Why Frame Me? Part 4
1996 was an election year and then Ingham County Prosecutor Donald Martin, was fighting a losing battle for reelection. Donald Martin saw the political value of prosecuting a cold case with such inflammatory accusations. He knew he'd receive all the free media coverage he wanted. To him, this case wasn't about solving a crime, it was about getting Donald Martin reelected. When Bill Brown gave him a story to run with, Ingham County Prosecutor Donald Martin didn't wait to see if the investigation backed Bill Brown's story, Donald Martin immediately issued an arrest warrant for me and went straight to the media.
The night before my arrest warrant was issued, a Michigan State Police Detective called my mother and told her what was about to happen. He said he didn't believe Bill Brown's story but if I didn't turn myself in and cooperated, then Bill Brown would receive "the deal". Consequently, for alerting my mother about the warrant, that Michigan State Police Detective was taken off of the case and wasn't allowed to testify during my trial.
My mother immediately called me and told me about the warrant. When I heard that I was being charged with murder, I knew it was just some prosecutor "over charging". That's a tactic prosecutors always use. And at that time, I was already anticipating on being indicted for all the marijuana I was selling.
But cooperate...that was out of the question. I was receiving one ton of marijuana a month, straight from Mexico. You don't cooperate when you're dealing with the people I was doing business with. I was part of the family...the FBI called them a cartel.
I had just bought a house in Texas and was planning on moving to Mexico by the end of the year. The warrant only made me move a little sooner. After making all that money for those guys in Mexico, I was accepted with open arms. If the police wanted me, they'd have to come and get me.
Once Bill Brown gave the police a story to work with, their investigation into what actually happened stopped and they focused on capturing me and finding anything to support the story. The mountain of evidence they'd gathered contradicting Bill Brown's story would immediately be tossed.
My mother immediately called me and told me about the warrant. When I heard that I was being charged with murder, I knew it was just some prosecutor "over charging". That's a tactic prosecutors always use. And at that time, I was already anticipating on being indicted for all the marijuana I was selling.
But cooperate...that was out of the question. I was receiving one ton of marijuana a month, straight from Mexico. You don't cooperate when you're dealing with the people I was doing business with. I was part of the family...the FBI called them a cartel.
I had just bought a house in Texas and was planning on moving to Mexico by the end of the year. The warrant only made me move a little sooner. After making all that money for those guys in Mexico, I was accepted with open arms. If the police wanted me, they'd have to come and get me.
Once Bill Brown gave the police a story to work with, their investigation into what actually happened stopped and they focused on capturing me and finding anything to support the story. The mountain of evidence they'd gathered contradicting Bill Brown's story would immediately be tossed.
