December 1, 2022 • 23 mins
In this bonus episode, Payne updates everyone on Arky Tuminelli, Ken Ravenell, and Nacoe Brown.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Somebody Somewhere is a production of Rainstream Media Incorporated. This
podcast investigates the unsolved death of federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna
in two thousand and three. It is a true story,
but the opinions of the hosts and interviewees are simply
that opinions, not facts, and the credibility of the witnesses
and what they say is to be determined by the listener.
(00:27):
Everyone is presumed innocent until proven otherwise in a court
of law. Previously on Somebody Somewhere, the.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Way this case evolved was half of the people working
on the case, lot of so on inside Ath thought
it wasn't it was suicide.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
He was the type of person that when he has
a mission, he is going to get it done.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
And there was like a quas in a Chinese base
and had a lid on it, and I put that
tape in there for safe keeping.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
Attorney Ken Ravenel has handled some of the most high
profile cases in the Baltimore area. Now he finds himself
in the limelight again, but for the wrong reason.
Speaker 6 (01:11):
Now I will say this, it became a dig new
it became a dig du So whenever I got down
to twenty five thousand dollars in my count or a
business account. I felt that.
Speaker 7 (01:21):
I have to what would be.
Speaker 8 (01:25):
This is bonus episode eleven of season three, The Scorpion
and the Frog. I'm your host, David Payne. It's been
ten years as a federal prosecutors found Edinburgh, Lancaster County.
Speaker 9 (01:47):
We will find out who did this.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Was he trying to stage some sort of attack and.
Speaker 9 (01:52):
Went too far?
Speaker 8 (02:07):
Hey, everybody, it's the fall of twenty twenty two. More
than a year and a half has passed since our
last episode. In this season, there have been no new
breaks or leads in the Jonathan Luna investigation, but there
have been key developments in the lives of several witnesses
that I thought you might find interesting. Hence this bonus episode,
(02:29):
and for reasons that will become apparent later, I want
to start today's episode with a fable that speaks to
the new information we want to share. Here's Orson Wells
in the nineteen fifty five film Mister Arcaden recounting the
old Russian tale of the Scorpion and the Frog.
Speaker 10 (02:49):
And now I'm going to tell you about a scorpion.
This scorpion wanted to cross a river. So we asked
the frog to him, no suit, the frog, no, thank
you if I let you on my vacuum. Missting me
in the sting of a scorpionist death.
Speaker 11 (03:08):
Now, whereas the scorpion is the logic of that for scorpions,
and well, try to be logical. If I sting you,
you will die, I will draw. So the frog was
convinced that a lot of the scorpion on his back,
but just in the middle of the river, he felt
a terrible pain and realized that after all the scorpion
had stung him. Logic, cried the dying frog as he
(03:29):
started under bearing the scorpion down with him.
Speaker 12 (03:31):
There is no logic in this.
Speaker 10 (03:35):
I know, suit the scorpion, but I can't help it.
Speaker 12 (03:38):
It's my character.
Speaker 10 (03:39):
Let's drink the character.
Speaker 8 (03:45):
As we inched closer to the nineteenth anniversary of Jonathan
Luna's death, the FBI seems no closer to solving its mystery.
Knowing what I know about how the FBI operates, if
they want us to know anything, they'll schedule a US
conference on the twentieth anniversary of his death to reignite
interest in the case. If they don't hold a press conference. However,
(04:08):
it probably means one of two things. One they have
more evidence than previously disclosed it would support a conclusion
that Jonathan Luna killed himself. Or two, they are intentionally
withholding the details of his murder because one of their
own is implicated, or they're embarrassed by their failure to
solve the murder of a federal prosecutor. But as we
(04:31):
wait to determine which direction the FBI signals by its actions,
the ability to get to the bottom of what happened waanes.
And that's where we'll start because several critical witnesses are
no longer available. First, you will recall that the case
Jonathan Luna was trying the day before he died was
(04:52):
called the Stash House Records case. The trial had gone
off the rails when the defense discovered that Jonathan's primary
witness had been slipping his electronic bracelet, terrorizing his neighborhood,
and selling drugs. Jonathan was in trouble with the judge
for not disclosing these facts to the two defense attorneys,
Rki Tuominelli and Ken Ravenel, and at the end of
(05:16):
court proceedings that final day, Jonathan got permission from his
supervisor to cut a plea deal for too Manelli's client,
agreeing to drop an alleged related murder charge at sentencing.
Here's Tominelli recalling what happened after he and Jonathan parted
that night.
Speaker 12 (05:35):
And when I.
Speaker 13 (05:36):
Leave, my understanding is he's going to do the plea agreement,
and he says, I'm going to stay here and finish
that and I'll see you tomorrow. I think I probably
talked to him and then he left the message, and
I believe it was from a voicemail and it was
one of those older machines where you had a little tape.
Speaker 9 (05:56):
So here's a real critical question. Do you have that tape?
So you know what I did?
Speaker 4 (06:01):
I remember?
Speaker 12 (06:01):
Now?
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Do you ask me that there was a fireplace with
mantel and there was like a quas in a Chinese
vase that had a lid on it, and I put
that tape in there for safe keeping.
Speaker 9 (06:15):
But we moved like two and a half years ago.
I will look and see if it's still there.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
You know what, You're right about one thing. I wouldn't
have thrown it away.
Speaker 9 (06:26):
That could have been the last call that he made.
I mean it was I'm pretty sure from the FBI.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
That was the last contact anyone had from Jonathan.
Speaker 8 (06:39):
And now Archie Tuminelli has sadly passed away without ever
finding that tape, and we will never know what was
on that last recording of Jonathan Luna and the other
person who spoke with Luna right before the mysterious midnight ride.
The lawyer for the other defendant in the Stash House
records case, Ken Ravenel, well, he's probably unavailable now too.
(07:03):
Here's WBAL's Jane Miller.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
Last December, in brief comments in court, attorney Ken Ravenel
acknowledged the irony of his life. Long a practicing criminal
defense attorney, Ravenel is now sentenced to prison as a
criminal defendant. Ravenel was convicted of one count of money
laundering conspiracy. Prosecutors argued he ran what they called a
dirty bank from marijuana dealer Richard Byrd, a Ravenel client.
(07:29):
The judge rejected Ravenel's request for probation and issued a
sentence of fifty seven months in prison four years, nine months.
This is a crime of greed, the judge said. There
is no other explanation. At the federal courthouse. I'm Jane
Millar wbaltv. Eleven News.
Speaker 8 (07:49):
In October twenty twenty two, Ravenel was ordered to start
that four year sentence while his appeal is pending. And
you have to wonder if Ravenel has any information about
lou and his death that he can barter for leniency,
whether he might take that course after his legal options
are exhausted. Because not only was Ravenel one of the
(08:09):
last two people to speak with Jonathan, he was also
the defense lawyer for bank robber Naco Brown in the
missing money case. So if Ravenel has any information on
what happened to the missing money, it's reasonable to think
he'll try to barter that for leniency as well, which
leads us to the third update I want to bring
(08:29):
to your attention, this one involving Naco Brown, who still
believes his lawyer, Ken Ravenel was the one who stole
the thirty six thousand dollars in shrink wrapped evidence from
his trial quote.
Speaker 6 (08:43):
At the end of the trial, he bought this Bree
case that he never bought before, and I realized that
the Creacha is a little bigger than his normal compact breecase,
you know, And so of course consight. I'm looking back
and say, oh my goodness, just delified the data. He
took the money. All the money was taken.
Speaker 8 (09:06):
Now, as our interviews with Judge Andre Davis and former
prosecutor Jackie Rodriguez cost established, that claim is almost assuredly
not true. Kass said she had the chain of custody
of that money as it left the courtroom and was
wheeled into the US attorney's trial prep room. But we
know NACo's a man with a big imagination and he's
(09:28):
committed to this storyline. In fact, he called me last
July and left a voicemail with this pitch.
Speaker 7 (09:37):
Hey, David, this is Nicole, mister Brown. It's been a
long time. I wanted to talk to you about and
I did the Air Force story that now that revenue
has been indicted in sentenced, I want to talk to
you about this idea. Maybe you want to get the
(09:58):
other friend on board. It's definitely going to be the
story of the centuries as something that you're going to
be able to be able to benefit.
Speaker 8 (10:14):
As he would tell me when we caught up, this
story of the century was simply his debunk claim that
Ravenel stole the money and Naco was going to assume
him to force the whole story to come out. But
the circumstances of this call from Naco bear some explanation.
You may remember that when Nako was released from prison
(10:35):
during the pandemic, he was a man in a hurry
to make up for lost time. He had big plans
to make a movie based on one of the many
books he had written in prison.
Speaker 14 (10:45):
And so when I first talked to you, yeah, you
literally hit the ground running, boy, and you jump backed
in not only into the prior books, but also this
movie idea that you have developed.
Speaker 15 (11:00):
Believe it or not, it was one of my first books.
Divided Nature was the fiction Divide Nation back in two
thousand and five of Woke Up Book. This particular book
is really helping the African Mountain community to not just
come together, but take a good look of us and
what we need to do to feel love amongst our
(11:20):
selves and build a unity amongst.
Speaker 7 (11:23):
Our selves.
Speaker 8 (11:26):
And appropriate of the title and subject matter. Nico found
an actor to play the lead, whose day job was
running for Congress as a black conservative Republican in Florida.
Then he recruited noted Atlanta film producer Mike Carter, who
went on a local Jacksonville television show to talk about
NACo's film among his other projects.
Speaker 12 (11:48):
And I have another film.
Speaker 16 (11:49):
A guy came from out of town and invested in
me to produce and direct another film that he has
called Divided Nations.
Speaker 12 (11:56):
You got a lot of stuff going.
Speaker 8 (11:57):
Out, I do, and I gotta be honest. I was
both impressed at Nako's hustle and fearful he was heading
towards a crash and burn. I mean, here's a guy
who's been in prison for two decades, he owes almost
four hundred thousand dollars in restitution, he's on supervised release,
(12:19):
trying to put his life back together with all the
conditions that entails, and he's flying all over the country
trying to get a movie produced. And of course many
of you were sooner to predict than I the outcome
that that combination of factors would produce. Right now, in
ten thirty a story you will only see here on
Fox thirty five, a serial bank robber from Maryland caught
(12:41):
red handed right here in Orlando.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
He told officers he was making a movie here in
town and he needed some money. Fox thirty five's Valerie
Boy has this exclusive story.
Speaker 8 (12:55):
The range of emotions I experienced when Fox thirty five's
Valerie Boy reached out to me about NACo's arrest was full. First,
I was just sad. I thought Naco had turned a
corner and now he had thrown away the rest of
his life for four thousand dollars. But my sadness was
directed more towards his family, especially his wife and kids,
(13:17):
who had spent their entire lives following him around the
country to stay close. And when he finally got released,
he did it all over again, And that sadness was
mixed with a healthy dose of anger, anger at his
choices and the pain they caused, not only to his family,
but to the tellers and customers in that bank.
Speaker 16 (13:39):
Nine on one.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
What is the location of very emergency?
Speaker 15 (13:42):
Is just a boy?
Speaker 12 (13:43):
Federal bank?
Speaker 6 (13:44):
Yes today and I.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Did need police, fire, medical, We need the police.
Speaker 7 (13:49):
And we just got robbed.
Speaker 8 (13:54):
And as I processed the fact that Naco had so
fundamentally terrorized people again, I couldn't help trying to figure
out what led this man down such a self destructive path.
Yet again, I know many of you saw this coming.
I get it, but I had hoped and believed he
had the potential to turn his obvious energy towards living
(14:15):
a productive life. And with that hope dashed, I wanted
to dissect what happened, so I made a flouryer request
for the body cam videos of his arrest. I was
curious to see whether Nako had broken down or whether
he wanted to get caught on purpose because he couldn't
cope outside the institution. But what I saw instead when
(14:36):
I received the tapes was something more pedestrian, a man
who simply got caught red handed.
Speaker 12 (14:45):
Get down, challenge, good, you got it?
Speaker 8 (14:56):
And after initially protesting that they had the wrong.
Speaker 15 (14:59):
Guy, come on, let's staying right, man, I need to
call the law a tough man.
Speaker 8 (15:06):
Naco ultimately decided to confess, telling police that when one
of the offers for his film fell through, he became
depressed and didn't know what to do.
Speaker 12 (15:16):
HM, So I came out here to do it, and
I ran out of money once again, and it was
top payment. Producers have to think about the don't let
nobody's I try to do it is as harme as
(15:38):
as possible, because I ain't want it to mind bove,
I wondered to buy it. I just wanted to just
need the money to pay pay so long and my kids.
I think my kids property m I did. Can't take
(16:01):
it a break, just need it one break.
Speaker 15 (16:06):
That's people to.
Speaker 7 (16:06):
Help me.
Speaker 12 (16:08):
Hit it money of course, so not too not too out, babe,
I've failed to person two years. I feel.
Speaker 8 (16:25):
Some sorry sort long, somebody somewhere will return right after
this break. Over the course of the last two years,
(16:53):
I've heard from enough of you all to know there
are many who have no sympathy for Nako's faith. He
made his bed and needs to lie in it, and
I understand that point of view. I'll post a video
of his police interview on sbswpodcast dot com for anyone
who wants to see the entire interaction and make their
(17:13):
own judgment on whether these were real or crocodile tears.
But a couple of weeks after the bank robbery, I
had a chance to speak with Bellile Deputy Chief Travis
Graham to get an assessment from someone actually in the room.
Speaker 9 (17:29):
Did you get the sense that he was trying to
talk his way out of it, or was he trying
to clear his conscience? What was your impression?
Speaker 16 (17:38):
My impression was that This was not his first time
of being involved in something like this, and he knew
all of the evidence was going to mount up against
him and he wanted to get it off his chest.
Speaker 9 (17:50):
I mean, was he broken or was he just matter
of fact.
Speaker 16 (17:54):
Or he was broken? He was broken, you know, doing
some research on him, learning the facts that he had
once tried to do a church or something to that effect,
and that's how he started robbing the bank, or why
he started robbing the banks for the funding. His whole
story goes that same route with what he told me.
He was trying to do his best. He's fighting those
(18:16):
demons and he was on a good path, but he'd
never really got a hold of the money to do
this movie that he was working on, and this was
his only only thought that he could do. He said,
the evil demons took over and this was the only
way I could find that money.
Speaker 12 (18:34):
Yeah, it's sad.
Speaker 9 (18:36):
I mean, it's just he's now back in probably for life, I.
Speaker 16 (18:41):
Guess, more than likely. I guess we look at it
a little bit different. While it is sad that somebody's
life and family is affected like that, I don't think
most people that commit the crimes take it personal. When
they get caught, and most of your veteran cops don't
do that either. It literally is just part of the
It is part of how the whole system works. And
(19:05):
if there's a few times that they don't get caught,
good on them. If they're not, then that's good on us.
So it's just like I said, it's the system that
we all are a part of.
Speaker 12 (19:21):
And I know he's right.
Speaker 8 (19:23):
It is all part of the system, and we're all
part of the game. And honestly, even my sympathy for
Naco waned after I received that call from him pitching
the story of the century, and the incomparable Jody Gottlieb
was there as always to keep it real when I
called to tell.
Speaker 14 (19:40):
Her about it.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
You there, Yeah, Hey, what's up.
Speaker 14 (19:45):
Guess who called me?
Speaker 10 (19:47):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Naco Brown.
Speaker 14 (19:49):
So he calls me from jail, of course, and he says, hey,
I got a story for you. Like, well, first of all,
I'm like shocked that he's calling me.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Well wait, did he acknowledge that he was back in
prison and why he was in prison? I mean, it's
hard to not acknowledge when you're calling from different from jail.
Speaker 7 (20:08):
What did he say?
Speaker 14 (20:10):
He didn't say he didn't do any of that. He's
almost like maybe he thought I didn't know or something.
No acknowledgment, nothing, no remorse.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
I mean, you know me, I've always been well, let's
be honest, I'm always highly cynical. You're much more, much
more trusting. I just don't understand how he even thinks, well,
he thinks you're a sucker.
Speaker 14 (20:36):
Maybe yeah, got to play. Oh well, I got to
believe the best in people.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
I believe you do, but you got to read the
signs on the road.
Speaker 14 (20:49):
I just want to believe in the redemption.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
You know, I know, I know you did. I know
you did. And I'm just so jaded in cynical that,
of course, not that he couldn't turn it around, but
just because people do get out of the system and
can survive and thrive, and it's a whole lot of work.
Speaker 12 (21:13):
You know.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
I love a good redemption story, but this ain't it.
Speaker 8 (21:19):
So with misplaced hopes on the redemption of Naco Brown,
I can't help thinking about the scorpion and the frog.
Is our character so ingrained that we'll do what we're
destined to do, regardless of the self destructive consequences. I
don't know the answer, so I'll leave that to the
biologists and philosophers in our crowd. But what I do
(21:41):
know is that despite the Naco Brown saga, I'll keep
looking for the best in people, hoping for redemption. That's
my nature and I could probably no more escape it
than Naco can his. I also know that new attention
will be brought to Jonathan's case because a new documentary
based on Bill Keesling's novel, The Midnight Ride of Jonathan Luna,
(22:05):
will soon be released, and like this podcast, we expect
that attention to put more pressure on investigators to actually
solve the murder of Jonathan Luna.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
Here it goes the devil telling me to lie again,
says I'm around me sales.
Speaker 7 (22:32):
It's all right to Britain.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
That you can get more then you give.
Speaker 8 (22:43):
Somebody Somewhere is a production of Rainstream Media Incorporated. Sound design,
editing and mixing has been provided by Resonate Recordings. Original
score and voiceover work provided by Hallie Paine. Artwork provided
by Evan McGlenn and Kendall Payne. If you have any
information regarding the Jonathan Luna case, please contact us via
(23:04):
our website, sbswpodcast dot com. And finally, if you enjoyed
this podcast, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.
It really helps and we really appreciate it. Thank you
for listening.
Speaker 10 (23:22):
Here.
Speaker 16 (23:22):
God, hey you say I'm so.
Speaker 7 (23:29):
Good.
Speaker 15 (23:29):
I just work.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
He love.
Speaker 10 (23:34):
Even still love money. I need more money.
Somebody Somewhere is a production of Rainstream Media Incorporated. This
podcast investigates the unsolved death of federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna
in two thousand and three. It is a true story,
but the opinions of the hosts and interviewees are simply
that opinions, not facts, and the credibility of the witnesses
and what they say is to be determined by the listener.
(00:27):
Everyone is presumed innocent until proven otherwise in a court
of law. Previously on Somebody Somewhere, the.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Way this case evolved was half of the people working
on the case, lot of so on inside Ath thought
it wasn't it was suicide.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
He was the type of person that when he has
a mission, he is going to get it done.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
And there was like a quas in a Chinese base
and had a lid on it, and I put that
tape in there for safe keeping.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
Attorney Ken Ravenel has handled some of the most high
profile cases in the Baltimore area. Now he finds himself
in the limelight again, but for the wrong reason.
Speaker 6 (01:11):
Now I will say this, it became a dig new
it became a dig du So whenever I got down
to twenty five thousand dollars in my count or a
business account. I felt that.
Speaker 7 (01:21):
I have to what would be.
Speaker 8 (01:25):
This is bonus episode eleven of season three, The Scorpion
and the Frog. I'm your host, David Payne. It's been
ten years as a federal prosecutors found Edinburgh, Lancaster County.
Speaker 9 (01:47):
We will find out who did this.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Was he trying to stage some sort of attack and.
Speaker 9 (01:52):
Went too far?
Speaker 8 (02:07):
Hey, everybody, it's the fall of twenty twenty two. More
than a year and a half has passed since our
last episode. In this season, there have been no new
breaks or leads in the Jonathan Luna investigation, but there
have been key developments in the lives of several witnesses
that I thought you might find interesting. Hence this bonus episode,
(02:29):
and for reasons that will become apparent later, I want
to start today's episode with a fable that speaks to
the new information we want to share. Here's Orson Wells
in the nineteen fifty five film Mister Arcaden recounting the
old Russian tale of the Scorpion and the Frog.
Speaker 10 (02:49):
And now I'm going to tell you about a scorpion.
This scorpion wanted to cross a river. So we asked
the frog to him, no suit, the frog, no, thank
you if I let you on my vacuum. Missting me
in the sting of a scorpionist death.
Speaker 11 (03:08):
Now, whereas the scorpion is the logic of that for scorpions,
and well, try to be logical. If I sting you,
you will die, I will draw. So the frog was
convinced that a lot of the scorpion on his back,
but just in the middle of the river, he felt
a terrible pain and realized that after all the scorpion
had stung him. Logic, cried the dying frog as he
(03:29):
started under bearing the scorpion down with him.
Speaker 12 (03:31):
There is no logic in this.
Speaker 10 (03:35):
I know, suit the scorpion, but I can't help it.
Speaker 12 (03:38):
It's my character.
Speaker 10 (03:39):
Let's drink the character.
Speaker 8 (03:45):
As we inched closer to the nineteenth anniversary of Jonathan
Luna's death, the FBI seems no closer to solving its mystery.
Knowing what I know about how the FBI operates, if
they want us to know anything, they'll schedule a US
conference on the twentieth anniversary of his death to reignite
interest in the case. If they don't hold a press conference. However,
(04:08):
it probably means one of two things. One they have
more evidence than previously disclosed it would support a conclusion
that Jonathan Luna killed himself. Or two, they are intentionally
withholding the details of his murder because one of their
own is implicated, or they're embarrassed by their failure to
solve the murder of a federal prosecutor. But as we
(04:31):
wait to determine which direction the FBI signals by its actions,
the ability to get to the bottom of what happened waanes.
And that's where we'll start because several critical witnesses are
no longer available. First, you will recall that the case
Jonathan Luna was trying the day before he died was
(04:52):
called the Stash House Records case. The trial had gone
off the rails when the defense discovered that Jonathan's primary
witness had been slipping his electronic bracelet, terrorizing his neighborhood,
and selling drugs. Jonathan was in trouble with the judge
for not disclosing these facts to the two defense attorneys,
Rki Tuominelli and Ken Ravenel, and at the end of
(05:16):
court proceedings that final day, Jonathan got permission from his
supervisor to cut a plea deal for too Manelli's client,
agreeing to drop an alleged related murder charge at sentencing.
Here's Tominelli recalling what happened after he and Jonathan parted
that night.
Speaker 12 (05:35):
And when I.
Speaker 13 (05:36):
Leave, my understanding is he's going to do the plea agreement,
and he says, I'm going to stay here and finish
that and I'll see you tomorrow. I think I probably
talked to him and then he left the message, and
I believe it was from a voicemail and it was
one of those older machines where you had a little tape.
Speaker 9 (05:56):
So here's a real critical question. Do you have that tape?
So you know what I did?
Speaker 4 (06:01):
I remember?
Speaker 12 (06:01):
Now?
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Do you ask me that there was a fireplace with
mantel and there was like a quas in a Chinese
vase that had a lid on it, and I put
that tape in there for safe keeping.
Speaker 9 (06:15):
But we moved like two and a half years ago.
I will look and see if it's still there.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
You know what, You're right about one thing. I wouldn't
have thrown it away.
Speaker 9 (06:26):
That could have been the last call that he made.
I mean it was I'm pretty sure from the FBI.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
That was the last contact anyone had from Jonathan.
Speaker 8 (06:39):
And now Archie Tuminelli has sadly passed away without ever
finding that tape, and we will never know what was
on that last recording of Jonathan Luna and the other
person who spoke with Luna right before the mysterious midnight ride.
The lawyer for the other defendant in the Stash House
records case, Ken Ravenel, well, he's probably unavailable now too.
(07:03):
Here's WBAL's Jane Miller.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
Last December, in brief comments in court, attorney Ken Ravenel
acknowledged the irony of his life. Long a practicing criminal
defense attorney, Ravenel is now sentenced to prison as a
criminal defendant. Ravenel was convicted of one count of money
laundering conspiracy. Prosecutors argued he ran what they called a
dirty bank from marijuana dealer Richard Byrd, a Ravenel client.
(07:29):
The judge rejected Ravenel's request for probation and issued a
sentence of fifty seven months in prison four years, nine months.
This is a crime of greed, the judge said. There
is no other explanation. At the federal courthouse. I'm Jane
Millar wbaltv. Eleven News.
Speaker 8 (07:49):
In October twenty twenty two, Ravenel was ordered to start
that four year sentence while his appeal is pending. And
you have to wonder if Ravenel has any information about
lou and his death that he can barter for leniency,
whether he might take that course after his legal options
are exhausted. Because not only was Ravenel one of the
(08:09):
last two people to speak with Jonathan, he was also
the defense lawyer for bank robber Naco Brown in the
missing money case. So if Ravenel has any information on
what happened to the missing money, it's reasonable to think
he'll try to barter that for leniency as well, which
leads us to the third update I want to bring
(08:29):
to your attention, this one involving Naco Brown, who still
believes his lawyer, Ken Ravenel was the one who stole
the thirty six thousand dollars in shrink wrapped evidence from
his trial quote.
Speaker 6 (08:43):
At the end of the trial, he bought this Bree
case that he never bought before, and I realized that
the Creacha is a little bigger than his normal compact breecase,
you know, And so of course consight. I'm looking back
and say, oh my goodness, just delified the data. He
took the money. All the money was taken.
Speaker 8 (09:06):
Now, as our interviews with Judge Andre Davis and former
prosecutor Jackie Rodriguez cost established, that claim is almost assuredly
not true. Kass said she had the chain of custody
of that money as it left the courtroom and was
wheeled into the US attorney's trial prep room. But we
know NACo's a man with a big imagination and he's
(09:28):
committed to this storyline. In fact, he called me last
July and left a voicemail with this pitch.
Speaker 7 (09:37):
Hey, David, this is Nicole, mister Brown. It's been a
long time. I wanted to talk to you about and
I did the Air Force story that now that revenue
has been indicted in sentenced, I want to talk to
you about this idea. Maybe you want to get the
(09:58):
other friend on board. It's definitely going to be the
story of the centuries as something that you're going to
be able to be able to benefit.
Speaker 8 (10:14):
As he would tell me when we caught up, this
story of the century was simply his debunk claim that
Ravenel stole the money and Naco was going to assume
him to force the whole story to come out. But
the circumstances of this call from Naco bear some explanation.
You may remember that when Nako was released from prison
(10:35):
during the pandemic, he was a man in a hurry
to make up for lost time. He had big plans
to make a movie based on one of the many
books he had written in prison.
Speaker 14 (10:45):
And so when I first talked to you, yeah, you
literally hit the ground running, boy, and you jump backed
in not only into the prior books, but also this
movie idea that you have developed.
Speaker 15 (11:00):
Believe it or not, it was one of my first books.
Divided Nature was the fiction Divide Nation back in two
thousand and five of Woke Up Book. This particular book
is really helping the African Mountain community to not just
come together, but take a good look of us and
what we need to do to feel love amongst our
(11:20):
selves and build a unity amongst.
Speaker 7 (11:23):
Our selves.
Speaker 8 (11:26):
And appropriate of the title and subject matter. Nico found
an actor to play the lead, whose day job was
running for Congress as a black conservative Republican in Florida.
Then he recruited noted Atlanta film producer Mike Carter, who
went on a local Jacksonville television show to talk about
NACo's film among his other projects.
Speaker 12 (11:48):
And I have another film.
Speaker 16 (11:49):
A guy came from out of town and invested in
me to produce and direct another film that he has
called Divided Nations.
Speaker 12 (11:56):
You got a lot of stuff going.
Speaker 8 (11:57):
Out, I do, and I gotta be honest. I was
both impressed at Nako's hustle and fearful he was heading
towards a crash and burn. I mean, here's a guy
who's been in prison for two decades, he owes almost
four hundred thousand dollars in restitution, he's on supervised release,
(12:19):
trying to put his life back together with all the
conditions that entails, and he's flying all over the country
trying to get a movie produced. And of course many
of you were sooner to predict than I the outcome
that that combination of factors would produce. Right now, in
ten thirty a story you will only see here on
Fox thirty five, a serial bank robber from Maryland caught
(12:41):
red handed right here in Orlando.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
He told officers he was making a movie here in
town and he needed some money. Fox thirty five's Valerie
Boy has this exclusive story.
Speaker 8 (12:55):
The range of emotions I experienced when Fox thirty five's
Valerie Boy reached out to me about NACo's arrest was full. First,
I was just sad. I thought Naco had turned a
corner and now he had thrown away the rest of
his life for four thousand dollars. But my sadness was
directed more towards his family, especially his wife and kids,
(13:17):
who had spent their entire lives following him around the
country to stay close. And when he finally got released,
he did it all over again, And that sadness was
mixed with a healthy dose of anger, anger at his
choices and the pain they caused, not only to his family,
but to the tellers and customers in that bank.
Speaker 16 (13:39):
Nine on one.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
What is the location of very emergency?
Speaker 15 (13:42):
Is just a boy?
Speaker 12 (13:43):
Federal bank?
Speaker 6 (13:44):
Yes today and I.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Did need police, fire, medical, We need the police.
Speaker 7 (13:49):
And we just got robbed.
Speaker 8 (13:54):
And as I processed the fact that Naco had so
fundamentally terrorized people again, I couldn't help trying to figure
out what led this man down such a self destructive path.
Yet again, I know many of you saw this coming.
I get it, but I had hoped and believed he
had the potential to turn his obvious energy towards living
(14:15):
a productive life. And with that hope dashed, I wanted
to dissect what happened, so I made a flouryer request
for the body cam videos of his arrest. I was
curious to see whether Nako had broken down or whether
he wanted to get caught on purpose because he couldn't
cope outside the institution. But what I saw instead when
(14:36):
I received the tapes was something more pedestrian, a man
who simply got caught red handed.
Speaker 12 (14:45):
Get down, challenge, good, you got it?
Speaker 8 (14:56):
And after initially protesting that they had the wrong.
Speaker 15 (14:59):
Guy, come on, let's staying right, man, I need to
call the law a tough man.
Speaker 8 (15:06):
Naco ultimately decided to confess, telling police that when one
of the offers for his film fell through, he became
depressed and didn't know what to do.
Speaker 12 (15:16):
HM, So I came out here to do it, and
I ran out of money once again, and it was
top payment. Producers have to think about the don't let
nobody's I try to do it is as harme as
(15:38):
as possible, because I ain't want it to mind bove,
I wondered to buy it. I just wanted to just
need the money to pay pay so long and my kids.
I think my kids property m I did. Can't take
(16:01):
it a break, just need it one break.
Speaker 15 (16:06):
That's people to.
Speaker 7 (16:06):
Help me.
Speaker 12 (16:08):
Hit it money of course, so not too not too out, babe,
I've failed to person two years. I feel.
Speaker 8 (16:25):
Some sorry sort long, somebody somewhere will return right after
this break. Over the course of the last two years,
(16:53):
I've heard from enough of you all to know there
are many who have no sympathy for Nako's faith. He
made his bed and needs to lie in it, and
I understand that point of view. I'll post a video
of his police interview on sbswpodcast dot com for anyone
who wants to see the entire interaction and make their
(17:13):
own judgment on whether these were real or crocodile tears.
But a couple of weeks after the bank robbery, I
had a chance to speak with Bellile Deputy Chief Travis
Graham to get an assessment from someone actually in the room.
Speaker 9 (17:29):
Did you get the sense that he was trying to
talk his way out of it, or was he trying
to clear his conscience? What was your impression?
Speaker 16 (17:38):
My impression was that This was not his first time
of being involved in something like this, and he knew
all of the evidence was going to mount up against
him and he wanted to get it off his chest.
Speaker 9 (17:50):
I mean, was he broken or was he just matter
of fact.
Speaker 16 (17:54):
Or he was broken? He was broken, you know, doing
some research on him, learning the facts that he had
once tried to do a church or something to that effect,
and that's how he started robbing the bank, or why
he started robbing the banks for the funding. His whole
story goes that same route with what he told me.
He was trying to do his best. He's fighting those
(18:16):
demons and he was on a good path, but he'd
never really got a hold of the money to do
this movie that he was working on, and this was
his only only thought that he could do. He said,
the evil demons took over and this was the only
way I could find that money.
Speaker 12 (18:34):
Yeah, it's sad.
Speaker 9 (18:36):
I mean, it's just he's now back in probably for life, I.
Speaker 16 (18:41):
Guess, more than likely. I guess we look at it
a little bit different. While it is sad that somebody's
life and family is affected like that, I don't think
most people that commit the crimes take it personal. When
they get caught, and most of your veteran cops don't
do that either. It literally is just part of the
It is part of how the whole system works. And
(19:05):
if there's a few times that they don't get caught,
good on them. If they're not, then that's good on us.
So it's just like I said, it's the system that
we all are a part of.
Speaker 12 (19:21):
And I know he's right.
Speaker 8 (19:23):
It is all part of the system, and we're all
part of the game. And honestly, even my sympathy for
Naco waned after I received that call from him pitching
the story of the century, and the incomparable Jody Gottlieb
was there as always to keep it real when I
called to tell.
Speaker 14 (19:40):
Her about it.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
You there, Yeah, Hey, what's up.
Speaker 14 (19:45):
Guess who called me?
Speaker 10 (19:47):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Naco Brown.
Speaker 14 (19:49):
So he calls me from jail, of course, and he says, hey,
I got a story for you. Like, well, first of all,
I'm like shocked that he's calling me.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Well wait, did he acknowledge that he was back in
prison and why he was in prison? I mean, it's
hard to not acknowledge when you're calling from different from jail.
Speaker 7 (20:08):
What did he say?
Speaker 14 (20:10):
He didn't say he didn't do any of that. He's
almost like maybe he thought I didn't know or something.
No acknowledgment, nothing, no remorse.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
I mean, you know me, I've always been well, let's
be honest, I'm always highly cynical. You're much more, much
more trusting. I just don't understand how he even thinks, well,
he thinks you're a sucker.
Speaker 14 (20:36):
Maybe yeah, got to play. Oh well, I got to
believe the best in people.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
I believe you do, but you got to read the
signs on the road.
Speaker 14 (20:49):
I just want to believe in the redemption.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
You know, I know, I know you did. I know
you did. And I'm just so jaded in cynical that,
of course, not that he couldn't turn it around, but
just because people do get out of the system and
can survive and thrive, and it's a whole lot of work.
Speaker 12 (21:13):
You know.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
I love a good redemption story, but this ain't it.
Speaker 8 (21:19):
So with misplaced hopes on the redemption of Naco Brown,
I can't help thinking about the scorpion and the frog.
Is our character so ingrained that we'll do what we're
destined to do, regardless of the self destructive consequences. I
don't know the answer, so I'll leave that to the
biologists and philosophers in our crowd. But what I do
(21:41):
know is that despite the Naco Brown saga, I'll keep
looking for the best in people, hoping for redemption. That's
my nature and I could probably no more escape it
than Naco can his. I also know that new attention
will be brought to Jonathan's case because a new documentary
based on Bill Keesling's novel, The Midnight Ride of Jonathan Luna,
(22:05):
will soon be released, and like this podcast, we expect
that attention to put more pressure on investigators to actually
solve the murder of Jonathan Luna.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
Here it goes the devil telling me to lie again,
says I'm around me sales.
Speaker 7 (22:32):
It's all right to Britain.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
That you can get more then you give.
Speaker 8 (22:43):
Somebody Somewhere is a production of Rainstream Media Incorporated. Sound design,
editing and mixing has been provided by Resonate Recordings. Original
score and voiceover work provided by Hallie Paine. Artwork provided
by Evan McGlenn and Kendall Payne. If you have any
information regarding the Jonathan Luna case, please contact us via
(23:04):
our website, sbswpodcast dot com. And finally, if you enjoyed
this podcast, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.
It really helps and we really appreciate it. Thank you
for listening.
Speaker 10 (23:22):
Here.
Speaker 16 (23:22):
God, hey you say I'm so.
Speaker 7 (23:29):
Good.
Speaker 15 (23:29):
I just work.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
He love.
Speaker 10 (23:34):
Even still love money. I need more money.
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