The 'Selfless Warrior' - My salute to a 'Selfless Warrior' - a mother who's name I don't even know. Her son: Nelson Cruz: Brooklyn...Not in a position to get the investigation he needed to establish his alibi for the murder, he turned to his mother for help, directed her investigation from the prison, and she found new evidence which could open the door to yet another appeal. (Nelson Cruz is still in prison after more than 22 years behind bars - and his case cries out innocence, I will be following developments on my companion Log - The Charles Smith Blog. Link below. HL);

QUOTE ONE OF THE DAY: 

"Cruz, having retained a lawyer, had come to the station house voluntarily. “I had nothing to hide,” Cruz said of his appearance at the precinct. “End result: I’ve been in prison 22 years.”

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PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY:

"Cruz, with limited resources, said he sent his mother to comb the public housing projects on Pitkin Avenue to find his alibi witnesses. His mother died in 2009, but not before she’d had some success. “She played investigator, hit the streets,” Cruz said. “She got me a lot of phone numbers.” Cruz eventually got affidavits signed by witnesses to the shooting and other people who were having birthday drinks with him the night of the killing. He argued this amounted to new evidence, and thus it might persuade a judge to consider yet another appeal. "

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

Last Monday (October 11, 2020) I focused on  Joyce Milgaard, a 'Selfless Warrior' who, with the help of her other children, set out to become an expert on murder (which she did), to secure the exoneration of her  16-year-old son David  (which she did) and to track down the real killer of Nursing aide  Gail Miller, (which she also did). A consummate self-trained investigator (who once worked as a switchboard operator helping reporters track down people at The Toronto Star), she became commonly known as 'The Gumshoe Mom.' Several days later, I was surprised to come across the story of another mother who also could have also earned the "Gumshoe Mom" moniker for the  search for alibi witnesses she carried out under the direction of her son who she believed was innocent, and had been locked up for decades. The mother's name does not appear in the ProPublica article by Reporter Joe Sexton, which can be found in the 'Reading Materials' section of this post. The son is Nelson Cruz,  who claims he is yet another victim of tainted New York Detective Louis Scarcella. I will be focusing on the Cruz case during the next few weeks, all being well, on the companion site of this Blog - The Charles Smith Blog, except to say that Reporter Saxton's story shows how Sexton's hopes for exoneration were dashed when the judge, known for fairness and her willingness to give second  chances, became ill with Alzheimer's disease. For now, I will focus on the story within this disturbing story - the role played by this  since-deceased unnamed mother who I'm sure would never have dreamt that some day she would be scouring the streets of her Project in Brooklyn to find alibi witnesses who  would establish her son's alibi on a charge of murder.

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THE STORY WITHIN THE STORY:

As Reporter Saxton tells us, Nelson Cruz, a high school sophomore,  was only 45 minutes away from his 17th birthday on March 28, 1998,  when he and several friends went out for Chinese food and alcohol to celebrate. Gunfire erupted. People started running. Several hours later, while he is still celebrating , his mother contacts him on the pager to tell him that there are detectives at the house. The gunfire had left a local "tough' dead, on the street.

 "The gunfire that night had left Trevor Vieira, a local tough guy in his mid-20s with a record as a stickup artist, dead on the street. A patrol car was already on the block, and within seconds, Eduardo Rodriguez had been arrested. Rodriguez, the cops said, had been ordered to drop the 9 mm gun he had in his hand. Rodriguez, a convicted felon, was soon interrogated at the 75th Precinct. Inside the station house, Rodriguez would eventually convince detectives he wasn’t the gunman. He identified Cruz, a kid he’d known for years, as the killer. He said Cruz shot Vieira after an altercation and dropped the 9 mm running away. The gun police said he was holding when he was arrested, Rodriguez alleged, belonged to Cruz. Andre Bellinger, an older man from the neighborhood with his own criminal past, walked into the precinct an hour or so after Rodriguez had given his account. He said he’d seen the shooting and later picked Cruz out of a lineup. Cruz, having retained a lawyer, had come to the station house voluntarily. “I had nothing to hide,” Cruz said of his appearance at the precinct. “End result: I’ve been in prison 22 years.”

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A SUSPECT CASE FOR GUILT:

Nelson Cruz felt that whatever the strength of the case for his innocence, the case for his guilt was suspect. His fingerprints weren't found on the gun. (The gun hadn't been tested at all. Rodriguez, the man arrested with the gun had convinced the police that Cruz was the shooter. (Rodriguez was out on parole and had an obvious motive to lie.) Rodriguez never testified at trial.). The one eywitness who did testify, Andre Bellinger,  had  laid out a detailed but far from fully substantiated  version of the murder.

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HERE'S WHERE NELSON  CRUZ'S MOTHER COMES IN TO THE PICTURE:

As Reporter Joe Sexton reports in ProPublica: "Cruz knew he had more to work with. While his defense lawyer called no witnesses on his behalf, Cruz still remembered who he’d hung out with that night and who could establish his alibi. Also, during his time in prison, Cruz said he’d run into another neighborhood man who had seen the shooting, who knew Cruz hadn’t done it and who could undermine the testimony offered by Bellinger. Cruz’s witness said that he’d been with Bellinger after the shooting, and that Bellinger had never indicated he’d either seen the violence or knew who the killer was. Cruz, with limited resources, said he sent his mother to comb the public housing projects on Pitkin Avenue to find his alibi witnesses. His mother died in 2009, but not before she’d had some success. “She played investigator, hit the streets,” Cruz said. “She got me a lot of phone numbers.” Cruz eventually got affidavits signed by witnesses to the shooting and other people who were having birthday drinks with him the night of the killing. He argued this amounted to new evidence, and thus it might persuade a judge to consider yet another appeal."

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YET ANOTHER STORY WITHIN THE STORY:  (The 'Actual Innocence Group' - state prison:  Auborn.)

In addition to the valiant help from his mother, Nelson Cruz also received support from a group  consisting of   four inmates - himself and three others - who met once a week in the prison library to discuss the different ways in which they could prove their innocence and regain their freedom. As reporter Saxton tells on his his superb ProPublica piece: "They divided up work on their cases, developing specialties of one kind or another, as they pressed their claims of innocence. They researched precedent, filed motions, obtained police files, sought evidence of mistakes or misconduct. “I was the crime scene artist,” Nelson Cruz said in a recent interview. Derrick Hamilton was another of the four. Convicted of murder, he’d spent two decades developing his skills as a jailhouse lawyer. He liked what he saw in Cruz: a quiet determination, a sense of loyalty, a commitment to the work. “He had a head on his shoulders,” Hamilton said of Cruz. “Always asked questions. Always said he was innocent.” The group made a pledge: If one of them got out, he wouldn’t forget the others. Cruz made Hamilton pledge to him personally. “Don’t go home and forget about me,” Cruz told Hamilton. “Come for me.” Hamilton had been convicted of a 1991 killing in Brooklyn. A single eyewitness had helped lead to his imprisonment. That witness later recanted, and Hamilton claimed a Brooklyn homicide detective named Louis Scarcella had framed him. 

In 2015, after Scarcella had been named by multiple people behind bars as a serial manufacturer of forced confessions and phony evidence, the Brooklyn DA’s office looked into Hamilton’s case. The office did not fault Scarcella, but it determined the lone witness’s testimony had been “patently false.” The office asked a judge to vacate Hamilton's conviction, and Hamilton walked out of court a vindicated man.  Hamilton would not forget Cruz."

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COMMENTARY: I wish I knew more about Nelson Cruz's mother (especially her name).  Like Joyce Milgaard, she showed the  selflessness and resilience, and innate intelligence, curiosity, and knowledge of human nature,  necessary to carry out the investigations required to  help free their sons. They make me wonder if there is something special in the mother/son relationship  which impels mothers to sacrifice much of their lives to defend  children they know are innocent  from the state which is intent to locking them up - often for lengthy periods of time. In the meantime,  I will continue following Nelson's case on 'The Charles Smith Blog', and am grateful  to have had the opportunity to salute his late mother - whose name I don't even know - as a 'Selfless Warrior.'

Harold Levy: Publisher. The Selfless Warrior Blog.

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READING MATERIALS:

https://features.propublica.org/judge_alzheimers/brooklyn-federal-judge-mental-illness/

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The Charles Smith Blog:

smithforensic.blogspot.com.

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