#483 Guest Host Conor Hall with Arvel Marshall

Hi.

I'm Connor Hall, one of the producers for Wronfuel Conviction. And if you don't follow us on social media, you may not have heard, but our good friends Jason Flamm and Gliali got married and now for their honeymoon. In true Ali Flahm fashion, they're in Texas right now fighting to save an innocent man on death row, Robert Robertson. He's scheduled for execution on October seventeenth, twenty twenty four.

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Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction, where we have another case out of Brooklyn, and across from me is a man named Rvil Marshall who endured something that well, I mean, it was disgusting, unnecessary, should have been completely avoidable, and almost was. And we're going to get to that in just a minute, but we're just happy to have him home. Thanks for doing this, well, you welcome, Amen and you may have just heard a familiar voice say, Amen, that's

Marcus Wiggins, Vincent Simmons, Jerome Curry, Raphael Martinez, Garriy Ben Loss.

Well, thank you for coming back. Absolutely, Yeah, this case is no less fucked up.

The only good part about r Vel's case is he's exonerated and we're on the next phase, which is fighting to get him compensated. But that's about the only good thing about Rvel's case.

And you and Brownsville and bedsty Hey.

This is nice. You know, it's kind of rough, but it's nice.

I used to work as Super Marcus as a kid packing bags and stuff. I get a little money here there because my family was poor. But did that growing up at browns with a dead style. You literally get tested because especially the Ghattle, the neighborhoods like you would have to.

Fight famously, Mike Tyson's from Brownsville, and then you're like coming of age when Mike is getting huge, right, but before he was huge, he must have been known around town.

Yeah he was. He's the right coach screep for your a boy tweet Sunny and Blake the shelters no shit, Yeah yeah.

Mike trying to help the community, you know, like Heavy Dog k used to come through there, give it out, turkeys.

And shit like that.

So what's the precinct?

Seventy seven?

Some people that you are familiar.

With Brooklyn North homicide. One of them, if you know, James Davis. James Davis was wrong, clear convicted.

Oh wait Ja Davis.

Yeah, Legelaide represented felt Okay, yeah, ye ye ye yah yeah. So one of the lead detectives there was Jay Wallski and then Matthew Hutchinson. Matthew Hutchinson, from my understanding, fabricated a statement in James Davis's case, and he's all over our Velle's case.

If you're unfamiliar with James Davis's case, we'll have that linked in the episode description as well. Now, Ourvell's case really began when he met a young lady in two thousand and.

Three, Jadique will Collier aka Nicky.

Tell me about meeting her, Like, was there a good time?

Yeah?

It was a good time. I was, you know, but I still feel she has something to do with me going to jail. Even though it was a good time, I still feel that way.

And this is in bedsty at the time now that you were living.

Now, I was staying at Brownsville, but I moved to current high school. Nicki her baba ah, all right, okay.

Nicky Moba was originally my girlfriend. Oh, they kept coming on to me. I ain't on a best one, it though, it just happened. Nicky used to date my brother. She got my brother name tattooed on her back. Shit, and she was dating by niece baby father.

Wow.

Now, as most of us are aware, betraying the expectation of a monogamous relationship can offense, spark fights, breakups, or, as the police believed in this case, murder. But Nicki appears to have lived as she pleased and not led any of her lovers to have any other expectation, including r vel or the victim in this case Mustafo Maria.

Yeah, she was dated a that will tell she was messing with him and I was in rackets.

Out What were you in for me?

And my sister tell you we had I got in a fight as she lied to the cops and told him that I stabbed her, but I didn't stab her.

I beat that.

I came home, but she came to visit beat on my birthday and she told me she wanted me to leave her mother at Bible Hall and she's going to leave the victims. Mustafo Barrio.

I said, okay, and this dude we were talking earlier, so he's in the Bloods. And then he's also like a handsome guy.

Yeah, he was a handsome guy. He was messing with dudes girls.

I don't know.

Between the victims involvement with the Bloods as well as his activity with women who were in otherwise monogamous relationships, there may have been some ill will toward him. On the night that he died July fifteenth, two thousand and eight, sometime before ten pm, in front of his building one thirty nine Albany Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

There's not thirty day sent call to the witnesses.

Right, you know, if you're the cops, you wanted to be closer to ten o'clock, right, Arvel? Yeah, because they knew Rvel had a pretty good alibi. Between nine thirty and nine to forty five, and Rvel didn't have a car either, just by the way, so he would have had to take in a bus from his mother's house in Right all the way to Crown Heights. It's like

They said he came from D Street and walked along Albity Avenue. They ran back on D Street after leave. It a scene from Albity Avenue.

Now, the initial description is somebody between five foot nine and six foot Rvel's like five to five okay, three inches to a half of foot potentially. We also got a description of light skin on the nine to one one calls. And then the other description, which is a seventeen year old Rvel looked probably forty Rvel right.

Yep, So the description didn't even come close to Rvel. But there were some unresolvable discrepancies between the descriptions from Benison and then Zebo and Zakari. Yeah.

First they said Bel black light skid, seventeen years old, wearing the white T shirt blue JS. Then with the other twols take it to the priests. They give a statement. They said Bel black dog skid, we with the white T shirt, dog JS and either hat or Douac. But well he went to the DA's office. He fixed it.

It said that the Bell was black, brown skinned wearing all dark clothes.

Which interestingly matches the video that we're going to talk about. And understand this, the three witnesses are testify to trial, never say there were two people involved. Yet we have a video that shows that there were two people involved.

As Arvel mentioned, the assailants were traveling west on Dean, made a left going south on Albany to where these four men were at one thirty nine Albany. So the police found a surveillance camera on Dean Street, which didn't capture the shooting, but it saw enough to account for the discrepancies and the descriptions.

It's in the middle of the block. Actually, the video is pretty good quality and it has an angle that goes both ways, so you see the guys what we now know are the perpetrators. And a key thing is they're both the same size.

One has light skin, one has dark shind Yeah, well.

Dual gattle dark clothes and other dual gattle light shirt, blue jays. He got a baseball capboard.

This is what the video shows. These two young guys walking down, one guy lifting up, pulling a gun out, and you watch them make a left on the Albany.

Right.

How you know what's the shooting is there's two guys walking, one with a dog, one or not on Dean and they're walking towards Albany. They hear the shots, they stop, start walking f pass the other way. Then all of a sudden you see the same two guys and the guy with the white shirt has a big black thing in his hand, which is a gun. And the two guys that were on the block here in the shooting, they see these two young guys on Dean running towards them.

The police made two copies of the video, one for the DA and one for the case file, and then made still images from the video of the assailants Meanwhile, police alleged that someone named Abraham Omar told them about the connection between Nikki Arvel and the victim, but then this person seemed to just disappear and then never testified.

Let's talk about Abraham Omoa.

Detective Hushis claved he took somebody statement with Juli Vizi. It did clave that person provided additional information after they called back the last sixty and that person he gave a dave to as Abraham Omar.

He talks about the boyfriend of Nikki that lives at eighteen.

Was it eighteen ninety six? Specific?

Were you using that address as where you were on probation right, yes, so then they had your name at that address too.

What does Abraham Omar say?

He basically said, allegedly that he was best friends with the victim, and before the victim died, the victim told him that he had a problem with a girl named Nikki's.

Boyfriend, and I tried, my darnedness, and I'm pretty good to find the people. By the way, you know what I mean. There is no Abraham Omar in Brooklyn at all, at all.

He's a fucking fabrication. Yes, yes, because according to like you know the court record, and and who's the one?

There is no nine one one call with Abraham won.

Yeah, he fabricated Abraham Omar.

But if Abraham Omar doesn't exist, the nine one one call didn't exist. It's possible that all of this information might have come from Nicki.

The ass who's her boyfriend.

She told me what day was that?

A lot sixty?

The same day they allegedly spoke to this Abraham Omar. If you read Nikki's statement that was given to Hushinston and Wolfski, you could see that they just took certain parts out that could incriminate me and put it in the alleged Abraham omo statement. They took everything she said about be getting out of jail, I will allegedly boost by the good, and that I wanted to kill some god the block.

So they just took all that and just put it in.

The person called Abraham Omar. Yeah, right on this witness statement to this person who's best friends with Santa Claus.

Yes, yeah.

And then Bennison identified RFL from a photo array.

And a photo ray is crazy because RFL is the only one with corn roast.

What does everyone else look like?

Caesars yeah, that's in the photo array.

What day was it when they picked you up?

July twenty second and they came VICKI house. I was sleep in the living room. I heard beg you.

I'm thinking it was because of the temporary order protection that be A Dicky had to stay away from each other because the twenty first Bannigkie was argued. So I ain't taking no chance. I jumped out the window, got on the roof. As they chased me. A black officer came that I knew they used to live with my building, and he asked me. He's like, yo, you really don't know what's going on. I said, Dawn, I don't know nothing. They took me to the priest and I'm actually, what's

And then in the lineup they had you guys in hats, yeah, sitting down, of course.

Sitting down, so they oh, what how tall is he? I don't know, but what was different about the other guys in the lineup?

They was taller than me.

Yeah.

Then after the lineup was over, they took me another rule. The haircuffy start offered me Suldas McDonald's and all the cigarette stuff. The talk, Wolski said that Ustofo Mario was murdered and I'm the one that killed him because I found out he was banging my girl.

And I'm like, yo, what did you talk about?

Man?

He said, well, you the word going down for this.

I don't care what you say. If yn't want to tell who did it, you go it down for it. I said, I can you tell you without a will and they'll say to you without a lawyer, the devil was given a lawyer. I was never read by rights. I was just arrested.

You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early and ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Freedom Agenda is a proud sponsor of this episode of Wrongful Conviction. Freedom Agenda is led by people directly impacted by incarceration, and they're organizing to get Mayor Eric Adams to follow the law and shut down Rikers Island. Right now, thousands of people are awaiting trial

Arvel spent nineteen months on Rikers Island pre trial. He was going to be tried by Assistant District Attorney Tim Goff in front of Judge Vincent del Judas, and he was assigned to public defender Alan Stuttman.

That would receive the visit Stubb in nineteen months.

The only time about say Stubb is the court public defenders they're typically overworked, underpaid.

But that said, you're telling him exactly what to do.

He was listened to me a total CD to investigator out. Judge fire Tau is the one hyat the investigator. Stubman did hie.

Him right, So you went above del Judis's head. So he loved that shit too, right.

Yes, Two out of three of the witnesses told the defense investigator that they knew who to pick out because Rvel looked totally different than everybody else in the lineup.

Do they do that on purpose? You think?

Yes?

Yeah, did you ask that sarcastic?

Yes?

Of course. All right, So now I mean, this isn't funny, you know, I mean, this is crazy. But it gets worse.

You have this defense investigator, David Walker, who's from Brooklyn, new people in the neighborhood, and he had somebody in the neighborhood that gave him this information. This individual said it was a mistaken identity, like they didn't mean to kill the victim, but it was guys from Weeksville, which isn't that far from where Nikki lived, right, And the description that he gets from the format matches what happens on the video, which is it's a hit. It's not

By the way, I still remember that statement. It says Jamal Jones is the set up man for the shooter. He lives at one thirty seven. Mother is a cop, They said. Auvel Barshoot, which is me is it his thirties. It it's not the shooter.

They said.

The shooter is sixty year old Don L. White, also lives in Weeksville. They say God named Lewis is the ubdillah for the group and he is expanded. His last name is adult. They say if Lewis house is checked, the gun for the shooter would probably be found there.

Wow, very vivid description, right.

And with this vivid narrative available to the defense. In December two thousand and nine, Arvell was taken to trial on the identifications that had also been exposed by the investigator is false and potentially engineered and Rvel didn't even know about the surveillance for the jet.

The DA Colly walked into courtroom with the videos and still photos in her head.

That's how I found out that they exist.

The stills.

Yeah, there's still photos in the video.

When I first brought video to the judge attention, I went through my lawyer. The DA said he didn't have the video. He said he only had still photos that he provided to my lawyer months ago. My lawyers said they was of no value. The next day, I brought it the police report showing that the videosis and still photos was made off of it. Then the DA said, yeah, he had the video, but he can't open it.

It won't work.

So I said, yo, how did you get the still photos off the video if the video don't work?

He said his office had nothing to do with it.

He said, I was giving the tapes after they made copies of the tape they retrieved and all it depicts its two individuals just walking down the street.

Allegedly, what the police tell the prosecutor is they take a clip of the video and they say the only thing that they see on the video is two guys walking on Dean Street. That's it. They don't say that these two individuals are the shooters.

And let's not forget the defense investigator David Walker uncovered that one of those assailants may have been the son of a cop at the seventy seventh Precinct. So we're not sure if the DA saw this video or not. Maybe eighty eight Tim guff was presenting some kind of plausible deniability ploy about this video to the court. We don't know. Nevertheless, they logically follows that the police tech guys that produced the still were able to open the videos.

That's it. That's fact.

But he's making fucking excuses every single day.

Aby single day.

If the video showed me or he would have been happy to play it, but be it that he know was to be and know it was the Astra appropritrators.

They just kept stalling. Meanwhile, they presented the eyewitnesses.

Zakari is the first one to get on the witness stand and they ask him, do you see the shooter in the courtroom?

Yeah?

No, Right, well then I guess that wraps it up.

Okay.

And you had to understand something. Zacarry before trial identifies Rvel in the lineup allegedly. So how does he come in at trial and say, no, Rvel isn't the one. How does he tell the defense investigator that he couldn't make an ID?

Yep?

Right?

The only way that it happens that he does make the ID. And again this is when you get into all best practices and everything. The investigators that know about the investigation shouldn't be involved with the identification. But you can only come to one conclusion if this guy's telling the defense investigator and then comes in a trial and says that Rvel Marshall's not the shooter, right, is that he was told that Rvel Marshall was the shooter during

You got to back that up. I mean, what are you gonna dishonor his dead?

Like now, all of a sudden, Benison comes in and he's positive, it's our velt, right. And what's interesting is the one thing that Alan Stutman did and Arvell and I were talking about this is he cross examines and eats Benison up on the fact that you only had moments to see this person. It's not like you got

They got coached?

Yeah, this corse?

So all right, that circus goes on. Yes, your defensive investigator already knows his bullshit. Yes, your public defender is already cross examined them, and the jury sees this. I mean, am I missing anything about this trial other.

Than affected his alibi? His sister, who, by the way, he told you he went to Rikers because he was fighting the case because he had an incident with his sister. So the sister that he had an incident with is his alibi. She comes in and testifies that he was home.

Yep.

And then you're fighting to see this video the final straw, though, tell me about that interaction with Dell Judas.

Actually get we played a video to pull my edicist. He told me having outbust in order the court officers, he scored me out of the court room, and that's when I got upset. Star curses said, fuck this, I didn't kill nobody. Why the fuck you gotta do this to me? You got the evidence right there, it proves my edocence. Why you don't wuld to play the video? Because you do? It proves my edocence. And then he started yelling heavy up, take him out of the court.

Rule?

Was this in front of the jury?

R V Yes, And he says, quote, I've had enough for you. All you do is rant. It's like my fucking life mother, Like, what the fuck are you talking about?

Exactly what he said.

Rvel talked about this video so much he was actually found in contempt. And you have to remember this is that at that point Rvel hadn't even seen the video.

Yeah you know, why the fuck would you be so interested in seeing something unless you absolutely knew you weren't fucking there? Yeah, all right, so I mean the jury sees this, yep, are you thinking like, oh, maybe maybe.

Maybe I got a chance.

Yeah, it took like forty five minutes to deliverer rate if that will be guilty with no evidence, like, yeah, we be STARp vertic guilty. I said, y'all people crazy, I said, y'all hear me up here, actually judge to make the DA play the video, I say, because it's full my innocence.

Did y'all really that crazy? Like y'all really that blind?

They have being Auburn Clinton Albirah say, say Attica.

Theom CEOs there they were talking about racist. They racist. They don't care, they don't hide it. That jail needs to be shut down.

Man.

The losses do whatever they want. Lieutenants is down with it. Captors, all of them. They just let them do whatever they want. To jump people, be people, up to kill people. There, it's places, it's crazy, man.

They have some interesting artwork on their bodies.

Yes, sir, you already know the bay with the rope.

You know all types of crazy shit man, the hitless suns, yeah, them shits you know these are.

Correctional Yeah, yeah, why do you take this job?

Yeah?

Oh? I couldn't fucking wait. Like Jesus Christ.

Cow was always going to take a job where they could see they got the upper head or the real motherfucker. If I had done this, you would never hear of be fighting by case. I was just left it alone. I'd be like, you know what, fuck it, I did it. Let me do my time. But I know how didn't do it. I was going to the little library and I learned as much as I could about my case,

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to gain any traction for over ten years, but over that time he built evidence to support all of his issues claims and ultimately obtained the video.

Rvel did what he did pro say, and then he reached out to Derek Hamilton. You know I work with Derek, right.

Do you guys know each other from the inside.

Yes.

So I'm going to imagine like Auburn, you met Nelson in them and the AI team.

Yeah, that's where I met Derek Campibell to too.

He came to me late October early November twenty twenty three and I looked at the video and Rvel made a clear record that it wasn't turned over. Actually contacted his attorney, and there wasn't just the video. There were interviews with some of the witnesses weren't turned over, and his trial attorney admitted that he never received a video.

Audio statements, right.

Audio statements. So Rvel really makes a clear record. And I look at this video and I'm like, okay, well these are the shooters yep. So then I looked at the description of Rvel and I'm like, he doesn't match the description. I look at a picture of him and I'm like, nobody is going to confuse him for the people in the video, even if it's grainy, right, And so it was, you know, Brady, the cru had to

Well.

Justin was trying to develop further support for Rvel's claim. The Brooklyn Conviction Review Unit conducted interviews, including with Nicki and Zebo Zacari, Benison, and his attorney, Alan Stutman.

The DA's office interviews Alan Stuttman and they show him the video and he said he would have used that video. He said that he would have shown that to Rvel and we would have built a defense around that. So not only did they with hul Brady evidence, they created a separation between Rvel and his lawyer. They turned Rvel against his lawyer, and the lawyers looking at Rvel like, you're crazy. The video doesn't mean anything. Yeah, he says, I trusted what the DA said. I trusted what the

Yep.

After the fact, the cops told him that Nicky boyfriend was the shooter. I was locked up and I was described as Nicky's boyfriend at that time, So who else will he be talking about how would.

It be, and it goes from a no I D to then an ID. Then they interview Niki, and this is why RVL believes that Nicky has something to do with this, other than some of the things he's already laid out. Nicki gives a statement to his defense investigator. No one else says there's two people involved other than her.

Yeah, she knew it was two perpetrated and she also knew that they was one of them was young m How did she notice? Nicky claimed to have received information from her next door neighbor, said that somebody told them allegedly that they say two perpetrators.

How do they.

Notice because her next door neighbor is Abraham Omar. Yes, none other that Abraham strikes again.

But you know, interestingly, they showed her the video and she said, what'd she say, Arvel?

She said, that's not all aboult of that video.

Boom I mean, I wish could do we have a funk flex that we have a Bomber. I mean it took ten months though, once I got on board of pushing and RVEL was frustrated. I was frustrated, but at the end of the day, the DA's office did the right thing, and they admitted that's not him in the video. That video had a tremendous amount of value and they let him out.

A blessed man, you know, basically helped me prove that.

It's August ninth, twenty twenty four. What do you have going on?

Like?

You know, what are you living with's life?

Like?

Well, I don't have a place to stay right now. I'm staying at people houses here and there. You know, I'm homeless really right now.

You know, they just send me back out here with nothing.

He has a state suit pending, and we're moving on civil rights and we're working to try to get r VEL stabilized.

This case stressed my mother out so bad she passed away. Man, it stressed my father out, my sister out. They all three passed away, and my step father well that's for people. They passed away because they wanted to be back home so much. All they used to think about was me. I gotta letters so I to be baby, come home. Have you ever to get hold I don't know how much more I could take and then she's gone. Now they all got and that was my support while I

No, as you've just heard, our Vell has very little support, and you can help them stay afloat by donating to his GoFundMe. We'll have that linked in the episode description. We wish Justin in him all the luck in the world and their pursuit of civil litigation. I mean, obviously nothing could ever make up the time for our Vel.

That it was funny.

By after I got locked up, Dicky started dating a guy that woke to seventy seven Precinct as a cop. Guess what of a day, little do his RoboCop asked, though, Nick, you sent me a neckad picture on my phone.

Oh bunny boy, Yeah, I hope you hit his shit.

And I also got a letter from her telling me she's gonna leave him to come back to me. Oh man, but you know what, I don't want to ask back. I ain't even want to steak ass neckert picture. She could have kept that shit.

And with that we go to closing arguments where I'm just going to express my gratitude to Rvel and Justin as well as to Jason and the team for letting me do this, and then I'm going to lock it up and listen to anything else. Justin and Rvel have to say.

Everybody says, what would an innocent man say? A menisin, you'd scream to the rooftop im medison, I didn't do it, and then people on that jury that think this is what I would do if I didn't do Rvel Marshall did what everybody says that they would do, even though they don't have an iota of what it is like to be interrogated and arrested and prosecuted. Right, most people in this country don't. They don't know. I see I do.

What would y'all have done in my situation? Would y'all would is still quiet. Did the time.

Or fight to prove you, Editus, but you know it could be done. Let other people that really out there killing people be home so they could kill more people, or ask that you put them people away and let the Edocon man out.

Would y'all want them cops to still be working?

To y'all, communities of the judges and the da I don't feel they should have a job anymore, none of them because they no good. I hope y'all feel the same way I do. And like I said, I'm edocent still, I'm gonna always fame instant because I know how you do that like that. I never killed nobody in my life, and I'm not ashamed to sit.

I'm not gonna kill him. I'm just a god that will fight for his rights. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction.

You can listen to this.

And all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early and ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our production team, Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as my fellow executive producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Cleibern. The music in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us across all social media platforms at Lava for Good and at