'This isn't TV,' retired Philly detective responds to grilling in rape-murder retrial
Defense lawyers on Monday challenged a series of retired Philadelphia police homicide detectives on why they made Anthony Wright the prime suspect in the 1991 rape and murder of a 77-year-old Nicetown woman.
Defense lawyers on Monday challenged a series of retired Philadelphia police homicide detectives on why they made Anthony Wright the prime suspect in the 1991 rape and murder of a 77-year-old Nicetown woman.
"I was 18 years a detective," responded one of them, retired Detective Frank Jastrzemski. "This is real life, this isn't TV."
The steps that led to Wright's 1993 conviction and life sentence for the slaying of Louise Talley have come into question after new DNA testing undermined prosecutors' original theory in the case.
Wright, now 44, served 21 years of a life sentence for Talley's slaying before the District Attorney's Office agreed to a new trial after new DNA testing proved that Wright was not the source of sperm found inside Talley's body.
Instead, the DNA in sperm samples matched one from Ronnie Byrd, an ex-Philadelphia crack dealer who died in a South Carolina prison in 2013 at age 62.
Nevertheless, Assistant District Attorney Bridget Kirn told the jury in her opening statement Wednesday that the evidence would prove that Wright sexually assaulted Talley and then stabbed her to death inside her house in the 3900 block of Nice Street.
Wright's defense has contended that he was framed by homicide detectives who coerced him into confessing and who lied about finding clothing once believed to have been worn by Talley's killer in Wright's bedroom.
Defense attorney Samuel W. Silver picked at what he called Jastrzemski's execution of a search warrant for the home where Wright lived with his mother in the 1900 block of Brunner Street in Nicetown.
It was in Wright's second-floor bedroom where Jastrzemski said they found clothing - a black-and-red Chicago Bulls sweatshirt, blue jeans with an unusual suede patch running down the inside of each leg, and black FILA sneakers - where Wright allegedly told them in his confession that they would be.
In Wright's first trial in 1993, his mother testified that detectives took no clothing with them when they left the house after their search.
In reviewing the search warrant, projected on a large screen for the Common Pleas Court jury of seven women and five men, Silver noted that Wright's mother did not sign the property receipt, nor did Jastrzemski note that she refused to sign it, as he claimed Monday.
"So there's not a document in the world, other than your testimony?" asked Silver.
"No, I just forgot to write it down," replied Jastrzemski.
Silver also questioned why no photographs or sketches documented where the clothing was found in Wright's bedroom.
"We never did that," Jastrzemski protested. "It's not that we didn't do it in this case. We didn't do it in any case."
Jastrzemski testified that what Silver implied were shortcomings were the reality of the cash-strapped city police in the early '90s, when crime scene investigators could not afford color film, and detectives often used broken manual typewriters to record statements.
The clothing allegedly found in Wright's room has become the central issue in his retrial.
Recent DNA testing has shown that only Talley's DNA - not Wright's - was on the clothing. Yet Talley's niece, who testified earlier about identifying her body, was adamant that Talley never wore anything but a dress.
215-854-2985 @joeslobo