July 31, 2025 • 34 mins
On July 12, 1994, 19-year old Steven Smith was killed after being struck by a single bullet to the head in Newport News, VA. Within weeks three individuals, two teenage boys, and one in his twenties, were arrested for the crime. Darryl Hunter, his older brother Nathaniel Pierce, and his friend Reginald Fletcher, were each tried and convicted solely on witness testimony. They were sentenced collectively to over 200 years in prison. Since then, a dozen witnesses have recanted, claiming that the government coerced them to testify against the Virginia 3.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
On July twelfth, nineteen ninety four, in downtown Newport News, Virginia,
a car full of young men opened fire at another
group outside of a public housing complex. Three young people
were injured, and nineteen year old Stephen Smith was fatally shot.
Soon after, fifteen year old Darryl Hunter was implicated, which
(00:25):
then led to his brother Nathaniel and his best friend Reginald,
whose compelling alibis were ignored when they were later identified
by several alleged eyewitnesses. This is Wrongful Conviction. You're listening
(00:46):
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.
Welcome back to Wrong for Conviction. Today, we're covering the
(01:07):
case that I've been obsesseding about for many years, case
I was personally very involved with, and three guys who
have become close to, the Virginia Three. We've covered a
lot of Virginia cases on the podcast, and a lot
of them involved similar situations, false witnesses, misconduct. But first
(01:28):
I'm going to introduce the Virginia Three. Let's see should
we do this in alphabetical order.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
My name is Virginal Fletcher.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I was nineteen years old in nineteen ninety four, falsely convicted,
accused of a crime I didn't commit.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Daryl hunter Well, I was fifteen years old when I
was arrested for the crime.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Then the one and only.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
Hello, my name is the thing you Piers. I was
locked up when I was twenty four for something I
had no knowledge.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Of, and you guys were sentenced to hundreds of years
collectively in prison and served between all three of you
almost eight years. But tell us about Newport News around
the time of this crime, which was nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Back in ninety four in Newport News, Yes, to collect
them was real heavy, especially the I where the crime
took place at.
Speaker 6 (02:14):
Violence was crazy in the city.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Anybody was just getting harmed and killed, and it was
cops and everything. So the life expectancy of somebody where
I confrom was you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Long.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
They had the highest murder rate, number three in the world.
There wasn't closing a lot of these cases because the
Commonwealth Arattorney didn't get They wasn't investigating these cases. There
wasn't testing evidence in these cases. Nevertheless, we fell victim
to this situation.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
I had things I wanted to be in life, you
know what I mean, And I didn't even get to
make it.
Speaker 6 (02:46):
A high school.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
You were the youngest there. Let's start with you. What
were your lives like, you.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Know, early nineties. Everybody it was a product of environment.
So everybody wanted to be small time petty hustlers or whatever.
And people hustled just to get closed whatever and chase chicks.
And I'd like to go to school every day because
I'm going to school with these clothes on that I bought.
Speaker 6 (03:06):
Every day I got.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Off from school, I watched cartoons, Bugs, Bunny and all that.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
Before I ain't got with him.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I got this question asked a lot of times back then.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
They were like, why you hanging with little dir He's
fifteen years old, little dirt heart.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Some of the older guys I with the heart.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
You guys were next door neighbors, right, You.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Still got my Nintendo too at home? Man, when I
got arrested, I never got to get it back.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
It's an antique.
Speaker 6 (03:28):
Yeah, I need that shit. I just I'm glad you
said something.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
He got money to you, like play games, gamble, Like
what they do now with the kids do now they
play the games. And that's what I was into, Like
skating ring was the thing round our way, and the
game room and smoke blunts and then I come home
and late at night and I had to have beavers
and buttheads when I smoked my bes and but that's
what was going on.
Speaker 6 (03:50):
And pop punk golf. Used to go to puppunk golf
a lot. Man. I used to go to pump punk golf.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yes, all right, right, who would win at pup punk off?
You would win? Yes, uh, well, you had four years
on him. What else? What were your other interests? Because
you were out of high school by this time.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Being nineteen years old, had a job. I was at
some females. It's a jewelry shooting, dice gambling, hang out,
pup hunt, but most poorly, like still out of trouble.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Like you can't get him to smoke a blunt on
a corner. He not doing it.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
And what about you, Nathaniel, You were twenty four, right.
Speaker 5 (04:18):
Yes, I was twenty four at the time. I had
a job. I was taking care of my kids, living
a good life. I did. I was doing good. And
we hang out and go to the movies and do things.
Might hang out with them for hours some but I
have kids. The day that I don't hang out with them, yeah,
I mean like this is what happened the day that
I don't go because I had a cast on when
(04:38):
they I ain't want to go with them.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Unrelated to the cast on his leg, a neighborhood guy
named Terence Gibbons allegedly had made an attempt on Nathaniel's
life in May nineteen ninety four. So now there we
were on the evening of July twelfth, nineteen ninety four,
and Reginald and Daryl were shooting dice without Nathaniel in
uptown Newport News, a predominantly white area.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Mea Darrel was the together all day, so we was
at a little small hotel called green Oaks. There was
some Texico gas station connected to green Oaks, so we
would leave green Oaks to go to testa code. Were
bust some chips, soda some.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
This was about twelve miles north of the crime scene,
which occurred in front of a public housing complex at
the forty seven hundred block of Marshall Avenue. Meanwhile, Nathaniel,
who went by the nickname Muchie, was hanging out locally
with his injured leg. About a quarter of a mile
down Marshall Avenue.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
I was walking from forty first Street. I was with
a friend, Lynn Woodsmith. We had a drunk of forty ounce.
I said, man, I'm going back up here because it's
getting dark. So as I'm walking down the street, I
heard gunshot. I don't think none of it, but I
started hearing ammal lambs and polices and everything going. By
the time I get to the forty fourth Street, people
running everywhere, a car skirted and everything. I keep on
(05:50):
walking up the sidewalk. This little boy was up on
a car. He run from one of the car said moochie,
please save my life. Don't let him kill me. Take
me home. I'm not driving, so walking This lady, I said, can,
I called him a cab. Her name was Orjrey Evans.
I went into her house and called him a cab.
Sent them on to his mother. Saved his life.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
According to witnesses, just a few blocks up on Marshall Avenue,
three to five men got out of a car firing
around one hundred shots, some into the air, others at
a group of young people on the front porch. Fourteen
year old Maurice Johnson, seventeen year old Alan Stowe's and
twenty one year old Quentin Royal were injured, while nineteen
year old Stephen Smith was fatally shot through his neck. Meanwhile,
(06:32):
Daryl and Reginald were still shooting Dice at the Texicgo station.
When Darryl, now remember this is nineteen ninety four, he
got a beep, you know, on his beeper telling him
to call home.
Speaker 6 (06:41):
It's all was a small time house. So I had
a pager. So I went to the store.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
I got some quarters and I called my sister back
and she told me to a crime app. She said,
he's shooting. She put Daddy on the phone. Man brango
ass home.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
I'm like shy, right, so therey they could have got
the phone records as well.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yes, I look at like ten thirty five, his mother said,
us at home before eleven o'clock.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
We wave uptown the white people neighborhoods. The crime happened downtown.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
At the distance from Texico to where we lived at
I say about twenty minutes. So I said, oh, look,
I get him home for letting them clock because less
I'm in real lights. So when I take him home.
Before we pull up on Washing Avenue, we see sirens.
The whole street is lit up.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
All you've seen was likes and so many police cars.
We see everybody outside. So he dropped me off at
the house and I stand outside too. She I'm nosy too.
What happened? Somebody got shot?
Speaker 6 (07:32):
The news?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Come on now, I'm about to go in there. You know,
I'm gonna watch beefs and butheads. But I'm gonna watch
the news now because it's breaking news. It's messing up
beavers and but heads. I see my neighbor on the
news talking about how he got shot. I say, damn man,
that's boo on the news. What didn't happened?
Speaker 6 (07:48):
No night go on.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
About four o'clock in the morning, my mom came upstairs.
She said, third of the police, won't you come downstairs?
Go downstairs. So they were like, we need to speak
to you. I'm looking at my mama, So she was like, all,
let me go get dressed. They take me outside, put
me in the car and drive off with take me
over town interrogate. I was willing to talk to him.
(08:09):
I don't know what they're talking about.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
So it appears that either someone had falsely implicated Daryl,
or perhaps his interrogators Riley and Shepherd, were lying to
him about being implicated.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
I'm to the point where I'm mad, and I was like, well,
go get him and tell him me to come in
here and say it to my face. I don't know
what the hell you talking about. It who you can
check me for gunpowder? Man, I ain't shot nobody. So
when they hear that, I see all types of people
coming in and check my clothes, check my hair, check
my face, checked my whole body. I told the techt
the Spinner, because he came in the room while Riley
(08:42):
and Shepherd was questioning me. I said, we was up
there shooting Dice by the store. I know they got
a surveillance camera in there. He radio police out there
to go to the store. When he asks them people,
he say, the lady was like, gave it the tape.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Her name was Robin Raimie, rightyes.
Speaker 6 (08:58):
Air white woman.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
She told him everything that we was doing outside in
stool at the time of the shooting, at the time
of the shoot.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
And the detective when it got the tape.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
When it got the tape, what they do with the tape,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
We don't know.
Speaker 6 (09:12):
Detective spent On, tell him go. He ain't take him
back home.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
My mom came back up there because she was mad
because they drove off with me.
Speaker 6 (09:19):
You ain't got none to worry about with your son.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
They had to know you had a solid alibi. Gunshot
residue test. I mean you're on.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
Video all white woman.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
A white woman, yes, a white woman. Over the course
of the next three weeks, it seems like the police
arrested or detained several individuals from the neighborhood, including Tory Davis,
(09:51):
Clyde Dargan, and Terence Gibbons, who we mentioned was facing
an attempted murder charge on none other than Nathaniel Pierce. Now,
obviously that charge was known to the defense, but not
Gibbons's other unrelated charges, nor were those that the other
two alleged witnesses were facing, which it appears had been
used to gather statements that were all later recanted, all
(10:15):
of them. Now, interestingly, Terrence Gibbons had a cousin named
Damian Claude who looked similar to one of the victims,
and he and Daryl had had a previous beef.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
We had an incident, but the incident was him being
the aggressor. We end up shaking hands and pawow, now
you know what I mean. We had a full blown
sit down with our parents. Our parents got involved, so
his mom sent them off the job corp. Next time
I know, they've been using him as a motive. They
say that I was trying to kill him.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
And by August fourth, Tory Davis, Clyde Dargan, and Terrence
Gibbons were willing to identify shooters from lineups, so the
police picked up Darryl, Reginald and Nathaniel.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
If He came to the house to get me the post.
They said, well, can we just talk to you for
a minute. I said, y'all can talk to me right here.
I said, do you got to want He said no,
we don't got a wart. He said, well you coming
right back? I said, coming right back? I ain't going
nowhere with y'all. He said, yes, she is. They handcuffed me,
but I wasn't underrest. If they just wanted to question me,
why did they handcuff me? So I went down there
(11:20):
and I told them everything that I'd done that day
and where I was at. I had the little boy
who life I was saved who was right there, who's
seen the crime happen, and the detective, Charles Spinner, I'll
never forget it. They called him Chucky. He told me, said,
what you're telling me is the truth. I'm going to
see that guy's mother right now, he said, And what
you telling me is the truth. I'm gonna be back
(11:41):
to get you. Man. I ain't never see him no more.
I seen him in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
And we're going to come back to that encounter later.
But it appears that if Spinner had spoken to that
boy and his mother, any record of that is probably
wherever the surveillance video went. So now, on the strength
of cost and incentivized statements, the Virginia three were charged
with one count of first degree murder, three counts of
(12:06):
malicious maiming, as well as gun charges, and fifteen year
old Darryl was going to be charged as an adult,
but his older brother Nathaniel was tried first in January
nineteen ninety five, where he was identified by Davis, Dargan,
and Gibbons, all of whom unbeknownst to the defense Well
it seems like they had various arrangements with the state.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
Those were the only three witnesses that come le've had
against him?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
What was in your favor?
Speaker 5 (12:32):
I had it in my favor that I had a
cast on my leg. All the perpetrators ran away from
the crime scene.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
And that running element was a key piece of Darget's testimony,
even though the cast made it literally impossible. And in addition,
his attorney pointed out the unrelated charge that they did
know about, that the attempted murder charges against Gibbons had
curiously been dropped by the time of his testimony. Unfortunately, though,
the defense could not find that thirteen year old boy
(13:00):
whom Nathaniel had saved, and it appears that the detectives
hadn't even tried. Certainly his testimony would have made a huge.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Difference when it came back with the verdict. It was
like nine oh four at night. I had been sitting
out in a bullpen for hours. I just knew, I
believe the shots said go, don't keep you closed on.
You'd be going in a few minutes. Everybody in the
courtroom knew I won. They had nothing on me. Literally,
everything that they said was a lot. They'd come back
(13:28):
with a couple of hot sauce, a piece of chicken,
a Coca Cola and a life sentence plus seventy eight
years and sixty days and sent me.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
To prison life plus seventy eight years and sixty days
and sixty days and sixty days. Apparently he had missed
the court date related to Gibbons' attempted murder proceedings. Now,
perhaps they were trying to give the appearance that the
drop charges were related only to that, even though Nathaniel
could not have been there because he was in custody
(13:57):
at the time for a driving charge.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
Was ready in jail, so I could I a miscought
and if I'm already in your custody, they gave me
sixty days for that too. I looked back at my mother.
She's like, May I couldn't cry because I know I
hadn't killed nobody.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Meanwhile, Darryl, who had been granted bond, had chosen to
stay in pretrial's attention.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
At first, I was like, don't waste no more money
because I ain't do nothing. We gonna beat it because
we had three of the best lawyers and known in
our city.
Speaker 6 (14:26):
So I'm thinking I'm going home.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
When they found him guilty, I read it the paper
to common well talking in the paper and they were like,
we coming to get his little brother, Daryl Hunter.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
Next. I'm like, oh my god. When I read that,
come and get me out on bond expeditiously. I'm scared.
I'm like, man, y'all gotta come get me.
Speaker 7 (14:42):
Man.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
You know, I turned into a little kid there. You
know what I'm saying, Like, y'all, I gotta do that.
My mom and dad came and bailed me out.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
And then he went to trial next. Yeah, I went
to trial next, and you had a bench trial.
Speaker 6 (14:52):
My lawyer told me to a jury, I can beat
the jury.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
But I was like, oh uh, Joel, I want to
I don't want no people to come here because there
might be some people that know the people. That's what
my mind thinking. I want to do it. I'm gonna
take him. I think that was a bad mistake for
me to.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Do Again, the state presented Clyde Dargan, who only identified
Nathaniel as he ran away from the scene, never mind
the cast on his leg, but the judge credited his
testimony anyway. Then Terence Gibbons identified all three of them,
but was discredited with the dropped attempted murder charge. This time,
one of the victims in this case, Maurice Johnson, testified
(15:28):
to something that no one else had ever said. He
testified that Daryl stood over him and fired. However, he
was contradicted by the physical evidence because no shell casings
were found where he was recovered by first responders. And finally,
Tory Davis said that he was standing across the street
at the gas pump and identified all three.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
The judge wanted to go to the crime saying he
wanted to see what he witnessed the city was standing
at would he said, he's seeing me from he went
out there and say, well, I can see from grossy
streets if I've seen put the deputy over there. Yeah,
I think I can identify somebody if I already knew
he was fixed for.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
So despite the testimony of Robin Raymie, the Texico cashier
placing Darryl and Reginalds uptown, the judge credited Davis at Dargan.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
It was just tragedy, you know what I'm saying, Like
I ain't even get to make it a high school.
I ain't get to spurns none of that, Like no
prom no nothing. And I had to grow up over
the phone listen to my friends. You know what I'm saying,
grow up and what happened in school today? That was
like interested in me.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
What was your sentence?
Speaker 6 (16:36):
It gave me one hundred and twelve.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Years at fifteen years old.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
I was sixteen, just turned sixteen.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
One hundred and twelve years. What even is that? And
no other country in the world does it this way.
I mean maybe North Korea, I don't know, but so regularly.
You were the last of the three to go to trial. Yes, sir,
obviously you were very well aware of what had happened.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Absolutely, I was devastated and then I felt like I
don't have a chance.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I had a jelly trial. My trial last three days.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
So the deputy during the time was in listening and
he said, you might got a great shot. I won't
say they got found guilty. The evidence that they was presenting.
It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
But again, Dargan only I d Nathaniel with his running story.
Gibbons id'd all of them, but was again impeached, And
this time Davis said that the Commonwealth told him what
to say and that his eyesight was twenty fifty. But
even with that and the alibi testimony, of Robin Raimi.
Somehow regimen was still found guilty.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
So after the guilty verdict, I sat there for a second.
I wasn't in disbelief about it because my other two
brothers had already been found guilty. But not only did
they drag us down and found us guilty, but my
father caught a case behind this as well.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
All he said was that's not fair, my son is innocent.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
But he took his words in and said that my
father had threatened the witnesses after the jury had found
me guilty.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
See which was it? Lie?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Was your father convicted? No, sir, they meant to that.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
He just got community service. But he shouldn't have had nothing.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
What was your sentence?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I had seventy eight years?
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Seventy eight years.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Yes, I had a daughter at the time. She was
only four months so for me to leave her in
the world alone and deal with the prison system, it
didn't sept with with me. For like twenty four and
a half years. I cried almost every night.
Speaker 7 (18:30):
We lost everything for nothing.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
I went to prison with life in seventy eight years
and sixty days. I got there around three something in
the morning. It was so cold outside. They told me
to take off all my clothes. They put some shampoo
in my head and sprayed me down with a holes
like they have on the fire truck. They gave me
a blanket and took me to a seal. I knew
(19:09):
my life and changed in it really messed with me
because I hadn't done nothing. I'm around all these dangerous peoples,
so I had to adapt.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
Prison was hard. I got pressed a lot in it,
but it ain't no chump.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
It was like I might got to punch you in
your face with staring at me too long or something,
just to make a statement because I'm one hundred.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Pounds, you innocent and you're around. Somebody liked that.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I actually pretend like I was guilty. Could it asks
you what you're here for? What did you do? So
I used that a little bit to get through the time,
and also present letters, write letters every day for help.
I took programs a lot of different type of trays
to put myself in a position to be able to
get early parole. Well, at least I thought I was
(19:52):
a gett early parole because I know I believe that
I could be in prison for twenty four and a half.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Years, especially since right after Reginald's conviction, Nathaniel was granted
a new trial and direct appeal. It was discovered that
Clyde Dargan's history as an informant was hidden from the defense. However,
Nathaniel was once again found guilty in nineteen ninety six
on Dargan's testimony. Since that time, evidence of Dargan's relationship
with police was revealed to include offerings of testimony true
(20:20):
or false, as well as a cut of his drug
money in exchange for freedom on a leash, so to speak.
But that's not all that the Virginia Three discovered, considering
that they ran into other guys in prison whom they'd
known since they had moved with their parents to Newport News.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
Soon as I moved in the neighborhood, a lot of
hate and envies. Thought it come in my way, you
know what I mean, juvenile stuff. I was always wondering
why what did I do? Because my dad was in
the shipyard in the military my whole life. I asked
one of the dudes that I grew up with. I say, man,
why dude, low me? He say, Man, I'm gonna tell.
Speaker 7 (20:58):
You the truth.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Because you had a daddy I say what, So dudes said, man,
your daddy brought your shoes or Friday bro.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
So they were jealous, jealous. The first of the recantations
came in two thousand and seven from Terrence Gibbons, saying
that he was coerced by others to lie, and it
was discovered that in addition to his attempted murder, chargers
being dropped, nine ounces of cocaine possession went away as well.
And maybe it was this recantation, but something prompted Detective
(21:28):
Spinner to visit Nathaniel Pierce in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
Two thousand and eight, he came to South having correction
on Centay to see me. I ain't know who's visiting,
so I go over there and he's standing there. They
had me handcuffed. The lieutenant took the handcuffs home. He said,
they don't want you handcoff because they never let you
go in there with the police without handcuffs on. He said,
I'm sorry, Spinner. He told me he was sorry. He said,
(21:54):
I'll be about to get you with the Fridays. We're
gonna get all this straight.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Did he have like a religious awakening or why the
hell did he come in and come clean to you.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
Why he went home and died that weekend. Did he
look sick, Yeah, he was a little skinnier.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
So maybe he knew he was dying and want to
get ready with good and fest is up to you.
But there's no recording of that meeting. Obviously right now
they recorded.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
But I can prove that he can't even see me.
And I got a couple letters from him and Howard Gwinn.
Howard Gwinn had sent me a letter like three weeks
ahead and say, yeah, he now works for me. This
is what they do. They reopened the case up. They
put a detective, her name is Misty Mercer on the case.
I'd never seen her. I never heard from her. I
(22:36):
never talked to her. Neither one of them never talked
to her. Nevertheless, the common with attorney, I kept writing
them and writing them. He kept asking me for my evidence.
He concocted the story. They have people to say we've
done things that he knew we didn't do.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
According to Tory, Davis, who had already admitted at Reginald's
trial that his vision was very poor. This is part
of his twenty sixteen recantation, said that after he was
arrested on unrelated drug charges in nineteen ninety four. Spinner
brought him to Gwynn's office, where he was fed the
narrative and in exchange for his testimony, that his charges
would be dropped. Damien Claude also recanted, saying that the
(23:15):
whole motive about his prior beef with Daryl was actually nonsense.
It was bogus. And lastly, Clyde Dargan made a dying
declaration recanting and admitting his cozy relationship with Newport News police. Additionally,
his wife and mother in law added that Clyde had
not witnessed the shooting at all. And Nathaniel was also
(23:36):
able to reach the thirteen year old boy who he'd
help save all those years ago.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
After twenty three years one of my friends got out.
I said, man, could you go around there and get
the address. I'm gonna try to write to his mother
and tell her I say this his life. He wouldn't
there and got the address, but it wasn't the right address,
so I put a picture in there with the letter.
It went to the wrong house. Just so happened. Somehow
somebody opened the mail, read the letter and take it
(24:01):
to this lady the boy and mother called the news
after she read my letter and asked her son, did
somebody ever save your life? He said, yeah Muchie.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Local News three, specifically WTKRS. Breonna Berry interviewed the boy,
who is now a man, who asked that his identity
be hidden as the shooters were still at large, and
he described being chased by one of them before Nathaniel
had heroically brought him to safety.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
Before the story aired, I had an opportunity on February
twenty seventh, twenty eighteen, to speak with Adrian Bennett. She
came to see me.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
The head of the parole board. Adrian Bennett had already
received the parole package from Nathaniel and she was now
aware of the News three coverage and she paid Nathaniel
to visit.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
And she told me. She said, I've seen Reginald a
couple of days ago.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
He's doing good.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
I say yeah, I say, miss Bennett, I say, you
know from the package that I sent you. I said,
you had an opportunity to view it, to read did
and everything. She said, Well, what I'm gonna do for you,
I'm going to to murder victim's mother. That lady told
her everything She wanted to hear that we didn't do
the crime, and she didn't know what to do after
(25:12):
we were sent to prison.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
The murder victim's mother she told Adrian Bennett, who is
the head of the parole board, she knew we.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
Didn't kill her son, and Adrian she knowed the story
is going to air on the news the next day.
Before the story ed, Reginald got paroleed.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
All three men received support for their parole from the
Radical Hope Project, and Reginald was the first to be
released on February twenty eighth of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
So the first thing I done is kissed the ground,
looked up in the sky. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
It was a blessing, a dream come true. It took
twenty four a half years, but that was a feeling
that I can't never ever forget. I ended up getting
car sick because I haven't rolled in the car for
so long. I wasn't used to the air. The air
and society is diffrom the air. This in prison, I've
(26:04):
been going so long. I had to get readapted all
over again to society.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
And while Reginald began that journey, there were still two
more men to go as far as I can recall,
I was in Virginia to walk Lenny Singleton out of prison,
and then I met that reporter there, Brionna Barry, and
she told me about you guys, and that's the first
time I had heard about it, and I had cultivated
a relationship with the powers that be in Virginia.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
Oh so that's how you and up sending the email back.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
God sent me to you, Jason Flom. I told you
my story. You listen to me. I wrote you here
I am on today. I thank you for doing everything
you're done for me. The Virginia three he went to
the parole board. He spoke to them for me. I
had opportunity to speak with them. We're all grateful for him.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Nathaniel was finally granted parol in December of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
I lost so much in prison. I lost out on
my kids life because everybody had told them Eliza about me,
and they had looked at me as I was a murderer.
And it's hard to date for me to stand there
with my kids and they don't look at me that way.
I don't know now, man that goes to prison, that
comes out here that can tell you that he's mentally stable.
(27:23):
They sending us right back out here to society without
giving us the problem.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
Help.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
You're not coming back out there the same way you
went in. And then they seen you right back out
here for resitivist. I had an officer tell me that.
He said, I see you back. I seen him not
too long ago. He bowed down to me. He bowed
down to me. He said, I never believed you. He said,
you're right here. He said, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Darryl's release soon followed. In July of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
They try to plan a knife on me. A couple
of days before that. Wow, they kicked in the sell.
I'm in the park where everybody got a least dating
the pod. They come in and they go in the
ventilation system. They pull out something about this long and
I said, well, I ain't man. I'm gonna go home.
You know that, right, I'm gonna go home. Like a
couple of days, I'm on the damn TV. What the
(28:13):
hell I need a knife? They was like, you don't
do another news and interview. I think you had some
people calling me and hit me up or something. It
was something that I saw. They was emailing me and
everything Dateline, Night Line one of them, and they was
asking for interviews and they was like, I was like.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
I'm gonna hear him out. I'm gonna hear him out.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
And they came, this is yours right, like, nah, so
you're gonna do an interview. I was like, what you mean? Yeah,
I'm gonna do an interview every chance I get. Well,
it's gonna be your knife. So you want to go home.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
What was the first thing you did when you got
out barrow?
Speaker 6 (28:50):
Everything?
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Life has been beautiful, you know, it's except just losing
my father and my brother.
Speaker 6 (28:54):
Because when I got out, I don't even know.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
My dad had to mention I ain't no because he
was talking like he knew what was going on. So
to have somebody to take care of you like that
all your life. I'm talking about all the way util
we walked out of the door, my dad held us down
like it was mind bogging for me. Like I think
about it all the time, like, damn, man got a
(29:16):
good ass dad.
Speaker 6 (29:17):
Man.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
We you know what I'm saying. The man send his
money every week, you know, while we was in there.
So that breaks me down sometime when I think about it,
like cause I ain't got them no.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
More right Apparently, their father Nathaniel, uncle Clarence, and their
brother Raymond, among so many other family members who are
still with us, like their sister Belinda, their mothers well,
they all had really stepped up for them throughout the
entire ordeal, helping with attorney's fees, with Nathaniel's kids, whatever
they needed. So the passing of these three family members
(29:47):
is all the more painful as a result. We're gonna
dedicate this episode to them. May they rest in peace
and power. But the story isn't over yet because even
though they've been paroled, the This Is Project took up
the cause of clearing all of their names.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
All the evidence that the Innocent Project got right now,
they hit all this stuff, this show that we completely
innocent and all the stuff that were all deceived the
court with lies and they knew that we didn't have
nothing to do with it because they told them what
to say against us, Like you had the truth, you
had all the shell cases. It's four different guns, you
(30:26):
only locked up three.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
There are shellcasings and weapons that could and should be
tested for DNA, as well as more witnesses who have
come forward who could shed light on what was known
about the actual shooters, and maybe even more importantly, what
was hidden.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
And it's been happening and continually happened. This is a
pattern of Keith Haywood, David Boyse. All of these people
have the same crime, the same detectives, everything, the same
commonwealth and it's going to continue to be in the
same cycle if somebody don't break the chain.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Fortunately, Howard Gwynn was recently defeated in the Democratic primary
by Shannon Jones, and we here at Wrongful Conviction are
all hoping that this is a positive development as we
move forward in this case, justice cannot be delayed any longer.
These guys are innocent and they deserve to have their
names cleared. And now we're going to go to my
(31:18):
favorite part of the show, closing arguments, where I'm going
to turn my microphone off, kick back in my chair
and let you guys share any other thoughts that you
may have. And again, thank you for being here. It's
sorry for everything you guys went through. I'm so happy
we're finally going to get your story out there to
the world the way it should have been told in
(31:39):
the first place.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Reginald, I want to give a special thanks to Jason
Flumm his whole team having no Gian three out to
aari story, and also to all the running conviction that
goes on all over the world. It's said that it
happens well thanks to social media. It is dead time
to shed a light on that type of justice, not
(32:00):
just in Virginia but all over.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
It needs to stop.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Thank y'all once again for believing in the Virginia Three
in other cases as well.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
Nathan Yel, I just want to thank Jason Flom, Kevin Connor,
you guys for everything that y'all have done for us.
And I'm grateful and I'm humbled that the guys have
done what they've done. The witnesses that came forward to
do what they're supposed to do, then get these convictions
up off of us. You know, you always heard that
(32:31):
trouble is easy to get it, but hard to get out.
It's true. It's been thirty years we've been dealing with
this situation, and I just pray that it's over real soon.
I just want to thank my wife. I thank you
for doing everything you've done for me. I really think
everybody that has been there for the Virginia Three that
has followed the Virginia Three that know the Virginia three story, Jason,
(32:55):
all the guys here wrong for Conviction, our lawyer, John
love It, Joe Maroon take those two. Thank you everybody
and Daryl.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Now, I just want to thank everybody that would you know,
helped to lease the speed as an advocate down there
in Virginia.
Speaker 6 (33:11):
That helps a lot of people.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
Brianna Barry, the National Action Network, brotheren Tooms, Mister Archie,
Jason Flume, Benjamin Crump, everybody that came along and spoke
up on it and spoke for us. You know what
I'm saying, Like it takes a whole lot of people,
you know, to come together to make something like this happen.
You know, me being locked up at fifteen years old
(33:36):
like that was a I hope this can register to
some people out there so we can stop this type
of stuff, you know what I mean.
Speaker 6 (33:43):
That's that's that's basically it. And I just want to thank.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Everybody that was involved, Joe, Ron John, my lawyer, John
love It, everybody that's coming together for the one cause.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Thank you for listening to 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. 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 Kleiber. The
music in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR
(34:19):
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 Plomm. Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava
for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number One.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported
in this show are accurate.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in
this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect
those of Lava for Good.
On July twelfth, nineteen ninety four, in downtown Newport News, Virginia,
a car full of young men opened fire at another
group outside of a public housing complex. Three young people
were injured, and nineteen year old Stephen Smith was fatally shot.
Soon after, fifteen year old Darryl Hunter was implicated, which
(00:25):
then led to his brother Nathaniel and his best friend Reginald,
whose compelling alibis were ignored when they were later identified
by several alleged eyewitnesses. This is Wrongful Conviction. You're listening
(00:46):
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.
Welcome back to Wrong for Conviction. Today, we're covering the
(01:07):
case that I've been obsesseding about for many years, case
I was personally very involved with, and three guys who
have become close to, the Virginia Three. We've covered a
lot of Virginia cases on the podcast, and a lot
of them involved similar situations, false witnesses, misconduct. But first
(01:28):
I'm going to introduce the Virginia Three. Let's see should
we do this in alphabetical order.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
My name is Virginal Fletcher.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I was nineteen years old in nineteen ninety four, falsely convicted,
accused of a crime I didn't commit.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Daryl hunter Well, I was fifteen years old when I
was arrested for the crime.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Then the one and only.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
Hello, my name is the thing you Piers. I was
locked up when I was twenty four for something I
had no knowledge.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Of, and you guys were sentenced to hundreds of years
collectively in prison and served between all three of you
almost eight years. But tell us about Newport News around
the time of this crime, which was nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Back in ninety four in Newport News, Yes, to collect
them was real heavy, especially the I where the crime
took place at.
Speaker 6 (02:14):
Violence was crazy in the city.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Anybody was just getting harmed and killed, and it was
cops and everything. So the life expectancy of somebody where
I confrom was you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Long.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
They had the highest murder rate, number three in the world.
There wasn't closing a lot of these cases because the
Commonwealth Arattorney didn't get They wasn't investigating these cases. There
wasn't testing evidence in these cases. Nevertheless, we fell victim
to this situation.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
I had things I wanted to be in life, you
know what I mean, And I didn't even get to
make it.
Speaker 6 (02:46):
A high school.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
You were the youngest there. Let's start with you. What
were your lives like, you.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Know, early nineties. Everybody it was a product of environment.
So everybody wanted to be small time petty hustlers or whatever.
And people hustled just to get closed whatever and chase chicks.
And I'd like to go to school every day because
I'm going to school with these clothes on that I bought.
Speaker 6 (03:06):
Every day I got.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Off from school, I watched cartoons, Bugs, Bunny and all that.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
Before I ain't got with him.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I got this question asked a lot of times back then.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
They were like, why you hanging with little dir He's
fifteen years old, little dirt heart.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Some of the older guys I with the heart.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
You guys were next door neighbors, right, You.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Still got my Nintendo too at home? Man, when I
got arrested, I never got to get it back.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
It's an antique.
Speaker 6 (03:28):
Yeah, I need that shit. I just I'm glad you
said something.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
He got money to you, like play games, gamble, Like
what they do now with the kids do now they
play the games. And that's what I was into, Like
skating ring was the thing round our way, and the
game room and smoke blunts and then I come home
and late at night and I had to have beavers
and buttheads when I smoked my bes and but that's
what was going on.
Speaker 6 (03:50):
And pop punk golf. Used to go to puppunk golf
a lot. Man. I used to go to pump punk golf.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yes, all right, right, who would win at pup punk off?
You would win? Yes, uh, well, you had four years
on him. What else? What were your other interests? Because
you were out of high school by this time.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Being nineteen years old, had a job. I was at
some females. It's a jewelry shooting, dice gambling, hang out,
pup hunt, but most poorly, like still out of trouble.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Like you can't get him to smoke a blunt on
a corner. He not doing it.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
And what about you, Nathaniel, You were twenty four, right.
Speaker 5 (04:18):
Yes, I was twenty four at the time. I had
a job. I was taking care of my kids, living
a good life. I did. I was doing good. And
we hang out and go to the movies and do things.
Might hang out with them for hours some but I
have kids. The day that I don't hang out with them, yeah,
I mean like this is what happened the day that
I don't go because I had a cast on when
(04:38):
they I ain't want to go with them.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Unrelated to the cast on his leg, a neighborhood guy
named Terence Gibbons allegedly had made an attempt on Nathaniel's
life in May nineteen ninety four. So now there we
were on the evening of July twelfth, nineteen ninety four,
and Reginald and Daryl were shooting dice without Nathaniel in
uptown Newport News, a predominantly white area.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Mea Darrel was the together all day, so we was
at a little small hotel called green Oaks. There was
some Texico gas station connected to green Oaks, so we
would leave green Oaks to go to testa code. Were
bust some chips, soda some.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
This was about twelve miles north of the crime scene,
which occurred in front of a public housing complex at
the forty seven hundred block of Marshall Avenue. Meanwhile, Nathaniel,
who went by the nickname Muchie, was hanging out locally
with his injured leg. About a quarter of a mile
down Marshall Avenue.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
I was walking from forty first Street. I was with
a friend, Lynn Woodsmith. We had a drunk of forty ounce.
I said, man, I'm going back up here because it's
getting dark. So as I'm walking down the street, I
heard gunshot. I don't think none of it, but I
started hearing ammal lambs and polices and everything going. By
the time I get to the forty fourth Street, people
running everywhere, a car skirted and everything. I keep on
(05:50):
walking up the sidewalk. This little boy was up on
a car. He run from one of the car said moochie,
please save my life. Don't let him kill me. Take
me home. I'm not driving, so walking This lady, I said, can,
I called him a cab. Her name was Orjrey Evans.
I went into her house and called him a cab.
Sent them on to his mother. Saved his life.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
According to witnesses, just a few blocks up on Marshall Avenue,
three to five men got out of a car firing
around one hundred shots, some into the air, others at
a group of young people on the front porch. Fourteen
year old Maurice Johnson, seventeen year old Alan Stowe's and
twenty one year old Quentin Royal were injured, while nineteen
year old Stephen Smith was fatally shot through his neck. Meanwhile,
(06:32):
Daryl and Reginald were still shooting Dice at the Texicgo station.
When Darryl, now remember this is nineteen ninety four, he
got a beep, you know, on his beeper telling him
to call home.
Speaker 6 (06:41):
It's all was a small time house. So I had
a pager. So I went to the store.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
I got some quarters and I called my sister back
and she told me to a crime app. She said,
he's shooting. She put Daddy on the phone. Man brango
ass home.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
I'm like shy, right, so therey they could have got
the phone records as well.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yes, I look at like ten thirty five, his mother said,
us at home before eleven o'clock.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
We wave uptown the white people neighborhoods. The crime happened downtown.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
At the distance from Texico to where we lived at
I say about twenty minutes. So I said, oh, look,
I get him home for letting them clock because less
I'm in real lights. So when I take him home.
Before we pull up on Washing Avenue, we see sirens.
The whole street is lit up.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
All you've seen was likes and so many police cars.
We see everybody outside. So he dropped me off at
the house and I stand outside too. She I'm nosy too.
What happened? Somebody got shot?
Speaker 6 (07:32):
The news?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Come on now, I'm about to go in there. You know,
I'm gonna watch beefs and butheads. But I'm gonna watch
the news now because it's breaking news. It's messing up
beavers and but heads. I see my neighbor on the
news talking about how he got shot. I say, damn man,
that's boo on the news. What didn't happened?
Speaker 6 (07:48):
No night go on.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
About four o'clock in the morning, my mom came upstairs.
She said, third of the police, won't you come downstairs?
Go downstairs. So they were like, we need to speak
to you. I'm looking at my mama, So she was like, all,
let me go get dressed. They take me outside, put
me in the car and drive off with take me
over town interrogate. I was willing to talk to him.
(08:09):
I don't know what they're talking about.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
So it appears that either someone had falsely implicated Daryl,
or perhaps his interrogators Riley and Shepherd, were lying to
him about being implicated.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
I'm to the point where I'm mad, and I was like, well,
go get him and tell him me to come in
here and say it to my face. I don't know
what the hell you talking about. It who you can
check me for gunpowder? Man, I ain't shot nobody. So
when they hear that, I see all types of people
coming in and check my clothes, check my hair, check
my face, checked my whole body. I told the techt
the Spinner, because he came in the room while Riley
(08:42):
and Shepherd was questioning me. I said, we was up
there shooting Dice by the store. I know they got
a surveillance camera in there. He radio police out there
to go to the store. When he asks them people,
he say, the lady was like, gave it the tape.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Her name was Robin Raimie, rightyes.
Speaker 6 (08:58):
Air white woman.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
She told him everything that we was doing outside in
stool at the time of the shooting, at the time
of the shoot.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
And the detective when it got the tape.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
When it got the tape, what they do with the tape,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
We don't know.
Speaker 6 (09:12):
Detective spent On, tell him go. He ain't take him
back home.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
My mom came back up there because she was mad
because they drove off with me.
Speaker 6 (09:19):
You ain't got none to worry about with your son.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
They had to know you had a solid alibi. Gunshot
residue test. I mean you're on.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
Video all white woman.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
A white woman, yes, a white woman. Over the course
of the next three weeks, it seems like the police
arrested or detained several individuals from the neighborhood, including Tory Davis,
(09:51):
Clyde Dargan, and Terence Gibbons, who we mentioned was facing
an attempted murder charge on none other than Nathaniel Pierce. Now,
obviously that charge was known to the defense, but not
Gibbons's other unrelated charges, nor were those that the other
two alleged witnesses were facing, which it appears had been
used to gather statements that were all later recanted, all
(10:15):
of them. Now, interestingly, Terrence Gibbons had a cousin named
Damian Claude who looked similar to one of the victims,
and he and Daryl had had a previous beef.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
We had an incident, but the incident was him being
the aggressor. We end up shaking hands and pawow, now
you know what I mean. We had a full blown
sit down with our parents. Our parents got involved, so
his mom sent them off the job corp. Next time
I know, they've been using him as a motive. They
say that I was trying to kill him.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
And by August fourth, Tory Davis, Clyde Dargan, and Terrence
Gibbons were willing to identify shooters from lineups, so the
police picked up Darryl, Reginald and Nathaniel.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
If He came to the house to get me the post.
They said, well, can we just talk to you for
a minute. I said, y'all can talk to me right here.
I said, do you got to want He said no,
we don't got a wart. He said, well you coming
right back? I said, coming right back? I ain't going
nowhere with y'all. He said, yes, she is. They handcuffed me,
but I wasn't underrest. If they just wanted to question me,
why did they handcuff me? So I went down there
(11:20):
and I told them everything that I'd done that day
and where I was at. I had the little boy
who life I was saved who was right there, who's
seen the crime happen, and the detective, Charles Spinner, I'll
never forget it. They called him Chucky. He told me, said,
what you're telling me is the truth. I'm going to
see that guy's mother right now, he said, And what
you telling me is the truth. I'm gonna be back
(11:41):
to get you. Man. I ain't never see him no more.
I seen him in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
And we're going to come back to that encounter later.
But it appears that if Spinner had spoken to that
boy and his mother, any record of that is probably
wherever the surveillance video went. So now, on the strength
of cost and incentivized statements, the Virginia three were charged
with one count of first degree murder, three counts of
(12:06):
malicious maiming, as well as gun charges, and fifteen year
old Darryl was going to be charged as an adult,
but his older brother Nathaniel was tried first in January
nineteen ninety five, where he was identified by Davis, Dargan,
and Gibbons, all of whom unbeknownst to the defense Well
it seems like they had various arrangements with the state.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
Those were the only three witnesses that come le've had
against him?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
What was in your favor?
Speaker 5 (12:32):
I had it in my favor that I had a
cast on my leg. All the perpetrators ran away from
the crime scene.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
And that running element was a key piece of Darget's testimony,
even though the cast made it literally impossible. And in addition,
his attorney pointed out the unrelated charge that they did
know about, that the attempted murder charges against Gibbons had
curiously been dropped by the time of his testimony. Unfortunately, though,
the defense could not find that thirteen year old boy
(13:00):
whom Nathaniel had saved, and it appears that the detectives
hadn't even tried. Certainly his testimony would have made a huge.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Difference when it came back with the verdict. It was
like nine oh four at night. I had been sitting
out in a bullpen for hours. I just knew, I
believe the shots said go, don't keep you closed on.
You'd be going in a few minutes. Everybody in the
courtroom knew I won. They had nothing on me. Literally,
everything that they said was a lot. They'd come back
(13:28):
with a couple of hot sauce, a piece of chicken,
a Coca Cola and a life sentence plus seventy eight
years and sixty days and sent me.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
To prison life plus seventy eight years and sixty days
and sixty days and sixty days. Apparently he had missed
the court date related to Gibbons' attempted murder proceedings. Now,
perhaps they were trying to give the appearance that the
drop charges were related only to that, even though Nathaniel
could not have been there because he was in custody
(13:57):
at the time for a driving charge.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
Was ready in jail, so I could I a miscought
and if I'm already in your custody, they gave me
sixty days for that too. I looked back at my mother.
She's like, May I couldn't cry because I know I
hadn't killed nobody.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Meanwhile, Darryl, who had been granted bond, had chosen to
stay in pretrial's attention.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
At first, I was like, don't waste no more money
because I ain't do nothing. We gonna beat it because
we had three of the best lawyers and known in
our city.
Speaker 6 (14:26):
So I'm thinking I'm going home.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
When they found him guilty, I read it the paper
to common well talking in the paper and they were like,
we coming to get his little brother, Daryl Hunter.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
Next. I'm like, oh my god. When I read that,
come and get me out on bond expeditiously. I'm scared.
I'm like, man, y'all gotta come get me.
Speaker 7 (14:42):
Man.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
You know, I turned into a little kid there. You
know what I'm saying, Like, y'all, I gotta do that.
My mom and dad came and bailed me out.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
And then he went to trial next. Yeah, I went
to trial next, and you had a bench trial.
Speaker 6 (14:52):
My lawyer told me to a jury, I can beat
the jury.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
But I was like, oh uh, Joel, I want to
I don't want no people to come here because there
might be some people that know the people. That's what
my mind thinking. I want to do it. I'm gonna
take him. I think that was a bad mistake for
me to.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Do Again, the state presented Clyde Dargan, who only identified
Nathaniel as he ran away from the scene, never mind
the cast on his leg, but the judge credited his
testimony anyway. Then Terence Gibbons identified all three of them,
but was discredited with the dropped attempted murder charge. This time,
one of the victims in this case, Maurice Johnson, testified
(15:28):
to something that no one else had ever said. He
testified that Daryl stood over him and fired. However, he
was contradicted by the physical evidence because no shell casings
were found where he was recovered by first responders. And finally,
Tory Davis said that he was standing across the street
at the gas pump and identified all three.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
The judge wanted to go to the crime saying he
wanted to see what he witnessed the city was standing
at would he said, he's seeing me from he went
out there and say, well, I can see from grossy
streets if I've seen put the deputy over there. Yeah,
I think I can identify somebody if I already knew
he was fixed for.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
So despite the testimony of Robin Raymie, the Texico cashier
placing Darryl and Reginalds uptown, the judge credited Davis at Dargan.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
It was just tragedy, you know what I'm saying, Like
I ain't even get to make it a high school.
I ain't get to spurns none of that, Like no
prom no nothing. And I had to grow up over
the phone listen to my friends. You know what I'm saying,
grow up and what happened in school today? That was
like interested in me.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
What was your sentence?
Speaker 6 (16:36):
It gave me one hundred and twelve.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Years at fifteen years old.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
I was sixteen, just turned sixteen.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
One hundred and twelve years. What even is that? And
no other country in the world does it this way.
I mean maybe North Korea, I don't know, but so regularly.
You were the last of the three to go to trial. Yes, sir,
obviously you were very well aware of what had happened.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Absolutely, I was devastated and then I felt like I
don't have a chance.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I had a jelly trial. My trial last three days.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
So the deputy during the time was in listening and
he said, you might got a great shot. I won't
say they got found guilty. The evidence that they was presenting.
It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
But again, Dargan only I d Nathaniel with his running story.
Gibbons id'd all of them, but was again impeached, And
this time Davis said that the Commonwealth told him what
to say and that his eyesight was twenty fifty. But
even with that and the alibi testimony, of Robin Raimi.
Somehow regimen was still found guilty.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
So after the guilty verdict, I sat there for a second.
I wasn't in disbelief about it because my other two
brothers had already been found guilty. But not only did
they drag us down and found us guilty, but my
father caught a case behind this as well.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
All he said was that's not fair, my son is innocent.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
But he took his words in and said that my
father had threatened the witnesses after the jury had found
me guilty.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
See which was it? Lie?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Was your father convicted? No, sir, they meant to that.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
He just got community service. But he shouldn't have had nothing.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
What was your sentence?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I had seventy eight years?
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Seventy eight years.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Yes, I had a daughter at the time. She was
only four months so for me to leave her in
the world alone and deal with the prison system, it
didn't sept with with me. For like twenty four and
a half years. I cried almost every night.
Speaker 7 (18:30):
We lost everything for nothing.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
I went to prison with life in seventy eight years
and sixty days. I got there around three something in
the morning. It was so cold outside. They told me
to take off all my clothes. They put some shampoo
in my head and sprayed me down with a holes
like they have on the fire truck. They gave me
a blanket and took me to a seal. I knew
(19:09):
my life and changed in it really messed with me
because I hadn't done nothing. I'm around all these dangerous peoples,
so I had to adapt.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
Prison was hard. I got pressed a lot in it,
but it ain't no chump.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
It was like I might got to punch you in
your face with staring at me too long or something,
just to make a statement because I'm one hundred.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Pounds, you innocent and you're around. Somebody liked that.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I actually pretend like I was guilty. Could it asks
you what you're here for? What did you do? So
I used that a little bit to get through the time,
and also present letters, write letters every day for help.
I took programs a lot of different type of trays
to put myself in a position to be able to
get early parole. Well, at least I thought I was
(19:52):
a gett early parole because I know I believe that
I could be in prison for twenty four and a half.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Years, especially since right after Reginald's conviction, Nathaniel was granted
a new trial and direct appeal. It was discovered that
Clyde Dargan's history as an informant was hidden from the defense. However,
Nathaniel was once again found guilty in nineteen ninety six
on Dargan's testimony. Since that time, evidence of Dargan's relationship
with police was revealed to include offerings of testimony true
(20:20):
or false, as well as a cut of his drug
money in exchange for freedom on a leash, so to speak.
But that's not all that the Virginia Three discovered, considering
that they ran into other guys in prison whom they'd
known since they had moved with their parents to Newport News.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
Soon as I moved in the neighborhood, a lot of
hate and envies. Thought it come in my way, you
know what I mean, juvenile stuff. I was always wondering
why what did I do? Because my dad was in
the shipyard in the military my whole life. I asked
one of the dudes that I grew up with. I say, man,
why dude, low me? He say, Man, I'm gonna tell.
Speaker 7 (20:58):
You the truth.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Because you had a daddy I say what, So dudes said, man,
your daddy brought your shoes or Friday bro.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
So they were jealous, jealous. The first of the recantations
came in two thousand and seven from Terrence Gibbons, saying
that he was coerced by others to lie, and it
was discovered that in addition to his attempted murder, chargers
being dropped, nine ounces of cocaine possession went away as well.
And maybe it was this recantation, but something prompted Detective
(21:28):
Spinner to visit Nathaniel Pierce in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
Two thousand and eight, he came to South having correction
on Centay to see me. I ain't know who's visiting,
so I go over there and he's standing there. They
had me handcuffed. The lieutenant took the handcuffs home. He said,
they don't want you handcoff because they never let you
go in there with the police without handcuffs on. He said,
I'm sorry, Spinner. He told me he was sorry. He said,
(21:54):
I'll be about to get you with the Fridays. We're
gonna get all this straight.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Did he have like a religious awakening or why the
hell did he come in and come clean to you.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
Why he went home and died that weekend. Did he
look sick, Yeah, he was a little skinnier.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
So maybe he knew he was dying and want to
get ready with good and fest is up to you.
But there's no recording of that meeting. Obviously right now
they recorded.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
But I can prove that he can't even see me.
And I got a couple letters from him and Howard Gwinn.
Howard Gwinn had sent me a letter like three weeks
ahead and say, yeah, he now works for me. This
is what they do. They reopened the case up. They
put a detective, her name is Misty Mercer on the case.
I'd never seen her. I never heard from her. I
(22:36):
never talked to her. Neither one of them never talked
to her. Nevertheless, the common with attorney, I kept writing
them and writing them. He kept asking me for my evidence.
He concocted the story. They have people to say we've
done things that he knew we didn't do.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
According to Tory, Davis, who had already admitted at Reginald's
trial that his vision was very poor. This is part
of his twenty sixteen recantation, said that after he was
arrested on unrelated drug charges in nineteen ninety four. Spinner
brought him to Gwynn's office, where he was fed the
narrative and in exchange for his testimony, that his charges
would be dropped. Damien Claude also recanted, saying that the
(23:15):
whole motive about his prior beef with Daryl was actually nonsense.
It was bogus. And lastly, Clyde Dargan made a dying
declaration recanting and admitting his cozy relationship with Newport News police. Additionally,
his wife and mother in law added that Clyde had
not witnessed the shooting at all. And Nathaniel was also
(23:36):
able to reach the thirteen year old boy who he'd
help save all those years ago.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
After twenty three years one of my friends got out.
I said, man, could you go around there and get
the address. I'm gonna try to write to his mother
and tell her I say this his life. He wouldn't
there and got the address, but it wasn't the right address,
so I put a picture in there with the letter.
It went to the wrong house. Just so happened. Somehow
somebody opened the mail, read the letter and take it
(24:01):
to this lady the boy and mother called the news
after she read my letter and asked her son, did
somebody ever save your life? He said, yeah Muchie.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Local News three, specifically WTKRS. Breonna Berry interviewed the boy,
who is now a man, who asked that his identity
be hidden as the shooters were still at large, and
he described being chased by one of them before Nathaniel
had heroically brought him to safety.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
Before the story aired, I had an opportunity on February
twenty seventh, twenty eighteen, to speak with Adrian Bennett. She
came to see me.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
The head of the parole board. Adrian Bennett had already
received the parole package from Nathaniel and she was now
aware of the News three coverage and she paid Nathaniel
to visit.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
And she told me. She said, I've seen Reginald a
couple of days ago.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
He's doing good.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
I say yeah, I say, miss Bennett, I say, you
know from the package that I sent you. I said,
you had an opportunity to view it, to read did
and everything. She said, Well, what I'm gonna do for you,
I'm going to to murder victim's mother. That lady told
her everything She wanted to hear that we didn't do
the crime, and she didn't know what to do after
(25:12):
we were sent to prison.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
The murder victim's mother she told Adrian Bennett, who is
the head of the parole board, she knew we.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
Didn't kill her son, and Adrian she knowed the story
is going to air on the news the next day.
Before the story ed, Reginald got paroleed.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
All three men received support for their parole from the
Radical Hope Project, and Reginald was the first to be
released on February twenty eighth of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
So the first thing I done is kissed the ground,
looked up in the sky. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
It was a blessing, a dream come true. It took
twenty four a half years, but that was a feeling
that I can't never ever forget. I ended up getting
car sick because I haven't rolled in the car for
so long. I wasn't used to the air. The air
and society is diffrom the air. This in prison, I've
(26:04):
been going so long. I had to get readapted all
over again to society.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
And while Reginald began that journey, there were still two
more men to go as far as I can recall,
I was in Virginia to walk Lenny Singleton out of prison,
and then I met that reporter there, Brionna Barry, and
she told me about you guys, and that's the first
time I had heard about it, and I had cultivated
a relationship with the powers that be in Virginia.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
Oh so that's how you and up sending the email back.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
God sent me to you, Jason Flom. I told you
my story. You listen to me. I wrote you here
I am on today. I thank you for doing everything
you're done for me. The Virginia three he went to
the parole board. He spoke to them for me. I
had opportunity to speak with them. We're all grateful for him.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Nathaniel was finally granted parol in December of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
I lost so much in prison. I lost out on
my kids life because everybody had told them Eliza about me,
and they had looked at me as I was a murderer.
And it's hard to date for me to stand there
with my kids and they don't look at me that way.
I don't know now, man that goes to prison, that
comes out here that can tell you that he's mentally stable.
(27:23):
They sending us right back out here to society without
giving us the problem.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
Help.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
You're not coming back out there the same way you
went in. And then they seen you right back out
here for resitivist. I had an officer tell me that.
He said, I see you back. I seen him not
too long ago. He bowed down to me. He bowed
down to me. He said, I never believed you. He said,
you're right here. He said, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Darryl's release soon followed. In July of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
They try to plan a knife on me. A couple
of days before that. Wow, they kicked in the sell.
I'm in the park where everybody got a least dating
the pod. They come in and they go in the
ventilation system. They pull out something about this long and
I said, well, I ain't man. I'm gonna go home.
You know that, right, I'm gonna go home. Like a
couple of days, I'm on the damn TV. What the
(28:13):
hell I need a knife? They was like, you don't
do another news and interview. I think you had some
people calling me and hit me up or something. It
was something that I saw. They was emailing me and
everything Dateline, Night Line one of them, and they was
asking for interviews and they was like, I was like.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
I'm gonna hear him out. I'm gonna hear him out.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
And they came, this is yours right, like, nah, so
you're gonna do an interview. I was like, what you mean? Yeah,
I'm gonna do an interview every chance I get. Well,
it's gonna be your knife. So you want to go home.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
What was the first thing you did when you got
out barrow?
Speaker 6 (28:50):
Everything?
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Life has been beautiful, you know, it's except just losing
my father and my brother.
Speaker 6 (28:54):
Because when I got out, I don't even know.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
My dad had to mention I ain't no because he
was talking like he knew what was going on. So
to have somebody to take care of you like that
all your life. I'm talking about all the way util
we walked out of the door, my dad held us down
like it was mind bogging for me. Like I think
about it all the time, like, damn, man got a
(29:16):
good ass dad.
Speaker 6 (29:17):
Man.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
We you know what I'm saying. The man send his
money every week, you know, while we was in there.
So that breaks me down sometime when I think about it,
like cause I ain't got them no.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
More right Apparently, their father Nathaniel, uncle Clarence, and their
brother Raymond, among so many other family members who are
still with us, like their sister Belinda, their mothers well,
they all had really stepped up for them throughout the
entire ordeal, helping with attorney's fees, with Nathaniel's kids, whatever
they needed. So the passing of these three family members
(29:47):
is all the more painful as a result. We're gonna
dedicate this episode to them. May they rest in peace
and power. But the story isn't over yet because even
though they've been paroled, the This Is Project took up
the cause of clearing all of their names.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
All the evidence that the Innocent Project got right now,
they hit all this stuff, this show that we completely
innocent and all the stuff that were all deceived the
court with lies and they knew that we didn't have
nothing to do with it because they told them what
to say against us, Like you had the truth, you
had all the shell cases. It's four different guns, you
(30:26):
only locked up three.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
There are shellcasings and weapons that could and should be
tested for DNA, as well as more witnesses who have
come forward who could shed light on what was known
about the actual shooters, and maybe even more importantly, what
was hidden.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
And it's been happening and continually happened. This is a
pattern of Keith Haywood, David Boyse. All of these people
have the same crime, the same detectives, everything, the same
commonwealth and it's going to continue to be in the
same cycle if somebody don't break the chain.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Fortunately, Howard Gwynn was recently defeated in the Democratic primary
by Shannon Jones, and we here at Wrongful Conviction are
all hoping that this is a positive development as we
move forward in this case, justice cannot be delayed any longer.
These guys are innocent and they deserve to have their
names cleared. And now we're going to go to my
(31:18):
favorite part of the show, closing arguments, where I'm going
to turn my microphone off, kick back in my chair
and let you guys share any other thoughts that you
may have. And again, thank you for being here. It's
sorry for everything you guys went through. I'm so happy
we're finally going to get your story out there to
the world the way it should have been told in
(31:39):
the first place.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Reginald, I want to give a special thanks to Jason
Flumm his whole team having no Gian three out to
aari story, and also to all the running conviction that
goes on all over the world. It's said that it
happens well thanks to social media. It is dead time
to shed a light on that type of justice, not
(32:00):
just in Virginia but all over.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
It needs to stop.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Thank y'all once again for believing in the Virginia Three
in other cases as well.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
Nathan Yel, I just want to thank Jason Flom, Kevin Connor,
you guys for everything that y'all have done for us.
And I'm grateful and I'm humbled that the guys have
done what they've done. The witnesses that came forward to
do what they're supposed to do, then get these convictions
up off of us. You know, you always heard that
(32:31):
trouble is easy to get it, but hard to get out.
It's true. It's been thirty years we've been dealing with
this situation, and I just pray that it's over real soon.
I just want to thank my wife. I thank you
for doing everything you've done for me. I really think
everybody that has been there for the Virginia Three that
has followed the Virginia Three that know the Virginia three story, Jason,
(32:55):
all the guys here wrong for Conviction, our lawyer, John
love It, Joe Maroon take those two. Thank you everybody
and Daryl.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Now, I just want to thank everybody that would you know,
helped to lease the speed as an advocate down there
in Virginia.
Speaker 6 (33:11):
That helps a lot of people.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
Brianna Barry, the National Action Network, brotheren Tooms, Mister Archie,
Jason Flume, Benjamin Crump, everybody that came along and spoke
up on it and spoke for us. You know what
I'm saying, Like it takes a whole lot of people,
you know, to come together to make something like this happen.
You know, me being locked up at fifteen years old
(33:36):
like that was a I hope this can register to
some people out there so we can stop this type
of stuff, you know what I mean.
Speaker 6 (33:43):
That's that's that's basically it. And I just want to thank.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Everybody that was involved, Joe, Ron John, my lawyer, John
love It, everybody that's coming together for the one cause.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Thank you for listening to 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. 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 Kleiber. The
music in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR
(34:19):
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 Plomm. Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava
for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number One.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported
in this show are accurate.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in
this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect
those of Lava for Good.
Hosts And Creators
Lauren Bright Pacheco
Maggie Freleng
Jason Flom
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