#426 Maggie Freleng with Jason Walton

It was early Sunday evening in November of two thousand and five, and a pop up street fair was in full swing in south central Los Angeles. The neighborhood had turned out to enjoy the rides, carnival games, hot dogs, and cotton candy. Crowds of people were milling around the entrance at the corner of Rodeo Road and Second Avenue. Suddenly, half a dozen shots rang out and two kids fell to the ground. Fourteen year old William Cox was shot

They opened up the book of all the people that they believed were members of the Mansfield This is Jason, He's from Mansfield, whatnot. And that's where things just started to snowball and I became target number one.

That night, Jason Malton had been hanging out with a group of friends miles from the crime scene. His alibi was solid, but once the police had fixed their sights on him, the truth was meaningless.

I don't feel like they altoly cared about the victim nor myself. It's like, okay, well, one gang members dead, one gang member shot, one gang members in jail. We got a three for one.

In a way, this is grooble telling you have a prepaid call from Jason Vanners and one an inmate at the California State Prison, Lancaster, California.

From Lava for Good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today.

Jason Walton, my name is Jason Robert Walton.

I'm from Los Angeles, California. I was arrested and ultimately longfully convicted November seventeenth, two thousand and five.

Jason was a real fun loving kid. He loved sports. He collected basketball cards and things like that.

This is Jason's mother, Francisle Johnson. Most people call her friend.

She mostly raised me along that. I did sometimes go and visit my father, but living with my mother was where I was most comfortable, where I wanted to be.

We always had a big dinner on at my parents' house, and either my mom would cook or my dad would barbecue.

I thought I was rich. I thought the world was perfect, and I loved to play video games, collect sports cards, POGs, just anything that you collect. My hobbies consisted of building things and fixing things.

If he saw a radio or portable TV that was sitting on the curb or near the alley, he would want to take it home and try to fix it, and quite often it would work.

As I got older, I grew a fascination with cars, and I started with building model cars. And I realized at a young age that I was good at it because I can take a box, take the kid out, and I would never remove the instructions from the box, and I can put the whole car together.

Jason was a pretty typical kid, into cars, bikes, video games, and sports.

Swimming, fishing, or anything that that involved being outside. I love to push the envelope. I was somewhat of a daredevil, so whether that was trying to ride a bike on one wheel for the whole the lamp of the block, or holding onto the ice cream truck to gain speed to try to jump over a makeshift lamp that we made.

Jason describes himself as a class clown, someone who loved to make people laugh, but he also had more serious ambitions.

I wanted to be a lawyer when I was younger, because I loved to debate. I loved just the art of being able to verbally wrastle, I guess you could say.

But for Jason, school it just wasn't a big priority. As a teenager, Jason started cutting class, hanging out with his friends and smoking weed. Jason's older brother, Antoine, belonged to a local gang, the Mansfield Crips, and it wasn't long before Jason followed in his footsteps that.

Side of town. Being in a gang or being from a gang, it really wasn't like we were gang banging. We just hung out together. We went to school together, after school, we were just hanging out. We're just having a good time. It wasn't consumed with oh, we're young and we're selling drugs to support our family. That wasn't our story.

As Jason remembers it, being in the Mansfield Crips was a way of learning the ropes and learning about life. He says, the older members of the gang were actually a good influence.

They never told me anything wrong. They always encouraged me to stay in school. So they're dropping me off at school, they're picking me up from school, we're going on these trips. We're going camping, we're going to the snow, and they're encouraging me to do the right thing. When people are saying, oh, gang banging is bad and gang members are bad, I'm not saying that because these are the same people that I know are gang members. But they're telling me good things.

Friend, you know, we were talking about how he wounds up in a gang. Do you remember finding out about that or what that was like.

Well, when you live in certain neighborhoods, there are gangs. It's not a protection thing, but they know who you are because you live in the neighborhood and you know who they are, but you're not always necessarily participating. I'm not saying he didn't associate, but he didn't have He never had any problems or with the police or criminal activity that involved association with a gang.

No, you know, we did have conflicts or verbal spats or cups with other kids and whatnot. That it wasn't so much of a violent thing. It was more of a unit family, a togetherness as when we were younger.

But there was a time when Jason found himself in a confrontation with someone from another gang. It was the fall of two thousand and five, when Jason was around twenty one, Jason was driving around South Central with his girlfriend, Amber Jones, and his two young nephews. They stopped by Amber's house on Rodeo Road, which was on the turf of the Roll In Thirties, a rival.

Gang, and being from the gang, I was hyper alerted. I was always aware of my surroundings. I had my two younger nephews with me, so that made me more vigilant because I couldn't afford for something to happen to these two kids. So when we pull up our and I see the kid walking on the opposite side of the street coming my direction.

The kid was fourteen year old Edward Williams. Ember knew him through a friend of her uncle's.

She's like, yeah, he's a little kid. He's just big for his age, so okay, no problem. When he realizes that it Pembers in the car, that kind of made him escalate with his antics as far as preaching like he had a gun and posturing and throwing up gang signs or whatnot.

Edward was a junior member of a gang called the Rolling Forties, and they were in Rollin thirties territory. Jason knew that all Edward's showing off could lead to.

Trouble their direct rivals. This is a serious rivalry. He was asking me where was I from? At that time? Even though I was young, I wasn't focused on the day to day gang banking. I wanted something different in life, so I wasn't worried about over from what color are you wearing? That nonsense. I ultimately was trying to let him know, Hey, you're on Rodeo Boulevard. This is a main street that leads to the Jungles, which is a

But despite Jason's warning, Edward kept it up. Finally, Jason did get out of his car.

When I got out of the car and I approached him, I let him know that I was from Mansfield. I didn't want no problems with him. I got back in the car. That was the end of the conversation. That was the end of the I guess you can call it an altercation, and that was the last time I had ever seen it.

Two weeks later, Jason was driving down Pigo Boulevard. As he passed Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, he spotted a fellow crip who had recently gotten out of prison.

So I stopped. We're talking. More people that we know are starting to pull up, and we're hanging out with smoking, and we were waiting for his sister.

His friend's sister was on her way with tickets to a concert, but she kept calling to say she was delayed.

It will be one excuse after the other. Oh, we stopped to get drinks and we'll be there in ten minutes. Oh my friend left something at her house, will be there in twenty minutes. Or we stopped here, we'll be there in fifteen minutes. That stretched out for over an hour or so, to the point where they never ended up arriving. So ultimately we just hung out at Roscoe's for a a couple hours, just doing what we did on the regular, talking to people, talking to girls, smoking and just hanging out.

And that was Jason's entire Sunday evening, just kicking it with friends in the parking lot. At Roscoe's. Meanwhile, a few miles away, a very different drama was unfolding.

And so there's carnivals in town. It's a Friday night. It's a pop up carnival in a parking lot. It's on the corner of Rodeo Road and Second Avenue in Los Angeles. And there's a lot of people there.

This is Michael Simanchic, executive director of the Innocent Center.

There's cars everywhere, and there's kids, and there's there's probably I think I've heard reports there might have been thirty or forty people just outside the carnival gate. So on the evening of November thirteenth, two thousand and five, just after seven pm, and Jewel opened fire and fired six five to six rounds. A couple of rounds struck a child named William Cox I believe was fourteen at the time, and another couple of rounds struck and injured Edward Williams.

The same kid from the Rolling Forties that Jason had had to run in with a couple weeks before.

Edward Williams was transported by ambulance to the hospital shortly thereafter and was in critical condition until a few days later, and william Cox died of the scene.

And to put this incident into context, we need a little background on the gang situation in South Central at the time.

So there were two gangs that were at war at the time of the crime. It's the Roland thirties and the Rollin forties. The thirties and the forties were fighting over the territory right where the carnival was taking place. Edward Williams was part of the Baby Hustlers also known as the Baby forties, and he had recently been jumped

After the shooting occurred, police and ambulances were soon on the scene and Edward was taken to the hospital.

I believe he was in critical condition when he arrives, and he's on a bunch of medication, but he's jotting down notes because he can't speak at this point, and he writes down that it's Jay Jay Rock from Roll in thirties.

But somehow, over the next few days, someone else entered into Edward's narrative, and.

Two days later he then switches to saying it was Amber's friend who did it. And I don't know it's if it's entirely clear that we know how that shift happens, where he goes from thinking it's somebody in the thirties to thinking it's Jason.

Remember, Jason was in the Mansfield Crips, not the Roll in thirties. But going back to the night of the shooting, around ten or so, Jason left the gathering at Roscoe's to go pick up Amber from work.

We came back to my mother's house and that was how we ended the night. The next morning, she woke up and being that her family knew the family. Her mother let her know that Hey Edwards was shot last night.

A few days later, Jason was out having lunch with his two nephews.

I had just picked my nephews up from school. I came to Poki Dogs. I ordered them something to eat. I was standing at the table.

A squad car cruise by outside, and Jason recognized one of the cops, Officer Gutierrez.

So when he passed by, he threw up the peace sign or waved at me and beans rebellious. I believe I flipped him the bird, he smiled. That was the relationship between the officers in the neighborhood and the youth in the neighborhood.

But this friendly exchange soon turned into something else. Jason had no idea that the police were out looking for him. To charge him in the carnival shooting. The squad car swung back around and pulled up at the restaurant. Jason was arrested and taken to the Wilshare Division police station.

Once I was placed in the holding tank, and I guess you can say, actually charged with the crime, my mind raised as to where was I because just it blew my mind that I was in jail for uh homicide.

But so at the hospital, Edward had named several rival gang members in the shooting. How did the police wind up getting your name?

So? I don't know, because he always would shift. If you get let him talk, he will say it was the guys from the Rowland thirties. He even named the guy multiple times. He named people that lived on his street by name and begged the police go talk to them. They'll tell you who the guy was that shot me. The police never did a proper investigation. They never went to go talk to anyone that had information that made sense.

The detectives ran Jason's name by Officer Gutierrez and the other officers at the Wilshire Division.

They opened up the book of all the people that they believed were members of the Mansfields. They identified into the detectives, this is Jason, He's from Mansfield, whatnot. And that's where things just started to snowball and I became target number one.

Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. You can listen to this and all the LoVa for Good podcasts one week early and ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I didn't know what wrawful condition was I never thought that that would even happen. I knew I didn't do anything, but I didn't at the time remember where where was? I have nothing in my life. Told me that I had to remember where I am and what I'm doing every second of the day, every day, every night.

After hours of questioning, Jason was transferred to Southwest Division and placed in a holding cell. That night, he called Amber to help him remember where he had been the night of November thirteenth.

We're replaying events, saying, she let me know that was the night that you were supposed to go to the concert. Okay, perfect. That means I was at Rosco's.

Jason and Amber were able to call Roscoe's and speak to the manager who had been on duty that night.

So he said, I asked him, you know, do you have the surveillance cameras. He said, yeah, we still have tapes. So he asked, well, around what time was it? So I said a little before seven. So he fast forwarded and he's watching and I remember him saying I got you, I got you. When he recognized my car pulling in, he said, yeah, I got you. You're you're on camera and you pulled in at this time so it started with the surveillance camera as an alibi.

And there was something else that placed Jason at Roscoe's that night.

There was a celf On tower one block north of Roscoe's, Chicken and Waffles on the Brea and San Vincentain. So my calls are being picked up off of that celf On towers. Okay, Well, now I feel good that I'm going to end up getting out and everything's going to be okay. I got proved.

But nine months later, in August of two thousand and six, Jason went to trial in front of Judge Larry Findler. The prosecutor was Deputy District Attorney Paul Kim.

Yeah.

The prosecution's theory at the time of trial was that Jason had had this prior interaction about a month before the crime, where he got in an argument with Edward Williams. And that's the only interaction that Jason ever had with

So one of the things that the prosecution said was that you would have been able to go from Roscoe's to this carnival.

Is that possible?

It's not possible at all, by no such of the imagination.

Remember, Jason was seen on the surveillance video for nearly the entire evening.

I was only off film at Roscoe's. I believe from maybe twelve to eighteen minutes. That wouldn't have been enough time to make it from Roscoe's to the carnival, change my clothes, lying in wait, find Edward.

Officers took the stand and claimed that it was possible for him to make the drive, change his clothes, talk to the girls, do the shooting, changes his run, change his clothes, get back and get on camera. We've done time trials ourselves. The quickest we've been able to do it is seven minutes. The average was actually nine minutes driving.

The prosecution also presented an alleged witness, a carnival worker named Richard Gray. Gray had given police a statement soon after the shooting, but by the time of trial, his story had already changed several times.

Richard Gray says he initially says I only saw the shooter fleeing, and I only saw him from behind, didn't get a chance to see his face, doesn't initially say he's able to make an identification, and then a week later he picked Walton out of a six pack photo lineup. At trial, he has like a soft recant, I'll call it, or says I wasn't really able to see. I'm not

The shooting happened on the corner of Rodeo Road and Second Avenue, in the street just outside the entrance to the carnival. Richard Gray was stationed at a ride inside the carnival area, a short distance back from the entrance.

There was a row of poor potties that were blocking Richard Gray's view between him and where the shooting happened on just off the corner where it occurred.

Edward Williams also took the stand and identified Jason, even though he admitted he hadn't seen the shooter's face and had not even seen a gun.

And then they also had gang experts that identified Walton as a member of the Mansfield Crips, which at the time were allegedly allies with the Rolling Thirties gang, which was at war with the Rolling Forties. And so that's the essentially the crux of the prosecution's case.

Jason's defense attorneys were Jerry Kaplan and Helene Farber.

The defensive trial was that Jason Walton was in fact at the Roscoes, that there were these other individuals that could have possibly been interested in doing harm to these two individuals, and that it was an eyewitness misidentification. One of the things that Edward Williams had said was that the shooter was on the curb and Edward Williams was on the street from the curb. The shooter was still shorter than Edward Williams, so this suggested that the person

And then the witnesses who saw Jason at Roscoe's, did they testify at trial?

Yeah, I believe the two that testified at trial. There was an individual named Nico who was a gang intervention specialist who recognized Jason and saw him at the seat at Roscoe's, and then I believe it was the manager of Roscoe's testified to the security camera footage and then confirmed that he saw Jason at Roscoe's from six ' six something until after eight o'clock that.

Night, but that wasn't enough to convince the jury. In August fourteenth, two thousand and six, Jason was convicted of the first degree murder of William Cox an attempted murder of Edward Williams. He was sentenced to fifty years to life. He was twenty one years old.

I was confused. I was heartbroken, I was lost, and it just wasn't real to me that I was convicted. I just knew in my mind that something is going to happen. They're going to realize a mistake was made and I'm going to get out. It took years of even being in prison to realize that, hey, this is real, Like my life doesn't mean anything. They don't care. I was put in Salinas Valley Maximum Security Prison on the one eighty yard been my first twenty four hours there.

To be honest with you, I only went to trial maybe once or twice. I just couldn't do it. It was too devastating for me.

When her son went to prison, Fran was grief stricken.

I still have a lot of anxiety. I might wake up at four o'clock in the morning, unable to sleep, heart pounding, stressed. I'm his mom, his best friend, and he knew how I felt because we we cried about it. He said, Mom, I'm not gonna He said, I didn't do this, and I'm not going to be able to make it.

I ultimately felt that in order to get out, I would have to advocate for myself. I would have to have my family and friends advocate me for me to getting the attention and awareness from people that are advocates and that are fighting for justice, so people would understand, how does a young man have a surveillance camera or cell phone records, how does he have an alibi like this and ultimately still be found guilty.

Jason appealed his conviction to the trial court numerous times, but it seemed no one wanted to listen to the truth.

They would deny me time after time with anything and everything that was submitted in my favor. After maybe seven to ten years, I felt like my life didn't matter. I'm just another black kid from the streets and a gang member. I don't feel like they ultimately cared about the victim nor myself. It's like, okay, well, one gang members dead, one gang member shot, one gang members in jail. We got a three for one.

In a way, it started during trial where all the evidence it just seemed like everyone was against us. No one was in Jason's favor. The original lawyer, he left a little bit to be desired. We also had an appeals attorney he didn't follow through. So yes, there were so many things that did not appear to be in our favor.

Just a few days after Jason was convicted, his son, Tyler was born.

I was determined to be a good father. That meant something to me, to make sure that I was a part of my son's life. And the choices that I had made that led me to prison, or the things that I had been through that put me in prison, didn't affect my son as far as oh, I don't have a father, So his first steps, his first words, were captured on a cell phone and sent to me.

He's great, He's really great. He's on top of school and activities, things that Tyler may have going on on the weekends. He's a good dad.

How did you describe things to Tyler when he wondered, you know what happened with his dad when he was a kid.

Explained exactly what happened, and his mom had newspaper clippings. He knows what took place, he knows the accusations. He knows that his dad went to court. He knows that his dad was found guilty and there was no need to sugarcoat it or lie or make stories or excuses. He needed to know. He's a young man.

I'm very proud of my son. I tell him all the time. He's an amazing kid. He's just turned seventeen in August. His name is Tyler Walton. I'm nick name some King Tyler.

At first, I was as a kid that I wasn't nervous, But when I finally you know, sat down and you know, it was face to face, it was really more of a kind of like a wow woman, like dang, you know this is this is whom my dad is really an amazing person.

Yeah, do you tell people your dad's in prison occasionally?

Know if I, if I know them, I'll be like, yeah, this is you know what I go through. This is what I have to suffer with. But it's something that I know I can I can handle because I know it's you know, it's not forever obviously.

What is that that you go through.

A lot of stuff, well, a lot a lot of thoughts, memories, emotions that I feel within myself. But I have learned to kind of have an understanding of them and accept them and use them as a way of motivation. And I've taken more as a learning opportunity and if anything, so it's like I really have to make something of it, and I have to do something that would you know, show some light more than light has already been drown and really kind of prove to everyone that even with

You know, when we spoke with Frann and Tyler over a video chat, they were wearing identical T shirts. I couldn't read them from the screen, so I asked them what they said.

Yeah, it says Jason Walton was wrongfully convicted from murder evidence used to give some him proof that he was innocent of.

How did Jason's case come to you?

Jason wrote to us in the late two thousands, claiming innocence and saying that he was not involved in any way in the case and that he was at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles when the shooting occurred.

So what made you really dive in and want to look at this? What was it about his case?

Jason was on security camera footage at the Roscoe's chicken and waffles. And you know what's interesting about that is that the security camera footage was available at the time of trial. So from the start, it was like he had this awesome alibi and for some reason it just didn't play to the jury. So that's really what sold

One important key to unraveling the case was a man named Christopher Green, one of the witnesses who spoke to investigators after the shooting. Strangely, his statement was never brought up at trial.

Christopher Green was a carnival ride operator. Him and Richard Gray were actually coworkers at this carnival and what Green told investigators this he went and left to go to a convenience store across the street.

In twenty sixteen, Michael and the Innocent Center sent their own investigator to interview Christopher. He told them everything he had told the police, and as it turns out, Christopher Green may have been the only witness who was close enough to you see what actually happened.

On his walk back as he's making his way around the corner to go back into the carnival, essentially right where the porta potties are that are blocking Richard Gray's view. Green's coming around the corner and he sees an arm extended essentially over his shoulder, and he sees a gun. And it's this gun that ends up firing five to six rounds and shooting and wounding Edward Williams and striking

So if Christopher Green actually saw the shooting, how did Richard Gray become the prosecution star witness?

So in our subsequent post conviction investigation, what we learned is that Green went and told Gray everything that he saw and Gray then, either trying to be the savior or being pressured by police because of his own criminal liability that might have existed in other cases, agrees to cooperate and takes parts of Christopher Green's story as his own,

Well, if the police had all this information from Christopher Green, why didn't they use it at trial?

Yeah?

I mean I think the most important things were that Christopher Green probably had the best vantage point for seeing the shooter and didn't play a part in the prosecution's case because it didn't fit their theory. Richard Gray wasn't able to see anything, and yet he played a major part of the prosecution's case because he had made that

Michael believes the most likely scenario is that Edward Williams was being targe by a rival gang.

There was a witness named Drew Maxwell who told police at the time that Edward Williams had actually been shot at in the week's leading up to this, and Edward Williams being this new jumped in member of the Baby forties certainly made him a target. And the graffiti and the fact that a number of people at the scene said they saw Jay Rock and another individual from the thirties named Terrell who had been at the Halloween party.

Yeah, so what kind of evidence are you looking for?

So in Jason's case, we've attempted to get DNA testing on the shell casings at the scene and failed. Rejected that because Edward Williams knew Jason Walton and said that Jason was the shooter, so it wasn't an eyewitness misidentification. In the court's minds, there was no confusion. My position is that Edward Williams was mistaken that it wasn't actually Jason, and so DNA testing the shell casings would help us to figure out who at least loaded the gun that night.

When that happens, Michael believes it will be a turning point in their efforts to prove Jason's innocence. Fran remains hopeful to She says Jason's positive attitude has helped her gain perspective on the situation.

He had told me that I should not feel like I'm the only mom that has a son who's been incarcerated or is incarcerated or accused of committing a crime that they did not commit, because I was so afraid of what would be said or how people would feel about me, how they would feel about the family, and how they would feel about my son. And as we're finding out, wrongful convictions is everywhere all over the world.

My mother, my grandmother, who's ninety two years old, tells me she misses me and Harry up they come home and my son that those are my motivating factors and ultimately to clear my name.

Friend Tyler and Jason's grandmother are all waiting to welcome him home and to cook some of his favorite meals.

Bake salmon, bakchoi, saffron, rice, steam, vegetables, and fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, all that good hearty stuff.

And there's someone else who will be there for Jason when he's finally released.

My wife's name is Diamond Walton. We were friends for since maybe two thousand and twelve. Our relationship grew from friendships and to a desire to be with each other, a love for each other. It came from her always motivating me, praying over me, praying with me, speaking life into me at times when I was feeling defeated. And see, she motivates me a lot to stay focused, to believe in myself and know that I can achieve the things that I want to achieve, and ultimately that is clearing

And Jason has lots of plans to get started on when that happens, including reviving one of his childhood dreams.

I would love to still be an attorney. I would love to be a part of an organization that I can give back. I can help bring hope to people that are in this position, that don't have hope, that don't believe that they're going to get out, that don't trust the system. I don't want that just to be the story of my life where all I can say is, Hey, I'm someone that was wrongfully convicted. Hopefully I can turn this negative into something positive, or I can take something

To learn more and see any updates about Jason's case, Visit the Innocencenter dot org. We'll have that link in the episode description, and please consider making a donation to support the Innocent Center and the important work they're doing. Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freelink. Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the links in the episode description to see how you can help.