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Chapter 1: What evidence was used to convict Evaristo Salas Jr.?
Well, see, all that too, I didn't even know about that stuff until I actually got the discovery file, which was six years later.
So this was never brought up in your trial either, this whole cleaning of the car?
No, never brought up.
By day, Sunnyside is as peaceful as its name. But when the sun goes down... What's 04 have, Sunnyside? Attempted entry. Youth gangs roam the streets.
That happened in 1995, and I actually didn't even know where I was that day. I had to really kind of think back of when they charged me was six months after.
You know, it was enough to show that this boy was railroaded. Like you said, they didn't have enough, so they manufactured, he manufactured something just to get it over the edge.
Hello and welcome back to One Minute Remaining. My name is Jack Lawrence, the host and creator of this show. Today is part five of my chat with Evaristo Salas Jr., the now man who was incarcerated for murder as a child. At just 15, Jr. would be arrested and at 16, found guilty of murdering Jose Aurelio and sentenced to over 30 years in a men's prison.
Having just under three years left, Junior has always maintained his innocence and continues to fight to clear his name.
So in our previous episode, we heard the shocking revelation that was discovered during the TV show, The Wrong Man, that one of the two main witnesses in this case came forward to admit that his entire testimony was false and that he was made to lie by the lead detective in the investigation, Jim Rivard.
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Chapter 2: How did the testimonies of witnesses impact the trial?
I didn't know how to kind of really function in that kind of environment. I didn't really know how even to carry myself. I'm like, sit up straight. You know, be strong. You got this. And I remember, I think it was after they had found guilty and they were going to sentence me or something like that, I remember coming in. and looking at my father and looking for that reassurance.
And my father's always been my hero. He's always been my superman. He's the man of still my life, you know. He's not a mortal to me. He's a person that, you know, that's how I looked at my father. When I came in that last time, I think I was going to get a sentence or something, or right after I got found guilty, I can't remember which one it was, but I come out and I look to my father.
I look back and he had this look on his face And it was the look of a man that looked like he was about to see his son devoured by lions. Just a blank stare. And for the first time in my life, I seen fear in my dad's eyes. I felt like he was scared. And I remember feeling this kind of lightning bolt of emotion of fear.
And then at that moment, as soon as I felt it, you know, it was a split second, but I felt that my dad caught himself and tried to shake it off and kind of give me that smile. But it was too late.
Yeah.
At that moment, he became mortal. And he became human. And I realized then that whatever I was about to face, that I wasn't going to have to face it alone. That my father couldn't protect me no more. And that from that point on, that whatever they gave me, he was going to be off in the distance while I was in whatever place I was suffering. And that scared me.
I think that was the first time that I felt real fear. Real fear. Because here I am going to be embarked on this journey of, you know, of who knows what's coming. Prison. You know, the most horrible prisons, you know, and that's all you hear about. Prison. And here I am. I can't defend myself. I'm five foot. I'm barely 100 pounds. What am I going to do if these people try to attack me?
So we know that the snitch has said he lied. His testimony in court was less than convincing and bordering on laughable. However, what about the prosecution's other main witness, Ophelia Gonzalez, the wife of the man who was killed that night? By all accounts, she says that she catches a glimpse of the shooter that night.
But Junior tells me her version of events of that night change on more than one occasion.
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Chapter 3: What were the emotional struggles faced during the trial?
He was found guilty and sentenced to over 30 years in a men's prison.
It was literally an execution and that's why it was a good verdict.
I remember the judge, he calls me up and he's like, they have these victim impact statements, right? And they come in and they say these most horrible things of their feelings. They're expressing their feelings because... What they're doing is they're voicing what they feel to the person that they think committed the murder. And you have to literally sit there, you know.
And I was able to get through that because there were horrible feelings. I mean, I get it. I understand. You lost someone that you love. But it wasn't me that did it. And the way I shielded myself from that was because I said to myself, I didn't do this. They're not speaking to me. They're speaking to the people that actually, the person or persons that actually killed, you know, their loved one.
That was how I got through that. But I remember the voice of his mother, of Jose Arlo's mother. She didn't get up there and she didn't say, you this, you that. She spoke in a real humble voice in Spanish. And she only said a few words. And they were heartbreaking. She said, you have no heart for yourself or for anybody else, and you took my son from me.
And those words, you know, they were the voice of a mother who lost so much, you know what I mean? And I could feel it. Anybody that has any kind of humanity left in them or in themselves are going to feel that kind of emotion.
And I thought to myself, you know, I hope someday that the person who committed this murder will hear those words and that he has any kind of compassion in him that will affect him in that kind of way, that he'll feel the pain what that woman feels right there. And I felt sadness for her. I felt sadness for the family, you know what I mean?
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Chapter 4: How did Junior's family cope with the wrongful conviction?
But at the same time, I didn't commit the murder. So what do I do? Do I get up and say, I didn't do it? You know, that's not going to help the situation. So I took it unjustly. You know, and then I get up there and I give my statement. This is the only time I spoke the whole time. I get up there and, you know, I'm scared. I've never spoken in front of people.
I don't really have the voice for this or the understanding for it. But I said very few words. I just told the judge. I said, look, I didn't kill anybody. someday you guys are going to see that. And I feel bad for the family, but I didn't do it.
And the judge looks at me, and with a stone cut, you know, just this face of just almost anger in his eyes, he looks at me and says, I'm going to sentence you to as much time as I can sentence you to.
Wow.
And the only reason I'm not sentencing you to a life sentence is because I can't by law. But he goes, when you get out of prison, if you so much as miss one time paying your fine, I'm going to send you back to prison. And I didn't really understand what that meant because I didn't understand the whole fine situation and all that kind of stuff. But that was a level of indifference he had.
And maybe he thought, maybe, you know, maybe that's his way of, okay, I'm sent to this cruel-hearted person. But I didn't do it. And I had to, I had to endure that kind of, you know, that kind of emotional, you know, kind of brutality to a certain extent because it was like, here I was, I didn't do it, I know I didn't do it. And yet, All this stuff is being directed towards me.
And it's just an hour of just, you're this, you're that, you did this, you did that. And the brother got up there and says, well, I hope you guys kill him. I wish you guys give him the death penalty. I want this and this and this. I get it. That's meant for the killers, you know what I mean? Yeah. But I didn't do it, you know what I mean?
And so it was that, those moments right there were the most, you know, the most hard for me because it was like, That's a lot to take in. That's a lot. And I remember my dad came to see me after that. He already sensed me and all that kind of stuff. When he came to visit me that first time after that, they sensed me. I think it was after that I found him.
I can't remember which one it was, but he was crying. I mean, he couldn't even speak. He was literally just couldn't even say my name or look up at me. I just looked at him and I had never in my life seen my dad like that. And it was then that the The roles reversed, you know what I mean? It was then that I had to be strong for him. And I looked at him and I said, Dad, it's going to be all right.
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