The Final Ruling on Alex

This is the Guardian. Raul Palma Petis had gone missing. Again. The video game repairmen had the evidence that could break open Alex's case. And he was the only one who'd seen it. And now. He's gone. Not answering any of Eric's calls or texts. Eric keeps checking his phone. When finally, after more than a week He hears the ding of an incoming text message. He shows his phone to Jennifer. He says I had Brain eating amoeba. And so Jennifer and I are looking it up and we're like uh brain eating amoeba is like so rare. So we were trying to figure out what it was because his English isn't his first language. He's Cuban. So anyway, we assumed it meant Edema, right? We were trying to figure it out. Edema. When you get swelling from retaining fluid. So we thought you know what, he just missed spelling edema. That makes sense. His head hurts, he maybe fell. You know, some swelling, maybe some bleeding. But it wasn't a typo. He contracting an amoeba that gets into your nose. Travels to your brain. and starts destroying your brain tissue. Luckily, this is extremely rare. Unluckily, it's usually fatal. One, people rarely get them. And two, when you get them, it's like a ninety percent mortality rate. You don't survive most of the time a brain eating amoeba. Of the one hundred and sixty seven people who have gotten this amoeba. Just four have lived. One of them was Raul. Your expert gets a brain-eating Amoeba? I'm just That's next level, you know? And then he lived though, right? So you can't even say you're unlucky. It's like a miracle. So at this point, Jennifer Blag was feeling pretty good. Her star witness had survived a brain eating amoeba. She'd gotten a sworn statement from him saying that he'd heard Tyrone Clay's voice on the PlayStation. Evidence that he'd been gaming when Officer Clifton Lewis was killed. timing was perfect. The state was gearing up to finally bring Tyrone to trial. He'd been waiting in jail for ten years. without ever being tried, much less convicted. And now, with this evidence, maybe he'd go free. One of the state's attorneys leading Tyrone's trial was Nancy A Douce. who'd originally prosecuted Alex Via. Jennifer considered her a friend. I'd never gone to have drinks with her or anything like that, but I was very, very friendly with her. We worked together on many, many things. Uh, we don't always see eye to eye, but that's the nature of our work. Three years since Alex's trial. Adusi had been promoted to head of Cook County's Conviction Integrity Unit. The purpose is to review claims of wrongful conviction. Which is great, Jennifer figures. Nancy will hear this new, potentially exonerating evidence. And she'll do what prosecutors are supposed to. Assess it fairly. The police might have crossed lines. The forensics lab might have missed key data. But now, it was in the hands of the head of the Conviction Integrity Unit. Wheels of justice turn slowly. but maybe they really would finally start to turn. Right? From The Guardian, I'm Melissa Segura, and this is Off Duty, Episode 5, The Prosecutors. So just to back up for a moment and explain where things are. It's now two thousand twenty two. Alex was convicted in 2019. But for various reasons, he hasn't been formally sentenced yet. And Jennifer and Eric have been working to get him a new trial before the sentence even comes down. Proving Tyrone's innocence is a big part of their strategy. If he was home playing video games. then he couldn't have been at the mini mart with Alex. His confession had to be false. And if his confession was false. Then the whole story might fall apart. But Jennifer has been around a long time. And she knows they might need more than the PlayStation evidence. Some way to prove. For a fact. That not only Tyrone But none of the men could have been at the mini mart that night. Going through documents. She notices something. We saw somewhere in a warrant or something that the Chicago Police Department was communicating directly with Facebook. The CPD was asking Facebook to give them expedited access to personal accounts. because the situation was urgent. Like this is an emergency. We have to do it right now. And when it's exigent circumstances, you can ignore the Constitution, long and short of it. So they're trying to get Alex's Facebook account. This sets off Jennifer's spidey scents. If the request was so urgent. Where were the Facebook records? She doesn't have them. And legally, prosecutors have to share all the evidence they have that might prove someone's innocence. It's a principle so sacred. The cases can be thrown out if a prosecutor withholds materials that are favorable to the defense. Jennifer and Eric had already noticed they didn't have Alex's cell phone records. or phecs from his co-defendants or his girlfriend. Now they're missing this Facebook data too. And if those things aren't in their files. What else might be missing? We became suspicious that Police got evidence that they hadn't turned over. So she figures she'll just go directly to the prosecutors. Nancy ADUC and her partner on the case, Andy Varga. Both Nancy and Andy were experienced prosecutors. They both came to the state's attorney's office in the mid-90s. The office culture focused on winning convictions. The generation of lawyers before them had a tradition. After their first victory at a jury trial, their neckties. and mounted them to the wall. A trophy. But Jennifer knows them as straight shooters. She likes and respects them. If this is all just an oversight. Obviously correct it. And if it's something more serious, they'll wanna know. Plus. they have a legal obligation to turn it over. She writes to Andy and starts to tick through the list of things she's missing. First. Do you guys have those text messages between Alex and his girlfriend? When Alex says they're arguing at the time of the murder? Also, there was a mention of an FBI cell phone analysis. A map of their locations. Do you have that? Andy writes back to Jennifer. He says he'll ask the FBI about that map. And pass it along when he gets it. And he tells her that he searched his email every way he knows how. And he can't find any of that cell phone data she's asked for. Jennifer wasn't about to accept Andy's word for it that this info just couldn't be found, Eric told me. It was out there. Somewhere. And she was gonna find it. So one of the things that she's particularly good at is finding ways to discover inf information that other people can't. And not only that, it's not through brute force, she'll think of a way through it. And so it began. So I started small. She files a public records request. Focusing on one detective's emails. Then it just built and built. And then I realized there was so much going on in the case that we went really broad and started just saying anything with Alexander Villa. Meaning she's requesting any emaining Alex's full name. And we even went as broad as anything with Villa. So you can imagine what we got. I don't know how many millions of emails we went through. Like an astounding A shocking amount of emails. She also sends out a subpoena to the FBI for that cell phone analysis. The one Andy said he'd forward along when he got it, and hadn't. FBI responds with a map. It shows an FBI agent had taken the location data from the suspect's cell phones. The agent put color-coded dots. Marking each man's approximate location on the night of Officer Lewis's murder. As soon as they see it. Jennifer and Eric know just how much this would hurt the state's case. It's a stunner. Melvin De Young, who's the guy, the only independent eyewitness. The map seems to show something else. He is miles away at the exact time of the crime. According to that map. Melvin De Young, The Diabetic. couldn't have seen Alex enter the minimart. He wasn't there. The same map places Edgarthow's phone near his home in Humble Park. More than three miles away from the mini mart, at the exact time of the crime. Like it's just one Fucking bombshell after another. You know, where you're like, I what what? Now. Just because Edgar's phone is pinging from Humbold Park, doesn't necessarily mean Edgar is the one using that phone, right? Then Jennifer and Eric pull up another data source. The actual text messages from Midgardo's phone. How do we know he has the phone in his hand? Well we got phone dumps, so extractions of cell phones that showed us the content of that. And he's texting his girlfriend about having sex. The phone's just littered with things that It's him talking about stuff he's involved in. It makes it clear that that's his phone and he's using it. Some of them are outgoing phone calls meaning that the person unlocked their own phone, typed in whatever phone number, picked their contacts, and called them. So unless somebody started texting his girlfriend about having sex with her, you know, it's about as ironclad as you can get that he had the phone. The attorneys keep mining Agartho cell data. And realize that on the night of the murder? Edgar though didn't talk to any of the other suspects. They had not communicated with him that day. They hadn't communicated him with him that week. They hadn't communicated with him that year. They did not talk to him. So These men had alleged robbed a store together. They'd never talked on the phone. Jennifer and Eric go back through the transcripts of Alex's trial. just to make sure they haven't missed something. No. The cell phone map never comes up. There were a few plausible explanations. One Alex's original lawyers did see it. But chose not to bring it up. Two. prosecutors hadn't seen the map themselves. Or three. They saw it. but didn't turn it over. Then Jennifer and Eric look at the date that the FBI map was first generated. January sixth. Two thousand twelve. On that day, Melvin, Edgartho, and Tyrone. We're all still sitting at the police station. giving their confessions. The I map, which the police already had. strongly suggested those confessions couldn't be true. Alex goes in. Edgard Oclone's driving, Melvin Young's in the car. Any one of those people aren't there. The story really falls apart because why are So many different people saying this story that it's not true. It it it it lends even more and more support to all these defendants and a witness who were saying, They coerced me. You know, this is made up. And the fact that they all have the same made up story is very suspicious. The next day. CPD held a press conference to announce that Tyrone Clay Gardo Colone. Had been charged with Lewis's murder. Even though police had a compelling reason to believe they couldn't be the right men. So now. If you're Eric and Jennifer. It's like you cast this net out. Hoping to catch a few things in it. And when you pull it back in. It's full of all sorts of staff you didn't expect. Which is great for your case. And enraging. also leads you to wonder. What else is out there? What would happen if we cast an even bigger net? And how, exactly, would we even form that net? That's when Jennifer thinks, well, we already have all the police reports related to the case. But what if we could get our hands on the reports about the reports? The metadata. Metadata is data that's associated with data. So let's say you have a photograph. The photogra itself is the actual data that you're producing. But Along with that is other data that's kept with the photograph. For example, the location it was taken, the time it was taken, what camera it was taken by. Police reports have that kind of data too. You submit the police report. The data itself is the police report. But in this case, Jennifer wants to know, well, when was that police report created? When was it submitted? approved it. And so the metadata is all the information that goes along with that police report. gives you an idea of how it was created, stored, and when it was approved. For instance. One of the documents they get back after they requested the metadata is a draft of a police report. But it's weird, this draft. It's a Microsoft Word. Instead of the police department's usual software. And in the draft it says Alex's hand is quote. somewhat deformed and not functioning properly. But the final report. The one that exists in the official case files doesn't say any of that. Instead it says that Alex via hand looked quote Abnormal. What name appears in the metadata of that change? Nancy A Doucey And then I look and There was an edit she had written in all caps. Question or something. And then I'm like. What? And It made me question other decisions she possibly had made and what other things she had done. And the change in describing Alex's hand wasn't just semantics. A key part of Alex's defense at trial was that his hand was too injured for him to have vaulted himself over the counter. Like the killer did. that he could not physically have done what the man in the surveillance video does. The details about Alex's hand looking deformed. And not functioning. would have supported Alex's claim. Changing the description of Alex's hand to quote abnormal. That could mean anything. And here's another thing Jennifer notices in the document she's requested. People with access to the drafts of that police report. Nancy, Andy, And most of the other officers they were communicating with? They use their personal email addresses to send drafts back and forth and make changes. That might seem like a small Bureaucratic error. But using their personal emails could have kept important evidence out of the hands of Alex's defense team. Evidence that under the law they were entitled to have. This all makes Jennifer question everything she thought she knew about Nancy and Andy. and the role of prosecutors to do what's right. thought I was friends with these people. Like I gave them chance after chance after chance to try to do the right thing by Alex and Not have all this mess and I said to Andy Barg, just give him a new trial. Do what's right. I said that over and over to Nancy. This new information didn't just change Jennifer's feelings about Andy and Nancy. change the future of Alex's case. Jennifer reaches out to Tyrone and Igarlo's lawyers. and tell them what she's discovered from her records requests. Raged. Especially about the FBI cell phone map. Which strongly suggests that the men were nowhere near the mini mark on the night of Clifton Lewis's murder. Prosecutors should have given them that evidence too. Like I told you earlier. Turning over evidence helpful to the defense is sacred in criminal cases. In the fall of twenty twenty two Edgar and Tyrone's lawyers asked Nancy and Andy about it in court. Nancy tells the judge that she'd never received the twenty twelve cell phone map from CPD. She went on to say she knew about it. There were issues with the data. I didn't think it proved anything. She said she didn't think it was admissible. To be clear. There was no ruling on whether or not the map was admissible. Andy chimed in to say. Two thousand twelve police report. Shared with the defense in two thousand sixteen. Refer to the existence of a cell phone analysis. So quote. Bottom line, everyone has known about this. He says Alex Tyrone. or Edgar those attorneys could have asked for it. And they didn't. Prosecutors continue their argument in court papers. writing that the cell phone map doesn't prove anything. Because they say Wrong. They argue that the FBI agent who created it back in 2012 Wasn't an expert. and made mistakes. They say two other FBI agents had since plotted the calls differently. So this map you have? Wrong. And so we didn't have to turn it over. The attorneys representing Alex, Edgardo, and Tyrone. Say one. whatever map you look at. None of them ever show the men's phones together. Or anywhere near the mini mart. And two. It doesn't matter which map is right. The law is clear. Prosecutors have a responsibility to turn over evidence that could help the accused prove their innocence. And they didn't. In December 2022 A Garthow's attorneys ask a judge to sanction Nancy and Andy. and remove them from the case. before the judged rule on that. The higher ups at the prosecutor's office intervene. They pull Nancy and Andy off the case. We can't be sure exactly why they were removed. But Tyrone and Edgar those lawyers aren't satisfied. They want to find out if there's more evidence that the prosecution didn't turn over. So they do something practically unheard of. They subpoena Nancy and Andy. plan to put them on the stand. Under oath and grow them about all the missing evidence. In june twenty twenty three. Nancy and Andy are subpoenaed to testify. Tyrone's lawyer prepares to call them to the stand. to answer questions about their alleged misdeeds. Why were they using personal emails? Why was the map not handed over? Had they intentionally hidden the truth? puts the state's attorney's office in a bind. Nancy and Andy take the stand. office risks a brutal reputational beating. If they testify that important evidence was never disclosed. Or worse. Or It drops the charges against Tyrone and Edgar, though, and the testimony is moot. because there would be no case for them to testify in. So that's what the state's attorney's office does. They drop the charges. The charges against the two men were dropped Wednesday ahead of a hearing during which police and prosecutors were set to be questioned over their handling of the twenty eleven investigation. The charges dropped. Nancy Aduce and Andy Varga no longer need to testify. And Tyrone and Agartha are free. The state's attorney's office had worked for 10 years to prosecute these men for the murder of a police officer. Now. It seemed like they'd rather scrap the case than risk airing their dirty laundry. What did all this mean for Alex? Not much, actually. Nancy and Andy also prosecuted Alex. but his case was heard by a different judge. So this ruling wouldn't affect him. Still. It was a day for celebration. 1 years, 5 months. And fifteen days after being charged with the murder of Clifton Lewis. Tyrone Clay walks out of the Cook County jail. I felt so good, man. Walking out that door. The owls. It was like, man, I know you a good dude, man. And he opened the door for me. He was like, man, don't never look back. Let your past be your past. Let your future be your future. Go on here and live your best life. That's what he told me. And I walked out there with my hands up like Rocky, with my bag in my hand. Yeah, the best experience of my life. Ca I just came from, I thought I wasn't gonna make it out. I ain't gonna lie. Agar though heads straight from the courtroom to get his ankle monitor removed. So I went down there and he was like, oh, well, we know we need the paperwork from the judge or whatever. So we had to wait. So I was like, okay, I could wait another day or whatever. Ended up being like two weeks, a little bit more than two weeks before they took the bracelet off. So even after you freed me, didn't free me, I still had the. buy by these rules for two weeks. That's just a little bit of Chicago system for you. Alex finds out about Tyrone in a Garthho from Amanda, his girlfriend, and the mother of his then 13 year old son, Damien. I was happy that I felt like some sort of Justice has been served. What. Felt like bittersweet that I was left behind, you know, like I was. Like my family wasn't celebrating along with their family or I wasn't leaving, walking out with them, you know, like my forgotten about, you know. At this point, Alex has been locked up for more than a decade. Six of those years awaiting trial. in three years since his conviction. Being away from my family, not having your freedom is Like nobody can understand until they're actually in that situation. Take it. No, I can Do the simplest things like Baseball games. You know, I couldn't attend my daughter's graduation. Those are things that tear me up inside, you know. Because Not only have they did this to me, but to see everybody else that loves you, her. As well? It is Yeah. I think that's that's why I was for the first time since his arrest in 2013. Jennifer is working to get him a new trial. And how could any judge keep him in prison if the guys he supposedly killed Officer Lewis with have had their cases tossed? Maybe he'd soon be in the stands at Damien's baseball games. During Alex's visits and calls with Damien, He sees more and more of himself in his boy. Way he sleeps, the way he eats, the things he likes, his hair, has the same alcoholic as me, love sports like me. has a beautiful sense of humor, always laughing, like we could we could laugh until we cry tears with each other. Amanda, Damien's mom, says Alex and Damien talked all the time. And she hoped soon it wouldn't be by phone. I would just tell him all the time, don't worry, babe. No matter what is happening in court or what's being told, doesn't mean it's not gonna come to light. And your dad will be home. Alex and Damien start planning for when that day comes, and Alex walks out of prison. They'd head for Florida. Make a new life. far away from the reach of the Chicago Police Department. Which could be soon. There was a hearing coming up. Seeking a new trial for Alex. Jennifer is worried because of the judge in Alex's case. James Lynn had been a hard nose prosecutor before taking the bench. So getting him to reconsider the conviction of an admitted gang member? And the murder of a cop? would take mounds of indisputable evidence. But Jennifer and Eric believe that they have that kind of evidence. Class. Jennifer has a rapport with Lynn. Going all the way back to two taus e tine. When she was representing a police officer. Jason Van Dyke One day in court, Lyn had pulled her aside. He's like Jennifer. You represent Jason Van Dyke, as the cop. And I said, Yeah. He goes. And then he said. Jennifer, you are a warrior. And when he said it, it enabled me to see myself in a way that I don't normally see myself and Like that's the the bullshit term of today, I felt seen. You know? So I felt seen by him. Maybe that personal connection would help this time. You know I'm stupid enough to have hope. Lynn sets a date for late August. In the same courtroom where Alex was convicted. He had vowed to close out the case before his retirement. In just a few days. On the day of the hearing, cops line the courtroom gallery. They hissed during my argument. Like I heard. And for them to be hissing me and I wanted to turn around and be like, you should be ashamed. Each one of you in here knows he didn't do it. You all know. 'Cause all the cops do know he didn't do it. I've had off other officers tell me, Oh, we all know he didn't do that. And so if you'd be here hissing at me. I was like, bring it. Jennifer makes her case to Judge Lynn. The cell phone map Play station. The edited police report. It was like once he hears all this and he sees the proof of it, maybe then he'll understand how bad this is and he'll give him a new trial. Lynn acknowledged that Alex's co-defendants had their convictions thrown out. He said. Alex wasn't convicted just based on their questionable confessions, extracted in the police station. Remember those three other witnesses who said Alex told them he killed Officer Lewis? The ones we told you about in episode three? The guy who said he was kidnapped. The one alleged pouring four loco out the window? And the other one at the nightclub? We now know all of them had their own trouble with the law at the time they gave their statements against Alex. Lynn relies on those witnesses. despite all the evidence Jennifer and Eric had found undermining their statements. Because of those three witnesses, Lynn says. Alex's case is not the same as Tyrone and Edgardo's. Alex will not get a new trial. His conviction will stand. He won't be there for any of Damien's games. They won't be packing a van and heading toward Florida. and Alex will again be parenting from behind bars. A reporter from the Chicago Sun-Times notices the tears in Jennifer's eyes as Lynn makes his ruling. It's just crushing, bone crushing. We k he was gonna be sentenced to life in prison for something he didn't do. Judge Lynn sentences Alex to life in prison. Jennifer and Eric would go back to the drawing board and prepare an appeal. He got found guilty, he got sentenced to life, and the other people got out. They didn't have time to lick their wounds. Alex had been sent to a maximum security state prison, 250 miles away. There's always worse things that can happen. She was right. It's just that the danger wasn't where she thought it would be. What we merged. 1626. The Guardian made repeated attempts to speak with the Chicago Police Department. The department did not have anyone available to answer our questions, a spokesperson wrote in an email. In court documents, officers deny any misconduct in the case. Former prosecutors Nancy ADUC and Andy Varga along with their legal representatives, did not respond to multiple interview requests or a detailed list of questions. They denied they engaged in any wrongdoing in court papers. Also, in court filings, prosecutors argue there is no show of bad faith by either Aducy or Varga. No officers or prosecutors have been accused of wrongdoing by officials or charged in connection with this case. The Cook County State's Attorney's Office declined to comment, citing pending litigation. In court papers, they denied misconduct in this case. We tried reaching Judge James Lynn and did not hear back. This is the Guardian.