On August 6, 1993, Devon “Dog” Brown and Raymondo “Ray” Frazier exited a bodega in Brooklyn, NY, when at least two people fired a slew of bullets from a passing car. Ray was shot in his legs and survived, while Devon was killed. 911 calls came in around 3:03pm describing 2-3 young black men in a Buick Century - a drive by shooting. Primarily on the strength of three questionable eyewitness identifications, Frederick was arrested and charged with murder, convicted and sentenced to 20 years to lif...
May 23, 2024•33 min•Ep. 449
Wrongful Conviction with Lauren Bright Pacheco . Ten new, inspiring episodes of Wrongful Conviction , hosted by Lauren Bright Pacheco, that celebrate the potential of human connection to empower ordinary people to overcome extraordinary odds and injustices. Real individuals who unexpectedly became one another’s personal heroes by turning tragedy into triumph. Click here to follow Wrongful Conviction with Lauren Bright Pacheco: https://link.chtbl.com/v6pEKYf2 Wrongful Conviction with Lauren Brigh...
May 20, 2024•2 min
On April 28, 2001, two men attacked a woman as she returned home in Cleveland Heights, OH. The men sexually assaulted her and then left with various items, including her cell phone. In the following days, police traced the cell phone to 24-year-old Chris Miller. Chris said that he had just bought the cell phone from someone else, but despite no forensic evidence tying Chris to the crime, the victim identified him out of a photo lineup and he was sentenced to 40 years in prison. To learn more and...
May 16, 2024•36 min•Ep. 448
Jason welcomes Lauren to the team and they chat about the upcoming season launching on May 27th. Click here to follow Wrongful Conviction with Lauren Bright Pacheco: https://link.chtbl.com/v6pEKYf2 Wrongful Conviction with Lauren Bright Pacheco is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
May 13, 2024•21 min
On the evening of June 7, 2011, police responded to a shooting at a gas station in Chicago, IL, and found one victim dead and another wounded. Relying on various conflicting statements from eyewitnesses, and questionable incoming tips, police focused on 18-year-old Darien Harris as their main suspect. Some eyewitnesses identified Darien in a photo line-up while others did not. Nevertheless Darien was sentenced to 76 years in prison for the shooting with no physical evidence tying him to the crim...
May 09, 2024•39 min•Ep. 447
In season three of Ozarks True Crime , host Anne Roderique-Jones returns to her home state of Missouri to report on the case of Sandra Hemme: a person living with mental illness who could soon become the longest-known wrongfully convicted woman in the United States. Anne speaks with journalists, lawyers, and mental health professionals to try and uncover why Sandra was found guilty of a murder, despite no solid evidence that she committed the crime. Follow along as we travel back to Missouri for...
May 06, 2024•11 min
A fire erupted in the basement of an apartment building in Pittsburgh, PA, on January 17, 1993, killing three people. Arson officials believed the fire was set purposefully, but the case went cold for 13 years. Dan Carnevale was arrested for the fire in 2006 based on the questionable testimony of a man claiming to be an eyewitness. All of the physical evidence in this case had been destroyed so the case against Dan relied solely on this witness, the testimony of a jailhouse informant, and junk s...
May 02, 2024•42 min•Ep. 446
In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers (who all say they are innocent!) turned jailhouse-lawyers. In prison they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away. They set out to turn the tables on Scarcella while still in prison. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they wo...
Apr 29, 2024•17 min
On March 8, 2016, Officer Nicholas Blake became suspicious of two vehicles traveling together on Interstate 70 toward Manhattan, KS due to their appearance and registration inconsistencies. He suspected they were involved in drug trafficking, with one acting as a decoy. Following a series of stops and surveillances by multiple law enforcement officers, a considerable amount of marijuana and methamphetamine was found in one of the vehicles leading to the arrest of Donte Westmoreland and others. W...
Apr 25, 2024•29 min•Ep. 445
Leo Schofield’s parole hearing in Tallahassee, FL, April 17th, 2024 with reporting from Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker. Bone Valley is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Apr 22, 2024•26 min
Authorities believe Rafael Martinez, his brothers Lorenzo Martinez, Daniel Martinez and Isidoro Medina-DeLeon killed Jose ‘Chino’ Jiminez because Mr. Jiminez shot Mr. Martinez in 1987 in Washington Heights, NY. However, Mr. Jiminez was never killed and is in fact alive and well to this day. Nevertheless, Rafael was convicted of murder and is presently serving consecutive sentences totaling 213 years. To learn more, visit: https://lavaforgood.com/podcast/181-jason-flom-with-danny-rincon/ https://...
Apr 18, 2024•42 min•Ep. 444
The second season of PROOF: Murder at the Warehouse takes Susan Simpson and Jacinda Davis to Manteca, CA where they reinvestigate the murder of 18-year-old Renee Ramos. On June 5, 2000, Ramos’ body was found buried under a pile of debris inside the shell of a new Home Depot building. Despite tips hinting at alternate suspects - tips that were ignored until now - Renee’s boyfriend, 18-year-old skateboarder Jake Silva, and Ty Lopes, the 33-year-old uncle of one of Jake's close friends were arreste...
Apr 16, 2024•5 min
On December 21, 2002, 17-year-old Brian Carrick, a stock boy at Val’s Foods, a grocery store in Johnsburg, IL, was reported missing by his mother. Police determined that one of the last sightings of Carrick was a day earlier, on December 20, when he went to the store to pick up his paycheck. On December 22, police found blood spatter near a cooler used to store produce and a bloody fingerprint on the cooler’s exterior door handle. DNA tests identified the blood spatter near the cooler as Carrick...
Apr 11, 2024•40 min•Ep. 443
In the early morning hours of June 15, 1979, 17-year-old Amer Zada’s truck stalled out near the waterfront in Nyack, NY. While he waited for a ride, Amer discovered the body of Shirley Smith behind a dumpster in a restaurant parking lot. Minutes later, police arrived on the scene. Amer was thrown into the cruiser, arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. Evidence proving his innocence was never turned over to his trial attorney. “I guess the first time the reality of my situation hit...
Apr 08, 2024•41 min•Ep. 442
On March 14, 1998, Anthony Galati was found murdered along the side of a road in Rancho Cordova, CA. The case went cold until October 1999, when Israel Septs, an inmate in a California prison, told police that he witnessed the crime. Septs claimed that 23-year-old Jeremy Puckett and 18-year-old Angela Dvorsky killed Galati after they robbed him. Despite having an alibi and no physical evidence linking him to the crime, Jeremy was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for ...
Apr 04, 2024•31 min•Ep. 441
On the morning of February 19th, 2022, Cassandra Black Elk awoke to find her three-week-old daughter StarLight lifeless beside her. Police insisted the baby had died due to Shaken Baby Syndrome - and that Cassandra was responsible. “They were telling me their story,” Cassandra remembers, “that somebody did something to StarLight…somebody killed her.” Cassandra knew she hadn’t hurt her baby. She asked her lawyer repeatedly - what does the autopsy report say? But by the time she got the answer, Ca...
Apr 01, 2024•31 min•Ep. 440
Two gunmen robbed a liquor store in Edmond, OK, on December 30, 1974. The gunmen fatally shot an employee and left an eyewitness injured. At this time, police were also investigating a series of unrelated crimes and brought 22-year-old Glynn Simmons and his co-defendant in for questioning due to a tangential connection to the suspects in the other crimes. Glynn was put into various lineups and charged with the liquor store crime despite no physical evidence tying him to the robbery/murder. The t...
Mar 28, 2024•34 min•Ep. 439
On March 30th, 2005, police were called to a home in New Orleans, LA. There, they found Renaldo Curley dead of a single gunshot wound. His estranged wife, 32-year-old Catina Curley, told police that she was in fear for her life when she shot Renaldo in self-defense. Police evidence - and the testimony of their children - showed that Renaldo had been physically abusing Catina for years. Yet, she was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. “It could have been me, you kno...
Mar 25, 2024•38 min•Ep. 438
In the early morning hours of March 24,1984, a fire erupted on the first floor of an apartment building in Chicago, IL. The fire destroyed the building and killed six people, including young children. Four years later, James Kluppelberg was taken into police custody after he had reported an unrelated arson case. Police began intensely interrogating James about the apartment building fire until he falsely confessed to the crime. Despite the fact that the only evidence against James was the testim...
Mar 21, 2024•38 min•Ep. 437
Jose Arreola was shot to death inside a pickup truck on November 14, 1995, in Sunnyside, WA. Five months later, a police informant identified a local teenager, Evaristo Salas, as the shooter. He was arrested and taken to the adult jail. “I'm 15 years old, I look like I'm 12. I weigh about a hundred pounds,” Evaristo remembers. “I'm five foot and I'm just surrounded. And I'm scared as hell.” Despite the fact that there was no physical evidence tying Evaristo to the crime, he was convicted and sen...
Mar 18, 2024•45 min•Ep. 436
In 2007, a man wearing a wig and sunglasses entered a Bell Wireless store on the west side of Cincinnati, OH brandishing a gun. He ordered the patrons to the floor, demanded money from the store manager, and fled with the store's till. A witness across the street allegedly saw the man put on the wig and sunglasses, enter the store and flee a few minutes later in a Ford Expedition. The witness later identified that man as Chris Smith. Soon after the robbery, police found the Ford Expedition, a wi...
Mar 14, 2024•41 min•Ep. 435
On November 29, 2002, a 7-month-old baby enrolled in Kim Hoover's Columbus, Ohio home day care began to struggle to breathe. After being taken to the hospital, the baby was found to have a skull fracture and bleeding on her brain; tragically passing away two days later. Doctors and authorities began to suspect the child was a victim of Shaken Baby Syndrome due to her brain injuries. Despite no evidence of prior abuse or accidents while under her care, Kim was sentenced to 15 years to life in pri...
Mar 11, 2024•39 min•Ep. 434
On October 25, 1979, Rabbi David Okunov was robbed and fatally shot while on his way to temple in Brooklyn, New York. Two eyewitnesses described the perpetrator to authorities, and the police's first primary suspect fingered 19-year-old Carl Miller as the gunman. Despite not matching either eyewitness's descriptions, not being picked out of the line-up, and no physical evidence tying him to the crime, Carl was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the murder. To learn more and get involved...
Mar 07, 2024•39 min•Ep. 433
One day in May of 1992, 19-year-old Eron Shelman was driving around Detroit, MI with three of his buddies. Eron was at the wheel with his friend Antonio Knight beside him when suddenly, a shot rang out, and Antonio fell over, dead. “I almost crashed the car,” Eron recalls. “I had my dearest friend laying in my lap, bleeding out the back of his head.” Despite someone else confessing to the shooting, Eron was convicted of Antonio’s murder and sentenced to life in prison. Wrongful Conviction with M...
Mar 04, 2024•41 min•Ep. 432
On Saturday, June 23, 1973, a man attacked Anne Kane outside of her apartment in Boston, MA. The man forced her inside, beat her, robbed her, raped her, and then kidnapped her dragging her all over the city for the next 6 and a half hours. She escaped into a local firehouse and ran away before the police arrived. A few days later, she identified Tyrone Clark as the assailant by picking his photo out of several photographs the police shared with her. Tyrone Clark was convicted of rape and sentenc...
Feb 29, 2024•33 min•Ep. 431
“When I tell people that I was sentenced 25 to 50 years, they automatically assume that I was accused of murder,” says Lorinda Swain. “And I always tell them, no, I was accused of worse than that.” In August of 2001, Lorinda was arrested in Calhoun County, Michigan for allegedly sexually molesting her adopted son, who was seven years old at the time. Although the boy recanted the allegation prior to trial and then again after her conviction, Lorinda remained incarcerated for seven years before b...
Feb 26, 2024•32 min•Ep. 430
A house in Pittsburgh, PA, went up in flames on February 14, 1995, killing three firefighters while they were trying to put out the fire. A week later, a neighbor of 17-year-old Greg Brown came forward and said that he suspected Greg of lighting the fire. Greg and his mother lived at the house that had caught fire, and authorities suspected that the two of them set the fire to claim insurance money. Despite no physical evidence supporting this theory, Greg was sentenced to life in prison without...
Feb 22, 2024•40 min•Ep. 429
In February of 1999, 86-year-old Rosemary “Mama Rose” Williams arrived at a hospital in Queens NY, claiming that she’d been raped at knifepoint. She named her 36-year-old grandson, Gary, as the assailant. Despite there being no physical evidence that Ms. Williams was assaulted, and the fact that Gary was in another state he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Years later, Mama Rose admitted to family members that she regretted making the accusation, saying, “It’s time to get Gary out.” ...
Feb 19, 2024•41 min•Ep. 428
January 18, 2006, 3-year-old Trustin Blue tumbled down his basement stairs in Cincinnati, OH, became unresponsive, and later brain dead. Trustin had been under the supervision of his mother’s boyfriend, Lamont Hunter, at the time of the incident. When Trustin was declared dead, the police began suspecting that Trustin had been raped and abused by Lamont, and had not actually fallen down the stairs as Lamont claimed. The case against Lamont was centered around allegations of prior abuse against T...
Feb 15, 2024•41 min•Ep. 427
On a November Sunday in 2005, two 14-year-olds were shot outside of a street carnival in South Central Los Angeles, CA. One of the teenagers died, but the surviving victim and other individuals identified 21-year-old Jason Walton as the gunman. Despite having been seen on video surveillance footage miles from the scene at the time, and with no physical evidence linking him to the crime, Jason was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. Jason believes police never bothered investigating other le...
Feb 12, 2024•45 min•Ep. 426
