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(dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) From NJ PBS studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Brianna Vannozzi.

- Good evening and happy New Year.

Welcome to a special edition of "NJ Spotlight News".

I'm Brianna Vannozzi.

This past year we lost a dear friend, a colleague, a beloved and respected journalist, Michael Aron.

He was dubbed the Dean of the State House Press Corps and covered every major political story of our state dating back to the days of Governor Brendan Byrne.

Michael was a dogged reporter who had a phrase about covering our state, "New Jersey never lets you down."

While politics was the core of his career, one story that spanned a decade of it was that of then 19-year-old Quincy Spruell.

Spruell was charged in 1985 with killing Leonard Thompson, an East Orange drug dealer.

It took years of reporting, but Michael helped uncover his wrongful conviction.

And Quincy walked out of Northern State Prison in Newark a free man after serving more than 24 years of a 30-year prison term.

Quincy joins me here in the studio.

We are so grateful for that.

Last night, if you tuned in, you saw the first half of Michael's documentary that aired in 1996 entitled "A Call for Justice".

We left off just after the State Supreme Court turned down Quincy's appeal for a new trial based on newly obtained evidence.

We wanna share the rest of it with you tonight and then chat with Quincy on the other side.

Let's take a look.

- It would be nice to tell law enforcement's side of this story.

For example, why did McGarry keep thinking Spruell was in on the murder even after Spruell showed him a different crime scene?

Why did the prosecutor ignore the recantations of his star witnesses?

There are a dozen questions.

Unfortunately, Essex County prosecutor Clifford Minor, would not allow anyone from his office or the East Orange police to talk to us.

It would be too time consuming to review the files we were told, and Minor said to me personally, "Why should I allow some inmate to use you to perfect his case?"

- We see this all the time, and that is prosecutor years after a conviction, If there are legitimate questions raised by legitimate people about the accuracy of a conviction, in other words, they propose that it looks like an innocent man was wrongly convicted.

When you go to the authorities, me or anybody else who's legitimate, the authorities resist you.

They don't want to be open to the prospect that they or their predecessors wrongly convicted a man.

So, they stonewall you and they fight you tooth and nail.

Essex County is infamous for this.

Every Essex County case we've had, and we've had several, they fight us tooth and nail, and they don't even talk to us.

That's the way it is.

That's the prosecutorial mentality and I to my dying day, I'll never understand it.

- [Michael] In Detective McGarry's defense, it should be noted that there were similarities between the two crimes.

The murder in East Orange and the robbery in Orange both took place in second or third floor apartments.

Neither involved a break-in and pillows played a part in both crimes.

Leonard Thompson was shot through a pillow in East Orange.

Jacob Cox's money was stolen out of a pillow in Orange.

But there were also plenty of differences in the accounts of the two crimes that McGarry and Essex County assistant prosecutor Michael White chose to discount or ignore.

- Even the Detective McGarry himself testified that there's no evidence that, you know, any other victims were in the apartment when Linda Thompson was murdered besides Linda Thompson herself.

In my confession, I talk about there being three people in there, you know, and you know, it just doesn't corroborate the Leonard Thompson murder.

I never confessed to a murder in the statement.

- [Michael] The summer after he was arrested, Spruell wrote a letter to Aaron Diggs, the 15-year-old who first steered police to Spruell.

"Aaron", it says, "you know that this crime I'm being charged with I didn't do.

You know where I got that money from?

And you know that I didn't kill nobody.

I am facing 30 years for a crime I didn't commit.

The police got mixed up Betty's apartment with the other incident, and they know we didn't do it, but to them it does not make a difference.

They just wanna try and make the records look good."

It goes on to appeal to Aaron and his mother to retract their statements to the police.

"I know your mother did what she did out of love for you, and I respect that, but I didn't do this crime.

And I pray every night that this don't go no further."

Betty in the letter refers to a woman known as Fat Betty Barber.

She was allegedly beaten by Jacob Cox, her boyfriend.

The poor boys robbed his apartment to avenge that beating and one of them badly beat up Cox.

- I'm not proud of it, but at that time, my mode of thinking was, well, let's do that.

You know, because he had no business, you know, whooping on her like that, you know?

So, we didn't like that.

- [Michael] The initial statements to police named four people involved in whichever crime the police thought they were investigating, Quincy Spruell, Sean Cummings, and two older boys, Junie Murphy, and one known only as Big Head Saalam.

But Detective McGarry appears never to have gone after the other two.

- If you wanna believe these statements that these four guys did it, why didn't McGarry ever go and pick up Junie Murphy?

He knew his name, he knew his address, he knew Big Head Saalam's street name, and about where he lived.

These guys were never picked up.

- These are the transcripts of Spruell's trial.

For 10 years, he's been telling the same story.

It hasn't budged one iota since he told it to the jury.

So, one must ask, why did the jury convict him?

Well, one thing the prosecutor played up was that Spruell had confessed to the murder.

Remember, he had been arrested in Baltimore, and McGarry had driven down to get him, and had shown him this picture of the victim Leonard Thompson.

In Spruell's mind, it resembled his memory of Jacob Cox.

At trial, Spruell testified McGarry also intimidated him.

showed him a death warrant with his name on it.

Told him his bloody fingerprints had been found at the murder scene, which was not true, and refused to allow him to call his father.

It was Spruell's 19th birthday.

He was scared.

He assumed the truth would come out, he signed.

- He thinks Jacob Cox is dead.

He thinks that Jacob Cox got such a bad beating from Big Head Saalam, that he's dead.

So, Quincy says, "I better tell him all about it."

- We didn't realize until we got back to Jersey and they asked me to show them the place where the crime, you know, occurred that we were talking about two separate situations.

- Down at the county, he was telling me that they got the two mixed up.

They had did something for Fat Betty, and she had gave them the key to her apartment and things, and he was talking about that one, but they put a murder on him.

- [Michael] In an attempt to prove that Spruell was telling the truth, his lawyer called Jacob Cox to the witness stand.

Cox testified, yes, indeed.

Quincy Spruell was one of four men who robbed me and one of his friends beat me.

10 years later, Spruell questions the wisdom of that legal strategy.

- The whole introduction of the Jacob, excuse me, the Jacob Cox incident until my trial, I think that prejudiced the jury against me to a great deal.

I think that they may have felt that even though, even if you didn't, you know, murder Leonard Thompson or have anything to do with that incident, you probably deserve to be in jail anyway.

- [Michael] The prosecutor didn't dispute Cox's story.

He just told the jury the state believed Quincy Spruell was involved in both crimes, and the jury bought it.

- I know what the prosecutor did on summation.

I know he went on those statements and said, "Look, you know, these are the statements.

this whole Jacob Cox story you've been told, well, that just means Quincy Spruell did two crimes, not one.

He robbed Jacob Cox and he killed Leonard Thompson.

But you can't have it both ways, because those statements are about one thing or the other.

- I think the waters were polluted.

I think that the whole introduction of evidence related to Jacob Cox's incident, I think really prejudiced the jury against me.

I think that, you know, again, they felt as though, you know, I probably deserve to be in jail anyway, you know?

- And in fact, you did deserve to be in jail.

- Right, but not 30 years of my life.

I have never done anything to warrant this.

- Had the case been tried today, Judge Ronco would've had to instruct the jury on how to weigh the recanted statements of Notis and Simmons Supreme Court decisions in 1991 set that precedent, but Judge Ronco gave the jury no special instruction in that area.

Ronco was also the judge in the case of Earl Berryman, an innocent inmate who Jim McCloskey helped free.

- I think he's what we call a prosecutorial judge.

His view is the prosecutor's view.

And when you're in his court, it's like having two prosecutors, the judge and the prosecutor.

- [Michael] Now retired, Ronco told us he has no recollection of the Spruell case.

- I think Judge Bronco's a good man.

I mean, you know, I just think that this is how he thought.

- [Michael] Is he a prosecutor's judge?

Was he a prosecutor's judge?

- He was thought to be, he had been the prosecutor in Essex County.

- If you believe Quincy Spruell, he and his co-defendant, Sean Cummings, at the very least, were the victims of a huge misunderstanding.

- To push it this far with no physical evidence tying Quincy to the murder of Leonard Thompson, is more than a misunderstanding.

I mean, that's just, we don't care.

We can close out this murder case.

- My thing was, why do they still have this other charge on him?

The murder charge on him?

But it was like, back then, I really didn't know too much and how to open my mouth and how to talk and speak up.

You know, it was like, I just really kept quiet through the whole thing until they said, they had gave him 30 years.

- It was a misunderstanding, but I believe that at some point the prosecution realized that it was.

The bad thing about it is that there was no attempt to correct it.

- It's been almost 11 years now, 19 more to go.

Spruell has a petition for post-conviction relief pending before a new judge, Judge Harold Fullilove In the meantime, he perseveres.

What keeps you going?

(people chatting indistinctly) - My daughter.

- [Michael] Tell me about that.

- She deserves to have a father.

(people chatting indistinctly) When I got locked up, she was only one years old.

She just doesn't deserves it.

She deserves to have me.

It's what keeps me pushing.

- [Michael] What would it mean to you, if he were to get out?

- It would be my wish to be true.

- I talk to Quincy often and, you know, it's kind of a, I wanna do something for him.

I have no idea what to do.

I mean, I've done the legal stuff.

He's got a post-conviction relief petition pending, and I don't like to think about him in Trenton State Prison, because I don't think he deserves to be there.

I mean, he probably did some bad things as a kid, but he certainly, straightened himself out and he's certainly been more than punished for anything he might've done.

Interesting thing about Quincy is that he has really grown and developed.

I mean, from the time of this trial or from the time I met him a couple of years after to now, he reads a real lot, he reads the law, he's learned how to use computers.

He writes beautifully.

His legal arguments are better than what I've seen from a lot of lawyers.

And that kind of shows you, I think, a bit about him.

You know, he didn't sit back in prison and just waste time.

- [Michael] If Quincy Spruell didn't kill Leonard Thompson, someone did.

Spruell supporters think there are avenues of investigations still open with 57 pieces of forensic evidence were never examined very closely.

The Wayne Prey drug connection was never explored.

It was just another murder in Essex County the murder capital of the East coast.

- Quincy Spruell has a quite a strong team behind him, and if we can, you know, stick with it, you know, we're gonna work on it until we can get this guy free.

- [Michael] What's your hope?

- I'm hoping that this whole situation could be unraveled and that the truth come out.

Like I said, I wasn't an angel on the street, but I don't deserve this, 30 years of my life for murder I didn't commit.

I don't deserve it.

I'm sure I don't deserve it.

Never once deserves it.

So, my hope is that this whole situation will be unraveled and truth will come out, that's my hope.

(people chatting indistinctly) - The next step for Quincy Spruell is his petition for post-conviction relief.

His new lawyer, a public defender, expects the new judge to rule on that in four to six weeks.

The judge could dismiss the petition or he could hold a hearing and listen to testimony.

We'll keep you posted.

One footnote, we tried for this report to talk to all the people connected to the case.

As we said, local law enforcement turned us down.

The DEA initially planned to cooperate, but then declined to go on camera.

Derrick Notis and Onnie Simmons, the recantation witnesses, also declined to go on camera.

Both were incarcerated at the time of our request.

Aaron Diggs and his mother, Alberta, were hard to find.

We found a relative, but we're not able to convince him to convince them to come forward.

(bright music) - Wow.

- Yeah.

- How do you process that, reliving that?

- I don't know, it's a lot to process.

Yeah.

- It would be another 14 years before Michael would get the ear of then New Jersey Governor John Farmer.

- Corzine.

- And, I'm sorry, New Jersey Attorney General John Farmer and Governor Corzine.

- Right.

- Where your sentence, you would get a commutation.

- Right.

- What was that like?

Was it relief or disbelief?

- It was both.

It was interesting that you said that.

I never looked at it like that, but I would have to say it was both.

I felt like I had been through quite a bit when the commutation came.

You know, they say that God puts no burden on you greater than you can bear.

We had tried previously with Cody and failed.

So, I kind of felt like it was due.

I felt like I was at that point in my life where I needed it.

It was relief.

It was a blessing.

Yeah.

- You walk out of the prison and you had an entourage of folks who were waiting for you.

Who was the first person you saw?

- The reporters was definitely there.

Michael Aron was there.

My family, my sister, my mom, and my brothers, and nieces, and nephews.

It was a lot of people.

Yeah.

- How have you, if you have made sense of the impact this wrongful conviction has had, not just on you, but on those who are close to you.

And of course, I'm thinking of your daughter and what that relationship is like now.

- It was initially rocky, I think it's better now.

I don't think that it's perfect.

I feel like the time that we spent apart still impacts us today.

- Those are formidable years- - Yeah.

- of childhood, her young adulthood.

- And it hurt her a lot, you know, and it's quite obvious.

But yeah, I mean, it's just been a difficult challenge.

Yeah.

- What was for you the toughest part about, I'll say the word again, balancing the emotional and psychological toll, because now, you're out a free man, but you need to get a job and a place to live, and you've got a family waiting for you and for you to support and it's been many years since, but that's not something that goes away?

- No, it's not.

And you always feel behind, you know?

When I came home, when I was released, I was 44 years old.

- Yeah.

- And, you know, I didn't have a lot behind me in the way of career and life and, you know, so I still to this day I feel like I'm behind.

I was fortunate enough to be working up until March of last year.

No, of this year, in fact, March of this year.

I worked for 14 years for Telesis Corporation as a community coordinator and workforce development specialist.

The president of the company passed away in March, Ms. Marilyn Melkonian.

So, I had two big losses this year, and the company ceased operations.

And so, I've been trying to find my way since then in other areas.

But yes, it's definitely a challenge.

The sentence was commuted.

My record wasn't wiped clean.

- So, this is still on your record?

- Yes.

- This has not been expunged?

- No.

So mines, and it's on Sean Cummins too.

- So, for Governor Murphy, for anyone who's watching this, there is a record that is hindering you from being able to get work, from being able to support yourself- - Right, right.

- for a crime you never committed.

- Exactly.

Yes, it's still there.

And interestingly, Corzine we had a conversation after I was released at the Waldorf Astoria.

We was part of an event where it was honored him and some other people that were fighting to free people who were wrongfully convicted.

And he said that he wish he had went all away with it, you know, at that time.

You know, he said, "Man, I really wish I would have just pardoned you completely."

- Did he ever petition future governors that you're aware of to?

- I'm not sure he did, but we spoke recently.

That's still my guy.

You know, he did a courageous thing.

But yeah, that's something that definitely Sean Cummings and I are interested in.

- Yeah.

So, for those listening, there's still a piece of this that has not been completed.

You mentioned Sean Cumming, you helped him seek justice.

- Yes.

- What was that like, and what's your relationship like?

And I'm wondering if you ever did hear from Aaron Diggs or his mother?

- No, we haven't.

I've been home for a little over 14 years now.

And I haven't heard from Aaron Diggs or his mother.

But yeah, when the governor decided to release me in 2010, I was so excited.

But I was down also, because of Sean.

- Yeah.

- I knew that I would be.

- It's hard.

- Yeah.

- All these years later.

Did you feel responsible for him?

- It was just hard to leave him behind.

So, immediately we went to work.

I talked to Laura, John Farmer at Rutgers.

We developed a strategy, and we fought to get him out, and he's out.

- And you did.

And you were successful.

What do you think, Quincy, now that you've had time to reflect, and I know it's not easy, needs to be done, because this is still happening to people.

People are still being convicted of crimes they haven't committed.

What do you think needs to be done to prevent that?

And you were robbed of years of your life.

- Right, right, that you can never get back.

I don't know.

We need people with integrity in the system.

There should be no monetary or professional benefit to just stockpiling convictions.

We need integrity in the system.

You need people who really believe in doing the right thing, because human beings are not perfect.

It's gonna be difficult to erect a system that's perfect.

Yeah, you gotta have people with integrity in not only law enforcement positions, but in the prosecutor's office, sitting on the bench on the appellate courts.

You need people with integrity to ensure that people who are charged with crimes, you know, they get justice.

- Because their work affects real lives and families.

- Right.

Oh, definitely.

- What's ahead for you?

I know this year has been tough, but as your lawyer said all those years ago, you did everything to better yourself.

You went on and got a degree.

What do you hope is ahead and what do you want to be ahead for you?

- Security, prosperity, good things for myself and my family.

I was recently married a couple of years ago- - Congratulations.

- in Jamaica.

Yeah, my wife, Tete.

So, I wish, I want good things for myself and for my family, security.

I just wanna enjoy life.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- As anybody does.

- Yes.

- Do you still feel like you look over your shoulder, like you are Quincy, who Quincy is, who you had to become?

- No, I don't think I look over my shoulder, but I think you have to have an appreciation for the journey completely.

I wish I could change some things, obviously in my past, but I continue to grow even at this late age in life.

I'm still trying to be better so.

- Which says a lot.

- Yes.

- Quincy, thank you for taking the drive from Baltimore.

- No problem.

- For reliving this, for sharing your story, because undoubtedly people will watch who are in your shoes.

- Okay.

- Who share a lived experience.

And thank you also for helping to keep our friend Michael Aron's memory alive, because I know he's with us today.

- No doubt.

- Well, that's gonna do it for us tonight to start off this 2025.

And we thank you for being here and for helping us honor our friend, one of journalism's greats, Michael Aron.

You can download the podcast version of this special wherever you listen.

For all of us here at "NJ Spotlight News", we wish you a very happy and healthy 2025, and we will see you right back here tomorrow night.

- [Narrator] NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years, and by the PSEG Foundation.

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