#538 Jason Flom with Kendrick Gillum

Joy is essential and it's also elusive, but now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101, it's a new podcast hosted by me, Hota Kotby. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid uplifting and moving on air chats. Open your free iHeartRadio app search, Joy 101 and listen now. Joy 101 with Hota Kotby is presented by CVS. On February 1st, 1997 in West Memphis, Arkansas, a young man named Charles Newsom was fatally shot in his car. According to some witnesses, Charles was with two others in his car, but only one was ever identified. Frederick Tyrone Ellis. Ellis gave inconsistent accounts about the number, location and identities of the assailants. Eventually, fixing the narrative on first four and then three men from a rival neighborhood. Antonio Williams, DeMarco Wilson and Kendrick Gillam, who he placed outside the vehicle for the shooting. However, the ballistics and physical evidence say something different. This is Ronfell Conviction. You're listening to Ronfell Conviction. You can listen to this in all the lava for good podcasts one week early and add free by subscribing to lava for good plus on Apple Podcasts. Welcome back to Ronfell Conviction, where we're going to return to West Memphis, Arkansas. Yes, the home of the West Memphis 3 wonderful Jason Baldwin first told our colleague Maggie Freeling about the case we're going to be covering today. And we're going to link that episode of unjust and unsolved in the episode description. In this case, it involves the same vocal legal system as well as three co-defendants. One of whom Kendrick Gillam is calling in from an Arkansas prison. Ken, thanks for joining us. Thank you. You're welcome. Now, a second former guest, Marty Tankliffe, it was his efforts through the making an exonery class at Georgetown University with Professor Mark Howard that led a group of students to re-investigate the case for Ken. And we're joined by one of those former students who is currently seeking her masters in investigative journalism. Claudia Mendoeita, welcome. Thank you for having me. Now let's start with Ken's life growing up in this small and notorious city of only about 25,000 people on the west side of the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tennessee called West Memphis. My mom, she had me two back 24th 1971. You know, I had a pretty normal childhood, you know, my mom, she took care of me and my brothers. We come from big friends and all of us was close to that neighborhood because I said like from five years old, we would always get together on the weekends. Or the time when the school was out, we was always somewhere on the bikes together. Play football, basketball, collecting chains, it's cutting y'all together. We had little on-sterbages, we had to get some money in our pockets. And you know, we all just grew up together. You know, we were best of me always, definitely together. This group of family and friends lived in the Foxwood area of West Memphis and there was a rival neighborhood group from about a mile and a half away on 18th street. And Foxwood continued to stick together as the kids became teens. And as problems became more complicated as they were introduced to the drug trade. I said, part of the story was about night great. You know, we started hanging out chasing girls, drinking girls, not doing my mom's city. Then like 16, I was really like, I was just full of plays on the street. And I had a partner that I used to run with and he'd be sitting on the drugs all night. And I just be running around with him. I was like 17, but I had first got shot. Yeah, I was like 17 when I first got shot. So I've been shot three other times. The fun thing with my top because it came by my shoulders. I was shot in the stomach and it came out my back. No time I was shot in the middle of the upper part, I almost got my balls. And the last time the detectives watched the 18th street dudes shoot up the world. They came through three cars. And he watched them shoot it up. And then he pulled up the shot. Me and he shot my homeboy two more times, was added to the 11 times that he was already shot. The detective Brian Ridge, who's also a big character in the West Memphis three shot his friend. His friend is kind of on the side of the road, Ken is trying to take him to the hospital. And then he shoots Ken so he can't help him. Laying on the floor bleeding and the police got a gun in my head. He shot my mom in the house up to right around the corner. He was three cars with SK's shoot up this house and he did the shooting. It seems like detective Brian Ridge and potentially others were at the very least turning a blind eye to the 18th street guys. I didn't get any evidence to this but it was something that everyone told me when I was in West Memphis. Like the people in the A to N street group were working with the police to sell drugs. One woman sat down with me and she was like, how do you think drugs get into West Memphis? Like we don't have a port police will do a drug bust and you think they're throwing those drugs away? They're not. They're putting them right back in circulation. The girl I was going with, but I had the keys back. They pulled up on her brother over at the gas station one day and he was saying that they pulled up on him and said, hey, you need to go talk to Kendrick. We got something for you and y'all ain't got to worry about us. Twid now. Always y'all keep it down over there. Y'all ain't got to worry about us arrest nobody. But if you don't, we'll be the same. So what happened was he can't tell me and I refused to sell dope on. And it appears that perhaps one of the more prominent 18 street guys, Terence Robinson, may have taken this deal while Foxwood suffered the consequences. The girl I was going with her brother, they gave him an indictment. They got my brother on the diapers. They got Chuck Kergwood. They got my whole neighborhood on a diapers. The All-A-Wall probably was left that didn't get in the diapers. It was me almost. So Terence Robinson, he's the person who like we said, so drugs with the police, he had a cousin called Dale Robertson. Darryl gets shot and that's what they try to put on Ken. But that fails. They put up now. The girl that he had to go right this statement on me was lying. Basically, he had to drop the shots. The one with the investigation. The same one that shot me. Brand reached. And with the context of this unholy alliance between the police and Foxwood rivals on 18th Street, tensions flared further over a dice game in 1996 involving Ken's friend Chuck and Terence Robinson, who was with James Newsom, the cousin of the victim in this case. They had a dice game going on label. The game goes on. And Terence Robinson saw a shooting dice with him. Anyway, Chuck had beat Terence Allen's money. So Chuck took off the whistle. They pulled up. Terence got out the car and hit Chuck in the face and tried to go on his pockets and take his money. So this one, the fight is started. And after that, we ended up seeing them at the skating rink. We were going to the bat and they would come and away from the bank. And we all got to fight there. And this was the first shot from side of the year. And this kicked off a series of incidents of retaliatory gun violence leading up to the incident in question on February 1st, 1997, which occurred at 900 West McCauley Drive, the Mayfair apartment complex, which unfortunately was no stranger to gun fights. And with this ongoing feud between 18th Street and Foxwood, the likely assumption was that someone from Foxwood was involved in this shooting. Now the victim in this case, Charles Newsom lived there with his parents. And according to some witnesses, Charles left home with Terence Robinson and Frederick Tyrone Ellis. Tyrone Ellis said that he was over Charles Newsom House and Mayfair apartment. It's a way no child to take a shot out, take a bail. And it was only way to miss it. They walked into the car and they drove past Madam Manage's office. And he said that he's seen four people out there and hit again, shoot this at the car. No one is very certain about how many shots were fired or when the shot hit, but it was basically a shootout happening. Someone took their hand out of the window, started shooting back. Apparently, he said that Charles made a right, old Mac Arlet and hit another car. And he said, Charles did a good breathe. And so Tyrone said that he scooted over and stuck his leg under the gas cover. And he drove from the passenger side all the way back around to the front of the building where he went and got help. So the cops arrived. And according to some witnesses, Terence Robinson should have been with Ellis to give an account, but no account has ever been found. Now initially Ellis had said that three or four black males who he couldn't identify were shooting from the passenger side. And that when Charles was hit, he reached his foot over to hit the gas to try to flee. But according to a document that was just recently found, the body was discovered in a position that really doesn't match his story. We've gotten various accounts of how the body was found, but never this one that Charles Newsom was basically turned back and he was launched over the driver's seat. One week, we see some that have opened the door and looked at his car. "It was Cousin and he jumped back in the car and drove around for being there." Which makes you think that whoever drove the car out of there made room for himself by pushing Charles over the seat, or perhaps Charles had even lunged back there since the shot may well have come from inside the car, but unfortunately the state of the physical evidence hasn't made anything clearer. It appears, in fact, that Charles do some car had been involved in previous shootouts. In a plenty of damage to the outside of the car, two bullets were pulled from the car stealing that aren't part of the record in this case, as well as two bullet holes that police claimed had penetrated the interior and were related to this particular shooting. Now, how did they know that? We don't know. No idea, but maybe they said that because Charles knew some was only shot twice. Once in the right forearm and once in the right upper back. They said on a two bullet hole, one put an interior of the car, "The one that hit him in the form, it was said to have come through the car window." It was very tough to back wonder. They used to expose in the head one day, one day to the truck. They said that a visit went through the trunk, went through the back seat, went back to the driver seat, hit him in the right upper side of his back. But a picture of the open trunk showed no damage at all to the car stereo speakers that covered the seat backs. So the prosecutor actually motioned to have that photo barred from evidence. I'm just going to pause there for a second. Yeah, which, you know, my spidey senses are telling me that an independent investigation of the vehicle would have been prudent and necessary. So the car gets sold immediately. They released the car to a mama. And I guess the seat had rid of it because her son got killed in it. The dude at Barca Car, he said there was no bullet hole in the back photo drive of the seat. This is complicated, but I spoke to someone who spoke to the guy who bought the car and he says there were no back seats. So no driver seat pull at all, no back seats to even confirm or deny the alleged trunk bullet path. Somebody had gotten rid of them, right? But the state's theory becomes even more unbelievable when you consider the bullet's trajectory through Charles Newsom's body. They said that a visit went through the car, went through the back seat, went through the back of the driver seat, he's held in the right opposite of his back, and he's terminated in the lower left front. It's a downward trajectory. They're buzzing. They're buzzing. In my eyes, the fatal shot has to have come from inside the car. Based on the ballistics, there is no other way it could have happened. Joy is essential and it's also elusive. You can't order it, you can't borrow it or simply hope it into life, but now. There's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, Hota Kotby. Together, guys, we'll have meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people. Entertainment Legends, sports icons, wellness experts, and everyday people will share how they find, allow, and experience joy. And I'll offer some of my own tips and takes on seeking a more balanced and harmonious life. If you're craving inspiration, support, and useful tools to maximize your joy, tune into these candid, uplifting, and moving on air chats. Joy after a break up, Joy is an empty nester, Joy after a loss. Joy as a caretaker. This new podcast will speak to you. I listen to Joy 101 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your husband is not who you think he is. Your body is not what you saw it was. Your identity is formed by a secret history. I'm Danny Shapiro, and these are just a few of the stunning stories I'll be exploring on the 14th season of Family Secrets. Just then we felt the plain turn in the air, so much so that the bags that were under people's seats just kind of flew into the aisle. Each week we dive headfirst into the complex power of secrecy, how it shapes our identities and relationships, and how it ultimately can reveal to us our truest selves. My daughter, she's pretending she doesn't know but is trying to cook and feed me and keep me alive because I wasn't eating anything, and me pretending like everything was fine. He kind of showed me out of the way and said move, and he went out the front door and he jumped in a car and drove off, and that was the last time I saw him. This is Michael Rappaport, and my podcast, the I Am Rappaport Stereo Podcast, is unlike anyone you've ever heard. We're a variety show, and if you're looking for strong opinions, funny opinions about sports, entertainment, politics, pop culture, and whatever else catches my attention, then subscribe to now. This Kid Jafar Jackson is as good as Romney Malik as Freddie Mercury, and it's as good as Timothy Chamolay as Bob Dylan, and I say that with love and respect for both of those actors. And I don't know how many Oscar nominations they give out, and it's five, six for best actor. A hundred and fifty percent this Kid Jafar Jackson should absolutely positively get nominated for his portrayal as Michael Jackson. Listen to I Am Rappaport on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. The ongoing inter-neighborhood gun violence had both the police and alleged witnesses speculating about Foxwood specifically about Ken Gillam and Antonio Williams, which wasn't that wild of an idea considering Ken's alibi, because Ken was at his girlfriend, Tarshalla Flores' home. With his two kids, one of whom was nicknamed Poo, and sometime before the shooting took place, some Foxwood guys had stopped by. So Ken's girlfriend, her two brothers, had this big drug dealers in West Memphis, the Flores, so that house was kind of where they all hung out. That's where they sold drugs from. It was kind of like the meeting point. So that's why these people came over. They would come rollin' with us over here. We're going to get Charles. Tarshalla, she was like, "Now, she called Po." "We better come get your daddy. Stupid ass trying to go away to tell you." So he run into her, grabbed my knee, hold on to my leg. "Oh, like man, look, my arms straight, I ain't gone. I'm sorry." So anyway, Charles, he killed. "I'm partners call me, he was like, "Hey, hey." "Channel, they can't shut my name." "You know, your name, the firm name, come on." "You might want to get your kids and stuff out the house. I'm here and it's going to be so shoot." So you might be thinking, "Wait a minute, does Ken actually know who did it?" "The final part is, he didn't do it." Now remember, the bullet trajectory supports that the fatal shot had to have come from inside the car. And soon after the shooting, the police had more support for a close-range gunshot. According to a report summarizing the Arkansas Crime Labs gunshot residue analysis that was entered into evidence of trial, Charles Newsom's jacket had, quote, "one perforating hole in the upper right back with residues relating to a firearm discharge." End quote. The only way that Newsom would have residued on the jacket was that if the shot had come from close-range. But despite that, the state continued to build this sort of wild narrative about shooters outside the car, which centered and relied on ill-assistatements. "I don't really see it, I don't know who did it, that's the first statement. The second statement was gay, a couple of hours after that. And he said that Gilmur and Williams needed five days later he gave a third statement saying four people did, Gilm, wheels and wheels and Jackson. But Ronald Jackson was found out to be in Kentucky, so they know that was another lie." So the mention of Ronald Jackson was just ignored while the focus remained on the other three. And it seems to Marco Wilson, who happens to be Ken's cousin, by the way, was seen at Mayfair that night by a man named Mark Welch. "Oh my God, the Marco is like, that's a whole other thing. He's not even in this friend group. He was in his girlfriend's apartment because they had a newborn child and he just walked down because he heard shots. So Mark Welch, how he plays into the story, he just goes like, "I was there, I was in the apartment and I saw the Marco sending outside, he'll agitate it." So that's how the Marco comes into the whole thing. So the Marco's name was added to Ellis's third statement and they picked up Kenneth two days later, but he wasn't charged yet. They took William Jones, bro, to take a lot of take to this. So the man said, "To ask you what you're doing, you said no. You pay it to ask you did you have anything to do with it. You said no. You pay it. I asked him, "Do you know anything about it?" And he said no. And it told you it was through your line. So I said, "You said I pay it for not being there." and I've passed not having anything to do with it, right? He said, yes, that what I did, I'm innocent. So they can even fuck along, right? He said, but if you wanted to know something about it, that ain't my job, I don't work for the police. - You don't want to mess with these people. So he was not gonna start pointing fingers and get potentially retaliation from someone. - Yeah, he does, let me go. - Since Ken was not gonna give them any information, especially since he hadn't actually seen anything, they continued to build the narrative. In his third statement, Ellis mentioned two alleged witnesses who he said were just happened to be driving by, Darnell, Troop and Kevin Johnson. Troop gave a statement about having heard the shots. While Johnson said that he saw Antonio, Demarco, and Ken by the manager's office, and that one of them had had a rifle. - It's funny to read their interrogation transcript 'cause the police go, you saw these people standing on West McCulley, right? Kevin Johnson goes, right. It sounded like a rifle, right? Yes, right. So their police is literally the way they're framing their questions is with the information they need. - Ellis Johnson and Troop, really, the witnesses, that they had all three of them had a child, this dismissed 10 years after our position. - These three witnesses got their charges dropped on February 2008, all of them. And all of them, but one, has now come forward and basically said, I was lying, and I was offered something to lie. Kevin Johnson said that he got drugs in exchange for that testimony. So they all have their charges dropped the same month, the same year, and some even the same day. You know, and for people who are not like super familiar with what this means, like this highly suggest they were cop informants, because cops were holding these convictions over their heads until they didn't need them anymore. And this guy called an abandoned house, with 57,397 dollars. Two kilos, and it was, right in a second, it was two or three guns. He got five years full of sea, which he'd probably had to been 10 months and he could get out on it. - So Ellis, for example, he testified in like five or six criminal cases, like a bunch of them, always saying whatever the police needed him to say. - And those weren't the only deals to be had. Ken was offered 10 years with just two years to the parole board. Now call me crazy, but it sounds to me like they may not have really thought he did it if they're offering him two years for a crime this serious. But okay. But Ken refused to deal. What guilty guy refuses that deal? That's the best deal they're ever gonna get. But Ken refused. So they bolstered their case with a jailhouse snitch, named Jeff Katen. Now, fun fact. One of the investigators in West Memphis at the time, a guy named Mike Allen, well, he's the current sheriff of Crittenden County and he's now married to Jeff's sister. Anyway, Jeff gave a statement saying that in jail, he's actually married to the jailhouse snitch's sister. Just when you think you've heard everything on wrongful conviction that you can hear and then you hear stuff like this. Anyway, Jeff gave a statement saying that in jail, he'd overheard Ken just rambling on and on about the shooting. Jeff Katen says that the prosecutor friend on wanted him to say that he's heard me in jail saying that I killed somebody. And he signed the paper and they said they wouldn't send him to the Penitentiary. They sent him to boot camp a night. And they put around it. They had like a little arm and thing and they get out. So they sent him to boot camp two weeks prior to our trial. We went to trial over the fourth, doing over the seventh, 1990, seventh. And on the thing he said, he didn't get a deal. He did, and he heard me say that I shot the guy of car with a shotgun. And when no shotgun was free of his friend. You know, it's wild that with all of the shell casings from this incident and others had made fair. They still couldn't find one shotgun shell that would have made Katen's testimony make sense. And by the way, he later recanted his statement as well in case this wasn't screwed up enough. Next up, Darnell Trude said he had heard the shots while he drove by with Kevin Johnson, who took the stand as well. He said that Kim and Darnell Trude were in the car to give a pass and buy. And he said, we shoot a new song White Car. We use the car with purple. And he said, me, Williams, Wilson, and Jared Johnson at the management office. So Kevin Johnson, who later recanted, offered an entirely new person into the narrative. Just out of thin air, a guy named Jerry Johnson appears in this narrative who also ended up having a solid alibi. Like Ronald Jackson had had from Ellis's third statement. Now, and his first two statements, they were withheld from us until the first day of trial. And they called them in and saw so many lies. They said, you're first statement. Why didn't you just tell them who did it? Oh, man. I just wasn't saying that, you know what I'm saying? It wasn't that your second statement. You said, give them a way you did it. Oh, man, I just gave them a little solemn song. Come on, man. Do you remember sending you a scene about the passengers? No, I ain't saying that. So they gave me a video statement. They said, yeah, I've seen them about the passengers and the one, but what kind of guns do you see? Tour of head, like, rifle, pake, like guns, and one of my head, hand guns. Do you remember saying that you seen they had caught on guns? No, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, you caught on guns. Now, what about the four person? I'm just vulnerable. Let's think about the deal. So you figure out about the other three. Yeah, I'm sure. So who had what guns? Oh, man, I couldn't peel. It was too dark. For the record, it was 8 p.m. in February. The area wasn't well lit. So it probably was too dark for anyone to have seen what they claimed to have seen. But at this point, despite the inconsistencies and discrepancies, the jury heard three witnesses named the three-code defendants. Without any context of the deals, they'd made with the prosecutor's office. And in addition, they were able to keep Ken's alibi witness, Tarshola Flores, off the stand. They come in with two bullet clips that they said they found at Tasha Mother's House just doing a drill away six months after the murder. And they say that these bullets had the same lot in them, but as the ones found at the scene, so she didn't test the path of me because it was trying to act like I had something to do. I had a lot of hands on doing anything. I was in jail for six months, so y'all rated day house. The lot number on the back of the bullet. Don't mean nothing. This is just a year that there was manufacturers. And I could bet you this. If you had any other AKs, you know, SKs, you'd say, you go ahead and say a lot number because all the drugs do, went to the same place and bought the bullets. And that was really bad. Again, this is important context that the jury never heard. Now, the prosecutors also called Detective Brian Ridge to discuss his magic curving bullet theory. And he came in with a homemade picture that he drew up into the box car, but you've in our picture that a five year old couldn't do. And it had the diversion that he think says that the bullet went. I have bullet holes picked the car. On the two, the whole was supposedly penetrated the interior. The victim was hit in the right form. Now, this is the bullet. It was there to help control the back of the one. Which is plausible. The bullet could have struck his forearm as he held the steering wheel, or perhaps he raised his arm, you know, defensively at some point, and it was struck. But then the only other possible entry point that they claimed was through the trunk, which they said traveled through the back seat and driver's seat to hit Charles. And remember, we mentioned that the prosecutor already objected to admitting the picture of the open trunk into evidence. They come in the court with some photos showing a bullet hole for the car, right? So now they come to the bullet hole in the back of the driver's seat. Yes, what? He can't be found. And it's just like, well, that said, well, you had to just move on the dig, and he said, yeah, I had it. But you see the lost it from the police station to court. This is now like the dog ate my homework. And then to make matters worse, the state's next witness, Kevin Mainheart, testified about the gun that was alleged to have been used in this case. An SK rifle, which was helpful with demonstrating that the bullet could have made it through all of those different objects, but not with the damage trajectory. We say it will go straight through a hole over. So have an idiot some of that in take a down, okay? This ain't making sense. So through their own witnesses, the state had just contradicted their own narrative. And they were about to do it again, while presenting the medical evidence, they entered a number of documents into evidence, including a report summarizing the Arkansas Crime Labs gunshot residue analysis. Now, importantly, the gunshot residue of the victim's hands was not submitted, and we'll get to that in a minute. So at trial, one of the things this summary report said was that Newsom's hands tested negative for gunshot residue. And they put the medical examiner, Dr. Frank Paredi, on the stand. Probably the most insane part of this trial is that they never get a ballistics expert to come testify. They get a medical examiner. And this was a doctor that infamously also testified in the West Memphis 3 trial. So he's testifying in Kens case, and he says basically, I don't have qualifications to do this. It just says, it's okay, go on, go on. And what he says in trial is that, There was no close range firing because he didn't see residue on the victim. And he specifically mentions the victim's skin, and this is something he can speak to as an expert. There are ways to optically examine for residue, or there can be stippling, which is the burn pattern one can expect with close range gunshots. But the victim was wearing three layers that night. Remember, it was February, a shirt, an undershirt, and a jacket. And the report from the Arkansas Crime Lab says that there is residue relating to firearm discharge around the hole in the right upper back. But the medical examiner is literally saying the shot was coming from 15, 20 minutes away, like the bullet came from outside the car. While there's information that there's primer residue on the victim, and this is pointed out by either Antonio or the Marko's lawyer, and they were like, look, this is impossible, there's an inconsistency. The state is saying that there's primer residue on the victim, and yet the medical examiner is saying that there's no evidence of close range shooting. This is impossible. But the juror who's not an expert on the list, it doesn't understand that. I mean, I had to study this to understand it. If it was just said to me like this, I wouldn't understand it either. And it seems that this case required at least a ballistics expert to further explain this to the jury, but that didn't happen before they went to deliberate. The grandmother she had within the hall to the bathroom, the hallway it leads out to the jury's chamber, so he's going to talk to the prosecutors. And they said he told the prosecutors, he said, hey, man, y'all cases, look, y'all need to do something. Now, we've got to know hold of one of those jurors, and he said, it's a long time ago, man. I don't remember, but he was very clear. He was like, when the jurors were deliberating, one of the prosecutors walks into the juror room. They say something to the jurors. That's tempering with their decision. And then those jurors returned with their verdict. All three men were convicted of first degree murder and given life sentences without the possibility of parole. There's not a grand, and a lot of disbelief, but it was like shit, it was like me, it was like my life. So, shit, they know what I'm doing. I said, it's fucked up, you know. It's a feeling you just can't. It's blank, 'cause it didn't make you feel so married. That's also elusive. You can't order it, you can't borrow it, or simply hope it into life, but now. Joy 101. Entertainment legend, sports icons, wellness experts, and everyday people will share how they find, allow, and experience joy, and I'll offer some of my own tips and takes on seeking a more balanced and harmonious life. Joy as a caretaker. Listen to Joy 101 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just then we felt the plain turn in the air, so much so that the bags are under people's seats just kind of flew into the aisle. My daughter, she's pretending she doesn't know, but is trying to cook and feed me and keep me alive because I wasn't eating anything, and me pretending like everything was fine. Use my attention, then subscribe now. Absolutely positively, get nominated for his portrayal as Michael Jackson. Listen to I Am Rap Report on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. I Am Rap Report Podcast. In the pivotation, you have to sit here and wait and wait and hold some time. I am now a channel, I am a lawyer that has taken an e-hill. It's hard man, it's just hard. If you don't know the feeling, man loves my brother, my home, my grandparents go home, and leave me lost a question, since I've been here. My brother was murdered. My grandma died in the same bed that he had put me here, preached it up for her. What kind of shit is this? What kind of fucking shit is this? One of the investigators on this case, Detective Vaughn, became a preacher. And as luck would have it or fade or whatever, irony, whatever you want to call this, when Ken was allowed to attend her funeral, who the fuck do you think he saw there? He could even look at me. I was sitting on a farm road, every time he looked over there, he put his hand down. I wanted to get up, but I have respect for my grandma, I wanted to get up and see, man, you have to get this bitch about this shirt, because it's this line on me, it got me in here, this thing of tension. I think put my grandma in the car. I walked up to her and she was lying, talking, and it's bitch. My mom will put them in way from her. They do this to you, because they can do it. The only thing they can do is, it's criminals, like the Edison mom fucks up. The three co-defendants had an alleged confession back in 1999, but that fell apart before it even went to an evidentiary hearing. Following that, Kevin Johnson came forward in 2001, claiming that he was offered drugs by one of the victim's friends in exchange for this testimony. And the team went back to court in 2003. All back in 2003, the issue was raised. It was the same thing. They got the worst memory of the same appeal that they used due to scientific testing. So they filed a 1780, six years later. In Discovery, they received a hidden gunshot residue exam of Charles Newsom's hands. Turns out there's a primer residue in Newsom's hands. The only way that Newsom would have primer residue in his hands was that if the shot had come from close range. Or the Charles was in close proximity to gunfire. But that didn't go with their story. The shooters were from outside the car. So there could have been no powder anywhere. The evidence would have proven otherwise. They take a knife because they said that there was no use scientific testing. They were the help to us. Look, in some of the cases I read, they say that it is not just for real reversal to be gained, but the field is convicted normally or not normally of false evidence. And they know that they convicted me on false evidence. And so did Jason Baldwin of the West Memphis 3 who knew to Mark Wilson while he was in prison. We'll have their stories linked in the episode description. So check them out. But upon his release in 2011, he eventually began a nonprofit to reinvestigate innocent's claims. And this was their very first case. They tracked down what this is and tried to access the old case evidence to test for DNA, fingerprints, to reconstruct the crime scene, anything. And the marker went back to court in 2018. They were trying to find out what evidence was it, the bullet and the decade. All of it is missing. And all of the reports are missing too. So not only don't we have the shirt, the jacket and the car any of that, which is already huge misconduct because you're meant to keep evidence from murder case forever. We don't even have pictures of it. And when we bring Mike Allen to court, they're like, hey, what happened to this evidence? He's like, it says I checked it out, but it wasn't me. Someone else done it. Someone else must have written my name. I don't know where it is. So someone just checked the evidence out in 1997 and it's just gone. So I mean very convenient that if we had that evidence, we could prove that can't do it. You could do all types of testing. You could test the power again. You could test for DNA. You could test all types of things. Jason's team made contact with another potential confessor around 2020 who had contacted law enforcement as early as 2017 who was finally saying something that aligned with the evidence. But that person took their own life before swearing under oath. Now perhaps this wasn't even the right person, but it was a similar tale to the 1999 confessor that three individuals, potentially the same guys that had stopped by Ken's girlfriend, Tarsha's earlier that night, had driven up next to Newsom's car and opened fire. And then the person in the backseat of Newsom's car pulled a gun to return fire and they believed that's how Newsom was shot from close range. That's what Ken meant by they didn't do it. Meanwhile, after years of outreach, Ken had finally got a response from the making of Zonoree class at Georgetown. First we got the primer residue analysis and then we finally sent it over to a ballistic expert and he was like, this is primer residue. Like that shot came from inside the car and then we also have what 500 pages worth of documents. I'm trying to reach out to Ken's original attorney, but I sent them to Ken and we talked and he was like, I don't have any of this. And they also looked up Jeff Kaden. He's been trying to come forward for a while because he's dying now of cirrhosis. And now he called us and he goes, I need to clear my consciousness. I need to write this wrong. And he had years in prison and he basically said, the officer told me a story and they said, you tell that on the stand and you go to boot camp, you get off with us up on the wrist like you're good. So that's exactly what happened to him. Kevin Johnson, Jeff Kaden, have recanted and someone else Paul Hunt has come forward and said I was Jeff Selmaid and he confessed to me many times to falsely testifying in that trial. So that's corroborated and then we have someone who has now come forward and said the people who actually were shooting at Newsom drove the car to my house and confessed to me him and the three of the guys confessed to her and that was not Ken Gillham. And this woman had never spoken until I called her a few months ago because someone gave me her name. So potentially there's a connection between Ken's story, this witness and the three men from the other confessions. In the meantime, Claudia and the team, which includes Tamiya Hayes and Brandon T. Ham, well they're not giving up. We're in touch with a crime scene reconstruction expert and also a handwriting expert because we believe some of the signatures about medical reports and ballistic reports and all of that has been forged. From the beginning, the one thing Ken always said to me is look at the ballistics. It doesn't make sense. It does not make sense. It could not have happened like that. So they were looking for the shirt, the jacket and the car, any of that. So in the West Memphis trial, they also said it was all gone and then it was actually all in the West Memphis Police Department. So when I was in Arkansas, I went there, I mean my two colleagues, we drove there and we asked for it, but you can only access that type of evidence if you're a lawyer. So no, perhaps a lawyer or a crime scene reconstruction expert, anyone listening would like to offer their help. Anyone out there who would like to speak, it's never too late. And if so, we're going to leave ways that you can contact Claudia in the episode description where you can also find the documentary that they made for Ken's case. And with that, we're going to go to closing arguments. This is the part of the show that I always look forward to where first of all, I thank you from the bottom of my heart on behalf of our whole team. And now I'm going to kick back in my chair with my headphones on, just close my eyes and listen to anything else you want to share with me and our incredible audience. So Claudia, why don't you go first and then just hand the mic off to Ken. Ken was guilty way before he ever stepped foot in that court. The police wanted a conviction and they went to any lengths until they got it. And there's just no way that physically the bullets six makes sense. There is no way that shot came from outside of the car. And there is no testimony still holding that hasn't been recanted or proven to be coerced except the testimony of someone who has a personal stake in this case. Someone who gave various different testimonies that don't corroborate with each other, Ken has been in jail for 29 years and 29 years later. There is the testimony of one person who's a cop informant and that's what's keeping him in jail. And we just got to get him out. It's time he hasn't seen his kids in nearly 30 years. He's 56 now. He hasn't had a life. He went to jail when he was in his 20s and he's not guilty and everyone knows he's not guilty. He's a victim of a town and a system that has never been held accountable for what they've done. And it's enough. Well, like I said, it's just something to be dealing with because they can cause for getting away with it. I wonder why Arkansas doesn't have a C.I. union. You may tell me that people don't think that Arkansas has possibly convicted people. Come on, man. I don't know maybe two people that have been cleared of the crime they've taken commit. That's one thing I've ever heard of. I know John Brown. And if I'm not mistaken, it was right they break. Yeah, I'm looking forward to hearing this case and taking this case because I know Arkansas needs to be exposed to this. You know, they need to really be exposed. Thank you for listening to Ronfell Conviction. I want to thank our production team Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink as well as my fellow executive producers Jeff Campler, Kevin Wardis and Jeff Clyburn. The music in this production was supplied by three time Oscar nominated composer Jay Rouse. Be sure to follow us across all social media platforms at Lava For Good and at Ronfell Conviction. You can also follow me on Instagram @it'sjsonflom. Ronfell Conviction is a production of Lava For Good Podcast and 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 Lava For Good. Joy is essential and it's also elusive but now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, Houda Kotby. For your free iHeartRadio app search, Joy 101 and listen now. Joy 101 with Houda Kotby is presented by CVS.