TOLEDO, Ohio — After refusing to talk to me for more than one year, the Lucas County prosecutors' office is now using my interview with a state witness as a basis for opposing an appeal for a new trial by two Toledo men convicted of a 1998 murder.
Wayne Braddy and Karl Willis were convicted in January, 2000 of killing 13-year-old Maurice Purifie on June 15, 1998. Braddy and Willis have maintained since then that they had nothing to do with the killing.
In August of 2019, 11 Investigates produced a 30-minute report, "Guilty Without Proof." The report contained interviews with Braddy, Willis, jury foreman Jon Crye, and lead prosecutor Andy Lastra. It highlighted the lack of evidence and Crye's contention that the jury did not hear all the evidence.
The report became the basis for an Ohio Innocence Project appeal for a new trial in August of 2020.
The main state witness was Travis Slaughter, who claimed in court that he offered to pay Braddy and Willis to help him rough up or kill Maurice over an unpaid drug debt.
However, after our report aired, Slaughter approached me about telling "the real story."
In an October 2019 interview, Slaughter said on camera that he lied about Braddy and Willis' involvement because of a falling out between the men. In fact, Slaughter claimed that not only were the men innocent, but that he was also not involved and was coerced by police and prosecutors.
During the six-hour interview, Slaughter said multiple times that he had nothing to do with the killing. Two separate interrogation experts have reviewed the interrogation and said that they believed that Slaughter may have been coerced.
Slaughter told me that the men had a falling out over clothes that he had stolen from Braddy and Willis. The men demanded payment from him and he gave them rent money that he was planning to give to his mother, according to Slaughter. He said, at that point, that he planned to either kill them or to get even. He claimed that the police interview gave him that opportunity.
The interrogation was recently featured in the national podcast, "Anything You Say."
The Ohio Innocence Project used the October 2019 interview with me to get Slaughter to agree to provide an affidavit. In that December affidavit, Slaughter provided the same information, and the OIP filed a motion for leave to seek a new trial.
However, in a response that was filed late Friday afternoon, Assistant Prosecutor Evy Jarrett said that Slaughter's interview with me last October started the clock on a new appeal. In her response, she claimed that the appeal was not filed in a timely manner and should not be considered since the interview with Slaughter aired 10 months before the appeal.
When reached for comment, Jennifer Bergeron of the Ohio Innocence Project said she wanted to take the weekend to review the prosecutor's response. An email seeking additional comment was sent to Prosecutor Julia Bates and Jarrett late Friday afternoon, but no response has been received.