June 10, 2023 • 28 mins
Crash tells the story of Luis Meguel Salinas who is currently serving a life sentence in Pleasant Valley State Prison CA for attempted murder and gang enhancements.
This episode covers the first part of Luis’s second trial.
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This episode covers the first part of Luis’s second trial.
You can find us online
Twitter:@PrisonAudio
IG:PrisonAudio
www.YouTube.com/@PrisonAudio
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Yeah, that was it, man, and my heart sung. I mean
before they even before before the trialwas even over, I had lost all
hope. Man. That it's over. Man, I guess this lord didn't
do ship Man wron't move, butthey're gonna ride. So this guy is
(00:30):
testifying that he committed he uh,he did this new he did this new
test but basically it wasn't a newtest all he all he did was change
his opinion. Right. So nowhe's saying that all because of his publication,
his opinion is it's more than likelyit's a forty four, right,
which is what the DA want wasbecause the DA is trying to tell the
(00:52):
jury that the victim was shot withtwo different guns, two different calibers,
a thirty eight and a forty four. He's trying to say that Hector shot
the victim of the thirty eight andthat I shot the victim of the forty
four at the same exact term,even though the original testimony is that one
(01:21):
person shot William. Even the officerstestify saying their whole understanding was one person
shot William. Now the DA,you know, to make sure that I
get convicted. She saying, no, well, it was both of them,
both of us shot him all right, So he gets this expert to
(01:45):
give the opinion that he wants.Right, he says, it's a forty
four. Now he goes into thegun shot residue because they tested me for
gun shot residue and it came backto negative. No, no particles of
gunshot residue were found on my hands. So he asked, He asked the
(02:06):
expert, did you do what's calledandrew a telephone number. They'll be monitored
and recorded on mister Selima's He's like, yes, I performed the gunshot residue
test and he came back negative.And so now the gig tells them all,
explain to us, what are thechances, well, if you having
(02:30):
gun gunshot restue on your hands.To miss dude gets something. He's like,
well, you know what, it'sa very small chance. There's only
five percent chance that if you shoota gun you're gonna get gunshot residue.
And you know in my mind andI'm like, wait a minute, and
wait a minute, I never heardthat before. I mean, from my
(02:50):
understanding, as you shoot a gunand get gunpowder gets on your hands,
it sticks to your sticks, toyour skin and it doesn't come off.
It takes a lot for it tocome off. So the DA it wants
the jury to believe that it doesn'tmatter if they did a test on me
and they came back negative. Right, Oh, so what if he if
(03:14):
he didn't, he has no proof, there's no evidence that he shot a
gun. So what it doesn't matter, right, That's what he's trying to
tell the jury. So the forthe expert is like, well, if
you shot a gun right now inthis quote room, if you shoot a
gun right this very second, andI test you for gun shot residue,
(03:37):
it's only a five percent chance thatI'm going to find gun show residue on
your hand. And I'm I'm I'mgoing I'm I'm tripping, man, I'm
like, what the fuck are youfucking serious? In my mind, I'm
like, hey, man, ifif if the gun show residude came back
positive, oh, it'd be awhole other story. The whole story will
(03:59):
be that oh oh, there's noway, man, there's no way that
you could take that gunpowder off.Yeah, he must have shot a gun
there. I mean, that's that'sthe only solution is if he had gunpowder,
he had to have shot a gun. He's guilty, you know,
that's what they're whole Here was goingto be. But because I don't have
gunshowders to do all of a sudden, it doesn't matter all of a sudden,
It doesn't make a difference all ofa sudden. It doesn't mean that
(04:23):
I'm innacing Come on, man.So yeah, this guy sits there and
says, yeah, it's not thatbig of a deal. We hardly ever
find it. Right. So thenhe asked them, well, do you
guys test clothing for gunshot residue?And the guy's like, no, we
(04:43):
don't test clothing because we don't knowhow long it's been there. And he's
like, it could be there foryears. So you're telling me like that
because it's a known fact that gunpowdercan last years on clothing. They don't
test him nomore, right, Buton your hand, it's not gonna last
(05:05):
two seconds. If I shoot agun right here and you test me right
now, it's not gonna be there. How the fuck does that make sense?
It's crazy. So in my mindI'm just I'm just like, wow,
man, this guy is saying everythingthe Dean wants him to say,
exactly what he wants him to sayhe's putting it out there for the DA
for the jury, right, Sohe does that, right, he talks
(05:29):
about the the gunsho I residue.Then he starts they asked him, okay,
well can you determine what kind ofgun was used? Right from the
bullet. So he's talking about thebullet. Now he's saying, okay,
well, you know the bullet ithas pretty much he has barrel markings,
(05:49):
which are like pretty much like afingerprint. So if you shoot from an
automatic set, well semi automatic,it's gonna have a certain and a barrel
markings. As you shoot from arevolver, it's gonna stay have a certain
kind of barrel markings. So dothe same. Okay, well, we
(06:11):
know that this bullet that they retrieved, which was a thirty eight slug,
they know that it's came from froma from a revolver. And now there's
other little fragment, right, becauseit's not even a bullet, because a
fragment, it's a piece. Andhe can't even say what it is.
(06:34):
There's no evidence, there's no proof, there's no scientific evidence saying hey,
this is what this is. Allhe can say is, oh, it
could be that it's just a littlepiece, right, So they asked him,
old, kay, can you tellme that this piece came from this
casing? And he's like, no, you can't do that. It's two
(06:57):
different things. This is an apple, this is an orange. But he's
like, well, it's probably likelythough that it came from the same thing,
but I can't say. They'll tellyou that that's what it is,
you know. So after that theda rest, right, he says,
Okay, Now my lawyer gets something. So the first thing I tell my
lawyer is like, okay, well, now ask them, you know,
(07:21):
get more, get more details aboutthis this guns at residue, like supposedly
it's not he doesn't last all thisother stuff, and get more details about
you know, this test for thebullet, you know, right while it
was a sudden they changed their mind, you know. So my lawyer started
asking these questions and he's basically givingthe same answers, and then my lawyer
(07:46):
brings up something about like a hollowpoint, saying, hey, well,
you're saying that you found this littlepiece of bully, right, He's like,
wouldn't it be more likely that it'sfrom a whole point, like because
hollow points rik apart. And he'slike, yeah, yeah, that's probably
it could be, you know.So he's saying, well, are these
bullet hollow points? Look at thesebullets? So this dude looks at the
(08:11):
bullets and he's shit. And lawyerasked him already all the same and he
right away he's like, oh,there's one in here that he's a hollow
point. And I'm I'm just like, what the fuck. But even my
lawyer was like, what the fuck? What just happened? Like, can
I get a second? He hasto, he has to judge, he
can I get a second with aminute. And he's like, let me
(08:33):
see that box. And he looksand there's one bullet in there that's a
hollow point. But it's not thesame bullets as the other bullets, right,
it's a different it's a different bullet. It's a different brand. Now
go back to the other the otherofficers who testified a couple of days earlier,
(08:54):
right like three days earlier. It'sAlfer testified. He opened up the
box bullets. He looked at allthe bullets and he said they are all
identical. They are all the same, They are all the same caliber,
they're all the same brand, they'reall exactly alike. All of a sudden,
three days later, there's a bulletin there that's hollow point. So
(09:18):
I'm like, where the fuck didthis come from? You know, why
didn't this come out sooner? Andremember I already had another trial, a
first trial, and they had expertslook at this stuff and they didn't come
out. So now in my mind, I'm like, wait a minute,
this dude, I'm thinking that thesemotherfuckers tagged this shit. Man, Like,
(09:41):
how the fuck is all of asudden there's a hollow point in there.
When my lord is trying to he'strying to basically say, hey man,
it could be a hollow point,and these bullets and are hollow points,
right, So now I'm thinking,to fuck up his hole. This
whole argument. They put a fuckingon the point in this. So I'm
(10:07):
like, wow, man, likeI'm tripping out, like what the fuck?
Like this is crazy, and thedude, you know, they take
the break and they're talking and thelawyers, like my lawyers, like,
fuck, I fucked up. He'slike all the evidence sold that all those
bullets are the same. He's like, I broke my number one rule,
don't ask a question you don't knowthe answer to. And he tells the
(10:30):
judge that I assumed that they wereall the same bullets because all the evidence
says they're all the same bullets.Everything has said that they're all the same.
So all of a sudden, there'sthis bullet in here. So you
know, they say, well,let's take a break, man, let's
take the recess. So they tooka quick recess and then they come back
(10:54):
in the judge and they get onthe stand again, and then they say
it again. Yeah, then allthe bullets except for one are the same
and this is a hollow point,but it's not the same brand, it's
not the same type. This isa Lettle bullet. These other bullets are
coppered. So now my lawyer islike fuck. He doesn't even want to
(11:20):
say nothing no more. He doesn'teven want to He just feels like he
got slapped in the face. Youknow. So they released this this witness,
They let him go, right,So now we go on to the
next witness, which was no whatAs a matter of fact, that was
the last witness. That was itfor the for the prosecution. Now it's
(11:43):
the defenses turn. Right. Soon the first trial, we had Rosa
who was a witness who've seen thewhole the whole incident when the officers pulled
over or William, and she's seeneverything, and she testified that she never
saw these officers open up the ambulancedoors. She never saw these officers shining
(12:05):
the light on me. She saidthat when I got when I came out
of the car, I took threelittle hops and that was it, and
I went right back into the car. She said it would happen very very
quick. So her whole testimony iscontradicting the officer. Well, on this
(12:26):
trial, my lawyer never calls herand never tried to get a hold of
her, and never tried to gether to come to court. Nothing.
Man like this dude basically fucking meover by not calling this witness. So
she doesn't come to court. Right, she's not in my trial, So
I lose that that would have been, that would have been a good witness,
(12:48):
because she got me the hung juryon the first trial. She's the
reason why they gave me a hungjury. So on this time, the
first witness they called is the friendWilliam's friend who was with William when he
got shot. So my lawyer askedhim, Okay, uh, what happened
(13:09):
that night? So he tells themwhat happened, says, yeah, me
and me and William were drinking.We're celebrating his birthday. We're getting drunk,
were smoking weave or smoking block.We're having a good time. He
tells him the same story that Williamtells him. Go downstairs, move a
card. One guy walks up tohim. The other guy walks up to
(13:30):
William. He didn't see the guy'sface, he just heard the took off
running right. And then so mylawyer's trying to get him to kind of
go into more details and you know, trying to trying to give a description
like what did guy look like,what, what did he what was he
wearing? You know, how didhe live? Trying to get more information.
She showed that, you know,it wasn't me, But the guy
(13:54):
doesn't. He doesn't. He justjust keep saying, I don't know,
you know, I don't remember,I don't know. So this witness,
I mean, honestly didn't do nothingfor me whatsoever. Like there was really
no point I didn't calling him becausehe had nothing to say. So Angel,
right, William's friend. You know, he pretty so much has nothing
(14:16):
to contribute to my defense. Right, there's there's really no reason whatsoever to
have put him on the stand,right, that she would have been honest
and would have said what happened,like, But he's saying he doesn't remember,
right, he's saying he don't know, he didn't he didn't see nothing.
So there's really no point of havingthis guy on there. Man,
So this guy was on there forI don't know that ten to fifteen minutes,
(14:37):
and the day didn't even bother questioninghim. The day didn't even bother
doing the prose exam because it wasthere was no point, right, It's
like he had he had nothing helpfulto the defense. Right, So there's
no point of him saying anything becauseit's like it was irrelevant, didn't matter.
So the next witness, right,it's not even a witness, because
(15:00):
in the first trial, we hada ballistic expert, right for the defense.
He testifies in the first trial.Right on the second trial, my
lawyer didn't even bother to get anotherexpert. Right, he didn't even bother
to He didn't bother to do nothing. N he didn't didn't he didn't do
shit. Right. So the nextwitness, he's basically reading, right,
(15:26):
the transcripts from the first trial.So the lawyers like, hey, your
honor, we couldn't we couldn't getthis witness to come in, so we're
gonna read the transcripts. So hereads the transcripts for the first expert,
right, and I'm sitting there thinkinglike this this journey is not even paying
(15:50):
attention, Like they're not even tryingto hear this, Like he's boring.
You're just standing there reading something else'sstatement. You know, Oh, that
shit didn't even really count her shewas you really think about it. I
had zero defense, none of whatforever there was no witnesses on my side.
Man. You know, I couldhave had the girl who's seen it,
(16:14):
could have had her, I couldhave had other witnesses, right,
like as far as trying to provethat I was in the game member,
you know. But my lord islike, well, you can't have no
character witnesses. He can't have thiscanna that this guy didn't do no investigation.
He didn't go to the to theblock and try to find any witnesses.
But he didn't do nothing. Mowevery man there was no, no
type of thought into my defense.Man. So you know my defense was
(16:41):
fucking twenty minutes. Maybe you know, that's my deference. So once once,
once they finished reading that that expertstestimony, that was it. The
trial's over. Now the did hedoes his closing argument. You know,
the gig gets him. He doeshis close argument. He says, hey,
(17:02):
look, man, you guys sharethe evidence. You know, there's
no way that man, mister Selena'sis not guilty. You know, uh,
he must, he has to bethe most unluckiest guy in the whole
entire LA for him to be innocent. He's like, yeah, it's possible.
It's possible that he didn't do theshooting. It's possible. He's like,
(17:27):
well, look at the evidence.The evidence shows that it's it's him.
He's the shooter. You know.He's like even his own lawyer doesn't
believe him. Even his own lawyerdidn't didn't even defend him, because he
knows it's a there's no argument,there's no case, there's no there's nothing
he can do, right, Sohe even puts my lawyer on blast,
(17:48):
like look at this dude. Thenthis dudeesn't even fight for him. So
you know, he ens his wholelittle clothing rongument world. Even if you
don't think he's the shooter, evenif you don't think he did this,
you still got to find him guiltyfor aiding me in the betting, because
there's evidence that there was another gunused, you know, so we know
(18:11):
that the other guys shot. Soeven if you don't think he shot,
but then we know the other guydid shoot, so you should still get
him for aiding me in the betting. And then he's like, you guys
need to send a message, senda message to the community, send a
message to all these gang members thatwe're not going to stand for this gang
violence and we're not gonna do this, and then send a message and finding
(18:33):
him guilty, you know. Andthat's his closing argument. And then my
Lord gets from there, and thenhe basically says, we all look,
man, this, uh, there'sa line of the infield show up.
It's not credible. You know,the victim he was in a lot of
pain. He admits that he wasunder the influence of drugs rock cocaine,
(19:00):
marijuana, under the influence of ofof marijuana and all this alcohol, and
that he wears prescription glasses which hewas not wearing at the time. That
he's in a whole lot of pain. And so there's no way that even
if this guy did uh, shehave someone there like to point out,
(19:25):
there's no way that he could havedone it, Like, there's no possible
way that he could be a crediblewitness. So that's his whole his whole
thing is like, oh, youshouldn't believe him, man, um,
this guy, there's no way thathe'd be credible. You guys heard his
testimony that you know he was drinking, he was high. So that's his
(19:45):
whole thing, right, He's like, don't believe the witness. And I'm
thinking in my head, like whatplaying the fucking bullshit is? Defenses that
you know like that that don't evenmakee no tact of sense, you know,
like who the hell would do that? But you know it's too late.
What it done is done. Youknow, this is this is a
lawyer, I got this, Thisis this is what I got to go
(20:10):
for it. You know, I'mlike, that's it, man. So
this guy finishes his closing argument andthen the d goes again. He does
a second closing argument, and youknow, he really he reiterates, like,
man, look at his lawyer himhere, he's lawally ain't got nothing,
like he had nothing to say.He's like, you know, he
(20:30):
got no defense. He's like,you guys have to find his back though.
And I was it, man,And I want to say it was
from the first day of jury selection, so the last day of closing arguments
and all that, it was nomore than no more than four days,
(20:56):
you know tops And you know becauseI think it was like one day and
a half of actual jury selection andthen you know, like less than three
days of actual of actual witness testimony. So once the closing argument is done,
right, they say, let's takea lunch break, Let's go to
(21:19):
lunch. So they go to lunch, come back and they say, okay,
we're gonna go ahead and start deliberations. They do the jury instructure,
all that stuff, they go todelivery. It took forty five minutes,
forty five minutes for them to comeback and said guilty. Now was it
(21:40):
is? Man? There's my heart'ssung. I mean before they even before
before the trial was even over,I had lost all hope. Man.
I was like, it's over,Man, I just this lorsure this lord
didn't do shit for me. Man, This dude just fucked me over.
So you know I knew, Iknew it was come. I had no
chance. You know, I understanda chance whatsoever. Man. So I
(22:04):
go in there and you know,sure enough, like we gotta hurd it,
and they read it, say guilty. And they found me guilty on
everything, every single count. Youknow. They found me guilty of attempt
to murder, the ganglegation, gunenhanced smith, and eighteen in a betting.
(22:27):
You know. So they said,hey, come back, come back
on such a such date for asentencing. This happened in March. I
think it was much twenty six.I think that was last day, right,
And then I went back in April. At the end of April,
(22:49):
I want to say. I wantto say, like within two to three
weeks of that date that went backfor sentencing, I go back to sentencing
families there, you know, anduh and their crying and you know,
that ship just breaks my heart.Man. It's like I steel fucked up
and and and you know we hadto sit there and listen to this judge
(23:15):
and this judge is talking about youknow, I'm gonna send you to the
maximum nine years for attempted murder,ten years for the gang enhancement in twenty
five to life for the gun enhancement. And he's like, I hope that
by the time you get out,you're an old ass man, you know,
(23:40):
and you learned that gang life isnot both did and you learn your
last thing, what's called andrew atelephone numbers will be monitored and recorded,
basically saying I hope he spend therest of your life in prison, man,
and goodbye. And that was it, man, that was it.
They fucked. That was my lastcourt date. And you know, sitting
(24:03):
there just waiting for you whendn't comeup to prison. And you know,
right after that, right like rightafter that, I had this whole like
my world just came crashing down andand and and you know, I believed
it. That's it. It's over, never gonna get out. There's no
(24:26):
way in hell anything's gonna happen,like you know, and that moment,
I just lost all hope. Ididn't want I didn't even want to talk
to my family. I didn't wantthem. I just basically like kind of
wanted them to forget about me.You know what I'm done? You know
I'm lost. It's I don't,I don't, I don't exist one more,
(24:48):
you know what I'm saying, Likeall this ship was going through my
head thinking all these things, youknow, because you know when they tell
you you're doing life, you knowthere's no way of getting out forty four
four years to life, man,forty four years to life? Why because
they say you're a game, allright for anybody else. You know,
(25:11):
the most time, you're gonna getsnine years at the most. And you're
not gonna do nine years. You'reprobably gonna do like five or six years,
you know. I mean I waswhen I was going to court.
I'm seeing these other games that areone hundred percent guilty. They're seeing that
they're guilty. They're caught on thecamera. You know what I'm saying,
Like one hundred percent man, andthey're getting deals. One dude literally got
(25:36):
caught on camera. Hold sage,Yeah, yeah, yeah, shooting got
you all right, I got you? Yeah, Sorry about that. I
(26:08):
lost my train of thowery there.This is that thing I say, Uh,
I don't know the barre last thing. You're just talking about how you
feel the stuff with U with sunsin his families yeah, So basically,
you know, I was in Iwas in court. I was on the
court at the time, and likeI said, there are these guys who
(26:30):
literally got cold red handed on thevideo everything attempt to murder. They show
a video the dude shooting this guytrying to kill him inside a inside a
liquor store or something, and thisguy gets a deal for six years.
Man, And this dude has tattoosall over his face. You know,
he's been the prison so many times. They don't give him the ganny allegations.
(26:52):
So in my them, like whatthe what's the distance? Like,
how the fuck is that even possible? Man, Like this is my first
time ever getting arrested as an adultever coming into county jail. Like,
I'm an innocent man. There's nothere's no actual real evidence that that I'm
guilty, that I'm the person thatdid it, you know, But I
(27:14):
get sound guilty anyways, and Iget sentence to life. These other dudes,
they're saying they're guilty, and they'readmitting that they're guilty. They're taught
on camera, they're doing this shit, and they're going home. Man,
They're going home. They're not gettinglife sentences. That's all in my mind.
I'm like, man, what thefuck is really going on? You
(27:34):
know, And you know, I'mjust thinking like it was all a set
up. Man, It's it's youknow, for whatever reason, he's wanting
to fuck me over. You know, they have sixty exactly, you got
exactly what they wanted, you know. So you know, I'm I'm going
to prison and I'm spending the restof my life in prison. I'm never
(27:56):
getting out, you know. Soyou know, for a little while,
you know, kind of gave up. I kind of gave up hope,
and I was like, well,fuck it. You know, it is
what it is. It's over,and I gotta depth you now, I
gotta learn to survive. You knowwhat I'm saying. I gotta make it
in prison because you don't know whatthe fuck's gonna happen, and your your
survival ain't guaranteed, you know.Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look.
(28:32):
Look I tell a man, notrouble. I don't want to be man.
I just want vibe, big manlike me. No need for the
telephone, hide, I got toomuch get online, want rule the denimal
side, wrong move, but they'regonna ride. No need for the telephone
hide Nah, no need for this, loosing big with my flide. I'm
cruising big sicken side, no truthbeing better wat y'all, but it's like,
can you to sis,
Yeah, that was it, man, and my heart sung. I mean
before they even before before the trialwas even over, I had lost all
hope. Man. That it's over. Man, I guess this lord didn't
do ship Man wron't move, butthey're gonna ride. So this guy is
(00:30):
testifying that he committed he uh,he did this new he did this new
test but basically it wasn't a newtest all he all he did was change
his opinion. Right. So nowhe's saying that all because of his publication,
his opinion is it's more than likelyit's a forty four, right,
which is what the DA want wasbecause the DA is trying to tell the
(00:52):
jury that the victim was shot withtwo different guns, two different calibers,
a thirty eight and a forty four. He's trying to say that Hector shot
the victim of the thirty eight andthat I shot the victim of the forty
four at the same exact term,even though the original testimony is that one
(01:21):
person shot William. Even the officerstestify saying their whole understanding was one person
shot William. Now the DA,you know, to make sure that I
get convicted. She saying, no, well, it was both of them,
both of us shot him all right, So he gets this expert to
(01:45):
give the opinion that he wants.Right, he says, it's a forty
four. Now he goes into thegun shot residue because they tested me for
gun shot residue and it came backto negative. No, no particles of
gunshot residue were found on my hands. So he asked, He asked the
(02:06):
expert, did you do what's calledandrew a telephone number. They'll be monitored
and recorded on mister Selima's He's like, yes, I performed the gunshot residue
test and he came back negative.And so now the gig tells them all,
explain to us, what are thechances, well, if you having
(02:30):
gun gunshot restue on your hands.To miss dude gets something. He's like,
well, you know what, it'sa very small chance. There's only
five percent chance that if you shoota gun you're gonna get gunshot residue.
And you know in my mind andI'm like, wait a minute, and
wait a minute, I never heardthat before. I mean, from my
(02:50):
understanding, as you shoot a gunand get gunpowder gets on your hands,
it sticks to your sticks, toyour skin and it doesn't come off.
It takes a lot for it tocome off. So the DA it wants
the jury to believe that it doesn'tmatter if they did a test on me
and they came back negative. Right, Oh, so what if he if
(03:14):
he didn't, he has no proof, there's no evidence that he shot a
gun. So what it doesn't matter, right, That's what he's trying to
tell the jury. So the forthe expert is like, well, if
you shot a gun right now inthis quote room, if you shoot a
gun right this very second, andI test you for gun shot residue,
(03:37):
it's only a five percent chance thatI'm going to find gun show residue on
your hand. And I'm I'm I'mgoing I'm I'm tripping, man, I'm
like, what the fuck are youfucking serious? In my mind, I'm
like, hey, man, ifif if the gun show residude came back
positive, oh, it'd be awhole other story. The whole story will
(03:59):
be that oh oh, there's noway, man, there's no way that
you could take that gunpowder off.Yeah, he must have shot a gun
there. I mean, that's that'sthe only solution is if he had gunpowder,
he had to have shot a gun. He's guilty, you know,
that's what they're whole Here was goingto be. But because I don't have
gunshowders to do all of a sudden, it doesn't matter all of a sudden,
It doesn't make a difference all ofa sudden. It doesn't mean that
(04:23):
I'm innacing Come on, man.So yeah, this guy sits there and
says, yeah, it's not thatbig of a deal. We hardly ever
find it. Right. So thenhe asked them, well, do you
guys test clothing for gunshot residue?And the guy's like, no, we
(04:43):
don't test clothing because we don't knowhow long it's been there. And he's
like, it could be there foryears. So you're telling me like that
because it's a known fact that gunpowdercan last years on clothing. They don't
test him nomore, right, Buton your hand, it's not gonna last
(05:05):
two seconds. If I shoot agun right here and you test me right
now, it's not gonna be there. How the fuck does that make sense?
It's crazy. So in my mindI'm just I'm just like, wow,
man, this guy is saying everythingthe Dean wants him to say,
exactly what he wants him to sayhe's putting it out there for the DA
for the jury, right, Sohe does that, right, he talks
(05:29):
about the the gunsho I residue.Then he starts they asked him, okay,
well can you determine what kind ofgun was used? Right from the
bullet. So he's talking about thebullet. Now he's saying, okay,
well, you know the bullet ithas pretty much he has barrel markings,
(05:49):
which are like pretty much like afingerprint. So if you shoot from an
automatic set, well semi automatic,it's gonna have a certain and a barrel
markings. As you shoot from arevolver, it's gonna stay have a certain
kind of barrel markings. So dothe same. Okay, well, we
(06:11):
know that this bullet that they retrieved, which was a thirty eight slug,
they know that it's came from froma from a revolver. And now there's
other little fragment, right, becauseit's not even a bullet, because a
fragment, it's a piece. Andhe can't even say what it is.
(06:34):
There's no evidence, there's no proof, there's no scientific evidence saying hey,
this is what this is. Allhe can say is, oh, it
could be that it's just a littlepiece, right, So they asked him,
old, kay, can you tellme that this piece came from this
casing? And he's like, no, you can't do that. It's two
(06:57):
different things. This is an apple, this is an orange. But he's
like, well, it's probably likelythough that it came from the same thing,
but I can't say. They'll tellyou that that's what it is,
you know. So after that theda rest, right, he says,
Okay, Now my lawyer gets something. So the first thing I tell my
lawyer is like, okay, well, now ask them, you know,
(07:21):
get more, get more details aboutthis this guns at residue, like supposedly
it's not he doesn't last all thisother stuff, and get more details about
you know, this test for thebullet, you know, right while it
was a sudden they changed their mind, you know. So my lawyer started
asking these questions and he's basically givingthe same answers, and then my lawyer
(07:46):
brings up something about like a hollowpoint, saying, hey, well,
you're saying that you found this littlepiece of bully, right, He's like,
wouldn't it be more likely that it'sfrom a whole point, like because
hollow points rik apart. And he'slike, yeah, yeah, that's probably
it could be, you know.So he's saying, well, are these
bullet hollow points? Look at thesebullets? So this dude looks at the
(08:11):
bullets and he's shit. And lawyerasked him already all the same and he
right away he's like, oh,there's one in here that he's a hollow
point. And I'm I'm just like, what the fuck. But even my
lawyer was like, what the fuck? What just happened? Like, can
I get a second? He hasto, he has to judge, he
can I get a second with aminute. And he's like, let me
(08:33):
see that box. And he looksand there's one bullet in there that's a
hollow point. But it's not thesame bullets as the other bullets, right,
it's a different it's a different bullet. It's a different brand. Now
go back to the other the otherofficers who testified a couple of days earlier,
(08:54):
right like three days earlier. It'sAlfer testified. He opened up the
box bullets. He looked at allthe bullets and he said they are all
identical. They are all the same, They are all the same caliber,
they're all the same brand, they'reall exactly alike. All of a sudden,
three days later, there's a bulletin there that's hollow point. So
(09:18):
I'm like, where the fuck didthis come from? You know, why
didn't this come out sooner? Andremember I already had another trial, a
first trial, and they had expertslook at this stuff and they didn't come
out. So now in my mind, I'm like, wait a minute,
this dude, I'm thinking that thesemotherfuckers tagged this shit. Man, Like,
(09:41):
how the fuck is all of asudden there's a hollow point in there.
When my lord is trying to he'strying to basically say, hey man,
it could be a hollow point,and these bullets and are hollow points,
right, So now I'm thinking,to fuck up his hole. This
whole argument. They put a fuckingon the point in this. So I'm
(10:07):
like, wow, man, likeI'm tripping out, like what the fuck?
Like this is crazy, and thedude, you know, they take
the break and they're talking and thelawyers, like my lawyers, like,
fuck, I fucked up. He'slike all the evidence sold that all those
bullets are the same. He's like, I broke my number one rule,
don't ask a question you don't knowthe answer to. And he tells the
(10:30):
judge that I assumed that they wereall the same bullets because all the evidence
says they're all the same bullets.Everything has said that they're all the same.
So all of a sudden, there'sthis bullet in here. So you
know, they say, well,let's take a break, man, let's
take the recess. So they tooka quick recess and then they come back
(10:54):
in the judge and they get onthe stand again, and then they say
it again. Yeah, then allthe bullets except for one are the same
and this is a hollow point,but it's not the same brand, it's
not the same type. This isa Lettle bullet. These other bullets are
coppered. So now my lawyer islike fuck. He doesn't even want to
(11:20):
say nothing no more. He doesn'teven want to He just feels like he
got slapped in the face. Youknow. So they released this this witness,
They let him go, right,So now we go on to the
next witness, which was no whatAs a matter of fact, that was
the last witness. That was itfor the for the prosecution. Now it's
(11:43):
the defenses turn. Right. Soon the first trial, we had Rosa
who was a witness who've seen thewhole the whole incident when the officers pulled
over or William, and she's seeneverything, and she testified that she never
saw these officers open up the ambulancedoors. She never saw these officers shining
(12:05):
the light on me. She saidthat when I got when I came out
of the car, I took threelittle hops and that was it, and
I went right back into the car. She said it would happen very very
quick. So her whole testimony iscontradicting the officer. Well, on this
(12:26):
trial, my lawyer never calls herand never tried to get a hold of
her, and never tried to gether to come to court. Nothing.
Man like this dude basically fucking meover by not calling this witness. So
she doesn't come to court. Right, she's not in my trial, So
I lose that that would have been, that would have been a good witness,
(12:48):
because she got me the hung juryon the first trial. She's the
reason why they gave me a hungjury. So on this time, the
first witness they called is the friendWilliam's friend who was with William when he
got shot. So my lawyer askedhim, Okay, uh, what happened
(13:09):
that night? So he tells themwhat happened, says, yeah, me
and me and William were drinking.We're celebrating his birthday. We're getting drunk,
were smoking weave or smoking block.We're having a good time. He
tells him the same story that Williamtells him. Go downstairs, move a
card. One guy walks up tohim. The other guy walks up to
(13:30):
William. He didn't see the guy'sface, he just heard the took off
running right. And then so mylawyer's trying to get him to kind of
go into more details and you know, trying to trying to give a description
like what did guy look like,what, what did he what was he
wearing? You know, how didhe live? Trying to get more information.
She showed that, you know,it wasn't me, But the guy
(13:54):
doesn't. He doesn't. He justjust keep saying, I don't know,
you know, I don't remember,I don't know. So this witness,
I mean, honestly didn't do nothingfor me whatsoever. Like there was really
no point I didn't calling him becausehe had nothing to say. So Angel,
right, William's friend. You know, he pretty so much has nothing
(14:16):
to contribute to my defense. Right, there's there's really no reason whatsoever to
have put him on the stand,right, that she would have been honest
and would have said what happened,like, But he's saying he doesn't remember,
right, he's saying he don't know, he didn't he didn't see nothing.
So there's really no point of havingthis guy on there. Man,
So this guy was on there forI don't know that ten to fifteen minutes,
(14:37):
and the day didn't even bother questioninghim. The day didn't even bother
doing the prose exam because it wasthere was no point, right, It's
like he had he had nothing helpfulto the defense. Right, So there's
no point of him saying anything becauseit's like it was irrelevant, didn't matter.
So the next witness, right,it's not even a witness, because
(15:00):
in the first trial, we hada ballistic expert, right for the defense.
He testifies in the first trial.Right on the second trial, my
lawyer didn't even bother to get anotherexpert. Right, he didn't even bother
to He didn't bother to do nothing. N he didn't didn't he didn't do
shit. Right. So the nextwitness, he's basically reading, right,
(15:26):
the transcripts from the first trial.So the lawyers like, hey, your
honor, we couldn't we couldn't getthis witness to come in, so we're
gonna read the transcripts. So hereads the transcripts for the first expert,
right, and I'm sitting there thinkinglike this this journey is not even paying
(15:50):
attention, Like they're not even tryingto hear this, Like he's boring.
You're just standing there reading something else'sstatement. You know, Oh, that
shit didn't even really count her shewas you really think about it. I
had zero defense, none of whatforever there was no witnesses on my side.
Man. You know, I couldhave had the girl who's seen it,
(16:14):
could have had her, I couldhave had other witnesses, right,
like as far as trying to provethat I was in the game member,
you know. But my lord islike, well, you can't have no
character witnesses. He can't have thiscanna that this guy didn't do no investigation.
He didn't go to the to theblock and try to find any witnesses.
But he didn't do nothing. Mowevery man there was no, no
type of thought into my defense.Man. So you know my defense was
(16:41):
fucking twenty minutes. Maybe you know, that's my deference. So once once,
once they finished reading that that expertstestimony, that was it. The
trial's over. Now the did hedoes his closing argument. You know,
the gig gets him. He doeshis close argument. He says, hey,
(17:02):
look, man, you guys sharethe evidence. You know, there's
no way that man, mister Selena'sis not guilty. You know, uh,
he must, he has to bethe most unluckiest guy in the whole
entire LA for him to be innocent. He's like, yeah, it's possible.
It's possible that he didn't do theshooting. It's possible. He's like,
(17:27):
well, look at the evidence.The evidence shows that it's it's him.
He's the shooter. You know.He's like even his own lawyer doesn't
believe him. Even his own lawyerdidn't didn't even defend him, because he
knows it's a there's no argument,there's no case, there's no there's nothing
he can do, right, Sohe even puts my lawyer on blast,
(17:48):
like look at this dude. Thenthis dudeesn't even fight for him. So
you know, he ens his wholelittle clothing rongument world. Even if you
don't think he's the shooter, evenif you don't think he did this,
you still got to find him guiltyfor aiding me in the betting, because
there's evidence that there was another gunused, you know, so we know
(18:11):
that the other guys shot. Soeven if you don't think he shot,
but then we know the other guydid shoot, so you should still get
him for aiding me in the betting. And then he's like, you guys
need to send a message, senda message to the community, send a
message to all these gang members thatwe're not going to stand for this gang
violence and we're not gonna do this, and then send a message and finding
(18:33):
him guilty, you know. Andthat's his closing argument. And then my
Lord gets from there, and thenhe basically says, we all look,
man, this, uh, there'sa line of the infield show up.
It's not credible. You know,the victim he was in a lot of
pain. He admits that he wasunder the influence of drugs rock cocaine,
(19:00):
marijuana, under the influence of ofof marijuana and all this alcohol, and
that he wears prescription glasses which hewas not wearing at the time. That
he's in a whole lot of pain. And so there's no way that even
if this guy did uh, shehave someone there like to point out,
(19:25):
there's no way that he could havedone it, Like, there's no possible
way that he could be a crediblewitness. So that's his whole his whole
thing is like, oh, youshouldn't believe him, man, um,
this guy, there's no way thathe'd be credible. You guys heard his
testimony that you know he was drinking, he was high. So that's his
(19:45):
whole thing, right, He's like, don't believe the witness. And I'm
thinking in my head, like whatplaying the fucking bullshit is? Defenses that
you know like that that don't evenmakee no tact of sense, you know,
like who the hell would do that? But you know it's too late.
What it done is done. Youknow, this is this is a
lawyer, I got this, Thisis this is what I got to go
(20:10):
for it. You know, I'mlike, that's it, man. So
this guy finishes his closing argument andthen the d goes again. He does
a second closing argument, and youknow, he really he reiterates, like,
man, look at his lawyer himhere, he's lawally ain't got nothing,
like he had nothing to say.He's like, you know, he
(20:30):
got no defense. He's like,you guys have to find his back though.
And I was it, man,And I want to say it was
from the first day of jury selection, so the last day of closing arguments
and all that, it was nomore than no more than four days,
(20:56):
you know tops And you know becauseI think it was like one day and
a half of actual jury selection andthen you know, like less than three
days of actual of actual witness testimony. So once the closing argument is done,
right, they say, let's takea lunch break, Let's go to
(21:19):
lunch. So they go to lunch, come back and they say, okay,
we're gonna go ahead and start deliberations. They do the jury instructure,
all that stuff, they go todelivery. It took forty five minutes,
forty five minutes for them to comeback and said guilty. Now was it
(21:40):
is? Man? There's my heart'ssung. I mean before they even before
before the trial was even over,I had lost all hope. Man.
I was like, it's over,Man, I just this lorsure this lord
didn't do shit for me. Man, This dude just fucked me over.
So you know I knew, Iknew it was come. I had no
chance. You know, I understanda chance whatsoever. Man. So I
(22:04):
go in there and you know,sure enough, like we gotta hurd it,
and they read it, say guilty. And they found me guilty on
everything, every single count. Youknow. They found me guilty of attempt
to murder, the ganglegation, gunenhanced smith, and eighteen in a betting.
(22:27):
You know. So they said,hey, come back, come back
on such a such date for asentencing. This happened in March. I
think it was much twenty six.I think that was last day, right,
And then I went back in April. At the end of April,
(22:49):
I want to say. I wantto say, like within two to three
weeks of that date that went backfor sentencing, I go back to sentencing
families there, you know, anduh and their crying and you know,
that ship just breaks my heart.Man. It's like I steel fucked up
and and and you know we hadto sit there and listen to this judge
(23:15):
and this judge is talking about youknow, I'm gonna send you to the
maximum nine years for attempted murder,ten years for the gang enhancement in twenty
five to life for the gun enhancement. And he's like, I hope that
by the time you get out,you're an old ass man, you know,
(23:40):
and you learned that gang life isnot both did and you learn your
last thing, what's called andrew atelephone numbers will be monitored and recorded,
basically saying I hope he spend therest of your life in prison, man,
and goodbye. And that was it, man, that was it.
They fucked. That was my lastcourt date. And you know, sitting
(24:03):
there just waiting for you whendn't comeup to prison. And you know,
right after that, right like rightafter that, I had this whole like
my world just came crashing down andand and and you know, I believed
it. That's it. It's over, never gonna get out. There's no
(24:26):
way in hell anything's gonna happen,like you know, and that moment,
I just lost all hope. Ididn't want I didn't even want to talk
to my family. I didn't wantthem. I just basically like kind of
wanted them to forget about me.You know what I'm done? You know
I'm lost. It's I don't,I don't, I don't exist one more,
(24:48):
you know what I'm saying, Likeall this ship was going through my
head thinking all these things, youknow, because you know when they tell
you you're doing life, you knowthere's no way of getting out forty four
four years to life, man,forty four years to life? Why because
they say you're a game, allright for anybody else. You know,
(25:11):
the most time, you're gonna getsnine years at the most. And you're
not gonna do nine years. You'reprobably gonna do like five or six years,
you know. I mean I waswhen I was going to court.
I'm seeing these other games that areone hundred percent guilty. They're seeing that
they're guilty. They're caught on thecamera. You know what I'm saying,
Like one hundred percent man, andthey're getting deals. One dude literally got
(25:36):
caught on camera. Hold sage,Yeah, yeah, yeah, shooting got
you all right, I got you? Yeah, Sorry about that. I
(26:08):
lost my train of thowery there.This is that thing I say, Uh,
I don't know the barre last thing. You're just talking about how you
feel the stuff with U with sunsin his families yeah, So basically,
you know, I was in Iwas in court. I was on the
court at the time, and likeI said, there are these guys who
(26:30):
literally got cold red handed on thevideo everything attempt to murder. They show
a video the dude shooting this guytrying to kill him inside a inside a
liquor store or something, and thisguy gets a deal for six years.
Man, And this dude has tattoosall over his face. You know,
he's been the prison so many times. They don't give him the ganny allegations.
(26:52):
So in my them, like whatthe what's the distance? Like,
how the fuck is that even possible? Man, Like this is my first
time ever getting arrested as an adultever coming into county jail. Like,
I'm an innocent man. There's nothere's no actual real evidence that that I'm
guilty, that I'm the person thatdid it, you know, But I
(27:14):
get sound guilty anyways, and Iget sentence to life. These other dudes,
they're saying they're guilty, and they'readmitting that they're guilty. They're taught
on camera, they're doing this shit, and they're going home. Man,
They're going home. They're not gettinglife sentences. That's all in my mind.
I'm like, man, what thefuck is really going on? You
(27:34):
know, And you know, I'mjust thinking like it was all a set
up. Man, It's it's youknow, for whatever reason, he's wanting
to fuck me over. You know, they have sixty exactly, you got
exactly what they wanted, you know. So you know, I'm I'm going
to prison and I'm spending the restof my life in prison. I'm never
(27:56):
getting out, you know. Soyou know, for a little while,
you know, kind of gave up. I kind of gave up hope,
and I was like, well,fuck it. You know, it is
what it is. It's over,and I gotta depth you now, I
gotta learn to survive. You knowwhat I'm saying. I gotta make it
in prison because you don't know whatthe fuck's gonna happen, and your your
survival ain't guaranteed, you know.Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look.
(28:32):
Look I tell a man, notrouble. I don't want to be man.
I just want vibe, big manlike me. No need for the
telephone, hide, I got toomuch get online, want rule the denimal
side, wrong move, but they'regonna ride. No need for the telephone
hide Nah, no need for this, loosing big with my flide. I'm
cruising big sicken side, no truthbeing better wat y'all, but it's like,
can you to sis,
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