← All Cases / Episode #420
The Case of Wilson Rivera
📻 Episode #420
🎙️ Hosted by Maggie Freleng
📅 Jan 22, 2024
About This Episode
On September 15, 1993, two gunmen entered a home in Detroit, Michigan, and murdered Lavonda Brown and her son, 20-year old Douglas Williams. Detroit police rounded up a number of suspects, questioning them for hours, including Wilson Rivera. Wilson had a solid alibi for that night. Not only that - the shooter had actually confessed…
The Case
On September 15, 1993, two gunmen entered a home in Detroit, Michigan, and murdered Lavonda Brown and her son, 20-year old Douglas Williams. Detroit police rounded up a number of suspects, questioning them for hours, including Wilson Rivera. Wilson had a solid alibi for that night. Not only that - the shooter had actually confessed to Wilson that he’d done it. “I asked Roger, like, what's going on?” Wilson recalls. “And he explained to me what had actually taken place with the murder. I’m assuming the facts are gonna bear me out.” But one by one, the other suspects were dropped from the investigation. By the time the trial began, Wilson was the only one left.
https://www.freewilsonrivera.com/donations/
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.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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.
00:05:01“Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety, when Wilson was sixteen, one of his Speaker 1: friends was shot in the face by a member of Speaker 1: a rival gang. This led to an incident that would Speaker 1: end up having deep repercussions for Wilson. Speaker 2: Basically, one of my other friends went and got a weapon,”
00:18:52“Speaker 3: then they also had testimony from one other witness, kal Matta. Speaker 1: Cal repeated the statement he had given the police that Speaker 1: he had heard Wilson and Roger talking about getting rid Speaker 1: of Doug Williams, and that was about it for the Speaker 1: prosecution's case.”
00:32:11“Speaker 3: the investigators on Wilson's homicide team, was indicted along with Speaker 3: four other officers for operating a narcotic spring through the Speaker 3: fourth Precinct in the city of Detroit. The entire DPD Speaker 3: forensics lab was shut down in two thousand and eight Speaker 3: because the investigators had found widespread errors in their analysis.”
Listen to the Episode
🎧 Listen on Omny / the podcast's platforms
Resources & links from the episode:
Share this case, follow the organisations working on it, and support the podcast's fight for the innocent at lavaforgood.com.
← #419 Matt Huang #421 James Gibson →
Also on the podcast: #243 Jacques Rivera