On April tenth, two thousand two, on Lyndon Boulevard in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, a man named Victor Vulcan was shot and killed in broad daylight just after school had let out. Fortunately, no one else was heard as people ran to their buildings for cover, including a young father named Gary ben Lass who had had prior run ins with the police. Nine one one callers and eye witnesses described the shooter with short hair, dark skin, and a similar bill to the victim, who was five ten
and a hundred and sixty eight pounds. However, one alleged witness, Anthony Holder, who did not give a description of the shooter, set among other falsehoods, that the assailant's nickname was Chuckie. Gary ben Lass was known as Chucky, but he was over six three and two hundred and fifty pounds with a seven inch high afro. A photo of a much younger and slimmer Gary with short hair was put into a photo array, eliciting an identification from Anthony Holder and
one other witness. However, once that other witness saw Gary a trial, she too jo and all the other witnesses in denying Gary's in pop Holders pending charges for which it is believed that he received leniency in exchange for cooperation, were hidden by the state, and somehow the jury believed his bizarre testimony that included a non existent second victim, sending Gary away for to life. This is wrongful conviction.
Welcome back to rangful conviction. Today we have a Brooklyn case dating back to two thousand two in which several witnesses described a gunman that looked wildly different from our guests today, Gary ben Laws, a guy that I came to know through my friendship with a previous guest on our show, John Asian Velasquez. Gary is joining us from sing sing and I'm glad you're here with us even though I hate to read and why you're here. But Gary,
welcome to the show. Thank you, You're very welcome. And with him as a band whose voice should probably recognize from other appearances here with us where he's been advocating for Nelson Cruz, Marcus Wiggins, Vincent Simmons, and so many more. Justin bonus, welcome back. It's great to be back on the show for ship, all right. So Gary, before we get into the reason why we're here today, can you tell us a little bit about your life growing up.
I was born July twenty six to a proud single mother who migrated from the rural country area of Jamaica, West Indies, moved to America where she resided in Flatbush, Brooklyn. And your nickname was Chucky, right, how I mean, where does that come from? At the age of nine, I received the nickname Chuckles. Being poor, no father around at school, kids could be very cruel, so as a as a defense mechanism, I was one of those kids who was old. He's like to joke and laugh. That's how I got
the moniker chuckles. Always have people laughing, always joking, And that nickname ended up playing a part in your wrong for conviction. But before all of that, in the summer of you had your first encounter with one of the detectives on this case, Robert Ready. He knows me because on my fifties birthday I was jumped, assaulted and hospitalized. He was actually the detective on the case, and he wanted not just for me, you know, to snitch on the guys that hospitalized me, but he wanted me to
become a neighborhood snitch. So the case against those who are assaulted me never went to court, and I never became the snitch for detective reading. I said, it's not happening, right, So you refused to help Ready, And then the following spring you ran into some more trouble, but this time you were the assailant at the age of exteen. Much of Mention ninety seven, I made a very foolish mistake, but I'm not proud. It was a lesson that I
needed to learn. So because of grown up being poor, I followed a friend of mine into a pizzeria to rob the pizzeria. I took full responsibility, and I copped out to one to three years right. And I've been haunted by the NYPD ever since. And I'd like the audience to take note here when guilty people usually take plea deals it makes sense. I mean, hell, even innocent people take plea deals if it makes more sense, which it often does in fighting the charges. Like our friend
Dieter te Hata. So you did a few years as a juvenile in a men's present page your debt to society, and after your release, he moved back in with your mother at to eighteen Lennon Boulevard and flat push where you remained on the NYPD's radar leading up to this crime in two thousand two. But before we get into all those details, justin we've seen this kind of thing before more than once, where the cops just crab a guy with a record, whether they did a climb or not.
And as our listeners will surely recognized, Brooklyn, especially in the eighties, nineties and into the two thousands, was fraught with wrongful conviction cases and issues like like I wouldn't submits identification, coerced and incentifized witnesses who made misidentifications, sometimes knowingly by the way, and of course crazily corrupted identification procedures. And in this case we have all of those factors.
And at the helm of the investigation we had detectives Robert Ready and John McGurran, as well as King's country assistant D A. Kyle Reeves. And and I feel like I've heard his name before Kyle Reeves, right, yes, absolutely, Jabbar Washington. I believe Jabbar was exonerated in two thousand and eighteen. Kyle Reeves in that case had withheld Brady evidence. But and this is on the stand that testified falsely.
Then Reeves push forward with prosecuting someone for murder. I believe it was a fight of some sort, and it turned out that the mother of the victim actually sued the hospital for medical malpractice, wrongful death, that the hospital caused the death. I know that he had some issues. He left the d a's office in Brooklyn and went to Staten Island, and I know he had some issues
in Staten Island with witnesses and then left. And now he's in private practice, so he has a history of prosecuting cases that he shouldn't and to not turning over exculpatory material. I mean, I'd like to point out prior misconduct just to give the audience an idea of who we were dealing with. But to be fair, Reeves doesn't really sound like an outlier knowingly prosecuting innocent people and hidekicks culpatory evidence to make a stick. It sounds like
the usual playbook in New York. It's a little different because it's a lot harder to catch them, and he's been caught. New York is different in that there's usually no forensic investigation, no paper right, no paper trail, whereas a lot of other places there's a lot of paper here. These are very short, choppy statements. The police don't write
as much down. And then prosecutors, even when the case falls apart, they are able to hang their hat on somebody like Anthony Holder, who's the only witness that testified at trial at Gary Bin laws committed this murder. And we're going to talk a lot more about this alleged eyewitness, Anthony Holder. And I say alleged because his description of the crime conflicted with both reality and with every other eyewitness, all of whom corroborated each other, and none of whom
described or ultimately identified Gary in person. Now, Anthony Holder was a building super rights who were intended on Gary's block, and he's the guy who's credited with throwing Gary's nicknamed Chucky to the cops right into the mix after the crime. Gary, did you know this guy Holder? So, Anthony Holder is the super of I believe two of the buildings on Linden will cross the street from my So I didn't live there, but my friends did, so I'm visiting them.
Anthony Holder never used to like when my friends and I will hang out on the stool, So in the courtyards of the building. It wasn't like we was causing any disruption being disrespectful. Okay, So he didn't like you, but he didn't have a real beef with you. But maybe he didn't care if he used you to stay out of prison. That's what it seems like to me.
As it becomes clear much later, holder had some pending charges for which he like they received leniency for his testimony in this case, but a trial, that deal was when you've heard this before, that deal was hidden by assistant to A Kyle Reeves. And now here we are, so let's get to the clime itself. This was April ten, two thousand two, a sunny spring day on Linden and
Boulevard in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Now this is a broad street with the east and westbound side a turning lane down the middle street, parking on either side, so about five lanes of car's wife if you can picture that, And there are apartment buildings on either side, so tons of
people in the area. It's a bustling street scene. And the shooting happened in front of two O one Linden Boulevard, where you lived, across the street and down the block at number two eighteen, So it's about three in the afternoon. The weather extremely nice, The blocks are extremely extremely busy, people out and enjoying the weather. School is letting out. As I am approaching my building, the first blood shock light now, and that's when I started seeing everybody starting
to run, and I ran right into mont building. And according to corroborating eyewitness accounts, two men, the victim in this case, Victor Vulcan, and the shooter got into an argument welcome was shot four or five times, and then a mail carrier, a woman named let him in Voting, gave police a description, as did another woman named Paula edge Hill, who called nine one and spoke to a dispatcher. So you had led him in boats and who's the
mail carrier? And the nine callers who described the shooter as all dark skinned, five eight short hair let him in Voting actually, in a statement to police, described the shooter as similarly built to the victim in the case. Now, the victim, Victor Vulcan, was five ten sixty eight pounds, so the nine one one call and votings accounts corroborated each other. Now, Gary, what did you look like at this time? I was about six three, two forty years and I had a very large affro and I'm light skinned.
No one describes the afro. That's the other major major issue. I mean, was this like a close cropped afro? How much volume are we talking about here? Will have to be roughly six seven inches? Okay, so that's a remarkable hair do. Like I mean, people aren't going to miss a seven inch I afro. But unfortunately, this giant discrepancy didn't seem to matter to Anthony Holder or the detectives, and later didn't matter either to the prosecutor in the case.
So what did Anthony Holders statements of police say? This alternate version of events, and Anthony Holder says that Chucky is talking to some girls. Uh, they say, get at him, Chucky. Nobody else describes this, by the way. Then he says that Chucky begins to argue with this guy and pulls a gun out of the back and then shoots the guy. And and Anthony Holder he doesn't describe Gary at all, and he never gives a description. See all he does Anthony Holder has dropped a nickname, and the police know
the nickname because they're familiar with Garrett. And we're not even sure who brought up the nickname first. Perhaps Anthony Holder decided to trade information false information. Let's call it what it is, about a neighborhood guy who he didn't really like in exchange for leniency in his pending charges, or the lead detectives who knew Gary from both previous incidents when he was an assault victim who refused to snitch and then the robbery. Now, of course I'm referring
to detectives Robert Ready and John mcgarran. It was recently going over the d D fives I come across John mcgarnan's d D five. He says that he was at two eighteen Linden Boulevard when he received information that the shooter is above by the name of Chuckles. Only people that does the name Chuckles is people that went to elementary school with me. Anthony Holden never said Chuckles. Anthony
Holders says Chucky. So before John mcgaren we see any information ancient in regards to the shooter, he was already at two eight teen. The shooting happm at two or one Linden Boulevard. We have nine one one calls police reports that says the shooter ran into one eighty Linden Boulevard. It was never a police call to respond to to eight teen. Why are you at to eight two? Right? The nine one one call said one eighty Lindon Boulevard.
But mcgern went straight to your building and claimed to hear that the assailant was named Chuckles, your original nickname that had evolved into Chucky over time. Exactly. Mcgarren already knew who I was, the same way detective really already knew who I was. So this isn't definitive proof, but it certainly looks like they were immediately directing the investigation towards you without cause either way. Your nickname was now
part of this investigation. And then they take this and they and they on with it, and they put a photo array together very soon after the shooting. And why the photo array was really important is because the picture of Gary is of when he was I believe eighteen years old. By the time he was twenty one, he was much heavier than he was when he was eighteen.
He didn't even look like the same person, and he had short hair when he was eighteen, all right, So they showed this misleading photo array with an eighteen year old, slimmer looking Gary importantly, with no afro but short hair instead. Right, as the witnesses that initially described the assailant, I mean,
it's it's so dirty, it's amazing. And the mail carrier led him in Bolton looking at this old photograph gave up tepid identification, right, and the incentivized alleged witness, Anthony Holder, gave an idea as well. Now, Anthony Holder also allegedly told him that the shooter had a black Duffel bag.
No other witnesses reported seeing this, and in the continued effort to get to Gary, investigators put pressure on a guy from your building named Roger Isaac, who at about five eight, dark skinned with short hair, better match the description of the shooter, and so he was snatched up shortly after the shooting. Roger Isaac, I feel the full I really do. He's oblivious to what's going on. They jump out on him and say he's being arrested for the murder. They bring him down to the station in
his d D five. He saw me come into the building, go back into the palming and come right back out. So now they have someone corroborating Holder about you and the alleged black bag. And then Roger Isaac allegedly described you as five ft eight two hundred pounds, but again you're over six ft three and at least two hundred forty at the time, and he said thing about your impressive afro, which is very talent because the only picture that detectives McGurn and ready had at that time was
from when you were eighteen years old. It looks like they still thought that you were under two d pounds with short hair. So they brought Roger Isaac down to the precinct where he allegedly made this statement implicating you
carrying this non existent black Duffel bag. And we're getting ahead of ourselves here, but at trial, this alleged statement from the d D five unravels for the prosecution exactly at trial assisted this attorney Kyle Reeves is trying to have Roger Isaac testify that he saw me went into the building build back into the partment. So he gives them the d D five and that's when the cat is let out the bag. He did the d D five.
He said, I don't saying none of this. He says that he was in a cell and that the police roughed them up, assaulted Mr Roger Isaac, because sounds like they might have just written that statement up just for him to sign. There was no signature. This is typed up. And then you have the offices chimnenship. So there's no Roger Isaac right in and saying I do this swear of this being authentic. There's none of that. So the sham statement in Roger Isaacs d V five blew up
in Kyle Reeves's face at trial. But in the immediate aftermath of the crime, this same d D five corroborated Anthony Holder. They had already tricked led him in voting into making the I D with that phony Bologny photo array. So now they're closing in on you, but you didn't even know it. So let's go back to the immediate aftermath. Shots rang out, You got to safety, and after things calmed down, you went out to handle a few rands before or three month old son and his mother arrived
later on from Queens. Now, at that time you had gone to a friends in Bushwick when a neighborhood friend paged you to tell you that the police had rated your apartment. He say the police just went into the apartment. So I called my mother. When she goes home, the police are still there. They asked her to sign a consent for him to search. They already searched already, so
now they're using her consent to cover their eyes. So the police legally search your apartment looking for this alleged black dupple back, but they came up empty, and they got your mom to give consent to the search after the fact. So at this time, again, I'm not even aware that someone even died. It wasn't until there. I speak to my mother, she said. Detective really gave her his card for me to call. He said a guy was signed and killed and they're looking to speak to
me about it. I have nothing a hide, so I called him. He said, people are saying that you killed this guy. I said, the time, I don't know what you're talking about. I've just had a son. I have no reason into the out killing anybody. He said, well, you know, let's meet up some react. That's not happening. I am not comfortable meeting you guys and check them out. You're looking for me because somebody's got killed. He said, well, you know, just in the hole would change in mind.
And this is right after nine eleven, So the police had all these sweeping new powers from the Patriot Act, and they triangulated your position from the cell signal and found you over at your friends in Bushwick. But what's weird is that they're looking for the the old version of you right there, looking for the eighteen year old, slimmer shorthaired Gary from the photo array, not the fully grown up, much heavier, twenty one year old Gary with the seven inch high afro, who looks nothing close to
the eyewitness descriptions. So both you and the police are confused. Now, can you describe what happened during your arrest. It's like one of those seems almost like a die hard movie. The whole block is just filled with, you know, squad cars and police officers and police officers on the rules and the helicopters. As they were going in to the building, I was coming out, right, I'm not knowing they're coming for me. All right, I'm going to the store, and
here'll go all these police officers. I look at them, they look at me. I'll go. And I walked to the store, not running. Walking. As I'm in the store, the door opened, and then the head pokes in and he said, hey, or did you just come from and he recites the building number and I said yes, he actually what my name is, and I tell him my name is Gary Bella. He said I can can please put your hands behind your back? So again I didn't say, Oh, my name is George Jeffrey Calvin. So I'm not evading
being identified. Does this sound like the actions of a guilty man. Of course not. But it's crazy because you didn't think they were even there for you, and they thought they were looking for a guy who could potentially fit the description. But as we see here in your case, the description really didn't matter to them. They just move
forward anyway. So you're arrested. Detective really questioned you. You told him what you're telling us here today, that you had absolutely nothing to do with it, and then they put you in a lineup. And that lineup was was conducted by Robert Ready and Robert Ready at least one time a couple of years after this case admitted to essentially taining a lineup in a photo Arry and the case was thrown out on that basis. So Robert Ready
knew who Gary was, and he violated best practices. He shouldn't have been involved with the lineup at all, but he was. So they save me how to sell, and I'm going to go for this lineup. They took the colds I was wearing, didn't something else to put on, and then they told me to put on a shower cap to hide my hair. And that's when I started no. I said, hell no, I said, what's I doing? And I looked at really and I say, REALLYO, you ain't right,
and he just like held down his head. At that time, I already knew what they was doing, that they was dressing me up to fit the description of this person that they're looking for. They gave me a jacket. I'm not hold on, this is not my clothes. Oh you gotta you gotta put it on. And then they they hiding my hair, Like what reason would you have to hide my hair? This episode is underwritten by A i G,
a leading global insurance company. A i G is committed to corporate social responsibility and is making a positive difference in the lives of its employees and in the communities where we work and live. In light of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and in recognition of a i g s commitment to criminal and social justice reform, the a i G Pro Bono program provides free legal
services and other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. So they corrupted that lineup, and ultimately both Anthony Holder big surprise, and then the mail carrier let him in voting identified you. So you spent eighteen long months awaiting trial at Riker's, away from your family and your baby son. Your lawyer, Daniel F. Lynch got discovery and the machinations of that lineup started to become even clearer, confirming what you had feared. And I said, I knew it. I noticed is why
they wanted me to change my clothes. They wanted me to hide my head. These witnesses are saying x y n Z. If this witness says short here, they cannot put me in the lineup with this large afrow, so they have me hide it. But now the particular witness let him in Brighten, I'm gonna pick her first at the grand jury, and they was questioned and let him in Broen. She stopped for a second to say as if she wasn't sure she picked out the right guy.
So fast forward to two thousand and three. While I'm at trial, they asked her, do you see the shoot her in the court room? Let him mc brinen unequivalent he is, says no. So she says no at trial and at the grand jury she wasn't sure. But then at the time of when she's viewing the line up, I am presented with the shower cap that's I didn't my hear, and with some clothing that's close enough to what the shoot had had on the day of the crime.
Is there any reason why she wouldn't have taken me out to witnesses identified Gary in the lineup, and of those two witnesses, only one of them identify him, the tron, which is Anthony Older. So Letterman Bolton was supposed to be a prosecution witness but ended up working in favor of Gary's defense, just like Roger Isaac. So at that point, as this case was crumbling in front of their eyes, all they had left was Anthony Holder, who ended up
being totally unreliable. And we're gonna get to his testimony in a minute. But it doesn't seem like your attorney should have had to work very hard to discredit Holder with with what was available to him on assisted this attorney Kyle Reis witness list. They had Paula Edgehew that was the witness that I wanted my attorney to call on my behalf. Her phone call and won one call, as well as her d D five and her after David at the sty seven priests is very much as
cowartory and tools third party culpability. The description that she gave Paula Edgehill states that she looked through her window and she saw the shooter and the shooter was a medium height, dark skin male, no affro. So that's not me right, But neither the prosecution nor your attorney called her as a witness. But even without Paula edge Hell, you still had let him in Bolton and Roger Isaac
blow up their part of the state's case. So all this left is Anthony Holder, who never actually described the shooter. He just used your nickname Chucky, saying that some girls were encouraging you to get after him, meaning Victor Vulcan. And none of those girls ever surfaced, nor did this alleged black duffel bag. What other hall should your defense have poked in Holders testimony? The inconsistencies are abound. With Anthony Holder. He says, the guys shot with the thirty eight.
Guy's not shot with the thirty eight. I believe the slugs were consistent with Forensically, the description that he gives does not match up to the wounds that demand suffers. And to be honest with you, I don't really think anybody gives a very consistent description of what actually happened
because of how fast it happened. We don't know if Vulcan was standing upright when the first shots ring out right, but what we do know is that there was stipling on one of the shots on the chest, which would indicate that the shooter was very close, within twenty four inches. Anthony Holder says that the shooter was four ft away. So it would have been helpful if these wild inconsistencies were pointed out, impeached the one the only state's witness here.
It was, in fact, they're only piece of evidence, but your attorney was not prepared to do that. However, your attorney did present one very powerful witness, Augustine Hinton, who had called and corroborated let him in voting, and Paula Edgehill's descriptions and versions of events Dustin Hinson states that the shooter and the victim is the same height. The medical examiner at trial stated that Dictor Volcane sustaining the gunshot wound to his chest and there was no vertical
for ponderance when acts. What can cause that is that whoever shot him with the same height as him. So Dustin Hinton is right on that. Now, another part of his testimony is he states that when the shooting was going on, that was ushering some young children away from the crime. Now, when you get to Anthony Holder, Anthony Holder is a legend that he was the one that was ushering his young children away from the crime. But he goes on to also say that the shooter also
is responsible for shooting one of those young children. What I think is important about Holder is there's nothing about his testimony that's true. The fact that he says a little girl was shot at the scene when there's absolutely no and my p D record of a small younger girl being shot at the scene. A little girl was not. This is like a child was shot at the scene, Gary been lost to be doing a lot more than life. That's testimony had never surfaced at any chime time prior
to trial. That false testimony only came about when assisted Gifted attorney Kyle Weaves elicited that false and inflammatory testimony from Anthony Holder and then later turned around and vouched for the authenticity of that testimony. He also presented Antony
Holder as this superrighteous citizen of society. I mean, not only should his shaky testimony have been seen through, but also they were hiding something, which was that this guy had a powerful incentive to lie or to say what the authorities wanted him to say, which is that he
had he was facing pending charges himself. And we know that in a lot of these cases where these eyewitnesses suddenly are able to make an identification, those charges that they're facing magically go away and they're sort of making it deal with the devil. Is that what happened here? Yes, absolutely, absolutely his. He he had pending charges, and from our investigation, those charges are sealed, which means at some point they
were dismissed, but they were pending while he testified. And and interestingly enough, Kyle Reeves, when asked if the man had any pending charges, said that he'd never been arrested before, So that sounds carefully worded. And why would any prosecutor lie or mislead the jury about a witness's criminal history or pending charges if not to hide a potential deal
for leniency. And when holders testimony is the only piece of evidence against you stacked up against all of the independent witnesses whose testimony was in favor of Gary's innocence. Plus Anthony Holder made an unfounded charge that a little girl had been shot as well. If that's true, then why wasn't Gary charged with the attempted murder of a child. It's just it's just hard to see how the jury
could get this so wrong. You had Roger Isaac let him in voting, and even without Paula Edgehill, you then had Augustin Hinkson. I mean, was the prosecution able to say that Hinston was a friend of Gary's or something anything to impeach him. I think Augustine Hickson was the most reliable person that testified. Augustin Hanksen's relations to Gary's is just an acquaintance. Hankston had no dog in the race, I believe. Actually Hanson is a nine one one caller.
That's how they get to Hankson. Hanksen is a real world person that's there that they know is there from the gate that gives a statement to them. Hanksen is adamant that Gary was not there. I don't understand how Gary loses other than the fact that maybe the jury believed that he shot a little girl. I don't know. I mean that a little girl that definitely wasn't shot. It's a miracle that no kids were shot. But the
fact remains that no kid was shot. But they just made up this worry, and it seems to me there's at least a good chance that they were doing that in order to cast this terrible light on Gary, so that if the jury saw through the nonsense that they were being fed, they would still say, well, this guy is a terrible guy because he shot a child. So even if the evidence is shaky as hell, we're still gonna go ahead and convict him. Am I am I off base here? No? No, not at all. No. I
think you're hunter per cent right. Holder was a terrible witness, but he was enough, you know, he was enough um to sink Gary unfortunately, and that's the that's the problem with the American justice system, is that a single witness like this could actually send a man a prison for life. Gary was convicted of second agree murder in November two three. So Gary, take us inside the courtroom and inside your heart and soul. At that moment, it was, it was unbelievable.
It was it was heartbreaking. It was so shadowing. My my my my life, and my world came to a halt at that moment. The day I was sentenced, my family has also been sentenced to five years to life. They're pretty much shipped of everything I was given. You know, this new identity, the identity that the Department of Correction wished to know me by. They don't care to know who Gary Benloss is, and if Gary Denlos is wrongly convicted, they don't care about that. I'm known to the Department
Corrections that zero three eight s four one five. But I'm here to tell everyone that's not who I am talking about, a young man who was stripped away from his family. There's a void in the lives of my mother or my sister, the mother of my son, from my grandmother, my uncle's, my aunt's, my cousins. So I'm
not carrying this sentence alone. There's a void that's in the life of my son who had to grow up without me there that I had dreams of his father coming home, but he will never see that because he had passed away before that could happen. This tragedy, it's it's almost hard to even process this, right, but I know when I was up visiting you, Gary, you showed
me a letter you had gotten from your son. Are Your son grew up without his dad through no vault of yours and no vault of his own, and yet Um, you managed to be a good father, a great father from prisoners, as good as any what could be, and he turned out to be a fantastic kid. I saw a letter that he wrote to you. Um. That was a letter that any father would love to get from their child, UM, where he basically said, I love you and I wish things were different, but we're gonna make
up for lost time when you come home. You're my inspiration, You're my hero. And that letter, which I could almost not read knowing what happened next, was just so beautiful and powerful. And the awful truth is that the day after that he received that letter, he was killed in a writing in an uber, just a passenger in an
uber in a random hit and run accident. Um, I think we should really dedicate this episode to his memory, you know, talking about a very very very dark moment, and and I had to find first within needs strength. It's a tremendous way that I cannot imagine lifting, considering the way you had already lifted. Perhaps it's the strength that you built over all that time leading up to this even heavier moment. Now I had to find that
light of redemption. First within needs to God needs do this perilous place so I can get to that plateau where I can say, listen, I'm not going to let my time in here go two ways. I'm not going to allow my room for conviction to stop me from being the man that I'm supposed to be. I'm going to fight this. I'm going to win, and I'm also going to make sure that I'm in position where I
can pockets. And I've read a bit about some of the good things that you've done with your time on the inside, the fact I've witnessed some of them in person. I mean I've been up there and seeing you doing your thing, um making a difference. Can you tell us a little bit about your work? So in two thousands six I went and I actually obtained my g D.
Now I'm helping other individuals to achieve their g ds. UM. I became a facilitator for UM a cultural awareness class to to see a U organization which is a Caribbean African community. I've partacting Alternative violence program where you helped to mentor people to find a way to alleviate situations without the meedings of violence. Two thousand and twelve, I was in the electrical trade program. I actually advanced and became I think which is called inmate programming system. So
how was assistant to the teacher. So I became a facilitator and do that also allowed me the opportunity to then my apprenticeship through the n c C d R of course, where I was able to take the same type of tests and courses that a person on the outside would so they could become electrician. When I came to sim, SIM immediately signed up for the Mercy College Hustling program that you have here where I am actually
going for my bachelor's in behavioral science. I wasn't allowing my state of mind conservation to hold me back, and I was sitting down the stones for my future and I have a looked back. No, you have not, and you've brought that same proactive and incredibly positive spirit to the work that you've done inside with a group of guys called the AI Team, the Actual Innocence Team, good name. Long time listeners of the show will remember other members of this New York based crew, to with whom are
already out. I'm talking about Derrick Hamilton, Shabaka Shakor and of course Nelson Cruz, Danny Rinkhn and yourself still remain inside you. Also, we're friendly with another great friend of the show and great personal friend of mine, personal hero, I would say, I'm talking about j. J. Velasquez, who is another just incredibly inspirational man. Being around these individuals also helped to give me a sense of hope and
courage because now you no longer feel alone. And we'll go to a lot of berries, will research cases, and we'll see what we can find will be able to help us. Oh that right, there's a batter In issue that's a Strictment versus Washington issue. Oh that's the way the issue, and that's how I started to learn the law instinctly that you know is not supposed to happen. But now you can put legal theory to it. Now, it's more than just going into a coising a piece
of paper and saying I didn't do it. So you fought your case for a while this way, and eventually Derek, Shabaka and JJ got out and slowly but surely you've got your case in front of our friend justin here. So justin, what has happened so far in Gary's post conviction fight and where does his case stand? Now? Okay? Well, Gary, you know, of course he filed a direct appeal. And what's very interesting about Gary's direct appeal is that he's we're saying the same thing that we're saying now, right,
Gary has been consistent since day one. He filed a motion to vacate his conviction back in two thousand to One of the issues was the fact that Anthony Holder had a criminal charge that was pending during the trial that was never disclosed. Actually, Kyle Reeves, as per usual, I should say, Kyle Reeves, failed to turn that over and actually indicated that Anthony Holder had never been arrested for in his life, which was totally untrue. That just
goes along with Kyle Reeves's theme. But as of right now, you know, we are really reinvestigating the forensics at the scene and pulling all the files from the NYPD and the District Attorney's office to prepare for another four forty or to go to the conviction Review Unit, which I do think would be very interested in this case based upon how unreliable the evidence is here that convicted Gary
and the evidence of innocence. Uh. You know, Jason, I think the biggest thing is what makes a case like Gary's very strong is the evidence that's in the possession of the prosecutor. And when you look at that, including Augustine Hanksen led him in Bolton and then a caller, three people all say that Gary bin Lost is not the shooter here, He's not the person that killed Victor Vulcan. And I think that that's overwhelming evidence of innocence in
comparison to and any holder. And that's what we're working on right now is tying that all together, both forensically and through our investigation and to see if there's any more Brady evidence out there, because there was at least one witness that was interviewed that was friends with Victor Vulcan that stated that Victor Vulcan had beef with people
from his own block. He was not from the block where he was found murdered at So we you know, we are investigating all these claims before we do anything, but we're we're evaluating whether we go forward with another motion to vacate or go to Brooklyn's conviction review. You know, justin what can people do? And I'm sure people are listening heartbroken and angry and motivated. So what can people
do to help bring some semblance of justice? Right Gary um I would say start off by reaching out to Eriknzals Brooklyn d A's office, and also Gary has a change dot org page, and support the petition and continue to support people who are like Gary. I think that's the biggest problem. There needs to be more support from a broader base in the country. Right. It has to be more than just the people that have been affected
by rongful convictions. It has to be people that are just regular, average American citizens because they need to understand that this could be you, because it could be you. It could be your son, it could be your daughter, it could it could be anybody. It could be you, and people need to stop acting like that's not a that's not a fact. We will link in the bio to the petition and to other information about the case.
Please do click on the link in the bio, sign the petition and get involved, and will hopefully be able to publish an update to this episode sometimes in not too distant future, where we get to speak with Gary from the outside. And now, of course it's time to turn to the closing of our show, which everyone knows is called closing arguments, and this is where I thank
you guys again. I'm going to turn over to you first, justin for your thoughts, any other thought do you want to share, and then of course hand off to Gary and he'll take us off into the sunset. The first thing that we really need to consider in this case is because it happens over and over and over again in identification cases, is where there's a description that does
not match the person that they end up arresting. Obviously, common sense says that the suspect should match the description that the witnesses say was the perpetrator, and Gary's case is very typical, especially in a place like New York City, where the police don't care. They just don't care. They get a name, they focus on the name. They don't care that that the person that is this name doesn't match the description of the perpetrator given by the witnesses.
That just goes right out the window. People don't think that that's true. But Gary is evident to that. And I can tell you, as an attorney that practices in New York City every day, that that happens all the time, and it's still happens in and Gary is a He's a spot on case of where the police didn't care, and the police didn't care because they knew his name, they knew who he was. They focused in on him. They put him in a photo array with a photo
that didn't match anything that looked like him. It matched more the description of what the witnesses said the perpetrator looked like. And what I mean by that is obviously a photo array. All you really have is the head. The person had short hair in the photo right right, so that at least matched more the description of the perpetrator. They went and they went arrested Gary. Then they put him in a lineup where he looks nothing like he
looked in the photo array. And Robert Ready is the one that handles the identification and the witnesses somehow identify him in the lineup. The person that's running these procedures should not be involved with the investigation and they should not know who the subject is. And Robert Ready has done this before, He's gotten called out, cases have been thrown out. He because he suggested and tainted identification procedures.
And then who does Robert Ready hand the case off to Kyle Reeves, whose framed numerous men, scumback of the highest order, And and and people need to understand what is the d a's job. The d a's job is to vet the police's investigation. Kyle Reeves doesn't vet an investigation. He takes the investigation and he fixes it. He does
the opposite of what you're supposed to do. And even in the face of descriptions of a perpetrator that are eighty pounds less and half a foot shorter than Gary ben Laws and having a haircut that doesn't match the afro that Gary ben Law says, there's nothing about the shooter in this case that matches the description of Gary ben Laws, Kyle Reeves still takes this to trial. He puts let him in bolting on the stand. She stands up in court. He asked him, you see the guy
that shot the victim, Victor Vulcan here. She says no. She says no, her testimony matches her initial description of the shoe, which it was not gary Ben Lost. That's a non identification. He puts Anthony Holder on the witness stand. Anthony Holder gives a ridiculous testimony that is not consistent at all with the evidence at the scene, not consistent at all with the other witnesses at the scene. Says that a little girl was shot at the scene. There is no NYPD record of a little girl being shot.
And let me tell you, if a little if a child was shot at the scene, gary Ben Lost to be doing a lot more than life, Okay, he would be, and there would be absolutely police reports indicating that medical reports indicating there wasn't. Anthony Holder completely lies that there's not one shred of his testimony that is true. And then another witness comes in and says that it wasn't
gary Ben Lost. That the calls. But what the defense failed to do here which they often do, as they failed to put on the caller that described the shooter as five ft eight dark skin with short hair. The defense failed to cross examine led Him in Bolton, even though she said that Gary ben Laws wasn't the person
that she saw fining the weapon that day. The jury never heard the description of led Him in Bolton, that that the shooter matched the description and body type of the victim, who was five hundred and sixty eight pounds. That could have definitively proved to the jury. It would have overridden the terrible testimony of Anthony Holder. I don't even really need to do a reinvestigation here. It's clear Gary is innocent. He's been in jails for over twenty
years at this point. It's a travesty of justice. But it's all too often of a story, especially in a place like New y York City. I witness identification is a real problem in New York City. It's all too often of a story. And it is just tragic with Gary because he should have never been arrested, should have never been charged, and he was just railroaded. The traumatic and irreparable effects of wrongful conviction just don't affect those
wrongfully convicted. It also impacts the lives of their families, their communities, and the fabric of our nation. Let explain what I mean. I would like to share this letter with you all. It was written by my beloved son, Isaiah Belos, who was seventeen years old at the time. It reads, Dear Sir Madam, I'm writing on behalf of my father, Gary Belos. When I was a baby, I never really got the chance to spend time and bond
with my father until I got older. This situation really got to me while I was growing up without him. He wasn't there when I first picked up a basketball and when I first rode a bike. Also, he wasn't there when I graduated elementary and middle school. All I wish is for me and him to go out and bond with each other. Even though he wasn't there for my elementary and middle school years, I hope he can be there when I graduated from high school. In I hope whoever is reading this you find it in your
heart to give my father early parole. Please thank you in advance. The SAILI Isaaiah Benlos. That was written in April twenty second of and as you see, I'm still in prison, so he never got that wish for me
to be there for his graduation. In June of the month following his graduation, he sent me a car for my birthday and if be happy birthday to the real O G. I just want to say thank you for being real with me, believing in me when no one did, still being real and never switching up and sticking it
through even in these hard times. I know you can't be out here with me and wishing things could have been different, But I always reminded myself and never regret what I have, because then I wouldn't have you in my amazing girlfriend and family that I love dealing. I appreciate and love you Dad. Hopefully when you get out
you can make up for lot times. I love your pops to tell your son Isaaiah Bengas again those wishes will never be manifested because just a day after receiving this card from my son, he was in a tragic car accident that le declaimed this life. So as I leave you, go here with these final thoughts. As I studied before, the state of wrongful conviction doesn't just impact those wrongfully convicteds, it also affects the families. Thank you,
Thank you for listening to wrongful conviction. I'd like to thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff Clyburne 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. Rob Conviction is the production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number one h