0:05

On November fourteenth, nineteen ninety

0:07

five, Jose Ariola was

0:09

dropping his girlfriend, Ophelia and their

0:11

baby off at their apartment in Sunnyside,

0:14

Washington. As she was getting

0:16

out of the truck, Ophelia saw two figures

0:19

near the driver's side window. Two

0:21

gunshots rang out, and Jose was

0:24

dead. Detectives

0:26

interviewed neighbors who had witnessed the shooting,

0:28

but without any forensic evidence,

0:31

there was little progress made on the investigation.

0:35

Then five months later, a police

0:37

informant came forward with a name, Everisto.

0:40

Solace knew nothing about

0:42

the crime. Was nowhere near the area. Did it

0:45

literally just came out of nowhere.

0:47

Everisto was a local teenager who

0:49

had gotten into trouble before. He'd

0:52

been on the cops radar since he was a kid.

0:55

After the police picked him up for questioning,

0:57

fifteen year old Everisto was grown

1:00

into an adult jail.

1:02

I look like I'm twelve. I weigh about one hundred pounds,

1:05

I'm five foot and I'm just surrounded

1:07

and I'm just like I'm scared. Hell. It says

1:09

hell, like you know, I mean, I know what goes on in prison. I've

1:12

watched movies and all those kind of things.

1:14

Six months later, Everisto was on trial

1:16

for murder.

1:18

My name is Evadristo Salas. I

1:21

was incarcerated for twenty seven years three

1:23

months for murder and the commit.

1:26

From Lava for good. This is wrongful

1:28

conviction with Maggie Freeling today,

1:31

Everisto Salas.

1:51

Everisto Salas was born in nineteen

1:54

eighty in Sunnyside, Washington.

1:57

It's a small farming town of

1:59

about ten Another time sixteen thousand.

2:01

Now it was a beautiful town. The people

2:03

were warm. My

2:05

child was really rough. My

2:07

mother was an alcoholic and addicted

2:11

your drugs and so so chaotic,

2:14

and her approach to life and so

2:16

undisciplined and addicted to every vice possible

2:18

that our lives were just a

2:20

roller coaster every day. I didn't

2:22

know my biological father. I knew

2:25

who he was, but he didn't

2:27

raise me. And so my

2:30

stepfather is the one that raised me and

2:33

kind of taught me everything about life and took

2:35

me in and to me, he's

2:37

always been my father because I knew nothing else.

2:39

I never called him my stepfather. I only do that for

2:42

clarity when I'm talking to other

2:44

people. But he's my father.

2:46

And there's no answer but to buy it.

2:48

We always thought he was our father

2:51

until we got a little bit older

2:54

and our biological family started coming around.

2:56

But he never treated us any different. He

2:59

always treat us the

3:01

same. My

3:04

name is Debbie Salas, and I am Avaris

3:06

So Salis's older sister, and we

3:08

call him Junior.

3:10

Debbie was two years older than Everistow

3:12

and other than his stepfather, she

3:15

was the only source of stability in

3:17

his life.

3:18

Me and him share the

3:20

same biological father and

3:23

same mother, so we always

3:25

had this bond since we

3:27

were really little. It

3:30

was like me him, me him. I

3:32

was always protecting him regardless.

3:34

It was no matter where we were

3:36

at a very young age till

3:39

right now. I still protect him.

3:44

Debbie says times weren't all bad

3:46

when they were very very young. She has

3:49

happy memories of family outings during

3:51

the summer.

3:52

So they wished to take us to that park. I

3:55

forgot the name of it, but would come for the

3:57

day and just spend it there all day, swimming

4:00

and barbecue, camping, swimming right in the same

4:03

spot our whole family did. Because we

4:05

have a big old family, and we'd go uncles

4:07

and ants or whatever and we'd go, all the kids

4:09

would go swimming because my brother Junior

4:11

was a fish like that kid love

4:13

water. This kid could be in there

4:15

for like hours.

4:17

As the oldest, Debbie felt responsible

4:20

for her younger siblings.

4:22

My mom had a drinking and

4:24

drug problem, and so that's

4:27

where I had to step in for my siblings

4:30

to raise help raise them all. It

4:33

was hard, but I did the

4:35

best that I could, you know, for them, And

4:39

that kind of still

4:43

bothers me sometimes because

4:46

I felt like if I

4:48

would have took care of him a little bit

4:51

better and helped

4:53

raised him a little bit better, he

4:55

would have never went to prison. But

4:59

he'd tell tell me all the time, like it

5:01

wasn't my fault and I have to forgive

5:04

myself.

5:06

And then at sixteen, Debbie

5:08

became a mother herself.

5:11

So it was even harder for me to

5:13

focus on my child and focus

5:16

on him. And when I stopped focusing

5:18

on him and focus on my child is

5:20

when I started seeing him slip. And

5:25

so that's when I seen him

5:29

start hanging around with my

5:31

boyfriend at the time, and that

5:33

was all the gang stuff

5:36

started coming around us.

5:39

The town's predominant Hispanic, it

5:42

was more of a mix

5:44

when I was younger between Caucasian and Hispanic,

5:46

but now it's probably ninety six

5:48

nine percent of Hispanic now. And

5:51

so the culture has always been

5:53

it's always it's it's a real warm

5:55

place growing up, and it had always been that way

5:58

until about the late eighties when the gangs

6:00

kind of kind of started coming in California in other

6:02

areas and it kind of changed the dynamic.

6:05

And I remember going to

6:07

school and we were all

6:09

friends, all of us that went to school, and once

6:11

the gangs kind of arrived, that changed

6:13

really really rapidly and quickly, and

6:15

the neighborhood started kind of dividing, and the

6:17

town started dividing into little small sections

6:20

of different gangs, and it

6:22

wasn't safe to walk around anymore. That

6:24

warm feeling that you had kind of went away and it was

6:26

replaced with fear, and it became almost

6:28

a struggle each and every day, even when you were really young,

6:31

to just fill that piece or to go anywhere without

6:34

you know, either getting jumped or chase or

6:36

you know, attacked.

6:38

Debbie's boyfriend at the time was also

6:41

in a gang, and she says that before long

6:43

he was recruiting her little brother.

6:46

So at first, I didn't really say anything

6:48

until I found out that they actually

6:51

courted him, and that's when they, you

6:53

know, get him into the gang. They beat

6:55

him up for fourteen seconds

6:58

or whatever. And I was really possy off

7:00

and I was yelling at my boyfriend and I was yelling

7:02

at my brother, and I was like, what are you doing?

7:04

What do you think? You know, what are you thinking?

7:07

And it was already too late,

7:09

because he was already in there.

7:11

Evaristo says that once he was in the gang,

7:13

there was no turning back. It

7:15

was a matter of survival.

7:18

There was gang fights. I got shot at a few times,

7:20

that kind of stuff. There was five of those gangs

7:22

that dominated the Sunnayside and it was us

7:25

and we only numbered maybe about twenty

7:27

at the most, and we had maybe a street

7:29

or two, and so literally every direction

7:31

we went, we were getting targeted by this

7:33

gang or this gang and that gang, and so

7:36

it was it was really hard

7:38

on us.

7:39

Can you kind of explain that, you know, to some people

7:41

who would look at your situation and

7:43

be like, but why would you join

7:46

a gang? They're dangerous, they're bad. You knew

7:48

better? Can you can you kind of explain what

7:50

happened?

7:51

Well, it's hard because I mean, when I look at

7:53

it right now, when I have the knowledge and experience that I

7:55

have at forty

7:57

two years old or you know, but

7:59

at the age of eleven and twelve, you

8:02

can't understand the dynamics of

8:04

the life you're choosing, or the maturity

8:06

to understand that this choice you're making right now is going

8:08

to change the entire trajectory of your life.

8:11

There was a void emotionally, there was something missing

8:13

in my life, and I looked

8:15

for another places. It wasn't that I

8:17

just sat down one day and said I want to

8:19

be a part of that gang, right. It was,

8:22

like I said, it was a slow, gradual process

8:24

of you know, hanging

8:26

around with this family that was close to my family, and

8:29

then being targeted because of that, and

8:31

then thinking, oh, well I need I need my safety.

8:33

These provide my safety. Second, these

8:35

are my brothers, you know, They're all I have. You know, I don't,

8:38

you know, I mean, there's nobody else.

8:41

Part of being in a gang meant getting into

8:43

trouble, and that made Everistow a

8:46

target for the local police. Can

8:50

you talk about some of the things you did have run

8:52

ins with the law about.

8:53

I mean, I did a lot of stupid stuff, trashpassing

8:56

and tagging of delinquent stuff. I broke

8:58

into cars and I tagged up those kind of things,

9:01

and the law enforcement, you know, they would

9:03

harass me a lot on those kinds of things. They

9:05

seen us as a problem for and

9:08

as a growing problem to the town. And

9:10

when they approached us in aegaway, we reciprocated

9:13

that and we disrespected

9:15

them. I used to talk bad to them all the time, you know, and

9:17

you know, they would harass me. They would

9:19

the would handcuff me, they would rough house me, call

9:22

me names, that kind of things, and I would return it.

9:25

From the age of eleven or twelve. Everisto

9:28

says he and his friends were targeted by

9:30

the local cops, but it wasn't just

9:32

because they were troublemakers. Everisto

9:35

believes there was a racial element to their

9:37

hostility as well.

9:39

I would say nine percent of the polician was

9:41

a Caucasian. Her wife. There's

9:44

a part of me that feels that there's

9:46

a few people in that department not

9:48

only had it out to be, but had it out

9:50

to for every single youthful

9:53

Hispanic in our neighborhood, whether it be our

9:55

gang or the other gang. There was a period of probavate

9:57

with four or five years of a constant harassment,

10:00

and it just got it got worse, worse, worse and worse.

10:02

If we're walking somewhere and they'd pull us over. If

10:05

I was walking somewhere by myself, they'd pull me over, search

10:07

me, pat me down, call me names, yell at

10:10

me. I'd have it back and forth. What are you doing? You

10:12

know, just question those kind of things, just constant harassment.

10:15

One of the officers that was involved in your

10:18

case, Officer Rivard. Had you had run ins

10:20

with.

10:20

Him before Revard came. One time, I

10:23

was walking back from school and

10:25

he just pulls over, passe, searches

10:27

me, tells me what I'm doing. And I come back from school

10:31

and it starts interrogating

10:33

me about all these kind of weird things and kind

10:35

of yells at me, and then just you know, handcustom

10:38

and throws me in the back of the cop carn and

10:40

then he starts just driving out to the country,

10:43

and I'm thinking, what

10:45

the what is he doing? You know, where are we going? You

10:48

know, I mean we're going out, I mean we're going.

10:49

Yeah, what were you like? What did you think

10:52

could what could happen?

10:53

I thought, I thought he was gonna go out there and beat the hell out of me or something,

10:55

and you throw me in one of the canals out there because we're headed out

10:58

way out in the country. And he wouldn't say anything.

11:00

And that even that, even I was trying

11:02

to get scared, you know, like, oh no, this guy's

11:05

what is he doing? You know? And then he goes, Hey, where's your dad work

11:07

at? And I was like, Oh, he's gonna take me to my dad's.

11:10

I felt a little relief, but then I was like, oh no, my

11:12

dad's gonna be pissed off. You know, he's gonna, you know, want the

11:14

help.

11:15

Officer Jim Rivard drove Everisto

11:18

straight to the dairy where his dad was working.

11:21

And then he gets out and in

11:23

front of my dad's boss, he said, I found

11:25

your son out there doing all kinds of stuff. I literally

11:27

was walking home from school and

11:31

I could see his boss looking and I'm just like, and

11:34

my dad gives me that look like and

11:36

I'm like, oh no, and

11:38

I'm I'm in tears already. Others, I mean,

11:41

because I got the utmost respect for my dad and

11:44

knowing that his boss is right there, that he works hard, and

11:46

I'm just like, oh no.

11:48

At first, everisto stepfather

11:50

believed Rivard, but as

11:52

the months went by and the harassment continued,

11:55

he realized that his son was being targeted.

11:59

And my dad has this old, old, you know, Mexican

12:01

mindset where he they'll accept a

12:04

lot and they'll accept the

12:06

treatment of injustice.

12:08

And my dad said, oh, we just got to push on, you know, we

12:10

gotta do what we gotta do. You know, we can't do nothing

12:12

about this. To keep pushing.

12:14

And then in November of nineteen ninety

12:16

five, when Everisto was fourteen

12:18

years old, there was a fatal

12:20

shooting in Sunnyside. It happened

12:23

about a mile from his house, and.

12:28

The person who was shot and killed. His

12:31

name was Jose Ariola.

12:33

This is Laura Shaver. She's Everisto's

12:36

post conviction attorney.

12:38

He and his girlfriend had just gotten

12:40

back from the store and they parked in their apartment

12:43

parking lot. She got out

12:45

with their baby kind of walking towards their

12:47

apartment and he stayed in the car. She

12:50

saw two boys kind of

12:52

approaching the truck. She described

12:55

them as a fifteen year old and a seven or an eight

12:57

year old, and then she

12:59

turned around and kept going and next thing she

13:01

heard was two gunshots.

13:04

Officer Rivard had been moved to the detective

13:06

squad at this point and he was put

13:08

in charge of investigating the shooting. This

13:11

was his first homicide.

13:13

They impound the truck, They

13:16

put like an evidence hold on it, which is

13:18

very normal, so that no one can

13:20

get it out, and they start,

13:22

you know, following as many leads as they can and interviewing

13:24

witnesses. Probably about four

13:26

days after the homicide, the

13:29

girlfriend, who name's Ophelia, she

13:32

went down to the impound lot and she told

13:34

them that the police gave her permission

13:36

to retrieve the truck, and

13:39

so they gave it to her. Oh wow,

13:42

and they just like didn't

13:44

see or disregarded the hold, the

13:46

evidence hold that was on it. So now we

13:48

don't have the truck, which is the crime scene.

13:52

Detective Vard spoke to several people

13:54

who had witnessed the shooting, including

13:56

Ophelia Gonzalez.

13:58

Her description of the suspects didn't

14:01

match really anyone else's.

14:03

There weren't any other eyewitnesses

14:06

that were up close as she was, because she

14:08

was right there. But there was a

14:10

man in a neighboring apartment complex.

14:12

He was on the second floor, so

14:15

he heard an argument and then he heard gunshots,

14:17

and he went out to his balcony and

14:20

looked down and he saw two people

14:22

in their late twenties thirties

14:24

running to a car. And then there

14:26

were three kids that were playing across

14:28

the street, but they had a fence so

14:31

they couldn't see, but they all said that

14:33

they heard a woman scream Ricardo,

14:36

leave him alone, and then they

14:38

heard an argument and then they heard gunshots.

14:41

With conflicting witness statements and

14:43

no hard evidence to go on, Rivard

14:46

made little progress on the case. Five

14:49

months went by.

14:51

And according to him,

14:53

sometime in March of ninety six,

14:56

he gets in touch with one of his informants

14:58

that he's worked with a bunch and

15:00

says, hey, you know, go get go hit

15:02

the pavement and see if you can find

15:04

out anything about this homicide.

15:07

The informant's name was Bill brun.

15:10

So he reports back and he says,

15:13

yeah, I heard some kids talking

15:16

at a park about this homicide and

15:18

essentially confessing.

15:20

At the same time, Everisto was

15:22

also being questioned at the police station.

15:25

Because he was a witness and another homicide.

15:27

So he's in with another detective

15:30

and Rivard decides to go in and

15:32

take pictures of him, and so he took

15:35

three polaroid pictures and then

15:37

he went back to his office where Bill was, and

15:40

Rivard says he then threw the pictures

15:42

on his desk and Bill

15:44

said, Hey, that's the guy. That's

15:47

the kid who was confessing at the park in

15:49

these polaroids. And that's

15:51

how Junior gets involved in the case.

15:54

Ophelia Gonzalez had told police that

15:56

she saw two young boys near the

15:58

truck just before Jose was

16:00

shot. When she was shown a photo

16:03

lineup that included the polaroids detective

16:05

Revard had taken of Everisto, Ophelia

16:08

identified him as one of the boys

16:11

she'd seen. On

16:15

May twenty second, nineteen ninety six,

16:17

Everisto was picked up by police for questioning

16:20

about Jose's murder.

16:23

I was arrested a day after we buried

16:25

my friend who was killed a week before. He

16:27

was my best friend. I grew up with him

16:30

and I was there when he's killed. He was killed right in front of me. He

16:32

was seventeen years old, killed at the jackpot

16:35

here in sunnyside right in front of it, a rival gang.

16:37

I carried his casket and then

16:40

we buried him the next day. They can't picked me up at nine

16:42

in the morning and

16:46

didn't tell me what they were taking. Mind you, they

16:48

do this all the time. So I'm

16:50

pissed off, saying, look, I've been

16:52

up for a week, I haven't slept. My best friend was

16:54

killed the other you guys know this, what do.

16:57

You want Everisto was

16:59

questioned by Detective did jim Levard and

17:01

Jose Trevino. He assumed he

17:03

had been picked up to talk about his friend's

17:05

shooting, and.

17:07

They're like, yeahs, where were you? Where were you at in November?

17:10

I was like November? What? November ninety

17:12

five? I was like what

17:14

day? And they were like, we all just November ninety

17:16

five and I was like, home,

17:19

I don't, I don't know what do you mean? Where was I

17:21

at?

17:21

You know?

17:21

I mean the day? There's nothing about

17:23

the day that's special. It's just

17:25

another day of a fifteen year old

17:27

kid's life. I don't have a car,

17:30

I don't have parties. I go to I literally

17:32

sit home or go to school and that's it. There's

17:34

nothing special about it. And they're asking me these

17:36

things, and I literally like, I don't

17:38

know. I had to be home. And so when they said, well,

17:41

someone said you killed Jose Ariola, and I was like,

17:43

who the hell's Jose Ariola?

17:46

And I knew him in

17:48

the sense that I had heard about him,

17:51

but not personally, but I heard his

17:53

name was they called them bugs and

17:55

then they're like bugs

17:58

and I was like, oh my god, are you serious,

18:01

and they and then I said, I said, look, none

18:03

of us had a part to play and none of that.

18:07

But Detective Orvard kept pushing

18:09

him.

18:11

If I kept telling him I didn't do it. Look, even

18:13

I looked at him, I said, look, you know, you've known me my entire

18:16

life. I mean, come on, and

18:18

he was just like he looks at me, and he goes, you didn't think we're

18:20

ever going to catch it? And

18:24

so this was there was a different tone this time, you know,

18:26

And I knew just by his tone in the way

18:29

that his decision was already made long before

18:31

I even went into that room. He had

18:33

decided I don't know when, but that

18:35

it was going to be me. It

18:39

was the worst feeling in the world because by that I was already

18:41

crying you know. I

18:43

was in tears. And they allowed me

18:45

to call my dad and try to explain to him, and

18:47

he tried to calm down, calm down, I can't understand,

18:49

understand, And I said,

18:51

they were saying I killed somebody that I don't know. I don't know what the hell

18:53

they're talking about. That they're not playing. They're

18:56

not playing, no man, And he's like, calm down, Look,

18:58

what are you talking about? I said, Dad,

19:00

And I couldn't even speak, you know, I just my

19:02

head. It was it was just spinning, and

19:05

it was hysterical. And because I

19:07

could tell they were not playing.

19:20

You're listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie

19:22

Freeling. You can listen to this and all

19:25

the Lava for Good podcasts one week

19:27

early and ad free by subscribing

19:29

to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

19:41

They stripped me naked and

19:44

then they throw me in an adult jumpsuit. It

19:47

doesn't even fit me. It's like a five X or something.

19:49

And the jumpsuits tore from

19:52

the leg all the way down, so my whole leg

19:54

on this side is exposed. I

19:57

was barefooted, I was naked under and then they throw me in the back

19:59

of the cop car and just

20:02

carked me off and they take me into it and they put me in

20:04

the booking and then the lady looks at

20:06

me and she goes tells the cop why

20:08

are you bringing him here? He's a juno clearly,

20:12

and he's like, oh, it doesn't matter, he's gonna come over here

20:14

anyways. They're going to charge him as though anyway, so he's

20:16

gonna come here, and almost

20:19

forced her to do the booking. It

20:21

was almost sadistic in a way, and

20:25

he didn't say it, but his

20:27

actions showed that, for whatever reason, he

20:29

enjoyed that part of it, that that was

20:31

him exercising the power over me and saying, now,

20:34

look, how we got you. He's enjoying

20:37

the fact that I'm clearly

20:40

just in a massive amount of distress.

20:42

You know, I'm an adult jail

20:45

like you know, I mean, i know what goes on in prison. I've watched

20:47

movies and all those kind of things.

20:51

Everisto's sister, Debbie, got

20:53

the news of his arrest from their stepfather.

20:56

When they didn't bring them home. My dad's the one that called

20:58

and told me, you know, hey, they that

21:00

they're charging him a murder And I'm like, what. I

21:02

started crying like, I just bald.

21:05

I'm like, what did I talk y'all? Now, it's not for reals,

21:07

you know. We were just in shock. And

21:10

then I was the one that got the lawyer. A

21:13

sixteen year old looking for a lawyer, come

21:15

on, you know what I mean. I did the

21:17

best that I could, and I thought that his

21:19

lawyer was going to get him off, but

21:22

he did it.

21:24

Everisto's family retained George

21:26

Trehoe as his defense attorney. The

21:28

trial began on December ninth, nineteen

21:30

ninety six, in Yakima Superior

21:33

Court before Judge Stephen

21:35

Brown. The prosecutors were Ken

21:37

Ram and Kelly Allwell. With

21:40

no DNA or forensic evidence to

21:42

present. The primary witnesses

21:44

for the state were Ophelia Gonzalez

21:46

and the informant Bill Brune.

21:50

Both witnesses repeated what they

21:52

had told police. For the

21:54

defense, George Trehoe presented

21:56

several witnesses that contradicted

21:58

Ophelia's description of the shooter.

22:01

His theory was essentially that Junior was

22:03

it was a misidentification. Junior was

22:06

not there.

22:07

To support that argument. Treyjo also

22:10

presented an alibi witness.

22:13

Her name was Sylvia and she worked

22:15

at like a little convenience store by

22:17

Junior's house, and Junior went

22:19

there all the time towards the end of the day because

22:21

she would always throw out burritos at the end

22:23

of the day. So in this particular day

22:26

on the de Jose was shot, he went

22:28

to the convenience store and wanted

22:30

he had some burritos. And so she testified

22:32

essentially that he was there at the same

22:34

time, like around the same time as the shooting, and

22:37

he wasn't sweating, he wasn't he didn't

22:39

like he was on a breath. He didn't like run there right,

22:42

and that would have been like a mile from where

22:44

the shooting happened.

22:46

Right before Sylvia took the stand, Officer

22:49

Rivard tried to stop her from testifying.

22:52

Rivard pulled her to the side

22:55

and said to her that he had a video

22:57

of her stealing like a hot

22:59

dog at this convenience store,

23:01

and so he was like, just just don't

23:04

don't forget I have that video of you. And

23:07

Sylvia told Trey Hoe,

23:09

Junior's attorney, and he made

23:11

a record about it about Revard

23:14

intimidating witnesses, and

23:16

the judge actually admonished everyone

23:18

about witness intimidation, but

23:21

Revard didn't respond the

23:23

prosecutor in Vard. Neither one of them responded.

23:25

It was just trey Hoe making the record

23:27

and the judge saying, you know, that's not allowed.

23:33

Ten days after the trial began, it

23:35

was over. Everisto was

23:38

left to await the jury's decision.

23:41

It was strange because I had a bad dream

23:43

or a couple dreams the night before that that

23:45

were kind of we're dreams that were telling me somehow

23:48

that I was going to be convicted, and I was scared.

23:50

I remember a day before and I was crying

23:52

to my dad and I said, Dad,

23:54

I'm having bad dreams. And he said, don't

23:57

say that. I don't say. We don't know what's going to happen. It's

23:59

just, you know, just calmed down, okay.

24:03

On December nineteenth, nineteen ninety

24:05

six, Everisto was convicted

24:07

of first degree murder and unlawful

24:09

possession of a weapon. He was

24:12

sentenced to thirty two years and

24:14

nine months in prison. It

24:16

was two days after his sixteenth

24:19

birthday.

24:22

The verdict. There was a collective

24:24

scream behind me, and it wasn't

24:27

it wasn't like a normal

24:29

just oh, it was it was a scream

24:31

like something happened really

24:33

really bad, and that was my sister's.

24:37

Every time they played a certain footage of there,

24:39

when you know they find them guilty,

24:42

I'm the one crying in the background really super

24:44

long, because

24:46

it's like it's

24:49

like seeing your child be taken

24:51

from you.

24:52

You know.

24:53

I took care of him and raised him, and

24:55

I still struggle with that.

24:58

And then once they read it,

25:01

it was a weird feeling. It was a feeling like of course,

25:03

you know, of course because

25:07

at that point in my life, I have taken so many punches

25:10

and that was so many, you know,

25:12

horrific moments of my life, and it

25:14

was just like, Okay, of course, you know, that's that's exactly

25:17

what's gonna happen. I had this this attitude

25:19

of just like like

25:22

like there was nothing good gonna happen to me in my life,

25:24

that of course, this is going to be the outcome

25:26

of something I didn't do.

25:29

I was just so confused. I just

25:32

looked at him and I cried and broke

25:34

my heart, like it's

25:37

too bulls just

25:41

sitting here looking at him. You

25:43

know, he was so little, and I was just like how

25:46

couldn't I like what how what?

25:49

None of this stuff makes sense, Like

25:52

there's nothing that says he did anything,

25:55

Like how could they convict him?

25:58

I've never seen my dad before, never

26:01

that moment that was beyond crime. He

26:04

couldn't even talk. And

26:07

I look at him and and and here, like I said,

26:10

here was a man that has been my foundation,

26:13

my superman. He he

26:15

he was everything that I hoped to be. He

26:18

was my protector. At that moment,

26:21

right there, he became mortal.

26:24

He taught me how to be strong

26:26

in those moments of despair and

26:29

hearted. And I could see

26:31

at that moment that that that I had to be

26:33

that for him. And at

26:35

that moment, the roles switched. I

26:39

looked at him. I said, no, it's

26:41

it's gonna be all right. Now, it's

26:44

gonna be all right, It's gonna be alright.

26:46

I just kept saying that to him. I said, I'm

26:49

gonna survive. That I'll survive.

27:07

So I was charged May twenty second

27:09

of nineteen ninety six. I was convicted

27:12

December nineteenth of nineteen ninety six. I

27:15

was sent to thirty plus years and I

27:17

was sent to prison February twelfth of

27:19

nineteen ninety seven. That's less than that's about a

27:21

ten month period that all that took place.

27:24

So I didn't have I was

27:27

barely starting to try to reflect on what has actually

27:29

happened. By that time, I was sitting in an adult

27:31

prison at the age of sixteen on

27:35

the general population yard. I didn't

27:37

have time. I had to think about how

27:39

the hell am I going to survive in this place?

27:41

You know, I mean, Washington

27:44

State Penitentiary is what we call like the closed

27:47

custody. It is where a lot of the

27:49

really, really bad guys go. So

27:51

Junior went there as a sixteen year

27:53

old, weighing one hundred pounds

27:56

and standing five feet tall.

27:58

So I mean, I can't imagine the things

28:01

that he went through.

28:04

I had such a level of

28:06

immaturity that I couldn't

28:08

comprehend the magnitude of what was taking place.

28:11

It came probably about

28:14

when I turned nineteen, is

28:16

when I think mentally I got mature enough

28:18

to realize like, oh my god,

28:20

this is not going to change.

28:23

You know this, this really happened. And

28:25

then it became years of

28:28

just just misery,

28:30

depression, struggles to even accept

28:32

that I wanted to wake up every day, not

28:34

to mention the

28:36

mountain of prison chaos

28:39

and violence and cruelty

28:41

and brutality that was taking place every single day in that place.

28:43

What did you see in an adult prison as a child.

28:46

Well, I wasn't the only juvenile that went to you know, there

28:48

was a few that came in after that too. They raped them,

28:51

they sent them a missions, they gave the knives

28:53

to go stab people. They mashed them out, they

28:55

took the cop they took their store, they extorted

28:57

them. They just didn't have the

28:59

physically resist.

29:01

And I've seen it, believe me. It was it was,

29:04

it was. It was horrible to hear it at night sometimes

29:06

and and in the cells, and

29:08

and that's the reality of prison.

29:10

Did being in a gang help or hurt?

29:12

That was?

29:13

That was that part of your prison life.

29:15

The strange thing is that when I came to prison,

29:17

being a part of that gang actually

29:20

protected me from being preyed

29:22

upon by the other groups. I was. I

29:24

was small, and basically

29:27

I had, I know, had no protection. A

29:29

lot of bad things, even worse things would happen to me.

29:31

The system would have chewed me up. They

29:33

treated me almost like their younger brother, and

29:35

some of them even treated me like a son. Yes, I

29:38

was able to maintain a certain amount of protection,

29:40

but at what costs? You know. Once

29:44

I got past all the misery and poor

29:47

me, you know, I started getting to the this is

29:49

what I needed to do to go home. I started working

29:51

on everything and and got the mind frame that I'm

29:53

gonna I'm going to prove my innocence one

29:55

way or one way or another in this place. And

29:58

I would tell my dad every day, Dad,

30:00

when I get out, there's what I'm gonna do. Dad, when

30:02

I get out, I'm going to do that, and you get happy. But

30:06

twenty six, twenty seven years into that, his level

30:09

of happiness after I would say that was gone. It

30:12

was almost like he felt bad. He

30:14

was like, my poor son still

30:17

believes. He hasn't accepted it. But

30:19

I wasn't going to be defeated. I

30:21

wasn't going to accept that reality. I

30:23

wasn't a murderer. I wasn't a killer.

30:26

Was I a game member, Yeah, I was a game merunt

30:28

the time. Did I do stupid things as a kid,

30:30

yes? Was I disrespectful to the cops

30:32

all those kinds of things, yes, But that doesn't

30:34

make me a killer. And I will not accept

30:37

that label. And that was my

30:39

way of protesting. It was my way of saying, I

30:42

don't have a law degree, I don't have

30:44

an understanding of the courts. I don't have money, I don't have

30:46

anybody even believes me. Some

30:48

way, somehow, my voice is going to reach somebody's

30:51

heart and they're going to have the skills

30:53

that I don't possess, and

30:55

they're going to fight for me. Fifteen

30:59

years ago I started making sure mentally

31:01

that I was already going to be released. And

31:03

so what I did the past ten years is

31:06

I did everything possible to

31:08

stay in line with the life out here. I

31:10

read books, I educated myself.

31:12

I studied everything a possibly study. I prepared

31:14

to release plan went through it thoroughly, updated

31:17

every year. I did countless different

31:19

programs in prison that would teach you how to live out

31:21

here and all that kind of stuff, what resources do. And

31:24

then I had a plan, Well, day one

31:26

is what I'm doing. Day two, so I'm do day three.

31:29

Eventually, Everisto was transferred to a

31:31

work crew that allowed him to work outside

31:33

of the prison.

31:35

I started working for dnr SO Department

31:37

of Natural Resources, and I was a firefighter. I

31:40

was fighting fires in the mountains or a Spokane.

31:42

They trained me as a firefighter, and then they paid

31:44

minimum wage it's the only job. Instead of watching

31:46

as an inmate. They paid him intum wage. And I fought twenty

31:48

three fires before I got I actually fought almost

31:51

a fire every day allow up unto the point that I was released.

31:58

My first day out there, I went to this It was actually

32:01

a tourist site. It's called Dry Falls

32:03

and it's one of the most beautiful places you can

32:05

go in Washington. One guy, me and him, I've

32:07

known him for years, We've been in prison for about the same time.

32:10

And he looks at me, goes, hey, Jr. Say

32:12

how you feel right now? And

32:15

he could see the glow on my face and he

32:17

was just like, it's beautiful. And I was like, Yeah,

32:20

that exposure helped me. Dad

32:22

Harod just aligned with all the plans I had. I

32:26

started writing letters to anybody

32:28

that would listen, probably in

32:30

two thousand and one, two thousand so twenty.

32:33

For twenty three years, I

32:36

wrote letters nearly every week and

32:39

told people I was in prison for murder. I didn't commit

32:42

that this is wrong, now, please help me. I

32:44

would go to the lawle ibrary and pull out addresses

32:46

from all the attorneys stay to Washington, just pick him out, write

32:49

them.

32:51

And then in twenty eleven, I watched the documentary

32:53

on CNN called The West Memphis three

32:56

Paradise Lost, and I was

32:58

so moved by that, and they

33:00

told the story and I

33:02

was like, this guy probably could help

33:04

me. You know, he can probably help me.

33:07

So Everisto wrote to Joe Berlinger,

33:10

one of the producers of that documentary.

33:12

After reading his letter, Berlinger took an

33:14

interest in Everistow's case, and

33:17

in twenty seventeen, his team

33:19

came to Sunnyside to begin investigating

33:21

it for a documentary on the Star's

33:24

network.

33:25

Within about a month, they they pretty

33:27

much cracked the case wide open. That informant spoke

33:29

to them, came forward and

33:31

said that he had made it all up.

33:34

Bill Brune told Berlinger's investigators

33:37

that Officer Rivard had paid him in drugs

33:39

and money to point the finger at

33:41

Everisto, and that when he resisted

33:44

testifying at trial, Vard

33:46

then threw him in jail. At the

33:48

time, Everisto and his family were

33:51

still looking for an attorney to take

33:53

his case.

33:54

So he just randomly, you know, gets my number

33:57

and he calls me. I was interested,

33:59

but I I was also I had just started my firm.

34:03

I'd never done a post conviction case, so

34:05

I was like, totally, this

34:07

was totally out of my league. And then

34:10

the more I talked to him, the more I just believed

34:12

him. When I felt like nobody

34:14

was going to help him because it was a circumstantial

34:16

case, I said to him,

34:19

you know, we can't go into

34:21

this with our hopes very high.

34:24

We have to convince a judge that this

34:26

officer is lying so that the prosecutor

34:28

didn't disclose all this information. And that's

34:30

like really hard to do and it's an uphill

34:33

battle. And so after Junior and I agreed

34:35

that I was going to work with him, and I did it pro

34:37

bonos, so we didn't have like a contract or

34:39

anything. We just kind of like spit shook

34:41

on it. So we did all this investigation

34:44

and it was just the mass it was. It

34:46

was a monster case. It was the biggest case I

34:48

had ever done.

34:49

At that point, Laura started

34:51

by looking for proof that Bill Brune

34:53

had been paid for his testimony.

34:56

At that time, they, the state, and

34:58

the informant and Rovard were all to nine

35:00

that he had been paid. And when

35:02

I requested the file,

35:05

I was able to get a bunch of receipts, like

35:08

actual receipts that say, you

35:10

know, to bill from the Sundayside

35:12

Police Department for X amount of money.

35:15

That was the receipt and he wrote

35:18

a different case number on it. He did not write Junior's

35:20

case number on it because he didn't want it tracing back to Junior's

35:22

case.

35:23

In addition to Brune's recantation, Laura

35:26

had to unravel Ophelia Gonzalez's

35:28

witness testimony.

35:30

What we learned later is when

35:32

Ophelia was called down to the police

35:35

station to do her final identification,

35:38

and this would be the one that Junior's in her

35:41

mother in law went with her, so the decedent's

35:43

mother, and at

35:46

that point in time, according

35:48

to the mom, they hypnotized

35:50

her

35:53

and then she gets out of

35:55

the hypnosis and she picks Junior

35:57

out of the lineup. However, that

36:00

didn't come to light until like twenty

36:02

nineteen, twenty twenty, and it really

36:04

only came to light by accident. I

36:06

had done some requests to get

36:09

Revard's police file. Revard

36:11

and Ophelia, they both deny hypnosis

36:14

and would.

36:14

This be something relevant to the

36:16

case.

36:17

The hypnosis yeah, I mean it would have.

36:19

It would totally have changed the case. The

36:21

Washington law at that time was

36:23

that if you were hypnotized, anything

36:26

from the hypnosis on was not admissible,

36:29

and so her identification of Junior

36:31

would have been tossed and then

36:34

their only evidence would have been

36:36

the informant basically because they had two main

36:38

pieces of evidence at trial, there would have been a

36:40

pre trial hearing on suppressing the identification.

36:43

So yeah, I mean, it would have totally changed it.

36:47

In twenty twenty, Laura and the Washington

36:49

Innocence Project filed a motion

36:51

for a new trial based on new evidence

36:54

and on non disclosure of evidence

36:56

from the first trial. Their request

36:58

for a hearing was denied by Judge

37:01

David Elofson.

37:03

So we ended up filing an appeal and

37:05

winning. So then we get

37:08

ordered to go back to the trial court and

37:11

we actually do get to have a hearing.

37:12

Now.

37:14

The evidentiary hearing was held on August

37:16

fourteenth, twenty twenty three, before

37:19

Judge Ruth Rukoff.

37:21

The judge ordered Ophelia and

37:23

Rivard to talk to us sit down for an interview,

37:26

and Rivard was the last to testify,

37:29

and he denied that he

37:32

had ever paid Bill. He denied the hypnosis.

37:35

I asked him all different kinds of ways about

37:37

the payments to Bill, and he

37:39

denies the eyes and eyes. And then

37:41

at the end of cross I asked

37:44

him the same thing that I've

37:46

already asked him, probably seven times,

37:49

and for whatever reason,

37:51

he is like, fine, yeah,

37:53

I did pay him.

37:55

Vard admitted that not only had

37:57

he paid Bill Brune to name Ever, he

38:01

had doctored the receipts to cover

38:03

his tracks.

38:05

And he, you know, basically didn't tell anyone

38:07

about this, And

38:10

I mean, it was just like it was wild.

38:12

From the beginning. Laura suspected

38:15

that Officer Rivard had it in for

38:17

Everisto.

38:18

There was nothing, no way I could actually

38:20

prove it. However, in twenty nineteen,

38:23

for whatever reason, I decided to put

38:26

Rivard's name into the federal database

38:28

to see if he'd ever been sued, and it turned

38:31

out that Washington State had sued him

38:33

for violating the Anti Discrimination Act. Rivard

38:36

was going like writing these people up

38:38

and evicting them, and he wasn't getting

38:41

a court order to do it. According

38:43

to the lawsuit, it was mainly in the

38:45

Latino community and Latino families,

38:48

so that also, I

38:50

mean furthered my belief that this was definitely

38:52

like very targeted. And I don't know

38:55

why, like why Junior of all people, you

38:57

know, I think rivarded

39:00

to close the case. It was his first case. To

39:02

him, he said, this was a high

39:04

profile case. So it's

39:07

like Junior just was the unlucky one. I

39:10

don't know, but I do think Race

39:12

was involved for sure.

39:14

Three days into the evidentiary hearing, as

39:17

Laura's team was preparing to give their closing

39:19

argument, the state moved to

39:21

dismiss the charge. The county

39:23

prosecutor admitted publicly that

39:25

the case could no longer be proven beyond

39:28

a reasonable doubt, and on August

39:30

seventeenth, twenty twenty three, Judge

39:33

Rukov granted the motion and vacated

39:36

Everisto's conviction. His

39:41

stepdad and siblings were sitting in

39:44

the courtroom. They couldn't believe

39:46

what they were hearing.

39:48

We were there to ask for a new trial. That

39:50

was the right league. So when

39:52

they said that, we're like, what did

39:55

she just And we're like, oh my gosh. My dad

39:57

just like literally fell to the ground on his knee

40:00

and he was just we were all crying.

40:02

We're all happy. You know, we're yelling, and

40:04

you know we never expected that.

40:06

Never, never, never, And

40:09

after nearly three decades in prison,

40:12

Everystow was free. The entire

40:14

family was waiting the day he got out,

40:17

including his stepfather.

40:22

The first thing I said to him was his

40:24

dad, I survived.

40:27

And the first thing he said to me was, oh,

40:31

I'm still alive.

40:33

My dad was still So we picked him

40:35

up and he started joking as soon he's got

40:37

a car, and I'm just like, when you get out, what's

40:40

what do you want to eat? So he took me to McDonald's.

40:43

He was just smiling, happy. We'll

40:45

stop on every McDonald's on the way home. We

40:47

started taking them to places that we

40:49

got out since we were young, you know, our

40:52

parents would take us to

40:54

this park here in the Tri Cities

40:56

area, and we took him there. He

40:58

was just like, oh my gosh, I remember this place.

41:01

And he went in the water and he

41:03

forgot how to swim. We're like, come on, brother,

41:05

just go a little before. He's like, no, I can't. I'm

41:07

not going nowhere, you know, and he was like scared

41:09

because he hadn't been in the water for like, man

41:12

twenty seven years. You know, my

41:17

dad lives in the same house. Wow, my

41:19

brother comes back to the same room that he

41:22

left and so he just says, the

41:24

room is a little smaller than it was. He

41:27

was a smaller I remember big and

41:30

but yeah, he's in the same room right

41:32

now.

41:34

Everistow is back at home in his

41:36

old bedroom. But there has been one

41:39

other major change in his life.

41:41

Me and my fiance, we've been together for almost five years

41:43

now. She's from the Netherlands. We

41:46

met by the documentary. So the documentary

41:48

came out, she was moved by it, she wrote

41:50

me, and

41:53

since then we started. We had a really

41:55

She came to visit me from the Netherlands and it's

41:57

been wonderful. She's been with me the entire time. We

42:00

have a little boy that's seven. He was three years

42:02

old when we met, but I've been raising him

42:04

ever since. And he speaks Dutch, but

42:06

he's learned in English right now and it's

42:08

the cutest thing ever. And he tells me he's like, well,

42:11

in the heavy you know Dutch accident, I love

42:13

you, I love you, I love your dad. It's

42:16

just wonderful song. So my

42:18

hope is that within the next few months I'll

42:20

get my passport and I'll be able to head

42:22

to the Netlands and visit with yourselng.

42:25

In the meantime, Everisto is using his

42:27

experience to give back to the youth

42:29

of his community.

42:30

Here in the city of Sunnyside. I've been speaking

42:33

at all the schools, even the school that I attended before I

42:35

went to prison, and it's been amazing.

42:37

I've been trying to give these kids strength

42:39

and everything. And I'm actually the process of putting together

42:41

a youth center here on Sunnyside, and so

42:43

I'm working with the part of the city council,

42:46

the school district, and I'm actually

42:48

schedule to talk next week over here in the

42:50

town next to us.

42:51

So he loves speaking

42:53

to the youth. He wants

42:55

to help any kid he can help, anybody

42:57

he can help, he wants to help. He's

43:00

so intelligent, he's very, very smart,

43:03

and he speaks from the heart, and

43:05

I mean, I just want people to know

43:07

that he is out here,

43:09

and he's out for a reason, and he has a

43:11

purpose and he's going to

43:13

fulfill his purpose, and speaking

43:16

is his purpose.

43:19

When we spoke, Everisto and Debbie had

43:21

just had birthdays. He had turned

43:24

forty three, and Debbie was forty

43:26

five. She said

43:28

they celebrated together just like

43:30

when they were kids, with one big

43:33

difference.

43:34

When we had birthdays, we always had one big

43:37

cake and always had his

43:39

name and my name, so we always shared a

43:41

cake. This was the first year he

43:43

didn't share a cake with nobody. He had

43:45

a cake to himself.

44:06

Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie

44:08

Freeling. Please support your local innocence

44:11

organizations and go to the links in the episode

44:13

description to see how you can help. I'd

44:16

like to thank our executive producers Jason

44:18

Flam, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wortis,

44:20

as well as senior producer Annie Chelsea,

44:23

producer Kathleen Fink, story

44:25

editor Hannah bial and researcher

44:27

Shelby Sorels. Mixing and

44:29

sound design are by Jackie Pauley, with

44:31

additional production by Jeff Cleiburn

44:34

and Connor Hall. The music in

44:36

this production is by three time OSCAR

44:38

nominated composer Jay Ralph.

44:40

Be sure to follow us on all social

44:42

media platforms at Lava for Good

44:45

and at Wrongful Conviction. You can also

44:47

follow me on all platforms at Maggie

44:49

Freeling Wrongful Conviction with Maggie

44:51

Freeling is a production of Lava for Good

44:53

Podcasts in association with Signal

44:56

Company Number one