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A TPC Commentary On The Nyamodi Frame Up: Dirt Bag Sheriff’s Office Official And Assistant DA Should Be Prosecuted In Human Rights Case

A Commentary Based On My Coverage Into The Shannon Nyamodi Human Rights Case

This article is dedicated to young Shannon Zacharia Nyamodi who is being unlawfully held captive in a Franklin County, North Carolina jail for crimes he didn’t commit. Happy 20th Birthday young lion. Stay strong, an army is forming!

— The People’s Champion

Franklin County North Carolina Sheriff Jerry Jones and Assistant District Attorney Annette Sellers both probably retire to the comforts of their homes every night, while criminal defendants they are charged with bringing to justice live in caged jail cells, without liberties enjoyed by free citizens within the American society. They are tasked with the difficulties that come with a winless, thankless job, and there can be no dispute that their obligation benefits the people in the name of public safety. They are also entrusted with such authority that must be executed with the highest degree of integrity, but when such powerful public officials betray the people’s trust through corruption, conspiracy, and criminal behavior more heinous than for which they have tried and convicted criminal defendants, they must also be dealt a severe swift hand of justice as well.

When I was initially requested to assist young Shannon Nyamodi in his quest to gain his freedom from criminal charges alleging that he shot a woman in the face at point blank range and robbed her of tens of thousands of dollars from her home, I had no idea that I would actually be embarking upon perhaps one of the greatest human rights cases, and miscarriages of justice that I have ever encountered. The official record in the case made public are both shocking, and extremely disturbing as a man’s life has essentially been snatched from under his feet while he languishes in a jail cell for a crime where a volume of evidence exist indicating that he is innocent. In fact, there is sufficient information obtained by TPC establishing that Shannon Nyamodi has actually been framed in this criminal case.

False charges, suppression of exculpatory evidence, and forgery of official court documents all establish as a matter of fact that the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and the Assistant DA in the case, have extorted, subverted, and covered up the truth to wrongfully convict an innocent man. Rarely do I offer such a perspective on a case which hasn’t been resolved, or hasn’t reached a final disposition, but the case against Shannon Nyamodi is so weak, that I will go on record to disclose details about this criminal case that are very appalling and sickening.

The Frame Up

TPC has already disclosed actual police records and official court documents about the case in previously published articles, but there is more to this story than the police and news media has made the public aware of. The case file has increasingly grown suspicious in the sixteen months since the crime actually occurred. Police reports depicting witness accounts are missing, or never existed, and other material have some how simply vanished from the Franklin County courthouse. For instance, after police secured the scene on Shearin Court the night of the crime, they took several statements from witnesses who described a white male fleeing from the scene. Also, members of the Young family who came to the victim’s aid when she ran to their home after being shot, gave police statements that may exonerate Shannon Nyamodi from being the assailant in the crime. Shannon, the victim’s minor daughter, and other residents on Shearin Court all describe a white man running from the scene.

Police officials from the Youngsville Police Department and the Franklin County Sheriffs Office interviewed several people who were there that night. One resident’s description of what he saw was so detailed that he even showed police the direction and path the assailant actually ran. Assuming that officers from both agencies utilize the common practice of taking notes while conducting field interviews of potential witnesses in a crime, this documentation which supports their actual reports should exist some where, and unfortunately nothing in the case file indicates who the cops talk to during their investigation. In fact, no reports from sheriff deputy Barrett or any other officer from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office are found in either of the two files created for the Shannon Nyamodi case at the county clerk’s office. More troubling, this strange element of the case raises concern as to how the prosecutor’s office was able to obtain a warrant for Shannon Nyamodi or anyone else for that matter, in this crime without such crucial evidence.

Typically, when police agencies conclude their investigations of a crime, identify a suspect, and seek warrants to bring the individual into custody to face charges they usually provide supporting documentation outlining the evidence compile against the accused (statement of charges). It’s very hard to imagine that any sitting judge would actually issue a warrant for a person’s arrest without compelling or culpable evidence to justify charges against a suspect (that’s just unheard of). Where are these documents? Elizabeth Crudup (Shannon’s mother) has been through both files thoroughly at the county clerk’s office and none of the kind of documentation supporting criminal charges against her son, as I have described are present. Perhaps the strongest indication that something was completely funky in the Shannon Nyamodi case occurred when his mother attempted to obtain the Franklin County sheriff’s office reports related to the case in August of 2012 after her son was taken into custody. The mother was told that the case was an ongoing investigation and no information about the case could be disclosed publicly at that time.

Months later in July of 2013 she made a second inquiry regarding police reports and other documents related to the case, and was simply told she wouldn’t be provided with any records at all. It’s not clear why she was denied the requested documentation considering that such information is public record in the state of North Carolina. We see here, that the wheels of concealment by the sheriff’s office began, and coupled with the mysterious manner by which reports from the FCSO related to this case  apparently having never been made public, signals something is fishy with the agency’s handling of this case. I have even considered that officials were simply being spiteful toward the mother because her son is charged with such a heinous crime, but the reports and supporting documents of the prosecutor’s case aren’t even in the case file at the county clerk’s office. Even more disturbingly though, the clerk’s office doesn’t have a system of accountability which monitors who, when, and why individuals access the clerk’s file system. Anyone with access to the department, like a DA, deputy, or some other unsuspecting court official could have simply worked in, and taken vital records from the file without clerk officials ever even knowing.

Additionally, local news station WRAL broadcasted the bizarre story that Shannon Nyamodi had told a young man “if anything happens, just say I was with you all night.” The funny part about that entire news clip, is that Shannon never hung out with the young man who made those statements on the news, and Sheriff Jones just happened to be standing right next to the young man when he gave the interview to WRAL. This young man also just happens to be the source of of Youngsville police Lt. Little’s CI (confidential informant) report, which allegedly outlined the murder for hire plot.  He is also the brother of the man citizens within the community are saying actually committed the crime. WRAL also broadcast that cops had discovery evidence containing text messages between the victim’s daughter and Shannon Nyamodi discussing their plot to commit the crime. Shannon didn’t own a cell phone, and those alleged text cops say they discovered are also not included in the case file.

Now if the District Attorney’s office has such a strong case against Shannon Nyamodi, why on earth would any one knowingly remove crucial documents from a criminal case file, and all why knowing they could potentially lose their job or be charged with a crime? Did the sheriff’s office ever possess police reports outlining investigative findings sufficiently strong enough to justify criminal charges against this youth? I mean the prosecutor even indicted this young man for the crime. Obviously compelling arguments were made by the prosecutor before a judge during a preliminary hearing or an arraignment on the charges for the case to have reached the heights of an actual indictment before a superior court. How did the prosecutor accomplish this without evidence from the cops? Also, why did sheriff Jerry Jones seek criminal charges against Shannon Nyamodi when no supporting reports, documentation, or even a synopsis of the evidence against him aren’t available anywhere publicly, when such documentation is so rudimentary during a criminal process of this magnitude? It appears that someone associated with this case has gone through great lengths to suppress critical records pertaining to this case, while attempting to create the illusion that Shannon Nyamodi is the guilty party of this crime.

Dirty Sheriff Office

The fact that Sheriff Jerry Jones is even in office is simply incredulous. He was actually voted out of office by the county during the last election. Described by some within Franklin County with adjectives I personally care not to mention in this article, Jones was reinstated on an interim basis by the county commissioners, and for some strange reason the planned special election to name a permanent county sheriff was postponed until this year, an event which hasn’t materialized. Sheriff Jones has been a rather peculiar element of the case against Shannon Nyamodi. Rumors have been circulating that the person who actually shot Rhonda McClean in the face is one of his relatives, and it’s believed that he may have quarter backed a conspiracy against an innocent man to save his on relatives from being pinched for the crime and from facing justice in this horrible case. Whether these accusations are correct or not, an objective observer of this case can’t ignore the rather peculiarity of his department’s missing records from the case file at the county clerk’s office.

Common sense tells us that at some point sheriff Jones was made privy to reports by officers in his agency who actually worked the crime scene. Additionally, Jones would have complete knowledge of what discovery evidence had been obtained in the crime. The findings in any testing of potential forensic evidence such as DNA, fingerprints, etc., would have also been brought to his attention, since he is the agency’s highest ranking official, and would have personally sought or authorized the arrest of Shannon Nyamodi. In short, Jones should reasonably have a complete picture to the extent of what culpable or exculpatory evidence exist pertaining to the case of Shannon Nyamodi. His office obviously compelled the DA to charge the youth, which means that Jones believes that Shannon is in fact guilty. So, where are the records his agency submitted to the DA in this case?

It’s quite possible that evidence and reports obtained by deputy Barrett who was the affiant for the FCSO in this case, and that of other FCSO officers who worked the crime scene and investigation, may have contained a volume of exculpatory evidence pointing to Shannon Nyamodi’s innocence, and the files could have been removed from the county clerk’s office for the purpose of concealing the truth about the case, while explaining why the documentation doesn’t exist in the official record. This may also explain why no FCSO deputy was tasked with the actual arrest of Shannon Nyamodi, and a deputy from several towns over was directed by management to unknowingly swear out a false warrant for the youth’s arrest. This can be the only rationalization why FCSO deputies who actually worked the case didn’t swear to Shannon Nyamodi’s Arrest Warrant Application, because doing so may have completely contradicted established reports already submitted by them, causing the officers to knowingly making false statements before a court official which is an act that could have potentially ruined their entire career in law enforcement, and those who orchestrated this conspiracy to convict an innocent man were more than likely mindful that veteran officers would never have agreed to involvement in such a scheme.

So, how did the FCSO sell Shannon Nyamodi’s allege guilt to the District Attorney’s office? With no documentation supporting charges against the youth, why did the DA even pursue the case? The actual statement of charges that usually accompanies an Arrest Warrant Application is even missing from the case file. I can’t even picture FCSO deputy Ralph Almkuist (the arrest warrant complainant) who actually brought Shannon Nyamodi into custody, standing before a judge or court official without any documentation outlining probable cause for his arrest, and walking away with a warrant. Furthermore, sources tell TPC that sheriff Jerry Jones is so unpopular within the FCSO agency, that he doesn’t have enough power of persuasion to compel veteran deputies who actually worked the crime scene, to alter their investigative findings, fabricate their reports, or lie in court to obtain fictitious warrants for some one’s arrest. It just makes sense that an inexperience officer would be used for this kind of dirty work. Either the prosecutors and the judges practice an ill advised policy of authorizing criminal charges against people by word of mouth alone, without supporting documents, or some law enforcement official has severely manipulated this entire process.

The fact of the matter is that the FCSO would have been the agency who notified the DA of their investigation determining that Shannon Nyamodi was the perpetrator who committed the crime in the first place. The FCSO is ground zero where the plot to convict young Shannon Nyamodi began. Shannon was charged with a violent crime, a shooting, and the cowardice act of shooting a woman in the face none the less. Police officials are usually fanatical about bringing these kinds of criminals to justice, especially when considering the victim was a white woman, and the assailant was a black man in the south. One would hope that police dotted every “I” and crossed every “T” to insure Shannon was taken off the streets of Franklin County. The youth has continuously maintained and professed his innocence to police authorities. Shannon Nyamodi even volunteered to submit to GSR (gun powder residue) testing, and the FCSO declined to take the youth up on the offer. How crazy is that? What more compelling evidence could police obtain to nail the coffin shut on a cowardice criminal who shoots a woman in the face. No GSR testing has ever been done on this youth. Such a process is standard for most police agencies and it’s simply unbelievable that the FCSO didn’t conduct such testing to determine as fact that Shannon Nyamodi fired a gun that night.

Then of course there is the issue of probable cause for Shannon Nyamodi’s arrest for the crime. The kid never left the scene that night. He even directed the cops to the victim’s location upon their arrival. This hardly seems like somebody who had actually just committed a violent felony crime. Once the scene was secured, police from both agencies had determined that the suspected shooter was no longer at the scene. The search warrant for the home where the crime occurred was executed at 5:48 a.m. the morning the crime occurred. The primary officers on the scene all describe the victim as having stated “some one” (indicating that the person was unknown to her) struck her in the head with a pole. When cops began processing the crime scene, any traditional forensic evidence that they may have obtained could never be linked to Shannon Nyamodi by the time deputy Almkuist had taken him into custody at 3:10 p.m. the same day. Shannon had no prior criminal history which means his fingerprint profile wasn’t in a local or national database used to link known criminal defendants to potential recent crimes. He couldn’t have been linked by DNA either, because it’s highly doubtful that the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) would have been able to produce testing results in such a short turn around by 3:10 p.m.

Besides, the cops wouldn’t have even been able to compare the youth’s finger prints or DNA to any trace evidence that they may have found from the crime scene until after he was actually locked up, booked, and had such testing conducted on him. When they finger printed the kid it would have been his initial profile of any kind, and DNA samples from Shannon Nyamodi was ordered in a warrant after his arrest. With the victim having communicated to police that her assailant was unknown to her, other witness statements identifying a white mail fleeing the scene, and the obvious lack of potential trace evidence linking Shannon Nyamodi to the crime establishes that the FCSO in fact had no probable cause to arrest him at the time he was taken into custody. Some jurisdictions have enacted laws enabling police to detain potential suspects for 48-72 hours as a person of interest in a case, and the argument may be made that police had obtained culpable discovery evidence against the youth in that time frame. If that’s the case, then where on earth is this evidence?

All of these elements I describe in this case are dynamic and kind of elicits thoughts pertaining to rumors circulating about the possible involvement of sheriff Jerry Jones’ relatives, or either the FCSO is compiled of the most bumbling bunch of idiots that the “Key Stone Cops” have ever produced. I personally believe that sheriff Jones himself is the driving force behind this case that has caused Shannon Nyamodi to lose his freedom for a crime he didn’t commit, and I believe that he should sit in a jail cell just like this kid has been made to do unjustly for such a long time.

Grimey Assistant District Attorney

The night I spoke with Ms. Rhonda McClean (the victim) she told me that Shannon Nyamodi had in fact shot her in the face on the night in question. Her comments hit me like a ton of bricks because I had already thoroughly viewed incident reports from police officers of the Youngsville police department, and realized that I was actually getting a third version of what she had described related to the events of the night she was shot. Confused by what she was saying, I began to challenge her on statements that she had previously made to cops that night. For some unknown reason Ms. McClean began to advise me about a conversation she had with Assistant DA, Annette Sellers (prosecutor handling the Shannon Nyamodi criminal case). According to McClean,  ADA Sellers told her that Elizabeth Crudup wasn’t Shannon Nyamodi’s biological mother, that they had different last names, and that Crudup had actually adopted him from a royal family in Africa. McClean went on to say that the royal family was financing Shannon’s legal expenses because the family wanted to preserve the reputation of the family name, and not have their royal name smeared. I could never determine what bearing this information, truthful or otherwise, had on this criminal case. Why should it even matter who is funding his legal fees when his guilt or innocence should be the focus of the case.

Knowing that the Nyamodi family are indigenous to Kenya, Africa, and that the sovereign nation doesn’t have a monarch government, I hesitated to even mention the bizarre statements to Shannon’s mother. When Elizabeth Crudup and I eventually did have that discussion, I learned that ADA Sellers is quite capable of making such fabricated comments, and I’ll get into that in more detail later in the article. The other weird statement that McClean made during our conversation, is implicating Michael Young as an accomplice to the shooting that night. McClean told me that Michael had entered her home and accosted her 13 year old daughter who has down syndrome, in her room while covering her mouth with his hand, and placing a screwdriver/flashlight in her back. When McClean fled her home the night she got shot and ran to 116 Shearin Court where Michael lives with his family, she actually passed several other homes on the way, and it’s simply amazing that she has developed such a detailed memory after all this time.

My dialogue with Rhonda McClean became even more bizarre (if you can even imagine that) as she went on to say that she had forgiven Shannon for what he did, wanted him to be able to go on with his life, and has asked the prosecutor to make a deal with him. That’s when the warning lights came on and allowed me to see through her story. The woman apparently was completely unaware that I had already obtained a volume of information pertaining to her troubled home. The fact that her own daughter was involved in such a violent act against her speaks volumes related to the level of dysfunction within her family. I wasn’t buying the “I am a forgiving christian” song and dance story she had told me. TPC has been advised that police reports once existed (unconfirmed) outlining her statements conveying that Shannon Nyamodi wasn’t the person who shot her. It doesn’t take “rocket science” to conclude that there is probably tremendous credibility in the belief that such reports were written, because the report of YPO Lt. Little, and the search warrant affidavit submitted by FCSO Captain Mitchell both indicate that McClean didn’t know who had shot her that night.

McClean’s ability to remember the events of that night and can now name the perpetrator is very puzzling to say the least. However, I believe there is a method to all of this madness. ADA Sellers probably did pitch the bogus “royal family” story to Rhonda McClean with hopes she would take the bait and go after Shannon Nyamodi also, for monetary gain that she could acquire from a civil suit if the youth was convicted of the crime. McClean’s strange implication of Michael Young also raises suspicion that she may have brokered some kind of deal with the DA’s office as a trade off on her daughter’s (who was allegedly convicted for her role in the shooting crime) case. The psychology of lawyer tactics are a sure bet that Sellers already knows that McClean will draw sympathy from jurors at trial, and if she can be utilized to testify in court implicating Michael Young, then she has created potential credibility issues for Michael at trial. Michael Young and his family support Shannon Nyamodi’s innocence, and McClean may have been manipulated by ADA Sellers to change her story to customize a theory which would negate Shannon Nyamodi and his strongest alli at trial. Why else would McClean go on record with police officers who are professionally trained to observe and report, giving statements of Shannon Nyamodi’s innocence, and then turn around and implicate him later. Also, the police are very familiar with McClean’s home because of the criminal history some of her own children have. Who knows what else the cops found other than what they reported, and ADA Sellers may have used that leverage to scare the bejesus out of her, and threatened her with jail time if she doesn’t cooperate.

Far fetched? I think not, and I’ve only just began to get started with this prosecutor. Why on earth does the District Attorney even have a case file against Shannon Nyamodi when no documents supporting criminal charges against him even exist within the official record at the county clerk’s office? The documents on file only show what has been done to get to this point in the case. No real evidence supporting their case exist in the file, if it does exist where is it or who has it? The documents in the Shannon Nyamodi case file couldn’t convict a person who was guilty as sin, because no evidence is in the file record. I keep saying that over and over again, and it’s just insane that Shannon Nyamodi has been locked up all this time over these trumped up charges. Now we know why ADA Sellers has been relentlessly making certain this defendant’s case doesn’t go to trial. The arrest warrant statement of charges, trace evidence findings, and supporting police investigative reports are all missing from the file allegedly justifying charges against Shannon Nyamodi.

The talk around Franklin County is that ADA Sellers is a cocky, arrogant prosecutor, with strong ambition to move up the ladder in North Carolina’s political arena. Her hanging prosecutor style some say, make her capable of doing anything to achieve her objectives. Her ability to keep a man locked up when she is well aware and knows for a fact that critical documents and other evidence necessary to assist her in successfully prosecuting her case doesn’t exist, in my mind makes her a despicable person, and a heartless sub human being. I am not being cynical or harsh for the purpose of bashing the prosecutors office, but the DA’s office has been in control the entire time. ADA sellers or DA Sam Currin could have demanded the records be turned over, or could have dropped the case altogether. The failure of prosecutors to take any action whatsoever, points to their possible direct complicity in the suppression of evidence in the criminal case against young Shannon Nyamodi. Between the sheriff’s office and the DA, they have had over sixteen months to come up with supporting documentation that indicates they were justified in charging this young defendant. Clearly, what ever evidence that was retrieved from the investigation into this crime, some official between the two agencies has hindered the records from being made public. I believe that the tax paying citizens of Franklin County would agree that they are entitled to more efficient representation than this from their public officials.

The Funny Paperwork In The Case

ADA Sellers has requested continuance after continuance in Shannon Nyamodi’s case. Surprisingly, the court has repeatedly granted these request despite any real authentic cause for the case being classified as exceptional having been placed on the record. Sellers has given frivolous justification for constantly continuing the case, all along while spewing absolute venum about Shannon Nyamodi, calling him “a vagabond on the streets,” and making other off color comments all for the purpose of developing a harsh outlook on the defendant within the legal community,when in fact Shannon Nyamodi has never had any prior brushes with the law. ADA Sellers actions have not gone unnoticed, which brings me to my perspective on some of the rather peculiar paperwork that is available within the case file. I’m no forensic document examiner, but my practical experience of verifying credentials in my professional career makes me qualified to call into question the manner in which official documents were composed. In this case there are two documents in particular that jumps right out at me. Firstly, the “special letter” as it has been dubbed by the legal community in Franklin County, that Judge Hight allegedly signed granting a motion to classify Shannon Nyamodi’s case as exceptional, and allowing it to be taken completely off of the court’s management system docket altogether, “until such time as it is place back on the docket by the District Attorney.” Why a superior court judge would give a prosecutor such broad discretion regarding the expediency of a criminal case with out establishing good cause on the record, is incomprehensible.

The root of my issue with the document is the manner in which it was composed. It contains typed print and handwriting, a characteristic seldomly seen in an official document before the courts. It’s just unprofessional, appear to have been composed in a haste, and I question whether the document is even an authentic order issued by judge Hight, solely because of the abnormality of an official document of this nature for a criminal case containing handwritten and printed composition. Obviously, it appears to be a preprinted form of some kind that was simply filled out by the author of the document. My perspective is supported by the fact that Hight apparently even entered his name in handwriting under his signature. Judges have secretaries and clerical assistants for these task. Maybe Hight did or didn’t compose this motion order, but it’s strange that none of the orders or decisions by other judges associated with this case have submitted official documents which contain such unprofessional composition traits. See for yourself below:

casearchive

 

Unless judge Hight just simply had a bad day when he signed this order, he is experienced enough to know he shouldn’t give the prosecutor such leverage or a tactical advantage of this extent to a prosecutor. He should reasonably know that such an order is unfair to a criminal defendant, and at some level his order will almost certainly be overturned on an appeal by a higher court. I doubt that Hight achieved his current position in public service without knowing a continuance of any kind in a criminal case must contain some timetable establishing when the case would be prosecuted, if for no other reason but to protect a defendant’s right to fairness, due process under the law, and their constitutional right to a speedy trial. That’s why there is growing suspicion questioning whether Hight even issued the order taking the case off the docket in the first place. Taking a court case off the docket while the defendant is remanded to custody without pending charges is so irregular and unheard of, that lawyers consulting TPC related to this case have repeatedly asked if the charges were actually dropped against Shannon Nyamodi (hell even the FBI asked Elizabeth Crudup if the charges were dropped), which is typically the disposition when a case is removed from a court docket. It’s just a no brainer that judge Hight more than likely wouldn’t have preprinted forms in his chambers for the purpose of taken criminal cases off the docket. This is a prosecutor’s practice and may lift the cover completely off of a disturbing culture which reveals officials from the DA’s office, habitually attempting to conceal court cases they knowingly are aware of that sufficient evidence doesn’t exist to prosecute a defendant, like in the Shannon Nyamodi case. Why hasn’t the DA resolved this case when no actual evidence against Shannon Nyamodi has been made public.

The other “funny paperwork” that drew my immediate scrutiny is the Search Warrant Affidavit that FCSO Captain Mitchell submitted seeking a warrant to gather evidence from Shannon’s home and his person. Knowing the basic common knowledge cops possess pertaining to this kind of affidavit really creates suspicion that a crime may have actually occurred in Shannon Nyamodi’s case while viewing this particular document. On the search warrant application, Captain Mitchell list 7  Probable Causes to Search Shannon Nyamodis home and to obtain DNA for comparison purposes. Items #5 and #8 are very disturbing to me. Mitchell states in item #5 five that “items of evidentiary value were located and seized. Mitchell also indicates that the items “represent a small sample of the evidence seized which will contain valuable DNA evidence.” This supports my earlier arguments that supporting documents must exist somewhere. Well, where are the DNA testing results, and what did the test disclose? But any way, item #8 is the meat and guts of this entire case.

Item #8 was actually handwritten on the affidavit, and indicates that Shannon Nyamodi has confessed to the crime and admitted to the involvement of his allege codefendant (victim’s daughter). The addendum is also another rare instance seen where an official court document has this kind of composition format (handwriting), and is very problematic for the prosecution for several reasons:

1. Captain Mitchell never included this alteration on the document which indicates that he didn’t have any knowledge that Shannon Nyamodi had confessed to the crime. If Mitchell in fact believed that the youth had admitted to the crime, how is it possible that he omitted such culpable evidence on the affidavit?

2. The author of the handwriting initialed the addendum as what appears to be judge Donald W. Stephens. Why would judge Stephens alter the affidavit when he isn’t seeking the warrant and probably didn’t hear Shannon Nyamodi’s allege confession?

Look at judge Stephens actual signature:

report4edit

 

Now look at the handwriting in item #8 as an addendum to the document while noticing the initials to the right:

report5edit

A very strong argument could be made that the judge’s actual signature and his allege initials are two separate authors, in fact I believe that they are. This would mean that the judge’s initials were forged and cause the entire search warrant, along with evidence acquired, to be thrown out.

3. The handwriting on the application for Shannon Nyamodi’s search warrant and the “strange letter” (motion) ordering the case be taken off the docket, however appear to have been composed by the same author.

4. The addendum with judge Stephens’ allege initials doesn’t have a date imputed on the document and is undetermined when the alteration was actually made. Anyone with access to the file could have simply wrote the addendum on the document after it had already been validated by the clerk’s office.

5. The prosecution’s inability to establish exactly when the addendum was entered, or when the actual confession was made could cause the search warrant obtained to gather DNA from the defendant rendered invalid, and any such evidence acquired as a result of the issuance of the warrant could be thrown out by the courts.

6. The addendum handwriting on the affidavit appears to be composed by the exact same author who composed the motion order removing Shannon Nyamodi’s case off of the docket system.

So what does this all mean as it relate to the funny paperwork? What’s obvious is that we have documents which originated out of two separate judge’s chambers, but appear to have the same handwriting on them, they both are composed in irregular format containing print and written composition, and also critical documents that directly impact the due process rights of the defendant as well as his potential plea to the charges before the court. Very little intelligence is required here to understand that if Shannon Nyamodi has actually confessed to this crime, that the case more than likely would have been resolved and disposed of a long time ago.  When we understand and fully digest the fact that the state has repeatedly conveyed in court that it wants a plea deal, we learn that they are in essence actually showing their hand that they have no confidence in their ability to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Shannon Nyamodi actually committed this crime. The DA’s office has even visited Shannon Nyamodi at the Franklin County jail attempting to elicit a plea deal from him without the presence of his attorney. That’s unheard of and indicates a clear sign of desperation on the DA’s part. So, it makes you wonder who wrote this addendum indicating that he confessed? Where did that information come from? Was it placed on the search warrant application to bolster their case to obtain his DNA samples? If so, where are the testing results from those samples?

Do you see where I’m going here? The prosecutor and the police can say they have this evidence or that evidence all day long, but they will never convict anyone until it’s produced in a court of law by professionals who can testify with certainty what the test results disclose. Captain Mitchell’s entire premise for obtaining the warrant in the first place was for the purpose of comparing the youth’s DNA to what they believe was discovery items evidentiary to the case, and now they want to perpetuate the theory that Shannon Nyamodi committed this crime without any indication that culpable evidence even exist, while court officials were led to believe that evidentiary findings implicating this defendant had been obtained from the crime scene. No one has seen the Franklin County sheriff’s office reports or any other compelling evidence when discovery in the case has already concluded. The handwriting suggesting that a confession had been made in this case compounds the case and is contradictory to the defendant’s consistent position that he hasn’t confess to anything, along with his refusal to admit to something in which he isn’t involved in. The Addendum writing opens a can of worms that underscores some of the shady, illegal, and unlawful tactics that have been utilized by the the DA’s office to wrongfully convict an innocent man. the lack of supporting evidence coupled with the DA’s apparent desperation to acquire a plea deal from this defendant’s, and the handwriting citing the allege confession on an affidavit matching the motion to take the case off the docket points to ADA Sellers being the culprit attempting to manipulate the record in this case.

The funny paperwork with identical handwriting from separate judges, the prosecutor’s strange desire to shelve the case, and the missing supporting documentation justifying probable cause to even arrest this young man, all seemingly establish that covert efforts have been made by those handling the case to obtain a conviction against Shannon Nyamodi at all cost. At the end of the day, ADA Annette Sellers knows what evidence has been obtained, but has refused to met out justice in this case by either taking the case to trial or acknowledging Shannon Nyamodi’s exculpability in this crime. No one is fooled by the missing documents. It’s a clear case of suppression of evidence and I want those responsible sent to prison. Prove me wrong, by giving this young man his day in court, or set him free so he can go on with his life in peace.

To Be Continued ..

 

 

The People’s Champion

David Adams

A Self proclaimed geek, Sympathizer for the homeless, Social Change Advocate, Crime Blogger, Promoter of Awareness for Missing and Exploited Children, and a mobile technology enthusiast. A recognized Journalist and Human Interest Writer championing the plight of the masses whom are without a voice of their own.

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A Commentary Based On My Coverage Into The Shannon Nyamodi Human Rights Case

This article is dedicated to young Shannon Zacharia Nyamodi who is being unlawfully held captive in a Franklin County, North Carolina jail for crimes he didn’t commit. Happy 20th Birthday young lion. Stay strong, an army is forming!

— The People’s Champion

Franklin County North Carolina Sheriff Jerry Jones and Assistant District Attorney Annette Sellers both probably retire to the comforts of their homes every night, while criminal defendants they are charged with bringing to justice live in caged jail cells, without liberties enjoyed by free citizens within the American society. They are tasked with the difficulties that come with a winless, thankless job, and there can be no dispute that their obligation benefits the people in the name of public safety. They are also entrusted with such authority that must be executed with the highest degree of integrity, but when such powerful public officials betray the people’s trust through corruption, conspiracy, and criminal behavior more heinous than for which they have tried and convicted criminal defendants, they must also be dealt a severe swift hand of justice as well.

When I was initially requested to assist young Shannon Nyamodi in his quest to gain his freedom from criminal charges alleging that he shot a woman in the face at point blank range and robbed her of tens of thousands of dollars from her home, I had no idea that I would actually be embarking upon perhaps one of the greatest human rights cases, and miscarriages of justice that I have ever encountered. The official record in the case made public are both shocking, and extremely disturbing as a man’s life has essentially been snatched from under his feet while he languishes in a jail cell for a crime where a volume of evidence exist indicating that he is innocent. In fact, there is sufficient information obtained by TPC establishing that Shannon Nyamodi has actually been framed in this criminal case.

False charges, suppression of exculpatory evidence, and forgery of official court documents all establish as a matter of fact that the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and the Assistant DA in the case, have extorted, subverted, and covered up the truth to wrongfully convict an innocent man. Rarely do I offer such a perspective on a case which hasn’t been resolved, or hasn’t reached a final disposition, but the case against Shannon Nyamodi is so weak, that I will go on record to disclose details about this criminal case that are very appalling and sickening.

The Frame Up

TPC has already disclosed actual police records and official court documents about the case in previously published articles, but there is more to this story than the police and news media has made the public aware of. The case file has increasingly grown suspicious in the sixteen months since the crime actually occurred. Police reports depicting witness accounts are missing, or never existed, and other material have some how simply vanished from the Franklin County courthouse. For instance, after police secured the scene on Shearin Court the night of the crime, they took several statements from witnesses who described a white male fleeing from the scene. Also, members of the Young family who came to the victim’s aid when she ran to their home after being shot, gave police statements that may exonerate Shannon Nyamodi from being the assailant in the crime. Shannon, the victim’s minor daughter, and other residents on Shearin Court all describe a white man running from the scene.

Police officials from the Youngsville Police Department and the Franklin County Sheriffs Office interviewed several people who were there that night. One resident’s description of what he saw was so detailed that he even showed police the direction and path the assailant actually ran. Assuming that officers from both agencies utilize the common practice of taking notes while conducting field interviews of potential witnesses in a crime, this documentation which supports their actual reports should exist some where, and unfortunately nothing in the case file indicates who the cops talk to during their investigation. In fact, no reports from sheriff deputy Barrett or any other officer from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office are found in either of the two files created for the Shannon Nyamodi case at the county clerk’s office. More troubling, this strange element of the case raises concern as to how the prosecutor’s office was able to obtain a warrant for Shannon Nyamodi or anyone else for that matter, in this crime without such crucial evidence.

Typically, when police agencies conclude their investigations of a crime, identify a suspect, and seek warrants to bring the individual into custody to face charges they usually provide supporting documentation outlining the evidence compile against the accused (statement of charges). It’s very hard to imagine that any sitting judge would actually issue a warrant for a person’s arrest without compelling or culpable evidence to justify charges against a suspect (that’s just unheard of). Where are these documents? Elizabeth Crudup (Shannon’s mother) has been through both files thoroughly at the county clerk’s office and none of the kind of documentation supporting criminal charges against her son, as I have described are present. Perhaps the strongest indication that something was completely funky in the Shannon Nyamodi case occurred when his mother attempted to obtain the Franklin County sheriff’s office reports related to the case in August of 2012 after her son was taken into custody. The mother was told that the case was an ongoing investigation and no information about the case could be disclosed publicly at that time.

Months later in July of 2013 she made a second inquiry regarding police reports and other documents related to the case, and was simply told she wouldn’t be provided with any records at all. It’s not clear why she was denied the requested documentation considering that such information is public record in the state of North Carolina. We see here, that the wheels of concealment by the sheriff’s office began, and coupled with the mysterious manner by which reports from the FCSO related to this case  apparently having never been made public, signals something is fishy with the agency’s handling of this case. I have even considered that officials were simply being spiteful toward the mother because her son is charged with such a heinous crime, but the reports and supporting documents of the prosecutor’s case aren’t even in the case file at the county clerk’s office. Even more disturbingly though, the clerk’s office doesn’t have a system of accountability which monitors who, when, and why individuals access the clerk’s file system. Anyone with access to the department, like a DA, deputy, or some other unsuspecting court official could have simply worked in, and taken vital records from the file without clerk officials ever even knowing.

Additionally, local news station WRAL broadcasted the bizarre story that Shannon Nyamodi had told a young man “if anything happens, just say I was with you all night.” The funny part about that entire news clip, is that Shannon never hung out with the young man who made those statements on the news, and Sheriff Jones just happened to be standing right next to the young man when he gave the interview to WRAL. This young man also just happens to be the source of of Youngsville police Lt. Little’s CI (confidential informant) report, which allegedly outlined the murder for hire plot.  He is also the brother of the man citizens within the community are saying actually committed the crime. WRAL also broadcast that cops had discovery evidence containing text messages between the victim’s daughter and Shannon Nyamodi discussing their plot to commit the crime. Shannon didn’t own a cell phone, and those alleged text cops say they discovered are also not included in the case file.

Now if the District Attorney’s office has such a strong case against Shannon Nyamodi, why on earth would any one knowingly remove crucial documents from a criminal case file, and all why knowing they could potentially lose their job or be charged with a crime? Did the sheriff’s office ever possess police reports outlining investigative findings sufficiently strong enough to justify criminal charges against this youth? I mean the prosecutor even indicted this young man for the crime. Obviously compelling arguments were made by the prosecutor before a judge during a preliminary hearing or an arraignment on the charges for the case to have reached the heights of an actual indictment before a superior court. How did the prosecutor accomplish this without evidence from the cops? Also, why did sheriff Jerry Jones seek criminal charges against Shannon Nyamodi when no supporting reports, documentation, or even a synopsis of the evidence against him aren’t available anywhere publicly, when such documentation is so rudimentary during a criminal process of this magnitude? It appears that someone associated with this case has gone through great lengths to suppress critical records pertaining to this case, while attempting to create the illusion that Shannon Nyamodi is the guilty party of this crime.

Dirty Sheriff Office

The fact that Sheriff Jerry Jones is even in office is simply incredulous. He was actually voted out of office by the county during the last election. Described by some within Franklin County with adjectives I personally care not to mention in this article, Jones was reinstated on an interim basis by the county commissioners, and for some strange reason the planned special election to name a permanent county sheriff was postponed until this year, an event which hasn’t materialized. Sheriff Jones has been a rather peculiar element of the case against Shannon Nyamodi. Rumors have been circulating that the person who actually shot Rhonda McClean in the face is one of his relatives, and it’s believed that he may have quarter backed a conspiracy against an innocent man to save his on relatives from being pinched for the crime and from facing justice in this horrible case. Whether these accusations are correct or not, an objective observer of this case can’t ignore the rather peculiarity of his department’s missing records from the case file at the county clerk’s office.

Common sense tells us that at some point sheriff Jones was made privy to reports by officers in his agency who actually worked the crime scene. Additionally, Jones would have complete knowledge of what discovery evidence had been obtained in the crime. The findings in any testing of potential forensic evidence such as DNA, fingerprints, etc., would have also been brought to his attention, since he is the agency’s highest ranking official, and would have personally sought or authorized the arrest of Shannon Nyamodi. In short, Jones should reasonably have a complete picture to the extent of what culpable or exculpatory evidence exist pertaining to the case of Shannon Nyamodi. His office obviously compelled the DA to charge the youth, which means that Jones believes that Shannon is in fact guilty. So, where are the records his agency submitted to the DA in this case?

It’s quite possible that evidence and reports obtained by deputy Barrett who was the affiant for the FCSO in this case, and that of other FCSO officers who worked the crime scene and investigation, may have contained a volume of exculpatory evidence pointing to Shannon Nyamodi’s innocence, and the files could have been removed from the county clerk’s office for the purpose of concealing the truth about the case, while explaining why the documentation doesn’t exist in the official record. This may also explain why no FCSO deputy was tasked with the actual arrest of Shannon Nyamodi, and a deputy from several towns over was directed by management to unknowingly swear out a false warrant for the youth’s arrest. This can be the only rationalization why FCSO deputies who actually worked the case didn’t swear to Shannon Nyamodi’s Arrest Warrant Application, because doing so may have completely contradicted established reports already submitted by them, causing the officers to knowingly making false statements before a court official which is an act that could have potentially ruined their entire career in law enforcement, and those who orchestrated this conspiracy to convict an innocent man were more than likely mindful that veteran officers would never have agreed to involvement in such a scheme.

So, how did the FCSO sell Shannon Nyamodi’s allege guilt to the District Attorney’s office? With no documentation supporting charges against the youth, why did the DA even pursue the case? The actual statement of charges that usually accompanies an Arrest Warrant Application is even missing from the case file. I can’t even picture FCSO deputy Ralph Almkuist (the arrest warrant complainant) who actually brought Shannon Nyamodi into custody, standing before a judge or court official without any documentation outlining probable cause for his arrest, and walking away with a warrant. Furthermore, sources tell TPC that sheriff Jerry Jones is so unpopular within the FCSO agency, that he doesn’t have enough power of persuasion to compel veteran deputies who actually worked the crime scene, to alter their investigative findings, fabricate their reports, or lie in court to obtain fictitious warrants for some one’s arrest. It just makes sense that an inexperience officer would be used for this kind of dirty work. Either the prosecutors and the judges practice an ill advised policy of authorizing criminal charges against people by word of mouth alone, without supporting documents, or some law enforcement official has severely manipulated this entire process.

The fact of the matter is that the FCSO would have been the agency who notified the DA of their investigation determining that Shannon Nyamodi was the perpetrator who committed the crime in the first place. The FCSO is ground zero where the plot to convict young Shannon Nyamodi began. Shannon was charged with a violent crime, a shooting, and the cowardice act of shooting a woman in the face none the less. Police officials are usually fanatical about bringing these kinds of criminals to justice, especially when considering the victim was a white woman, and the assailant was a black man in the south. One would hope that police dotted every “I” and crossed every “T” to insure Shannon was taken off the streets of Franklin County. The youth has continuously maintained and professed his innocence to police authorities. Shannon Nyamodi even volunteered to submit to GSR (gun powder residue) testing, and the FCSO declined to take the youth up on the offer. How crazy is that? What more compelling evidence could police obtain to nail the coffin shut on a cowardice criminal who shoots a woman in the face. No GSR testing has ever been done on this youth. Such a process is standard for most police agencies and it’s simply unbelievable that the FCSO didn’t conduct such testing to determine as fact that Shannon Nyamodi fired a gun that night.

Then of course there is the issue of probable cause for Shannon Nyamodi’s arrest for the crime. The kid never left the scene that night. He even directed the cops to the victim’s location upon their arrival. This hardly seems like somebody who had actually just committed a violent felony crime. Once the scene was secured, police from both agencies had determined that the suspected shooter was no longer at the scene. The search warrant for the home where the crime occurred was executed at 5:48 a.m. the morning the crime occurred. The primary officers on the scene all describe the victim as having stated “some one” (indicating that the person was unknown to her) struck her in the head with a pole. When cops began processing the crime scene, any traditional forensic evidence that they may have obtained could never be linked to Shannon Nyamodi by the time deputy Almkuist had taken him into custody at 3:10 p.m. the same day. Shannon had no prior criminal history which means his fingerprint profile wasn’t in a local or national database used to link known criminal defendants to potential recent crimes. He couldn’t have been linked by DNA either, because it’s highly doubtful that the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) would have been able to produce testing results in such a short turn around by 3:10 p.m.

Besides, the cops wouldn’t have even been able to compare the youth’s finger prints or DNA to any trace evidence that they may have found from the crime scene until after he was actually locked up, booked, and had such testing conducted on him. When they finger printed the kid it would have been his initial profile of any kind, and DNA samples from Shannon Nyamodi was ordered in a warrant after his arrest. With the victim having communicated to police that her assailant was unknown to her, other witness statements identifying a white mail fleeing the scene, and the obvious lack of potential trace evidence linking Shannon Nyamodi to the crime establishes that the FCSO in fact had no probable cause to arrest him at the time he was taken into custody. Some jurisdictions have enacted laws enabling police to detain potential suspects for 48-72 hours as a person of interest in a case, and the argument may be made that police had obtained culpable discovery evidence against the youth in that time frame. If that’s the case, then where on earth is this evidence?

All of these elements I describe in this case are dynamic and kind of elicits thoughts pertaining to rumors circulating about the possible involvement of sheriff Jerry Jones’ relatives, or either the FCSO is compiled of the most bumbling bunch of idiots that the “Key Stone Cops” have ever produced. I personally believe that sheriff Jones himself is the driving force behind this case that has caused Shannon Nyamodi to lose his freedom for a crime he didn’t commit, and I believe that he should sit in a jail cell just like this kid has been made to do unjustly for such a long time.

Grimey Assistant District Attorney

The night I spoke with Ms. Rhonda McClean (the victim) she told me that Shannon Nyamodi had in fact shot her in the face on the night in question. Her comments hit me like a ton of bricks because I had already thoroughly viewed incident reports from police officers of the Youngsville police department, and realized that I was actually getting a third version of what she had described related to the events of the night she was shot. Confused by what she was saying, I began to challenge her on statements that she had previously made to cops that night. For some unknown reason Ms. McClean began to advise me about a conversation she had with Assistant DA, Annette Sellers (prosecutor handling the Shannon Nyamodi criminal case). According to McClean,  ADA Sellers told her that Elizabeth Crudup wasn’t Shannon Nyamodi’s biological mother, that they had different last names, and that Crudup had actually adopted him from a royal family in Africa. McClean went on to say that the royal family was financing Shannon’s legal expenses because the family wanted to preserve the reputation of the family name, and not have their royal name smeared. I could never determine what bearing this information, truthful or otherwise, had on this criminal case. Why should it even matter who is funding his legal fees when his guilt or innocence should be the focus of the case.

Knowing that the Nyamodi family are indigenous to Kenya, Africa, and that the sovereign nation doesn’t have a monarch government, I hesitated to even mention the bizarre statements to Shannon’s mother. When Elizabeth Crudup and I eventually did have that discussion, I learned that ADA Sellers is quite capable of making such fabricated comments, and I’ll get into that in more detail later in the article. The other weird statement that McClean made during our conversation, is implicating Michael Young as an accomplice to the shooting that night. McClean told me that Michael had entered her home and accosted her 13 year old daughter who has down syndrome, in her room while covering her mouth with his hand, and placing a screwdriver/flashlight in her back. When McClean fled her home the night she got shot and ran to 116 Shearin Court where Michael lives with his family, she actually passed several other homes on the way, and it’s simply amazing that she has developed such a detailed memory after all this time.

My dialogue with Rhonda McClean became even more bizarre (if you can even imagine that) as she went on to say that she had forgiven Shannon for what he did, wanted him to be able to go on with his life, and has asked the prosecutor to make a deal with him. That’s when the warning lights came on and allowed me to see through her story. The woman apparently was completely unaware that I had already obtained a volume of information pertaining to her troubled home. The fact that her own daughter was involved in such a violent act against her speaks volumes related to the level of dysfunction within her family. I wasn’t buying the “I am a forgiving christian” song and dance story she had told me. TPC has been advised that police reports once existed (unconfirmed) outlining her statements conveying that Shannon Nyamodi wasn’t the person who shot her. It doesn’t take “rocket science” to conclude that there is probably tremendous credibility in the belief that such reports were written, because the report of YPO Lt. Little, and the search warrant affidavit submitted by FCSO Captain Mitchell both indicate that McClean didn’t know who had shot her that night.

McClean’s ability to remember the events of that night and can now name the perpetrator is very puzzling to say the least. However, I believe there is a method to all of this madness. ADA Sellers probably did pitch the bogus “royal family” story to Rhonda McClean with hopes she would take the bait and go after Shannon Nyamodi also, for monetary gain that she could acquire from a civil suit if the youth was convicted of the crime. McClean’s strange implication of Michael Young also raises suspicion that she may have brokered some kind of deal with the DA’s office as a trade off on her daughter’s (who was allegedly convicted for her role in the shooting crime) case. The psychology of lawyer tactics are a sure bet that Sellers already knows that McClean will draw sympathy from jurors at trial, and if she can be utilized to testify in court implicating Michael Young, then she has created potential credibility issues for Michael at trial. Michael Young and his family support Shannon Nyamodi’s innocence, and McClean may have been manipulated by ADA Sellers to change her story to customize a theory which would negate Shannon Nyamodi and his strongest alli at trial. Why else would McClean go on record with police officers who are professionally trained to observe and report, giving statements of Shannon Nyamodi’s innocence, and then turn around and implicate him later. Also, the police are very familiar with McClean’s home because of the criminal history some of her own children have. Who knows what else the cops found other than what they reported, and ADA Sellers may have used that leverage to scare the bejesus out of her, and threatened her with jail time if she doesn’t cooperate.

Far fetched? I think not, and I’ve only just began to get started with this prosecutor. Why on earth does the District Attorney even have a case file against Shannon Nyamodi when no documents supporting criminal charges against him even exist within the official record at the county clerk’s office? The documents on file only show what has been done to get to this point in the case. No real evidence supporting their case exist in the file, if it does exist where is it or who has it? The documents in the Shannon Nyamodi case file couldn’t convict a person who was guilty as sin, because no evidence is in the file record. I keep saying that over and over again, and it’s just insane that Shannon Nyamodi has been locked up all this time over these trumped up charges. Now we know why ADA Sellers has been relentlessly making certain this defendant’s case doesn’t go to trial. The arrest warrant statement of charges, trace evidence findings, and supporting police investigative reports are all missing from the file allegedly justifying charges against Shannon Nyamodi.

The talk around Franklin County is that ADA Sellers is a cocky, arrogant prosecutor, with strong ambition to move up the ladder in North Carolina’s political arena. Her hanging prosecutor style some say, make her capable of doing anything to achieve her objectives. Her ability to keep a man locked up when she is well aware and knows for a fact that critical documents and other evidence necessary to assist her in successfully prosecuting her case doesn’t exist, in my mind makes her a despicable person, and a heartless sub human being. I am not being cynical or harsh for the purpose of bashing the prosecutors office, but the DA’s office has been in control the entire time. ADA sellers or DA Sam Currin could have demanded the records be turned over, or could have dropped the case altogether. The failure of prosecutors to take any action whatsoever, points to their possible direct complicity in the suppression of evidence in the criminal case against young Shannon Nyamodi. Between the sheriff’s office and the DA, they have had over sixteen months to come up with supporting documentation that indicates they were justified in charging this young defendant. Clearly, what ever evidence that was retrieved from the investigation into this crime, some official between the two agencies has hindered the records from being made public. I believe that the tax paying citizens of Franklin County would agree that they are entitled to more efficient representation than this from their public officials.

The Funny Paperwork In The Case

ADA Sellers has requested continuance after continuance in Shannon Nyamodi’s case. Surprisingly, the court has repeatedly granted these request despite any real authentic cause for the case being classified as exceptional having been placed on the record. Sellers has given frivolous justification for constantly continuing the case, all along while spewing absolute venum about Shannon Nyamodi, calling him “a vagabond on the streets,” and making other off color comments all for the purpose of developing a harsh outlook on the defendant within the legal community,when in fact Shannon Nyamodi has never had any prior brushes with the law. ADA Sellers actions have not gone unnoticed, which brings me to my perspective on some of the rather peculiar paperwork that is available within the case file. I’m no forensic document examiner, but my practical experience of verifying credentials in my professional career makes me qualified to call into question the manner in which official documents were composed. In this case there are two documents in particular that jumps right out at me. Firstly, the “special letter” as it has been dubbed by the legal community in Franklin County, that Judge Hight allegedly signed granting a motion to classify Shannon Nyamodi’s case as exceptional, and allowing it to be taken completely off of the court’s management system docket altogether, “until such time as it is place back on the docket by the District Attorney.” Why a superior court judge would give a prosecutor such broad discretion regarding the expediency of a criminal case with out establishing good cause on the record, is incomprehensible.

The root of my issue with the document is the manner in which it was composed. It contains typed print and handwriting, a characteristic seldomly seen in an official document before the courts. It’s just unprofessional, appear to have been composed in a haste, and I question whether the document is even an authentic order issued by judge Hight, solely because of the abnormality of an official document of this nature for a criminal case containing handwritten and printed composition. Obviously, it appears to be a preprinted form of some kind that was simply filled out by the author of the document. My perspective is supported by the fact that Hight apparently even entered his name in handwriting under his signature. Judges have secretaries and clerical assistants for these task. Maybe Hight did or didn’t compose this motion order, but it’s strange that none of the orders or decisions by other judges associated with this case have submitted official documents which contain such unprofessional composition traits. See for yourself below:

casearchive

 

Unless judge Hight just simply had a bad day when he signed this order, he is experienced enough to know he shouldn’t give the prosecutor such leverage or a tactical advantage of this extent to a prosecutor. He should reasonably know that such an order is unfair to a criminal defendant, and at some level his order will almost certainly be overturned on an appeal by a higher court. I doubt that Hight achieved his current position in public service without knowing a continuance of any kind in a criminal case must contain some timetable establishing when the case would be prosecuted, if for no other reason but to protect a defendant’s right to fairness, due process under the law, and their constitutional right to a speedy trial. That’s why there is growing suspicion questioning whether Hight even issued the order taking the case off the docket in the first place. Taking a court case off the docket while the defendant is remanded to custody without pending charges is so irregular and unheard of, that lawyers consulting TPC related to this case have repeatedly asked if the charges were actually dropped against Shannon Nyamodi (hell even the FBI asked Elizabeth Crudup if the charges were dropped), which is typically the disposition when a case is removed from a court docket. It’s just a no brainer that judge Hight more than likely wouldn’t have preprinted forms in his chambers for the purpose of taken criminal cases off the docket. This is a prosecutor’s practice and may lift the cover completely off of a disturbing culture which reveals officials from the DA’s office, habitually attempting to conceal court cases they knowingly are aware of that sufficient evidence doesn’t exist to prosecute a defendant, like in the Shannon Nyamodi case. Why hasn’t the DA resolved this case when no actual evidence against Shannon Nyamodi has been made public.

The other “funny paperwork” that drew my immediate scrutiny is the Search Warrant Affidavit that FCSO Captain Mitchell submitted seeking a warrant to gather evidence from Shannon’s home and his person. Knowing the basic common knowledge cops possess pertaining to this kind of affidavit really creates suspicion that a crime may have actually occurred in Shannon Nyamodi’s case while viewing this particular document. On the search warrant application, Captain Mitchell list 7  Probable Causes to Search Shannon Nyamodis home and to obtain DNA for comparison purposes. Items #5 and #8 are very disturbing to me. Mitchell states in item #5 five that “items of evidentiary value were located and seized. Mitchell also indicates that the items “represent a small sample of the evidence seized which will contain valuable DNA evidence.” This supports my earlier arguments that supporting documents must exist somewhere. Well, where are the DNA testing results, and what did the test disclose? But any way, item #8 is the meat and guts of this entire case.

Item #8 was actually handwritten on the affidavit, and indicates that Shannon Nyamodi has confessed to the crime and admitted to the involvement of his allege codefendant (victim’s daughter). The addendum is also another rare instance seen where an official court document has this kind of composition format (handwriting), and is very problematic for the prosecution for several reasons:

1. Captain Mitchell never included this alteration on the document which indicates that he didn’t have any knowledge that Shannon Nyamodi had confessed to the crime. If Mitchell in fact believed that the youth had admitted to the crime, how is it possible that he omitted such culpable evidence on the affidavit?

2. The author of the handwriting initialed the addendum as what appears to be judge Donald W. Stephens. Why would judge Stephens alter the affidavit when he isn’t seeking the warrant and probably didn’t hear Shannon Nyamodi’s allege confession?

Look at judge Stephens actual signature:

report4edit

 

Now look at the handwriting in item #8 as an addendum to the document while noticing the initials to the right:

report5edit

A very strong argument could be made that the judge’s actual signature and his allege initials are two separate authors, in fact I believe that they are. This would mean that the judge’s initials were forged and cause the entire search warrant, along with evidence acquired, to be thrown out.

3. The handwriting on the application for Shannon Nyamodi’s search warrant and the “strange letter” (motion) ordering the case be taken off the docket, however appear to have been composed by the same author.

4. The addendum with judge Stephens’ allege initials doesn’t have a date imputed on the document and is undetermined when the alteration was actually made. Anyone with access to the file could have simply wrote the addendum on the document after it had already been validated by the clerk’s office.

5. The prosecution’s inability to establish exactly when the addendum was entered, or when the actual confession was made could cause the search warrant obtained to gather DNA from the defendant rendered invalid, and any such evidence acquired as a result of the issuance of the warrant could be thrown out by the courts.

6. The addendum handwriting on the affidavit appears to be composed by the exact same author who composed the motion order removing Shannon Nyamodi’s case off of the docket system.

So what does this all mean as it relate to the funny paperwork? What’s obvious is that we have documents which originated out of two separate judge’s chambers, but appear to have the same handwriting on them, they both are composed in irregular format containing print and written composition, and also critical documents that directly impact the due process rights of the defendant as well as his potential plea to the charges before the court. Very little intelligence is required here to understand that if Shannon Nyamodi has actually confessed to this crime, that the case more than likely would have been resolved and disposed of a long time ago.  When we understand and fully digest the fact that the state has repeatedly conveyed in court that it wants a plea deal, we learn that they are in essence actually showing their hand that they have no confidence in their ability to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Shannon Nyamodi actually committed this crime. The DA’s office has even visited Shannon Nyamodi at the Franklin County jail attempting to elicit a plea deal from him without the presence of his attorney. That’s unheard of and indicates a clear sign of desperation on the DA’s part. So, it makes you wonder who wrote this addendum indicating that he confessed? Where did that information come from? Was it placed on the search warrant application to bolster their case to obtain his DNA samples? If so, where are the testing results from those samples?

Do you see where I’m going here? The prosecutor and the police can say they have this evidence or that evidence all day long, but they will never convict anyone until it’s produced in a court of law by professionals who can testify with certainty what the test results disclose. Captain Mitchell’s entire premise for obtaining the warrant in the first place was for the purpose of comparing the youth’s DNA to what they believe was discovery items evidentiary to the case, and now they want to perpetuate the theory that Shannon Nyamodi committed this crime without any indication that culpable evidence even exist, while court officials were led to believe that evidentiary findings implicating this defendant had been obtained from the crime scene. No one has seen the Franklin County sheriff’s office reports or any other compelling evidence when discovery in the case has already concluded. The handwriting suggesting that a confession had been made in this case compounds the case and is contradictory to the defendant’s consistent position that he hasn’t confess to anything, along with his refusal to admit to something in which he isn’t involved in. The Addendum writing opens a can of worms that underscores some of the shady, illegal, and unlawful tactics that have been utilized by the the DA’s office to wrongfully convict an innocent man. the lack of supporting evidence coupled with the DA’s apparent desperation to acquire a plea deal from this defendant’s, and the handwriting citing the allege confession on an affidavit matching the motion to take the case off the docket points to ADA Sellers being the culprit attempting to manipulate the record in this case.

The funny paperwork with identical handwriting from separate judges, the prosecutor’s strange desire to shelve the case, and the missing supporting documentation justifying probable cause to even arrest this young man, all seemingly establish that covert efforts have been made by those handling the case to obtain a conviction against Shannon Nyamodi at all cost. At the end of the day, ADA Annette Sellers knows what evidence has been obtained, but has refused to met out justice in this case by either taking the case to trial or acknowledging Shannon Nyamodi’s exculpability in this crime. No one is fooled by the missing documents. It’s a clear case of suppression of evidence and I want those responsible sent to prison. Prove me wrong, by giving this young man his day in court, or set him free so he can go on with his life in peace.

To Be Continued ..

 

 

The People’s Champion

David Adams

A Self proclaimed geek, Sympathizer for the homeless, Social Change Advocate, Crime Blogger, Promoter of Awareness for Missing and Exploited Children, and a mobile technology enthusiast. A recognized Journalist and Human Interest Writer championing the plight of the masses whom are without a voice of their own.

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Titus Auyer

I found a great…

Sidney Fremin

yeah bookmaking this wasn’t a speculative decision outstanding post! .

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