#347 Maggie Freleng with Talalelei "TJ" Edwards

In two thousand and four, Tala Lalay Edwards, a young father and husband living in Anchorage, Alaska, was accused of killing a one year old child who was in his care. TJ was adamant he was innocent. He loved children and was known to be a great father to his own sons.

They couldn't bring one person on my behalf. They ever say that they saw me the violent, a violent guy and would do something to a kid. They even took my two boys from me when this happened.

When he went to trial, he was sure the jury would see the truth that he wouldn't hurt anyone, let alone a child.

When they said guilty, I was shocked. And what made it real for me was my mom. She started building out crying and I looked back at her scene or just like getting weak and just everybody's trying to pick her up. I hate re live in that memory that was mme. I was trying to erase, but it's stuck in there. My name is Talala lay Edwards Jr. Everybody knows me as TJ. I was in cars ready for fourteen years for something I didn't commit, and I'm here to tell my story.

From lava for good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today.

Tala L.

Lay Edwards Tala L. Lay Edwards Junior, known as TJ, was born in the Samoan Islands on April seventeenth, nineteen eighty one, to Salome and Edward Senor.

We are from the Islands of Samoa. Mom was born in western Samore and my dad was from American some Moore. For a while, there has just been me and my brother, Richard, who is a year younger than me, before everybody else came, and it was probably like a five or six year gap between the next set of like it was. My two sisters came after me.

And Richard, eventually adding up to nine kids in total. Although the family lived in California briefly when TJ was young, they soon went back to the Samoan Islands.

My dad took us back to the islands so we can learn the culture, the language we speak, and just learn everything about the Samoan culture. And so we stayed there for about four or five years before moving back to California, where the rest of my siblings were born.

He is like a best friend to me.

This is TJ's sister Salome, who's named after the mother. She's six years younger than TJ.

I just remember him always being the one that I looked up to. I wrote a few papers on him in school as like the person that I'm I look up to the most.

After their parents divorced in nineteen ninety five, TJ, as the oldest, found his role in the family evolving, so.

I kind of had to play their father figure off, like watching over my other younger siblings, helping her my mom with just for life because she was just a stay at home mom before you know, my dad separated.

Solme remembers how TJ stepped up for the family at the time. She came to confide in her brother about everything in her life.

When I wasn't doing so good in school, I would go to him and ask him for help on homework or just anything that I wanted to talk to him about, even if it was me dating someone. He was very patient and also always created a say space for me to go and talk to him about anything I was going through.

TJ was only fourteen at the time and couldn't help out financially. Yet, when expenses became too much for his mom, she packed up a car with whatever they could fit and drove herself and her nine kids from California to Anchorage, Alaska, where she had family. So what is living in Alaska like?

Living in Alaska's it's a pretty, you know, slow motion state. It's pretty mellow. At first, I've never seen snow before. So when we came up here, I was like, wow, this is nice.

You know.

It was awesome for the first i'd say six months until I was like, all right, I mean I'm done with the coda.

But things were still hard for the family.

It was a struggle just to live up in Alaska. We were poor growing up, you know, and we didn't have the finance to go get us an apartment, you know, we had to live with my auntie, and then when we moved up here.

Despite the hardships, TJ has fond memories of his childhood.

Being with my siblings up here, you know, just all of us out there in the snow and kind of like just enjoying each other's company, you know, just us bonding together and being there for each other. Was like that was all to me. All I wanted to do was keep the smile on their faces.

We were pretty spoiled because of him.

Salome remembers TJ taking his siblings everywhere he went, like sports games and their favorite hangout.

We always went to check E Cheese. We went like probably once a week, literally.

But life in their part of town was rough.

I dropped out of tenth grade because there's a lot of shootings going on, and our family was definitely one of those houses. I was getting shot at because of you know, certain gangs or whatever they call each other clicks up here that were going through some battles back and forth.

The gangs and anchorage included Samoan street gangs that sometimes fought with Tongan gangs.

And they thought that we were involved in that, me and my siblings, you know, they thought we were involved in any of the gang activities and it wasn't the case. But we were just caughting across fire things and that's what kind of made me and my brothers stepped out of school, like dropped out.

TJ says. At the time, there was a lot of racism and anchorage against Polynesians.

Polynesians were getting into altercations with the police and stuff like that at that time, and we were definitely being frowned upon as far as growing up here with the law against you know, the poly community back then, and it was difficult to like, you know, call them for any kind of help because as soon as they pull up and find out, oh, there's a poly community or Polynesian family, then they kind of like turn their backs on us or not even give us the help that

After TJ dropped out of high school, he went on to receive an education with the Alaska Youth Military Program.

It was for kids that they are troubled youth or whatever and that didn't graduate, but they given this chance to either you go over there to military or you know, you be able to get your your diploma that way.

At this point, TJ also had a girlfriend, Leona.

And when I went into this youth academy program in ninety nine, come to find out that we were expecting the kid later on that year in November, which I had my first son, which is John t Moses Edwards. So we got married August fourteenth, ninety nine, and Johnsy was born in eleven seventeen, nineteen ninety nine.

TJ was nineteen at the time. He had been considering a career in the military, but becoming a father put a spin on his plans.

It was just one of those things that I fell in love with seeing my son being born. I didn't want him to grow up without a father, you know what I mean, being away, So just me and my siblings growing up without our father. That's what really made me want to stay home with him all the time and didn't want to go nowhere, So I ended up not going to the military.

Instead. TJ took on two jobs in Anchorage when at Applebee's, and one is a security guard. He and Leona got their own place. In the spring of two thousand and one. TJ and Leona opened their house up to their close friend Melissa and her one year old son, Derek. Derek was TJ and Leona's godson, so they didn't hesitate when Melissa needed a place to live.

We didn't want them to be out there in the streets, and I have nowhere to stay, so we had an extra room and absolutely I said sure, why not. She ended up moving in with us, and we started noticinging like a pattern. She loves to go out and have fun.

Often leaving Derek in TJ's care, but he was fine with that.

You know, I don't mind watching my godson because him and my son are pretty much, you know, the same age.

Melissa and Leono worked together, so when TJ wasn't working and the babysitter was unavailable, TJ took care of both Derek and john Te. TJ even got certified as a caregiver and learned CPR and other first aid. One day, while TJ was watching the boys, he noticed a scratch on the back of Derek's head and he mentioned it to Melissa.

He was like, hey, have you noticed anything wrong with your son's head? Like, and she was like, oh, She had no idea where the scratch came from.

Derek had also been sick for a few days. He wasn't eating and was throwing up a lot. Melissa was already planning to bring him to the doctor.

So we tell there's, well, you know, you should probably go and have this looked at, you know, when you go to a doctor. So when you brought Derek back to the house, we asked himself, did you mention anything about their head injury? And she never mentioned it, So we were kind of like stunk, like why not, why didn't you tell the doctor whoever was seeing about you know, that scratch behind his head.

A few days later, on the morning of May eighth, two thousand and one, Melissa left Derek with TJ and John Tay while she went to work. Leona had already left the house for the day too. TJ was alone with the boys.

She brought him in the room. He was sort of crying a little bit, and then he stopped crying, and then you know, we went downstairs. I started cleaning up the house and everything.

But soon TJ noticed Derek wasn't doing well.

I noticed him not responding or just breathing period.

When TJ picked him up, he saw that Derek's eyes were half open and his fists were clenched. TJ tried blowing air in his face to arouse him, but Derek was not responding.

And so I immediately I freaked out. I started doing CPR and him and rushing to the hospital instead of calling nine one.

One, because TJ still didn't trust the police.

I've had issues with calling any kind of authorities or whatever, so my immediate reaction was to make sure that Derek makes it there alive.

Still.

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They went back there, and it took forever for them to come tell me what was going on. As lay sir, can you go in the front. You got some some past that wants to talk to you, stuff like that, and I'm like, okay, I'm thinking maybe they'lln't tell me what's going on.

But instead one of the detectives started questioning him. TJ told the detective everything he knew. He was just cleaning up the house when he noticed Derek struggling to breathe.

He's saying, no, something happened. You shook the baby or something. And I'm like, shake the baby, what are you talking about? You know, and I was kind of dumbfounded about the whole situation, like, why are you accused of me?

At eight fifty five that night, Derek was taken off ventilator support and died. Doctors had discovered that Derek's brain was bleeding and swollen, but showed no signs of blunt force trauma. Brain bleeding and swelling, bleeding in the eyes, and little or no evidence of external trauma were known at the time as the triad supposedly telltale signs of

They're you know, the whole time, they were like convinced that I did it that morning, you know, like, oh yeah, look how big years. And that's what the detective was kept drilling to me after when he was interviewing, You're like, TJ, man, look how big yard. Like if I was a kid and you were over here like shaking me, I would be in the same position, Derek saying.

I'm like, what, are you a big guy?

Yeah? I was. I wouldn't say like a big guy, but I mean I was. I was too sixty at that time. I was, you know, pretty athletic and stuff, and I didn't really see myself as a as a Polynesian, like a big you know, and that's how they look at us, you know, you guys are pretty big people, and so I yeah, I was kind of like freaking out, like, wow, they are actually jelly for me.

Now.

The investigation into Derek's death took nearly six months. During that time, police failed to investigate any other angles besides SBS. In fact, they often disregarded evidence that did not point to SBS. For example, police and doctors ignored the fact that Derek had been sick before his death, and was in fact taking multiple medications a doctor had prescribed to address his symptoms. Also, in the weeks before his death, while being babysat by two twelve year old girls, Derek

She said, yes, I went to cops and I told him that you didn't do it. I know you didn't do it. You would never do something like this with my son, because she knew, like I took care of her son better than she's ever done, you know what I mean. I've always been there to bathe him, and you know, whenever she's too tired to care for him or whatnot. And plus you know, Derek and my son, like we're almost the same age and they play with

On October tenth, two thousand and one, TJ was working one of his jobs when the police showed up.

There is like seven patrol cars that came on base. I didn't know what was going on. I'd seen my boss walking with a whole bunch of guys behind him. Those were the detectives that are coming to apprehend me for the charge of the shaking babysitter case.

TJ was arrested and charged with manslaughter and second degree murder. Salome was shocked when she found out. She remembers thinking about her youngest sister, who is thirteen years younger than TJ.

My mom left my dad when she was only a week old. So TJ was literally like her father growing up, and I've seen him like change her diverse, you know, literally everything. So it was hard to it was hard to even accept that's what they were charging him with or arresting him. For because that's just not what I could never imagine him doing.

In addition to the charges, TJ was hit with a double whammy.

They even took my two boys from me when this happened.

By this time, Leona had given birth to their second son, Javin.

They said I couldn't be around my kids until further investigation. And you know, when they took my kids from must, I couldn't believe it. I just felt like there was a nightmare. I just I still remember that day like vividly right now, and that's why I was like, man, I just hated that feeling.

TJ's trial started two and a half years later in March of two thousand and four. The prosecutor was Adrian Bachmann, and the case against TJ was thin.

They can bring one person on my behalf. They ever say that they saw me be violent, a violent guy, and we'll do something to this, you know, to a kid.

The prosecution's entire case rested solely on the idea that only violently shaking a baby could cause the symptoms Derek had, and that the injuries could have only happened within a few hours of Derek's death, when only TJ was home with him.

The testimony a trial was pretty consistent with if these three symptoms show up, it's child abuse and shaking baby, and it has to have happened within the last couple of hours.

This is Bill Oberly. He's the executive legal director of the Alaska Innocence Project. He says this was pretty much the only evidence presented at trial.

No signs on Derek of any fresh injuries, no signs that he was picked up and held tightly and shaken, no neck injuries. There was nothing presented that would support provide physical evidence of the allegations they were making.

However, one neighbor did testify to hearing a noise like furniture dropping quote loud enough that it shook the ceiling. The prosecution suggested this was TJ slamming Derek on the floor. So how did the defense respond?

That was much of the defense was that there was no indication of any fresh injuries.

TJ's attorney was Rex Butler.

The defense called one expert witness, Janice Ophoven, who was a forensic pathologist.

Doctor Ophoven testified that there were indications of iron deposits in Derek's brain.

When blood starts to decompose after bleeding, like in the brain, iron is formed, and so the presence of iron in Derek's brain meant that the injury he suffered would have been five to seven days old.

But that wasn't enough reasonable doubt for the jury. After three days of deliberations, on April first, two thousand and four, TJ was convicted of second degree murder.

I didn't think it was real because I got convicted on April Fool's Day. When they say guilty, I looked at my attorney, I say, did they just say guilty? I was shocked. And what made it real for me that I knew that they say guilty was my mom. She started helping out crying and I looked back at her and not just seeing her just like getting weak and just everybody's trying to pick her up, and I

Twenty two year old TJ was sentenced to twenty years in prison the minimum sentence.

At the time, first, it was a scary you know, just a scary just a being incarcerated. You see a lot of movies about prison, and you know, for me to actually be there, and yeah, I didn't want to do nothing. I didn't even eat their food for a whole year. I started questioning that, man, where did I go wrong? And you know, with my life, you know, there's a lot of questions going through my head. I didn't know what to do.

Leona brought their kids to see TJ regularly, but as his years in prison went on, TJ's relationship with Leona deteriorated.

I didn't blame her for it, you know what I mean, It gets lonely out there for people. Of course, she has needs and wants stuff like that that need to be met, and she ended up going her separate way. And it was tough to even explain it to my kids, but they knew what was going on. Like in some of our visits, will start kissing and hugging each other, and then as we started getting years in, they noticing us just not even doing that. I'm doing that with

TJ and Leona divorced in twenty ten. But in the middle of that, TJ got some good news. His sister, Salome told him she was engaged.

The reason why I even seen potential in my husbands because he reminds me so much of my brother. He embodies everything that I could say that I would be looking for in a man.

But Salome told her fiance that they couldn't get married until TJ was out. She had always dreamed of having her big brother walk her down the aisle, and.

Because of that, we were waiting for his appeals they were getting denied.

After about five years, TJ told her not to wait any longer.

He called me and he said, I don't know why you keep putting your.

Life on hold. You should go ahead and marry him. And I didn't want to because I wanted him to be there, but because he was like, all my appeals

Life was passing tjby as he sat in prison.

All I was trying to do was get out as soon as I could, like going and hating the law library, learning about my case and just seeing what kind of what else I can do to help give me out sooner. And so that's what that about the Alaska Innocence Project.

He immediately reached out to tell them about his case, and in twenty eleven he got a letter back from Bill Oberly and.

He's willing to take over my case and give it a shot, you know, give me a second chance at go in the courts. I was like wow. I remember calling my family up and just in tears is of happiness, like, oh wow, this is the second chance that I've always wanted. I pray for I look forward to it, you know what I mean. So just to know that I do have a fighting chance to get out.

We at the ASK Innocence Project and all the Innocence projects in America take their jobs really seriously, and we have to be convinced that our client is innocent before we are willing to go forward. And that is my feeling about t J. Edwards, that I have no doubt that he is innocent. Twenty eleven was when the shaking baby syndrome belief was starting to be challenged in a fairly strong degree. And as I dug deeper into TJ's case,

Today, experts agree that there can be other explanations for the triad, like seizures or even a shortfall. Bill says that Derek's strange sickness and the symptoms days before he died clearly showed something else was going on with him, and that investigators should have considered this.

The basis of the conviction. The medical legal testimony that was the basis of the conviction can no longer support the conviction, and therefore it is a wrongful conviction and needs to be overturned.

For years, Bill worked on preparing TJ's appeal, but in twenty fifteen, twenty years after he was first incarcerated, TJ was released on parole. He completed his parole term in the summer of twenty twenty one. Although TJ is no longer a prisoner of the state, he is still labeled a convicted baby killer.

I'm somewhat free. I'm still with my name not clear. That's how I look at it. I'm still incarcerateds you know what I mean, until everything is exhausted and getting clear from the system. That's why I look at being free.

Meanwhile, TJ is trying to adjust to life outside prison.

I ain't gonna lie this whole incarceration. That definitely my loss, like my joy in life, as far as like all the fun things I used to love. I used to love Christmas, I used to love birthdays. I used to love anniversaries. I used to love like just celebration. Right when I got out, I feel like if I was to be celebrated and happy, like you'll get taken away from me, just like that. If I have too much fun, it's gonna get taken away from And that's what incarceration did for me.

In twenty eighteen, Bill filed a post conviction challenge to TJ's conviction, stating that the changes in forensic evidence invalidate the conviction. They are still in litigation.

The fact that a shortfall cannot cause these injuries is no longer voured testimony. How many doctors do you need to come forward and say that.

TJ is now working at an oil field in the North Slope Borough in Alaska and is saving to buy a home for his family. He's remarried to a woman named Morgan, is a father to her children, Caden and Victoria, and of course continues to have a relationship with both of his sons from his first marriage. His family is planning to move to California to be closer to Salome, who is ecstatic her best friend is out of prison.

What I love about him too is that even if he's in a shower or doing something, he always picks up, So it's great to be able to have that communication and for me to be able to call him instead of having to wait until he's available. I was just laughing about this the other day because because of him, I FaceTime a lot now. TJ is very much he doesn't like calling just on the phone. He wants to FaceTime all the time.

TJ says now that he's he wants to continue to mentor kids like he used to do his own siblings, and as he did in prison.

I felt like I was a therapist in there, you know, giving all advices and some of the people I have relationship now when I get out, they're the reason why I'm up here. I'm the slope now, you know, having a good job up here. I feel like my work here in Alaska is not done as far as like, you know, wanting to go out here and speaking to some of the youth up here and just share my story,

To help support the Alaska Innocence Project, go to Alaska Innocence Project dot org or check out the links in our bio. Next time on Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling, Gwen Graham.

Let's see, I know the police are coming down to talk to me. They said, your extra friend said that you killed somebody at an earthly home and I laughed at him. I said, I can't believe you came down here for that bullship. But then when they charged me with I think for and more, That's when I started losing it.

Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the links in our bio to see how you can help. I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and Kevin Wurtis, as well as our senior producer, Annie Chelsea, producer Lyla Robinson, and story editor Sonya Paul. The show is edited and mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production by Jeff Cliburn and Connor Hall. The music in this production is by