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The Case of Jon-Adrian Velazquez

📻 Episode #38
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Oct 23, 2017

About This Episode

This special edition of Wrongful Conviction highlights the updates from two episodes recorded from Behind Bars. Since airing the Season 4 premiere about Lamonte McIntyre’s case, which was recorded while Lamonte was awaiting a new trial, he was finally freed on Friday, October 13th, 2017 after serving more than two decades behind bars in a…

The Case

This special edition of Wrongful Conviction highlights the updates from two episodes recorded from Behind Bars. Since airing the Season 4 premiere about Lamonte McIntyre’s case, which was recorded while Lamonte was awaiting a new trial, he was finally freed on Friday, October 13th, 2017 after serving more than two decades behind bars in a Kansas correctional facility for a double murder. Season 2, Episode 5 featured a behind bars interview with Jon-Adrian Velazquez. “J.J.” was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life for the 1998 shooting death of Albert Ward, a retired police officer who owned and operated an illegal gambling spot in Harlem. Ward was shot and killed in the course of a robbery. Following the robbery, witnesses provided a description of the gunman as “a light-skinned black male with dreadlocks,” which prompted the search for “Mustafa,” a known drug dealer who fit the description. After learning that he was being sought by the police, J.J. attempted to vindicate himself of the allegations by voluntarily subjecting himself to a lineup. Out of nine eyewitnesses present at the scene of the crime, three identified him at the lineup. Despite being a light-skinned Latino who had never had dreadlocks and despite providing phone records which corroborated his alibi and showed that he was talking to his mother during the time of the crime, J.J. Velazquez was sentenced to 25 years to life even though there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime. Since then, two of the witnesses have recanted, and the other eyewitness has expressed serious doubts. J.J. and his alibi witness have both taken lie detector tests and have passed them. He is currently in his 21st year at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom

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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.

00:09:19

“Speaker 1: that you met a great woman, right and you had Speaker 1: a couple of kids. Yeah, So how did you go Speaker 1: from a sixteen, seventeen year old kid on the streets Speaker 1: to being a twenty two year old man with a Speaker 1: couple of kids and a wife and more of a”

00:32:11

“Speaker 3: who were both brothers, and Augustus Brown. Later learning that Speaker 3: Augustus Brown had actually been the person who selected my photo, Speaker 3: which made me a suspect, so there was really no Speaker 3: need for him to come and identify me again. So Speaker 3: if you look at it in a realistic manner, at”

00:57:57

“Speaker 3: to apply what I was learning between that and what Speaker 3: I've learned on my own and what was happening in organizations. Speaker 3: And then I found like minded individuals and we called Speaker 3: ourselves the Forgotten Voices, and we said, you know what, Speaker 3: we need to reach out to people who can make”

Listen to the Episode

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Resources & links from the episode:

• lavaforgood.com
• omnystudio.com

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Also on the podcast: #14 Jon-Adrian Velazquez