Know the facts

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1. On the reported night of Mr. Yazbek's murder, Jason was with a group of friends, and Tanzerious was with his son and his girlfriend, her family members, and some friends at her family home in Dorchester. None of the alibi witnesses for either Tanzerious or Jason were ever questioned by detectives or called to testify. 

2. The sole eyewitness to this murder, Oscar Vega, testified that he was sitting in his apartment, by a window doing homework when he saw Heather, who he knew from the neighborhood and another young woman, with a description that matched Joleena Tate, walk by immediately before and after he heard a gunshot. Heather and Joleena were the only people this sole eye witness testified to seeing at the scene of the crime. Keep in mind, Jason was raised in this neighborhood and would've been easily recognized by Mr. Vega.

3.  Not one of the State's witnesses implicated Tanzerious or Jason during their first few rounds of interviews. In fact, no Commonwealth witness, including Joleena, the State's star witness, mentioned either of them until after Joleena's arrest for prostitution. After her arrest, Joleena consulates with her father (a former private detective) and lawyer, and it was only then, for the first time, Tanzerious and Jason's name was connected to the crime. According to evidence, it was after this incident, with encouragement from police, that other testifying witnesses' statements began to change and contradict their previous statements, to form around Joleena's new accusations. 

4. While Tanzerious was in jail awaiting trial, he received a letter from Heather Coady, expressing her regret for implicating him and Jason in the murder, and her promise to tell the truth at trial.  The day before Coady was scheduled to testify, she was admitted to the hospital for an apparent overdose. The court denied the Defense’s request for a twenty-four-hour recess, which is the amount of time Heather Coady’s lawyer communicated that the hospital would be holding Heather for observation. Because Coady was absent from the trial and unable to authenticate or testify, her letter was not allowed into evidence and the jury never learned Heather’s testimony or saw her letter that apologized for implicating Jason and Tanzerious.

5. In Joleena Tate and Eddie Gauthier’s testimony, they claimed that they saw Tanzerious’ car at the scene of the murder. Joleena and Eddie had both testified to the color, make and model, and to its condition, commenting that it was new and even said there was no noticeable damage. The fact was that Tanzerious’ car had been in an accident in March, and had sustained such severe damage that it had to be towed to a mechanic shop after the accident because it was not drivable. There was over $2,000 worth of damage to the front of the car. The left side of the front grill was missing, headlights out, and the remaining piece of the bumper was tied to the hood with two bungee cords. During the time of the murder, Tanzerious was without a working vehicle until he came into possession of a rental car, which was not reported at the scene of the crime.

6. Joleena testified that Tanzerious accompanied her to New Hampshire, where they broke into her father’s home and stole the gun used in Mr. Yazbek’s murder. Lt. Dicey of New Hampshire, the lead detective in the break-in case, and also an associate of Joleena’s father, Allen Tate, had ruled that Tanzerious was not a suspect. However, very shortly before he was to testify at Tanzerious’ trial, Lt. Dicey refused to voluntarily testify. He was never subpoenaed to testify so the jury never heard his valuable testimony, which would have disputed Joleena’s statements.

7. Boston Police Officer, Tim Stanton believed that Joleena Tate’s ex-boyfriend, was a suspect in the murder of Mr. Yazbek. But neither the police nor defense attorneys ever investigated Officer Stanton and his lead.

8. When the trial was over, Tanzerious’ family hired a private investigator to gather evidence for his appeal. The investigator talked to Heather and she agreed to meet with Tanzerious’ mother, Karen Pulido. The two women met at Dunkin Donuts in Brighton near where Heather lived. Heather expressed her sorrow and regret about the outcome of the trial. She shared that at first, she and Joleena had only brought Tanzerious and Jason’s names into it to get the heat off of themselves. She said that she didn’t think it was going to go as far as it did. They figured it would just give Joleena some time to figure out what she was going to do and that the police would never charge Jason or Tanzerious because there was no proof that they were connected. She told Ms. Pulido that she didn’t implicate Jason or Tanzerious until the investigation began to implicate her and Joleena. She told Ms. Pulido that the reason she didn’t testify was because the police threatened that they would charge her with perjury if she didn’t “stick to the story.” They also told her that they would nail her for every other outstanding case she had. She went along with Allen Tate’s defense for his daughter, which depended on blaming Jason and Tanzerious. As time went on, it became clear that Jason and Tanzerious were facing serious charges and Heather felt guilty, so she wrote a letter of apology to Tanzerious asking for his forgiveness for getting him involved and promising to testify. Had the letter not been suppressed at trial, Jason and Tanzerious would've had crucial evidence to support their defense and been able to direct an important line of questioning toward dismantling the prosecutor's theory.