#526 Ben Bowlin with Sonny Bharadia

This episode of Wrongful Conviction includes discussion of sexual assault and suicide. Please listen with caution and care. On November eighteenth, two thousand and one, a Georgia woman found a burglar in her home who blindfolded and tied her down. He bizarrely claimed to be an Islamic militant before completing the burglary and a sexual assault. The victim described her attacker as black, and she eventually chose a man named Sterling

Thank you so much.

This is and anger that we all share, like you were saying, wanting to jump through the headset. We're going to talk about some gross miscarriages of justice, but I don't know, Jason, what better way to begin than to speak with the man.

Himself, Sonny, Thanks so much for being here, Thank you.

And to help tell this story. We're also joined by Sonny's pro bono attorney, Olivia Vigiletti.

Welcome, Thank you so much, and this story begins in the metro Atlanta area.

Yes, suburbs. I grow up of Stone Mountain. I mean growing up out a pretty good childhood. I mean I had parents now're married, you know, red with things like holidays, go camping, Daisy World, did all that growing up. I mean, play sports, eleague, baseball, stuff like that, hanging out my friends and stuff.

I mean that was it.

And by the time this happened in September two thousand and one, Sonny was in his mid twenties.

The fall this happened, I was working. I was going to school and go to gym Rediley. I was doing that sheet metal work. I mean does a good job because like at that time probably like seventy five dollars now doing it. And he gave me opportunities to move up in a job. And so for me at the time that was good and was something stable.

Yeahs an hour, it was good money. Yes, this is how you were able to afford a tahoe and some other nice things. Right, So you're doing all right.

And you also had a side interest.

In cars vehicles.

Yeah, yeah, yes, my little side thing was I like to buy cars and fix the myself.

And Sunny was very generous with his talents, especially with his close friends Ray Sewan and Keisha Pitts. While it seems some acquaintances took advantage of Sonny's generosity, one of them was a guy named Sterling Flint. But before Sterling enters the story, a different friend who stayed in Beuford, South Carolina, had asked to borrow Sonny's shabby tahoe.

I let a friend of mine use my car because his car was in the shop. I'm like sure, just like two three days a camp, and it ended up being a breach of trust. Like when Friday came, it's like a cell phone was cut off so he won't respond. And I knew it was his mother's house in South Carolina, so I got all his ex wife, got his mother's address, and I called to Cab County Police explain what happened

Out that night Sunny, his girlfriend Alitia Colbert and Rayshawn's wife, Kesha. They all went out together with their kids for the opening weekend of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which they watched to drive it now. They got home very late around midnight.

So the next day being Sunday, which was a day a crime. November eighteenth, two thousand and one. I'm at my girlfriend's house. About ten o'clock, my cell phone rings and it's a detective from Beauford County, South Carolina, and he told me he has my vehicle in his impound and I can pick it up Monday through Friday. So that day I dropped my girlfriend's daughter to Mova's house. I took my girlfriend, took her to Wendy's. I went

So Sonny's whereabouts were accounted for in the Metro Atlanta area, over two hundred and fifty miles away from the scene of the crime, which was in a Savannah suburb called Thunderbolt, Georgia. Now, remember this happened not even ten weeks after nine to eleven, when average Americans were just learning the names of militant groups like Al Qaeda, and this fear of terrorist cells

Basically, this was a daytime burglary gone wrong. Sterling Flint breaks into the house and he's stealing electronics and the victim comes home, so he very quickly blindfolds her and he tells her this very scary story about how he's part of al Qaeda and he was sent here for her, and she says in her original police statement that he was pretending to be on the phone with someone else who's maybe like instructing him what to do next, but she knew that there was no one actually on the phone.

Be aware.

The following language is graphic and maybe disturbing. This is from the victim's statement. The victim says, this man tied her up to the bed, performed oral sex on her, masturbated, ejaculated, cleaned up after himself had then left with a number of electronic items and a suitcase. When the victim freed herself and removed the blindfold, she noticed it was two forty.

Pm, fortunately for some Before she gets blindfolded, she sees he's wearing blue and white bat and gloves, and she tells the police that but the GBI the Georgia labs at the time were only testing fluids. The labs weren't doing touch DNA testing, so they scan all the evidence that they have. They don't find any fluids. They say there's nothing to test, and that's really important.

We're going to hold onto that detail for later, But at that time all they had to go on was her description. Now, remember the attacker was partially masked, she had only seen his eyes shortly before she was blindfolded, and the victim was white, which made this a cross racial identification situation, whether with the actual attacker as described by the victim or with Sonny.

The victim's description of the guy was a black mail bushy bras bushy musta's darskin ruskin face five six, one fifty. I was like one eighty five. I just go to gym like four days a week at a time. So you're not saying one hundred fifty pounds. You're not said I was a black mail.

After all, Sonny's ethnicity is Indian, which I guess if you're a racist and you're all suit not good at being racist, then that makes Sunny a member of al Qaeda somehow. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. At this point, they had made a composite sketch of a black man. Meanwhile, Sunny was headed just a short distance north of Savannah, Georgia,

We finally get a Buford like five pm on November nineteenth, and I picked my vehicle up and just randomly startling. Flint called me at that time, and I've only seen this coup once or twice. So he's like, where am I at? I said him in Bufford and he's like, were you like thirty minutes from me. It's like light bulb goes off in a head. I was like, hey, man, is any way you go on Atlanta soon? Because I got a scirrel me took me to get my car, but she has some type of issue of license.

I think she had a DUI or something.

So I didn't want to getting pulled over going back to Atlanta driving behind me, you know, So I asked me to drive my vehicle back and he's like sure. So we met him and his girlfriend at a restaurant. We ate dinner, and he left on his motorcycle and I follow his girlfriend to his house. So when we get to his house, she introduced me her roommate with he was a Chatham County share steputy, and she tells me she used to be a Chatham County shaf's deputy.

Now it appears that Sterling's girlfriend, Ashley Dold's affiliation to law enforcement may have played a role in this case. But at this point in the story, Sterling Flint parked his motorcycle at home. He got into Chabby Tahoe and was supposed to follow Sonny back to his friend's house at Atlanta.

When we entered one of the interstates in Atlanta, my vehicle disappeared. I don't see him on the highway no more. But finally when I get to my friend's house, I'll keep calling. His phone is not answering. Probably about three o'clock in the morning, he calls. He says that he stopped for gas and he ran into a friend of his aid and seen in some yours and he'll beat in.

A few So she left the doornlock.

So I don't wake up, probably about seven o'clock, and it's like, you know, you have that feeling like you just know something's not right.

And so by eleven o'clock in the morning, he calls.

He says he stopped at his mom's house and he'll beat in a few and I clearly looked at a.

Phone number on the call ide I wrote the number down. Well, well I'm waiting. I'm waiting. He never comes.

So going into the next morning, I caught his mother's house and I'm like asking if he's there, and she's like no, and I said, my name's Sonny. I said, your son has my vehicle. Can you ask him bring it back by twelve o'clock noon. If he doesn't, I'm report of stolen. So right before noon, I hear my friend on the phone arguing with somebody and yelling and stuff. So I asked what's going on. She's like, that's Sterling and she's saying his threatening to kill her. So I

So I called a police.

Suddy made a police report that Sterling Flint had stolen his Chevy Tahoe and made terroristic threats. Now, at some point, the burglary and sexual assault victim viewed a photo lineup and identified Sterling Flint as her attacker. So now Sterling is wanted by Thunderbolt PD in Chatham County for terroristic threats into Cab County, as well as in Clayton County where he first made off with the Chevy Tahoe.

So this whole time, I'm calling Sterring. Finally answers, he says, gonna run my truck off a cliff, gonna kill my family. And I said, man, I work for everything I have, and you got a motorcycle, it's like if that bike is hot, and you mentioned the stolen And a couple of days later there was a messed with my parents' voicemail for me to call this Detective Underwood in Cobb County and he asked for Sterling Flint and I'm like, yes,

So Detective Underwood called Chatham County shared Ashley Dole's phone number, but they already knew her and they went looking for the stolen motorcycle.

When the police show up to Sterling Flint's house, the victims stolen items are inside of his house and we know that they're her items because he stole some luggage and I had her name on it, so we know they're her items. And the batting gloves she describes to the police are with the stolen items.

When he found his stuff at her house, she called him on the phone and he tells her say, I brought the stuff there.

Sterling Flint says, I am holding these items for Sonny Bradia.

I'merstaying his girlfriend was ex Chaman County. Shaf Stepani roommates a Chatham County. Shaf Steppye telling a Thunderbolt police officer, which is a Chatham County that I brought this stuff there. Now the whole storyline changed from a blackmail to.

Me, it's kind of brilliant, right because he's like, Hey, let me get out of this crap that I did, and let me implicate this guy that's giving me trouble for stealing his car. The police should have said, well, that's absurd. That doesn't make sense. Sonny is the one who sent us over here. Why would Sonny tell the police, hey, go check out this guy when he's holding stolen items for Sunny. It doesn't make any sense.

Lost.

The victim had already identified sterling Flint from a photo array, so this case literally came with instructions.

But when we're thinking about how to secure a conviction, they only had the victims who was blindfolded for most of it. They only had her identification. Well, if Sterling Flint is willing to testify against Sonny, then now they have two witnesses that would speak against Sonny, where there's only maybe one witness that would speak against Sterling Flint.

But then the lead detective on the burglary and sexual assault and thunderbolt. Detective Henry Trey Connors brought the victim in to view a second photo lineup. This time Sterling Flint wasn't even in it.

Every photo on a lineup was blurred and they will blackmails. One guy had one eye and I was the only clear photo on a lineup. She has circled photo number four, which was me. Another lineup she circled Sterling Flint and somebody else and so she identified three different people, but one person did crime.

Which is a traumatized person who didn't get a good look at the perpetrator. We're talking about crossracial identification. There's a lot of research that showed is that all humans of all races are worse at identifying strangers of other races than they are strangers of their own race.

I think it one step further, Olivia, which is that multiple studies have shown that, particularly in instances where someone has either been a victim or a witness to a violent crime, cross racial identification has been proven to be less accurate than guessing, which means, as crazy as it sounds, a person who wasn't even there, just by virtue of guessing, would have a better chance of identifying the actual perpetrator than somebody who was.

Yeah, it's understandable that she made that mistake, it's not understandable that the police rolled with it.

So the next day, which was Friday, November thirty, if I got arrest in this served me a warrant from bravery, sexual assault actively to sodom and kidnapping. I'm laughing, thinking as candid camera, like this some kind of sordid joke, you know, But when they pulled the guns out on knew this was serious and sex goes, you know why I arrested you, and I'm like why he goes Ashley.

Which is Sterling Flint's girlfriend.

Next chers deputy, I arrest you because of what she said, not because of what the victim said. I didn't know what to think. They placed me under the wrist. He said a crime happened in Thunderbolt. I've never heard this time in my life. Had these boots on one and as like it's going to be a long time.

Before season boots agin. I never forget that.

Sunny couldn't bond out and spent about a year and a half in pre trialed attention while Sterling Flint, the man whose whereabouts were unknown during the crime, The man who was fending off several other burglary charges as well as a charge for Sonny stolen vehicle and a motorcycle. The guy who was originally identified by the victim and had her belongings. He was able to shift the blame onto Sonny, and he appeared to have everyone's help in doing so.

Sterling Flint took a plea to receiving stolen property right because that's his story that he received these things from Sonny. As far as I know, that's the deal he got to testify against Sonny. Of course, there's these other separate crimes in a separate county, and so he was working on that. He is, actually, if you can believe it, a jailhouse informant in another Georgia Innocence Project case where he cut a deal to completely fabricate a story against another man.

And that man's name is Eric Hurd. Now, over twenty percent of the first two hundred and fifty DNA exonerations in history involved the use of jail house informants, which isn't hard to believe considering how much these jailhouse snitches or informants have to gain from there, and said device testimony. But it appears that the lead detective had a motivation to ignore this more compelling suspect, instead choosing to pursue what was an impossible narrative.

We go to my plumbing hearing and the detectives. His old events were when I came to Savannah to pick my vehicle up from the impound. He said, I did all that Sunday record, show all my vehicles an impound Sunday.

I didn't even have my vehicle that Sunday. I came to Savannah that.

Monday, and then we did a video audio statement in front of an attorney and he's saying my account for that day, and I'm like, look, these are my witnesses. I said, I went through Wedndays that morning to have cameras. I went through this quick trip gas station to have cameras. It's gonna be substantiate. These are my witnesses. He didn't care about none of that. In his mind. I'm a Muslim, I come did this and he goes that. He called home ob security said this guy's terrorists. You need to

So it seems that this detective, Henry Trey Carter's, well, he thought that Sonny's complexion made him a better fit for Al Qaeda than Sterling and Flint. This still wouldn't have been acceptable if Sunny was Muslim or Arab, But to make matters even more absurd, Sunny is an Indian American Evangelical Christian, not a black man, as the victim had described to this detective.

Yeah, the lead detective got arrest before my trial on something else he had going on. The original police statement disappeared, which before my name was put into it, the victim description of the guy was a blackmail The photo lineups disappeared.

Trial council's whole strategy was to show the two photo arrays where the victim identifies Sterling, Flint and one other black man. She does a second photo array where Sterling Flint is not a part of it, and she identifies Sonny. He's going to show how ridiculously dissimilar these people look and that she identified everyone, and it destroys the case. And that's his whole plan. Well, he doesn't get the

He's seen them, but DA doesn't have a copy of When I was testifying the trial attorney, he stated, like on his little ad lib starts on out of lineups, how I was only clear a photo, that every photo on a lineup was blurred, and they will blackmails.

He said.

He talked to the chief police at that time and he goes chief police said that he laughed about it. He's like, this case is nonsensical. Just the things didn't add up.

Trial Council's whole strategy is gone. So he, with no preparation, calls alibi witnesses to the stand, who were just thinking they're going to court to sit in the gallery and support Sonny. So he's calling Sonny's girlfriend, Sonny's friend to the stand, and they're trying to remember dates and things off the top of their heads. They're not prepared.

If you remember, Sonny and his alibi witnesses had seen Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone on November seventeenth, the second day of its release in the US.

They get the date wrong of when they go to the movies, Sunny's girlfriend says, we took the kids to see the Harry Potter movie on this date. It wasn't this other date. Well, the movie wasn't even out yet.

Misremembering this event as from a prior weekend appears to have damaged the rest of Sonny's alibi as far as when he picked up and dropped off the socket wrenches with Keisha Pitts, so we know.

Oh, it's just a mix up. A's because as they weren't prepared, because he wasn't prepared, and I think that this case is so ridiculous. He kind of thought it would resolve itself, but that's not an attorney strategy. You have to be over prepared. He didn't investigate the alibi any more than the police did.

Sunny's cell phone records would have placed him in Atlanta. The Wendy's security cam at eleven am would have left Sonny with insufficient time to make the four hour one way trip to Thunderbolt in order to commit the crime before two forty pm. And it would have been helpful if the batting gloves had been tested for touch DNA, but at that time testing of this nature wasn't even being done by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. And then Sterling Flint took the stand.

So Sterling Flint at this time had been convicted of committing two other burglaries in Sunny's Tahoe, daytime burglaries, very similar crimes. He does not come prepared with the police reports, and he thinks at the time that their open charges against Sterling Flint. He doesn't realize he took a pleat he's already been convicted of those. So he asked sterling Flint on the stand, well, isn't it true that you have these pending charges of burglaries? And sterling Flint says, no,

Tahoe, and without all of this crucial preparation, Sonny didn't have a chance in hell. When the victim took the stand.

When she got an oath, she goes a friend emailer article by the crime, Yeah, color photo me in the paper. She satisfied, and she's been looking at that photo every day. She goes those were the eyes. I got brown eyes. He has brown eyes. I just couldn't believe it, Like my heart dropped because I was adamant, like she's going to see me say hey to Saint the guy.

Add the district attorney leaned into the racism of the time to further seal Sonny's fate.

I remember clearly being a trial to DH she goes, am I a Muslim? And I said no, I said, I just go to this church here. If you choose be a Muslim, that's fine. I respect that by faith.

I'm Christian. It's like, no, you're a Muslim. And I'm like, I'm not a Muslim. And it's on my child transcript. She's telling me I'm a Muslim.

And you know how the jury looked at the post ninet eleven, I get convicted and the judge said life file parole.

That's the first of my life. My knees ever shook.

It's like you're trying to process this like this is a nightmare that just want to stop here. I'm in prison for something I did not do and they want me to die. How are you supposed to process that. You know, prison is a violence. I mean it's like a fight of flight mode in a jungle when you have to survive and you as like you have shape you put in a jungle full alliance, I mean, what are you supposed to do? I was a hate state prism,

I got stabbed twelve times.

Jesus, I didn't even know i'd got stab but this is Georgia prisons, like a life is not valued, and I just I'm okay. I made it through that. It was a nightmare through it all. I lost my father, I lost people deed to me, and you see yours, your life go by, You see your youth go by, to prim you life go by.

Winning his freedom was an urgent matter that took just short of twenty three long years.

In Georgia. The first step after your conviction is called a motion for a new trial, and so it's basically an appeal that goes back to that same court, that same judge. So that was filed right after Sunny's conviction, and it was amended by Sonny's appellata attorney to add just a mountain of claims for him, and.

Many of these claims stem from the ineffectiveness of his trial counsel. This is when the batting gloves come into play. Let's remember Georgia Bureau of Investigation only DNA tested biological fluids. These gloves needed touch DNA testing, meaning they needed to lift skin cells from inside the gloves, and Sonny's appelleat attorney got this testing approved.

In two thousand and four.

My attorney goes, hey, are you sure you want to get DNA tested in these gloves because if he comes back showing a shoot, that's a found nail in the coffin. And I wrote him a letter in big words, I am innocent, and I'm mailed it to him.

And so when Sonny's a Pellet attorney gets this super cutting edge test and he has to send it to a lab in California because he can't find anyone locally that's doing it, Sonny's a Pellet attorney believes in him so wholeheartedly he offers to forego his own pay in the case to pay for the DNA testing, and the court takes him up on it. He gets the DNA results. They exclude sonny.

But also on the outside of gloves because the victim goes, I covered the mouthfoot of gloves. He said, there's a female DNA and outside of gloves. They got a coke can from the victim's house. He tested in the same female denis and coke can is on the outside of gloves. So he recommends that for a profile the victims DNA get taken as well as sterling flints.

The State of checks to it.

So he moves forward with the only new evidence that he's got.

However, the way he raised the new evidence was that the trial attorney should have gotten this test done. Well, that's not really true. The trial attorney can't be expected to get a test done that the Georgia lab won't even do. He does at the end throw in like or maybe this is new evidence. But when you raise a new evidence claim, you have to make a really

The courts concluded that the attorney was not at fault, so even though the new evidence proved Sonny's innocence, this claim failed.

The next thing that what happens is the Appella attorney starts partnering with the Georgia Innosonce Project around twenty eleven to file what in Georgia is called an extraordinary motion for new trial the post conviction litigation avenue in the state of Georgia, where you have new evidence that was not available to you before. And one of the bases for this new evidence is that in twenty twelve they were able to get a codis hit for sterling flint

So you hold to be accountable in two thousand and three for a test that the crime lab didn't even use twenty eleven.

It also kind of sounds like the reverse course on the earlier ruling that trial council was not ineffective. Now they're saying that trial council could have done this, but it doesn't matter since it's procedurally barred. So after this defeat, Sunny's attorneys needed to regroup. In the interim, at Old did an interview.

She did an interview called Shadow of Doubt we Living the Life on YouTube and originally the Stolen Goods. She goes that when my boyfriend picked up from work, he had a UHUL trailer and he had a burgeran Cobb County involvement, an U haul trailer, and they parked the U all trailer at her sister's house and her sister

She covered up for a boyfriend.

And she went on TV years ago said when it found the stuff, he told Race I brought stuff there. So she believing what he said, told a police that. Then the whole storyline changes. So does one police officer telling another police officer, Hey, who's wordy?

Gonna take just one officer to another. And she said the stolen goods came from Sonny. And then the victim viewed another photo lineup. This one did not contain Sterling Flint and only had one clear photo Sonnings. But it doesn't even have to be that devious for cross racial misidentification to occur. Consider the case of Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson.

I came across a book in twenty sixteen picking Cotton, and it was about a guy named Ronald Cotton. Said he was convicted of crime, he was innocent of the victim. Jennifer Thompson said she was sure that it was him the eyes and this, and that I could empatize with that because of my case.

That's exactly what happened.

Recovered the case on the podcast and Jennifer Thompson was called the perfect witness. She was sober, she was awake, a black man broke into her home and brutally assaulted her for twenty five minutes, and her whole being was wrapped up. As she describes it, in studying every feature because, as she says, I get the chills thinking about it. If I survived, I was going to make sure that I could identify this man so no one would ever

Just a small plug to defense attorneys and prosecutors. She founded an organization called Healing Justice. And if you're in a situation like this where you need to approach a victim and you're trying not to do more harm, You're trying not to impose more trauma. Her organization will help you figure out how to do that the best way. So I've used that many times, and it's so important because this problem is not an individual's problem. It's a systemic problem.

It's a great organization. And I'm a proud donor. And Jennifer as one of my heroes, as is Ronald Cotton. And important to note they became very close friends. As they wrote picking Cotton, which is such an incredible name. They've done sixty minutes together, They've been on wrongful conviction together. They've toured the country giving presentations to lost students and prosecutors and anyone that will listen to them about the

And yes, So I got in touch with her on Facebook and she's like, I'm on team Sonny.

So she was my life readily for me. She's one of my mentors. She really is. I try to hang myself years ago. I did, I actually did.

I didn't succeed, just went through some things, but It's like Jennifer was like one of people i'd always go to kind of give me reality check. She was always blunt with me and honest with me. She's like, I'm gonna beat it the gates when you get out, and it's like these things manifested, they really did.

She kept a word.

She's kind of like an angel. She has a very angelus quality.

Jennifer.

If you're listening and you're blushing, you should be because we have so much respect for you here. So okay, So then along comes through other angel, Olivia.

Right.

I was working for the Georgia Innocence Project. Sonny was my first client. So even after I left the Georgia Ennosonce project. It's always hard to leave a job, leave your case, but I couldn't leave Sonny. So I have stayed with him as pro bono council for the past three years. And so when we filed an amended habeas petition in twenty twenty two, all of our claims they were all based on ineffective assistance of appellate Council for

In addition, many witnesses testified in support of Sonny's innocence claim, including Ashley Dold.

She testified that I wasn't there.

My ex girlfriend test fied the one who got confused at trial, and one of my witnesses died over the.

Years, that was Kisha Pitts. But her husband Ray Shawan took the stand in hestead.

He said he remembers I called him that morning asked I pick of soakkasent from his house, and Kesha called him and he's like, Sonny came picked it up, and then when I came back that evening she called to Sonny dropped the stuff off.

And this established a timeframe which made it impossible for an eight hour round trip to Thunderbolt, Georgia, a timeframe that your trial counsel didn't prepare enough to even do a rudimentary job of laying it out.

And I will say that trial attorney did testify and he wept on the stand. He told us he thinks about Sonny all the time. This case keeps him up at night. He always believed in Sonny. He just was so overconfident because the case was so ridiculous and had a lot of regret. But of course we can't not

Sonny was transferred to jail prior to his release, but the date of his actual release still remained unclear.

That morning, I was like, look, the paperwork's not done. I don't know when you're getting out. We didn't think he was getting out.

That day I was in a county jail.

But remember I go up to intake and she told officer like gave my property and stuff. So I had certain books like Long Walked, Freedom of my Bible, some letters I kept over the years, and these things meant something to me. So they're like in a little clear trash bag. So she tells us to dress me out. So I'm still like the reality is not sitting in, like something's gonna happen, Like they're gonna say, hey, we're making a mistake of something. She told me like, hey,

So I run.

I forrest gumped at that guy was running out the drunning down his driveway. That's how I was running. I didn't know where I was going. I was just running. I said, I got to get on the phone, somebody to call Olivia. So I ran one way and it's like a concrete plant. I'm like, what this is the wrong way. Then I'm running along a tree line, so I'm like looking back, saying, hey, they might realize we made a mistake.

Lay this guy out. So I keep looking back every second. Paranol.

My bag of books is like coming apart, like holes in it, and I'm trying to hold these books together. And finally I get to this little place and I'm like yelling, cause somebody help me. And a guy's like, how can I help you. I said, Hey, my name is Sonny Barata. You can google me.

They just let me out of jail. I was innocent.

I've been in prison twenty something years. I just need to call him, my attorney, so to come get me in. He's like, what's the phone number? Sort of laughing, he cold.

And then I get this random number call and I know it's Sonny, and I pick up the phone and he said, they let me out. They let me out, They let me out. I don't know where I am. And then a man gets on the phone, gives me the address and hangs up on me. And that's it. That's all the information I get. I passed the information along to someone closer and she said, why is he at this address? And I was like, I don't know.

And by the time I got home, Oliviy was at my mother's house. Came from Detroit, and Jennifer Thompson came from Chapel Hill. She was at my mom's house. Amazing so I was like, it's such a highlight, just like a mount top experience. The last couple of months, I mean, just trying to find my place right now, it's still hard to process at all. I don't understand a purpose why I went through it, but it's like at the

If anyone would like to talk to Sunny about public speaking, and I really hope you will, then we're going to link his instagram in the episode description so you can reach out. And Sunday's Instagram is at sun B nineteen forty four. I'm gonna spell it out. That's so and letter B like Sunny Varietia So son B nineteen forty four. We're also going to link to Healing Justice and the episode that Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton did together.

And since the recording of this interview, on May sixteenth, twenty twenty five, Sunny's charges were officially dismissed.

The feeling itself was exhilarating. I mean, I've never had a feeling like that. It's like, I'll wait off you and Jennifer Thompson of Healing Justice was there, my attorney Olivia Vigiletti, Christina Cribs, Noah Pines, and the George Andoson's project, and my mom and it was just amazing because I couldn't have made it in this journey about these people.

We were all so happy for you, while of course wishing that this never happened in the first place.

And with that, we're going to go to closing arguments where first I think we thank both of you for joining us, and then I'm just gonna turn my microphone off with my headphones on and just kicked back in my chair and listen for you to share anything you feel is left to be said, We're going to start with Olivia and then Sonny, you take us off into the sunset.

Wow, that is fun, and I feel very put on the spot. I would like to tell a story of Sonny, because it's of course never a requirement that your client be exceptional and incredible. But Sonny has been lead counsel on this case his entire life, and the whole time he's been fighting this and has taught me a lot

All I can say is that I'm grateful and humbled because when you're in prison, lifeile, parole, and it's like you're fighting with hope and it's hard, and you see people with serious crimes that are guilty, that don't have no remorse getting out doing less time than.

You and have a sentence to dine in prison.

And I just didn't think the day would come. I lost my twenties, my thirties, my forties, I'm fifty years old. But I have great people in my life and the last six months and like being like a roller coaster to me. And I was speaking to one of my old attorneys, the one that got the DNA test, Mapple attorneys, like, Sonny, you know what what kept you going all these years

And that's what I'm gonna do. And I'm just content and I'm.

Just thankful and grateful that chapter my life is over with. And next chapter, next half the story book of my life, it's a different story. I can rewrite the ending and that's what I'm doing now.

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 Cliber. The music in this production was supplied by three time

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