Juan Corona was framed by Edward Wayne Edwards and John Gotti for the murders of 25 migrant farm workers found buried in shallow graves in peach orchards along the Feather River in Sutter County, California, in 1971. ( Two trials ) Juan died in prison, March 2019.
Category Archives: Implicated by True Perps
James Dailey
James Dailey was convicted in the 1985 murder of a 14-year-old girl in Pinellas County.
According to the Innocence Project of Florida:
“There is nothing more shocking than the thought of executing an innocent man,” Seth Miller, executive director of the Innocence Project of Florida, said in the statement. “Yet, that’s what will happen if Florida proceeds with the execution of James M. Dailey, a Vietnam veteran who has spent more than 30 years on Death Row for a crime he did not commit. There is no physical or eyewitness evidence tying Mr. Dailey to this tragic crime. Prosecutors used discredited snitch testimony to wrongfully convict him.”
News report Oct 4, 2019
“Despite a lack of evidence, James Dailey will likely be executed for the 1985 murder of a Pinellas girl”
Rodney Franck
In April 2015, Rodney Franck intervened to stop a brutal assault on 54-year-old Christopher Brewster, who was left in a coma and died in June 2015. Subsequently, the perpetrator of the assault, Spencer Pell, bragged about the attack to more than 10 individuals before giving a voluntary confession to police.
Despite overwhelming evidence that Pell was the assailant, Franck was subsequently charged with murder. His trial is set for August 2018.
For more details see http://www.usobserver.com/prosecutor-disregards-confession-of-killer/
Julius Jones
In 1999, Paul Howell was shot and killed in Edmond, Oklahoma during the theft of his SUV. The victim’s sister, who was a passenger in the vehicle and witnessed the shooting, testified that the shooter had approximately a half-inch of hair sticking out from underneath a stocking cap.
The witness’s physical description of the man who shot her brother fit that of Mr. Jones’ friend, Christopher Jordan, who was one of the prosecution’s main witnesses against Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones’ attorneys, who were public defenders with no capital trial experience, failed to show the jury a photograph of Mr. Jones, taken a few days before the shooting, illustrating that Mr. Jones’ had low, crew-cut hair and proving that he could not be the person who the victim’s sister described.
Mr. Jones’ attorneys failed to cross examine Mr. Jordan on the six different and inconsistent statements he gave to the police after his arrest. They also failed to put on evidence showing that Mr. Jordan was likely the actual shooter and was testifying against Mr. Jones to avoid the death penalty.
Joe Bryan
Joe Bryan was convicted for the murder of his wife in 1985, a murder which according to a New York Times Editorial he “probably didn’t commit”. According to the Editorial:
“By all accounts, the Bryans had a happy marriage. On the night of his wife’s murder, Mr. Bryan was attending a principals’ conference 120 miles away. Prosecutors dismissed or ignored many pieces of potentially exculpatory evidence, like an unidentified palm print in the bedroom where Mrs. Bryan was shot to death, a cigarette butt on the kitchen floor (neither of the Bryans smoked) and the absence of any bloodstains in Mr. Bryan’s car.”
He was convicted on account of some tiny specks which may or may not have been blood, on a flashlight found in his car, which may have been planted.
Anthony Perez
Anthony Perez was convicted in November 2017 of murder for the shooting death of Giovanni Galicia on November 30, 2013.
According to a news report “Galicia’s brother and the friend, Fermin Estrada Ramos, also of Belvidere, testified that they could not identify Perez as the masked man who fired more than a dozen times into the Lincoln Navigator** that morning as Galicia tried to drive away.”
** In fact the victim’s car was a Chevy Impala.
According to another report:
Belvidere Police Sgt. David Dammon testified on Thursday that one of the men in Galicia’s car that morning, Fermin Estrada Ramos, 32, of Belvidere, described the shooter as 5-foot-6 with a medium build but he wasn’t able to identify the gunman’s face. Carter said Perez is not 5-foot-6, but he didn’t provide Perez’s height. Estrada Ramos noticed something else about the shooter. ″(Estrada Ramos said) ‘I’m 85 percent sure that it was (another man’s) voice,’” Dammon testified. Yet Estrada Ramos “actually said that he wasn’t” pointing the finger at that man as the shooter. When Smith asked if Belvidere detectives ever interviewed the man whose voice Estrada Ramos identified, Dammon said that man was “never interviewed.”
A defense attorney told jurors during closing arguments that Perez was charged as a result of “bad police work.”
The conviction was based on the testimony of Cheyanne Patton, who was in the Lincoln Navigator with two other men who were charged. The defense argued that Patton was a liar who didn’t like Perez, saying Patton was “the lookout” who was trying to protect her boyfriend, Ricardo A. Garcia, one of the three men charged in the shooting. Patton was given immunity for her testimony.
Thus the conviction was based on the testimony of a witness involved in the shooting, who had a powerful motive to lie, and the accusation was contradicted by the testimony of people in the victim’s car.
John Bernard Feit
John Bernard Feit, 85, was convicted in December 2017 for the murder of 25-year-old beauty queen schoolteacher Irene Garza in McAllen, Texas.
Garza disappeared April 16, 1960. Her bludgeoned body was found days later. An autopsy revealed she had been raped while unconscious, beaten and suffocated.
Link to Edward Wayne Edwards:
The crime was at Easter, the victim was found in water with two altar candles laid across her chest. Signed by the cross. Anonymous letters targeting a priest and an item owned by the priest planted at the scene. Edwards was 27, on parole from Montana. He mentions the candles in his autobiography. He killed the couple on Lovers lane in Portland on thanksgiving, 1960. (JAC)
Deontae Fulton
Deontae Fulton was convicted of first-degree murder for shooting Juan Reyes in June 2013, based on the testimony of his cousin, Atarius Bishop.
The defense argued it was Bishop that shot the victim not Fulton, after Morisha McCoy jilted first Bishop, then Fulton for Reyes, who she had dated before.
Another witness testified that she had overheard Bishop admit to having shot and killed Reyes.
Stacy Ramsey and Deion Harris
Stacy Ramsey and Deion Harris were wrongly convicted of felony murder, and sentenced to life without parole, on the word of the murderer, Walter Smothers, who had the strongest possible motive to lie – the threat of execution.
The murder took place on July 29, 1993. Smothers gave seven different versions of events, adding details to support the charges against Stacy and Deion, who were unwilling participants in the hijack of a truck, and the eventual murder of the driver, Dennis Brooks.
For the full story see here:
and/or here: http://www.just-us-justice.com/stacy-ramsey.html
Ryan Mickey
Ryan Mickey was railroaded by the system for doing CPR wrong on a sick child that had a brain injury from the child’s Father Nicholas Bradley. This Coward beat up his pregnant wife and put her in the hospital for 3 weeks, Causing a subdural haematoma in his unborn child and received only a 4 year sentence. Ryan got together with the child’s mom a while later. Because this brain injury was so severe, it had reopened 16 months later with no warning. The symptoms were flu like and a nurse practitioner misdiagnosed this child with a severe flu. A few days later she went into respiratory distress and Ryan called 911 and began CPR… Because he did what anyone else with any kind of morals and a heart would’ve done, he lost his freedom & life from lying, crooked cops and DA…
Instead of doing the right thing and letting him go, they offered Ryan a deal to cover their own asses, which Ryan refused to sign.
He is a hero sitting in prison for helping someone! Ryan has already lost 11 years of his life due to this terrible injustice!! The Innocence Project is working on bringing him home right now.
Website : http://www.ryanmickeyisinnocent.com/
Kimberly Renee Poole
Kimberly Renee Poole was celebrating her third wedding anniversary with her husband Brent Poole, when the couple were robbed on a beach soon before midnight on June 9th, 1998. Brent was shot twice in the head, and died soon after.
Police rapidly focussed on a theory that the shooter was John Boyd Frazier, and Kimberly had conspired with John to have her husband murdered. Kimberly had briefly left her husband and gone to live with John a month earlier, before reconciling with her husband.
Kimberly was subject to extremely coercive Reid interrogation tactics, and after many hours, after being accused of “obstructing justice”, on being told the only way she could keep her two year old child Katie was to agree to the police theory, she made damaging admissions.
The police built their case on
(i) A questionable eyewitness identification from a couple who were paid a substantial amount of money by Brent’s family.
(ii) A witness who saw a car resembling John’s car parked outside the Poole home on three nights before the murder.
(iii) The testimony of alternative suspect Bruce Wolford, who was a friend of John, and a bartender at the Silver Fox where Kimberly worked. Wolford testified that John tried to fight Brent on May 30 in the parking lot of the Silver Fox. Wolford also claimed that he overheard Kimberly telling John of her plans to go to Myrtle Beach with Brent on June 9.
However, eyewitness Chris Hensley who had seen the shooter close-up (ten feet), told police the composite he made didn’t resemble John in any way. Instead, it resembled alternative suspect Bruce Wolford.
Kimberly and John were convicted in separate trials. A juror at Kimberly’s trial has written about how jurors were coerced into reaching a verdict. John’s conviction was overturned, due to him being denied an expert to challenge the eyewitness identification, but he was again convicted after a retrial. Kimberly was sentenced to life without parole.
It has recently been discovered that Wolford was stalking Kimberly, he had installed spyware on the Poole’s computer. Kimberly’s attorney has since been disbarred. A recently filed appeal cites ineffective assistance of counsel, based on several grounds.
Ralph Trent Stokes
On March 11, 1982, two men robbed Smokin’ Joe’s Korner, in Philadelphia. Armed with guns, and wearing masks, the men entered the restaurant before it opened, herded the employees into the walk-in refrigerator and threatened to kill them if they failed to cooperate.
One of the men shot and killed two of the employees Mary Louise Figueroa and Eugene Jefferson. Two other employees were threatened but not shot. However, when a United States Postal Service employee happened onto the scene, he was killed by a shot in the head.
Both Ralph Trent Stokes, age 19, who had worked at the restaurant, and Donald Jackson were arrested and charged with the murders. Threatened with the death penalty, Jackson testified that Ralph was the shooter, in exchange for a guilty plea to second-degree murder and a life sentence. Ralph was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death.
One witness, Donald Blackson, testified that he had not signed a statement incriminating Ralph, and contrary to the statement he did not remember talking to Ralph on the day of the murders.
Prosecutor Roger King failed to disclose exculpatory results of laboratory testing on items seized from Ralph’s home. King then made argument to the jury, and presented other evidence, which was completely rebutted by the undisclosed lab reports. King lied to defense counsel, the court and the jury.
More information is available at http://www.ralphtrentstokes.org
Kris Helton
Kris Helton was convicted in 1992 for the murder of twenty-two month old Marshall Gunderson. At the time of Marshall’s death, Kris was living with Marshall’s mother, Marcella Gunderson and her three sons, Michael, age four, Matthew, age six, and Marshall.
However gastric contents evidence, and the observations of a doctor who examined Marshall after he was rushed to hospital, suggest that Marcella lied about what took place, and Marshall died much earlier than she claimed.
The Third District Court of Appeal in Miami, Florida unanimously reversed Kris’ wrongful conviction for first-degree murder — with directions to discharge him outright — because the purely circumstantial evidence adduced at trial didn’t preclude the reasonable possibility that the crime wasn’t committed “hours earlier” than alleged by the prosecution, when Kris was not at home.
Later, though, Judge Gerald Cope and Judge Alan Schwartz granted a motion for rehearing filed by the State of Florida, withdrew the three-judge panel’s original, unanimous opinion; and issued a split opinion affirming Kris’ conviction based upon an entirely new analysis of the circumstantial evidence.
Sylvester Davis
Sylvester Davis Jr., was convicted of killing his girlfriend Yamisha Thomas of Columbus.
Davis, 32, was sentenced as a habitual offender to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in the death of Thomas.
Court testimony shows that Davis had been with Thomas on April 23, 2011, the day before she was reported missing. Davis first told Thomas’ mother that he too had been looking for the 30-year-old woman, but he later changed his story.
During an investigation, police recovered Thomas’ abandoned 2006 Chevy Avalanche in Columbus and later noted that Davis had a mark on his face as though he had been in a struggle.
A break in the search for Thomas came when Alabama Bureau of Investigation agents were questioning jail inmate Jerry Wayne Foster, who worked for Davis at a detail shop in Phenix City. Foster told authorities that Davis picked him up on the evening of April 23, went to the Summerplace Drive rental home where the couple once stayed and drove her red Avalanche to a hospital in Columbus.
Davis took Foster to Thomas’ body and sought help to conceal it but he refused. As he walked away, Foster spotted what appeared to be a body wrapped in a sheet. It had feet exposed with toenails painted.
Foster returned to Tuskegee, Ala., where he was to face unrelated felony charges on outstanding warrants. While in the Macon County Jail, he told the ABI agents about a body in Phenix City and said he could lead them to the remains. Thomas’ body was found in a shallow grave on May 23, 2011, in a wooded lot off Third Street South in Phenix City. Her body was beneath a mattress lying on the ground.
Source: News report
Danny Lee Thompson
Danny Lee Thompson was convicted together with Andy W. Snyder for the murder of Michael W. Beauchamp, a homeless drifter.
Beauchamp was last seen with two men at the Viking Lounge. His body was found floating in the Flint River at a Genesee County parks fishing site off N. Irish Road in Richfield Township, in October 1996. Police said a pathologist said Beauchamp died from drowning, but was beaten before being tossed in the water.
DNA on discarded cigarette butts found at the murder scene linked the pair to the homicide. Snyder, who was already in prison when charged, was sentenced to 25-50 years in prison. He claimed that if he did not help Thompson that day, he also would have been killed.
At the sentencing hearing, Danny denied any involvement in the Oct. 7, 1996 killing, “I never laid my hands on him”, he said .
Source: News Report February 25, 2008.
Evidence shows that the testimony of Vega, the bartender, who testified that Danny wanted to beat the victim, was false, the person she described was not Danny. Danny’s confession was coerced, and Snyder also confessed. One of the confessions must have been false.
Source: see proposal post.
Timothy Burchard
On October 5, 1997, the body of a woman was found in the burned remnants of her home in the Town of Veteran, Chemung County, her husband was out of town.
In late 1999, Timothy Burchard called 911, to report that Eric Weiskopff had shot a man in the head. Weiskopff then accused Timothy of the 1997 murder, but DNA tests showed that Weiskopff had raped the victim, and excluded Timothy. Weiskopff claimed that Timothy had obtained the key days earlier from the victims car, parked outside her home, however the evidence shows this to be a lie – see the Retrial Affidavit points 8 to 17.
Weiskopff when questioned told police that Jeremy Onsager was the getaway driver. Onsager was given complete immunity from prosecution for testifying that Timothy took part in the crime. When initially questioned, Onsager did not mention Timothy, only implicating him much later after detectives brought up his name.
There was no reliable evidence linking Timothy to the crime, or even placing him with Weiskopff or Onsager who was the driver, or even any truthful account of how he met up with Weiskopff or Onsager prior to the crime.
Instead, Weiskopff and Onsager told conflicting stories which are clearly untrue.
Jailhouse informants also told stories that were clearly fabricated, as they incorporated the untrue claim that Timothy had the key days earlier.
The prosecution, over sustained objections, repeatedly brought up that Weiskopff failed polygraph tests, apparently in an attempt to convince the jury that his final version of events was the truth. However Weiskopff’s final version of events was false and incredible.
The only credible witness, Timothy’s ex-girlfriend, who had no detailed knowledge of the murder, and who previously had no suspicion that Timothy committed the murder, was apparently “turned” by detectives lying to her, and testified against Timothy. The defense were denied information about how she was turned against Timothy, and a wire-tapped conversation she had with him was withheld. See this Memo.
In summary : there is a complete absence of credible evidence showing that Timothy committed the murder, and those with knowledge told conflicting untrue stories about his involvement, and could give no account of how they met with him – inexplicable if he was really there.
The only rational conclusion is that Timothy played no part in the murder and is innocent.
Jonathan Silva
Jonathan Silva was convicted in November 2008 of felony murder, attempted armed robbery, tampering with evidence and contributing to the delinquency of a minor after 53-year-old Virginia Land was shot during a robbery attempt by two teenagers in November 2011 at a store in Lovington, New Mexico. He was sentenced to life in prison plus four and a half years.
According to an appeal ruling:
Store clerk Virginia Land was shot and killed in the Allsup’s convenience store in Lovington. New Mexico. Jonathan Silva and Juan Nava picked up Joshua G. and Israel Marquez from a residence and dropped them off near an alley, and Child and Marquez walked over to the Allsup’s. Joshua G. was armed with a knife and entered the store with Marquez, who was armed with a shotgun. Marquez demanded money from the clerk, and when she refused, he shot her.
The teenagers were convicted or plead guilty to charges. One of them testified that Silva planned the robbery and supplied the shotgun used to kill Land, however he has now stated in an affidavit that Jonathan did not supply the gun, was not the “mastermind”, was not in their gang (contrary apparently to a claim by the prosecution) , and did not force the teenagers to commit the crime.
I, Joshua G., being first duly sworned according to the Law, present the following facts:
On Nov 6 2008, I Joshua G was called to testify on Joanathan Silva for the murder of Virginia Land. I was crossed examined by his Attorney. I was asked many questions, I was asked “If Jonathan Silva told me and Israel about the clerk or the terms “shoot the bitch” if she refused to give us the money”. Mr Silva never said this. Those statements were made by me earlier in the day. I was also asked a question about the “gun and the ammo”. The gun was given to us by 2 other guys one of which is serving time for the crime Juan Nava. Jonathan Silva never gave the gun or ammo to me or Israel.
It was also stated that Jonathan “made” us do this to establish loyalties for our gangs, or sets. Mr Silva is not from my gang, and Jonathan, did not make or force me or Israel to do anything. It was something that just happened. Mr. Silva was not the mastermind of the robbery or murder, no one was suppose to be shot or killed. Jonathan was just transportation.
I Joshua, am sorry for what has happened, and all the pain we’ve caused. Also for the loss of a innocent life that was taken. “I do this on my own free well”!
Hooman Ashkan Panah
Hooman Ashkan Panah was convicted in 1995 of sexually assaulting and murdering an 8-year-old girl, and sentenced to death.
The victim was found in a suitcase in Hooman’s closet, in his apartment which was shared by Hooman, his mother and a guest, Ahmed Seihoon, who was the last person to see the victim before she went missing.
The conviction was based on pathology and serological evidence, however this evidence was false, being inconsistent with DNA evidence which was collected but not presented at trial, in fact his attorney has claimed that the DNA proves Hooman to be innocent.
An independent pathologist has stated that the victim likely died much later than Hooman was present at the apartment, meaning he could not have committed the crime.
Multiple searches of the apartment were conducted by the police, which failed to discover the body, suggesting that it was brought into the apartment after Hooman was arrested.
The guest, Ahmed Seihoon, had the opportunity both to commit the crime and return the body to the apartment in a suitcase. In addition, according to Hooman’s mother, he lied to police to give the impression he had an alibi.
The latest brief, filed in March 2016, is available from http://freehooman.com/.
Featured case #158 | Discussion | Proposal Post | Facebook Page
Ivan Cantu
Around 6 pm on Saturday November 4, 2000, the bodies of James Mosqueda and Amy Kitchens were found in their home, in Dallas, Texas. They had both been shot.
The next day, Sunday November 5, police discovered Mosqueda’s Corvette parked outside Ivan Cantu’s home, a mile away.
On Tuesday November 7, police searched Cantu’s apartment, and found jeans and socks with the victims’ blood on them folded neatly inside Cantu’s trashcan. In the bedroom closet they found keys to Amy Kitchens’ Mercedes and a box of .380 caliber bullets.
On November 4, Cantu left Texas, but he returned November 7, and stayed the night at the house of Tawny Svihovec, his former girlfriend. On Wednesday November 8, Cantu went to the police department to speak with lead detective Anthony Winn, and was arrested. In the evening, Svihovec informed police that she had found a gun, a box of bullets and drugs under a couch cushion, in her home. The victim’s blood was found on the gun.
Amy Boettcher, Cantu’s girlfriend testified that Cantu left their apartment on Friday Nov. 3 at 11:30 pm with intent to kill the victims, returned after 45 minutes, and that they subsequently visited the crime scene. She also testified Cantu gave her a ring to wear which she believed to have been taken from Kitchens.
At first sight, the evidence of guilt appears overwhelming, and during closing arguments, Cantu’s lawyers told the jury “I’m not telling you he’s innocent..”. Cantu was duly convicted and sentenced to death.
However, Cantu claims he was framed, and when further evidence is taken into account, this seems a logical conclusion.
Although this was not brought up at trial, Amy Kitchens’ body when discovered at 6:30pm on November 4 was not in a state of “rigor mortis”, this is inexplicable if she was killed more than 18 hours earlier, as Boettcher claimed. Cantu claimed to have seen Kitchens alive around 6:30am on November 4, and this medical evidence strongly supports Cantu’s claim.
Next, it’s puzzling that Cantu was so careless. Telling Boettcher his intention, confessing to her, leaving the victim’s car parked outside his home ( and he was a suspect right from the moment the bodies were discovered ), the incriminating evidence left in his house, and finally the gun found at Svihovec’s home. It all seems too easy for the police, it is not unreasonable to suspect a setup.
Boettcher testified that after visiting the scene, Cantu drove back in Mosqueda’s Corvette, while she drove Cantu’s Honda. This doesn’t make sense.
Boettcher also testified that on the evening of Thursday Nov. 2, after three wonderful months together, Cantu suddenly became angry as they sat in their living room, and fired a gun near her head, the bullet went through the wall. Again, this doesn’t make much sense.
Then there are other inconsistencies in Boettcher’s account – she testified that the victim hit Cantu with a baseball bat, and his face was damaged, but nobody saw this when they went out partying later. Boettcher also said she was still terrified even after Cantu was arrested, inexplicable if he acted alone.
In summary, it seems quite plausible Boettcher decided planted evidence against Cantu was so compelling that it was best to testify as police suggested, to ensure she was not charged as an accomplice.
There are other unanswered questions : how Cantu could have been in possession of the gun (the registered owner of the gun did not testify), and were his fingerprints actually on the gun, as the prosecution claim.
This is only a short summary of some points about the case, for a detailed series of articles see here.
Featured case #163 Discussion | Proposal Post | Facebook Page
Sonny Bharadia
In 2001, a woman walked in on a man who was in the process of burglarizing her Savannah, Georgia home. The man sexually assaulted the woman at knifepoint, then fled with some of her belongings. Before the woman was assaulted, she noticed that the man was wearing blue and white gloves.
Sandeep “Sonny” Bharadia was in Stone Mountain 255 miles away from Savannah working on a friend’s car on the day the victim was attacked. A witness supports his alibi. Days after the assault, Sonny called the police to report that Sterling Flint, an acquaintance of Sonny’s, had stolen Sonny’s car. When the police investigated Flint for stealing the car, they found the sexual assault victim’s stolen items along with a pair of blue and white gloves in a bag in Flint’s girlfriend’s house. When the sexual assault victim was shown a photo lineup, she identified Sterling Flint as her attacker.
Now implicated in a sexual assault, Sterling Flint claimed that the stolen items found in his possession actually belonged to Sonny Bharadia. So police then gave the victim a second photo lineup and, this time, she identified Sonny Bharadia as her attacker.
Flint pled guilty to theft by receiving stolen property and, in exchange for not being prosecuted for a sex crime, Flint testified against Sonny Bharadia. Flint’s testimony, along with the victim’s revised eyewitness identification, formed the backbone of the prosecution’s case against Sonny. In 2003, with no physical evidence to tie him to the crime, Sonny Bharadia was convicted of aggravated sodomy, burglary, and aggravated sexual battery. He was sentenced to life without parole plus 40 years.
Ever since he learned he was a suspect, Sonny Bharadia has broadcast his innocence. GIP listened. In 2012, DNA testing initiated by the Georgia Innocence Project revealed that the attacker’s blue and white gloves had been worn by Sterling Flint, not Sonny Bharadia. Despite proof of his innocence, Georgia courts denied Sonny’s request for a new trial, ruling that because the blue and white glove could have been tested for DNA before Sonny’s first trial, it is not new evidence and therefore Sonny is not entitled to relief.
Source: Georgia Innocence Project
See also News article. May 2015
Wrongly Convicted Group Website 
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