Since the initial release of our coverage of Troy Coleman's case, attorney Joseph Moron has joined Troy's team and was able to gain access to the original homicide File or h file and the Brady material. It's so significant that we had to rearrange this episode to accommodate the new evidence, which is inserted throughout. Troy has always maintained his innocence, but has never said a word about Darren Johnson and Byron Johnson's involvement in this case until they themselves came
forward 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 nineteen eighty nine
gave way to desperate behavior all over Philly. While Troy was away in Atlantic City, on a September twenty sixth, nineteen eighty 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 to Troy's apartment
and his Gray Dodge with forty thousand dollars to buy cocaine. Then, after about ninety minutes, two 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 low. 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 bound and shot. Arthur Sanders agreed that Troy Coleman's photo looked
like the passenger who allegedly drove by him. Two months earlier. This shaky id, 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 Flomm. That's me. And today we have a story that I think is going to rock your world in a different kind of way right because the person that we're interviewing today, Troy Coleman, has been incarcerated for thirty one years in Pennsylvania for a crime he didn't commit. That being said, he wasn't a choir boy. Some of the people we have on the show where literal acchoir 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 here 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 Pleas, let's go back Troy. You grew up in a middle class environment, right.
I grew up in Mount Are, Philadelphia, which is a middle class neighborhood, and I was blessed to live with my grandmother, who was well all. We had a beautiful home, bedroom home, and you know, everyone who came from that home came to be very successful, although went to private school,
even my father. And my father moved to California. And when he moved to California, I was going back and forth from California to Philadelphia from my grandmother house, which California school curriculum, our 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 Phillyppia Germantown High School, I was looked at it as kind
of dirty. I guess, you know, because the academic type guess that we came with versus where was over here in Philadelphia, and you know, you try your best to fit in and you want to be accepted. That's where a lot of my de minds 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 Germantown, which is
a little bit once of a good lifestyle. I didn't live down here. It was a little more lower class again from Mount Area. So when I started boxing the day, just being down there in the how a couple of them guys from brand the neighborhood. After that, subsequently I got invoved with him with the about the age of seventeen sixteen. We started out young, one the corners till 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 sixty eight to seventy one. The legacy of brutality and corruption is widely known, and it thrived in the police department after he became mayor. It's really crazy that that
guy became mayor. But seventy two to eighty, and they were just beating the shit out of everybody back then, and it's really 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 were at least aware of this. Right, This is not hyperbole, right.
Oh no, if you had a little bit of long hair like I did, every 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 District, right, a section of North Philadelphia, which was a working class, poor black neighborhood. Police routinely made false arrests, 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 ah there's 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 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, Martin Devlin. The number of cases have been overturned because of him. It's a very sordid history, right.
So this of course brings me back to another person who was wrong for the convictor who's been on our show, Tony Wright, which was ironically the same cop that was involved in Troy's case, Martin Devlin. And in the article of Rolling Stone magazine about Tony's case, there was a pull quote that said that in the nineteen eighties or nineties, a black man had a better chance of getting justice
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 were working under you at the time, because they come to play a role in your wrongful conviction.
Well, when we got involved, it was a couple of guys from that neighborhood, particularly down cross the street. And this is actual. He's called the Jungle. Some of the guys that's involved, Barmi Johnson, Gary Keith Johnson, Raymond Noble's in his street meet was dream. My street meeting at the time was caussing his with his Kareem So he was an older guy, he just got out of jail and all this time everybody looked up to him as the tough, gut height and so on and so forth.
To me, it was like comparative that I get them involved. It's somewhat for the muscle as well as Byron.
So you had Byron Johnson, Darren Johnson and Kareem Nobles were your underlings. They worked for you.
Yes, I guess my little intellect being involved in that allowed me to shoot up fast. So I had a little apartment down in Mars Street. Plaski Town is what they called Aeron. But we had an apartment in Pulaski Town and it was just for you know, fun, dealing with the drug stuff, girls and all that. The Rayman Nobles Koree was actually staying in my apartment live in Mount Area. I still had that place in Byron. The keys to the apartment kareem at keys to the apartment,
so people had access to it. At that time when I was driving BMW's had a nice amount of money and I was okay. However, these guys that were working for me, okay until a drought came in nineteen eighty nine. Rout is when there's thot drugs, particularly cocaine of elbow at that time. And this was a well known time because homicideal 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 actually ran them up
for lack of running fleet. They just ran them up. They was just doing all kinds of puny stuff. And this day in particularly in which this crime happened, myself and another gentleman by the name of Richard Crawford. That morning of September twenty sixth 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 actually, you know, trusted claim to deal with that while I was gone. And when I left on the
twenty six We get to Atlantic City. That morning, was gambling, taking insights, you know, shopping, talking to all that other stuff, to girls whatever. So I was very intoxicated. I wasn't willing to drive back to the city, so that night we checked the two hotel.
Okay, So you were 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 stayed at 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 were in Atlantic City. Back at the apartment in Philadelphia on September twenty sixth, nineteen eighty nine, 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 waged down the block,
Jones continued alone to the apartment in Gray Dodge. Then, about an hour and a half later, Sanders allegedly saw two men driving the Gray Dodge past him, a light skinned man driving and a darker skinned man with the brim of his hat pulled down low at the passenger seat. This is who Sanders misidentified as being Troy. However, in twenty nineteen, Byron Johnson admitted to being that passenger, right that Kareem had hired him to move a body back.
At this point in nineteen eighty nine, 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 I'm not talking about with the cops. The cops actually kind of ironically inadvertently saved you.
I got that to put off. The next day, I was stop by the police. You know, had my license and registration, everything was legit, but they found a bag of marijuana in the car, and that might have been a good thing, because I got arrested that evening. I want I call it home, and that's when I heard everything, everybody saying, these guys are looking for you if you
stated and want to kiked. So when I was built out, my girlfriend at the time as well as my mother had bags in the car and the ticket to me. And that's 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 on September twenty ninth. Now, between the time of the abduction and when the body was discovered, Kareem aka Raymond Nobles died. Call me crazy but it might have had something to do with the Joneses anyway. So now, November twenty first, nineteen nine, the police discovered Kevin Jones's body in the trunk of the Gray Dodge and the
john want to make her parking lot at Abington Township. Now, by that time the body was badly decomposing, but it was clear that his was struck with a blunt object several times and then one, and this is important, one hard contact, high velocity gun shot 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 chemist Lewis 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 he suddenly a car comes by. Now, when you I mean, just logically, when you think about it, if suddenly you see a car. First of all, 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 skin guy. 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's testimony.
Office said just said that the passenger, he said he had a baseball cap on, pulled down over his foreheads, slouched in the seat, and in a photo where he said, I look like the passenger putting me in the city at the time. However, I'm in the Atlantic City. It's a possible identification 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' pager and keys in his possession when Kevin went missing, so he probably wanted to direct attention away from himself. Now I've been saying allegedly every time I mentioned this passing great dodge slightly 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 could back me up here, right, yes, John, 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 low 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 Devlon Sanders or both to direct the attention Steer the attention Toy 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. And 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 nineteen eighty nine, with only Arthur Sanders's shaky I D, the police needed something more for probable cause to arrest Troy.
Now that they are focusing on Troy Coleman, they start focusing on his associates, one of whom is Darren Keith Johnson, who was a eighteen year old five foot three, one hundred and twenty five pounds, soaking wet youth, essentially who's brought into homicide 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. 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. So he's scared
to death and he finally gives up Troy. Darren Johnson says, yeah, Troy admitted to me he had to lay somebody down. Those two pieces of evidence Arthur Sanders sort of ID and Darren Johnson now they have enough to get an arrest warrant.
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 examiner a trial, not twice. And from what I understand, they used both the carrot
and the stick to get this statement from Darren. Subsequently, and this will surprise exactly no one in our audience, he received leaning and see for multiple drug charges and this quid pro quote and the fact that it was hidden from the defense. It's something that Troy litigated through
pro say post conviction motions but unfortunated no avail. But the point ends up being moved here as Darren Keith Johnson has signed multiple affidavits starting in nineteen ninety eight to recant his testimony, for which the prosecutor 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 on to what ends up being really interesting preliminary hearing.
Yes it was. It was murder, robbery, conspiracy and possessional baseman of Crown. The preliminary here was April twelfth, nineteen ninety and at this preliminary here at altus Sanders rightfully, I guess he slipped up because he said that we were going to see Kareem, and this is throughout the preliminary here, and that we were going to see Kareem, Kareem in his Raymond Nobles My name was not mitching right.
He was going to see Kareem, not Troy or your street name, Cassim, but Kareem.
Which is probably why Judge Merriweather, it 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 Maryweathers dismissed the case, then it was about a week or two and they rearrested me again with the same as that inflammation, and they switched to judges, and he put it before another man I think they was Judge Eigens, and he held.
It over 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 de which would have literally been the easiest job ever for a private investigator, just asked the hotel. But instead we now believe that he never even went to Aletic City or bothered to
speak with Richard Crawford, your aliby witness. Otherwise he would have found 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 at 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 AC, you thought that you had stayed at the Ridgemont Inn 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 europe Apartment, you were 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 wrongful conviction. And now, in twenty twenty two, in light of this new evidence from the homicide file, you are being an AC only makes you unavailable for Kevin Jones's abduction.
My name is Joseph Moron. I represent Troy Coleman in his ongoing PCRA matters. I'm lead counsel on the case. I continue to consult with the 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, an affidavit of probable cause where the police were trying to get phone records because the mother of the victim, Kevin Jones, contacted the police and gave him some pretty astonishing information that she spoke to her son on September nineteenth of eighty nine, that.
He told her that he was in fear of the.
Junior Black Mafia the JBM, that he suspected some type of foul play. She did not see him since September nineteenth. 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 JBM 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, 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 a 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 sixth, but also that you weren't even on the freaking East Coast from September twenty ninth, nineteen eighty nine, passed this phone call on October nineteenth, and passed the discovery of the body on November twenty first, all the
way to the following year. I'm talking about all the way to January fourth, nineteen ninety Kevin Jones was still alive, that he was killed, that he was found, all while you were proved in California, which proves that the prosecution presented a case that they knew was horseshit, but a trial in nineteen ninety they'd attacked your alibi with this differing alibi evidence, which seems like a crazy misdirection plan.
It's pretty weak. But so tell us what else they presented to trick the jury into believing you were guilty.
Well, I believe that it was the testimony of Derek and June and coupled with the testimony of Office Sanders. However, one of the things that were said in closing was that testimony page seven fifty one by the prosecutor. He said, if 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 isn't. This is something that was said to the jury, you could find them guilty of conspiracy and you know, second degree murder, so and so forth, and an undefeldy murder is actually saying that as a result of that robbery of death occurred, we don't believe that he had the intent to kill, right, And that's what second we murdered is Here in.
Tasmania, well, there's certain enumerated felonies, one of which is robbery, and if you during a robbery, if a 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.
It was like I was just like shocked. I was. It was so shocking to me that the first couple of years they believe wait only Middlin and you know, we lost a lot of family. My mother died, my grandmother and my grandmother and died. Is a domino offender pain and what happened another but I just couldn't believe in believing when we are there more years later. First got to give all praise to our creator getting me through this and constantly having that hope that you know
and it will come to it. However, it was a time and it actually, to be honest with you, it just recently when I h they said I was negative, but I know I was positive. I was in the Germany with COVID and I was, Oh, I was deadly sick. I never ever felt no thing like that. And at that time, and this is once ago, I prayed and I asked the Lord. I said, if this is I'd rather go now. And don't even thought this no more than just if you feel I wasn't, you know, suicidal.
But I was like, I was okay with I was okay with Dyan. I just praised and this is the time, and I'm not going to If I'm not going to go home, I'm breddying. And that was my prayer. In subsequently, you know, all of this sudden it was stored a 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 that should give hope, 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. It should have been freed back in ninety three.
That conspiracy conviction in nineteen ninety three has since been reversed. The Superior Court of pensive that in it of itself was a reason to overturn this case and retry 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, in California for the murder and the body dump, how are you involved in the murder in any way? Well, they continue to try to square that circle with the two boga This witnesses Arthur Sanders saying you were in the car and Darren Johnson saying that you confess to having to quote lay somebody down over some drugs and quote.
So in nineteen ninety eight, Darren Johnson wanted to come clean and finally recanted and did so in an appid 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, we hear this too much. It makes me sick. So when he came to court in nineteen ninety nine to a firmness 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 at 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 Deza Dario, do you have any open cases at this time? Darren Keith Johnson said yes, one, five years pulbition. That's a direct quote. It was a testimony basically thirty seven. However, unbeknownst to us, that was a lie made all his criminal history of where he never spent all five years polation. But jury is listening to this. Did jury say, oh, okay,
he has five years folcation? Okay, so he don't have any incentive to testify falsely against this guy because he's already been sentenced. Again, unberknownst 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 this matter has been ignored. The court sided with the DA 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 and nine, you find out what I had mentioned earlier, that you're investigated at the time of trial lied to you about not being able to find any alibi evidence in ac 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, guy named Walter P. Lee, and in two thousand and nine he caught up with Richard Crawford.
Well, my private investigator, Walter Lee went to school interview. Rich Crawtey said that's something that he never said to Edgeier said, no, one never came to see me and told me nothing about Rory. I was whit him in Atlantic City, and I would have said that I was whitting in Atlantic City and we had his statement nail, but he said that never happened. So that ind of himself was probablyad for me.
With Daniell.
Richard is will sistefied. And this is something this awso significant. Michard Crawford called from the hotel. He called home to his good wife Shrill the Pross to have those phone numbers and those phone calls, and well a couple of the phone calls was to Richard Crawford's address on McNay Street in Philadelphia. They never took this 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 recant, they
don't want to hear it. Your investigator, Walter Lee Onearth's your alibi witness shedding more light on the state's misdeeds, 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 twenty six, and they also knew that Kevin Jones was still alive while you were in California through until the end of the year,
until the beginning of next year. However, if that alibi wasn't enough for them to stop pursuing you in nineteen ninety, why would it stop them in nineteen ninety eight or two thousand and nine or ever. Right, so another ten years go past, and Byron Johnson, who everyone is scared of and wouldn't even think of snitching on In twenty 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 sella named Herb Hartisan 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 him. He said something about moving some furniture or something like that, and he went over and he saw the body and Kareem said, look, you help me get rid of this body.
He'll give you five thousand dollars.
So the two men in the Great Dodge that Sanders allegedly saw, where Kareem Nobles and Byron Johnson, the cops knew that 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 impeach Sanders a shaky idea of Troy and
directly at Byron. This murder happened in Troy's apartment while he was partying in ac 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 twenty sixth, and certainly not the murder sometime after October nineteenth, while he was in a Mercede, 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 this he what could have potentially happened. I mean, Byron Johnson was arrested at the end of September September twenty ninth for an unrelated robbery was technically out of the loops or to 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 Kareem to move the body and he did so, and he was the one in the car with Kareem. It further substantiates that Troy had nothing to do with it.
When Byron Johnson confessed, Darren Keith Johnson could finally speak freely and he gave a sworn AFFI David to Walter Peeley 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 Karine and they said no, but dead man can tall you know.
Who did it?
And they kept pointing at Troy saying 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, it's this guy. And then you know, one was behind me and the other one was at the desk type and they said, we know who did it.
And they start 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 arresting My mother. She said, well, they said that they going to arrest you if you don't come in the court. And the fat da I know he's a fat white guy. I don't remember his name. He said, well, well we could get you a probation if you testify what the
detectives told you. And they all was alive. See Troy was in Atlantic City because I remember because I said, YO, bring me a pair of Gucci sneaks back and he started laughing and he was like, I got you. I see y'all.
When I get back, I.
Said, all right, you got an innocent man in jail for something he didn't do. You know, I've been carrying that guilt for for a long time.
Other than the testimony of these two people, there's not one shred of physical evidence that ties Troy Coleman to 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 as shaky id that should end the dates
case right there, full stop. Then there's this newly discovered evidence from the homicide file or h file that indicates that Kevin Jones died sometime after October nineteenth, while Troy was most certainly on the West coast, coupled with all of the exculpatory material 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 twenty ninth, nineteen eighty nine, It didn't see the outside until well after Kareem had died and couldn't tell him the rest of the story. So with that said, we're going to go to Joe Moron for the current status of Troy's case.
So we now have submitted an amended PCRA 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 seventh, 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 amended petition so that the judge
can make a ruling regarding mister Colemans. And our concern is we're caught into the system of procedure in the courts, and that being said, it's not unlikely that the DA's office will ask for a sixty and ninety day extension to answer or respond to our amended petition, and that I believe is unfair. So what we're trying to do is push the process 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 wrongful 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 re litigating the last thirty forty 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 Philadelphia CiU, your hard work is not going unappreciated 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 incredible, harrowing story. And now I'm going to kick back in my chair, 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 heart
and soul of the Comonwell'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 DA 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 I'm to be there with guying to being all precidents to oursord. I don't think any thinkers want to come to fruition in regards to this case, except by the will of our creative God Most High. I would like to thank Jason and my attorney and 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 Youth Mister Ackronam and Young Offenders Understanding their Habitual Shackles, which is facilitated by myself, Kevin Bowman and Dracy Box and we push forward to try to help the youth put between eight and eighteen and thirty of this enhancing and all holding their education and vocational skills. But I'm very grateful for everyone, and God willing I can be speaking further about this on
the street as opposed to from the penitentiary. God will.
Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. I'd like to thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff Cliburn, and Kevin Wardis, with research by Lyla 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 Flam. Wrongful Conviction is the production of Lava for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number one