and Rvel have
to say.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
Everybody says, what would an innocent man say? A menisin,
you'd scream to the rooftop im medison, I didn't do it,
and then people on that jury that think this is
what I would do if I didn't do Rvel Marshall
did what everybody says that they would do, even though
they don't have an iota of what it is like
(32:35):
to be interrogated and arrested and prosecuted. Right, most people
in this country don't. They don't know. I see I do.
I've been I've had the police come to try to
interrogate me, and they have a very good method to
make you feel like they know something about you when
they don't, the psychological games that they play. But see,
(32:58):
he withstood all of the psychological games. He never admitted
he committed the crime. He said he was innocent from
the very beginning, had an alibi from the very beginning,
was in court and when his lawyer wouldn't advocate for him.
He advocated for himself. He does exactly what everybody said
that they would do, which is they would tell everybody
I'm innocent, tell him where I am. Still gets convicted,
(33:21):
And the worst part about it is he's undermined by
the prosecutor and it's not just their job to get
a conviction. They have a duty of candor to the
court and fairness to the accused. That didn't happen here,
whether it was because the prosecutors fault himself or the
cops fault, they cheated every chance that they got. Is
(33:42):
we know this now because of physical evidence that they
had to frame him in order to get him arrested
and then convicted, and they had to coach these witnesses
to take it all away to the end, to the
finish line. He does, though, what everybody says they would do,
which is repeatedly say he innocent. Every chance he got,
even when he was told not to do it, he
(34:05):
did it. And he was blasted by the judge in
front of the jury said he's not credible in front
of the jury.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
What would y'all have done in my situation? Would y'all
would is still quiet. Did the time.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
Or fight to prove you, Editus, but you know it
could be done. Let other people that really out there
killing people be home so they could kill more people,
or ask that you put them people away and let
the Edocon man out.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Would y'all want them cops to still be working?
Speaker 5 (34:42):
To y'all, communities of the judges and the da I
don't feel they should have a job anymore, none of
them because they no good. I hope y'all feel the
same way I do. And like I said, I'm edocent still,
I'm gonna always fame instant because I know how you
do that like that. I never killed nobody in my life,
(35:04):
and I'm not ashamed to sit.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I'm not gonna kill him. I'm just a god that
will fight for his rights. That's it. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
You can listen to this.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
And all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early
and ad free 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 Cleibern. The
music in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR
nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us across
(35:43):
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 the production of Lava
for Good podcasts and association with Signal Company Number one
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm Connor Hall, one of the producers for Wronfuel Conviction.
And if you don't follow us on social media, you
may not have heard, but our good friends Jason Flamm
and Gliali got married and now for their honeymoon. In
true Ali Flahm fashion, they're in Texas right now fighting
to save an innocent man on death row, Robert Robertson.
(00:26):
He's scheduled for execution on October seventeenth, twenty twenty four.
We'll link his episode in the episode description. And while
they're away, Jason is generously handed over hosting duties to me,
and I promised that I wouldn't screw it up, So
here we go. On July fifteenth, two thousand and eight,
(00:47):
twenty two year old Mustafa O Maria was gunned down
in front of his building in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. There
was confusion whether there was one or two assailants, but
the descriptions Cohen sided on male, varying shades of black skin,
between five nine and six feet tall, late teens early twenties. Soon,
(01:09):
another alleged witness claimed to know the shooter's motive. The
victim had been sleeping with a woman named Nicki Collier
and her alleged boyfriend, Rvel Marshall had just gotten out
of jail. But Arvel stood at five foot five and
was thirty six years old, not a teenager. Nevertheless, the
(01:29):
victim's friends identified r Vel as the shooter, sending him
away for twenty five to life. This is wrongful conviction.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Wrongful conviction has always given voice to innocent people in prison,
and now we're expanding that voice to you. Call us
at eight three three two o seven four six sixty
six and tell us how these stories make you feel
and what you done to help the cause, even if
it's something as simple as telling a friend or sharing
on social media, and you might just hear yourself in
(02:08):
a future episode. Call us A three three two o
seven four six sixty six.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction, where we have another case
out of Brooklyn, and across from me is a man
named Rvil Marshall who endured something that well, I mean,
it was disgusting, unnecessary, should have been completely avoidable, and
almost was. And we're going to get to that in
(02:44):
just a minute, but we're just happy to have him home.
Thanks for doing this, well, you welcome, Amen and you
may have just heard a familiar voice say, Amen, that's
justin bonus. You and I probably talk more than most
people talk to their family, and it's typically about another
case you're working on. You know, Unfortunately that well never
(03:05):
dries up. I mean we've worked on how many cases already?
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Marcus Wiggins, Vincent Simmons, Jerome Curry, Raphael Martinez, Garriy Ben Loss.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Well, thank you for coming back. Absolutely, Yeah, this case
is no less fucked up.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
The only good part about r Vel's case is he's
exonerated and we're on the next phase, which is fighting
to get him compensated. But that's about the only good
thing about Rvel's case.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
And you and Brownsville and bedsty Hey.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
This is nice. You know, it's kind of rough, but
it's nice.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
I used to work as Super Marcus as a kid
packing bags and stuff. I get a little money here
there because my family was poor. But did that growing
up at browns with a dead style. You literally get
tested because especially the Ghattle, the neighborhoods like you would
have to.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Fight famously, Mike Tyson's from Brownsville, and then you're like
coming of age when Mike is getting huge, right, but
before he was huge, he must have been known around town.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah he was. He's the right coach screep for your
a boy tweet Sunny and Blake the shelters no shit,
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Mike trying to help the community, you know, like Heavy
Dog k used to come through there, give it out, turkeys.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
And shit like that.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
So what's the precinct?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Seventy seven?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Some people that you are familiar.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
With Brooklyn North homicide. One of them, if you know,
James Davis. James Davis was wrong, clear convicted.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Oh wait Ja Davis.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Yeah, Legelaide represented felt Okay, yeah, ye ye ye yah yeah.
So one of the lead detectives there was Jay Wallski
and then Matthew Hutchinson. Matthew Hutchinson, from my understanding, fabricated
a statement in James Davis's case, and he's all over
our Velle's case.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
If you're unfamiliar with James Davis's case, we'll have that
linked in the episode description as well. Now, Ourvell's case
really began when he met a young lady in two
thousand and.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Three, Jadique will Collier aka Nicky.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Tell me about meeting her, Like, was there a good time?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (05:02):
It was a good time. I was, you know, but
I still feel she has something to do with me
going to jail. Even though it was a good time,
I still feel that way.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
And this is in bedsty at the time now that
you were living.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Now, I was staying at Brownsville, but I moved to
current high school. Nicki her baba ah, all right, okay.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Nicky Moba was originally my girlfriend. Oh, they kept coming
on to me. I ain't on a best one, it though,
it just happened. Nicky used to date my brother. She
got my brother name tattooed on her back. Shit, and
she was dating by niece baby father.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Now, as most of us are aware, betraying the expectation
of a monogamous relationship can offense, spark fights, breakups, or,
as the police believed in this case, murder. But Nicki
appears to have lived as she pleased and not led
any of her lovers to have any other expectation, including
r vel or the victim in this case Mustafo Maria.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
Yeah, she was dated a that will tell she was
messing with him and I was in rackets.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Out What were you in for me?
Speaker 5 (06:09):
And my sister tell you we had I got in
a fight as she lied to the cops and told
him that I stabbed her, but I didn't stab her.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
I beat that.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
I came home, but she came to visit beat on
my birthday and she told me she wanted me to
leave her mother at Bible Hall and she's going to
leave the victims. Mustafo Barrio.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I said, okay, and this dude we were talking earlier,
so he's in the Bloods. And then he's also like
a handsome guy.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
Yeah, he was a handsome guy. He was messing with
dudes girls.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Between the victims involvement with the Bloods as well as
his activity with women who were in otherwise monogamous relationships,
there may have been some ill will toward him. On
the night that he died July fifteenth, two thousand and eight,
sometime before ten pm, in front of his building one
thirty nine Albany Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
There's not thirty day sent call to the witnesses.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Right, you know, if you're the cops, you wanted to
be closer to ten o'clock, right, Arvel? Yeah, because they
knew Rvel had a pretty good alibi. Between nine thirty
and nine to forty five, and Rvel didn't have a
car either, just by the way, so he would have
had to take in a bus from his mother's house
in Right all the way to Crown Heights. It's like
(07:23):
a twenty minute bus trip by itself. But you have
Mustapha sitting on the stoop and three of his friends,
a guided by the name of Zakarie, Zaybo and Benison,
and somebody rolls up to them and head shots their
friend that around nine thirty at night and then runs away.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
They said he came from D Street and walked along
Albity Avenue. They ran back on D Street after leave.
It a scene from Albity Avenue.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Now, the initial description is somebody between five foot nine
and six foot Rvel's like five to five okay, three
inches to a half of foot potentially. We also got
a description of light skin on the nine to one
one calls. And then the other description, which is a
seventeen year old Rvel looked probably forty Rvel right.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yep, So the description didn't even come close to Rvel.
But there were some unresolvable discrepancies between the descriptions from
Benison and then Zebo and Zakari. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
First they said Bel black light skid, seventeen years old,
wearing the white T shirt blue JS. Then with the
other twols take it to the priests. They give a statement.
They said Bel black dog skid, we with the white
T shirt, dog JS and either hat or Douac. But
well he went to the DA's office. He fixed it.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
It said that the Bell was black, brown skinned wearing
all dark clothes.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Which interestingly matches the video that we're going to talk about.
And understand this, the three witnesses are testify to trial,
never say there were two people involved. Yet we have
a video that shows that there were two people involved.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
As Arvel mentioned, the assailants were traveling west on Dean,
made a left going south on Albany to where these
four men were at one thirty nine Albany. So the
police found a surveillance camera on Dean Street, which didn't
capture the shooting, but it saw enough to account for
the discrepancies and the descriptions.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
It's in the middle of the block. Actually, the video
is pretty good quality and it has an angle that
goes both ways, so you see the guys what we
now know are the perpetrators. And a key thing is
they're both the same size.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
One has light skin, one has dark shind Yeah, well.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
Dual gattle dark clothes and other dual gattle light shirt,
blue jays. He got a baseball capboard.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
This is what the video shows. These two young guys
walking down, one guy lifting up, pulling a gun out,
and you watch them make a left on the Albany.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Right.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
How you know what's the shooting is there's two guys walking,
one with a dog, one or not on Dean and
they're walking towards Albany. They hear the shots, they stop,
start walking f pass the other way. Then all of
a sudden you see the same two guys and the
guy with the white shirt has a big black thing
in his hand, which is a gun. And the two
guys that were on the block here in the shooting,
(10:12):
they see these two young guys on Dean running towards them.
They're back on the camera again, running back towards weeks filth.
This is how we know those are the shooters.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
The police made two copies of the video, one for
the DA and one for the case file, and then
made still images from the video of the assailants Meanwhile,
police alleged that someone named Abraham Omar told them about
the connection between Nikki Arvel and the victim, but then
this person seemed to just disappear and then never testified.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Let's talk about Abraham Omoa.
Speaker 5 (10:44):
Detective Hushis claved he took somebody statement with Juli Vizi.
It did clave that person provided additional information after they
called back the last sixty and that person he gave
a dave to as Abraham Omar.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
He talks about the boyfriend of Nikki that lives at eighteen.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Was it eighteen ninety six? Specific?
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Were you using that address as where you were on
probation right, yes, so then they had your name at
that address too.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
What does Abraham Omar say?
Speaker 5 (11:14):
He basically said, allegedly that he was best friends with
the victim, and before the victim died, the victim told
him that he had a problem with a girl named Nikki's.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Boyfriend, and I tried, my darnedness, and I'm pretty good
to find the people. By the way, you know what
I mean. There is no Abraham Omar in Brooklyn at all,
at all.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
He's a fucking fabrication. Yes, yes, because according to like
you know the court record, and and who's the one?
Speaker 4 (11:43):
There is no nine one one call with Abraham won.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah, he fabricated Abraham Omar.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
But if Abraham Omar doesn't exist, the nine one one
call didn't exist. It's possible that all of this information
might have come from Nicki.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
The ass who's her boyfriend.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
She told me what day was that?
Speaker 1 (12:00):
A lot sixty?
Speaker 5 (12:01):
The same day they allegedly spoke to this Abraham Omar.
If you read Nikki's statement that was given to Hushinston
and Wolfski, you could see that they just took certain
parts out that could incriminate me and put it in
the alleged Abraham omo statement. They took everything she said
about be getting out of jail, I will allegedly boost
by the good, and that I wanted to kill some
(12:23):
god the block.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
So they just took all that and just put it in.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
The person called Abraham Omar. Yeah, right on this witness
statement to this person who's best friends with Santa Claus.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
And then Bennison identified RFL from a photo array.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
And a photo ray is crazy because RFL is the
only one with corn roast.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
What does everyone else look like?
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Caesars yeah, that's in the photo array.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
What day was it when they picked you up?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
July twenty second and they came VICKI house. I was
sleep in the living room. I heard beg you.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
I'm thinking it was because of the temporary order protection
that be A Dicky had to stay away from each
other because the twenty first Bannigkie was argued. So I
ain't taking no chance. I jumped out the window, got
on the roof. As they chased me. A black officer
came that I knew they used to live with my building,
and he asked me. He's like, yo, you really don't
know what's going on. I said, Dawn, I don't know nothing.
They took me to the priest and I'm actually, what's
(13:18):
this fun? They didn't tell me. They didn't tell me.
They didn't tell me. They put me the line up.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
And then in the lineup they had you guys in hats, yeah,
sitting down, of course.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Sitting down, so they oh, what how tall is he?
I don't know, but what was different about the other
guys in the lineup?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
They was taller than me.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
Then after the lineup was over, they took me another rule.
The haircuffy start offered me Suldas McDonald's and all the
cigarette stuff. The talk, Wolski said that Ustofo Mario was
murdered and I'm the one that killed him because I
found out he was banging my girl.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And I'm like, yo, what did you talk about?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Man?
Speaker 1 (13:54):
He said, well, you the word going down for this.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
I don't care what you say. If yn't want to
tell who did it, you go it down for it.
I said, I can you tell you without a will
and they'll say to you without a lawyer, the devil
was given a lawyer. I was never read by rights.
I was just arrested.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
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. Freedom Agenda is a proud sponsor of
this episode of Wrongful Conviction. Freedom Agenda is led by
people directly impacted by incarceration, and they're organizing to get
(14:49):
Mayor Eric Adams to follow the law and shut down
Rikers Island. Right now, thousands of people are awaiting trial
there in life threatening conditions. Freedom Agenda is committed to
creating a safer and more just city by winning investments
in long neglected communities, protecting the rights of people involved
in the criminal legal system, and ending the cycle of
(15:10):
violence that Rikers perpetuates. To learn more about the campaign
to Close Rikers and to sign up for Freedom Agenda's
mailing list, go to Campaign to Close Rikers dot org, slash,
get involved, or follow at Freedom Agenda and Why on
social media.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Arvel spent nineteen months on Rikers Island pre trial. He
was going to be tried by Assistant District Attorney Tim
Goff in front of Judge Vincent del Judas, and he
was assigned to public defender Alan Stuttman.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
That would receive the visit Stubb in nineteen months.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
The only time about say Stubb is the court public
defenders they're typically overworked, underpaid.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
But that said, you're telling him exactly what to do.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
He was listened to me a total CD to investigator out.
Judge fire Tau is the one hyat the investigator. Stubman
did hie.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Him right, So you went above del Judis's head. So
he loved that shit too, right.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yes, Two out of three of the witnesses told the
defense investigator that they knew who to pick out because
Rvel looked totally different than everybody else in the lineup.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Do they do that on purpose? You think?
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Yeah, did you ask that sarcastic?
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Of course. All right, So now I mean, this isn't funny,
you know, I mean, this is crazy. But it gets worse.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
You have this defense investigator, David Walker, who's from Brooklyn,
new people in the neighborhood, and he had somebody in
the neighborhood that gave him this information. This individual said
it was a mistaken identity, like they didn't mean to
kill the victim, but it was guys from Weeksville, which
isn't that far from where Nikki lived, right, And the
(16:58):
description that he gets from the format matches what happens
on the video, which is it's a hit. It's not
a crime of passion. Right, this is doing a trial. Well,
he doesn't ever testify. They found this out before trial.
Trial attorney does nothing with us.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
By the way, I still remember that statement. It says
Jamal Jones is the set up man for the shooter.
He lives at one thirty seven. Mother is a cop,
They said. Auvel Barshoot, which is me is it his thirties.
It it's not the shooter.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
They said.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
The shooter is sixty year old Don L. White, also
lives in Weeksville. They say God named Lewis is the
ubdillah for the group and he is expanded. His last
name is adult. They say if Lewis house is checked,
the gun for the shooter would probably be found there.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Wow, very vivid description, right.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
And with this vivid narrative available to the defense. In
December two thousand and nine, Arvell was taken to trial
on the identifications that had also been exposed by the
investigator is false and potentially engineered and Rvel didn't even
know about the surveillance for the jet.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
The DA Colly walked into courtroom with the videos and
still photos in her head.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
That's how I found out that they exist.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
The stills.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Yeah, there's still photos in the video.
Speaker 5 (18:13):
When I first brought video to the judge attention, I
went through my lawyer. The DA said he didn't have
the video. He said he only had still photos that
he provided to my lawyer months ago. My lawyers said
they was of no value. The next day, I brought
it the police report showing that the videosis and still
photos was made off of it. Then the DA said, yeah,
he had the video, but he can't open it.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
It won't work.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
So I said, yo, how did you get the still
photos off the video if the video don't work?
Speaker 1 (18:39):
He said his office had nothing to do with it.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
He said, I was giving the tapes after they made
copies of the tape they retrieved and all it depicts
its two individuals just walking down the street.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Allegedly, what the police tell the prosecutor is they take
a clip of the video and they say the only
thing that they see on the video is two guys
walking on Dean Street. That's it. They don't say that
these two individuals are the shooters.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
And let's not forget the defense investigator David Walker uncovered
that one of those assailants may have been the son
of a cop at the seventy seventh Precinct. So we're
not sure if the DA saw this video or not.
Maybe eighty eight Tim guff was presenting some kind of
plausible deniability ploy about this video to the court. We
don't know. Nevertheless, they logically follows that the police tech
(19:29):
guys that produced the still were able to open the videos.
I'm reading what my researcher extracted from these exchanges, and
if he had a new excuse every fucking day, every
time he was like, oh, I can only play it
on this particular laptop that has this particular software on it.
You could just install the software.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
That's it. That's fact.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
But he's making fucking excuses every single day.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Aby single day.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
If the video showed me or he would have been
happy to play it, but be it that he know
was to be and know it was the Astra appropritrators.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
They just kept stalling. Meanwhile, they presented the eyewitnesses.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Zakari is the first one to get on the witness
stand and they ask him, do you see the shooter
in the courtroom?
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
No, Right, well then I guess that wraps it up.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
And you had to understand something. Zacarry before trial identifies
Rvel in the lineup allegedly. So how does he come
in at trial and say, no, Rvel isn't the one.
How does he tell the defense investigator that he couldn't
make an ID?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Right?
Speaker 4 (20:29):
The only way that it happens that he does make
the ID. And again this is when you get into
all best practices and everything. The investigators that know about
the investigation shouldn't be involved with the identification. But you
can only come to one conclusion if this guy's telling
the defense investigator and then comes in a trial and
says that Rvel Marshall's not the shooter, right, is that
(20:50):
he was told that Rvel Marshall was the shooter during
the lineup that he viewed. And that's why he makes
the positive identification. You gotta remember, all three witness this
is their friend that's dead. So if the police are
telling them that this is the guy that did it,
you know.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
You got to back that up. I mean, what are
you gonna dishonor his dead?
Speaker 4 (21:09):
Like now, all of a sudden, Benison comes in and
he's positive, it's our velt, right. And what's interesting is
the one thing that Alan Stutman did and Arvell and
I were talking about this is he cross examines and
eats Benison up on the fact that you only had
moments to see this person. It's not like you got
(21:29):
a good look at him. And Benison in amidst us right,
the next one that gets on the witness stand is
Eyeball a positive all of a sudden, right, And we
know from the defense investigator that these witnesses are all
saying that they weren't sure of their ID before trial.
To do with the defense is, so we're going to
talk about circumstantial evidence. Right, there's a jury instruction that
(21:50):
described circumstantial evidence. You get up in the morning, there's
snow on the ground, right, what can we assume it
snowed last night? Right? First witness gets on the witness stand.
I don't see the shoot her in the courtroom. The
next two get up on the witness standard. We're a positive.
What can we assume happen here?
Speaker 2 (22:06):
They got coached?
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, this corse?
Speaker 2 (22:08):
So all right, that circus goes on. Yes, your defensive
investigator already knows his bullshit. Yes, your public defender is
already cross examined them, and the jury sees this. I mean,
am I missing anything about this trial other.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
Than affected his alibi? His sister, who, by the way,
he told you he went to Rikers because he was
fighting the case because he had an incident with his sister.
So the sister that he had an incident with is
his alibi. She comes in and testifies that he was home.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
And then you're fighting to see this video the final straw, though,
tell me about that interaction with Dell Judas.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
Actually get we played a video to pull my edicist.
He told me having outbust in order the court officers,
he scored me out of the court room, and that's
when I got upset. Star curses said, fuck this, I
didn't kill nobody. Why the fuck you gotta do this
to me? You got the evidence right there, it proves
my edocence. Why you don't wuld to play the video?
(23:07):
Because you do? It proves my edocence. And then he
started yelling heavy up, take him out of the court.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Rule?
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Was this in front of the jury?
Speaker 2 (23:13):
R V Yes, And he says, quote, I've had enough
for you. All you do is rant. It's like my
fucking life mother, Like, what the fuck are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Exactly what he said.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Rvel talked about this video so much he was actually
found in contempt. And you have to remember this is
that at that point Rvel hadn't even seen the video.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah you know, why the fuck would you be so
interested in seeing something unless you absolutely knew you weren't
fucking there? Yeah, all right, so I mean the jury
sees this, yep, are you thinking like, oh, maybe maybe.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Maybe I got a chance.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
Yeah, it took like forty five minutes to deliverer rate
if that will be guilty with no evidence, like, yeah,
we be STARp vertic guilty. I said, y'all people crazy,
I said, y'all hear me up here, actually judge to
make the DA play the video, I say, because it's
full my innocence.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Did y'all really that crazy? Like y'all really that blind?
Speaker 5 (24:25):
They have being Auburn Clinton Albirah say, say Attica.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Theom CEOs there they were talking about racist. They racist.
They don't care, they don't hide it. That jail needs
to be shut down.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Man.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
The losses do whatever they want. Lieutenants is down with it. Captors,
all of them. They just let them do whatever they want.
To jump people, be people, up to kill people. There,
it's places, it's crazy, man.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
They have some interesting artwork on their bodies.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yes, sir, you already know the bay with the rope.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
You know all types of crazy shit man, the hitless suns, yeah,
them shits you know these are.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
Correctional Yeah, yeah, why do you take this job?
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Oh? I couldn't fucking wait. Like Jesus Christ.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
Cow was always going to take a job where they
could see they got the upper head or the real motherfucker.
If I had done this, you would never hear of
be fighting by case. I was just left it alone.
I'd be like, you know what, fuck it, I did it.
Let me do my time. But I know how didn't
do it. I was going to the little library and
I learned as much as I could about my case,
(25:36):
and then I just put it motions. I raised Brady
a shoot into is Rozario violations, prosecution misconduct, police misconduct,
and the judge being biased.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Unfortunately, he wasn't able to gain any traction for over
ten years, but over that time he built evidence to
support all of his issues claims and ultimately obtained the video.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
Rvel did what he did pro say, and then he
reached out to Derek Hamilton. You know I work with Derek, right.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Do you guys know each other from the inside.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
So I'm going to imagine like Auburn, you met Nelson
in them and the AI team.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yeah, that's where I met Derek Campibell to too.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
He came to me late October early November twenty twenty
three and I looked at the video and Rvel made
a clear record that it wasn't turned over. Actually contacted
his attorney, and there wasn't just the video. There were
interviews with some of the witnesses weren't turned over, and
his trial attorney admitted that he never received a video.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
Audio statements, right.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Audio statements. So Rvel really makes a clear record. And
I look at this video and I'm like, okay, well
these are the shooters yep. So then I looked at
the description of Rvel and I'm like, he doesn't match
the description. I look at a picture of him and
I'm like, nobody is going to confuse him for the
people in the video, even if it's grainy, right, And
so it was, you know, Brady, the cru had to
(26:59):
do their investigations. I tried to find Abraham Omar. I
tried to track down the actual person that owned the
business that took the video to see if maybe I
could get even better copy, maybe the raw files of
the video. I hired it an expert to maybe enhance
it even more.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Well.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Justin was trying to develop further support for Rvel's claim.
The Brooklyn Conviction Review Unit conducted interviews, including with Nicki
and Zebo Zacari, Benison, and his attorney, Alan Stutman.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
The DA's office interviews Alan Stuttman and they show him
the video and he said he would have used that video.
He said that he would have shown that to Rvel
and we would have built a defense around that. So
not only did they with hul Brady evidence, they created
a separation between Rvel and his lawyer. They turned Rvel
against his lawyer, and the lawyers looking at Rvel like,
you're crazy. The video doesn't mean anything. Yeah, he says,
(27:51):
I trusted what the DA said. I trusted what the
police said. I trusted what the judge said. And then
you got to remember too, this lawyer is an eight
and B lawyer, and his vouchers get signed by the judge. Okay,
so there's only but so much pushing. We're gonna get here, right, Yeah,
gonna get paid, right, So you have that. Then he
(28:12):
interviews A Carrie and Za Carry says specifically that we
were unsure and then we were told he's the killer.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
After the fact, the cops told him that Nicky boyfriend
was the shooter. I was locked up and I was
described as Nicky's boyfriend at that time, So who else
will he be talking about how would.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
It be, and it goes from a no I D
to then an ID. Then they interview Niki, and this
is why RVL believes that Nicky has something to do
with this, other than some of the things he's already
laid out. Nicki gives a statement to his defense investigator.
No one else says there's two people involved other than her.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
Yeah, she knew it was two perpetrated and she also
knew that they was one of them was young m
How did she notice? Nicky claimed to have received information
from her next door neighbor, said that somebody told them
allegedly that they say two perpetrators.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
How do they.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Notice because her next door neighbor is Abraham Omar. Yes,
none other that Abraham strikes again.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
But you know, interestingly, they showed her the video and
she said, what'd she say, Arvel?
Speaker 1 (29:20):
She said, that's not all aboult of that video.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
Boom I mean, I wish could do we have a
funk flex that we have a Bomber. I mean it
took ten months though, once I got on board of
pushing and RVEL was frustrated. I was frustrated, but at
the end of the day, the DA's office did the
right thing, and they admitted that's not him in the video.
That video had a tremendous amount of value and they
(29:45):
let him out.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
A blessed man, you know, basically helped me prove that.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
It's August ninth, twenty twenty four. What do you have
going on?
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Like?
Speaker 2 (29:55):
You know, what are you living with's life?
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Like?
Speaker 5 (29:57):
Well, I don't have a place to stay right now.
I'm staying at people houses here and there. You know,
I'm homeless really right now.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
You know, they just send me back out here with nothing.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
He has a state suit pending, and we're moving on
civil rights and we're working to try to get r
VEL stabilized.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
This case stressed my mother out so bad she passed away. Man,
it stressed my father out, my sister out. They all
three passed away, and my step father well that's for people.
They passed away because they wanted to be back home
so much. All they used to think about was me.
I gotta letters so I to be baby, come home.
Have you ever to get hold I don't know how
(30:36):
much more I could take and then she's gone. Now
they all got and that was my support while I
was a jet. There was my support of the street
that'll have able.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
No, as you've just heard, our Vell has very little support,
and you can help them stay afloat by donating to
his GoFundMe. We'll have that linked in the episode description.
We wish Justin in him all the luck in the
world and their pursuit of civil litigation. I mean, obviously
nothing could ever make up the time for our Vel.
(31:07):
But however, during the interview, Larvell expressed a small measure
of revenge that he had on Nikki and someone from
the seventy seventh Precinct that felt pretty cathartic.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
That it was funny.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
By after I got locked up, Dicky started dating a
guy that woke to seventy seven Precinct as a cop.
Guess what of a day, little do his RoboCop asked, though, Nick,
you sent me a neckad picture on my phone.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Oh bunny boy, Yeah, I hope you hit his shit.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
And I also got a letter from her telling me
she's gonna leave him to come back to me. Oh man,
but you know what, I don't want to ask back.
I ain't even want to steak ass neckert picture. She
could have kept that shit.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
And with that we go to closing arguments where I'm
just going to express my gratitude to Rvel and Justin
as well as to Jason and the team for letting
me do this, and then I'm going to lock it
up and listen to anything else. Justin and Rvel have
to say.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
Everybody says, what would an innocent man say? A menisin,
you'd scream to the rooftop im medison, I didn't do it,
and then people on that jury that think this is
what I would do if I didn't do Rvel Marshall
did what everybody says that they would do, even though
they don't have an iota of what it is like
(32:35):
to be interrogated and arrested and prosecuted. Right, most people
in this country don't. They don't know. I see I do.
I've been I've had the police come to try to
interrogate me, and they have a very good method to
make you feel like they know something about you when
they don't, the psychological games that they play. But see,
(32:58):
he withstood all of the psychological games. He never admitted
he committed the crime. He said he was innocent from
the very beginning, had an alibi from the very beginning,
was in court and when his lawyer wouldn't advocate for him.
He advocated for himself. He does exactly what everybody said
that they would do, which is they would tell everybody
I'm innocent, tell him where I am. Still gets convicted,
(33:21):
And the worst part about it is he's undermined by
the prosecutor and it's not just their job to get
a conviction. They have a duty of candor to the
court and fairness to the accused. That didn't happen here,
whether it was because the prosecutors fault himself or the
cops fault, they cheated every chance that they got. Is
(33:42):
we know this now because of physical evidence that they
had to frame him in order to get him arrested
and then convicted, and they had to coach these witnesses
to take it all away to the end, to the
finish line. He does, though, what everybody says they would do,
which is repeatedly say he innocent. Every chance he got,
even when he was told not to do it, he
(34:05):
did it. And he was blasted by the judge in
front of the jury said he's not credible in front
of the jury.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
What would y'all have done in my situation? Would y'all
would is still quiet. Did the time.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
Or fight to prove you, Editus, but you know it
could be done. Let other people that really out there
killing people be home so they could kill more people,
or ask that you put them people away and let
the Edocon man out.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Would y'all want them cops to still be working?
Speaker 5 (34:42):
To y'all, communities of the judges and the da I
don't feel they should have a job anymore, none of
them because they no good. I hope y'all feel the
same way I do. And like I said, I'm edocent still,
I'm gonna always fame instant because I know how you
do that like that. I never killed nobody in my life,
(35:04):
and I'm not ashamed to sit.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I'm not gonna kill him. I'm just a god that
will fight for his rights. That's it. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
You can listen to this.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
And all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early
and ad free 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 Cleibern. The
music in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR
nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us across
(35:43):
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 the production of Lava
for Good podcasts and association with Signal Company Number one
Hosts And Creators
Lauren Bright Pacheco
Maggie Freleng
Jason Flom
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