0:05

In September of nineteen ninety three,

0:08

Wilson Rivera and his friend Roger Murfick

0:10

were lying in wait to rub a pizza delivery

0:13

driver in South Detroit. They'd

0:15

been tipped off that the pizza guy was carrying

0:17

a couple thousand dollars in drug

0:19

money, but the payoff was

0:21

less than they expected, only

0:23

a few hundred dollars. A

0:26

few nights later, two masked gunmen

0:28

burst into a nearby house. Twenty

0:30

year old Doug Williams and his mother, Lavanda

0:33

were both shot and killed. The

0:36

investigator's theory was that Doug had

0:38

known about the robbery and was killed

0:40

to keep him from snitching. The

0:42

police wasted no time in

0:45

rounding up some local gang members for questioning,

0:47

including Wilson Rivera.

0:50

They are risk me at my house. I'm

0:52

under the assumption that they're looking for me for the robbery,

0:55

and so when they take me to homicide,

0:57

I'm thinking that this is a trick that they're playing

0:59

on me, so that I could go ahead and admit

1:02

to the robbery.

1:04

Wilson had a solid alibi for that

1:06

night, but one by one, the

1:08

other suspects were dropped from the investigation.

1:11

By the time Wilson went to trial, he

1:14

was the only one left.

1:16

My name is Wilson Rivera and

1:19

for the last thirty years I've been

1:21

seven times for crima.

1:22

Did not come in from lava

1:25

for good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie

1:27

Freeling today Wilson

1:29

Rivera.

1:44

Wilson Rivera was born in nineteen

1:46

seventy four in southwest Detroit.

1:50

My whole family's porter. My

1:54

mother was born in Chicago,

1:56

but my father I was born

1:59

in Puerto Rico, so we have family on both

2:01

sides of the ocean, if you will. I

2:04

spent most of my time as

2:06

a teenager in Detroit, but I

2:09

was raised in Puerto Rico. My mother

2:11

tells me that as a child, she

2:13

said, I was I was a pretty lively

2:16

individu you. As a child, I'm animated,

2:18

hyper to a degree. Always,

2:20

she said. I always always smiled.

2:23

But the family had its troubles.

2:26

Both of Wilson's parents struggled

2:28

with substance abuse.

2:31

My father was an alcoholic. He was as

2:33

far as I could remember images, I could see

2:35

my father being a man abuser, getting in

2:37

domestical youth. My mother

2:40

ended up engaging drugs, drinking,

2:43

and so her life at that time she

2:45

did. My mother had a lot of personal issues

2:47

and personal demons that she was struggling against

2:49

that she never could deal with at the time,

2:51

so her life was spiraling

2:54

out of control.

2:55

Wilson's parents separated, and his father

2:58

ended up moving back to Puerto Rico. His

3:00

mother did her best to care for Wilson

3:03

and his brother Antonio.

3:05

My mother did struggle at the time, but she

3:07

may do with what we had. I don't remember

3:09

going hungry, and we

3:11

always have something to eat, whether it was some wig

3:15

or food stamps or focus

3:17

home. I can honestly said that we

3:19

became somewhat of introverts, Me and

3:21

my brother. We could depend on each other, but that

3:23

was about it only because throughout our childhood

3:27

it was always me and hand that were together, Me and my older

3:29

brother. It's alway about one year Antonio.

3:32

For most of his childhood, Wilson went back

3:34

and forth between their mother in Detroit and

3:36

their father in Puerto Rico. In

3:39

nineteen eighty four, when he was ten, they

3:41

moved back to Detroit, but he

3:43

struggled in school.

3:47

I had the language barrier. We didn't

3:49

really speak English. They

3:51

placed us in bilingual classes where basically

3:54

we were just put in a classroom

3:56

and as far as I can remember, just left there.

3:58

That you become kind of like ostracized,

4:01

and I began to resent school. I

4:03

was constantly getting to fight in school and get in

4:05

trouble.

4:06

The trouble continued through his teens.

4:10

I used to be a member. We were through a local

4:12

street gang, Camel Boys Incorporated CBI,

4:15

and consequently we was involved in

4:17

a lot of mischievous behavior as

4:19

in the neighborhood. And I started

4:21

getting trouble shoplifting and

4:24

things of that nature at the time

4:27

and skipping out of school.

4:30

But soon the neighborhood mischief was

4:32

escalating into something else.

4:37

About nineteen eighty seven, Southwest

4:40

Detroit began to receive the influx

4:42

of national gangs. There were

4:44

two or three primary gags for Chicago who

4:47

ended up coming to Southwest Detroit and

4:50

they began to recruit individuals

4:52

and what ends up happening local street gangs

4:54

in the neighborhood. We all bended us one together

4:57

and what we were constantly fighting with these

5:00

the gangs.

5:01

In nineteen ninety, when Wilson was sixteen,

5:04

one of his friends was shot in the face

5:06

by a member of a rival gang. This

5:09

led to an incident that would end up having

5:12

deep repercussions for Wilson.

5:15

Basically, one of my other friends went and got a weapon,

5:18

a shotgun, and brought

5:20

me the shotgun and I opened fire

5:23

at the rival gang, and

5:25

as I fled the scene, I

5:28

came face to face with a member of the

5:30

Detroit Police. I

5:32

pulled the webinarut and as I pulled the webin

5:34

out, I hope discharged it and

5:37

it didn't hit him. Later on the following

5:39

day, I was arrested and

5:42

eventually I pled guilty

5:44

to the offense.

5:46

He was charged with attempt to commit bodily

5:48

harm on a police officer.

5:50

That's what I want you to do, w I'm for.

5:56

Wilson spent over two years

5:58

at the Maxie Boys Training School, a

6:01

juvenile correction facility about

6:03

an hour outside of Detroit, and

6:05

when he was released in nineteen ninety three,

6:08

he still hadn't graduated high school, but

6:10

he did manage to find a job in

6:12

a factory.

6:14

At the time I was working, but then I had

6:16

suffered a hand injury or gusha wound where

6:19

I couldn't really use my hand and keep

6:21

up with the production. So instead of being fired.

6:23

I quit the job, and the way that I will

6:25

survive it would be either petty

6:28

hustle or I will engage in

6:30

small and I'm not minimizing it,

6:32

but it was what we would consider small robberies

6:34

in the neighborhood, and it would be dope dealers

6:38

or things of the source.

6:40

Wilson got by on the petty crimes and

6:42

was still running with the Camel Boys,

6:44

but when he was around nineteen, his girlfriend

6:47

told him some news that made him want to

6:49

change his lifestyle.

6:51

I was excited when I found

6:53

out that Sho was pregnant. I

6:55

wasn't I wouldn't say I was scared, but I

6:57

knew that I want

7:00

to make like a shift in my life.

7:02

I wanted to be a person for my daughters, and.

7:05

To Wilson, that meant leaving gang life

7:07

behind, but he found that

7:09

was easier said than done.

7:12

I had started applying for

7:14

jobs. I wanted to try to see if I could

7:16

get back in the old factory where I was working at, but

7:18

maybe in a different position where it then requires

7:21

for me to work in the machines that I had

7:23

to be working on before. Unfortunately,

7:25

though I still live in the same environment. Though

7:27

the neighborhood where I lived at, like my house

7:30

was smacked. It in the middle of

7:34

basically all the rival gangs that I

7:36

was in fights with, So

7:39

there was one of them things where it was kind of constantly

7:41

going back and forth.

7:43

Wilson was living in the neighborhood, spending

7:45

his nights at his girlfriend's house and leaving early

7:47

in the morning to try and avoid the other gangs.

7:51

I figured that me going home in the mornings

7:53

would be a lot safer as opposed to you

7:55

know, coming home at midnight

7:58

or late at night time because said

8:00

by that company rival gangs, because he that you're home.

8:04

Wilson had decided to give up the petty crime

8:06

in gang life, but he hadn't found a

8:08

job yet and he was still involved with

8:10

the same crowd. One of his friends,

8:12

kal Matta, was in a gang called the cash

8:14

Flow Posse, a gang that the

8:16

Camel Boys had an alliance with. Cal

8:20

also worked at a local pizza shop, and

8:22

one day Cal approached Wilson

8:24

and his friend Roger Murfk with

8:26

a scheme to make some easy money.

8:29

What he had informed those was that there was a guy

8:31

that was delivering pizzas, but he was

8:33

doing so while at

8:35

the same time challenge drugs, we

8:37

were led to believe that this person had

8:40

at least two thousand dollars

8:42

from drug proceeds on himself.

8:47

On September twelfth, nineteen ninety three,

8:50

Wilson and Roger were armed and waiting

8:52

to rob the pizza guy along his route,

8:54

but he was taking longer than they expected,

8:57

so they thought they might have missed him.

8:59

Roger knew a guy named Douglas Williams

9:01

who lived across the street, and he

9:03

went over to Doug's house to ask if he could use

9:05

the phone.

9:08

Eventually, the piece that every

9:10

guy comes and we robbed a guy and

9:14

he didn't have no two thousand

9:16

dollars. He didn't have eight hundred dollars. The individual

9:18

actually only had four hundred dollars. So

9:20

when Kel comes to the apartment after he gets out

9:23

of work at ten o'clock and he

9:25

asked for his portion of the money, I

9:27

told him he wasn't going to get the money because he lied

9:29

about what the guy had, and so we

9:31

fell out over there.

9:34

And that should have been that robbery and

9:36

a small argument over a few hundred

9:38

dollars, but it wasn't. Twenty

9:41

year old Douglas Williams lived with his parents,

9:43

Lavanda and Daniel Brown, and

9:46

three days after the pizza man was robbed,

9:48

two men burst into their house

9:50

wearing ski masks. One of the

9:52

intruders shot and killed both Doug

9:55

and Lavanda, but Daniel, Doug's

9:57

father survived.

10:00

He talked with police shortly afterwards. Daniel

10:02

told them that Doug had known about the armed robbery

10:05

from a few days before.

10:09

Daniel Brown said that his son Doug

10:12

had told him that Wilson Rivera

10:14

and Roger Murfick were the two individuals

10:17

involved in that armed robbery.

10:20

This is Wilson's post conviction attorney, Rachel

10:22

Wolfe.

10:23

There was plenty there for the prosecution to

10:25

latch onto and for the police to investigate,

10:28

because they knew exactly who Roger Murfick

10:30

and Wilson Rivera were at the time.

10:33

And one member of the Detroit Police Department,

10:35

Officer Gerald Packard, had

10:38

his own reasons for focusing on Wilson.

10:41

The officer that Wilson had shot at back

10:43

when he was sixteen. Officer Ayala

10:46

was Packard's partner.

10:48

So Officer Packard knew Wilson.

10:51

He knew that he had gotten what

10:53

I imagine Packard would assume is

10:55

a short sentence for something

10:58

like that. He is not

11:01

on the homicide team. He

11:03

was not part of the homicide investigation,

11:07

but he was the one when he

11:09

heard that Roger and Wilson were

11:11

potentially suspects. He was the one

11:14

that went to Wilson's apartment

11:16

knocking on the door, and then ultimately,

11:19

once the warrant was obtained, just

11:22

busted right in to the apartment.

11:25

And when they arrest me at my house,

11:27

I'm under the assumption that they're looking for me for the robbery,

11:30

and so when they take me to homicide,

11:32

Sergeant Morell tells me that he's

11:34

arrested me for murder. I'm thinking that this is

11:36

a trick that they're playing on me so that

11:38

I could go ahead and admit to the robbery.

11:42

But Wilson knew nothing about the homicide.

11:45

The night of the shooting, he had been with his

11:47

girlfriend and her mother at their house. He

11:49

didn't learn about the shooting until the next day,

11:52

when he found out that Roger had also

11:54

been arrested.

11:57

I've seen Roger aside,

12:00

and when they put him in a bulkin, and

12:03

that's when I asked Rogers like what's going

12:05

on, and he explained to me what

12:07

had actually taken place with the murder

12:09

with the ham size. Now again, I'm

12:12

operating under this

12:14

concept of loads that we have within the gang,

12:17

right, so I'm not going to say nothing. They're

12:20

not going to say nothing, you know, and we

12:22

just take it out and see what happens. In my mind, I'm

12:24

assuming that eventually the facts are

12:26

going to bear me out. Since I don't have nothing to

12:28

do with it, it's just a matter of time before I'm

12:30

clear. Unfortunately,

12:34

if we could see, that's not where I ended up taking place.

12:47

Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with

12:50

Maggie Freeling. You can listen to this

12:52

and all the Lava for Good podcasts

12:54

one week early and ad free by

12:56

subscribing to Lava for Good Plus

12:59

on Apple Pods cast.

13:10

In the aftermath of the shooting, the Detroit

13:12

homicide squad, headed up by Officer

13:14

Carrie Russell, rounded up a number

13:17

of local gang members and charged them with

13:19

the murders. One of the first

13:21

to be arrested with cal Mata.

13:24

They knew they were looking for Wilson

13:26

and Roger. They went to this house

13:28

that was a known location for

13:32

both the cash Flow Posse gang and the

13:34

Camel Boys Gang, so they

13:37

they came in, they arrested Cal.

13:39

At that time, he was the only person in that apartment

13:42

with a number of firearms.

13:44

They also found a ski mask and

13:47

a jacket inside of that

13:49

apartment that they ultimately seized and ended

13:51

up admitting at trial as well.

13:54

While in custody, Cal told Officer

13:57

Packard that he had heard Wilson and

13:59

Roger talking about Doug Williams calling

14:01

him a snitch. Cal took that

14:04

to me and they were going to take steps to make sure Doug

14:06

couldn't report them for the robbery. The

14:09

police also brought in a couple of other gang

14:11

members for questioning, Armando Campos

14:14

and Ephram Garcia. Both

14:16

of them were in the cash Flow Posse and according

14:18

to Wilson, Ephram was trying

14:20

to climb the ranks in the gang.

14:23

The way that the gang was operating was

14:26

that in order for an individual to move up in

14:28

the ranks, right to either become

14:30

an enforcer or treasurer

14:32

or whatever other upper

14:34

echeline in the gang, what they would have to

14:37

do is they would have to what we call back then put in

14:39

work, you know, whether it be if

14:41

you rob somebody, if you shout somebody,

14:43

he jumped somebody in the schools and all that. The

14:46

reputation of that, whatever you do, goes

14:48

to the gang. So in order for Ethom to

14:50

move up in the ranks in his gang, he

14:53

wanted to put in the work, and

14:55

in.

14:55

This case, the work was

14:57

to keep Doug Williams from snitching

14:59

a about the pizza robbery. Wilson

15:02

says that that day at the jail, Roger

15:04

told him exactly how it had gone

15:07

down.

15:08

And so Roger and Etham

15:10

go to the house where the witness of the robbery

15:12

was and Ethel kicks down the door and

15:14

opens fire and hits Dug,

15:17

and then Roger comes from the other side and

15:19

hits Doug. And then as Doug's

15:21

mother attempts to flee that the

15:24

residence, Roger opens fire

15:26

on him and he hits her as well.

15:32

After what Roger told him, Wilson

15:35

was confident that the truth would come out and

15:37

he'd be released. But Roger never

15:39

confessed to anyone else, and the homicide

15:42

team continued to question.

15:44

Wilson, and I told him exactly

15:46

where I was at, Sohm. I was spending the night

15:48

with my daughter's mother, and she was at the time, I

15:50

was twenty half months pregnant. In my mind,

15:53

I know where I was at. So I gave him to Alibi

15:55

and gave him everything where I was, that and everything. And

15:58

my expectation was that they were walk through

16:00

my daughter's mother, but that never took

16:02

place.

16:05

When Armando Compost was questioned, he

16:07

told police that the day after the homicide,

16:10

Roger had turned up at his house desperate

16:13

for money.

16:14

Roger vad I just smoked someone.

16:18

I just smoked someone. I need as much money

16:20

as possible. I got to get out of town. And

16:22

then when questioned a little further, Armando

16:26

also said, yeah, he mentioned

16:28

Wilson too. He mentioned Wilson was there too.

16:31

Wilson and Roger were now the primary suspects,

16:34

and both were charged with the murders.

16:37

In September of nineteen ninety three, a

16:39

joint preliminary hearing was held at

16:41

which cal and Armando testified.

16:44

Both repeated what they had told police,

16:47

but when Roger Murphick went to trial in

16:49

April of nineteen ninety four, Armando

16:52

changed his story.

16:54

Armando recanted everything

16:56

he had said at the preliminary examination. He

16:59

said, no, I never made those statements.

17:01

The only reason that I made those statements is

17:03

because I was arrested.

17:06

You know, I was charged. I was threatened by

17:08

the police. I said exactly what they wanted me

17:11

to say. Roger, of course, was

17:13

acquitted of all of the.

17:14

Charges, but Wilson remained

17:17

in jail. He went to trial

17:19

a few months later on September sixth,

17:21

nineteen ninety four. The judge

17:23

was Helen Brown and the prosecutor was Lisa

17:26

Lindsay. As far as physical

17:28

evidence, there wasn't much

17:30

for the state to present.

17:32

We don't have fingerprints, They didn't fingerprint

17:35

the shell casings or anything in the

17:37

house at the time. Obviously

17:39

there's no DNA or anything like that. It was a

17:41

really quick homicide.

17:43

Officer Packard and the homicide squad had

17:45

searched Wilson's home the day they arrested

17:48

him.

17:49

And they find two firearms

17:51

and two ski masks,

17:54

one of which was black or dark

17:56

blue in color. The other one was a

17:58

multicolored. Those guns were tested

18:01

against some of the shell casings that were recovered

18:03

in the house, and the there was a

18:05

bullet I believe recovered from

18:08

Doug's body during the autopsy,

18:10

and there wasn't a match, so

18:13

conclusively, neither of the weapons found

18:15

in Wilson's home were involved

18:17

in the homicide. They were allowed, however,

18:19

to admit them at trial, along with

18:22

a bunch of ammunition that they found

18:24

in Wilson's home, none of which was the right

18:26

caliber to be involved in the homicide

18:28

either.

18:29

But they presented it as if it could

18:31

be.

18:32

They sure did. Yeah, they presented

18:34

all of that to the jury.

18:36

The state relied heavily on police

18:38

and witness testimony to make their case,

18:40

but there wasn't much of that either.

18:43

Daniel Brown testified to the armed

18:45

robbery and named these

18:48

two co defendants as perpetrators

18:50

of that armed robbery, and then

18:53

they also had testimony from one

18:55

other witness, kal Matta.

18:58

Cal repeated the statement he had given the police that

19:00

he had heard Wilson and Roger talking about getting

19:02

rid of Doug Williams, and that was

19:05

about it for the prosecution's case.

19:08

The officer in charge of the case, you

19:10

know who, was basically the one that was responsible

19:12

for taking other testimonies from all these witnesses

19:14

and all that she felt to shored up for my

19:16

trial, even though she knew my trouble set for that day,

19:19

and so all of these things that was taken

19:21

place, I'm looking at

19:23

what was going on, I was like, yeah, at least in

19:25

my mind, I was hoping that the judge

19:28

was going to say, you know, I'm going to interfere in this thing

19:30

here and I'm going to dismiss it for the

19:32

lack of evidence. And because of what was going

19:34

on with the prosecute fell to produce their witnesses.

19:38

And not only that, Wilson had

19:40

an alibi. Remember

19:42

on the night of the murders, he'd been with his girlfriend,

19:45

but she never testified at trial, and

19:48

surprisingly Armando Compos

19:50

did not appear either.

19:56

So when my attorney at the time, mister

19:58

Griffin, asked to I have a due

20:01

diligence hearing as to why

20:04

Armando has not shown up to testify,

20:06

we find out that the prosecutor at the time

20:09

has failed to subpoena

20:11

Armando and so he never showed up to testify

20:14

because he never knew.

20:16

I think ultimately it's entirely

20:18

possible that Roger was acquitted and

20:20

Wilson was convicted because

20:23

of the absence of Armando Compos's

20:25

testimony.

20:27

On September ninth of nineteen ninety four,

20:30

the jury found Wilson Rivera guilty

20:32

of the premeditated murders of Donald Williams

20:34

and Lavanda Brown. He

20:37

was sentenced to life in prison without

20:39

the possibility of parole.

20:59

After I came to Prey within the first year,

21:01

I winned for an enimy to get into a

21:03

fight and he got stamped.

21:07

Eventually he died understade and he

21:09

basically la out and

21:12

so they locked us down, and I told

21:15

myself, Yeah, that's not going to happen to me,

21:19

you know. So I wanted to hope defensive posturing

21:21

and any issue that I had, I

21:23

either was going to get into a fight. I wasn't going to wait

21:25

for anybody to stab me to try to kill me in prison. And

21:29

so what I ended up doing I started acting our first.

21:31

So if I felt that we had an issue, I

21:34

would act first. And I actually

21:36

caught a couple of assault tickets in prison.

21:39

I spent several years in mechimum security,

21:41

several years, and the whole you

21:44

know, I didn't care much about where

21:46

I was at in prison at that time, you

21:49

know, and had just turned twenty and

21:51

being sentenced to life without parole, and the

21:53

only thing that kind of set me to a degree

21:56

balanced out was that I was

21:58

I wanted to see my daughter.

22:00

While Wilson was in jail awaiting trial,

22:02

his daughter, Sierra was born.

22:05

The first time that I got a chance to see her was

22:07

actually doing my sentencing. So the

22:10

time that I'm being sentenced to life without parole,

22:12

I'm actually paying more so attention to my daughter,

22:15

who basically just a few months old at the

22:17

time.

22:17

You know, he's been in prison my whole

22:19

life. So what I do know is from the relationship

22:21

we formed with him being in prison.

22:24

This is Wilson's daughter, Sierra Ramirez.

22:31

He's funny, he's intelligent, and

22:34

I are a lot of like very talkative.

22:37

He's an encourager. You know, it's only

22:39

fifteen minute phone calls at a time, but I

22:42

feel pretty open when I talk with him.

22:46

What was that like, growing up only

22:49

knowing your father from prison from visiting

22:51

rooms.

22:52

I guess for me, it was a norm. I didn't

22:54

see it as anything weird because it was all I

22:56

knew, basically, you know, when

22:58

I started getting old and going

23:00

to my friend's house and I'm like, oh, okay,

23:03

this is a little bit different. You know, there's

23:05

There's a different dynamic that comes from having.

23:07

Your dad in your life.

23:09

And I had him to an extent,

23:11

but not fully. And now as an adult,

23:13

when I look back, I see how that impacted

23:16

me just as a woman, as a girl growing

23:18

up, you know, as a white how it impacted

23:21

me.

23:21

Did you ever feel angry or resentful

23:24

towards your dad.

23:26

I did feel some anger with him when I was younger.

23:28

I felt very abandoned, and I

23:30

did tell him I was angry at him and

23:33

felt like he made the choice to leave

23:35

me no, and I was coming. He was

23:37

very receptive, you know, he apologized,

23:40

and he's definitely done what he

23:42

can as a father to his best

23:44

of his ability. You know, whether when I

23:47

was young, he would send me, you know, we're Hispanic. He

23:49

would send me tapes to learn Spanish, and he

23:51

would send me these books and make me bracelets

23:53

and stuff like that. He's always caught. I've always

23:55

seen him. He's always sent cards. He's

23:58

definitely done what he can. I give that to

24:00

him for sure.

24:06

Soon after his conviction, Wilson's attorney

24:08

filed a direct appeal based on prosecutorial

24:11

misconduct and the improper

24:13

admission of the firearms founded his house,

24:15

which had been found to be not connected

24:18

to the murders. The

24:20

courts denied the appeal, and Wilson

24:23

knew that if he wanted to get out of prison, he

24:25

would have to dedicate all of his time

24:27

and resources to proving his innocence.

24:31

After about seventeen years in prison, of going

24:33

to all these up and downs and the

24:36

disappointment was the case, I started investing

24:38

more time and the pace, and I

24:40

started working, saving my

24:42

money that I learned for my prison

24:45

detail and basically I

24:47

will try to hire my private investigators to

24:49

try to find the information that I needed to prove my innocence.

24:53

I decided to start studying the law myself,

24:56

and eventually I got trained as a legal

24:58

writer or prison pail. And

25:01

I did this shit in two thousand and ten.

25:05

Then in twenty eighteen, Rachel

25:07

Wolf began working on Wilson's case.

25:10

It was funny when Wilson and I first

25:12

met, he was worried about

25:15

me because I was young, and because I

25:18

and he said, this is a quote sound

25:20

like a Republican. So I had to

25:23

I had to assure him that that wasn't

25:25

going to be an issue. So when I first

25:27

went to meet him. I didn't

25:29

know what to expect, but we clicked

25:32

right away.

25:33

Initially, Rachel was skeptical about the

25:35

strength of Wilson's argument.

25:37

You know, how are we going to prove this case

25:40

there is a motive? And people find

25:42

that very, very convincing. So

25:45

regardless of the strength of the evidence

25:47

as it exists, or the existence of other possible

25:49

suspects, which there are, it's

25:52

easy for people to latch onto and easy

25:54

for them to say.

25:54

Well, of course he did it.

25:56

He had a reason to do it, you

25:58

know, without looking at any closer

26:00

at the case.

26:02

So what convinced you of his

26:04

innocence or what made you want to keep

26:07

digging?

26:08

When I started talking to people,

26:10

and especially like the leaders of the

26:12

cash Flow posse and some other members

26:15

of you know, some other people who were involved

26:17

in the gang activity at that time, I started

26:19

just getting some information that did not jive

26:22

with the prosecutor's theory.

26:29

For one thing, remember ephrom Garcia.

26:32

He was arrested in the DPD roundup

26:34

along with Roger Murfik, and Roger

26:36

had told Wilson straight out that

26:39

he and Ephram had done the killings, But

26:41

somehow Ephram was dropped from the

26:43

case early on.

26:46

We didn't know at the time. They subjected

26:49

e from Garcia two way polygraph

26:51

and he failed it, but they didn't disclose

26:54

it to Wilson's defense counsel. He didn't know about

26:56

it at the time of trial. We discovered

26:58

that much later, and that's

27:01

you know, part of the basis from my legal

27:03

challenge to his case is that he should have had this evidence.

27:06

There was this suspect, and we know that e from

27:08

Garcia was released after that. He wasn't investigated

27:11

for involvement in this homicide any

27:13

further by the Detroit Police

27:15

Department. They started

27:18

looking for Roger and Wilson, and I don't think

27:20

they were going to change their minds at

27:22

any point. Yeah, from the description

27:25

he was there, he failed as Polly, but they

27:27

did. They wanted Roger and they wanted Wilson.

27:31

Officer Packard especially wanted

27:34

Wilson. He hadn't forgotten it was

27:36

Wilson who had shot at his partner,

27:38

Officer Ayala.

27:40

He was I think central to

27:42

this case and maybe maybe

27:45

you know, part of the reason they

27:47

didn't investigate e from any further or

27:49

any other possible suspects. Ephrom

27:52

Garcia was indicted for the

27:54

exact same homicide five years

27:56

later. He never actually ended

27:58

up with that homicide conviction. He's incarcerated

28:01

now for several additional homicides.

28:03

They've also uncovered previously undisclosed

28:06

information about Cal's testimony.

28:08

Cal was on probation, and he

28:10

also was found and arrested

28:13

with guns and drugs

28:16

in a known gang location.

28:19

His probation was dismissed

28:23

very shortly after Wilson's

28:25

trial and sentencing, and he

28:28

was never charged. He was initially

28:31

actually charged with the homicide,

28:33

and then ultimately they dismissed

28:35

that, and then they never

28:37

even charged him with any of the other offenses.

28:40

Then there's the matter of proving Wilson's

28:42

alibi.

28:44

So he had his

28:46

girlfriend at the time. He

28:48

was with her at her

28:50

mother's house. He stayed the night there,

28:53

i think until early in the morning, early

28:55

morning hours, We're talking like two am, three

28:57

am.

28:58

Wilson's girlfriend never testified

29:00

to this at trial. When Rachel interviewed

29:03

her, she found out why because

29:05

she was scared.

29:07

She says an individual

29:09

in a suit approached her in the hallway

29:11

outside of the courtroom and said, look,

29:13

we're holding your brother. He's currently facing

29:15

these additioninal charges. If you go in

29:18

there and testify, you know we're going to reconsider

29:21

the severity of the charges in the possible

29:23

sentence against your brother. And so she

29:25

was too afraid to testify,

29:28

and I think her testimony probably would have

29:30

made a difference.

29:36

Rachel says she's spoken with other potential

29:38

witnesses from the neighborhood. People will

29:41

have knowledge of what actually happened,

29:43

but they have similar reasons for not coming

29:46

forward.

29:47

They're all afraid of the police. They're

29:49

all afraid of the prosecutor and of coming

29:51

into court, just because I think

29:54

that's what their lived experience

29:57

has taught them to fear. They

30:00

are hesitant to

30:02

come into court. And that's made the investigation

30:04

of this case a little more difficult as well,

30:06

is that I have witnesses who were willing

30:08

to provide me with information that

30:11

are not willing to come in and

30:13

testify in court. They're not willing to talk

30:15

to the prosecutor's conviction

30:17

integrity unit. They're just not going to do that.

30:20

That's so interesting. They're more scared of

30:23

the law enforcement than

30:25

they are of snitching and being a snitch

30:28

on the street.

30:29

Yeah, at least that's what they're telling

30:31

me.

30:32

According to Rachel, all of this is

30:34

tied in with the culture in the Detroit Police

30:36

Department at the time. People

30:38

in the community had little reason

30:40

to trust the cops and plenty

30:43

of reason to fear them.

30:45

They had this practice, they called it witness

30:47

roundups. You're not supposed to arrest

30:49

somebody without probable cause. But

30:52

what they would do, and they did it in Wilson's

30:54

case, they would go and everybody

30:57

who they thought was a possible witness, they

30:59

would charge them with the

31:01

underlying offense. So in a homicide

31:03

investigation, you're all charged with

31:05

homicide. And then they would bring them

31:08

in, hold them, interview them.

31:11

The place was Detroit Police Headquarters

31:13

at thirteen hundred Bobian, and

31:15

it was notorious for being the seat

31:17

of police corruption.

31:20

All the witnesses, all of the clients that I have,

31:22

you say, thirteen hundred Bobian, everybody

31:24

knows exactly what you're talking about. That

31:26

interview room that they used to take people is

31:29

awful, like cockroaches are in there. They don't

31:31

give you food. You know, you can't see out, so

31:34

you'll see through the nineteen nineties, these witnesses

31:37

all testifying like I was held for like three

31:39

days. I was charged with the homicide, and of course

31:41

they weren't involved, you know, they weren't,

31:44

But that's what DPD was doing. So

31:46

in the late nineteen eighties and all

31:49

throughout the nineties, there was significant

31:51

corruption within the Detroit Police

31:53

Department.

31:55

In the year two thousand, seven, years

31:57

after Wilson's conviction, the Department

31:59

of Justice ran an investigation of the

32:02

DPD that turned up a number

32:04

of significant violations.

32:07

In nineteen ninety five, Carlos

32:09

Rodriguez, who was one of the investigators

32:12

on Wilson's homicide team, was

32:14

indicted along with four other

32:16

officers for operating a narcotic

32:19

spring through the fourth Precinct

32:21

in the city of Detroit. The

32:23

entire DPD forensics lab

32:26

was shut down in two thousand and eight because the investigators

32:28

had found widespread errors

32:31

in their analysis. And then a few

32:33

years later, David Pouch, the

32:35

firearms examiner in Wilson's case, was

32:38

found to have intentionally

32:40

fabricated ballistics evidence

32:43

to obtain a conviction in a nineteen

32:45

ninety two case, so a

32:47

year before he testified at Wilson's

32:49

trial, he had intentionally fabricated

32:52

ballistics evidence that individual

32:54

to his case. His name is Desmond Rix. He

32:57

was also exonerated on that basis.

33:00

With all of this new information to present, Rachel

33:03

is hopeful that Wilson will be granted

33:05

a new trial.

33:07

Short of a commutation or

33:09

pardon from the governor. There's one

33:12

other way you can get out of prison when you have

33:14

a life without parole sentence, and

33:16

that is through a motion fu a leaf from judgment.

33:18

So basically what you do is you go back

33:21

to the state court, back to the same court

33:23

that convicted you in the first place, and you say

33:26

I'm entitled to a new trial for

33:28

this reason, this reason, and this reason. So

33:30

you investigate the hell out of everything because

33:34

you only get one chance. So

33:37

now that we have all of that evidence collected,

33:39

there are some significant

33:42

legal challenges that we can raise.

33:44

One of them, of course, is the Brady

33:47

violation. Wilson

33:49

should have had information that e from

33:51

Garcia was given a polygraph examination

33:54

and failed it so that he would be able to

33:56

properly investigate that avenue of defense,

33:59

and he wasn't. So that's certainly

34:01

one of our claims. I think we were prepared

34:03

to go to court probably

34:06

about two years ago, and so we'll

34:08

be moving forward very quickly now.

34:14

And in the meantime. In addition to becoming

34:17

a prison paralegal, Wilson

34:19

has accomplished another important

34:21

goal. In May of twenty twenty

34:23

three, he graduated magna cum

34:25

laude from Calvin University.

34:28

Was going for a bachelor's degree in Faith and

34:30

Community Leadership with a minor and

34:32

social work. The highest

34:34

grade I ever completed with the seventh grade. I never

34:37

went to high school, and so being

34:40

able to kind of like accomplish

34:42

not just a gain in a college degree,

34:45

but with a high GDA three

34:47

point ninety three, it was

34:50

personally a huge accomplishment and

34:53

it just gave me a huge sense of self

34:55

work as well.

34:57

So your daughter Sierra was telling

34:59

me that she was able to go to your graduation.

35:01

Yeah, to me, right is invaluable.

35:03

I mean it's a moment there and I look at the picture

35:06

and that I'm still with such a man. I'm extremely

35:09

proud of my daughter that got fishes

35:11

my heart.

35:12

It was nice, you know, to be able

35:15

to be there and watch him do like

35:17

kind of like this normal thing. It

35:20

was awesome to see and maybe feel proud of him, you

35:22

know. I feel like it was a great example of how he, even

35:24

given his circumstances, he

35:26

was able to accomplish something so great.

35:29

It was very inspiring, and

35:32

Sierra credits her father with inspiring

35:34

her in other ways.

35:36

I've seen what a wonderful person

35:38

he is and how someone

35:41

like I said, can make bad choices

35:43

at one point in their life, but then

35:45

you know they can turn that around and not

35:47

let that define them and contain them no

35:49

matter where they're at, being in prison. I

35:52

think it's important to know your own

35:54

worth and not see other people's

35:57

decisions as how worthy

35:59

you are. I guess because that's how I felt.

36:01

I felt like I was unworthy of love

36:03

and I was someone who just had

36:05

this abandonment. And you know, I

36:08

guess it would be that doesn't define

36:10

who you are as a person. I guess for me, it

36:12

was just you know, learning my identity

36:15

and who I am. Aside from that, you

36:17

know, So.

36:18

Do you and your dad ever talk about maybe

36:20

the future anything like that.

36:23

He talks to me when you know, if he gets out, he

36:25

would love to move here. Yeah, he would love

36:27

to move here and you know spend

36:29

time with me, and I'm my daughter, and you

36:31

know, I may not have been able to have a childhood with him,

36:33

but my children being able to have him around

36:36

and you know, see that side of him that I

36:38

never got to see that I will grow to see. I

36:41

think that would be pretty awesome.

36:47

Wilson believes that his experience gave him

36:49

a perspective that can make a difference

36:52

to others even while he remains

36:54

behind bars.

36:55

I think people depressed. I think people

36:57

can be full sid I don't think people can't suicide,

37:00

you know. And so this is the environment. And I

37:02

told myself, well, because I have this education,

37:04

while I'm still fighting to prove my innocent, I

37:07

could be a summer of assistance to these

37:09

individuals around me as well.

37:11

So when you get out, what do you want to do.

37:13

I would love to be able to work with youth and

37:15

games. I would love

37:17

to be able to step out of prison and start programs,

37:19

mentioning programs, tutoring programs, because

37:22

I know the value of that, Programs

37:24

that help interpret, you know, because I know

37:26

how that feels not to be able to express your feelings

37:29

because you have the you don't have the proper words

37:32

in English to do so.

37:34

So these are kind of things that I would love to be affected

37:36

in our community as well. I

37:38

no longer kind of view myself as

37:41

this individual who's just in prison and poor

37:43

me. You know, when

37:45

I figured out that even though I'm still fighting for my

37:47

freedom to prove my innocent, I could still

37:50

be effective in helping other individuals.

38:06

If you'd like to help support Wilson in his fight

38:09

to prove his innocence, go to Freewilson

38:11

rivera dot com. We'll post

38:14

that link in the episode description. Thank

38:23

you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie

38:25

Freeling. Please support your local innocence

38:27

organizations and go to the links in the episode

38:29

description to see how you can help. I'd

38:32

like to thank our executive producers Jason

38:34

Flam, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wortis,

38:36

as well as senior producer Annie Chelsea,

38:39

producer Kathleen Fink, story

38:41

editor Hannah Beal, and researcher

38:43

Shelby Sorels. Mixing and

38:45

sound design are by Jackie Pauley, with

38:48

additional production by Jeff Cleiburn

38:50

and Connor Hall. The music in

38:52

this production is by three time OSCAR

38:54

nominated composer Jay Ralph.

38:56

Be sure to follow us on all social

38:58

media platforms at Lava for Good

39:01

and at Wrongful Conviction. You can

39:03

also follow me on all platforms at

39:05

Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with

39:07

Maggie Freeling is a production of Lava

39:09

for Good Podcasts in association with

39:12

Signal Company Number one