In October nineteen ninety seven, two overlapping groups of friends from New York, one known as the Cream Team, the other is the Gods, were living in York, Pennsylvania. Three of these young men were Danny Steele, Melvin Bethune, and
Tisheem Crocker. On October fifth, seven, at a corner dice game, Melvin and Tysheim spoke to another New York guy about a previous beef when gunshots rang out and the crowd dispersed, but no one was hurt until about five minutes later and two blocks away, when a young man named Raymond Clark had been fatally shot. When the investigation of the murder led to Danny Steel, he told the police that Raymond's death was part of a larger organized action involving
a disagreement between rival New York gangs. At the dice game, he alleged that Melbourne and Tisheem had rounded up some muscle from back in New York, including Steel and three others, to confront the opposing gang, the Gods. In the lead up to this confrontation, they allegedly checked into a motel and hatched a plan that allegedly resulted in the death
of Raymond Clark. Clearly, local law enforcement had only one choice to believe Danny Steele and do their part on the front lines of America's war on drugs by taking as many of these New York gangsters off their streets as they possibly could. But this is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to rongful conviction. Today, we're going to cover a case in which the soul is Sailan who is responsible for the murder, got off with less than three years
for giving false testimony against two innocent men. And I'm going to introduce one of those men now. He's calling in from a maximum security prison in Pennsylvania. Ty Sheem Crocker. Even though I hate the reason why you're at where you're at, but I gotta say I'm really happy and honored to have you. I'm glad i'm here. Thank you, Thank you for having me. You're most welcome, and with him is his post conviction pro bono attorney. The TCA shop is free. Latsia, Welcome to the show. Thank you
for having me. Jason, You're also very welcome, So Tyshim. This crime happened in Pennsylvania, but you're not from there. Originally, from the Bronx. Right, so tell me a little bit about your childhood. I was born to a teenage mother. My mom was sixteen. You know, she wasn't ready to be a mother yet, so she put me, enforced the kid, and I spent my first four years out in Queens. It was like eighty one. She decided she wanted to be back and moved back to the Bronx. It was rough,
we were we were poor. I was pretty much terrified at my mom. I was like the only person I was skilled around the Asia. Twelve, I was back and forced the kids, and out of a president, I just became a street kid. So tyshim. He had a pretty hard life and it was living in the Bronx. You know, this is at the height of the crack epidemic. Friends of his are literally dying because my best friend I just got cute. I was fourteen. He was fifteen when
he got CUE. The next day, another one of my closest friend, Scott qu and I was offered but rely to go to York. So I jumped on the bus. What did you do to support yourself to survive out there? I started and I started taking back from people old. So this is the sort of thing where you did the dirty work for the older guys because in theory, at least a minor wouldn't get into that much trouble, right. That's so it's my understanding that is a pretty low level drug dealer him and a lot of the kids.
He also runs with a group of young people known as like the Cream Team. And you know, there's several groups, but two of them are called the Gods and the other ones the Cream Team. The District Attorney's office trying to paint this is some gang, but really cream just means cash rules everything around me. So they were Wood Tank fans, yes, and I mean anyone who's aware of Wu Tang Cash rules everything around me is probably there could be their most iconic song and terms like gods
and earths. Some of the members of Wu Tang are really into the theories of the five percent nation where those terms come from. And we could get into all of that in a totally different podcast. But Wu Tang had just come out with their debut album, Entered the thirty six Chambers, So guys like Taisheem and Melbourne that was the soundtrack of their childhood. The Cream Team and the gods were once the kids were growing up together. We went to the same schools, the party together, and
we ended up in hustling. So were you on the radar of the York Police before all of this happened. I spoke about a week in prison for a couple of banks in marijuana that was like eighteen It was like forty fucking grand for some weed. Jesus well. I mean, this was the nineties when the War on drugs was in full swing. It still is, unfortunately large. And if you're listening to us right now, you might want to check out our new series called The War on Drugs.
We're gonna have a linked in to bio check it out The War on Drugs podcast. And back then, as we've seen time and again on this program, even involving a low level drug deal and can make that person a target for a wrongful conviction. So let's get to
early October. In the lead up to this dice game and the shooting, there was some actual beef that had started a few days before between your co defendant, Melvin Bethune and a friend of this guy, Ken Do Smith, and this served as an allegend motive for what happened later, But this was kind of like a small time beef, right. There was no conflict that rose to the level of want to take a life right, and Kendall Smith wasn't the victim anyway, but rather a guy named Raymond skip Clark,
who I'm guessing was one of the gods as well. No, he wasn't a member of the gods. He wasn't even friends with Smith. Got night. No gods who at this dice game except so the states the here about a beef between the Gods and the Cream team is not holding up so far. It's full of holes. But this beef, however, inconsequential, was something you intended to bring up with Kendy Smith
when you saw him at the dice game. This was October fifth, on the corner of Maple and Duke in New York, Pennsylvania, where there was a regular dice game. Ken Do Smith was there as well as Melvin Bethune Danny Steele. You had just got back from the Bronx and a bit before eleven pm you arrived at the game and Raymond Clark was there as well. I never saw Raymond Clok then, but according to the court documents, he was. He was at the dice game. He was
playing games. I had got to the dice game and I told the work I needed to talk to him. Before we could talk, shot was fired, he weren't, and I ducked. No one knows who fired that shot. He came from behind me. When I'm ducked in all end, you know it was most shots fired, No one was injured, proximately filed him in his laden and two blocks of weight. According to shot Shush group, more shots were fined. That
is a Raymond Clark was shot at. So not only had you not even seen the victim at the dice game, but at this point you had no idea that anyone had even gotten hurt. So shots were fired, everyone scattered, total chaos. Did you have a clue to anyone have a clue why this was even happening. There's essentially no serious beef at the time where they feel like they should be targeted for any reason. But they're taking off because there's gunfire and they know what gunfire can do.
So when I got a hotel, But according to the States theory, you checked into the hotel before going to the dice game, before Raymond Clark's death sometime between like ten and eleven PM. That is what they wanted the Jewelry and the court to believe. I checked into the Super eight at about twelve thirty one in the morning. I let mel know what I was going, I let any know where I was going, and they spent the
night with me. And at that not only did you not know that Skip Clark was dead, but you also didn't know that your boy Danny Steel was about to use a shared room at the Super eight as a premise for a false statement, which really ends up being the basis of the state's entire case. And we'll get to that in a bit. But first, what do we know about the initial investigation, Like how did they even end up coming upon Danny? So we have no idea
exactly what happened. Tysheim's lawyer, the person who would have gotten the box of evidence or whatever he's passed when we go to Melvin's attorney, this is over twenty plus years ago. He doesn't have that box, so the usual trough of information was not available. But what we do know about this incident is that there were a thought of witnesses, some of whom spoke with you and your
lead investigator, Kitty Hayley way later. Well, what we find out later is that Raymond Clark he's found with drugs on his person, and it is noted that he apparently owed Danny Steele some money. Turns out, maybe, I think like a week after that, Danny was interrogated, and at least four people have testified both the trial and in
post conviction that Danny Steele was the shooter. So that should have been it, but instead a story at a strategy was being concocted with Danny Steele in order to drag more people down the rabbit hole with him, turning this tragedy into an opportunity for the authorities to sweep the streets from those they considered undesirable, namely Melvin and Tysheim, who for months went about their lives, eventually hearing about Raymond Clark's death and having no idea that one of
their friends, Danny, was saving himself from life in prison at their expense by creating this phony narrative in which members of the Cream team met at the Super eight Motel and conspired to confront the gods at this dice game about the beef with Melvin, and This group allegedly included Taysheem, Melvin, Danny, and three other men from New York, one of whom was named Corleone, was a made up figures. Danny still ma it up so he could send this
homazon on somebody shooter. It's like they sat around and watched The Godfather and then went and tried a case. That's how it feels. Some dynam cor Leone who has never been identified, and some other guys from New York. They all go to the Super eight Motel and they want blood for what happened in Melbourne yesterday. Melbourne was disrespected or something and they want blood. So they're all going to get guns from a friend's house and then they're going to go down there and shoot up the
gods at a dice game. Now. The theory continued that in order to arrive at the dice game before the shootings took place around eleven PM, this alleged crew of Muscle from the Bronx had to have checked into the Super eight Motel by ten thirty PM or earlier in order to have time for a thirty to sixty minute plotting session as well as picking up the guns but when they arrived at the dice game, Tayshim allegedly pointed a gun at Kenda Smith and tried to shoot him,
but the gun allegedly malfunctioned that didn't fire, so the rest of this alleged tame team hit squad open fire, and everyone at the dice game ran for their lives. No one was hurt, and ken Do Smith has since gone on the record saying that Tishee never pulled a
gun on him. Other eyewitnesses also corroborated that the only evidence of this version of events is Danny steele statement, which continued saying that then he another man and this fictitious guy named core Leone chased Raymond Skip Clark, and this fictional core Leone guy, not Danny Steele, allegedly shot and killed Clark. So that's how Steele shifted total blame from himself and alleged that he was just a co conspirator, not the lone shooter. Now, Danny Steele, this is important.
He has charged with the exact same crimes as Melvin and Tayshem, so you would think he'd get the exact same punishment or close for murder, for conspiracy to commit murder, he did two years in the county jail, presumably because he couldn't go to state prison because you know, he was a known sniff. From what I understand, he had also been convicted of perjury twice before. So this is the guy on whom the entirety of the state's case rests and what they used to issue arrest warrants for
both Melvine and Taysheim. And at the time, Melvin had just pled guilty to some unrelated drug charges. Correct, he takes a plea and he's getting ready to go prison, and the police come to let him know that he's been indicted on these charges, and he's just shocked. There's no conversation. They don't take him down to the police station and interview him. They had all the information they
wanted from Danny Steele. Now, Tyshem, you were back in New York at the time, and during a routine traffic scop, NYPD discovered that you were wanted in New York, Pennsylvania. How did Loan arrested that I was a fugitive? I got picked up January fifty which eighth Avenue. I was arrested and I haven't been on the street since. And while Pete picks me up. I'm extra tited down New York when I was charged. When he gets to York
and he's in the County jail, there's no interview. The information and the story has already been told by Danny Steele. But there's literally a fifteen minutes drive at one point from one drop off location to the jail with a police officer. Dennis Williams was the arresting detective. While he's driving me to the York County prison, he said, I know you didn't kill Rainy Club, but I don't know you're part of the Cream team. I can get you a deal if you cooperate, and I told him I
didn't know nothing innocent. A few months after that, they offered me another deal five to ten, and I turned that down. The day Trouse started, they offered me another deal. They were gonna dismiss all degrees and homicide if I played guiltin's and aggravated, and so I chunked that down to deal. Dennis Williams bit at the end of deal ended up. Danny Steele did less than three years in
the county jail. That's jail, right, not president, And that was part of his deal to avoid running into other people who he had flipped on previously, and so no one was ever charged with being skipped Clark Shooter cor Leon certainly wasn't. It's hard to charge a ghost after all. And now all three of you had been charged with murder,
but only by way of conspiracy and accomplish liability. And this is why your arrival time at the Super eight motel is so important to the States theory, as is the part of Danny Steele's Testallize where he alleged that you drew a gun on Kendall Smith that never did fire. So conspiracy liability acquires proof of an agreement or a common design to commit the unlawful act for which the
person is convicted. So a person cannot be convicted of conspiracy from merely being present during the commission of a crime. There has to be some step taken, some proof of the agreement, you know, and then obviously the crime. For accompless liability, it requires more than mere presence during the commission of a criminal act, even if the accused knew that the crime was to be committed. So we see like accomplss liability, like after the fact, you know, someone
who's helping to conceal or clean something up. So these are really what Taishim as well as Melbourne, we're convicted under. Also, you know, a lot of that prosebratorial case light on something called transferred intent, which basically means if I pull out a gun and I'm trying to shoot you, but I accidentally shoot your friend or someone standing next to you, you know it would have been attempted murder because I
purposefully knowingly was aiming at you. But it's still first degree murderer even though I had no intention of killing your friend, because the intention had already formed. And so
throughout the trial we'll hear of transferred intent in those transcripts. So, because you were alleged to have met beforehand establishing the intent, and then followed through with your part of the supposed conspiracy by allegedly pulling a gun on kend Smith, that then made you in turn responsible in some degree for the murder of Skip Clark, the alleged and result of this alleged organized confrontation. Minister, I didn't do it. I
didn't realize what conspiracy lords accomplished. Liability was. I didn't realize when you move pieces on the test board to Atlanta. The way you want it to be seen. You can
make something look like something that it wasn't. We were kids, you know, in our adversaries were chrome men season, you know, politicians prosecuted, and I did not realize what was going on until it was too late, that they had fabricated a narrative with Danny Steele to convict you through these conspiracy and accomplished liability laws that you were unaware of. So Melvin was already in prison for the unrelated drug charges, so he didn't bond out, but neither did you. You
both were being held separately from Danny Steele. But at this point you didn't even know about what he had done, right, So when did you first realize what he was doing to you? The first time I see him is at my preliminary here and he's testifying against me. You know, he's saying that the leader of the Cream team that prior to the Dice Game shooting, that we met at
a motel and agreed to kill someone. Actually at the preliminary here when he said we agreed to step to these guys to try to squashed his beef with the proceedings is testimony, you know, would constantly change and get more dramatic and more incriminating. There were a lot of inconsistencies in the telling of these various stories as by Danny Steele, But there wasn't necessarily a rigorous, vigorous defense from Tai Shim's counsel. Melvin's counsel, when looking at the transcript,
tended to do a better job right. Both families had hired council prior to the January ninety nine trial, but only Melvin's family was able to pay and maintain counsel. So this attorney that was representing me at the time, Alan Smith, you know, he was never paid him full and uh, he thought the motion to withdraws council. I didn't know that. I could have still been getting counsel by the state, which probably would have been a bad
attorney anyway, as bad as he was. But he never did nothing after that, after the judge told him the motion was denied, we could see to proceed to trial without an investigation, and we're going on. So it sounds like you didn't even have an attorney. Absolutely, I didn't have an attorney. I didn't have a shoot. I have foods. I didn't have family, I didn't have an attorney, tayshim would come to the courthouse not the suit, but in
an orange jumpsuit. So this was not you know, someone being able to put forth their best defense and in order to combat the state, especially with what we now know that they were willing to hide, You're going to need a vigorous investigation from zealous attorneys and the whole team that would have done things like called ken Do Smith to the stand. He has since gone on the record that you did not, in fact point a gun
at him, which directly contradicts the state's narratives. Now, how your counsel didn't at least contact can do is just it's irresponsible and desire. It's even it's disgusting actually, But even more bizarre's how Danny Steele did something on the stand that even I've never heard of before. Throughout the trial, he kept mentioning that, you know, he wasn'tcentivized, that he's hoping, he's hoping that the prosecutors do right by him and only give him two to five years in the county,
and that's exactly what they give him. He literally told the judge and jury why his own statement was unreliable. He's like, I'm receiving a benefit for lying here. He's spelling it out. Now, how are they supposed to trust anything he said? But they did. I can't get over this, and we already went over what Steele said before the
shooting at the dice game. He plays Taysheim Melvin himself at three other guys, including this core Leone character at the Super eight motel between ten and eleven PM for this conspiracy meeting, and the manager of the Super eight guy named Alfred Milburn corroborated this. Why we're not sure because the clerk who actually checked tayshim into the hotel. The person who actually knew this information was a woman named Terry Flinch, Boss Seiler, and what she told police
directly and totally contradicted Albert Milburn's phony narrative. She's the one who checks Taishi min. She knows this. Now. Raymond Clark dies at PM that night, that's when he shot. We know this for a fact. She doesn't come on and tell eleven PM right. The state spoke to her, but they didn't want to hear about how taysheem checked at a twelve thirty one o'clock in the morning and at this conspiracy meeting, in fact, that never took place. She tried to offer help and they didn't want to
hear it. She had documents, you know, where he signed, as well as any telephone calls he would have made it out of that room because it's the nineties, and they could have turned that over to Tayshiem's lawyers, and that never happened, and perhaps these documents, the telephone records
may have also been time stamped. MS Flinch boss Seiler says that the records she maintained for the hotel have a bottom section which indicates the exact times the calls made from each room, so it's not known if the police or prosecutors were in possession of that part of the document. But the documents used at trial were the only ones that she was asked to review, that she was asked to talk about, and they don't have the exact times the calls made, and no one from the
defense went looking for Callogg's. It's totally irresponsible. I mean, it would have been helpful to know what time the calls were made, but that specifically wasn't in the documents used by the state of trial, and from what I understand, they deliberately limited Terry Flinch Boss Sailors testimony. She was told by the prosecutors, you're not allowed to speak. You're going to answer yes or no to my questions. Right.
They were merely trying to establish that a phone call had taken place, but they specifically did not want to know when, and they definitely didn't want to know when her shifts started or when Tishee, Melvin and Danny were checked in because that would have blown up their case. They knew about Terry and these phone records, so it looks like they knew that they were presenting false testimony. Now, the phone call was important to them because it corroborated
Melvin's presence at the alleged conspiracy meeting. It was alleged that he had called his girlfriend at the time, Dave Tucker Redman, and told her what his intention was, which was to go down to the dice game and shoot up the gods. It was also alleged that a fourteen year old girl named Nikki Rhodes overheard this conversation. The state made a number of false statements during opening and closing that they never backed up by calling these alleged witnesses,
Ducker and Nikki. Our investigator was able to speak with Tucker, so she was dating Melvin. She did speak with him that night. She never told the prosecutor or the police that Melvin was interested in hurting or shooting up the
young men on the corner plane craps. When she discovered what the prosecutor, specifically Prosecutor Kelly, had said in open court, she was not present at the time, but she became incensed to learn that he claimed she came to court willingly she was subpoena to come to court, and that he had lied about what she had heard and said
that evening. When she discovered that the prosecutor during a sidebar, had told the judge that her conversation was overheard and passed along by Nicki Rhodes, she proclaimed that also to be alive. Nicky confirmed that she had no knowledge of the interaction between Melvin Bethune and Taker Redman on the eight of the shooting in of Skip Clark. She was adamant that she was a younger at the time with no knowledge of anything related to the crime. She did
not testify and she was not asked to testify. I guess the state strategy was, if you're gonna lie, go big, And they were able to hide those lives from these alleged witnesses because witnesses aren't typically allowed to sit in court and watch the proceedings, But here it seems this rule was a convenient way to hide them from what was being said about them, Like Kalanda Chance, who had told the police that she had been at the scene earlier in the evening but left prior to the shooting.
I knew nothing about it. Now, what did she tell your investigator, Kitty Haley? Kalonda Chance? She was provided with a copy of the trial transcript and was upset to read that the prosecutor was attempting to tie her into a web of lies about Melbourne wanting to shoot up men on the corner. She never knew about the plan to use her as a link between Tacer Redman's conversation
and the actual shooting. She further claimed that the secutors were trying to make two groups of friends, the Cream Team and the Guards, look like a hardened criminal gang, even though that was not so. But even if you want to believe that these two groups were hardened criminal organizations help bent on destroying the otherwise decent, hard working town of New York, Pennsylvania. The evidence simply doesn't support
the state's theory. Terry flinch Bus Sailer was the clerk who checked Tysheim into the Super eight, and her shift started at eleven PM, So even if he was waiting there for her shift to start before he checked in,
there's just not enough time to check in. The Cream team have a thirty minute to an hour long meeting to conspire about confronting the gods, go to another dress to pick up the guns, go to the dice game, shoot up the place, and then chase down and kill ravend skip Clark by eleven thirty Do all that ship in thirty minutes. It's impossible, and they knew it was impossible,
but they went with the theory. And the judge told the Julie that is, I wasn't at that motel prior to the shooting, so I cannot be und guilty as an account or a co conspirator in this case. But while I was on trial, I didn't have the information I'm in possession now right they did, and the state used testimony that they knew was false in order to trick the jury into believing that this alleged conspiracy meeting was both plausible and real, and I'm sure Danny's admission
to his involvement acted as a stamp of legitimacy. Then they alluded to this alleged phone confession from Melvine that was never actually confirmed or corroborated, and the jury bought at Lockstock and Barrel. They convicted you both and sentenced you to life in prison. I watched Melbourne cry after we was conpicted. I cried. I didn't I couldn't believe it. I was in disbelief. I didn't even know we could get life because we didn't kill anybody. No, I'm not
telling the story. I'm living this story. Prison. There's something different than everybody. You know. It's like a hospital. It's like a hotel. It's like a hideout. It's like a hangout. It's like a hostage situation. It's the words so being able, awfully convicted. It's about his funn it's falling off Tony Snowy building. It's gonna struggle. I grew up in prison as a smarty little kid. I hate to hear to day as much as I is. The first day. You
never get used to it. There's nothing more urgent than in freedom, you know what I'm saying. Looked at myself like a hostage, frightening, give back to my family, nol then trying to make peace with the fact that he has a son he'll never watch grow up, that he's going to be spending the rest of his life in a prison for a crime he didn't come it. I don't believe Melvin has ever received legal help. Maybe one
time for a post conviction relief. I don't know that he learned to use the law library and advocate for himself like Tyshane did. Every way good moment on fighting from my life, and he was giving me the worst attorneys. You know, my first attorney was sleeping in the same prison hours in what the US when he dropped the bull. They gave me another lawyer. She was helpful, but she was in over her hair because her expertise was social security claims. So it was really me. I had to
learn the law of myself. So you've taught yourself the law, as we often see as absolutely necessary for our guests to do, and you also saw it outside help like investigators and lawyers, and you've been funding that by writing and selling books. Who are you, dude? That's amazing. I mean, I see you've written eight books. I've written fifteen books, eight published. They're all available for purchase. I just received
by the your latest book. It's called It Could Happen to any of Us, and that's like a mantra of mine. So I'm really looking forward to reading it, and we're going to make sure to link your books in the bio. This is how you've been funding your fight for freedom, and I hope our audience will show their support. So let's talk about that fight. You mentioned that you had some appellate attorneys that were about as useless as your
own as your original trial lawyer. And in Pennsylvania post conviction, I'm not so sure it matters if the lawyers are better or not, since the post conviction statutes make the fight even more difficult than usual. Now, if I understand this correctly, you can find new evidence, even brady material. But if that evidence could have possibly been found, that means it was available to you and therefore it cannot
be considered new evidence. For example, since the Super eight clerk Terry Flinch, Boss Siler was alive and available to be questioned. What she has to say is not considered new evidence, and the fact that the state didn't share it doesn't make it a Brady violation because you could have discovered it on your own or your lawyer could have which sounds fucking absurd. And then in this case they were codefendants. If Melvin had an attorney who litigated
something already, the issue can't be raised. So options run out very quickly, and doors keep closing, and you've been met with denial after denial, even though you've amassed a formidable case for actual incense. And two thousands of three I found out that Danny still had a secret deal with the Commonwealth, the toon and half the five. So I found my first pcl or my own in two thousand and three. I was unsuccessful because they said that
this information was in the public domain. And then I should I could have voted in the first pcl A, the council p c l A with the attorney they gave me, who never read the record, never interviewed me, never trying to interview anybody. See, this is the kind of bullshit I'm talking about. Since the information was in the public domain, meaning that it existed among all the information in the world and wasn't being kept under lock
and key. Then it was technically in the public domain during his first most conviction motion, and his council didn't find it and build a motion around it. So then the issue cannot be raised again. I don't even know what to say. And then there's only a certain amount of time that it can be raised. The judge felt like this information was in the public domain between the time of me filament and when though closing on my first pcol right, and in Pennsylvania back then, you'd only
get sixty days since legislation, you know day now. Oh yeah, that's really fucking generous. I mean, who does legislation like that serve or punished? Think about it. It's not like people who are dead to write is guilty are making credible cases for actual innocence, or at least not likely. So shutting the door on these post conviction motions pretty much solely kept the innocent incarcerated. Since that time, though that legislation has changed, the presumption and knowledge is no
longer a reason to foreclose your post conviction motion. Twenty years ago, it was today, so much good it does for you though. Yeah, yeah, you can't go back. There's retroactivity.
You can't go back and seach what's already happened. So after appealing your denials in two thousand three in the state courts, you went federal challenge my conviction on the federal level because of constitutional licens around MA. You know, the two major issues was that the child Court gave the wrong jury instruction as it applied to accomplish liability and the sector issues and affected the Sister Council for
Faith to investigate. Those are my two strongest issues, and after two and a half years, three years, I found my own hate too, but it was eventually denied. You then filed your fourth PCR A petition to two thousand twelve because Danny Steele recan to his trial testimony. Yeah, you heard that right. Danny Steele was finally doing the right thing. He sent me after David statement that he had been pressing to give false testimony that he had witnessed speed for the gun to do works ahead and
pull the trigger. He also testified about the fake motel meeting, and he was ultimately found to be incredible because he was no longer in jeopardy from the Commonwealth, but he was still allegedly in jeopardy from his code. Deffits you and Melvin, who were both locked up for life while he's out there doing whatever he's doing, living the dream. You know what I find incredible, the fucking balls on
these judges, I mean fucking believable. The only evidence in the case, besides the Super eight manager who we know didn't know his asked from his elbow, the only evidence is Danny Steele's word, which apparently no longer matters. I guess if anyone could be a good judge of Danny's credibility, though, it would be the guys who cooked up the lives
with him to begin with. Both the prosecute is also testified that they need to understand that they says, if he testified falsely, it was something he chose to do. They didn't encourage them to do it, so he found them to be more incredible Danny still, so now you find a way to bolster the recantation. You got in touch with Ken Do Smith, like your trial attorney should have done in the first place, and he was finally
ready to corroborate any Steel's recantations. So that was the focus of your last of your PCR repetitions filed in August, and evidentiary hearing was held in August two thousand seventeen. And this evidencial here Jim Dell Smith shows up and he testifies on the never put a machine gun to my heer to pull the children. And I don't know why Danny still made that up. Had it happened, I
wouldn't be here today saying it didn't happen. Right, Why would he be standing up for his attempted murderer in court. So this adds legitimacy to his testimony, which transfers legitimacy to Danny Steele's recantation. And this would qualify as new evidence in other states, but not in Pennsylvania. This was denied as untimely because this witness was available at the time of trial. It's like running into a brick wall over and over again. Now, meanwhile, at this time, a
chain of events began involving Melvin's son. Now this must have been right after this evidentiary hearing, maybe two thousand seventeen, two thousand eighteen, something really bad happened, and then that thing was almost made even worse the tc A. Can you explain guests who gets found shot multiple times in his car? Danny Steele, I mean, he's just riddled with bullets.
You are. County decides that Melvin Bethune's own son, who grew up without his father, was the person who killed Danny Steele, that he was so angry about him allegedly perjuring himself naming his father, that he decided to lie in wait and killed Danny Steele. Well, Melvin Bethune's son decided to take this thing to trial, and he prevailed.
He was found not guilty, and Danny Steele is dead, which is very sad, of course, But there are many people who may have harbored very bad feelings towards Danny Steele. I mean, I wouldn't play Melvin son if he was angry with Danny Steele. How I'm angry with Danny's deal, even posthumously. But that doesn't mean that Melvin's son murdered anybody. I mean, I don't know all the details, so I
won't comment on the investigation of the prosecution. I do hope that things have changed significantly in York County since the time they wrongfully convicted Melbourne. But at the very least I'm glad one of the Bethunes appears to have had a competent attorney which was also on the horizon from Melvin and Taishim. One of your advocates, Omar Jannette, was instrumental in getting you the competent attorney who we
have with us today. The TC CHAV is for you, And apparently it started off as a change dot org petition that put you on the radar of the Innocence Project of Pennsylvania when Lata just happened to be looking for some pro bono work and reached out to them, And so I contacted Dennison's project and they gave me this case. I collected every record I possibly could, and of course I realized that Melvin Bethune was also behind bars for the same crime as Taishim. And that is
about the time where I hire Kitty Haley. She went back in time. Essentially, she spent weeks and weeks in York and talked to you know, people who knew all of the players involved Kendo, you know, Bethune's girlfriend, the victim, Raymond Clark's mother, Katie Haley, went to New York and went and sat with this woman on more than one occasion and talked to her about her son and what he meant to her. And we have an alpha David.
She literally said that the prosecutors and she named them, told her that Danny Steele was responsible for the murder of her son. But they want as many gang members as possible off these streets, and so they're going to get all three of them. And they're not given Danny Steele a deal. They're not doing that. He's going to get the same amount of time as the others. Well, that's not what happened. You know. I didn't think there was room for these prosecutors to get any less likable,
but trust me, there is even more room. And as we've already discussed, Kitty Haley spoke to all the women who the prosecutors lied about a trial, Tucker Redmond, Kalona Chance, and of course the fourteen year old girl Nicky Rhodes. Then she spoke with Terry flinch Boy Tyler, and we know that she discovered that Terry began her shift at eleven PM and checked tysheim into the Super eight well after Skip Clark had already died, which means this entire
case just fell apart. So I'll meet Kitty Harley the beginning, and it was gooding for me when she said, you know, you've been telling the same story for twenty years, and it felt good. But cit He Hailey gets out there in the field. She speaks to Terry and the Motel Club from the Superley Motel and she adamantly states that she told the prostitution that this theory was flawed, that I could not have been there any time prior to
eleven PM. They said I was there at ten pm, but you know where I was at at ten p m All my way back from New York. I was on the highway at TM TM And she also who made one distinct statement. She said that ever is that they presented at my trial, something was missing and it
had to be detached, that it was ripped doorf. The ripped doorf piece is called the bottom of a folio, a folio that contains information that would have told whoever wanted to see it, exactly what time the room was rent it, if and when any calls with me, how long the calls were, and where they went to the jury never got opportunity to see this. The defense is never in possession of this, and I didn't even know it existed until Kitty Harley furnished the legal team with
her conclusions and these statements. And so presumably those documents are sitting in the District Attorney's office today and that's what we're fighting for to get. But also, this woman has signing out for David. She's willing to come in. And this woman doesn't know anybody, she has no skin
in the game. Under arrested. Objective party witness is telling you that the theories flow, and you decide to perpetuate this fraud and allowed for it to go uncorrected for twny something is based on my studies, this would be considered deliberate and will food deception. No words could do this injustice, any justice. So now that we've heard everything that Kitty dug up, you all were able to petition
the courts based on this evidence. And they said that this was litigated by Melvin back in two thousand seven, and it was denied back then as untimely because Terry Flinch boss Silo was available to testify at trial, so this couldn't be considered new evidence. And most certainly was past the deadline. I mean, what we're seeing in this case over and over again is ineffective assistance at trial. Absolutely all. It all comes down to the beginning stages trial.
So at trial, I had a lawyer who had checked out on me. But the beautiful thing is he did file a Brady. He wrote the action for everything that was Schopinzoy. We know today that with some information that I mean, there's always been a solid case for Brady violations and ineffective assistance here. But so far, I don't think it's a stretch to say that you have been failed not only by your attorneys along the way, but
by the entire judicial system. I understand your plans to file with the York County Conviction Integrity Units, so we hope that they will be able to provide the relief that you have so rightfully deserved. But if not, I'm afraid your only option might be clemency. You know, you have my full support, on the support of our whole team, and right now I'm going to ask for our audience
to lend their support as well. So we're gonna have a lot of things linked in the bio, But the number one call to action is to sign the petition to support your release. I'm literally begging our audience please join us on this one. Just go there right now and sign a petition. Will take you a minute and
a half. And now we go to my favorite part of the show, which is called closing arguments, where first I thank both of you incredible people for being here, and now I'm just going to kick back in my chair, turn my microphone off and just listen to any final thoughts you may have. So let's start with and then Tyshim, please take us out into the sunset for you and
for Melbourne. America as a country and our court system has largely been steeped like a tea bag in racism, and some people are considered worthy and some people are not considered worthy. And I would offer that back in the nineties, two young black men from New York are really considered outsiders and their lives were not worth a lot.
I will never know what the prosecutor was thinking. I don't know the prosecutor, but I know that the hat was hung on somebody who had multiple convictions for perjury, who was highly incentivized, who pled guilty to the same crime and who served less than three years at a county jail. You know that in and of itself is a crime. We know that these two young men did not commit this crime. And what I can say to Taishim as well as Melvin is I'm not giving up
until they walk out. Just support this is a great cause. I fought hard for my freedom for twenty plus years. I've been incarcerated almost a quarter century. I'm innocent. I was awfully convicted. You can go to change the order sign inst petition I was initiated by dj co Gosan. Now you can visit my website. I want my life back. I want to be free. I want to turn my books into movies. I want to help other people awfully convicted.
I want the one day start my own innocence project and be able to help people regain their freedom and their voices back and be returned to their families. That is that's all I want. Thank you for listening to Raval Conviction. I'd like to thank our production team or Haul Jeff Claverne 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 Ralevul Conviction is the production of Lava for Good podcasts and association with Signal Company Number one