Page 171 - Forensics News Today

Eric glisson. >> originally you were charged with both murders, with denise raymonds murder and the cab driver murder. >> yes. >> but by the time eric went to trial prosecutors dropped charges against him in the denise raymond case, citing lack of evidence. so what evidence was there against him in the cab driver case? it was really pretty simple. there was a witness against him. her name? miriam tavares. tavares told the cops she looked out her window and saw it all, eric and the others, smack ...

Crime kathy now says she knew nothing about. >> i even told them i didnt see nothing like that. >> whats more, gomez says she could hardly read or write english. >> i couldnt read it. they just wanted me oh, you have to sign this. you dont have nothing to do with this. >> kathy gomez told me that entire statement was prepared by the police and she signed it without knowing even what was in it. >> even so, gomez did testify, now saying she only took the stand because she says detectives threatene...

Drug overdose in 2002. other than her testimony, there was no physical evidence, no forensics, no prints, nothing that tied eric or the others to the cab drivers murder. even so, detectives donnelly and aiello went with what they had and closed both murder cases. within three weeks, they arrested their suspects and the bronx district attorney tried them. in all, six people were convicted. well call them the bronx six. five men and a woman. all sent away facing 25 to life. one of them was eric gl...

Investigating the gang an informant told him details of a crime the gang members had committed. >> there was a cab driver who had been killed in the vicinity of soundview. >> so forcelli went to the 43rd precinct in the south bronx to see if there was any truth to the story. >> early 1998, walked in the precinct. went upstairs, walked into the detective squad room. >> you go in there and say what about this murder, what do you know about a murder? >> yeah, i wanted to know about a cab driver mur...

Have any chance at having another day in court eric knew hed need powerful evidence. evidence of actual innocence. he started thinking, if he and the other five co-defendants had nothing to do with the two murders, then who did? after more than a decade of trying finally some of erics requests for documents in his case began trickling in. >> i came across one document which had my name as well as my other co-defendants, but one name stood out, it was an individual i found out was part of a gang ...

Just im practicing law for a long time. okay? >> and people lie. >> they certainly color the truth. this is a man who was convicted of murdering someone. so, of course, i approached it with some skepticism. >> but once cross learned the facts, he agreed to take erics case at no charge. representing a man who didnt seem hardened by prison but almost frightened. >> its terrifying because you can just be walking in the yard and then you could be shanked. thats the life of prison. >> a life hed live...

The prison. he learned about the law and fought his case. >> how did he get that evidence in his possession? >> the courts denied all his appeals. >> i dont have any appeals left. nothing. >> it was a lonely fight and then in 2006 he met sister joanna chan in one of the prisons programs, the woman he calls grandma. >> theres particular dark time. he would say, grandma, its really hard. >> i told her grandma, i just lost my last appeal. i dont know what im going to do. >> i always say lets keep t...

Videoed the entire scene and anything that might seem important. >> detectives are mystified over the vicious killing of a successful executive. >> the case went to detective tom aiello, a 20-year veteran. he led a team of detectives who worked through the night knocking on doors and collecting evidence. then as the sun rose the next morning some of the cops turned their attention to another murder, another bloody crime scene. this is the video police recorded of that second murder scene. it was...

Looked only in the open homicide drawer and never bothered to even look to see if there was anything other than an unsolved homicide that fit that description. >> as far as you know, thats the end of it. >> right. like i said, id moved on. >> forcelli soon retired from the nypd, not knowing six people had already been convicted. in the meantime eric was stuck in prison. it wasnt until 2012, 14 years later, that he hit paydirt and it came in the form of cell phone records. remember, the cab drive...

The department allowed the detectives to be featured in "new york" magazine about how they amazingly cracked the cases. >> how the detectives could have believed that and decided to run with this and send them to jail for the rest of their lives on the basis of this garbage still shocks me today. >> all these years later, attorney cross knew his opinion of the detective work in this case wasnt going to free eric glisson or anyone else. >> i think the only kind of evidence thats going to sway a c...