We originally released our coverage of Nelson Cruz on March seventeenth, twenty twenty one. Since then, there have been some remarkable developments, and we're re releasing this episode stitching in a new
interview with the man himself. Mister Nelson Cruz. East New York is a notoriously tough Brooklyn neighborhood, and in the seventies, eighties, and nineties it had an equally corrupt local precinct, the seven to five or seventy fifth Precinct, home to many of the wrongful convictions of notorious and YPD detectives Luis
Carcela and Stephen Camille. On March twenty eighth, nineteen ninety eight, Nelson Cruz was out in the neighborhood with some friends celebrating his seventeenth birthday over Chinese food when they heard gunshots close by, so close, in fact, that they saw the police swoop in immediately to get the situation under control. A police officer had seen the actual muscle flash of
the gun in Eduardo Rodriguez's hand. Trevor Vieira, a man in his mid twentieth known for stickups, was lying dead in the street Rodriguez was brought in for questioning, where Scarcela and Camille turned what should have been an open and shutcase into another horrific wrongful conviction with the false testimony of a man who didn't even know police were unseen to arrest Rodriguez, and in spite of the testimony of that uniform police officer stating that Nelson Cruz was
definitely not the shooter, Nelson was convicted and sentenced to twenty five years to life. And if matters couldn't get any worse, despite a mountain of new exculpatory evidence, the judge who oversaw his most recent appeal suffers now from early onset Alzheimer's, which has impaired her ability to follow the case and set Nelson free. This is wrongful Conviction
with Jason Flopp. Hello, This is a prepaid collect call from an inmate at New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
This call is subject to recording and monitoring. To accept charges, Press one to refuse charges, Press two.
Thank you for using securis. You may start the conversation now. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason flamm That's me. I'm your host. Today, we have a deeply, deeply troubling situation to talk to you about. Today. We're on the phone with Nelson Cruz, an innocent man who's been in prison for a twenty two years now in New York State, and I'm going to introduce now to you an attorney. You have a tremendous amount of respect for who I'm proud to work with on a day to day basis
on various cases, including this one. Justin bonus, Welcome to wrongful Conviction.
Good morning, Jason. How are you?
I'm all right. Thanks, I'm glad to be here with you, and most of all, I'm glad to be here with the man of the hour, Nelson Cruz. Nelson, I'm sorry you have to be here under these circumstances, but I'm really glad you're here to tell your story. So welcome to wronfuel conviction.
Good morning, Jason.
And which prison are you in now?
What Burn Correction the facility up state in New York.
Can you take us back to that time.
I was in tenth grade at the time. It was a nice night in March twenty eighth, nineteen ninety eight, the day before my birthday. Me and like three of my friends, we walked around the corner to the Chinese restaurant to purchase some food, and me and my friends was,
you know, laughing and joking like we usually do. We stepped outside and shot the fire down the block on braffing and picking, and when I looked, I've seen a police officer car that pulled up immediately and was getting the area under control, and I've seen that they had a Spanish guy on the floor and there was arresting the guy. However, about four in the morning, Homicide contacted my mom's told my mother they wanted to interview me for the murder. And I was like, how can it be.
I don't have nothing to do with the situation. So my big weathersid We're going to get an attorney. We're going to go down to the priest. Don't go down there by yourself, because you know, the semi fifth prison is dirty. I said, fine, And on April third, about attorney went to the prison with the attorney and went to a lineup, and I've never seen the scrief again.
Justin I want to turn to you because this case is the definition of an open and shut case. It should have never even been anywhere near Nelson or his family because they knew from day one exactly who did it. Can you explain what I'm talking about here?
This murder happens March twenty eighth, nineteen ninety eight, at eleven fifteen at the corner of Bradford and Picking. Two cops in a patrol car, Officer William Pietti actually watches the man with the ponytail, who we later find out is at Wardo Rodriguez, firing the gun, sees the muzzle flare towards Bradford and Picking, which is where the deceased Trevor Vieira was found. Pietti actually arrests at Wardo Rodriguez, tells him to drop the gun, and Officer Palmery chases
a black man. I guess who runs away. These are what the two cops say at one thirty one five in the morning when they're interviewed by none other than Detective Lewis Scarcela and Detective Steven Kimmel. And just to tell you who those men are, I mean, they're probably some of the most storied police officers in the country when it comes to wrongful convictions in relation to homicides. And Lewis Scarcella with Camill shows up at the scene
at eleven fifty five. They are totally involved with this case. Scarcella and Camille are at the precinct with Rodriguez. Rodriguez at around three o'clock in the morning or so actually makes a statement. Another witness, William Johnson, who later testifies that Nelson wasn't at the scene. He was an eyewitness arrested at the scene. He was interviewed, does not indicate anything about Nelson Cruz. So the first person to actually name Cruise is at Wardo Rodriguez. And then there was
a third witness. His name is Andre Bellinger, who was interviewed at something around three forty five in the morning, and he says Nelson as well. Nelson turns himself in on April third. He's barely seventeen years old. Mark Brooks runs the lineup. He is allegedly the lead investigator out of the seventy fifth because Stephen Camill is the lead
investigator for Brooklyn North. And how you understand the politics between Brooklyn North and the local precinct, says one detective from Brooklyn North would work with a precinct detective so Stephen Camill was the lead partner detective with Mark Brooks who was the detective from the seventy fifth precinct, and Lewis Scarcela was Stephen Camill's partner from Brooklyn North.
You know.
So what we have happened is a lineup that's conducted and Andre Bellinger is the only witness that comes in to view the lineup.
So little does Nelson know he's going right into the eye of the storm. Here, you were living through this a tenth greater. I mean, can you take us back to what you were thinking and feeling at that time, starting on the third when you turned yourself in.
Yes. So I go into the precinct and I'm sitting down just waiting for the detectives to go look for some fellers to the lineup. Scart Seller. He's on his desk with his seat picked up, smoking a cigar. I'll never forget this. He's smoking a cigar. And he asked me, Uh, you're not scared to be here? I said no, I wouldn't be here, but I committed this murder. He should have head said, all right, after they got the fillers, we went into the lineup. I got picked out of
course by Andre Billinger. And my attorney's explained to me, listen, don't say nothing to these detective The only thing that you supposed to state of them is your name and address. So they kept me in the bullpen for a little while, for a couple of hours, and they took me out the bullpen and then bring me right back into the lineup rung and they cuffed me into like the little reals inside of lineup rung and start Seller brings the paper into the room and he's telling me, listen, we
already know what happened. Just sign it and you will be leaving. So I tell Scott Seller that I'm not signing anything. He gets a little frustrated, So you got your meal, trying to play the gut cop. He's telling me, listen, just sign it, then you'll be walking out. We already know what happened. I tell him again, I'm not signing anything. Scart's teller get a little frustrated, crumble the paper and
slaps me in the face with this again. He's telling me, you know, hostile, Just sign the paper you'll be And I'm like, I'm not signing anything. That left me in a room for like a high hour, they brings me back into the book pen, and about maybe like an hour after that, they put me into a van they driving me to us Central Bookman. And later on, when I get my voluntary disclosure for him, I see that they put a DD five report in a statement that
I made a spontaneous statement. The statement face signed to the fact that I got shot in my leg and I shot the guy and ran and I'm looking at I'm telling my attorney, I never said any of this to these detectives. Never never said any of this.
And the statement that he attributes to Nelson is the same type of language that's in all of these Scarcella Incamil cases when you have these quote unquote confessions.
And by the way, I have to say this before I get back to Justin. It sounds to me like you did everything right. You did what we always add people to do on the show, don't talk. You didn't sign a piece of paper, although it sounded like a pretty good offer, like to a kid in tenth grade. So you did everything right and the system failed you. Anyway, Justin, do you have a theory on how this Rodriguez character could have possibly convinced the detectives that. I mean, my
mind goes to a pretty dark place here. But why did he finger Nelson.
The only theory I have is Rodriguez knew who Nelson was and he just pinned it on somebody that maybe looked more like him than anybody else did. But one other thing about Edward or Rodriguez, the seventy fifth was very familiar with him. He had multiple arrests from the seventy fifth robbery I believe in nineteen ninety and then a drug conviction in ninety five. He was on parole at the time of this murder for that drug conviction from ninety five.
They knew him, and they might have found him to be useful, and in this case, they didn't want to put him in jail. I mean, that's clear, because they could have. They should have, it was their responsibility to do so, and instead they decided to pin it on an innocent man named Nelson Cruz, which was standard operating procedure for them at that time.
Anyway, the seventy fifth, as Nelson said, is notorious. The quote from Michael Race when he was the head of that squad from the early eighties into the early nineties, he was involved with seven hundred and fifty homicide investigations and only one time did they actually follow the rules. So Rodriguez tells them I didn't do it, and they bring Andre Bellinger in. He gives them the information that
they want to hear. And what we know about Andre Bellinger is, in nineteen eighty one, Andre Bellinger was charged with murder and he only does a one and a half to three. At the time of Nelson's arrest, Andre Bellinger was working with the PAAL, which is the Police Athletic League, and he lived only two blocks away from the seventy fifth Precinct. And what we know from a hearing what Detective Brooks testifies to is right before the lineup Scarcell and Camille, they're alone with Andre Bellinger.
So now we have to get to the trial. A New York City police officer that they had not seen Nelson Cruz at the scene. I'm going to read the testimony here. Nelson, your lawyer walked the officer through what happened. He said, did you see the muzzle flashes of the gun? He answers, I saw muzzle flashes, and you jumped out of the car almost immediately upon hearing the shots. Correct, and the officer says, correct, your gun drawn. Officer says, yes. Did you ever see Nelson Cruz on the scene.
No?
Did you ever see Nelson Cruz with a nine millimeter handgun in his hand? No, you did see Eduardo Rodriguez with a nine millimeter handgun in his hand. Correct. Yes, As a matter of fact, you were pointing your nine milimeter at him. Correct. Officer replies correct, because he had a gun in his hand. Correct. Correct, And you were screaming at the top of your lungs that drop the gun,
drop the gun. Correct. Officer replies correct. Now, that is some of the most powerful testimony I have ever heard, and all of it serves to prove that you could not did not commit this crime.
You know, as you just read the testimony, I remember this like yesterday, and I'm still confused, Jason. The only wines against me was not like Labo Rodriguez at matrial, they used Andre Billinger. And when you ask Andre Billinger to space, he was there from the beginning to the n Did you see police on the scene, he states, no, We ask him, did you see anybody get arrested on the Crown saying he states no, so and my mom is like what crowd saying was this guy in?
How could you be confused as to whether or not there were police officers? He wasn't confused. He said there weren't, but there were. This is not a thing you could mix up, like the color of the shirt the guy was wearing. You know.
Bellinger His story is that Nelson gets into it with a guy named Shaq, and that Nelson drives his car, comes back around and then gets into it with vi Era. Bellinger says that Nelson accused Vieira of giving Shack a gun, that Nelson just kills Vieira. That's basically Bellinger's story. No one else says that.
No one.
And what's interesting is Shack actually came to testify in twenty nineteen and he said he never had a fight with Nelson Cruz. So that was a made up story. And what corroborates what Shaq says is when Andre Bellinger speaks to the conviction Review Unit in twenty fifteen, says he says he can't even remember the incident with Shaq, which is the whole basis of this altercation. This case is a.
Joke, Okay, Bellinger was also the least credible witness, not just because of his background, but also because Bellinger testified that the police told him who to identify. And Bellinger also testified that he'd only been able to identify the murder weapon as a nine millimeter gun because the police had told him that's what it was.
They didn't know the gun that Rodriguez was arrested with was the murder weapon until just before Nelson's trial. And this is a common theme in policing from the NYPD is they don't do any forensic investigation. Okay, so the ballistics from the nine millimeter that Rodriguez has caught with match the shellcases that murdered Trevor Vieira.
When the police officer testify, it states that he didn't see me at all. He didn't see me with no gun. He stated, who he's seeing with the gun? I'm like, I'm gonna go home. And at the end when the tribute came back with the guilty murder, just couldn't believe it and just sent us twenty fe of life. You got the guy with the smoking gun. All five shell cases match that gun. I still can't believe it.
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Nelson didn't exactly take this lying down. Instead, you got busy behind bars, right, I mean, tell us about the actual innocence.
Like I said, I was sentenced to twenty five years to life. I'd come up state, didn't know anything about the law, and I'm just sitting a little library, acting for help, and you know, reading a lot of the statues and trying to familiarize myself. So I ran across you know a lot of good guys and they teaching me about the laws. And at the same time, I'm trying to gather my evidence to submit my affidavits to the telet division. At the time, my director Pill was pendent.
But I couldn't because you know, my family, we're not rich. We're not rich, we we don't got money like that to be hiring private investigator. So I had my mother. She was, you know, going into these dangerous projects, looking for my friends, looking for people that was at the crime scene that night. And with the help with my mother, I was getting phone numbers, and with the phone numbers,
I was contacting people's gathering evidence. I had got about maybe two, like two or three AFID davis at first, and then my brother laid on we had higher a private investigator to locate these witnesses and get affidavis from them. And as I'm submitting these motions to the court. I'm getting shot down. I'm losing hope, but I'm still fighting because I said, listen, something one Day's friend got to
give here. I know I ain't commit this crime. And to the course of the years me being in prison, I'm hearing of a guy named Bush, which is Derek Hamilton. I don't know if he's familiar with him. He's a jail house William and I'm like, wow, I gotta meet this guy because i heard he's a beast with the lord. So I end up meeting Derek Hamilton in the law library and we exchanged information D five and stuff like that, and I'm explaining to him about my case. He reviewed
my d D five. He sees that scot seller name is in the bottom and he's like, wow, this guy's in my case. He loud on me on my case and he's fighting actual editing the same thing. So we leave Shawongong. We end up in Auburn. When we go to Auburn Correction facility again, I'm in Laura live Burn and I meet Shabaka. Shabaka's there a guy by the name of Danny Ringkong there also fighting his Edizen and Eric ended up a rising. That's when he came up
with the name actual Edison Team AI team. And what we was doing was like one day we will work on my case, the next day we will work on Derek case. Like that, We'll take turns on each other case and Derek telling me what the dude right over here, right over here, do this, do that? And that's the same thing that See telling me what to do. I'm learning,
And basically what I was doing was lawyer shopping. I'm somem inning a big package with all my evidence with my affid Davis, my d five crime scene sketches that I drew, trying to get some help from the outside. I wrote every actually interesting project. I wrote governors, I wrote the President, I wrote everywhere Jason, anyway you can think of, I wrote. And at this time, Derek ended up going home in twenty eleven. So Derek always told me, listen,
I'm not gonna forget about you. Once I'm making home. I'm there, I got you. I'm not gonna forget. And I don't heard that so many times Jason being in here that you know, guys tell you listen, they're gonna go home. Do this and guys just go home and live their life. So I'm like, wow, now, I hope Deyk don't do this to me, you know. And Derek went home and kept his word. Jason, he put Justin on my case and from it we gather more evidence and I'm well not today.
Derek has been on the show, Danny ringcon Shabaka Shakur. I mean, all these people are people I know well, and I've talked often about the awesome power that you guys collectively manifested, all of whom had been through the same experience at the hands of the same people, and setting up basically a law firm inside the walls of the prison. You know, call it whatever you want, Shakura, Cruz,
Hamilton and ring Kon. I could see it on a letterhead, and hopefully someday you guys will actually form a law firm on the outside, because I think you guys would be incredible together. Derek, when he was on Ronful Conviction, I was like, oh my god, this is like interviewing a yeah law professor. I mean, this guy is on fire, so knowledgeable.
That is my mentor. By the way, Derek, we call him mom Google Legal. Give him a fact, and he'll give you a case.
And Nelson, you should know it's Derek. But it's not just Derek. I mean all of us are just super committed to you get home and get on with your life.
So Nelson litigated his case, he filed the emotion of vacant, he filed an appeal, and got shot down at every turn over the past twenty years. And so the hearing that we were finally granted in twenty nineteen, and the evidence that we presented was it was quite astounding. I mean, obviously, we called Officer Paietti and again who said that he did not see Nelson Cruz at the scene before, after,
or during the crime. We called William Harden, who was across the street watched the ponytailed man kill his friend. He knew Trevor Vieira and did not see Nelson Cruz there. He saw the police pull up at the scene. And then we called William Johnson, who was the other man that was arrested at the scene, and he testified that he knew Nelson Cruz and he did not see Nelson Cruz at the scene. I mean, those are three eye witnesses.
We called two alibi witnesses Ralph Johnson, and the only questions that the DA had for Ralph Johnson was did he eat his Chinese food or not that night? That's how solid Ralph Johnson was on the witness stand. Another alibi witness, Bonnie Cooper, who was at the time Andre Bellinger's mistress, testified that Andre Bellinger admitted to her he never saw the crime. Christopher Cooper, Bonnie Cooper's son, who
was playing basketball with Andre Bellinger that night. Chris Cooper, testified that Bellinger couldn't have seen it because the shooting had already happened by the time they get there. We also called Jay Salpeter, who was a private investigator who interviewed Andre Bellinger, and he asked Andre Bellinger, why didn't you mention the police or Edward O. Rodriguez? And Bellinger told j Salpeter that the police never told him that Rodriguez or the police were at the scene, I mean.
And we called Jermaine Fraser, the man Shack who Bellinger said started this whole thing off, and Shack testified that he never pulled a gun out on Nelson, that there was never a dispute that night, that that's all false. Of course, we called Scarcella and Camill, and you know, Scarcela has amnesia. He can remember what he was wearing in nineteen seventy three, but when you ask him about the case that you're talking about now, he can't remember anything.
But Mark Brooks puts him in Camill right with Andre Bellinger before the lineup. I mean, this was such a bad blowout that April twelfth, twenty nineteen, I made an oral argument and also on paper to release Nelson on bail, which is astounding in the middle of a post conviction hearing. It was going that bad that I said, in the interest of justice that this court should release him. And Judge Simpson on that day said that Lewis Garcela was
totally involved with this case. Andre Bellinger was unreliable, and that Chris and Bonnie Cooper she found to be reliable witnesses. That was April. By August she was in another place.
You know, God bless Chanda what happened. But I knew something strange was going on while she was deciding over my hearing, Jason, she was moving funny, you know, she'd be given credit to certain amount witnesses testimony and then later on, when Justin highlights it to her, it's like she's lost. Jason was like, she don't know, like what happened a couple of days ago. And at the end when I worked for decision on August twenty ninth, she's
an emotion. Jason, I was like, Lois, but we found out that, you know, she was mentally ill with alzhemas. Has she been in her right state of mind, I would have been home already.
You know, there's no question. You know. Nelson is referring to a very respected judge from the Brooklyn Supreme Court who was known for her willingness to vacate wrongful convictions. Her name which is Shandiah Simpson, and she had ordered due trials previously for other men who had been also framed by Louis Scarcella. Listen to this quote. In the case of someone named Hargrove, Judge Simpson had this to
say specifically about Scarcella. The pattern and practice of Scarcella's conduct, which manifests a disregard for rules, law and the truth, undermines our judicial system and gives cause for a new review of the evidence. I mean, she just called it out like it was and here it is again right in front of her. But the craziest twist of fate was that this poor woman, who's not an old lady, she was in her young fifties, she had early on set Alzheimer's, and she just literally lost the plot.
When I was listening to her decision on August nine, twenty nineteen, the first decision she read off, I argued orally, she left the bench totally abruptly. A court officer came out and told us to come back after lunch. And when she came back out after lunch, she read off another decision, which I was left wondering what hearing that she sat through. Her decision is based on an erroneous
understanding of what we put forward. I mean, it's that we presented Edward Rodriguez as our witness for a self defense claim, which we never took that position. We always took the position at EDWARDO. Rodriguez was the killer. The prosecutor put Edward Rodriguez on the witness stand. So she misstated that. I mean, there's video of it the crust.
Of the hearing, and this decision falls on the following Rodriguez testified at his hearing, that the victim fired the first shot at Cruise, and that Cruise shot back in self defense. The defense claims both that Rodriguez is unreliable and at the same time acts that the court find his testimony supports a claim of self defense and that this constitutes new evidence. For this reason, the motion must be denied.
You want to say something.
He never claimed that Rodriguez was newly discovered evidence claimed that Rodriguez was unreliable from day one.
Well, they put him off. That's the reverence.
They put evidence on that contradicted the only evidence that was at trial, which is Andre Balinger, right. One witness who says the police told him who did it? Who says the police told him what weapmon was used, who even testifies that the police told him that Cruz was in the lineup.
How reliable is that witness?
And then we hear from a witness, the witness that is the first person who points to Nelson Cruz. He has a motive at Guardo Agriguez has a motive to lie. And then fifteen years later says it self defense. We don't take his position. That's evidence that day put before the court. We're gonna believe that on the day of his birthday, he kills somebody. Unfortunately, in cases like this, the law doesn't really protect a seventeen year old.
I make my point that Rodriguez wasn't our witness, and she calls everybody up to the bench, schedules a reargument. She never provides a written decision and tells us to come back in December of twenty nineteen. We can do twelve sixteen. Be back on twelve that's a Monday.
I've shared this video with the district attorney myself. I like Eric personally. I do have a lot of respect for him. Completely confused as to why this case has been ignored.
When I came back from court last year, you know, I pulled down my tite write and I started writing and numerous letters to Ever Gonzales, to people under him, and never received a response.
There's a very powerful quote where you said in a letter to Eric Gonzales, I know deep in my heart something went wrong at my hearing. I know me reaching out to you may not be the proper way to go about it, but I truly need help in this matter and feel that you have the power to step in and conduct an investigation and of course. A year after the hearing, in early August twenty twenty, it was confirmed that Judge Simpson had early on said Alzheimer's and she retired.
You know, they should be a shame of what they're doing with me. Something went wrong, Domni the seed and something was wrong with the judge, and you got the power the empazine. You got to see all you yould to do, which you know, I think ever since Kenneth Thompson died, they not following with Kenneth Thompson was gone.
So justin a reargument was granted. It's tragic what happened for Judge Sandaiah Simpson. What the fuck happens now?
So in a normal course, the judge will issue a written decision, the court will enter the decision. She granted the motion to reargue, which is very very very rare. She never issues a written decision. The court doesn't even enter this decision, which is what has to be done. So almost a year goes by and in August of twenty twenty, we find out that Judge Simpson has been
diagnosed with Alzheimer's. So then Judge Demik, the administrative judge, assigns Raymond L. Rodriguez to the case, so we file the reargument, and Judge Driguez told us that he wouldn't hear any of these filings, that the only thing that was in front of him was Judge Simpson's competency during the hearing and when she rendered her decision.
Right, but which decision, the initial denial of the motion to vacate or the decision to grant a reargument.
You bring up a phenomenal point. This is a very confusing procedural history. He tells us in January of twenty twenty one that the motion to reargue was taken off the calendar. He was not going to hear it. The only thing he ruled on is her oral decision denying the motion to vacate the conviction and the motion to vacate her decision based upon her competency. He basically says that I'm not going to deal with the fact that she granted reargument, which I don't know how he does
that she already granted it. And then on March first, twenty twenty one, Judge Raymond Rodriguez determined that she was competent and upheld her oral decision to deny Nelson Cruz's motion to vacate. And it's very interesting because in our motion to vacate Judge Simpson's decision that we filed back on August of twenty twenty, we had an affidavit from
an investigator that spoke to her husband. We also had a pro public article where the husband spoke and said that he had noticed that Judge Simpson's mental health had been slipping as far back as the summer of twenty eighteen, which is almost a year before Nelson Cruz's actual hearing, let alone the decision. So Judge Rodriguez said that all of that information was speculative and said, I see how she could come to her decision. There's a reasonable basis
for her decision. I don't know how he comes to that decision because he's not a doctor, and to be frank, I mean, he's not a mind reader. So Judge Rodriguez's decision, we filing leave to appeal. We're also filing a motion to compel a written decision from the Supreme Court because it's our position that Judge Simpson's oral decision wasn't effectively a decision. It was never filed it, it was never signed off on by her, and how could she sign off
on it. Two days after she was in court and rendered that decision, she went on medical leaf because she was suffering from alzhempers.
When we last spoke, you were at Woodburn Correctional Facility in upstate New York in the middle of appealing Judge Rodriguez's decision. So what happened with that appeal?
After I exhausted my state post conviction appeals, we filed the second successive petition to the federal court, and on May two, twenty twenty two, I was granted entry into the second Circuit. And if they granted me entry, it's because they see my constitution in violations. And I believe deeply in my heart that any day my case is going to be overturned.
You know, And that's how it should have been back in twenty nineteen, had Judge Simpson been in better health. And we hope only the best for her, of course, So while your case was making its way through federal court into the I was in twenty two, having already served twenty five years. You also became eligible for parole and went in front of the board.
The day that they bought my decision December twenty second, twenty twenty two. I was in the trailer. You know it's the trailer.
Yeah, it's where they allow conjugal visits and for the audience. Nelson's wife, Verica. They got married about ten years ago and she's been fighting alongside him for longer than that. So anyway, go on.
When they bought my decision, I was in the trailer with my wife and a parole officer came. So he's like, so you went to parole two weeks ago. I said, yes, sir. He said, do you want your decision? When he said that, I started getting nervous already, because I could have sworn I was going to get smacked for two years. He handed me over. The decision was a two page letter. So as I'm trying to flick the page, He's like, he see that I'm nervous. So he said, let me
help you out. So he flipped the page and went straight to the date. He said, there goes what you're looking for. When I look it said March thirtieth, twenty twenty three, my release date. Just started crying. I just couldn't. I couldn't believe it. With the parole officer. He said, listen, if it was bad news, I wouldn't come here and ruin your day. I wouldn't do that. So he said, uh, you know, merry Christmas, congratulations, and go back and enjoy yourself,
you know. And I went back, and when I told my wife, my wife just went crazy on the trailer. She started crying. So the little evening was emotional that day. It was. It was emotional.
I can't even begin to imagine. And what a Christmas present for everyone. So March thirtieth, twenty twenty three came around, and you know, I wasn't gonna miss it. We even got footage of it when you came out at the doors into Erica's arms as she held your little baby.
Girl, when the door popped open and I walked out. Minutes before that, I was in the back of that door getting dressed, you know, preparing myself, Like wow, I still couldn't believe, Like, while I'm out of here, I can't believe after tween saying years, I'm walking out to the streets and streets that I haven't been in since sixteen years old. I still can't believe it that I'm home. I still can't believe it. So I came home in time. My baby was only eight months going on nine months.
I'm enjoying myself with my wife home and my baby, and I just go to work, come back and I'm just loving life. Life is beautiful. I mean, I get on these trains when it's traffic time, and people be so frustrated because the trains is packed. And guess what, Nelson is happy. Nelson is happy to be on this train. When anybody you know, frustrated that the train is packed, you know they late. I'm just smiling. I'm just loving life. Every day that I wake up. Life is great.
You know, an experience like yours could really put the day to day annoyances of life into perspective. And it does. And I understand you've got not one, but two jobs. But I know while you were inside, you and Derek Hamilton, Shabacca Shakur, Danny Rincon, you guys wear the Actual Innocence Team or AI team? Are you still working at that out here?
I work as an exterminator. My second job, I'm a paralegal at a civil firm, and I'm helping the innocent. I'm still here helping the innocent and I'm not going to stop. I'm not going to figure about those good brothers I left behind. I'm researching for them, I'm filing for us for them. I'm helping them to the best of my ability, trying to help brothers behind the wall. They can't move, it's crippled.
Well, hopefully we can get Danny out here real soon to join the rest of the team. And in the meantime, I'm really glad to hear that you've acclimated well. You're working hard, two jobs, you have an amazing wife, and you're a new dad. I got to ask, what's your favorite part about being a dad?
My favorite part right now is when I come from work and I put the key in the door, and my daughter here the door, and once she see me, she start crawling to the door, real fat. I love it. I get emotional. This is my world here, This little girl is everything to me. She had dive out the sofa and hit the floor and just start crawling to the door. She grabs onto my pants and stands up and starts screaming at me to pick up. I love it.
That's beautiful, man, I love it well. The love of a good team and I are so happy for you, and I hope you get a win in federal court and finally fully put this to rest. But if not, maybe we can get you in the Brooklyn Conviction Review Unit,
and I'm looking forward to getting together again. So with that, we've come to closing arguments, and since your case isn't fully resolved, I'm going to leave Justin's as it was, as it is, but let's get a new one from you, because you've got a whole new life and a whole new outlook. So I'm going to kick it off with Justin's and then it'll go right over to you.
I just want to make it clear to everybody that this is a disgrace. The mountains of evidence show that this man is innocent, and the DA's office has the ability to interview our witnesses. Our witnesses were consistent in the conviction review process. Their witnesses weren't consistent, and believe me, they treated our witnesses differently than they treated their witnesses,
and this is just it's disgraceful. Andre Bellinger came in in twenty nineteen and he said his trial testimony was truthful. He maintained his trial testimony which is that they told him what type of gun was used. They told him that it was Nelson Cruz. They told him EDWARDO. Rodriguez wasn't reliable. They told him they needed him because EDWARDO. Rodriguez wasn't reliable. They told him that Nelson Cruz was going to be in the lineup. This is the only
piece of evidence that convicted Nelson Cruz. I don't really know if I have to say anything more other than you heard what I said about what was presented at the hearing. And that's without saying that Scarcela and Stephen Camill were involved in this case. To top it off, they were involved. If ever, there was a case that was presented in court where clear and convincing evidence was presented that a man was actually innocent, it was Nelson Cruz's case.
I'm going hard. My freedom is nothing gonna change now that I'm home. Like they made it easier for me now, I could just walk to these courts and be a pain in the butt until my conviction be overturned. I just can't believe that I did twenty five years for someone else murder. I mean, I have police officers that came forward the court. You know how clear could this get? I was released, I'm on parole. You know, I'm blessed that I have two jobs, because you know, out in
society with a felony going to get jobs. You just staying for the rest of your life. I'm gonna just keep fighting now that I'm home, even harder. I'm about to do a rally at City Hall, and I just want my voice to be heard. And if I got to be standing in front of the Discal Attorney office every day, knocking on his door until my conviction be overturned, That's what I'm gonna do. I couldn't do that from prison. I'm not going to bow down to these people. I'm not not for crime I didn't commit.
Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. I want to thank our production team, Connor Hall, Andy Chelsea, Lyla Robinson, as well as my fellow executive producers Jeff Kempler Kevin Warders, said Jeff Cleiber. The music in this production, as always, was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Make sure you 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 Instagram at it's Jason Flab. Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good podcast and association with Signal Company Number one