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The Case of Gilbert Poole
📻 Episode #296
🎙️ Hosted by Guest Host Chris Fabricant
📅 Oct 03, 2022
About This Episode
On June 7, 1988, joggers discovered the body of 35 year old Robert Mejia on a running trail in the woods behind his apartment complex in Pontiac, MI. Mejia had been stabbed to death. Primarily due to the junk science of bite mark evidence, Gilbert Poole was convicted of first-degree murder, and sentenced to life…
Case status as carried in this site's original 2026 profiles. Independent record verification is rolling out episode by episode — statuses are being re-checked against court and registry sources and date-stamped as verified.
The Case
On June 7, 1988, joggers discovered the body of 35 year old Robert Mejia on a running trail in the woods behind his apartment complex in Pontiac, MI. Mejia had been stabbed to death. Primarily due to the junk science of bite mark evidence, Gilbert Poole was convicted of first-degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
With 20 years of expertise in criminal justice, Chris Fabricant leads the Innocence Project’s Strategic Litigation Department as the Joseph Flom Special Counsel and Director of Strategic Litigation. His knowledge of forensic sciences drives his work’s focus on the intersection of science, law reform and social justice.
Chris learned about Gilbert's case when he and Marla Mitchell-Cichon, Gilbert's attorney, discussed the bite mark junk science that sent him to prison. Then, at the 2022 Innocence Network Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, Chris listened to Gilbert speak about his case and experience.
http://www.akashicbooks.com/catalog/junk-science/
To get involved, visit:
https://www.cooley.edu/alumni/help-our-students?hsCtaTracking=4ff403ba-26dd-4fdf-80fe-1990814d3858%7C959d4c89-aa90-400a-a2a7-6c2bc608119f
In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:04:11“Speaker 5: she came back and stole everything I had. There's no Speaker 5: note or anything, but that's okay. If she needed that, Speaker 5: that's fine. Moving on. It wasn't until a couple of Speaker 5: weeks later that the police came to my workplace and Speaker 5: serve me with this warrant, and then everything made sense. Then, oh, okay,”
00:18:14“Speaker 5: There's another mark against me. While the marks kept adding Speaker 5: up and it doesn't look good. Column here on. I'm Speaker 5: getting very nervous as lack of preparation, i would say, Speaker 5: was coming to light, and it was not looking good Speaker 2: Team, Okay for the audience with their own score seats”
00:30:39“Speaker 5: told me that that next day I had to hear Speaker 5: And within hours, Marla and her team of attorneys were Speaker 5: at the prison walking me out the door. I didn't Speaker 5: even have a pair of shoes to put on. They Speaker 5: brought me pants and shoes from the church, and I”
Listen to the Episode
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← #295 Ricky Kidd #297 Gary Benloss →
Also on the podcast: #285 Tammy Poole · #403 Gilbert King on the Groveland Four