Angela’s Story: A Dark Plea in Exchange for Freedom

Episode Notes

Transcript

Michael Semanchik:

Close your eyes and imagine the worst thing that’s ever happened to you. You’re at home taking care of your daughter who is ill. It’s nighttime. During the holidays, you just got off the phone with your mom. When all of a sudden everything goes black, you have no idea what happened. But you can’t breathe. You’re crawling on the floor, gasping for air, searching for your children. It’s terrifyingly hot. The house is on fire and you can’t find your family. You can’t see. You’re running out of time. You need help, but you’re stuck on the second floor. In a last desperate effort, you jump from the upstairs window to the ground below, dazed and still coughing. You run for help tragically, by the time rescuers reach you, your family has died. There are no words for how awful this would be except that it actually happened to a real person. And before she could grieve her loss, the state accused her of murder. Angela Garcia was wrongfully convicted of setting her house on fire and killing her children. I’m Michael Semanchik, executive director of the Innocence Center, and you’re listening to Angela’s story.

Singer & Exoneree William Michael Dillon:

Spent most of my life in prison, chasing our dreams, chasing our dreams, chasing the dream. Want somebody please want somebody, please free.

Angela Garcia:

My Angela Garcia. I’m from Cleveland, Ohio. I’ve just been released from prison last year, wrongfully convicted. So on November 20th, 1999, I was at home with my daughters. My youngest daughter was sick. She was a preemie, so she had some kind of respiratory problems. So I talked to the doctor several times that day because she wasn’t feeling good. I had plans to go to some kind of Disney show or some kind of show they were having downtown Cleveland, and I chose not to go because my daughter was sick. It was right before Thanksgiving holiday, minutes prior to the house catching on fire. I was on the phone with my mom and one of my stepsisters talking about Thanksgiving because my mom was out of town.

Michael Semanchik:

So you were awake and hanging out in the house talking on the phone.

Angela Garcia:

Yes.

Michael Semanchik:

How did you realize that the house was on fire?

Angela Garcia:

Well, I was on the phone and I hung up the phone and I went to go use the restroom and my oldest daughter had came into the bathroom and said something. So I didn’t really pay her attention to what she was saying at the time, and I kind of shoot her out the bathroom. And then once I stepped out the bathroom, I remember everything going black and I was having problems breathing. I remember coughing a lot.

Michael Semanchik:

Everything happened so fast that Angela’s mind could not keep up. She was in survival mode frantically trying to deal with the situation. In an effort to get help as quickly as possible, Angela forgot to bring her keys when she jumped out of her second story window, locking herself out of the house

Angela Garcia:

Because I couldn’t breathe and I kept coughing. I went in the room. I knew something was going on, but I don’t think at the time I thought like, Hey, your house is on fire. But I knew I could not breathe, so I went trying to find my daughters in my bedroom, and once I couldn’t find my daughters, I remember hollering out the window, my bedroom window hollering help, but I didn’t think that I lived on a main street and no one was going to hear me. So I jumped out my bedroom window and ran to a neighbor’s house and tried to get her to help me find my kids. I never thought when I jumped out that window, I never thought like, oh, how are you going to get back in the house? You don’t have your keys and your door locked. It’s kind of crazy because it’s like when you have time to think about things and think things through, you can come up with a good idea how you want to maneuver. But when you’re in the midst of something that’s going on, you can’t process things the way you can when you’re just in a normal environment.

Michael Semanchik:

Angela found her neighbor together. They ran back to the house to get her children out. Unfortunately, the door was locked, forcing them to break through the downstairs window. Rescuers were on the way between all the smoke coughing and running around. Everything was a blur. To this day, Angela does not know who called the fire department.

Angela Garcia:

I think I kicked the window in because when we stood on the porch, we were by the living room area, and I remember a bunch of smoke coming out the window. It’s almost like trying to tell a dream the next day, and you can’t remember certain parts of it. I don’t know who called the fire department, but someone did. I don’t remember exactly who called, and I remember them coming out. A lot of things I don’t remember. I don’t know if I just blocked it out. As time went on,

Michael Semanchik:

The fire department would soon arrive to fight the blaze and attempt to rescue survival hung in the balance. But Angela would not know the fate of her daughters until she made it to the hospital.

Angela Garcia:

One of my stepsisters had took me to the hospital where they had took my daughters to. So I don’t know, I would assume that they put the fire out and then went in and got my daughters. I don’t really know how that whole process works. I remember a lady at the hospital, I don’t know who she was, but I remember her giving me a rag to wash my face off, and I remember her taking me into the room where my daughters were.

Michael Semanchik:

Were they alive at that point?

Angela Garcia:

No. I don’t remember exactly when my daughters had passed. I don’t know if it was at the hospital or prior to,

Michael Semanchik:

Although the details are a little fuzzy. At some point that November night, Angela would learn that both her daughters were dead. She had to mourn their loss through the holiday season. The shock and grief must have been awful, but her hardships were only just beginning. Angela would soon become a person of interest.

Angela Garcia:

So my ex-boyfriend’s daughter’s mom had called him and said, Angela’s on the news again. They indicted her. So I remember him waking me up saying, you’ve been indicted. And I was like, what? And then I was like, what does indicted mean? I didn’t even know what that meant at the time. And so he explained it to me like, Hey, you’re being arrested. And I’m like, are you serious? I had no idea that that was happening. I don’t know if I called my mom or my mom called me. And so my mom was like, come to my house so that her and my dad could talk to me. And so I guess, I don’t know if they wanted to explain to me what was going on or what was going to happen. But I remember going to my mom’s house and I don’t know how long I was there, but I remember two detectives because I remember them having regular clothes on, and I remember them coming to pick me up from my mom’s house.

Michael Semanchik:

Angela was arrested in February and would not know the nature of her charges until she was processed. She was both confused and in a state of disbelief, the state accused her of setting the fire that killed her own flesh and blood. I’m not sure anything can prepare you for a moment like that.

Angela Garcia:

The way the county is is once they process you in, someone comes and brings you your indictment papers. I remember someone bringing me, it looked like a packet, and I was looking at everybody that was getting theirs and they was getting one or two pieces of paper and I had a whole packet and I’m like, what? And so then I was reading the charges, which at the time I didn’t understand. I was reading all these charges and I’m like, what in the world is going on? I just felt like I was in a bad dream.

Michael Semanchik:

Like other innocent people who get swept into the criminal justice system, Angela had no idea what was in store for her. Typically, the prosecutor will bring as many charges as they can to preserve their case for trial. As more facts and information come in, some charges will be dropped, but for the innocent person going through this, that long initial list can be terrifying, and sometimes it scares them into taking a bad plea deal, which may have been the intent all along.

Angela Garcia:

I had four counts of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, three counts of aggravated arson, and one count of insurance fraud. It’s of the hardest things that I dealt with and still deal with. To be accused of something that you’re innocent of is a very big pill to swallow. I love my kids more than I love myself more than life.

Michael Semanchik:

Angela would be facing multiple trials as the prosecution worked down the list of charges, people she never met, accused her of doing things she couldn’t imagine. Angela had to sit there and listen to the state’s lawyers tell juries she was an awful person, the type of person who would kill her own children. Very few of us can imagine how painful that is.

Angela Garcia:

So going to trial was very difficult. My first trial, I remember I was just sitting there. I was young, I was just sitting there and I was listening to these people talk about me and say things about me and calling me names. And I’m like, how could somebody act like this or do this? And they don’t even know me. I almost felt like I was sitting in a room where people were speaking a foreign language.

Michael Semanchik:

The first two trials resulted in a hung jury, and what that means is the jury was not certain enough to either convict or acquit her, but the third trial was going to be much more difficult. As the prosecution moved down the list of charges, the elements of the crime got easier to prove. Her defense team had their hands full.

Angela Garcia:

I felt like my third trial was harder for them to defend me versus my first and second trial. Now sitting back thinking about it, I felt like the attorneys I had did the best that they could with their hands tied behind their back before the jury had came back, before they took me out into the Courtroom. I remember the two lawyers I had, they came back into the holding cell and they had told me I got found guilty. And I remember just crying to one of my lawyers, and I just remember he opened his arms and I just was crying on his chest, not believing that I got found guilty because I never thought that if you didn’t do something, I never thought that you can get found guilty.

Michael Semanchik:

Angela’s belief that the criminal justice system would not convict an innocent person is common among the innocent. After all, if you don’t go around breaking the law, why would you expect the system to come after you? As you will soon hear, it’s better to assume you’re in a fight of a lifetime because you are.

Angela Garcia:

I remember watching TV or watching the news, and I remember them not knowing the system and not knowing that the system will incarcerate innocent people. I always thought that when you see somebody on the news and they said, this person did this, or this person was arrested for such and such, such and such, I just always assumed that that was the truth. I would assume that person was arrested because they did that, not ever knowing that how our judicial system can be, that they can arrest and incarcerate people that are innocent. I think I had more faith in our judicial system than I should have. I think that if someone would’ve told me, even back then, I think if someone would’ve told me, our system is crooked and they’re lie, but to send you to prison, I probably would’ve told the person, oh, you’re a lie. That’s not true. I just never believed that our system would fail me.

Michael Semanchik:

Cases like Angela’s can end up on the news, and as you just heard, coverage and publicity can bring predisposed opinions to the Courtroom. It’s not supposed to happen. And juries are usually kept away from outside media, but in reality, there is no way to guarantee that. And as we’ve seen so many times before, once a jury makes up its mind, it can be really difficult to change it.

Angela Garcia:

I originally was sentenced to 49 and a half to life. I don’t know if I want to say I was scared because when you sit in the county, people tell you stories and stuff like that. So I don’t know if I was really scared because in my mind, I believe I was getting right out because I was winning my appeal because I, I’m in here for something I didn’t do. Once again, I believe that even after the judicial system let me down, I believed again that they were going to right their wrong. And so when I went to prison, no one gives you a manual and say, Hey, this is what to expect, or this is what happens

Michael Semanchik:

For the innocent. Going to prison can be very traumatic. They don’t have experience with incarceration or know how to survive behind bars. There are a lot of rules and very little guidance on top of that. People on the inside will try to exploit new prisoners. You simply have to be ready for anything. No matter how unspeakable,

Angela Garcia:

I’ve dealt with a lot of things in prison, whether it was from other people that was incarcerated or the staff there. I mean, I was verbally abused. I mean, I went through a lot in prison. Prison was very difficult. I was telling my fiance the other day we was talking about something and I was telling her how they made me work all these hours in the kitchen. And I asked the lady, I’m like, can I please go back now? I mean, it was over 12 hours and I was ready to go back. She said, you go back. When I say you go back. I said, so when is that? And so she had told the white shirts, which are lieutenants or captains or sergeants, she said, oh, hey, this B has a smart mouth. And so the man handcuffed me. He had those handcuffs on me so tight that both my wrists would go numb because he did something to my wrist where they was pressing, I guess on my vein or something for I don’t know how long.

My hands would just go numb for being handcuffed. And I was probably handcuffed, maybe an hour or so, maybe probably longer than that. And I remember him saying, asking me how much time was I doing? And I told him, and he said, you know what bitch? He said, you going to be here after I retire, after I do my 30. You going be here. And then after he does his 30 years, you still going to be here, bitch, you’re going to die here. So I remember when they finally let me out of there, I went back to the unit that I was in and I went in my room and I cried so hard. I couldn’t understand how a person could be so cool. There was no reason for you to do that to me.

Michael Semanchik:

Unfortunately, the actions of a few can speak for a group. There is no doubt that the vast majority of people working in law enforcement and the prison system are good, honest people. But when you’re an innocent person wrongfully incarcerated, it is difficult to see that as you suffer behind bars for a crime you didn’t commit.

Angela Garcia:

People don’t realize that the impact that prison has on a person or the things that they go through in the year. I’m just glad that I have remained sane and have not allowed those actions of others to affect me or affect my life. But in some aspects it does because now that I’m home, I strongly, strongly dislike the police. I really do. And I’m not saying every cop is bad or whatever, but because of what I experienced, I do not like them. And you know how you might go somewhere and they’re like a police officers in the store or something, and it’s like, you know how they might walk past you or open the door for you, and they’ll be like, Hey, how you doing? And I’m like, Ugh. I’m just so disgusted because of what I experienced. And I know that’s not right, and I know I shouldn’t be like how others are, but I just know that because of my experience, it just really has done something to me mentally. I don’t like authority because I’ve seen how the officers in the prison has abused the authority and towards me and other people. So it is so hard to respect them. And I know that everybody is not, I can’t judge everybody by one person’s actions or a few people’s actions, but it’s so hard to not see them as the people that have done me wrong.

Michael Semanchik:

Eventually, Angela’s fight for freedom would begin. She successfully made contact with the Ohio Public Defender’s Wrongful conviction project in her case was reviewed. They discovered that certain arson evidence used to convict her was outdated and no longer admissible. In 2015, Angela, with the help of her lawyer, Joanna Sanchez, won a rare evidentiary hearing, and that would give her the possibility of a new trial.

Angela Garcia:

I think I originally started with them in 2010. I think I was one of their first clients when they first opened. And so I think it was in 2010, but I think Joanna came on my case in 2012, maybe. I met with Joanna, and I’ll never forget when I met with her. She was talking to me and she was just talking, and I’m like, I remember looking at her and I said, how old are you? And I can’t remember. She was in her early twenties, and she said, I forgot how old. She said, she’s like, I’m 26 or 27. And I was like, oh. I said, you was like 12 or 13 years old when I got locked up. But she’s like, is that going to be a problem? I’m like, no. And I never forget looking at her like this little baby, what is she going? How can she help me? And so it’s kind of funny now. So I think Joanna kept filing stuff, and then I finally went back to court in May.

Michael Semanchik:

Arson investigation had come a long way since 1999. Some theories about what caused a fire and where that fire began were deemed less reliable because Angela’s prosecution centered around those theories. The court had some doubts about her conviction, and so she would get a new trial. This one would be her fourth.

Angela Garcia:

The way they detected arson back in 99 was totally different than what they do now. So back then it was like the good old club. So if they went into a house and seen alligator or a line in say the floor, they automatically assumed that was arson. But however, as time went on, they realized that the way they detected arson back then was incorrect. And so Joanna was coming to see me and explaining to me how things were going to go. So when we went back to court, I remember seeing my trial lawyer, so I seen him. I’m like, oh, hey. And so I’m just thinking he was coming there to just see what was going on. And then Joanna, Rachel, and Bill all called me out and we went into a holding sale.

Michael Semanchik:

Angela was about to be offered what is known as a dark plea. Essentially, this is a high pressure plea deal that is presented to a desperate client with limited options. Most of the time, immediate freedom is traded for a guilty plea. Essentially, the prosecution saves face while the wrongfully convicted gets out of prison. Generally, these deals are take it or leave it, and there is only a short period of time to make a decision that will impact the rest of their life. It’s a high stakes game of chicken where one side holds all the cards. The deal being offered to Angela was not good. She would not see freedom for another five years, although the prosecution lost some faith. In their case, it was not enough to call them off. Angela had been behind bars for nearly 17 years, and her mother was getting older. If she accepted the dark plea, her freedom was guaranteed. If she went to trial, she might get out faster and clear her name or she could lose and live the rest of her life in prison. Her case was strong, but the downside risk was immense. What would you do? I often ask myself that same question, and honestly, I don’t know how to answer it.

Angela Garcia:

And so Joanna was like, Hey, they offering you something. So I’m like, what? And so she’s like, yeah, they’re offering you something. I asked Joanne, I said, Joanna, what do I do? And she was like, Angela, I can’t tell you what to do because at the end of the day, it’s solely your decision. She said, but whatever decision you make, I’m here for you. Only thing I had time to think about was taking my plate 15, 20 minutes maybe, maybe a half hour. It wasn’t like I was going out to buy a brand new car, and I had time to research the type of car I was going to get or look into it. I didn’t have time to do none of that. I don’t remember if it was her or Rachel. They was like, wait, wait, wait. So in order to get this plea, you have to plead guilty, and this is what you need to say.

You have to say, I’m guilty of this crime and guilty of these charges in order to get your plea. And I’m like, are you serious? It’s not bad enough that I have to say I’m guilty, but I have to plead guilty a certain way just for them to save face. And that just kind of bothered me. I lost my stepdad. My mom’s getting older. My nieces and nephews are almost grown now. And so I just figured if I take this plea, I can have a life. I can see my mom get older and have some time with her and the rest of my family. So when she told me about the plea, I was like, you know what? Okay, come on. I’ll take the plea.

Michael Semanchik:

Dark pleas come with a catch. You can no longer officially claim innocence. The wrongful conviction remains on your record. When you apply for a job, you’re asked about it. When you rent an apartment, you’re asked about it. Society still deems you guilty. This makes getting your life back together very challenging. And that’s before you factor in decades of lost career development and falling behind in technology. Sure, you’re free, but you’re still being punished.

Angela Garcia:

And I hate that I took that plea. I really do. I hate that I took that plea because it’s like no matter what I do, it’s never gone. It’s never, okay. This is what you did. You took this plea. It’s done and over with. But every day of my life, I have to remember that I took that plea. Anything that I try to accomplish, anything I try to do, it always hinders me. It always finds a way of creeping back up.

So my current job to have fired me because it came back that I had a felony on my record, which I guess they only go back so many years. But because I went back to court in 2016, it showed that I just caught a felony in 2016, which wasn’t true. So Joanna had wrote a letter to the HR for my job and explained to them like, this is what happened. This is how it happened. And they eventually gave me my job back. But as far as housing, I can’t get an apartment in my name because I’m a convicted felon. And when you fill out those applications, that’s one of the things that they ask you. And no apartment complex lets a convicted felon move in.

Michael Semanchik:

Although Angela is out of prison, she’s not totally free. There are still barriers in her way back to a normal life. There are limitations to building her career. There are restrictions on places for her to live. The prosecution may have lost faith in their case, but that didn’t mean they believed in Angela’s innocence that left her stuck to make one of the most difficult decisions. And that’s the cost of the dark plea. It’s freedom, but not complete freedom, and nobody’s really happy with the result.

Angela Garcia:

So I thought I was ready for the challenges of the world, but when you get out of prison, no one gives you a manual and say, okay, hey, these are things to expect. This is what you need to go through. This is how you need to handle it. These are things that you’re going to need to overcome. So it’s like getting thrown into another country and just trying to figure out the language, and that’s what being home has been like. Don’t get me wrong, my best day in there is still worse than my worst day out here, but it’s just difficult. Going into prison at 23 and getting out at 45 and trying to see life and understand. When I went into prison, some of my friends didn’t have kids. Now they have kids and their grandparents Seeing my mom now that she’s 70 something years old versus when I went to prison, she was 40 something years old. Just trying to figure out relationships as far as my family, because we are all different. I’m not that 23-year-old girl anymore. Trying to get them to see who I am now and trying to find myself and trying to find my way and figure things out, and trying to establish stuff for myself, it’s just difficult.

Michael Semanchik:

For now. Angela will have to take solace that she is on the outside and can still fight for her exoneration at a later time. All things considered, it’s a lot easier to have a legal fight as a free person rather than from behind bars. Dark. Please are a serious issue that we at the Innocence Center continue to fight every day. And that’s what we’re going to talk about next time with Angela’s attorney Joanna Sanchez, and Justice Michael Donnelly from the Supreme Court of Ohio. Thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed this episode produced and written by Laurence Colletti, audio Engineering by Adam Lockwood. Special contribution of music and sound elements by real life exoneree, William Michael Dillon. You can find his catalog of [email protected]. That’s framed, D-I-L-L-O n.com. Thank you to Clio for their support.

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