#273 Jason Flom with Troy Coleman - NEW EVIDENCE

supporting his claims at the time of our first release. Now, with their admissions, as well as previously discovered Brady material and this new homicide file evidence, we can finally see a clearer picture of what really happened to Kevin Jones, as well as subsequently what happened to mister Troy Coleman.

Troy Coleman split his formative years between California and the middle class Philadelphia neighborhood of Mount Airy, but while in Philly, he attended a poor high school in Germantown, where he met Byron Johnson, Kareem Nobles, and Darren Keith Johnson. After Troy graduated Byron and Kareem with a muscle behind a cocaine operation that they all ran out of Troy's apartment. However, a drug drought in the summer of nine gave way

to desperate behavior all over Philly. While Troy was away in Atlantic City on September nine, Kareem set up a deal with two men, Kevin Jones and Arthur Sanders. Sanders claimed to have waited down the block while Kevin Jones drove the Troy's apartment in his gray Dodge with forty dollars to buy cocaine. Then, after about ninety minutes to other men allegedly drove past Sanders in Jones's gray Dodge, a light skin driver and a dark skinned passenger wearing

a hat with the brim pole down bow. There's new evidence that indicates that the victim was alive at this time. Nearly two months later, Jones's body was discovered in the gray Dodge, beaten, found and shot. Arthur Sanders agreed the Troy Coleman's photo looked like the passenger who allegedly drove by him two months earlier. This Shaky I d along with Darren Keith Johnson's coerced and incentivized false testimony sent

Troy away for life. Despite Darren's recantation, Byron Johnson's confession to being the actual passenger that day, and some explosive New Brady material, Troy continues to serve life for a crime which he was not even in Philadelphia to commit. This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction with

Jason Flom. That's me. And today we have a story that I think is going to rock your world in an in a different kind of way, right because the person that we're interviewing today, Troy Coleman, has been in carcetrated for thirty one years in Pennsylvania for a crime he didn't commit it. That being said, he wasn't a choir boy, not some of the people we have on a show where literal acchoire people before they were arrested.

But he is innocent of this crime. He wasn't even the same city when it happened, or state for that matter. So Troy's on the phone from prison, Troy, I'm glad you're here, but I'm sorry you have to be under these circumstances. Good afternoon, how are you. I'm good Thank you, And with Troy is Jerry Brown, not the former governor of California, but an esteemed attorney from Philadelphia. Thank you for joining us on the show today. Jason my pleasures.

Let's go back, Troy. You grew up in a middle class environment, right, because I grew up in Mount A, Philadelphia, which is a middle class neighborhood, and I was less to live with my grandmother, who was well off. We had a beautiful, whole bedroom home, and you know, everyone who came from that home came to be very successful,

although went to private school, even my father. My father moved to California, and when he moved to California, I was going back and forth from California to Philadelphia from my grandma house, which California school curriculum are junior high curriculum was equal to a high school curriculum here in Philadelphia. But you know when I came back to high school here in Philaphia, Germany Town High School, I was looked at this kind of dirty. I guess, you know, because

the academics. I guess that we came with versus we was over here in Philadelphia. And you know, you try your best to fit in that you want to be accepted. That's where a lot of my demise came from when I got involved with drugs, not needing to, didn't have to, you know. Again, my family was well to do. However, you know, just to sit in and be a part of this particular neighborhood that was in German Town, which is a little bit um much of a good lifestyle.

I did in Bounty. It was Lord Moore, Lord Class look At from Mount Area. So when I started boxing the day of routine being down there and then she him That's how I been a couple of them guys from Brandon neighborhood after that subsequently got in cloud with them with the about the age of seventeen sixteen. We started out one of the the quarters. So that's when it began. So this must have put you on the radar of

the local police. And we know that in that time and place, this was a culture that it started with Frank Rizzo, who as the police chief in Philadelphia from six to seventy one. The legacy of brutality and corruption is widely known and it thrived in the police department after he became mayor. Just really crazy that that guy became mayor, but seventy eight, and they were just beating the ship out of everybody back then. And it's really, uh,

it's crazy that this was a major American city. So, Jerry, you were a college student at the University of Pennsylvania at that time, and you experienced or at least aware of this. Right, this is not hyperbole. Right, if you had a little bit of long hair like I did, time you walk down the street at night, you were afraid that you were going to stop and hassled by the police. And I'm sure for people of color it

was much worse. In my research, I mean, these were in the thirty ninth districts, right, a section of North Philadelphia, which was a working class, poor black neighborhood. Police routinely made false arrest, planted drugs, robbed victims, and filed bogus reports to cover up their actions. So all of this is known now, it's been documented. This is not us just having a This is a trip down a very

ugly memory lane right here. In fact, there were fourteen hundred convictions that were overturned due to the thirty ninth district. But they're not the only ones there. There was the one Squad cases, the Five Squad cases. I mean, there's been a history in Philadelphia, you know, and then in the nineties you have one of the cops that was involved in this case, Mortin Devlin. The number of cases have been overturned because of him. It's a very sorted history, right.

So this of course brings me back to another person who was Romphick Victor has been on our show, Tony right when, which was ironically the same cop that was involved in Troy's case, Martin Devlin. And in the article in Rolling Stone magazine about Tony's case, there was a poll quote that said that in the nineteen eighties or nineties black man had a better chance again injustice in Philadelphia, Mississippi,

than in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. So let's go to that. And of course, Troy, this of course, what led up to this, I think indirectly is the fact that you were involved, as you've been very honest about, in the cocaine business. Can you tell us about that and the people that we're working under you at the time, because they come to play a role in your wrongful conviction. Well, when we got involved, there was a couple of guys from

that neighborhood, particularly down Grocer Street. And this is as She's called the jungle. Some of the guys that's involved, Barack Johnson, Garry Kieth Johnson in his street me was green my street me, but the town was tossin his was with our his Kareem So he was an older guy. He just got out of jail and all this time everybody looked up to him as a tough ghighs and so forth. To me, it was like comparative that I get him involved and someone for the muscle as well

as Byron. So you had Byron Johnson, Darren Johnson and Kareem Nobles where your under links they worked for you. Yes, I guess my little untile being involved in that allowed me to shoot up fast. So I had a little apartment down in mar Street. Plashki Town is what they called Aaron. But we had apartment in Polaski Town. There was just for you know, fun, dealing with the drug stuff, girls and all that. The Raymond Nobles Kareem was actually staying in my apartment. Why this is in Mount Area.

I still had that place in Byron the keys to the apartment, Kareem at keys to the apartment, so people have access to it at that time, and I was driving BMW's had a nice amount of money, and I was okay. However, these guys that were working for me, they okay until a drought came in nineteen eighty nine. That's route is when there's those drugs, particularly cocaine, develople at that time. And this was a well known time because homicidally rose significantly at that time. So when this

drought came about, I was okay. These guys, I didn't have anything for him, so they asked the ran them up for lack of a letter flae. They just ran them up. It was just no all kinds of play stuff. And this day in particularly was this ground happened myself and another gentleman by the name of Richard Crawford. That morning of September twenty six, we went to Atlantic City.

And when I was in Atlantic City, I think I had no more than nine ounces of cocaine left, and I asked the you know, trusted queen to deal with that when I was gone. And when I left on the twenty six we get to Atlantic City that morning was gettably in taking insights, you know, shopping talking to all that other stuff to girls whatever. So I was very incousticated. I wasn't wily drive back to the city,

so that night we checked the two hotel. Okay, so you're in Atlantic City having fun, intoxicated, so drunk in fact, that you had a hard time even remembering where you had checked in and under what name. And then eventually the prosecution presented evidence that you had stated Bally's under your own name, using your shaky memory to impeach your alibi, which makes no sense. They impeach your memory of your alibi with evidence of your alibi, But why let evidence

of your innocence stop them from prosecuting you? Right? In fact, what we now know is that the state was in possession of even more exculpatory evidence, but we'll get to that in just a bit. So anyway, the crime itself while you're in Atlantic City. Back at the apartment in Philadelphia in September, Kareem had set up a deal with Kevin Jones and Arthur Sanders. Now, according to Sanders, he

and Jones. Kevin Jones arrived in the area of the apartment of separate cars around one thirty PM with forty thousand dollars to buy cocaine. According to Sanders, while he waited down the block, Jones continued alone to the apartment in a gray Dodge. Then, about an hour and a half later, Sanders allegedly saw two men driving the gray Dodge passed him. A light skinned man driving in a darker skin man with the brim of his hat pulled down lower the passenger seat. This is who Sanders misidentified

as being Troy. However, in Byron Johnson admitted to being that passenger right that Kareem had hired him to move a body back. At this point in it is unclear whether Kareem or Byron even knew that Kevin Jones was still alive in the trunk, And we'll get to how we know that in just a bit. It's dramatic, so stay tuned. That night, though the Jones family came to Troy's apartment armed looking for Kevin Jones. They threatened Troy's girlfriend,

searched the apartment, but no sign of Kevin at this point. Troy, well, you had no way of knowing it yet, but you were in a lot of trouble and not I'm not talking about what the cops the cops actually kind of ironically inadvertently saved you. That next day, I was stop

by the police. You had my license and registration, everything was leg but they found a bag of marijuana in the car, and that might have been a good thing, because I got arrested that evening when I called home, and that's when I heard everything, everybody saying, these guys

are looking for you. You stay there and when it came it so when I was built out, my girlfriend at the time as well as my mother had bags in the car in a ticket for me, and that's that that That very next day, I was in California. Even though you had nothing to do with this, You've got to leave town for California just to be safe from the Joneses. So you bailed out and hopped on a flight in September twenty nine. Now, between the time of the abduction and when the body was discovered, Kareem

a k A. Raymond Nobles died. Call me crazy, but it might have had something to do with the Joneses anyway. So now November, the police discovered Kevin Jones's body and the trunk of the Great Dodge and the John want to make her parking lot of Abington Township. Now by that time the body was badly decomposing, but it was clear that his ace was struck with a blunt objects several times and then one, and this is important, one hard contact, high velocity gunshot wound was the cause of death.

And we'll get to why that's important in a little bit. The body was bound with electrical cord, blankets, sheets, and some insulation. The police chemists Louis Joka, later testified matched items from Troy's apartment. So the investigation began, and initially while under pressure from both the Jones family and the notoriously like unbelievably like hopelessly terrifyingly corrupt Detective Martin Devlin,

Arthur Sanders was the first to implicate Troy. According to him, never seen Troy before, and he's sitting there waiting for now and have suddenly a car comes by. Now when you I mean just logically, when you think about it, the suddenly you see a car. First of let you go, you know, that car looks familiar, and then in your mind you go, oh, yeah, that looks like it's Kevin's car. And then he looks at the driver and says that's

not Kevin. It's a light skinned guy. And then he looks at the passenger who has his hat over his head, and he's able to identify him. Now, all this is happening in two or three seconds. According to Sanders testimony, officer to say that the passenger he said he had a baseball cap one pulled down over his forehead, spouts to the seat in a photo where he said, I look like the passenger putting me in the city at the time. However, I'm in Atlantic City. There's a possible

actification to me. Devlin certainly was willing to do something like this to create false evidence, because he's done it on multiple occasions, as you all know. And so he probably said, isn't this the guy. He's being pressured by the police to give up somebody on the one hand, he's being pressured by the family on the other, and you know, he says, yeah, that looks like the guy. And you know, Sanders is pretty scared to death anyway,

because the family is really upset with him. This is an element that's not unwilling to use gunplay if necessary. That's kind of the background of all this and part of the reason why Arthur Sanders statement is so flaky, if you will, And from what I understand, Sanders had Kevin Jones Page rin Keys in his possession when Kevin went missing, so he probably wanted to direct the tension

away from himself. Now, I've been saying allegedly every time I mentioned this passing great dodge side because it may never have actually happened. But even if it did, there's an explanation for the misidentification. Troy and Byron look somewhat similar. Now, let me be clear, I'm not just some white dude over here giving cross racial misidentification. Troy, you can back me up here right now. You two don't look exactly alike, and not twins, but enough to say they look like

one another. And that's what Arthur Sanders ended up saying. And that's when he's trying to identify someone with his hat pulled down load for less than three seconds behind glass in a car that's passing by over twenty miles an hour. That's if we even accept that this passing

grade dodge identification even ever happened. It's also entirely possible that this was just a complete fabrication from either Devlin Sanders or both to direct the attention steer the attention Troy Troy, who was a known entity to police and whose apartment was involved. But they knew he was in Atlantic City, and then they knew he went to California

as well. Now, according to police, Byron Johnson was a prime suspect from day one, and they maybe I don't know, maybe they thought they could get Troy to flip on him. We're not sure and we'll probably never know, but that would never happen. Troy was not flipping on anybody in anyway. Troy was in California, so he wasn't even available to be pressured to give up his friends. But that didn't change when he came back either or for the following

thirty long years. But back in with only Arthur Sanders is shaky, I d the police needed something more for probable cause to arrest Troy. Now that they were focusing on Troy Coleman, they start of focusing on his associates, one of whom is Darren Keith Johnson, who was a eighteen year old five ft three d and pounds soaking wet youth essentially who's brought into homicide, who and who first says I don't know anything about anything, and then they proceed to scare the hell out of him by saying,

we know you do. And the homicide cops pressured him to give a statement. They told him that if he didn't give a statement, that he was going to go to jail, that he wouldn't see his mother again. I'm sure they told him that if he went to prison that he would be molested there because he was so small. He told him that they didn't want the dead guy Kareem Nobles. Detective Cohen said, we think that he was involved, but we want Troy because this apartment was rented by Troy.

He said, he's scared to death, and he finally gives up Troy. Darren Johnson says, yeah, Troy admitted to be had to lay somebody down. Those two pieces of evidence. Arthur Sanders sort of I d and Darren Johnson now they have enough to get an arrest. Weren't. And this is from Darren Johnson's statement about what Troy allegedly told him. And now I'm gonna quote, okay ready, quote I had to lay somebody down over some drugs. Let me tell you how I did it. I put my gun up

to him and told him to give it up. I shot him two to the head end quote. Now, not only is this statement not specific to the victim, Kevin Jones, but it also has a very important hallmark of false statements, which is factually inaccurate information. As I mentioned earlier, Kevin Jones was shot once according to the medical exam or trial,

not twice. And from what I understand, they used both the carrot and the stick to get this statement from Darren and subsequently, and this will surprise exactly no one in our audience, he received lean and see for multiple drug charges and this quid pro quo and the fact that it was hidden from the defense. It's something that Troy litigated through pro se post conviction motions but unfortunately

no avail. But the point ends up being moved here as Darren Keith Johnson has signed multiple affidavits starting in to recant his testimony for which the prosecutor had not only threatened him with perjury, but we find out later that Darren and his mother received ominous threats from the police to stick to the original statement. However, back in nineteen ninety, with Arthur Sanders and Darren Johnson. They moved forward with your arrest Troy, and and onto what ends

up being really interesting preliminary hearing. Yes it was. It was murder, robberty, conspiracy, and possessional. He was equal twelve nine and at this splimber here in alto Sanders rightfully, I guess he slipped up because he said that we were going to see Kareem. And this is throughout the eliminate unity. We were going to see Kareem, Kareem in

his Raymond Nobles. My name was not mining right. He was going to see Kareem, not Troy or your street name Kassim, but Kareem, which is probably why Judge Merryweather was a decent judge, decided to dismiss the case because if you're going to see Kareem, that's not him. Right, Sanders accidentally told the truth even though he had been pressured to lie. But they're not nearly done with you yet. So after Judge Marywell dismissed the case, then it was

about a week or two and he re arrested me. Again. Was the same as that information in the switch the judges and he put it before another man. I think they was judge, and he held it all for trial, and it may have ended in a not guilty verdict if you hadn't been screwed over by Ed Geiger, a

private investigator who your family had hired. Now, this guy was supposed to have gone down to Atlantic City and gathered up your alibi to Vents, which would literally been the easiest job ever for a private investigator, just as the hotel. But instead we now believe that he never even went to Atletics say, or bothered to speak with

Richard Crawford, your alibi witness. Otherwise he would have bound out what the state had already discovered, that you had stayed at Bally's under your own name, and another item that was hidden from the defense that Crawford had called home several times from the room. Geiger failed to gather this critical alibi evidence and further told you that Crawford wasn't willing to testify in your behalf, which was another lie. Richard Crawford was more than willing, but you didn't find

that out until two thousand and nine, almost two decades later. Instead, with your fuzzy, drunken memory of a c you thought that you had stayed at the ridgemont In under the name Robert Irving. So when the state presented Marlene Smith, a Bally's clerk who testified to you staying at Bally's under your own name, it really hurt the credibility of your memory. But it still doesn't place you in Philadelphia, not to mention your heartment. You're in a different city,

in a different state, and they knew it anyway. What's much worse than this private investigator doing essentially nothing is what was hidden by the state in order to ensure your roulengful conviction. And now, in in light of this new evidence from the homicide file, you are being an a c only makes you unavailable for Kevin Jones's abduction. My name is Joseph Moron. I represent Troy Coleman in his ongoing pc r A matters. I'm lead counsel on

the case. I continue to consult with Jerome Brown. Recently, we were able to access Troy Coleman's homicide file with the assistance of the courts, which has information or evidence in there that the prosecutor possessed during the course of his case. We went through this entire file and we found critical pieces of evidence that further substantiate Troy Coleman's innocence.

We found a search warrant and affidavit of probable cause where the police are trying to get phone records because the mother of the victim, Kevin Jones, contacted the police and gave them some pretty astonishing information that she spoke to her son on September nine, eighty nine, that he told her that he was in fear of the Junior Black Mothy or the JBM, that he suspected some type of foul play. She did not see him since September nineteen.

Subsequent to that, on October nineteenth, a little over three weeks after the alleged date of death in this case, she told the police that she got a phone call. She got a collect call from an individual who indicated he was a member of the j b M and that they had her son, Kevin Jones, in their custody, that he was basically kidnapped and they were holding him ransom,

presumably about ten thousand dollars. She was initially skeptical. An individual got on the phone, she indicates it sounded like her son, and then the son referred to a pet name of the mother, which further in her mind solidified that it was him. They said that they would call back. They called act. She asked for more information. She wanted a piece of clothing. They thought that was fair, But they were basically working out a deal the hold to

get money because they were holding in ransom. The bottom line is this evidence, this information was indicating that Kevin Jones was still alive, which completely contradicts the entire prosecution theory.

This information was known to the police was a critical and crucial piece of exculpatory evidence that the prosecution and the detectives and police, with help you, should have also been able to show the jury that not only were you not at your apartment on September twenty six, but also that you weren't even on the freaking East Coast from September, passed this phone call on October nine, and passed the discovery of the body on November twenty one,

all the way to the following year. I'm talking about all the way to January four. Kevin Jones was still alive, that he was killed, that he was found all while you were proved dobably in California, which proves that the prosecution presented a case that they knew was horseshit, but at trial in d attacked your alibi with this differing alibi evidence, which seems like a crazy misdirection plans pretty weak, But so tell us what else they presented to trick

the jury to believe you were guilty. Well, I believe it was the testimony of Derreki Johnson, coupled with the testimony of all the centators. However, one of the things that were said in closing was that testimony pay seventh fifty one by the prosecutor. He said, it's in fact Troy was in Atlantic City, and you believe that he was still involved or he put these guys up to it. And this is that there's something that was said to

the jury. You can find them guilty of conspiracy and you know, secondary murder so or so forth, and then undefelony murder is actually saying that as a result of that robbery a death occurred. We don't believe that he had the intent to kill, right, and that's what secondly we murdered is here. Uh, Well, there's certain enumerated felonies,

one of which is robbery. If you during a robbery, if murder occurs that becomes felony murder, which is unfortunately in Pennsylvania, even if you're convicted of second degree murder, it's life. Troy, can you describe for us that awful and probably, I mean, I'm guessing must have been the worst moment of your life when the jury came back in. I found you guilty, he said, guilty. Was like I

was just slight shocked. I was. It was so shocking to me that the first couple of years, I believe we only mentally, you know, we lost a lot of family. My mother died, and my grandmom and my grand mamad a domino effective pain and what happened the little I just couldn't believe it. Normally, yea, we are doing were usually first and get all prattiest to our career, getting me through this and constantly having that hope, uh that

you know it will come to it. However, it was a time, and to actually be honest with you, was just recently when I uh, they said I was next to it, but I know I was positive. I was an intermity with COVID and I was I was deadly sick. I never ever felt no pain like that at that time, and this is once ago. I prayed. I asked the Lord, I said, if this is, I rangna go now. And I don't even thought it's no more. Just see if you feel I wasn't, you know, suicidal. But I was like,

I was okay with I was okay with nine. I just prayed, this is the time and I'm not going in if I'm not on a go, I'm revery. And that was my prayer. And subsequently, um, you know, all this happened the store of little hope for me. But yeah, you know, you're hiring other people not to give up hope. So I'm glad you're here to talk about this, and

I'm glad you're fighting. And I think now in Pennsylvania there's you know, the progress and and and that should give hope to hopefully to you and many many other people who need relief in the Pennsylvania criminal system. Talk a little about the post conviction litigation, because this is a crazy I mean, like a lot of these cases are. When they go on this long. I mean, it should have been reversed and you should have been freed back

in that conspiracy conviction has since been reversed. The Superior Court of Pennsylvania, that in it of the self, was a reason to overturned this case and be trying me or to let me, you know, let me go. However, that hasn't been the case, which is just insane to me. I mean, without the conspiracy and being in Atlantic City for the abduction and California for the murder in the body dump, how are you involved in the murder in

any way? Well, they continued to try to square that circle with the two Boga witnesses, Arthur Sanders saying you're in the car and Darren Johnson saying that you confess to having to quote lay somebody down over some drugs and quote so in Darren Johnson wanted to come clean and finally recanted and did so in an affic David, But as we find out later, he and his mother were threatened by the police and the prosecutor openly threatened him with perjury. So when he here, if we had

this too much, it makes me sick. So when he came to court affirm this recantation, he was appointed counsel who told him to plead the fifth in order to avoid perjury charges, and he did. But obviously he would not need to plead the fifth. If he was just coming to repeat the lies he had told that Troy's

trial right, he wouldn't have been there at all. So, Troy, you did most of your post conviction litigation pro say meaning by yourself from prison, trying to undermine Darren Johnson's trial testimony by proving that he was incentivized by a deal for leniency in his own drug charges and that

the defense was never notified about any such deals. And the prosecution got around this by promising Darren a deal unofficially okay and suspending the charges until after Troy's trial, So they weren't technically hiding a deal in exchange for Darren's testimony, they were just dangling one, and Darren later supported that in your post conviction motions. When Darren he was asked by the prosecutor David Desideriol, do you have any open cases at this time? Darren Kieth Johnson said yes,

one five years pullbation. That's a direct quote. It's a testimony based three thirty seven. However, unbeknownst us, that was a lie made all his criminal streat What he'd never spent on five years of the jury is listening to this, the jury say, oh, okay, he has five years for which okay, so he don't have any incentive to testify falsely against this guy because he's already been sentenced. Again, I'm gonnas to us that was a lie. Darren actually had an open case at that time, which was resolved

sixty nine days after I got convicted. But unfortunately, so far post conviction litigation on the matter has been ignored. The court sided with the d A, finding him more credible than Darren Johnson. However, that's not the last we're

going to hear from Darren Johnson. But first, two thousand nine, you find out what I had mentioned earlier, that your investigator at the time of trial lied to you about not being able to find any alibi evidence in a c and your alibi witness, Richard Crawford, being unwilling to testify. He lied about both of those two things. But you hired another private investigator later on that named Walter P. Lee, and in two thousand nine he caught up with Richard Crawford.

What my private investigator Walter Lee went to school, interviewed rich crawl He said, that's something that he never said to edguy said no, one never came to see me until you mean nothing much. I was witting the Atlantic City, and I would have said I was waiting to Atlantic City, and we had his statement now, but he said that never happened, so that theself was probably for me. But now Wizard is wont cified, and this is something that's

also significant. Crawford called from the hotel. He called home to his wife's shrill. The project you to had the phone numbers and those phone calls, and a couple of the phone calls was too Richard Crawford's address or mcnaight Street in Philadelphia. They never before. What weren't they hiding? The only things David Desiderio was presenting was the evidence that he and Martin Devon had fabricated, and even that was falling apart. Darren Johnson re can't they don't want

to hear it. Your investigator, Walter Lee unearthed your alibi witness shedding more light on the States miss deeds, hiding that exculpatory evidence and ambushing you with it to undermine the truth which they already knew, which was that you were in Atlantic City on September and they also knew that Kevin Jones was still alive while you were in California through until the end of the year or until

the beginning of next year. However, if that Albi wasn't enough for them to stop pursuing you in nine ninety, why would it stopped them in or two thousand nine or or ever. Right, So, another ten years go passed, and Byron Johnson, who everyone is scared of and wouldn't even think of snitching on in two thousand nineteen, had suffered a non fatal gunshot wound, and I guess he didn't want to die without having told the truth. He didn't die, and he came forward to confess to the

part that he played with Kareem. And there was a felon named Herb Hartison who was with Byron Johnson who had just been shot, and he said, get me to somebody, because I want to be able to tell the truth about this. And he came and he gave a statement. Walter Lee took the statement from Byron Johnson. Byron did that.

Kareem Nobles called them. He said something about moving some furniture or something like that, and he went over and the solid body and Creem said, look, you help me get rid of his body, 'll give you five thousand dollars. So the two men in the gray didges at Sanders allegedly saw where Kareem Nobles and Byron Johnson. The cops knew the Kareem was involved, and it's believed that the Joneses did too, since he wound up dead before the

police had a chance to nab him. Byron's confession and Darren's recantation impeached Sanders the shaky idea of Troy and directly at Byron. This murder happened in Troy's apartment while he was partying in a c so other than letting his friends use his apartment while he was out of town, there's nothing else that connected Troy to the abduction on September, and certainly not the murder sometime after October ninete, while he was in a essay again California, three thousand miles away.

But the conflict between Byron's confession when he talks about moving a body and Miss Jones's statement about the phone call that she received. We just assumed that Byron and perhaps Kareem didn't know Kevin was still alive. When you look at Byron Johnson's confession indicating that he was contacted by Kareem Nobles to come to the house to move a body, specifically the body being Kevin Jones. Nobody really gets into the fact of whether Kevin Jones is still

alive or not. In neither of this heat what could have potentially happened. I mean, Byron Johnson was arrested the end of September September twenty nine for an unrelated robbery. He was technically out of the loop sort of speak. So the fact that Kevin Jones could have been still alive, he may not have known that. And when he ultimately confessed back in nineteen, he is just trying to be

truthful and telling what he knows. That he was called by Kareen to move a body and he did so, and he was the one in the car with Kareen. It further substantiates that Troy had nothing to do with this. When Byron Johnson confessed, Darren Keith Johnson could finally speak freely and he gave a sworn affid David to Walter Peely and Jerry Brown, which was very powerful but has never been heard to this very day in open court. So we reached out to Darren to give him a

chance to finally speak publicly. When they first came and got me, they laid out some pictures and I picked out Kareem and they should know, but did makeingntil you know who did it? And they kept pointing at Troy. She and he did it. He did it. So they kept saying, I said, no, this man right here. Then he had kicked the chair, and you know, they was getting mad, and they kept taking my hand and putting my finger at his picture and that. Then when they let me go, I was like, no, he's just guy.

And then you know, one was behind me and the other one was that that's type. And and they said we know who did it, and they started typing stuff up and they made me sign it, and so they bade me say that he confessed to me. And then after that I wasn't going to court. And then they kept arrashing my mother. She said, well, they said that they're going to rescue if you don't come in the court. And uh, the fat d a, I know, he's a

fat white guy. I don't remember his name. He said, well, well, we could give you approbation if you testify with the detectives told you, and they always allied Troy was in Atlantic City because I remember because I said, YO, bring their pair Gucci sneaks back and he started laughing and he was like, I got you and I see YO. When I get back, I said, are you got anything? Then? In jail for something he didn't do? You know, I've

been carrying that guilt for a long time. Other than the testimony of these two people, there's not one shred of physical evidence that ties Troy Coleman too this crime. Nothing And to hear the words of Darren Keith Johnson, along with Byron Johnson's confession in which he completely nullified Arthur Sanders and Shaky I d that should end the

state's case right there, full stop. Then there's this newly discovered evidence from the homicide Filer H file that indicates that Kevin Jones died sometime after October nine, while Troy was most certainly on the West Coast, Coupled with all of the exculpatory monseral that this prosecutor would help, and the fact that Byron may not have been clear on whether Kevin Jones was actually dead when he moved him, well,

he was arrested on September. It didn't see the outside until well after Kareema died and couldn't tell him the rest of the story. So with that said, we're going to go to Joe Maron for the current status of Troy's case. So we now have submitted and amended pcr A outlining this critical information that we found in the homicide file. We have served a copy of this petition to the District Attorney. We are waiting for the District

Attorney to tell us when they will respond. But there is a hearing date on July seven, and based on this information that we have now found and the previous information, we are going to ask for some form of intervention from the court, from the judge to force the District Attorney's hands to either have a evidentiary hearing immediately on these issues or to respond to our amendate petition so that the judge can make a ruling regarding Mr Coleman's innocence.

Our concern is we're caught into the system of procedure in the courts, and and that being said, it's not unlikely that the d A's office will ask for a sixty and ninety day extension to answer a respond to our amendate petition, and that I believe is unfair. So what we're trying to do is push the process through through the judge, by the judge, really forcing them to

kind of respond. Now, well, we've previously been seeing some really great things out of the Philadelphia CiU, and we hear at wrong from conviction, and I personally want to encourage them to end this particular injustice as swiftly as it possibly can. We understand that the task of researching and relitigating the last thirty fifty years worth of corrupt cases in a place like Philadelphia, you know, trying to write any percentage of those wrongs is a tall, tall order.

So I just want to say that every one of the hard working people at the PHILD obviously you your hard work is not going to appreciated here. But also we originally released this story a year ago. It's pastime to end this nightmare, and we hope they will join our call for freedom and justice. And with that, we're not going to go to my favorite part of the show, which of course is where I first thank all three of you for joining me here today and sharing your

your incredible harrowing story. And now I'm gonna kick back in my chair and turn off my mic and just listen to whatever else you guys would like to say. Jerry, and then Joe, why don't you guys lead off and then hand the mic off to Troy and he'll take us out into the sunset. Well, thank you Jason for giving me this opportunity to address Troy's case. Obviously, there is a lot of facts and circumstances here that are

extremely troubling. One of the problems is back when Troy was arrested, Philadelphia was in the midst of one of its worst homicide waves and its history. Homicide police wanted to clear cases and do it in the most convenient way because they were being pressured to do so, and therefore they used some of the cases I've seen some shortcuts in order to achieve that goal, and one of the shortcuts is that they would pressure witnesses, and in this case, they had two very good subjects that they

could pressurize. So these are the only two pieces of evidence that were the part and soul of the Commonwell's case. Once they've been debunked, which I believe they have been, it is pretty clear that Troy Coleman is not guilty

based on Troy's case and its entirety. And if you look back from the day that he was initially arrested, and you start to take apart all the evidence in the case, and you start to realize how the prosecutor the d A in this case handled the case, and you look at all the evidence that was withheld throughout

the process, key witnesses, criminal history, phone records. It goes on and on and on, and I think at some point now that we found this additional information, we're hoping that the courts will see through this and some immediate intervention will happen to help expedite the process of exonerating an innocent man who's been sitting in prison for well over thirty years. At this time, I would like to say how to be never guy to meet all precedures

to our with Lord. I don't think any thing just want to come to pluition in regards to this case except by the will of our creative God. More time, I would like to thank Jason and my attorney and uh Connor and all that was involved in this, my family who has been supported me through this, and my message you know at this time what got me through these years. I want to push education and vocational skills

that's needed. I'm a founder and facilitator of a group entitled Use It's the acronimic young offenders understanding the happitual shackles which unous facilitated by myself, Kept Moment and Tracy Watts, and we pushed forward to try to help the youth of public between eighteen and through this enhancing and are holding their education and vocational skills. But I'm very grateful for everyone and God willing I can be speaking for about this on the street as opposed to from the penitatary.

God will. Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. I'd like to thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff Claver, and Kevin Wardis, with research by Lila Robinson. The music in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as well as at Lava

for Good. On all three platforms, you can also follow me on both TikTok and Instagram at it's Jason Flom. Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good podcasts in association with Signal Company Number one