SPM Responds (Part 5)

Friends,

Incandesio wrote me with two questions that were voted on:

1)      Will there be another appeal soon?

2)      Do you believe your conviction may have been the result of a conspiracy?

As to your first question, there’s only one “real” appeal from what I understand. It goes to four or five places before it dies. I’m not too sure about the process because I trusted lawyers to handle it, but this is how I think it goes.

You go to prison and file an appeal. First, the appeal goes to the judge in your trial. The judge in my trial sent it back denied. Then I think it goes to Austin, Texas. Well, the state of Texas just spent a bunch of money getting me convicted so, of course, they deny it, too.

The first two or three places the appeal goes to is in Texas, and almost no one gets relief from state-level appeals.

Then, it goes to federal courts. I believe its next stop was Louisiana’s 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals. They denied it. Then, I believe, it makes its last stop at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. They denied it.

The whole process took about seven years.

I believe my grounds for appeal were good, but probably could have been better. After my first two denials, I fired my appeals lawyers and hired some new guys. Obviously, they failed too. After spending about 140,000 dollars on my new appeals lawyers, and after losing in the appeals process, (which ends at Supreme Court), this is the letter my appeals lawyer sent:

Dear Mr. Coy:

Enclosed please find a copy of the Fifth Circuit denying a certificate of appealability.

You have 90 days to file a petition for a writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court. I do not believe there is any likelihood that the Supreme Court will grant certiorari in view of the fact that the Fifth Circuit did not write an opinion. If you want to hire counsel to file a certiorari petition, please advise, and I will make recommendations.

It goes without saying that I vigorously disagree with this decision. For what it is worth, I think your celebrity status worked against you.

I would like Arthur to call me to arrange to pick up the boxes of records that I was given when I was hired.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

You know what’s crazy? I’m just now realizing that my appeal didn’t even make it to the Supreme Court. This letter is three years old. That’s sad. Anyway, I kept this letter because, well, I payed 140,000 dollars for this damn letter. I did hire someone to file the certiorari petition but it was denied, too.

I do agree with what the lawyer said about my celebrity status. Well, not so much that but because I was South Park Mexican, a man who publicly displayed hatred towards authority, who rose from selling dope to running Dope House Records, who was the fastest growing rap artist in the nation. When they get one like me caught in their net, my chances aren’t the best.

So, what’s next? From what I understand, we must find “new evidence” to be able to get a new trial. That’s all I ask. Just a chance to prove my innocence. We hired an investigator to work on finding new evidence.

I’m sure there’s all kinds of stuff we can do, I’m just not sure what it is. I know the power of the people moves mountains and so I’m thankful for citizens like Incandesio, who I just learned about a few months ago.

http://www.spmaftermath.blogspot.com/2012/02/spm-responds-part-4a.html

Journalists

I want to take a minute and consider John Nova Lomax one more time. You’ve read the article South Park Monster. You’ve seen how the case and the people involved in it are portrayed.

In one of his answers, Coy says that Mr. Lomax was in attendance every day of the trial. If that’s true, how was he able to see what he saw, hear what he heard, and still write that eight page article?


There was no mention of Susan Szczygielski admitting that she hadn’t read her own patient’s medical history before making her pronouncement, but Lomax goes to the trouble of contacting a clinical director of TDCJ’s sex offender treatment program in Huntsville; asking her to weigh in on how she believes a man she has not studied, and probably has never even met, is a pedophile, and likely to become a violent one.

There is no mention or explanation of the time period between the supposed crime and the report that was made. Where the hell does Officer David Milligan, who apparently took the initial report from the mother without ever speaking to the child, factor into all this? Don’t look for an answer from the Houston Press, it’s not there.

There was no mention of Officer Ruiz’s botched first interview, or the statement that was discarded because apparently a 10^th grade education renders a person completely unable to communicate in writing.

He describes Jill Odom’s testimony as ‘damning’…but doesn’t back it up. The only quote from her is this: "If I needed something, he would get it".

He states “Odom said the rapper may not have known her specific age.” and then tries to disprove it by claiming that Coy used to pick her up from school, with no proof offered.

If he was sitting in that court room then he knew that this little girl had been prescribed a seriously powerful drug for problems that started months before the reported incident, but that never made it into the article.


He would have seen the prosecution try to paint these symptoms as a direct result of abuse; he would have watched as the therapist was confronted with evidence that it just wasn’t true.


A story from the Houston Chronicle states :


Defense lawyer Chip Lewis said he was curious about how the jury reached a verdict 20 minutes after returning from lunch, after having spent hours in deliberation over two days.

The alternate juror told him the jury had been leaning toward acquittal, Lewis said.

"It certainly makes you raise your eyebrow and wonder what the quick change was," he said

So, even the jury that convicted him wasn’t initially convinced by the prosecution’s case. They spent days in deliberation and were leaning towards acquittal until apparently something happened to change their minds over lunch.


How could a reporter, or a journalist, or whatever the fuck this guy is, get a story like this dropped in his lap and stick with whatever line he got from the corrupt DA’s office?  What editor read this and thought “Yeah, that sounds like the whole story. Print it.”?


Next time you pick up a copy of The Houston Press, think about it.

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/2002_3546262/jury-finds-musician-coy-guilty-prison-time-possibl.html

http://www.houstonpress.com/2002-06-06/news/south-park-monster/

Questions for SPM

Head over to the Facebook page and take a look at the questions that have been sent in; then vote for the one you'd like to see answered by Carlos!

Dear Family (Part 2)

2/15/12

Family,

What’s up, my people. I hope everyone is good. I’m just chillin in my cell, listening to the radio. Yesterday was Valentine’s day and it was my homeboy Jason’s daughter’s birthday, so he made a homemade cake to celebrate. Prison cakes aren’t like freeworld, they’re more like brownies, kind of flat but really good.

I got a great letter from Incandesio, which included the Cold 40 and letter I wrote, that she posted. You guys commented on that and she sent me some of those. Your love is amazing and I feel so blessed to receive it. Your comments reminded me of how important it is that I write you regularly. I used to do that in spurts, on our Dope House site, but then I got in trouble and fell off. They found MP3 player in my cell and I was shipped to High Security Segregation.

I hope to be out of here soon, hopefully in April which is when I’m up for review. In H.S.S. there’s no pay phones, no contact visits, no special visits – like if a news reporter wanted to interview me, no televisions, no outside recreation where you can play soccer or handball or basketball with other people. We play a basketball game but it’s strictly on shooting skills, there’s no offense or defense. I’ve talked about all this before, so let me move on. But if you guys have any questions about my day, just ask. Incandesio sent me some questions so I’ll get to those after I write you.

I wrote you guys a Cold 40 this morning so I’ll be putting that at the end of this. The tricky thing about the 40’s is how you should deliver them. Verses are delivered in different ways, according to how they were written and meant to be delivered.

As you know, I call these verses Cold 40’s because they are forty lines long. “Lines” also means “Bars” so Cold 40’s are forty bar verses.

Each line (or bar) has four beats. You know when you listen to a song and bob your head to the beat, well, you’re bobbing your head to the beats in each bar. For example, let’s go to the first two bars (or lines) of the song “Mary-Go-Roud:”

1                2         3                  4
Saggin my Dickies smoke like a hippie

Smells so good when she get wet and sticky

I underlined the letters that land on each beat of the bar. These are the spots where your head bobs. So if you never heard this song, you would still somewhat know how it should be rapped (or delivered) just by knowing the letters that fall on the beat. Notice how each bar has four letters that are underlined. That’s because, as I’ve said, there’s four beats on every bar.

So now let’s go to the last Cold 40 I wrote. I’ll write down the first four bars and underline the letters that land on the beats of each bar.

        1                2                   3                  4

Los crumble the borin so they mothers will mourn

I’m just sorry that my gift is so troubled and torn

rollin thunder was norm, see I come from da storm

still I’m fuckin comp like they fuck sluts on a porn

On the first two bars of “Mary-Go-Round”, the first letter of the first word on the bar starts on the first beat. But in the Cold 40, there’s a word or two that’s delivered before the first beats comes in.

Another example of a word or two being delivered before the first beat, is on the song “Wizard of O.Z.” which is on the same “Hustle Town” album as “Mary-Go-Round.”

“Wizard of O.Z.’s” first four bars are these:
                                                       

         1             2                   3         4

It was plain to see since the age of three

One day dopefiends would be paging me

I got crunk in the game niggaz knew my name

Hillwood the place I gained my fame

Notice how, when listening to this song, your head bobs on the letters of these words that land on the beats of these bars. So in reality, if I went through my Cold Forties and underlined each letter that lands on the beats, you would better understand how the verse should be delivered. It’s going to be great when I get out of H.S.S. and be able to use the payphones. I’ll be able to flow every Cold 40 to you, and then you’ll know exactly how it should go.

You know, I get letters from guys that want to rap and get into the rap game, and they send me their verses, and I’m like, “I can freestyle this shit.” It’s no disrespect to them but let me explain some other things since I’ve opened up my SPM School of Rap.

For you people that inspire to be rappers, check this out. First of all, you can’t just make “cold” and “bold” rhyme, or “fought” and “caught”. If you’re only going to make one syllable rhymes, then the line better be a bad ass metaphor. A metaphor is like if I said:

“Then I hit the pen like a nigga went bowling”

I’m saying I went to the penitentiary, but since “pen” also sounds like “pin” as in “bowling pin”, I use this metaphor. But even when I do metaphors, I often make multi-syllabic rhymes to add even more skill. Let’s go to the last Cold 40 I wrote, before the one at the end of this letter. It’s called “Like Brothers.” Let’s take a look at the first six bars:

Los crumble the borin, so they mothers will mourn

I’m just sorry that my gift is so troubled and torn

rollin thunder was norm, see I come from da storm

still I’m fuckin comp like they fuck sluts on a porn

mothafuckaz was snorin, while I stung in the foreign

made a couple hundred thousand on dat Cullen and Orem

I’ll stack these rhymes on top of each other to see them more clearly:

crumble the borin

mothers will mourn

troubled and torn

thunder was norm

come from the storm

sluts on a porn

‘fuckaz was snorin

stung in the foreign

Cullen and Orem

In this set of rhyme schemes I use the soft “u” sound in the first words, and end it with the “or” on the last words. It’s a combination of the soft “u’s” and “or’s”.

You can even make whole sentences rhyme if you think hard enough. Let me just try to think up an example:

<><><> <>

Flow	so	throwed	make	ya	slap	ya	own	momma
Los	don’t	know	may	be	crap	in	Joe’s	sauna

As you can see I made seven syllables rhyme with seven syllables on the next line. Of course the overall rhyme wasn’t the best. Crapping in Joe’s sauna is disgusting, and I only did it cause I was drunk. No, I’m kidding. But multi-syllable rhyming, or at least compound rhyming, is a fucking must if you want to get somewhere. And I don’t mean bullshit like:

Raisin

blazin

chasin

facin

pacin

nation

placin

That’s not multi-syllable or compound rhyming. What is – is something like this. It sounds the same but has much more skill:

day's  grim

break limbs

ain't   him

fake   chin

great  gym

waist  slim

brain dim

pain   win

late    swim

This is compound rhyming, or two syllable rhyming. It has the strong “A” sound and the soft “i” sound. Let me show you how this fits in a couple of bars:

sun's bright day's grim, get my weed-break limbs

bitch that I'm with got a man but I ain't him

fake tits, fake nose, think she got a fake chin

but she got a ass like a member of a great gym

waist slim, brain dim, neva let the pain win

indoor pool say she wanna take a late swim

Again, these rhymes aren’t exactly powerful, but I just wanted tp give you some examples, and also explain why you can’t come with these bullshit, one syllable rhymes.

Now, we’ll get to my next Cold 40. See if you can spot all the multi-syllable rhyming schemes. I’ll talk to you again, soon.

Another Cold 40

“The Conflict Is Destined”

I'm Mario's brother cause I pound a gold sledge

somethin kinda different like a clown with no legs

Al Capone ends teach ya how to roll Benz

hood makin money so I'm proud of those friends

I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt, but I just wanted to point out the rhyme scheme of these first four bars. I won’t interrupt after this:

      ↓                           ↓        ↓

pound            a       gold   sledge

clown           with   no      legs

Al                ca      pone  ends

how             to       roll    Benz

proud          of       those  friends

I also underlined the letters on each bar where the four beats are. If you study the verse well enough, and make some good calls, you’ll understand how this verse is to be delivered. Let me start over:

I'm Mario's brother cause I pound a gold sledge

something kinda different like a clown with no legs

Al Capone ends teach ya how to roll Benz

hood makin money so I'm proud of those friends

sun comin up boys still on the cut,

you eva seen the last dolla bill gettin spunt?

Yeah, I said spunt cause I saw it on a book

and I promise I'mma promise if you promise not to look

Look, rappers couldn't see me if we played a game of Peek-A-Boo

even if the NFL would give'em "referee review"

believe in me believe in you, truth is I believe it too

this is real reality without the fucking T.V. crew

simple life is complicated grossly discombobulated

wrote that jus to feel smart, hope you didn't stop to hate it

really you should love me like da drunk and hungry love a lunch

Alright, give'em chicken nuggets plus a fuckin cup of punch!

I was at that luncheon once, should I even mention this?

I don't know, maybe not, fuck it I jus said it bitch

No, not you! I was callin someone else that

you're just a booty-face, toe sniffin hell rat

No, not you, man! I'm talkin to the other guy!

this is how rumors start and everybody wonder why

cause I meant another person from a far distant place

if I meant you, don't you think I'd say it in ya face?

Now I'm in a bad mood, plus I just lost my buzz

thinkin that I thought you was thinking what you thought I was

fuck it! you done forced me to call you a fraud bitch!

slap you like Prince's dad slapped him with palm prints

all on his left cheek, top lip was tremblin

this is Purple Rain but his pop isn't Meskin

they constantly question the concept of best when

I stomp men to death then I offer Excedrin

my job is to wreck them the conflict is destined

but please only view it at yo momma's discretion

or talk with the reverend and watch as you press him

to process the law between songs and confession

my losses are lessons but lost is the message

How can God help? I won't stop for directions

all my possessions, revolve around weapons

so all I can draw is a glock and attention... (killed'em)
    

 Con Amor,
     Los

Special Update

MortonSyndicate.com just posted up a great new interview with SPM here. Check him out on Twitter @BrentLeeMorton  and facebook here.

Backward Reasoning

From Wikipedia:

Backward chaining (or backward reasoning) is an inference method that can be described (in lay terms) as working backward from the goal(s).

Inference is the act or process of deriving logical conclusions from premises known or assumed to be true.

Backwards reasoning is a piss-poor way to conduct a criminal trial. You’re supposed to start at the beginning, with a man who is assumed to be innocent, and then present evidence against him piece by piece until no reasonable person could doubt that he is guilty.

Instead the prosecution appears to have begun with the assumption that Coy was guilty, and then cherry-picked bits of fact to support this. You might be thinking “Isn’t that the prosecutor’s job? To convict people?” No. The prosecutors job is, in the words of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure: …not to convict, but to see that justice is done.

That’s the DA’s responsibility; to see that justice is done. But how can that be achieved in a trial in which the conviction appears to be a foregone conclusion? Some examples of backward reasoning in Coy Vs. Texas include…

Coy was accused, therefore he is guilty.

Intellectually we know that an accusation is not proof of guilt, but in cases that involve possible harm to a child it seems that’s all it takes to convince people. Let’s say you’re called in to serve as a juror in Coy’s trial. You know that there’s been a police investigation. You know there’s been a decision by the DA’s office to proceed with the case. You know that there’s been a grand jury hearing to determine the validity of the charges. If you trust the judgment of all these institutions, how can you not come into the courtroom with the assumption that something must have happened? After all, you wouldn’t be there if the state didn’t believe there was a good reason; and let’s face it, most people will take the word of Texas over that of a rapper with authority issues and a flair for obscenity any day.

If he wasn’t guilty of something, he wouldn’t have to defend himself; therefore if he has to defend himself, he must be guilty of something.

The girl has symptoms, therefore he is guilty.

The prosecutors took a pre-existing condition, a little girl’s illness, and used it as ‘proof’ of abuse.

From the bits of transcript we have seen, it appears that they concealed (with the court’s approval) the reasons why the little girl had been prescribed Elavil, a serious medication that as of 2007, had not even been studied in children younger than twelve. Instead they presented her as a child who just recently started experiencing symptoms that could, possibly, be the result of abuse. How did concealing the root cause of her disorder promote the interests of justice? It didn’t, it just made it easier for the prosecution to obtain a conviction.

The therapist that treated her did not seem to have even read the medical history before testifying that she was sure that the girl had been abused, and there just wasn’t any possibility that she hadn’t been. If she had known that this little girl had been complaining of these symptoms months before the accusation, would she have allowed her expertise to be used as proof?

In SPM’s appeal, it is noted that this girl was repeatedly called ‘the victim’ in the courtroom, in front of the jury, even though, in theory, it had not yet been proven that a crime had been committed. How did that advance the cause of justice?

Coy was convicted, therefore he is guilty.

We know from the cases of Timothy Cole, Michael Morton, Anthony Graves, Dale Duke, Ricardo Rachell (and on, and on, and on), that just because a criminal conviction is handed down, doesn’t mean it’s correct; unfortunately these men spent years in prison while TDCJ bowed down before the altar of ‘The Finality of Conviction’…The arrogant assumption that the state’s reputation as an unstoppable juggernaut of righteous punishment is worth more than one innocent person’s freedom.

Questions for SPM

Have a question about the case, or a previously posted answer?

Send it to the Email address below;

next Friday the top four questions will be posted on Facebook for voting.

SPM Responds (Part 4.b)

Continued from Part 4.a

Criminal Trial

Court Transcripts Volume 11 of 31 Pgs. 185-186

D.A.: Now, on that particular day, did you watch the interview that Fiona Stephenson did with (Jane Doe) by the closed-circuit TV system that they have set up?

Ruiz: Yes, I did.

D.A.: Okay. So, who was in the room when- - when (Jane Doe) was interviewed that day?

Ruiz: In the room?

D.A.: With her.

Ruiz: With (Jane Doe) was (Jane Doe) and Fiona Stephenson.

D.A. Okay. They were the only two in there?

Ruiz: Right.

D.A.: And you watched by closed-circuit; is that right?

Ruiz: Yes, I did.

D.A.: And you obviously observed it that day and subsequently reviewed the videotape, is that correct?

Ruiz: Numerous times, yes.

D.A.: Okay. And from what (Jane Doe) told Fiona, was that consistent with what she had told you just three days before?

Chip: Objection, your Honor, hearsay.

Judge: Overruled. You may answer that question.

Ruiz: It was absolutely consistent with everything (Jane Doe) had told me.

 D.A.: All right. Now, pursuant to that interview that was done of (Jane Doe) on that day, did you also take the typed statement from the mother on that day?

Ruiz: Yes, I did.

This time Ruiz typed the statement herself. She watched the child’s interview, then got with her mother to type a statement that was consistent with what the child said. And that, my friends, is how a story is fabricated.

            So, just for clarity: Ruiz didn’t like the child’s original story so the audio decides not to work. Ruiz makes no mention of having to get new equipment, or even having her current equipment repaired. Why?

Because there was nothing wrong with that equipment. Anyone can take the audio off of a videotape and I wouldn’t doubt if either Ruiz, or the D.A., has pulled this same ploy in other cases.

            They, also, didn’t like Mary Doe’s original statement so she was described as being too upset and too uneducated to write a proper statement. What they did like was the fact that this family was accusing SPM of an unthinkable crime. The fact that their story didn’t make sense was a problem they could work with. “We’ll just give them three more days to get their shit together and then build our case.”

            Throughout my book you’ll see a pattern of these people shaping testimony so that it’s beneficial to their case.

Let’s go to Chip asking Ruiz about the video equipment.

Criminal Trial

Court Transcripts Volume 12 of 31 Pgs. 22-23

Chip: You discovered that same day that the video was faulty, right?

Ruiz: Yes.

Chip: Now, out at Mykawa Road there are several different interview rooms, aren’t there?

Ruiz: Only one that has video equipment in it.

Chip: Back up now. There’s a few other divisions out there, aren’t there? The Homicide Division?

Ruiz: No.

Chip: Okay. The interview room adjacent- - there are other divisions that do business out at Mykawa Road, right?

Ruiz: Robbery and Burglary and Theft.

Chip: Okay. And they have interview rooms, also?

Ruiz: I don’t know.

Chip: Okay. It’s your testimony to these ladies and gentlemen of the jury that you don’t know if there’s any other video equipped interview rooms out there?

Ruiz: Not available to me.

Please let me take a second to point out the lies this woman fixed her mouth to say:

            First, she says there’s only one room that has video equipment in it.

            Then, she says that she doesn’t know if the other crime divisions have interview rooms.

            Then, she confirms both lies by admitting they do have other video equipped rooms, just not available to her. The “not available to me” was another lie.

            Chip was asking these questions because the family only lives five minutes from Mykawa Road. Ruiz could have simply called them back to re-do the interview.

            As far as the other interview rooms not being available to her, what are they going to say, “No, we don’t care what SPM did to that girl. Our equipment is for people who steal polos at the mall.”? Come on, man. Any cop would do backflips to help this woman convict me.

            She’s lying and there’s a reason she’s lying. She’s trying to hide the fact that she was buying more time for this family to get their story straight.

            So your question was do I believe my conviction was the result of a conspiracy? My answer is that I don’t think it started that way. I believe an unfortunate child said something that could possibly reflect something that was going on in her life. But there’s other possibilities. During the trial, she testified that she “wasn’t so sure” if an assault even took place. She said she didn’t know if it “could be a dream, or something like that.” The fact is I don’t know why she said I did this. I don’t know if it was a dream, or a lie, or something someone told her to say. Her medical records mention “possible hallucinations” but I can’t say what happened. Supposedly her story changes from touching to oral assault during an interview that nobody will ever be able to hear.

            I do know that instead of seeking the truth, the system decided to take a bullshit story and make it believable. They abused their power.

            In this book I’m writing, you’ll be amazed as to the extent they went to convict someone they so badly wanted to destroy.

            Was I a good person? Not really. Was I a good husband and father? I don’t think I was. Did I rap about baking cookies for your grandma? Well, that depends on what kind of cookies. It also depends on whether your granny is a crackhead. But am I the person the state wants you to believe I am? The answer is no. And I’ll continue to answer any question you have, so that you’ll know, too.

Thank you,

Los