#157 Jason Flom with Kevin Dykes

As a child. In the late nineteen seventies, Kevin Dykes accidentally killed his best friend when they were playing with a gun, sending him to Juvie for involuntary manslaughter. When he got out, he turned to petty drug dealing in Compton, California. Fast forward to nineteen eighty six. After a terrible assault that led to a four month hospital stint, Kevin continued peddling drugs from his temporary wheelchair for two men named

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Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flomp. Today. We have an incredible story, so we're going to get right into it, and I'm going to introduce you first to Stephen K. Houser. He's a criminal defense attorney representing the star of this episode, Kevin Dike. Stephen, Welcome to Wrongful Conviction.

Thank you, glad to be here.

And Kevin Dykes is on the phone with us from prison, and I hope we'll be able to do something about his situation because it is awful. Kevin. I'm sorry you're here or where you are, but I'm happy you're here with us today. So thank you for being here.

Thank you for the opportory.

This case goes back to Compton nineteen eighty six, and it's got It's got so much that you'll think of talking about a movie script that would be too much to be believed, except for it's real. It's got gangster's name Hondo and Slim. It's got drugs. It's got snitches that ended up on sixty minutes. It's got laws that changed, and victims who testified that this was not the guy

Right, Yes, I grew up good too, Gray at home in the pop Water Sport. I actually had a real good up bringing. In two, I think it's actually three, I ended up actually killing my best friend. I went for a CHERI mayor flather and I will stick at.

YAS And for those of you who don't know, YA or CYA is the California Youth Authority.

As I unders standard, your friend's death was entirely accidental, just two kids who made a big mistake playing with a gun. But they still sent you away to juvie for involuntary manslaughter. And I also understand that you harbor a lot of guilt about this. Even though the family forgave you, yes, just family.

They stayed directly across the street from my family, even to the they still feel on the same street. Although the family had forgiven me, written me letters and will come to see me. When I got out, I saw what idea to that family, and I didn't know how to propter. Although my mother and my father and my grandmother and all kinds of people were trying to help me. I didn't know how to ask for their help that I actually needed, so I got de gris root de grit to the game.

So the guilt kind of derailed your potential, it seems. And after Juvie, you start dealing drugs and looking outside of what seemed like a supportive home for what it was that you felt you needed, acceptance, identity, whatever, out in the street. So fast forward to January nineteen eighty six. Some other really bad stuff happens.

January eighteenth, So I try to cheating them me. They try to cheat them in front of my house. I followed them. They ran me through a brick wall and he both my hit and smashed my films. So I went at the hospital eighteenth in knowledge and May forties. When I got out of the hospital, I was in a wheelchair and I had a walker, and I was all to a therapy.

Yes, someone tried to kidnap Kevin, so you fought them off, and they ended up hitting you with their car against a brick wall, broke your hips, snapped your pelvis, and put you in the hospital for four months. I mean, you're lucky to even be alive, and we haven't even gotten to the part that has you locked up right now. Okay,

Slim and Hondo decided that they were going to take over the local drug sales. I believe they helped Kevin and some of his friends with small amounts of cocaine to sell in the neighborhood, and they would periodically show up and I guess resupply the local sellers, including Kevin and Kevin.

You were renting a place to stay from a man named mister Bryce. You were renting a bed in this mobile home that sat in his driveway, right.

Yes, I was a fan and mister Bryce's mobile hole. We had a mobile home. They had like six days, the shower and all that stuff inside. It was parked in the driveway. Sometimes my friends us supposed to stay. They had like six places, well, sleeping there.

So Oltis is coming in sleeping there, and Otis is Otis Perry who occasionally stayed at mister Bryce's mobile home. And he's the one that was eventually stabbed by Slim and Hondo for taking the gun that they had left in the trailer. The night that these two attempted murders occurred outside a party at mister Bryce's house.

Yes, also, my cousin Pam was inside of the mobile home. I was inside the house where the party was there when the fighting. When the fight after, so I didn't know this was out there at the time. And I know Slim pulls up. They knew mister Bryce didn't allow gus in his house, but they here to gun in the mobile home. Well, my cousin and OSTs, but I still didn't know nothing about that at that time.

Okay, so now the stage is finally set for these crimes to take place. This is we're talking June nineteenth, nineteen eighty six. There's a little party going on at mister Bryce's Your friend Otis and your cousin Pam are in the mobile home in the driveway. Slim and Hondo, your bosses, come to hang out, but out of respect for mister Bryce, they leave their gun in the mobile home. Then your friend Ephim is at the party and he is drunk. To say the least, is my older homeboy.

He was young beingligerate and uh messing with the females. I was up in there grabbing drinks that didn't belong to him, and I saw man go down to the pool man keep back. I got and he kept on. So I got pissed off and I hit him once. And when I hit him, hand slam both of them attacking. Because of them, I here's what they see it, he said. I didn't understand why did they get involved in there? Here's what they said, because I should barely walk. They people were taking advantage of my disability.

Okay, so your drug bosses are sticking up for you, but then they go way beyond what you would ever want them to do.

Yes, So once I stuck both of them attacking, I got them to stop sold instantly he left and then they chased him down the street. They caught him at the end of the corner. Once I got down there, I saw that he was actually stabbing. When I hollered, Hondo leaving alone, Hondo, He's little step and saw me. But when he saw me, he saw Miss Bradley behind me. Miss Bradley is my older home was mother. When she looked up and saw that it was her son, she tried to turn and run. He ran her down, grabbed

So you basically saved Missus Bradley and Ephraim from being murdered by slimming Hondo by convincing them to stop stabbing them and drive away from the scene. But this incident on June nineteenth is what becomes two charges of attempted murder that gets stuck on you. The guy confined to a wheelchair at the time. Yeah, okay, So Slim and Hondo stabbed both Ephraim and Missus Bradley. You drove them to a motel. At some point, your friend otis back at the mobile home takes the gun Slim and Hondo

On June twenty third, June twenty thirty, he came overs looking for Otis like Wilson in the morning. They said, come outside, I'm going to go to your olds. I didn't know Olis's out here in the motor holes. So when I went up to the front, York Jordan open oldest steps out, hands packed over this, say there with my gun. He said, we can go get it. He said too late, and then catching they started fighting. All this was fighting back for they were fighting him from

And what would you tell anyone listening now who's wondering why you played any part in getting rid of the body with Slim and Hondo.

I did with any reasonable person not trying to die, I would have done hadn't seen what I saw. I knew I gotta do something that made myself a part of what's going on. And I wasn't a physically able to do nothing to prevent myself from being killed. And I'm swissed in that was the smartest thing that I could have done at the time for myself, instead of doing nothing.

If you had done nothing at all, what do you think Slim and Hondo would have done.

I was a little bit too afraid to find out. I was in a position where something happened to my friend Donalds to know where I stood, and I did what I thought was the best thing to do for my film that I too for older now about saying my film.

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That's when I was trying to process whatever it just happened to show. Thirty seven o'clock in the morning, That's when I saw the police and I told that I knew who it was. Would always said, come over here and look, I knew it was. I said, I know where he lives, to his mother's house. And then when we say back to the scene, I asked my saying, look if I had any information, talk on our contract, and he gave me his car. I took your car

So you made a statement to a sergeant. Sergeant Preston and you're going to be a witness, and Steve, maybe you can tell us about the next part of the story, which is how Kevin was picked up for cocaine possession. Sometime later, and while in the state's witness holding area of La County Jail, he eventually meets three guys who are responsible for him being in this horrible predicament today.

What happened was Kevin got arrested for a possession of cocaine charge, and because he was the main witness against Slim and Hondo on a murder case, they put him in with other prosecution witnesses and it's commonly called the snitch Tank, which is a separate jail from the men's central jail. And while Kevin was in there, he told his cellmate, Willie Battle and the guy that was in

They say, we got a guy on here bragging about chilling his guy with lady is telling the big time, don't it. So I end up going from being the actual witness to now being the actual killer.

So Kevin became a defendant instead of the prosecution witness, and they moved him out of the snitch tank to another part of the jail. So Kevin's transferred over to the central jail, and then he met a very notorious snitch named Leslie White. And I get a call from Leslie White. I'd never heard of Leslie White. Leslie White says, I understand you're defending Kevin Dyke's and that he has been ratted out by two snitches. And I said that's

I gotta be honest. My head is spinning. And I didn't even live through this. I mean, this is Kevin. I mean, I'm so sorry that you're living this is that, this is your life we're talking about.

I didn't actually believe that what was going on was even possible. I didn't think that this stuff would hold. I'm like, what hold? I'm an actual eye withness. These guys they don't know nothing about where I lived, but nothing about what actually happened. So I didn't really believe the people could do what they were what they were doing to me. I had never even heard about that before.

I mean, this is this is like nothing. I don't think we've ever heard a story like this before. So Steven, what happens next?

When we got to court, all they had was his statement to Sergeant Preston and three snitches, and I couldn't believe that they would even want to proceed with this evidence. But they did, and just before the verdict was issued, I told Kevin, I said, now Kevin, when you get out of here, you've got to change your ways, be a law abiding citizen and then used to society, and he said, yeah, came mister Houser, I'm going to do that, came back guilty. We were both floored.

You were sentenced to twenty four years to life. Here it is now twenty twenty. You're still in Can you just take us back there, put us in that courtroom with you if you can.

I actually should not believe the verbiant. Yeah, I actually in the fine. I just see how it was possible. Yeah, I was askual eye witness. I came for. I gave him everything they needed, all evidence to car the weather. The people from testified that I didn't attack. People will stand by thirty three times at least fighter I didn't attacking, And it just fires that I didn't attack Ms. Browning. That was my friend mother. There was nobody here. You'll say, okay, anybody.

But and this is something I really need to highlight here, which is that if you go in a jury box and you're presented with a case where someone's life is hanging into balance, just like Kevin's was, and there's no evidence connecting that person's at a crime except for the testimony of a snitch, you cannot vote to convict because it's crazy. I mean, these are people who are clearly incentivized. They may not tell you that at the time, but you have to understand that the defense can never bribe

Mister Holliard found evidence where they get apartments. They say, oh, he's grit in my family. So the government gives him money to relocate them move in apartments. All of them ended up getting reduced sients left white ended up getting out at such five and gives me, I don't know if you remember this thousand. He came right back an he threatened thesis attorney, if you don't bake me back out, I'm gonna blow his whole case up. You remember, miss out.

What happened was Leslie White then went on sixty minutes when he was back in again in in the jail, and he showed on camera how he could work his magic and get favors from the DA. And then when I saw that, I went down and talked to Leslie White. I said, well, now I know for sure you lied in Kevin's case, and he said, yeah, I did. And I said, well, I want you to sign an affidavit that you lied in Kevin's case because Kevin deserves a

And of course, you know, we have two more characters that are coming up, with Gigi Gordon, who's on the right side of this story, and Willie battles. We can't leave him out.

Yeah, When this snitch system came out, thanks to Leslie White, believe it or not, Gigi Gordon was appointed. She's a defense lawyer. She's deceased now, but she was a criminal defense lawyer. Friend of mine, and Jigi Gordon was appointed by i think the Supreme Court to do an independent investigation on all of the snitch cases to see if justice was done. And she spent over a year on

And that happened, but they didn't do it retroactively. Am I getting that right? Because it always drives me nuts when we change a law in this country and we don't do it retroactively. How could it be different now than it was before. It doesn't make sense.

Didn't make any sense to me. That's why I appealed it. We went to the Appellate Court in California, then the Supreme Court, and actually when we went to the Supreme Court, the first time, the law had not been changed yet. But then we went back to the Supreme Court on another issue, and the law had been changed. And in federal court, the judge actually said that Kevin might be innocent, but there's nothing I can do because this law is

Still is wow.

And so, if Kevin's case were tried now, they wouldn't have any evidence against him because the only incriminating evidence was from the snitch testimony.

If Kevin's case were to be tried now, they would have no evidence against him. And yet it's thirty four years later and he's I can't this is nuts.

I went to the district attorney with that very argument. With each new district attorney that came in, I would go talk to him and they told me that because of his statement admitting what he did pretending to go along with what Slim and Honda were doing, because of that statement, that made him guilty. And they said, sorry, you have to present new evidence to us before we're going to recommend anything for Kevin. And I said, what's

And what is the outlook now? I mean, is there hope?

I think Kevin has two hopes number one with a new DA. I think Gascon is much more progressive than Jackie Lacy. I thought Jackie Lacey was very progressive, and I had high hopes for Kevin when she put together her Internal Innocent project and I met with what I thought was a very ethical, fine lawyer, and I got a very unfavorable result. And I asked him during that hearing, I said, you know, as a human being, you know, do you really think that Kevin Dykes was convicted properly fairly?

And in case people think there's not enough here, already we have a case where the victim's family doesn't hold Kevin responsible. I think anybody coming out of you know, high school would look at this and go, okay, well, this guy's in and said, let's get him home. But the way the laws are set up, it's really really difficult even in a case like this with so much compelling evidence of not just reasonable doubt, but evidence of

The law in California is that if you've done state prison time, you have to go to the Supreme Court before you can petition the governor on a different case. Because of that prior conviction for involuntary manslaughter, Kevin can't go to the Governor's office. I can't go on his behalf to the governor. You have to petition the Supreme Court and get permission from them to ask the governor

That is a strange thing in the law too. In California. Is not the first time I've encountered it where it has to you know, the underlying previous conviction stands in the way of even the governor taking an action, because I believe if he knew about this case, he would want to.

But I think the best thing to do is to hope for parole, hope that the DA does not oppose parole. Think Kevin comes up for parole, I think in another year or two.

The SEVERER thirteenth next year.

Yeah, okay, well, but even better is to have the new DA take a look at this case and admit that Kevin was wrongfully convicted.

Kevin, what would you like people to do or or to know?

Well, I know I need the right things, and I went to the police hand and hide, throw the food. Then I tow the food firm and jury. Even now I don't regret doing the right thing because it was my friend's life and it was important for his mother to know the food. What happened to her son, I was e same thing. You know, I will still go through the police. I'll still set the food. Maybe I wouldn't say that while I'm in jail. It cost me a lot. I've lost like seventeen family members. My mom's

Time, and all this time in prison, have there been any like moments of little rays of light that poked their head into such a dark place? And was there a particular moment where you almost lost hope? It's sort of the darkest moment for you.

I found Lorrd the last five years, so I'm a finished finding with God in myself. So now it's like, you know what, there's nothing I can do about what they've done. I'm not gonna let them take what's left that I got in my spear. And now my family's proud of me, even though I've never done nothing, because I've saved my life. So it's real dark time, trusting a lot, but I'm gonna keep push them. I'm gonna keep believing I got to so I.

Got I mean, I'm just sitting here with a heavy sort of nod in my stomach, just the fact that I mean, you're fifty nine year old man, you spent almost twice as long in prison as you were free. Your no threat to society. This is what the par board is for. You know, Well, this man needs to go home. I'm going to stay optimistic and I'm going to tell you We're going to do everything we can.

All right.

So we have a very special section segment of this show. That's my favorite part, and this is what we call closing arguments. I first of all, thank you both. So first of all, Stephen K. Hawser Attorney, thank you for being here with us today.

Thank you.

It's a privilege.

And Kevin Dyke, what can I say?

Man?

You are inspiring guy. From what little I know you, just from this call, I can tell your spirit is coming through the wire all the way across the country and it's going to be going out to a lot of people, So thank you for sharing your thoughts and being so courageous here today problem and now I turned my microphone off, uh and I just leave my headphones on, close my eyes and let you both talk about whatever you want for the last few minutes of the show. Kevin,

Uh.

Well, Kevin, let's hope this is another step to get you out of prison. It's been a long long road, but I won't give up ever.

Kevin, over to you.

I'm thankful, you know. And it's taking me a long time, but I'm at it like the last five years now, and my life now still has purpose and meaning despite what they've done. I owe no feel feelings, force nobody. He is what he is as a lost life. I was twenty four years old, fifty nine now I've been sixty there this year. I've been seen over five years. So it's like there's nothing else that I can't do

Don't forget to give us a fantastic review. Wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps, and I'm a proud donor to the NSIS project, and I really hope you'll join me in supporting this very important cause and helping to prevent future wrongful convictions. Go to Innocence Project dot org to learn how to donate and get involved. I'd like to thank our production team, Connor Hall and Kevin Wartis. The music in the show is by three time OSCAR