#502 Maggie Freleng with Darrell Ewing

Hey, this is Chuck from Stuff You Should Know, and we're submitting our most "sciencey" episodes for your peer review with our new stuff you should know doing science playlist. Out now, you want to know about Occam's Razor? Simplest explanation is usually the right one? We got you covered! Wondered what chaos theory is, ever since the first time you saw Jurassic Park? Well, come on down! So, just still a nice pot of tea everybody, turn down the gas on your Bunsen burner and slip into your most comfortable lab coat and listen to the stuff you should know doing science playlist on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, here's the thing. I talk to composer Mark Shaman. It's about the hang. It's the pleasure of hanging out with the people that you're with. You know, Robin I was always a great hang and director Morgan Neville. Film school teaches you all the wrong things about making documentary. What do you want to say? Documentary is all about your ear. What do you hear? I feel like my job is listening really, really hard. Listen to Here's the thing on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Paul Versey here and I want to talk to you about Paul's best podcast. I will follow Big Money Players Network and iHeart Radio. I sit down each week with a special guest and we discuss the absolute best of things. David's. It's that and then there's everything else. Dude, his whole life is sounded like the first drop of a roller coaster. I mean, I can't even tell you Paul. How curious. It was insane. Listen to Paul's best podcast on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Derella Ewing was not your average prisoner. You have such a deep connection with a lot of celebrities in the Detroit area. All the, all the time and how this represented city came right from my neighborhood with my friends and my family. Growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, going to prison was common for many young black men in Detroit. Public schools in the city were starved of resources. There weren't many prospects for good jobs. So many young men turned to street life or fell victim to it. And a lot of the music coming out of Detroit at the time was about this. A childhood friend of Derella is now a famous rapper. He goes by 42 Doug and has a song called It Gets Deeper about the life they grew up in. In the song, he gives a shout out to Derella, who he calls Apple, saying free app. But unlike many of their other friends who ended up going to prison, they always believed in your innocence. They always believed in my innocence. They looked peasy, there's all of them. I've always, I swear, I was always championing and kept my name alive. And you know, as soon as I went to jail, they always wrapped about me. My story's alive, put me on the album covers. So, everything. At the 2020 BET Awards, 42 Doug and Lil Baby performed their opening ceremony with matching outfits. They had the names of their friends in prison, written, and graffiti, all over. Derell's name was on there too. No, that was lit. The whole jail went crazy when they sang and come out with that on him and Lil Baby. They talked about that on the yard for a whole bunch of straight. I got letters from all type of other facilities talking about that. On the back of their jackets, it said free them boys. My name is Derella. You and a lot of people called me Mr. Beat Dots. I did 14 years, two months, and 14 days for a crime I didn't commit. From Lava for Good, this is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling. Today, Derell Ewing. Derell Ewing was born in Detroit, Michigan, November 18, 1988. He's the second child of four. So I eat it as the baby and that's my round of dying. My older sister is a donalds and a docks and we call her poo. My middle sister, this right underneath is T. Airdycin. That's my ace. Growing up with all three of them, they was my protector. No, I don't, but it was love and always took care of them and everything. It was actually amazing having three sisters. It taught me to love more, taught me to be patient, more caring for women. And among those women was his mom, Lasagna Dotsin, a single parent raising three kids. My mom always provided for us. We didn't need anything. We didn't lack anything. You know, she was truly amazing. One of the hustlers. Derell says his mom worked many jobs. How did she have time to do all that and raise you guys? Yeah, my sister or my auntie, Cherice, my auntie, Riri, was step in. My mom took care of all our sisters because all our sisters were younger than her. So yeah, she had. Lasagna Dotsin is a saint. Let's just put that on the record. Yeah, she the rock get a family. She didn't glue. She didn't want to hose it all together. Lasagna remembers one day when she was working at Hertz. That day was way that the airport we lived on the east side of Detroit. So that's about 30 miles, right? So I'm like, dang, I ain't got no gas in my car. And I got to go to work tomorrow. Where Derell gets his line more. He go cut grass. He come back. He said, my, I got about to fill up your car. I got gas money. Fill up your car. And I also bought you a cornbuse sandwich and a Pepsi for your lunch. Worn my heart so much because he's always been caring. Carrying thoughtful and intelligent, Lasagna says. Derell was so smart as a young man. That's how he got his nickname Apple for his big brain and head. I always had his head and I always was seeing eating apples and everything. And one of my friends started calling me and my people's my family and them all started calling me that. Lasagna tried to teach her kids about work ethic from a young age. I gave the money for Christmas to let them body all stuff because kids got an unrealistic attitude on how much stuff costs. So I said, you know what? I got 500 hours to get you that's all I got. So if you could bat your words and shout out to the 500, that's what you do. So I remember him going to the mall and coming back and he like, well, if I bat a Jordan, they 170 and I'm only going to have this much left. So he started learning my money and everything and just always been so intelligent. And then he started coming back and like, hey, man, just take care of the kids. I'm like, you are not the father, young man. You know, she was a truly amazing woman of hustler. For real, for real, the first hustler that I ever knew. Maybe become a hustle boy. My entrepreneur, he, he got it all in him. He meets him. And I was cutting grass, selling dinners, doing all type of different things to make some money because I always say my mama has something that got 10 different things going on. He always had that drive, that drive to want something even as a boy he did. When he was a teen, Daryl and his friends started a party promotion crew called the hustle boys. I was like 14, 15, start throwing parties. We used to have everyone, you know, from the city coming to outdoor events. And it used to make a lot of money. So I was making money having fun. It was like a whole new hustle. I loved it. Were you doing any criminal activity? No, we weren't doing no crime. That's why we weren't doing no crime activity. We were just having fun. So no drugs, no guns, nothing like that. Oh, no, I didn't start. I'm going to do a no drugs, none of that. No, I wasn't doing any of that. None of my friends either, at that time wasn't doing drugs and none of that. Because actually we was off from a good, it was actually a nice, you know, middle class neighborhood that I was from. My best friends, they did it was a cop. The other ones, his daddy was a preacher. Everyone parents was doing something and they was in fact, the parents helped out. When it started, it was high school kids and people was bringing their kids out. Kids wanted to get out and parents let them go on the weekends so they rented little halls and they learned how to do it they sell. So we kind of monitored them and we worked the door and make sure they was okay. I would be up there. I started having my mind working with those and paying her for actually collecting the money for me and everything, you know. Now watch them make so much money so fast. Social media made a trouble fast like they had my space back then. So who were the knockout boys? Were they also like a party promotion? Well, we we was a frame in a party promotion but they tried to do a little something. They was doing, they had another party's going but they used to come to our events. We was really the ones who was a party promoter. They was just they had a little dancing group and they would come to our parties or stuff like that. Okay, that sounds like a far cry from like a violent gang. They had a dancing group. I'm picturing the dance off and step up. One of the many movies about dance crews that came out around this time. Because that's a lot of people used to do back in our time. It wasn't known that you'd get together in that gym, you know, disco, tick, all that type of stuff. Hip roll. We was back in our era. It was hip rolling. That was Derelle's crew and his early teens. Kids partying and hustling. Detroit always had a history of crews that come together and just get money. They don't have no affiliation, association, no gang signs. None of that. Did they do no handshakes? None of that, you know. Derelle says it was all pretty harmless. But things we're about to change. (dramatic music) - Hey everybody, it's the Jonas Brothers. This week on the podcast, Hey Jonas, we're so excited to be hanging out with Mika Abdallah from the hit show off campus. Congratulations on the massive show and that's a success. Got through about episode five. I left the next morning to go meet the guys. Came back was as cool as pick up where we left off and that series have been completed without me. - Oh no, that's like the number one rule of watching some business. - Yeah, it's literally cheating, right? - That's crazy. - We talk about what it's been like watching the show become such a massive hit. What's next for season two? And just how close the off campus cast really is. - We're genuinely so close. - What's the group chat called? If you can say, if it's allowed to be said on the on pod, it's a great question. - One of them is off campus Brazil. - Okay, love it. Shout out Brazil. - Shout out Brazil. - And then the boys have their own group chat called Dean's (beep) (laughing) - Our conversation with Mika Abdullah is out now. - Go check it out. Listen to Hey Jonas and the I Heart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. - I'm Munga, shit together, and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones, and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science. - I can make a brain for you, and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain, as opposed to his brain. - Here's some hard truths. - I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five year acceleration and get myself into a world of trouble. - I'd say probably start bone smashing. - I don't know what to make you look more defined. - They say it works. I don't know. - Listen to Skyline Drive, how to live forever on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. - Hey, this is Chuck from Stuff You Should Know, and we're submitting our most sciencey episodes for your peer review with our new stuff You Should Know, Doing Science playlist. Out now, you wanna know about Occam's razor? We got you covered. Wondered what chaos theory is, ever since the first time you saw Jurassic Park, will come on down. So, distil a nice pot of tea everybody, turn down the gas on your Bunsen burner, and slip into your most comfortable lab coat and listen to the Stuff You Should Know, Do In Science playlist on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. - Dorelle graduated high school early and enrolled in Wayne State. - I didn't qualify for financial aid, and then I had an auntie who I seen had three degrees, and she wasn't knowing too good, she got to stay in school to continue to make sure that she don't have to pay the stool loans back. - Dorelle says he was making eight ton of money with the parties. - So I just said, now it's not the time. I ain't gonna be buried in dead, and ain't gonna be like my auntie when he was in her degrees, you know? - Once he went on ahead and got through with school, it's kinda hard to tell the kid what they can and cannot do. - So Dorelle dropped out of Wayne State and continued the hustle boys. But at that time, we was done with party, and we would just straight sell and draw us. - Dorelle says the once innocent party crew was now selling pills. - I see Codans and Perkins says, "Lord, tabs and things to that extent." To be honest with you, I was living in the height of my life as far as the streets, and we've making a lot of money. I seen myself still at that time transitioning over to the business I was using those, that has a means to get in the proper position to give me some properties and open the air, put it in my own club. How I was on the path to batting at bar. - But through street life, Dorelle eventually got to hanging out with the wrong people, and soon all his dreams were going to come crashing down. On December 29th, 2009, two cars pulled up to an intersection in East Detroit. A man named JB Watson was in a red van with three other passengers. In the other vehicle, a turquoise car were three men. One of the men got out of the car when stopped, and fired multiple shots at the van, killing JB Watson and injuring his cousin. Around the same time, about five miles away, Dorelle Ewing was at a family member's funeral. - Was that something you had heard about? - Of course I heard about the murder. It was all on the news and everything. - And what would you think? Was that just normal? - Well, in the city Detroit, especially at that time, crime runs rapid. And you know, in some way it killed us like, okay, you know, it's like, it's a norm, especially back then. - Detroit had 364 homicides in 2009, according to city data. At the time, the murder rate was actually falling in major cities like Chicago, New York, and LA, but not in Detroit. And the chief of police called it the Wild West. - It kind of man-blowing, 'cause like when you have like a nifty hustle or a prince die, the whole world and the whole neighborhood cries, but when a little girl gets killed down the street, nobody says nothing about it. You know what I mean? So that's how none we is to crime in the city of Detroit, especially back then, when murders and stuff occur, because it was just like a norm. The victim, JB Watson, was a member of the knockout boys. Remember, Daryl mentioned they were another party crew like the hustle boys. But now police were looking at this as a gang rivalry. And Daryl's name came up. - Being a hustle boy, I was basically the face. You know how they say, "Ditty used to run around and parade a several rounds for a big end up." I was the face of hustle boys, the one who was always on the mic. Hey, come on out, the one who was always passing flowers or anytime somebody said something about the hustle boys, they always say, "App in the twins." So eventually, that's how my name came up. - After the shooting, a witness came forward, Raymond Love, who was at the intersection in his car with his wife at the time of the shooting. Although the incident was only a few seconds and Love said he ducked down towards his wife, he identified Doriko Cersei as the driver of the turquoise car. He said he could see him through the rear view mirror. Did you know Doriko Cersei? - Yes, I knew Doriko Cersei. He was an older guy from our neighborhood. - Doriko Cersei was arrested two days later. Love also identified Dorrell as the man who got out of the car and started shooting. Dorrell was brought in for questioning. - When they questioned me, they told me. He said, "I know you didn't do it, but you don't say who did it. I'm gonna do everything one part and make sure you go down for it." - And then what did you do? - I said, "Cart my lawyer." And he was like, "I promise you you gonna need him." And he heard since then, I thought when they took me back to the sale, that it was gonna just be a little 72 hour hold and I'll be released. But then that's morning, it was waking me up. So I'm like, "Hey, you going down to the county?" I'm like, "What?" - Yeah, you getting booked on murder. I'm like, "Man, this can't be real." (laughs) They joking, you know? I know Ashden Kutcher and about to jump out to my punk. - But he wasn't being punked. Ashden Kutcher wasn't waiting in the precinct and D'Areal was charged with the murder of J.B. Watson. - When did it all become real that it was happening? - When I was in a courtroom and people walked in and rang and loved and jinn died, you loved. And they told me it was me. That was when it was Cane Reade. I almost lost my man. Telling them, "Look at me, hold on, look at me." Just like, "Hold on, be quiet." No, they can't be talking about me. - D'Areal went to trial almost a year later in October 2010. He and D'Areal and D'Areal were tried together by assistant prosecuting attorney, Camp Town. No gun was ever recovered from the crime scene. The only evidence tying D'Areal to the crime was the eyewitness testimony of Raymond Love. He testified that inside the truck or his vehicle, he'd seen D'Areal and D'Areal driving and two other men. Love said once at the intersection, D'Areal got out of the vehicle with a handgun, approached the van and started firing at the rear. It's unclear if they tried to find the third man allegedly in the vehicle. Camp Town said this was a gang retaliation that the hustle boys had beef with the knockout boys. - Would a beef with the knockout boys wind up in a murder in a shooting? - It wasn't a beef seat, they'd get this case all twisted. It's only to paint a narrative and help paint a theory to sell it to the jury. - To be clear, federal court records cite some kind of beef going on between the hustle boys and the knockout boys. However, no one ever testified that D'Areal had anything to do with those fights. D'Areal also says he had no idea who JB Watson was. - Nah, I knew of some KLB members, but I didn't know this guy. I never had an issue with this guy. I never had an issue with none of the KLB members. I never been in the same room when he said his name. I'm like, wow, I don't even know him, you know? - D'Areal sat through an entire trial listening to testimony about him being in a gang and beefing with the knockout boys. When you're a black young man, especially black people, but black young men, especially anything they do dance groups, singing groups, you can end up being a gang. Daryl's mom, Lasagna again. When they storm the White House, they call them a group, but they call my son a gang. And it's the birdbitch that they use when they speak on you. You know? Lasagna knew her son couldn't have committed this murder. He was with him at the time of the killing and testified in Daryl's defense. How many people vouched for your alibi? Man, I could have called two, three hundred people and said, "They're, you know, they own witnesses, place me at the hall. We call six, and I believe five or six, five or six, five, five." They all said Daryl had been at Barton Hall for a gathering following a family member's funeral. He was there the entire time the shooting had taken place. Then a bombshell. A man took the stand saying it really hadn't been Daryl. And he knew who the real shooter was because he, Christopher Richardson, was there. Christopher Richardson, William Beel and Tyree Washington. They had gone on a car jacking spree. When they all got locked up, they started to tell on each other. And they wind up that William Beel was a cousin and Christopher Richardson said, "Hey, man, y'all got the wrong people locked up. The real you doing in the Rico Sarshi didn't commit that crime. My code is finishing cousin. It's actually once irresponsible William Beel and Tyree Washington." Richardson said Tyree Washington had been the shooter. And the thing about Richardson is that he was also a trusted confidential informant for the FBI. He had testified in front of four federal grand juries before. So the FBI trusted him and brought this testimony to assistant prosecuting attorney Cam Towns. They tried to tell her she was getting it wrong. Tyree Washington was even willing to come to trial and testify. And it turns out that Cam Towns had told him that she didn't need him and that she wasn't going to use him and that she had what she wanted. You know, when they locked in on a position, they had to admit that they screwed up. So they kept pressing against and I guess they wanted to just play out in the courtroom because it's not about guilt or innocence. You know, they just be trying to close a case. Tyree Washington did not testify at trial, but the FBI agents and Christopher Richardson were allowed to share their testimony. All saying, "Darell and DeRico had not been the ones who killed JB Watson." By the end of trial, the prosecution's case seemed in shambles. Throughout Ewing had an alibi, there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime, and the jury was aware that someone else had confessed. DeRoute was feeling pretty good about the outcome. We had the federal agents come to testify and they bring in their top performer Christopher Richardson who was telling on his own cousin. So when you got that, I mean, I'm secure. During deliberation, the jury was deadlocked. When they returned, instead of ordering a mistrial, the trial judge Carol Youngblood responded by ordering them to continue deliberating. When the jury came back, DeRoute was convicted of first degree murder and later sentenced to life in prison without parole. Lasagna was heartbroken. Oh, God. It was so horrifying. I mean, my body took a whole, like I went into, my, my menstrual stopped when they convicted him. Like literally, I was 44 and I was so sick, like it really, really, really took a whole on us. Like it was, it was very hard. They almost had to drag us out of the, out of the courthouse because we were just, we couldn't believe it. DeRoute felt it too, but didn't have much time to wallow. Very soon after trial, another bombshell would drop. Hey, everyone, it's the Jonas Brothers. If you haven't heard, Arnie podcast is called, Hey, Jonas. And this week we're hanging out with someone where really big fans of, Millie Bobby Brown. That's right. 11 herself. We talk about her new movie and All of Home's Three family life and all the amazing things she has going on right now. This blew my mind when I saw this, Millie Bobby Brown. You have over 60 animals. First of all, how do you even keep track of everybody? In second, do you have favorites? Who are they and why? Yeah, I need to know about this. OK, I don't know where the number 60 and I really got to figure that out. And I could actually have over 60. I just need to really know that number. There have been plenty of sheep in my bed and-- Yeah, I think. --in the bed, literally sleeping in the bed, yeah. Plus, we find out what she really feels about stranger things in there. Five seasons, almost 10 years of your life. I could have never guessed it. I started when I was 10 years old. Our conversation with Millie Bobby Brown is out now. Go check it out. Listen to Hey Jonas on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Mungusha Tegular and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time, I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones, and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I can make a brain for you and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain, a supposed to his brain. Here's some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a 4-5 year acceleration. And get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. Make you look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, how to live forever on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Chuck from Stuff You Should Know and we're submitting our most sciencey episodes for your peer review with our new stuff You Should Know, Do In Science Playlist. We got you covered. Wondered what chaos theory is ever since the first time you saw Jurassic Park? Well, come on down. So just still a nice pot of tea everybody, turn down the gas on your Bunsen burner and slip into your most comfortable lab coat and listen to the stuff you should know Do In Science Playlist on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As soon as Dorel got to prison, he started trying to prove his innocence. When you got to prison, as you know, 22 years old, why didn't you just start hustling in there, dealing drugs in there? And maybe you did, you don't just say so, but you did more than that. You didn't just say prison is now my life. You know, when you embrace, this is starting to hustle when you're prison and everything, there's certain things to come with that. And it's a certain focus that'll keep you distracted. I know a lot of gas that hustle inside of prison, but they be consumed with that because that's a daily thing that you can have to focus on. You know, and it doesn't give you time to focus on your case. Everybody that I ever knew that ever got out of prison, they were extremely dedicated to nothing but their case. And that's what I was on. So I was always, I spent all my time in the law librarian reading law books. Derell actually learned the law so well, he started practicing law. Not only do I fight for me, I fight for others, and you know, I fight for others on behalf of others. Derell became a paralegal in prison, helping others file legal documents and fight their cases for free. Everyone that I have got out recently, I didn't get charged on my dollar and they home now. Derell was also trying to get himself home, and he had a lot to work with in terms of trying to prove his innocence. After trial, two specific things happened. Tyree Washington, who the FBI informant pointed to, formally confessed. He told the Michigan State Police on the renderer's confession that he was responsible. Years later, Tyree Washington would also talk to private investigator Scott Lewis, and I got a hold of that recording. We just asked you some questions. We'll get right down to it. I want to ask you about the December 29th, 2009 fatal shooting of JB Watson. Are you familiar with that incident? Yes, I am. What do you know about it? Well, I know everything about it. I was there, and I actually was the shooter of that incident, sir. Okay. Where did this take place? All in Van Dyken Hopper. The second thing that happened was a juror came forward. Kathleen Burns was great. The most amazing woman I ever seen came forward and told the truth. Kathleen Burns said that she was the holdout for a not guilty verdict, but she changed her mind after two jurors came up with extra information. One of the jurors, Karen James, had Googled about gangs and gang hierarchy. She violated the court orders. To not consider anything outside this court. Don't talk about this even with your husband. Please don't look on anything. Social media. There's about the case. But Karen James did. We found articles about gang. having a pecking order. And she told the other jurors, she believed D'Areal was at the top. She surmised that Tyree Washington was at the bottom. So the hustle boys sacrificed him. Instead of D'Areal, they set up Tyree for the murder. That wasn't even a prosecutor's theory. That's great, that's clear. This is something that the jurors summarized in her man, Karen James, another black woman, hurt me. I'm like, "Why?" Another juror, Michelle Chesney, found D'Areal's Facebook, and on it there were photos of him with guns. One day, it was my man home, girl Barthay. And she came over and we had a few guns on. And she's like, "Oh, let's take some pictures of what these guns." And we took some pictures of what they were doing, so she put on her social media. And from that, the jury testified, "This isn't my words, this was testified on the oath that they said, "Hey, if he didn't do this, he did something else just because I had a gun." But that's just because I'm a black man, a black young guy with a gun. Because if you see a Caucasian man with a gun, especially the ones we had, you're gonna say he's doing hunting. All this information made Kathleen Burns change her vote to guilty. Years later, in an evidentiary hearing in 2019, she testified that this trial haunted her, that she kept wondering if she'd done something terribly wrong. Once the jury misconduct came to light, D'Areal was able to file post-conviction relief. Meanwhile, out on the streets, Lasagna and D'Areal's family were also putting in the work. We wouldn't stop protesting and making the ways and making sure that we did everything we possibly could do to get him out of there. "My family didn't do petitions, my family didn't protest, it's my family didn't do town halls, they didn't know something very fine. They had been one time. We was plotting and strategizing to do a protest in front of Kim Werdy's house." Kim Werdy is the prosecutor in Wayne County which covers Detroit. Lasagna says she wasn't going to let the system treat another young black man as disposable. "This is what I think people supposed to do. You know, I don't see it no other way until a young man told me that he was locked up for eight years and it took his mother two years to send him some pictures." He said, "You don't even know what you're doing." He said, "My mom took two years just to send me a couple of pictures and I kept asking for a minute to get her two years to get them to me." But Lasagna wasn't that mom. She stuck with D'Areal and in true hustler fashion, she even started a transportation business. Man, I've been doing everything like I am. We started a transportation company when D'Areal was in prison. He started calling me to buy my such a grandma I want to ride with you. So I said you want to ride with your mother's shoe. We for the start of transportation company and get a van and come up there. So then he would do work that in the inside and we'll come up there and pick up people and we call it the state connected transportation. So really we just made the best out of a bad situation. That support meant everything to D'Areal. It kept me fighting. You know, if you with me, when you know you got a support system, I got to be strong for them and they strong for me. It was the battery in my bag." One of those times was in 2013. The Court of Appeals appellated his conviction saying the jury misconduct was "harmless error." But since then, multiple federal and state judges ordered a new trial for D'Areal and D'Arico, finding that their constitutional right to a fair trial was indeed violated by juror misconduct. In 2017, a judge struck down the murder conviction and ordered release or a new trial within 90 days. But despite the order, D'Areal stayed in prison and then the pandemic hit. When I first spoke to D'Areal in 2020, he had actually just recovered from the illness. Along with the sick four. I was sick for about 33 days. Oh my gosh. And then I couldn't smell the taste even after that and still to this moment. I still got like flamedy being my system in my lungs. I'll be trying to go out and run and work out and keep myself out of job. But it's all type of aspects of this COVID thing. And in Michigan, they has yet to release any prisoners. Lakeland was one of the worst prisons in Michigan where at least 24 prisoners died from COVID. But D'Areal would eventually get a break. After years of fighting, he got a retrial date set for March 2024. On December 1st, 2023, 35-year-old D'Areal Ewing went in front of Judge Kiefer Cox for emotions hearing. D'Areal stood in the courtroom in his green jailhouse uniform, representing himself with some help from outside counsel. And D'Areal went for it, even criticizing the judge for having just come out of a job at the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. But the thing is, Ron, the thing is, and respectfully, I just learned that you just came out the prosecutor's office a couple months ago, and that your friends were Kim Wordy, and that your friends are time to watch the toldy. So how are you even seeing on my case? I just learned that, Ron. How are you even, that's actual value. The courtroom and the audience. Did you remove yourself from the case? No, I don't. Because you. This is a fact. Anyone in the crowd, I hear some mumbling, hearing some speaking in the background. The scariest thing I ever seen. I was just so scared, so nervous. I didn't even know what I was going to do if they wouldn't have got this right. But you know, as I watched him, like he did such an awesome job, we almost gave him some standing ovation and stuff. It was. It was something to see. Like, you had to be there. As D'Areal prepared for his retrial, District Attorney Kim Wordy's office was confronted with several challenges. Not only did they have to account for jury misconduct, they also did not provide D'Areal with evidence he'd requested for over a year. And they were short on witnesses. Because by this time, Raymond Love, he got to be at home somewhere like, "Hey man, I don't want another deal with that case. This case is everywhere I'm gonna get. This innocent man locked up. He then finally came to the realization." And that was one of their key witness. That's their key witness. On March 25, 2024, after considering D'Areal's case and the fact that the police and prosecution still had not made their evidence available to D'Areal, Judge Cox made a decision. "This is Mr. Case. This is a. this is a. agrees is due process violation." So for all the reasons placed on the record, the court is going to dismiss the case. "Oh, I don't think once you'll find me, I'm gonna keep it under control. There's gonna be the outburst taken at a hallway, please." D'Areal's family and friends tried to contain their emotion. But after years of fighting, when the courtroom doors opened, you heard the sound of relief. That day, D'Areal walked out of Wing County jail of Free Man. "I just feel like since he came home, I almost have relaxed finally. I used to start at 8 o'clock in the morning. I don't want to do 8 in the morning no more. Like, I'm like, "Oh God, can we do 10? You're just.?" Today, Lasagna is surrounded by her entire family and owns her own beauty salon. But a decade ago, she lost her home, her 401k, and the good years of her life advocating for her son's innocence. "It was a lot. It was a lot to go through, but you know, I tell them all the time, I only just throw them the bag." D'Areal takes none of it for granted. "I was one of the blessed ones. There's a lot of people in prison that need help and don't have little ones that support them. But the difference is when you do time, when you do time for a crime, they're not only you know you didn't do your family, you know you didn't do, they're always going to be behind you 100%. You know?" So what's next? "Well, right now, I'm working to put into the appeal that they just filed." D'Areal is a peeling judge Cox's decision. If she wins, you're all will have to go to trial. But he says he's not worried. He thinks the evidence in her case is too weak. And on the flip side, if Kim were to lose the appeal, it's over. And I'm gonna sue the shit out of her ass. "Does Kim worthy have the power to not fight this? Does she have the power to say it's over?" Of course she does. She just said, "This had at this moment as enough as we're gonna dismiss the appeal and let this bad be got back on." But But at the end of the day, they got, they, they think in dollars now over justice. Now they got 40 people that just got as honorated. One wrongfully convicted man was recently awarded $10 million in damages. You know, they think in money now and bankruptcy. Daryl says he wants people to understand that public officials like D.A. Kimworthy are elected. We as a people only get involved in elections in a voting process when it's a national thing. We're in a frenzy about Donald Trump. But we don't deal with the real people that directly affect us locally. Be intentional on who you vote for and put and not only a cease of power in a presidential election, but your local prosecutor and judges seats because we be crying about injustice when we put these judges in there who don't give a damn about the law. Since he's been out, Daryl re-enrolled in Wayne State with a full scholarship to study law. Man, when he, his first day down in law school, we all follow them down. And I said, we go get him kicked out on his first day. We take it pictures. We got camera crews with us. We like so excited about everything that he do. Like the whole family is excited. And that's a beautiful thing because this is like our moment, our happy time that we waited on that we didn't see it was we was in the dark and us just light and we just happy. We want to see everything he bought. And she says she is always grateful to the woman who had the courage to come forward and make this all possible. Kathleen Burns had a heart to speak up and to complotize when she spoke. She said, I just hope he makes his mother as proud as she thinks he is. And I'm like, oh, he is. And every time he do something I get a day, I just be like, I hope she watch it. Not only is Dorel in law school, but he's working in the community doing outreach. I work hand in hand with our mayor and police chief out here, instrumenting the community violence, keeping the crown right down. Daily wind schools. We go in there and we do mentoring. We work on what the art turned into school right now real heavy. These are the most at risk and trouble making kids, you know, but when we get in there, all they need is love and attention. You know, some of these parents are struggling. No, have no job. I'm well for it. Struggling to make it. Some of them kids don't have no food. We got to turn around and get them money to go home and get them get their mother and them feel they refrigerators up. You know, just being there anyway we can. I'm showing off on the resources. That's what I spend my time doing, buying in school, working on a case. He also spends time catching up with the family that was there for him for nearly 15 years. We just love just getting together. I could just have him here at the house, like seeing him with my grandkids now and just they love him to death. We love him. Like we love him. That he love us. You hope that Dorel gives you some. Man, I'm waiting on my little grandson coming to look. I just keep seeing grandson, but I take a grand daughter too. But Dorel says he's got time. First, more hustle. You know, I got a book coming out of the real stuff in the most and I'm working on my documentary. I'm going to look out for it. I got work at it. That's what I wanted to ask you about the book. I have a copy that you sent me years ago. Is there more to it now? Oh, I didn't revise the read it. I'm a sentence of you. When you're super famous, I now have an original manuscript. Yeah, you got the original manuscript. That's Dorel, the whole time I've known him, always on the move and array of light, even in his darkest times. Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freelink. Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the links on our website to see how you can help. Thank you to attorney Adam Clements at Perkins Law Group for helping with legal review and thank you to the reporting of Diane Bukowski for Voice of Detroit. We relied on it while researching this episode. This episode was written by me, Maggie Freelink, with story editing and sound design by senior producer Rebecca Ibarra. Our producer is Kathleen Fink, our mixers, Josh Allen, with research by Allison Levy, an additional production help by Jeff Clyburn. Executive producers are Jason Flom, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wurtis. The music is by three time Oscar-nominated composer J. Ralph. Make sure to follow us on all social media platforms at Lavafor Good and at Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow me on all platforms at Maggie Freelink. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freelink is a production of Lavafor Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company number one. We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lavafor Good. Hey, this is Chuck from Stuff You Should Know, and we're submitting our most sciencey episodes for your peer review with our new stuff you should know doing science playlist. Out now, you want to know about Ockham's Razor? We got you covered. Well, come on down. 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