In the late eighties and early nineties, the crack epidemic was in full swing, and one of New York's most powerful drug gangs was Lenny and Nelson Sepulvida's Wild Cowboys aka the Red Top Crew. Red Top referred to the color of the caps on their crackpiles, and their less powerful competitors were called Orange Top and Yellow Top. Yellowtop began selling out of an alleyway on Beakman Avenue in
the Bronx, which was Red Top territory. On December sixteenth, nineteen ninety one, in an incident that became known as the Quad Murders, Nelson Sepulvida and three others rolled up with semi automatics indiscriminately spraying sixty bullets into the alleyway on Beakman, killing four and wounding one. Detective Mark Tebins was under intense pressure to bring order to the dangerous area, and he indicted forty one people as co defendants for
several drug related incidents, including the Quad murders. Teppens's street sweep turned suspects into witnesses, and nine of the forty one in dit it went to trial. Five of the codependants were blamed for the quad riders, four of whom are innocent, and one of those poor souls is Danny rin Khone. Alibi witnesses placed Danny on the other side of a large city block at the time of the shooting, including a victim's mother and brother, but the jury could
not see through the trial's circus atmosphere. Danny was convicted and sentenced to one hundred and fifty eight and a third to life. Glenn Garber and Farah Rossner from the Exoneration Initiative joined Danny rin Kon calling it from Attica Prison to tell us about the case that they've built for Danny's freedom. This is Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm.
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Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm. Before I introduce Danny ring Kahn, who's calling in from prison where he's been for a very long time, where he doesn't belong. First, I'm going to introduce his legal team. Sarah Rossner Farah is an attorney with the Exoneration Initiative.
Thank you for having us and.
With us today as well is Glenn Garber. And Glenn has been responsible for a large number of exonerations as the founder and director of the Exoneration Initiative. And it's so great that you're here and so great that you're working on Danny's case that I know that you'll be the first one to greet him when he gets out, because I know how much this case meets you. So Glenn Garber, welcome to wrongful Conviction. Thank you.
Jason happy to be here.
And Danny ring Khon calling in from Attica. So Danny, welcome to wrongful Conviction.
Thank you so much, Jason, thank you for the opportunity.
Danny is serving what I think a lot of people will agree is an absurd sentence. He's serving one hundred and fifty eight and a third years to life. But let's not start there. Let's start at the beginning. Danny, you grew up in Washington Heights in the height of the crack epidemic. Can you tell us a little bit about what it.
Was like It was certainly a volatile neighborhood, a troubled timed in New York City. There was a you know, war on drugs. There was a high crime and murder rate. Drugs were prevalent, particularly crack cocaine. And I'm not going to say that I am innocent of being involved in drugs, but I would never do what I am wrongly convicted of. You know, my parents were working people. My dad worked at Columbia Presbyteria Medical Center for twenty seven years. My
mom makes you rest in peace. Excuse me. My mom worked thirty three years at a ghost and my parents worked hard to provide for my brothers and me. My parents are still values in US. And I made a poor decision in those years to take to the streets, which brought nothing but shame, embarrassment, and humiliation of my
parents and my family. But you know, we were blessed in many ways because my parents provided and we had what we needed, my brothers and I and we went to school and we had a great upbringing, despite the fact that we grew up in a poor neighborhood that was flooded and riddled with violence and drugs. But that was Washington Heights.
In those days.
The South Bronx was no different.
You know.
I ventured over to the South Bronx at the age of maybe fourteen fifteen years old, and what I saw there was not much different than what I seen in my own neighborhood in Washington Heights.
Even for the violent insanity that was taking place in the South Bronx and Washington Heights, that whole section of the city in those days. This was a particularly violent crime though. This was a crime that became known as the Quad murders.
So there were rival drug organizations at the time in the area in mod Haven, and there were three that we can discuss which were actually relevant to this incident. There was the Red Top organization, which was led by two brothers, Lenny and Nelson Seppovita, and then there was another organization, the Orange Top, which Danny was affiliated with, and then there was the Yellow Top. Each of these organizations had a separate location where they would sell drugs.
They had different people that worked for each of the groups. They were stepping on each other's toes. They were fighting over territory, they were fighting over pricing for each of the vials that they were selling, trying to undercut the other to take over some territory. So it was a drug war so to speak, that was going on between these three organizations.
This was not some small time drug dealing. I mean they were making between ten and twenty million dollars a year just the Red Top Gang itself, right.
The Sepovetas were sort of the drug kingpins, if you will, and they were the ones who were actually ruling most in that area.
BigMan Avenue is a small street between Saint Mary's Park and one hundred and forty fourth Street in the Bronx, New York. Let me Supervador basically ruled Big Maan Avenue with a nine and fifth Let me Supervada. At the time of the murders was in prison. A good friend of mine, Gerard Herd, opened up a spot on BigMan Avenue and was selling yellow time. Nelson Sepervador apparently took over while his brother Lenny was in prison and felt
that Gerard her was encrouching on BigMan Avenue. So in an act of force or discipline or what have you, he decided to unleash these individuals, include himself, to shoot up this corner, killing four people.
So what happens is.
First of all, it was a freezing called night. It was about ten fifteen ten twenty on December sixteenth, and Nelson Saipolvite, who was the architect of the quad murders, arrives on the scene with Francisco Medina or Freddy Krueger, a guy named Platino who is Wilfredo de los Angeles Tezo or Rafael Perez, and an individual known as Crazy Ray converge and start opening fire into that alleyway at three forty eight Peakman Avenue.
These guys, two of them jump out of a car two run up on foot Nelson Sepulvido, Wilfredo de los Angeles, Rafael Perez and a guy named Crazy Ray. They roll up spray the alleyway with sixty rounds from semi automatics, wounding one person Janice Brewington, and killing four Cynthia Cassada, Emmanuel Vieira, one unidentified manned Anthony Green and Danny. You knew Anthony Green and his family, his brother Benjamin and his mother Irene. I mean, in fact, they're part of
your alibi. I mean again, this is the mother and the brother of a victim. It just doesn't get more so that right.
What we learned later was that the shooters left the apartment of Terrell Blair and Brenda Blair on Beekman Avenue. Sorel Blair leaves his apartment and runs up to the Greens apartment to tell Benjamin that something's gonna happen to his brother down the block because these guys were leaving
his apartment and he knew they were discussing. Jera heard his brother and those individuals around Yellow Chop there, so he was headed up there to warn Benjamin to go get his brother out of the way because something was gonna happen there. Cyrel Blair has refused to get involved in this matter for whatever his reasons are.
Can you tell us about that night? Like, what were you actually.
Doing that evening? I was on Cyprus Avenue in Building three seventy, an apartment in one gene while I was sickond in a bedroom talking to my brother. May he also rest in peace. He was incarcerrated in Raking's Island at the time. He had made a phone call. Prior to me taking the call, I was inside Apartment one B in the adjacent building three point fifty four and mide Ya Beenurecour's apartment. While my brother and I were
on the phone. I her shooting, and it appeared to me that the shooting was coming from right out front. I raised the shade from the window and I see a girl standing right in front of the window by the name of Pamela Fortune. I bang on the window. I tell her, don't you hear those people shooting? Get in the building. Moments later, within minutes, I'm getting ready to walk out the building. In the vestibule of the building, I run into Pam Lena Patten Irene Green, who's crying uncontrollably.
I know Irene Green because she is the mother of two friends of mine, Benjamin Green and Anthony Green. She tells me that her boy got shot. I offered to help her up to her apartment. Lena Patten and Pam Fortune said that they were going to take upstairs, so I took her to the front of the elevator and I left him there. I immediately walk outside. I noticed that Benjamin Green was standing in front of the building.
In my mind, and when she said my boy got shot, I thought that it was Benjamin because I knew at the time Benjamin was running the streets in those days. Never had it occurred to me that it was Anthony. So I approached Benjamin. I said to him, Hey, your mother doesn't seem well. You need to go in there and check on your mother. He tells me my brother got shot. He goes in the building to assist his mother.
I leave the neighborhood that night. The very next day, I was back on Cyprus Avenue about ten to eleven in the morning, and I see that the neighborhood is flooded with investigators and cops. Canda seeing that whole entire.
Area, Yeah, I guess you would have a lot of investigators and a lot of pressure to get the killers off the streets or to get somebody just to make the pressure go away, right, And I imagined that had a lot to do with how they ended up targeting you, Right.
Absolutely, Mark Tepans was pressure to make an arrest in this case and he didn't have anything.
Tippins was a member of the fortieth Precinct Detective Squad and he had several open cases in the Mount Haven area during that time too. After the Quad murders, he was assigned to the bronx DA's office to help make the case on the Quad. He was under a lot of pressure to close all of these cases, and so he used a lot of the same witnesses over and over again, sort of a witness for higher situation, if
you will. These witnesses would offer false testimony in exchange for money and reduced charges or sentences for their own crimes. In the Quad murder case, many of the witnesses he used to implicate Danny and his co defendants were members of the Red Top, the rivals to Danny's Orange Tops and to those Yellow Tops who were the targets of the Quad. They had all had a vested interest in Danny getting off the street, so they were more than willing to place them at the scene.
So let me give you an example.
In April of nineteen ninety two, Tebens received a call from a woman named Elizabeth Morales. Morales, who by the way, had worked for the Red Top organization, claimed that she and her family were in fear for their lives because the Sepulvedas were after them because they'd stolen drugs from them. So Elizabeth Morales said she needed help, and in exchange for that help, she's told Tebans conveniently that she could provide help and give him information on a lot of
the violence that took place on Beakman Avenue. So Tebbins remember under so much pressure, he went immediately to the shelter to where she and her three children were and started talking to them, and she said that they could give them names of the alleged perpetrators of the quad, as well as several other homicides that had taken place in the area over time. So he calls them down
to the DA's office and they give statements. Meanwhile, he's providing them protection, he's helping them to relocate to a motel. He gives them money for living expenses and food, and he later moves them to an apartment and starts to pay for their rent. So each of them happily gives a statement. One of Elizabeth's daughters, Iris Cruise, what they used to call their little Iris. She was fourteen years old at the time of the quad, and she also
was an employee of the Red Top. She can even read English at the time, but she signed a statement he handed her that she saw Danny from her fourth floor apartment window at the opposite end of Beakman Avenue, which is where the alley was located, and she said she heard fireworks. So she leaned out of her window and looks down the road through a fire escape and says she can see what was going on. Now, if
you picture a city block, it's pretty long. She can see all the way down to the other end of the block in the dark because the lights have been blown out, and can see that Danny's sitting in a car shooting from the car. I mean that sounds a little bit sketchy to me.
Yeah, And I would like to actually go to that apartment, and I have a funny feeling we would know maybe you've already done that.
So we actually did do that, Jason, and we stood on the street and looked down the block and there's absolutely no And we did.
It in broad daylight.
There's no way in the dark of night you could see all the way down there.
We see cases like this over and over again where these witness statements are so easily proven to be not a false, but could not be true. It's a different category from false, right could not be true because you cannot see from where they said they were to where the thing took place. But that gets pretty easily glossed over in the course to these proceedings somehow and eliciteth.
Morales also had a son named Joey Morales who was thirteen at the time of the quad and he allegedly saw the shooting as well. And he, by the way, was a witness in six other cases in which Teppens was the detective.
Let me tell you something about the incredible Joy Morales. Joey Morales claims that he went to buy a gallon of milk at ten thirty in the evening and witnessed the quad murders. In another case, he went to buy milk at three point thirty in the morning and witnessed a guy by the name of Rashi Rice and Angel kinyone is committed a robbery and a murder at three thirty in the morning that his mother sent him to
go buy some milk. In another matter, Marion Frasier's case, the Incredible Joey Morales claims that he left his house to go hang out in the neighborhood at fort the afternoons and wondered the neighborhood to six o'clock in the morning without going home. Thirteen year old kid wandered that neighborhood in those years to six o'clock in the morning. We're at five point thirty in the morning. He allegedly observes Madamia Frasier, I'm bitter murder one hundred and forty pressure.
And these people were just so lucky that they have to witness one murder after another. That sounds like some Scarcella type of stuff.
It seems that Evans has got sell as the one in the same.
This episode is brought to you by Stand Together. Stand Together is a philanthropic community dedicated to helping people improve their lives. For more than twenty years, Stand Together and its partners have been on the front lines of criminal justice reform. By empowering people to take action, supporting nonprofits, and working with businesses. Stand Together tackles the root causes of problems in our communities and empowers those closest to
the problems to drive solutions. Solutions like reducing unjust prison sentences through the First Step Act, empowering community based programs and help people re enter society, and now working to bridge divides in our communities. To learn how you may get involved, visit standtogether dot org, slash conviction. Danny, when did you get arrested?
It was almost a summer day, like it was June sixth, nineteen ninety two. I was on the same street that I was on the night of the murders, on Typer's Avenue. As I look up, I see Mark Tebans and he tells me that he needed to talk to me, And I said, to talk to me about what. He said, well, somebody said you robbed them. When I get to the priest and he tells me that I'm there for Big Monamue. I said, what do you mean Big Minavenue. He said, we got information that you was driving the car the
night of the murders. That said me, impossible. There's thirty forty people that can tell you I was on Cyper's Avenue that evening. That's impossible. I was processed. I was taken down to Central Booking and charged with killing four people and wounding someone else, and Judge Ira Growboman granted me the bill was said at one hundred thousand dollars.
That's kind of low bail for someone who they think committed this horrific crime.
I was able to get bailed out because Benjamin Green and his mother Irene Green, were at my arrangement, and as you know, Benjamin is the brother of Irene is the mother of one of the deceased, Anthony Green. And so their statement was to quote an open statement that I was on Cyprus Avenue in their building and that I assisted her that evening, and that I couldn't have been involved. The judge, I guess, took that in consideration
and granted me the bail. Even while I was out on bail, I visited the Green house.
So how long were you out before the trial?
So I got arrested in ninety two, I got out on bail. I initially started trial in the Bronx, well, at least the co defendants did, and just Ira Globerman, a Supreme Court justice in the Bronx, who granted me the bail. By the way, Ira Globerman did not believe
that I was guilty of these murders. He's told the prosecution and a hearing he said that he's seen the evidence of prosecution has and he's not persuaded that I am guilty of these murders, and that for those reasons he's going to separate my case from that of the Code offantas he said, the cod defenders will go on trial first, and mister rincomm because he is out on bail, he'll go on trial's second. That never happened. Obviously, we was indicted in the superseding indictment in New York County.
All the charges were later dismissed in the Bronx and reindicted in New York County, and I was remanded by Snyder, and that was in ninety three, and the trial that had starts a year later.
We went before Snyder and Leslie Crocker.
Schneider, you know, was an animal judge. I mean, she was notorious for doing out the harshness of sentences and wrote the book twenty five to Life, which focused on the Wild Cowboys.
Yes, she was notorious.
Little did anyone know that this tough judge would not be Danny's biggest problem. It's important to note that in November of ninety three they found an indictment with forty one defendants co defendants, and they called it the Wild Cowboy Trial. But it was like all the crimes that
had taken place in that area. So there was a big blanket of an indictment that they issued and all that the crowd murders was just one of them, and thirty two of those individuals of the forty one play out they pled guilty and nine, Danny being one of them, proceeded to go to trial, and of those, five of them were convicted of the quad.
I can tell you that the wrong people that they focused on were Stanley Tukes, Russell Harris, Daniel Gonzalez, and Danny ron Cone, and those people are all innocent, by the way. In addition to Danny ron Cone, there was one guy, Wilfredo de Los Angeles, who we believe was an actual perpetrator of the quad. But the theory that they went with was clearly wrong.
How did they come to land all five of them?
Yeah, So the prosecution came up with this theory that Orange Top teamed up with Red Top in an effort to off Yellow Top, which was totally false. I mean, in fact, Red Top and Orange Top did not get along and Red Top had put a hit at we actually shot Danny in.
Nineteen ninety was the subject of a similar shooting at the hands of Lenny Separvator, where I was shot six times on that same corner where the quad happened. Just a year before for the same reasons, because I was associated with Orisa. As we know that the murders happened on December sixteen, nineteen ninety one. Two weeks later, I held a New Year's party at Cyprus Avenue. I invited
the whole Yellow Top crew to about her. Benjamin Green, whose brother had just been killed two weeks earlier, was in a party with me, So you know, it just the sized logic that you know, I would try to ambush these guys and then be partying with them two weeks later. But ironically, the people that were actually now known to be responsible for the Quad were not present or invited to the party. Again, as I said, a decise logic, So.
There was really a clear divide between Redtop and Orange Top. But the prosecution just blew through that because they needed to join them for their case.
So you end up a trial and how did that whole thing play out?
So the trial began in nineteen ninety four September ninety four, But I never, for the life of me, believed that the Quad was something that I get convicted of for many reasons. The alleged witnesses stories were all over the place. You know, their narratives changed from one telling to the next, and I knew that there was just so many people
that can place me on Cyprus Avenue. But as the trial moved along, I realized that the waste sneider was pushing this trial forward, and the way she was denying stuff, you know, my hopes dwindled more and more that I can get a fair trial in front of this woman.
And so the witnesses got up, understand and they all testified, and one after the other, the lawyers tried their best to try to show that these witnesses were all lying for a favor and providing testimony and to try to get legacy from the prosecutor's officer for you know, whatever reasons. But I predominantly wanted to hear the Cruise Morales family
because I knew I didn't know these people. I knew that we weren't friends, I knew that these people were lying, and I just knew that at some point, you know, it's going to come out, this is going to come out during this trial that these people did not witness this, and these people just implicating individuals here wrongfully. That was my aspiration, but it didn't play out. That way they testified, they gave the conflicting narratives that they gave, and the
jury still accepted it. But I believe that the jury accepted the narratives that these witnesses provided simply because the way the trial was held. They sat us in this courtroom, eight individuals at a defense table. So try to picture these guys in your mind. There's three defense attorneys. There's an armed camp of court officers and investigators and police all surrounding the courtroom, media all over the place. There's
eight defense attorneys. A couple of the defense attorneys had either a paralegal or second chair, and there's just this big show going on about how these guys were one of the worst groups of individuals that committed all these hangs acts during the course of seven years.
It sounds like a circus. I mean, with that many people, how could you even begin to present the cohesive defense.
It's very unusual that they would do more than five defendants together in a trial. Anything over five becomes super unwieldy. And this was way beyond that. It was a circus.
And the jury, not hearing from any of the defendants, in their mind, must have said that They're all guilty, they all did it. Why aren't they getting up there and defending themselves. I wanted to testify. I was prepared to tell this jury. Look, I was on Cyprus Avenue.
And Irene Green and Benjamin Green had provided information to Donald Tucker, Danny's lawyer, about that alibi. Donald Tucker failed to do anything with that alibi. Investigated further and put on alibi witnesses on Danny's behalf.
The lawyer Donald Tuckle at the time, who was disbarred by the way six months seven months after my trial, told me that if I forced any witness to come into the court to testify that doesn't want to testify. Whenever I needed them to testify, they won't testify for me. And I was explained to that if I do testify, will not be in my best interest. So I decided to not to testify, which I think is one of the worst mistakes I've made in my life. But the trial was a font.
You have a circus trial with an impossible number of people at the defense table in and around defendants, lawyers, paralegals. You had a lawyer who was on his way to being disbarred. But the moment, the moment when you were convicted. What was that like.
I got to tell you that it was probably one of the worst days of my life. I mean absently my mother's passing and my brother. I think that that was one of the most worst days of my life.
You know.
I sat there and looked at I stared at the jury like a blank stare, and I'm trying to just make sense of how did they come to the conclusion that I was guilty of Quad. The reason we sat there was because of that Quad murder, and I knew I wasn't guilty. I never, never, never would have imagined that maybe it's twenty eight years later and I'm still
sitting here. I knew that. At some point I said to myself, you know, Benjamin Green's family would come forward and fortune will come forward and tell these people I'm not responsible for this. They can bear witness to the fact that I didn't do this, and that day hasn't come.
You got sent to president.
On the day of sentencing, I was taken up to downstair from the bullpen. I didn't make it back to Raga's Island. I was processing downstate. Within the next two three days. I was on a bus headed towards Western New York. I found myself in Wendy Correctional Facility. I stayed at Wendy for about roughly seventy days. I had
an opportunity at least to see my mother. My mother tracked me down and made her way up there, and I saw my mother's and thereafter seventy some days later, I found myself where I am today at Attica Correctional Facility, and I'm looking for a familiar faith and I run into Derek Hamilton, who I had known from Rykers Island and who actually was a friend of my brother when he rested peace. So I've seen Derek and he tells me, listen,
you got to go to the Law Library. But back then I didn't have a crew of what the law Library was or what the low Library was going to do for me, and I just didn't go. So five years later, I leave Attica and I find myself at green Haven. I decided that I needed to go to the Law Library because they was offering a legal research class,
and I ended up getting a legal research certificate. Almost four years later, I leave green Haven and I find myself in Auburn and I run into a good friend of min named Shabaka Chakourt, who introduced me to other individuals that are working in the law library of doing things that were constructive. And I just made a decision that that's what I was going to do. That I had to teach myself how to research, understand, how to
seek evidence, obtain evidence, and present it. I find it to get a job in the law library around two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, and then another guy comes into the library that I hadn't the privilege to meet then, Nelson Cruz, talking about his case. He was talking about how he had a wrongful conviction and he had actually an officer who can substantiate that he
was not the shooter in his case. Law and behold, Derek Hamilton arrives to the facility, but he's at the shoe now and he sent me a message because he heard that I was a clerk in the law libraries. And so Derek gets down to the law library. Now we're all together. We were all wrongfully convicted, and because we were all arguing actual witniicsens, we namely grouped the AI team the actually Wittidens team. So what we would do is brainstorm different cases. One of the cases that
we brainstorm was Innrie Davis. It was a Supreme Court case where the guy was convicted wrongfully we believe as well, for shooting a police officer down in Georgia somewhere. And interestingly in the decision, one of the judges stated was that the guy had some alibi winners who weren't given the opportunity to testify, and it should be afforded that opportunity.
When I read that that like gave me energy, gave me hope that the witnesses that I have that can place me on Cyper's avenue hadn't been given that opportunity to testify and should be given that opportunity to testify.
So Danny actually had a number of post conviction motions after.
He got sentenced to one hundred and fifty eight to third to.
Life, and the first motion was a Brady violation the suppression of exculpatory evidence, which he lost. It was another one that was brought based on Leslie Krocker Snyder's failure to accuse herself because she had conflicts associated with the case. They lost that there was a habeas corpus petition brought in federal court based on the theory of prosecution, which was that it was one single conspiracy, which was the Red Top Orange Top combined, when in reality was multiple conspiracies.
They lost that.
So during those years, you know, the people that I would write frequently write was Glenn Garber, John Elstein, Ron Cooby, pleading with them to help me with my situation. But unbeknownst to me, there was an attorney who believed in my innocence. Was David Taber and David Goldstein who were actually speaking to Glenn for me.
David Tagar, who was the lawyer for Rafael Perez and was co counsel to Donald Tucker, Danny's lawyer, came to me and said, you got to get involved in Danny's case. We actually went me and David Tager up to see Tezo Rafael Perez to talk to him because David was saying that Danny was innocent, and the affid David that Tezo signed came about either when I went with him
or maybe shortly thereafter. In any event, in twenty fourteen, I teamed up with two other lawyers to do what was a very substantive post conviction motion of also called a four to forty motion, and the lawyers were Jonathan Eedelstein and Patrick Joyce. And in that motion in twenty fourteen, we had an affidavit from Rafael Perez Tezo who came forward and said that he was a shooter in the quad murder. Now, mind you, Teso was not one of
the prosecution defendants for the quad murder. He was actually at that joint trial, but the prosecution did not claim he was associated in any way with the quad shooting. But it turns out that Tezo was a shooter. And Francisco Medina also came forward aka Freddy Krueger, and he also signed an affid David and said that he was a shooter in the quad murder. Also, somebody the prosecution did not target as a defendant for the quad murder.
I also want to put something out of that. I think it's very interesting. In nineteen ninety five, there was an individual by the name of Raoul Vaugis who was indicted by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York along with several others. They charged seventeen murders. Freddy Krueger, who was actually one of the participants in this quad
was charged in that indictment as well. In nineteen ninety five, the federal government had yet to declare whether or not they was going to seek the death penalty in that case, Raoul Vagas decided to become a federal cooperator. In nineteen ninety five, he admits of the federal government that he was involved in the quad murders.
And in that trial, Raoul Vargas testified about being the driver and being in the neighborhood and around the corner when the shooting took place, and was aware of the details of it, and knew that Freddy Krueger was involved, knew that Teza was involved, knew that Nelson said Pulvido was involved, and knew that Platineau was also involved, and says that Danny had nothing to do with the quad murder.
So we had those three people who were all involved in the quad murder, all people the prosecution did not target as defendants in the quad murder, and they came forward and they said unequivocally that Danny was not involved. That really should have been enough to get either an exoneration or a hearing where they could have testified in front of the court and the court could have heard from them. The judge actually denied us even hearing on
that motion. There was other things also that were raised in that motion that were very powerful. There were six alibi witnesses that came forward, and just to harken back to what Danny was saying a bit, those were witnesses that placed him at that apartment one G on Cyprus Avenue, over a block and a half away from where the quad murder took place at the time that the shooting occurred, and those witnesses prepared Affi Davids and we filed those
with our four to forty motion as well. Some interesting features also, as David Towger wrote an affid David and said that Tezo Rafael Perez had been telling him all along from the beginning that he was involved in the quad murders and that Danny was innocent. But David Tower couldn't reveal that information because he was defending Tezo, and he obviously couldn't raise that information and implicate him on something that's client did that he was in charge with.
But Tezo ultimately allowed David Tager to come forward with this information because Justice demanded it, and that gives you a sense of why David Tager was up in arms about this, the fact that Danny was erroneously placed in the quad murders, not only you know, during the trial, but also afterwards, why he came to me and why he's so adamant that this injustice happened that Danny needed
to be exonerated. David Goldstein also filled out an affid David that was submitted in that four to forty motion and talked about Donald Tucker, who was Danny's lawyer, and said that he had revealed to Tucker that there was an alibi, and Irene Green and Benjamin Green had provided information to him about that alibi, and Donald Tucker never
brought that evidence forward. And one of the claims in that four to forty motion, by the way, was in effective assistance of counsel for Tucker's failure to do anything with that alibi. Investigated further and put on alibi witnesses on Danny's behalf. So unfortunately, in twenty fifteen, Judge Fitzgerald, who got assigned to the case, wrote a very bad decision, denying us on all grounds and not even giving us our day in court, and that's where we're basically at now,
where we're continuing our investigation. We're trying to shore up additional aspects of the alibi, we're looking into Tebbans, and we're at a place right now where we're trying to get him back into court with new stuff.
And I think one of the most important parts of this whole case has been the targeting of Danny, basically to get him off the street. And I think the witnesses they've used, I mean, the judge never seemed to knowledge the fact that all of these people had invested interest in having him put away, and that was something that just was never brought to light. And I think that that's sort of our goal going forward, is to show that they all had a motive. We have people
with no incentive to lie that have cleared him. So I think we just need to sort of parse out the facts and separate them chronologically and logically to see why we're in the situation.
It just doesn't make any sense.
It just doesn't make any freaking sense. And so many of the people that Danny referenced are people that we've had on the show, people that I consider to be friends and most of them have been exonerated by now or at a minimum freed, and yet he continues to go on with Danny, I mean, what an inspirational guy you are. You were convicted of a horrible crime that you didn't commit. The killers were allowed to remain free,
and New York City suffered as a result. Taxpayers continue to pay for your wrongful incarceration, and you continue to pay with your very life. And all of it is something that you outrage everybody of good conscience. So the good news is we're here, we're shining a light on it. We have Glenn and Farah and a whole team of people, and I think hopefully we'll build a new legion of people with some of the information that we've shared today. And how can people get involved?
First of all, they can write letters to the Manhattan District Attorney's office to say vance Junior and ask that they'd be sent to the Integrity Unit and that they reevaluate the case. We went to the integraty Unit, by the way, and they didn't give a shit. They can go to their local government representatives and their districts and they can say that this is a case that bothers them and ask those people to get involved and maybe write letters to the DA's office on their behalf.
There's also a petition that you can sign on change dot org, so please scroll down to the bio and get involved. Now we turn to the portion of the show that we call closing arguments. First of all, I think our distinguished guests, all three of you for our roster, thanks again for being.
Here, Thanks for having us, Jason, thank you.
And Glenn Garber my pleasure and I'm glad that you're featuring this case. We really appreciate it.
And of course, Danny, you know we're going to get to you last, because that's how closing arguments works here at the show, is that we always save the bets for last. But first of all, like I said, I just want to thank you for being here, Thank you so much, and we're going to keep fighting for you. So now closing Arguments is where I turned my microphone off, I kicked back in my chair, and I ask each of you to share your final thoughts with our audience.
First of all, thank you so much Jason for having us, and thank you for taking the time to hear's Danny's story and getting to know him. And learning as many people as possible to hear about the injustice he has suffered. Already, He's spent twenty five years in prison for a crime he did not commit. As you've heard, there's so much evidence supporting his claim of innocence, from statements of the actual perpetrators of the quad to the people who are
with him at the exact time of the shooting. Is clear that he was not near or in the alley when the shooting occurred. In fact, he was on the phone with his brother, who was incarcerated at the moment the shots were fired, and he ran to see what had happened. He yelled to his friends to come inside, and then he saw the mother of one of the victims and actually hugged and consoled her.
Of these six.
People have signed affidavit stating that Danny was with them when the shots were fired. They all signed statements saying that he did not commit the quad murder. He had the misfortune of having a lawyer who did not call these witnesses as alibi witnesses at trial, despite his repeated requests.
He also had the misfortune of being tried in front of a judge who was predisposed in not liking him, As we later found out in a book she authored after the trial with no evidence, she blamed him and his co defendants for death threats she and her family received during the trial. He had the misfortune of being targeted by detective who was determined to close his cases
as quickly as possible. And as we've discussed, we have concerns about the detective's use of witnesses in this case and have found a pattern of him misusing the same witnesses over and over. He's made promises to the witnesses and they often received reduced penalties for their own crimes in exchange for their false testimony. Most of these witnesses were members of the rival Red Top drug organization, and
they had interested in getting them off the street. So Glenn and I are really committed to helping him uncover the truth in this case and giving Danny as well as the families of the victims the justice they deserve.
So this case is a debacle of justice, and there's exceptionally strong evidence of innocence that normally would be enough to at least get an evidentiary hearing to be able to open the door to the court and establish through live testimony the exonerating evidence. And we unfortunately had a judge who didn't care when we brought the evidence forward
in our post conviction motion in twenty fourteen. The decision that the judge wrote was basically focusing on non substantive matters to deny us even the hearing that we needed to establish Danny's innocence. We are hopeful that maybe with a new DA in Manhattan, or with additional evidence which we're developing right now and getting back into court, we will get a fair hearing if we have to go that far, and we'll get a judge who's actually going
to care and hear the evidence. Because we do think that once we ultimately get our day in court, well we can bring those witnesses forward, those true killers who actually admit to the crime, and the alibi witnesses who've never been heard by a fact finder. Once we're able to bring those forward in a fair environment, we're optimistic that Danny is finally going to get exonerated.
Amen, and now Danny over to you for closing arguments.
Thank you so much, Thank you so much, Jason for giving me the opportunity I want to thank Glengaba, Cybara Rosina, the Exageration Initiative, for giving me this opportunity, for believing in my innocence, but not giving up on me while you know, I fight for my life here. You know,
this is a difficult situation. Being in prison is hard enough of being in prison for a crime that you didn't commit, and do a life or a crime that you didn't commit, and you know that you look in the mirrory morning and you don't have a date to be relief from this hell. It's pretty it's a pretty hard pill to swallow.
You know.
It weighs on my conscience. It makes me make bad decisions at times, It makes me lose my temper, and you know, it testes my faith, It testes my mental fortitude. It really, you know, doesn't umber mean, and it affects a lot of you know, other aspects of my life and you know, my personal relationship, my friends, relationship with my family and friends, and it's just not right. And I know that most of the decisions that I make
obviously are influenced by this incarceration. But my aim is to prove that ultimately one day, that I didn't commit this crime, and that there is more than enough evidence to substantiate the fact that I didn't commit this crime. And I ast encourage those who have that evidence to please, you know, come forward, come forward and provide that evidence. You know, you know, think about what it would be for you sit in prison for twenty eight years for
a crime and commitment. Think about what it would be for a relative of yours, a brother or sister, sibling, anybody that you may know that's close to you, to sit in prison for twenty eight years knowing that that person is innocent, while that person withers away is in rots in prison. That's not an easy thing. It's not fair. I don't think it's fair on anybody. It's not something that anybody should go through. And you know, this is
a difficult system. The justice system is not just you know, the justice system is about who has the wherewithal to navigate the system. If you have the money, you can locate what you want to need. It appears to be in this system. But if you have the evidence, you know, the system for some reason sense to undermining and look
for ways to discredit the evidence. Something that I faced in twenty fourteen when Emotion was filed that might behalf based on actual The sistant adjudged by the name of Daniel sits Gerald, undermine the evidence, overlook the fact that I was sitting in prison for a crime that I can and get away with me, you know, and that was wrong and for those reasons, you know, among others, I fight as hard as I fight to prove that, you know, I do along around my family and friends
and out in prison to ride away for something that.
I didn'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 Ennocence Project, and I really hope you'll join me in supporting this very important cause and helping to prevent future wrongful convictions. Go to Innocenceproject 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 nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts. And association with Sick no. Company number one