Edward Contreras

 

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Additional Information Helpful to My Case

I know of at least a few people who have heard the key witness say that she was threatened by detectives. Her mother was on parole at the time and they threatened to put her away for a long time if she testified in my favor at trial. Her mother was also a British illegal immigrant. Two of these people who heard her say this are: Mike L. and Brian. L. Mike L. was interviewed (although he was interviewed by an extremely incompetent investigator). Mike Lewis still needs to be interviewed. They can identify Lisa Garringer, the key witness. She played into the detectives' threats at trial. (She may have a new surname by now if she has been married since then. )

Also, the codefendant, Scott Taylor, wanted to testify at my trial to confess that he was the one who did the crime, and I just happened to be there, like Lisa. Mr. Taylor is in prison. His motive was that he has psyche problems where he cannot control his anger. He has a history of this in his CYA file. When he was arrested for this, he was placed in the psyche ward of the L.A. County Jail. There are pictures of him with slash marks on his wrists and he apparently tried to kill himself.

I have in my possession medical reports that prove that what the key witness said about me hitting the victim with a fist and him fatling down is physically impossible. I will need a doctor to make a statement on this and give an expert testimony. All three doctors that I had in the past have previously told me that I would break my hand again if I were to get into another fight into the future using my fist. My hand was not broken or swollen when I was arrested, there was no cast on it, and I did not request medical attention for a broken hand when I was arrested.

Ms. Garringer also left out the fact that I tried to stop Scott Taylor from killing Fredrick Walker.

I have a pamphlet from the State Contractor's License Board that proves that the prosecutors theory on robbery is false. He claimed that I wanted to kill Mr. Walker for $635 to get my Contractor's License. It costs around $10'000 to get operating as a Contractor (License and Bonding). In addition, it costs $200 just to take the Contractor's License test. $635 will not get anyone a Contractor's License. You cannot start a business with that small amount of money.

In addition, the police reports state that Fredrick Walker told his brother-in-law that he was planning on renting a room from Scott Taylor, and with this being a fact, Scott Taylor had no motive to rob Mr. Walker. He could just charge him rent. These details were not brought up by my Public Defender or the Prosecutor.

I also have police reports for the victim's sister and brother-in-law that contradict what the victim's sister (MichelleDresser) testified to in trial. This was done to fabricate the notion that the victim had money, and therefore, a robbery as a possible motive. In the report, the brother-in-law said that the last time he saw Walker was on Aug. 5th , 1995, and that he dropped him off at Lucky's supermarket on that day and that Walker had planned on moving in with Scott.

But yet at trial, Walker's brother-in-law, Anthony Dresser, was not called to testify. It was his wife, the sister of the victim who testified. She changed the story and said she gave her brother, (Fredrick Walker) around $635 on Aug. 9, 1995 (which was supposed to be the date of the killing). But yet the investigation revealed that Freddie Walker had paid for a motel from Aug. 6-8 (or 9th - the copy on the receipt is somewhat faded on this last date) - so he spent money on that, and she admitted that her brother bought a lot of drugs.

In reality, he left his duffle bag at the motel room, along with any money he might have had left (if any). He planned on leaving his sister's house after they had argued. In reality, when Taylor picked up Walker, Walker did not have any $635, and no one saw him with any money.

Ms. Garringer even admitted that Freddie Walker did not have any money on him, she did not see any money, and she did not see anyone take any money from Mr. Walker. She said he looked like he was homeless. And when I was picked up that day, no one saw him with a duffle bag.

Cinnomon Meyer was also threatened by detectives. This was Scott Taylor's girlfriend .

She picked up Scott Taylor from a drug rehab program (which was supposed to be a part of his parole) to help him escape. This was before Aug. 9, l995. I did not find this out until later. When the Taylor house was being investigated by detectives, they had her set up Taylor so they could arrest him. She was their informant. When the time came, they arrested her along with him, took them to the station and threatened Taylor that if he did not give a confession, that they would put away Cinnamon (who had a young daughter). I have her arrest sheet and a Bail Deviation form, in which the detectives were ready to charge her with a 1270.1, violent felony. At this time, Taylor covered up for his girlfriend, because Taylor used Cinnamon's mother's vehicle to dispose of the body. However, Taylor does tell the truth when he told the detectives that there was no robbery. Cinnamon says in trial that she was never arrested and that they did not threaten to charge her. They let her go because she gave them the location of Scott Taylor and where she thought I might be; and because Taylor made his statement to detectives. He gave in to their threat.

Mr. Taylor went to school with my younger brother. Taylor and his brother used to jump my brother and use violence because Cinnamon was cheating on him with my brother. Taylor also would get his brother(s) involved. There was something of a family feud between his family and my family. Then a little while later, my brother and Scott Taylor reconciled.

I did not call the police when this killing happened because if I went into the witness protection program, my brother would still be out there in town. If Taylor's older brother decided to start up this old feud again because I had testified against his brother, then I was not going to take a chance with my family's lives. I already know that Scott Taylor was willing to kill (after this incident had happened). I have reason to believe that there would have been grave danger to my family members - it you have any question on why, please contact me.

I had no idea that Taylor was going to kill anyone that night. He invited me over to his parent's cabin for the weekend and he wanted to have a little get-together to celebrate his release from California Youth Authority.

I also have the police investigation report where the police contradict themselves - they changed their story at trial- to fit the prosecutor's theory - or to actually "clean it up." What was said on a report was that when the investigators first said the remains of the body in a bag, they saw a small hole in it dripping blood, and after this, and only after this, did he tear another small hole to try to get a better view.

At trial the prosecutor tried to say that the only way that there was a hole in the bag was from the investigator poking a hole in it; and then he tried to theorize that it may have hit some branches, or it. was opened by forest animals - none of these theories had any foundation, and he never offered a foundation. The investigator then contradicted himself and agreed with the prosecutor. This was done because since no blood was found in my car, that proved that this body was not in my car, but despite this, the prosecutor insisted on falsely accusing me of this.

And then there are contradictory statements about the vehicle that transported this body. One report says no one actually saw the vehicle, while the autopsy report stated that this vehicle was a truck. Then the prosecutor showed one of the surveillance officers a picture of my car (a large Ford Fairmount) and then stated that this vehicle was consistent with the one he saw at the site because it had "rectangular taillights", which most cars have.

Also, the prosecutor made up a theory that this murder and robbery. But yet the phone records prove otherwise. The prosecutor alleged that this was a plan form the from the time that Taylor first contacted me - actually the prosecutor was lying to imply that I initiated this whole thing by making a phone call to Taylor. But he fails to acknowledge that Taylor was the one that called me, and Taylor didn't even know that Walker was going to be at his house until after 3:OO pm on Aug. 9, l995. This is what happened:

What Taylor called me f or on Aug. 8, L995, was to tell me that he was released from CYA and that he wanted to have a get together. On Aug. 9, at 9:25am he wanted me to go to his parent's cabin to celebrate his release. He told me he wanted me to get some people together there and party. I told him I had plans to go to the North Valley Occupational Center that day to look up some information on Contracting Schools and financial aid plans. He said he had a $5OOO settlement coming to him (It had something to do with an auto accident insurance settlement ) . I asked him if he wanted to invest in a painting business. He told me to come over and we would talk about it. I told him I still wanted to go to the NVOC. He told me I could call them from his house. So I took a shower and then called him back at 9:40 am (Aug. 9) to get directions. He said his girlfriend would meet me on San Fernando Road by the 14 Freeway at Carl's Jr. in Newhall. I was in Mission Hills.

No one knew anything about Freddie at this time. Freddie had not contacted Taylor yet, not until after 3:00 pm that afternoon.

There was no plan, and the prosecutor's theory is destroyed by these records.

The prosecutor manipulated the jury by altering the facts, his witnesses' testimony, and by adding events into his opening and closing statements that had no foundation whatsoever. He did this by means of prosecutorial misconduct, and also by appealing to the jury's passions and offering multiple theories.

The detectives al-so know that these are trumped-up charges, although they were unwilling to speak up, and were actually accomplices to these trumped-up charges. Here is what the detectives told a friend of mine named Jack Kaldhusdal:

Detective Sgt. Greenwood: "... I don't think he knew what he was getting into. We'll give you that much. I don't think he had any idea what was going to happen... "

Jack Kaldhusdai :"... like you said, if Ed got into something he didn't know what was going on, I could see that."

Sgt. Greenwood: "Yeah, that's what I think happened."

The detectives would flip-fIop depending on who was asking the question.

And how did they know that I had no knowledge of Taylor wanting to kill Walker, or any plan for a killing? Because their own key witness, Lisa Garringer, told them so. And in reality, Taylor killed Walker spur-of-the-moment.

There are many other instances I1ke this in the prosecutor's theory that can be disproved by the detectives' own notes, investigation documents, the original unaltered facts, additional investigation which was never done by my public defender, and all the other paperwork which was gathered.

Taylor's motive was his mental instability, paranoid schizophrenia, hearing voices in his head, and the fact that he thought that Walker was going to put him back in prison especially after he saw Walker go into convulsions - he knew that Walker needed an ambulance while he was beating Walker. If he had called an ambulance, he knew he would go back to prison; so he got paranoid and he (Taylor) killed him instead of calling the hospital to send for an ambulance. And after he killed Walker, I told Scott Taylor that he was in even more trouble he ever would have been. I was the one who yelled out for Scott to stop or he would end up killing Walker, but he would not listen to me.

I had come across a prior arrest record of Taylor's which stated that Taylor had conditions of probation to cooperate in a plan for psychiatric/psychological testing/treatment. The date of this document was 2-24-93.

An investigation into Mr. Taylor's psyche history would show that he is unstable.

Every single element of the prosecutor's theory can be proved false. The trial that I was given was actually a mistrial because my public defender refused to provide a defense for trial, and the judge(s) refused to replace this public defender.

I was forced to go to trial without a defense. All of my Marsden motions were denied arbitrarily. I filed one almost every time I went to court.

My Public Defender even announced to the judge that he was "not ready for trial-. " The judge ignored this plea, scolded him for having a year and a half to do his job and failed to do it , and then the judge ordered that I go to trial anyway.

The procedural faults were so many, and the prosecutorial misconduct so severe and volumous, the story so twisted out of context by the prosecutor, that I would have to write a novel-- sized account to explain all of this to you on paper.

Not only did the prosecutor get all the facts wrong, but also my public defender, my appellate attorney (here I am speaking about all the appellate briefs in the "statement of Facts" parts), the deputy attorney general, and worst of all, the CA Court of Appeal, It is twisted to the point where they are not even talking about my case anymore. These people have turned it into a fictional story - but one that has ruined mine and my family's Iives.

 

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