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The Case of the Virginia 3
📻 Episode #536
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Jul 31, 2025
About This Episode
On July 12, 1994, 19-year old Steven Smith was killed after being struck by a single bullet to the head in Newport News, VA. Within weeks three individuals, two teenage boys, and one in his twenties, were arrested for the crime. Darryl Hunter, his older brother Nathaniel Pierce, and his friend Reginald Fletcher, were each…
The Case
On July 12, 1994, 19-year old Steven Smith was killed after being struck by a single bullet to the head in Newport News, VA. Within weeks three individuals, two teenage boys, and one in his twenties, were arrested for the crime. Darryl Hunter, his older brother Nathaniel Pierce, and his friend Reginald Fletcher, were each tried and convicted solely on witness testimony. They were sentenced collectively to over 200 years in prison. Since then, a dozen witnesses have recanted, claiming that the government coerced them to testify against the Virginia 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luexJ3hrGHU
https://lavaforgood.com/podcast/319-jason-flom-with-terrence-hobbs/
https://lavaforgood.com/podcast/523-jason-flom-with-lerico-kearney/
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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.
00:04:09“Speaker 3: pup hunt, but most poorly, like still out of trouble. Speaker 4: Like you can't get him to smoke a blunt on Speaker 4: a corner. He not doing it. Speaker 1: And what about you, Nathaniel, You were twenty four, right. Speaker 5: Yes, I was twenty four at the time. I had”
00:16:16“Speaker 4: It was just tragedy, you know what I'm saying, Like Speaker 4: I ain't even get to make it a high school. Speaker 4: I ain't get to spurns none of that, Like no Speaker 4: prom no nothing. And I had to grow up over Speaker 4: the phone listen to my friends. You know what I'm saying,”
00:28:15“Speaker 4: do another news and interview. I think you had some Speaker 4: people calling me and hit me up or something. It Speaker 4: was something that I saw. They was emailing me and Speaker 4: everything Dateline, Night Line one of them, and they was Speaker 4: asking for interviews and they was like, I was like.”
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