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[Music] From NJ PBS Studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Brianna Vanozzi.

>> Good evening and welcome to a special edition of NJ Spotlight News.

I'm Brianna Vannozzi.

As 2024 comes to a close, we're reflecting on what we've been able to achieve in bringing important stories to you.

But also what we've lost, including our dear friend and colleague, the consummate newsman, Michael Aron.

He was dubbed the dean of the Statehouse Press Corps and covered every major political story of our state, dating back to the days of Governor Brendan Byrne.

But Michael was a dogged reporter even outside the Statehouse.

And one story he covered for more than a decade could, in fact, be his legacy.

It certainly is, if you ask Quincy Spruell.

At 19 years old, Spruell was charged with murder for the killing of Leonard Thompson, an East Orange drug dealer.

The details of his story struck a chord with Michael.

After years of his reporting, along with the help of a former New Jersey Attorney General and the Rutgers Law Clinic, they proved his innocence.

Uncovering a frightening story of mistakes and misconduct that led to Spruell wrongful conviction.

Michael was there when Spruell walked out of Northern State Prison in Newark a free man, after serving nearly 25 years of a 30-year prison sentence.

Quincy Spruell joins me here in the studio today.

We're grateful for that.

Michael's reporting was turned into a documentary that aired in 1996 called "Call for Justice."

We want to share part of it with you tonight and then let you hear from Quincy firsthand.

Let's take a look.

[Music] >> Every once in a while, we read about someone set free after years in prison for a crime he or she didn't commit.

It's hard to imagine being deprived of your freedom for something you didn't do.

Two summers ago, we got a letter from an inmate who said he was innocent.

Letters like that to news organizations are not uncommon, but there was something about this letter, something urgent and clear.

It took a while, but we started looking into the case.

For the next half hour, we're going to show you what we found.

The inmate's name is Quincy Spruell.

We call his story "A Call for Justice."

>> Somehow it seems like the whole idea of justice has been lost in the mix.

There's more of a need to get a conviction and to maintain a conviction in spite of innocence of guilt.

[Music] >> It all goes back to 1985 when a suspected drug dealer named Leonard Thompson was shot to death in his apartment on South Harrison Street in East Orange.

Quincy Spruell at the time was just a teenager hanging out on the streets of neighboring Newark.

He admits he was no angel.

>> We all know that Newark is a fairly rough city.

And, you know, I just got caught up into a lot of the things that was happening on the street at the time.

But certainly I've never done anything to warrant me spending 30 years of my life in prison.

>> Two months went by before the East Orange police got their first break in the case.

Aaron Diggs, a 15-year-old pulled out of Westside High in Newark for questioning about a robbery, told police he knew about a bigger robbery committed by four people.

Diggs named Quincy Spruell, another Newark teen, Shawn Cummings, and two older boys.

Diggs' mother, Alberta, backed up her son, saying one night on her front stoop she'd overheard Quincy Spruell laughing with some boys and saying, "I know that mother f is dead the way I shot his ass."

Heading the investigation was East Orange police detective Jack McGarry.

Through Aaron Diggs, he was led to two other young men said to have knowledge of the crime, Derrick Notis and Onnie Simmons.

Questioned separately at East Orange police headquarters, each one signed a statement saying the night of the murder, Quincy Spruell and Shawn Cummings had boasted to them about participating in a robbery and murder with two others and getting away with $1,800.

Simmons said they gave him $100.

Quincy Spruell was in Baltimore visiting his father and about to turn 19 when he was taken into custody for murder.

McGarry and an Essex County prosecutor's detective drove down to get him.

They questioned him at a Baltimore police station.

Spruell thought they were asking about a robbery he had been involved in, so under pressure, he says, he signed a confession, waived extradition, and on the ride back to New Jersey said he'd show the detectives where it happened.

Quincy Spruell confessed to the Essex County prosecutor's office that he had participated in a robbery at this building in Orange.

He had no idea at the time that they were actually arresting him for the murder on South Harrison Street in East Orange.

Spruell led the detectives to 490 Tremont Avenue in the city of Orange, not East Orange, and said this is where he and three others committed a robbery in part to avenge the beating of a woman friend.

The detectives then took Spruell to South Harrison Street in East Orange and said the crime you've confessed to, the murder of Leonard Thompson, took place here.

>> It was at that point that I told him I don't know nothing about that building.

And I felt some sense of relief at that point, knowing that I had nothing to do with this.

And it was just a relief, knowing that we're on different pages here.

>> The county prosecutor's office didn't see it that way.

Spruell and Cummings were indicted for murder and tried separately.

At his trial in the Fall of 1985, Spruell told the jury he'd committed a robbery in Orange, not a murder in East Orange.

Derrick Notis and Onnie Simmons, two of the four whose statements had implicated Spruell, recanted at the trial.

Each said they had given their statements under pressure from Detective McGarry.

Notice testified he was high on pills when police picked him up on the street around midnight and brought him to the East Orange police station, where Notice said McGarry ordered him to sign a typewritten statement implicating Spruell, and that when he refused, quote, "McGarry kept smacking me in my face until I signed it."

Onnie Simmons, who was just 15 at the time, testified McGarry interrogated him for three hours at police headquarters, told him that Derrick Notis had implicated him, and that he could be charged as an accessory to murder if he didn't sign a typewritten statement handed to him.

>> Somebody's telling this kid, "You're an accessory to this murder.

You got some money out of it.

And, you know, unless you tell us what your involvement was and what Quincy and Shawn's involvement was, you're an accessory.

You can be held."

>> In a letter to Spruell that summer, Derrick Notis wrote, "I'm sorry about all the trouble I got you in, but when the police picked me up, I was intoxicated and scared.

I didn't realize what I was doing.

I thought they was going to lock me up, so I just said anything.

I know you didn't do what they think you did.

I know you wouldn't do what they think you did."

Signed, Derrick Notis.

>> Derrick Notis felt as though his own freedom was in jeopardy at that time.

And, you know, it was nothing to him, you know, to give somebody else up, you know, or to put it on somebody else if it would allow him to walk.

You know, those type of situations take place all the time.

>> But McGarry testified that Notis and Simmons had given their statements voluntarily and that there had been no coercion.

The jury convicted Spruell, and Judge Leonard Ronco sentenced him to 30 years without any chance of parole.

He was sent to the state's maximum security prison in Trenton, where he has been for the past 10 1/2 years.

At his trial, Spruell had told the jury all about the robbery in Orange.

His lawyer even called to the stand the victim of that robbery, Jacob Cox, who said, "Yes, Quincy Spruell was one of the four who robbed me."

But the prosecutor, conceding that Spruell had participated in the robbery in Orange, asserted that he had also committed the murder of Leonard Thompson in East Orange.

>> I was charged for a crime, the death of Leonard Thompson, when, you know, I had nothing to do with it.

The Jacob Cox incident is what I was involved with.

>> Over the years, Spruell has acquired a small network of supporters who believe he is innocent.

Marilyn Melkonian, a Washington, D.C., housing developer who was friends with Spruell's late father; Bobby Hackett, a foundation executive in Princeton; Camille Kenny, a Newark lawyer who handled Spruell's appeal; and Jim McCloskey, the well-known crusader for the innocent behind bars.

His Princeton-based organization, Centurion Ministries, has a file on Spruell, but has not taken on his case because they're swamped with requests and because Spruell has a network of supporters.

>> We've done a pretty good review, not an exhaustive review, but enough to be familiar with the facts and circumstances of the case, and there's no question in our mind, based on what we know, and that's after a pretty careful review, that he's an innocent man.

He is what he says he is.

>> I mean, I've represented enough people and done this long enough.

I think I know when people are lying to me, and his whole way of being is consistent with innocence.

>> After two months, they got a small lead about a robbery, and they made all the facts, their additional facts, fit their case, and railroaded Quincy right into jail for a 30-year term without parole.

It's a miscarriage of justice.

>> After his trial, Spruell appealed.

A three-judge appellate panel and then the state Supreme Court both ruled that Judge Ronco should have held a separate hearing on the reliability of the Notis and Simmons statements to police that were recanted at trial.

The justices ordered a new hearing, so five years after his conviction, Spruell was brought back to the same court.

Again, Judge Leonard Ronco presided.

Camille Kenny argued that the original statements to police were unreliable, that they had been coerced.

>> I was not real hopeful, although we tried real hard, and I thought made a real good showing at the remand hearing that five years later, the trial judge was going to say, "Oh, gee, I was wrong.

I guess I shouldn't have let those statements in and let this kid stay in jail for five years.

I must have been wrong about that.

We need a whole new trial."

It just wasn't going to happen.

>> Notis and Simmons testified again that McGarry had coerced their original statements.

McGarry took the stand and again disputed that.

The judge ruled the original statements were reliable.

Again, Kenny appealed on behalf of Spruell, but this time the appellate division and the Supreme Court declined to hear her.

So this is Quincy Spruell's home, the halls and yards and cell at Trenton State.

Those who believe in him point to a number of factors suggesting his innocence.

Item, no physical evidence connected him to the crime, no witnesses, just hearsay.

>> There was no corroborating evidence.

There was nothing.

No physical evidence, no sample, no hair sample or blood or something taken from the scene, no fingerprint or anything like that.

There was nothing at Thompson's house that tied Quincy to this or any of the others.

Item, the victim, Leonard Thompson, was a suspected drug dealer.

The Drug Enforcement Administration office in Newark believed he was part of the organization of Wayne Pray, a major drug kingpin now doing life without parole in a federal penitentiary in Georgia.

The DEA supplied East Orange Police with a list of known associates of Thompson's.

Spruell and Cummings were not on the list, and there's no evidence the police even checked out the names on the list.

>> A DEA agent arrived at the scene of the murder because he had been investigating the victim himself, and he gave information to the local East Orange Police that this very possibly could have been a drug hit.

And to our knowledge, we've never seen anything to contradict it, that was not pursued, that obvious avenue of investigation was not pursued in any meaningful way whatsoever by the East Orange Police.

Rather, they took the shortcut.

>> In the trial testimony itself, the trial testimony that the jury heard, the judge heard, the prosecution put together, it's very clear that they had the wrong guy, that they didn't investigate the people who are likely to have done it, which were other drug dealers.

>> Item, of the four people who implicated Spruell, two recanted at trial, one, Aaron Diggs, wasn't even called at trial, and the fourth, his mother Alberta, testified that she'd been so afraid for her son's safety, she told police, quote, "anything they wanted to hear."

"The police told me that Aaron's life was at stake because the mafia was riding around in limousines and was going to kill Aaron on sight," she said, in a sworn statement to a defense investigator that she stood by at trial.

>> She's afraid for her son.

She's going to say what's necessary to get him out and to get this promise of protection.

>> Alberta Diggs added, quote, "they said my statement meant nothing, because Quincy Spruell already gave a statement, and they didn't need my statement anyway."

But Detective McGarry questioned Alberta Diggs eight days before he ever spoke to Quincy Spruell.

>> Alberta says that she had been told that Quincy had confessed to this murder, that what she had to say was never going to be used and was of no moment.

She said that at trial.

So she figures, well, I'm going to protect my son, and I'm not going to really do anybody any harm because it's all taken care of.

But of course, Quincy hadn't been spoken to.

He hadn't confessed to any murder.

He hadn't been arrested.

That wasn't true, what Alberta was told.

>> But Alberta Diggs did stand by her statement that she'd overheard Quincy Spruell say, "I know that mother f is dead the way I shot his ass."

>> Where does that come from?

>> I don't know.

That's not true.

I never made a statement like that.

I think that Ms. Diggs-- >> You think she made it up?

>> I think that Ms. Diggs was like a lioness trying to protect her cub.

I think that her son was in trouble, and I think that Ms. Diggs said whatever she had to say to get her son out of trouble.

>> Item--Quincy Spruell had at least a partial alibi.

The coroner's report fixed Leonard Thompson's time of death as sometime on February 20th or 21st.

All day on the 21st, Spruell says he was with his mother, his girlfriend, and his young daughter, celebrating the baby's first birthday at the mother's home.

>> So I knew he was there, and I don't recall him leaving, going nowhere for two, three, four hours, nothing like that.

That girlfriend, Martina Pamplin, is now Spruell's wife.

They were married at Trenton State Prison 15 months ago.

She was 15 and he was 17 when she got pregnant in 1983.

Their daughter, Sharell, just turned 12.

>> What's it like for you to have to go visit your father in a prison?

>> It's just like I don't feel right.

>> What would feel right?

>> It would feel right, if I could just, instead of him writing me, if I could just sit down and talk to him.

>> Do you know he's innocent?

>> Yes, I do.

>> How do you know he's innocent?

>> Because I know he couldn't have killed him.

He was with us, with me and her.

>> The DEA describes the Thompson murder as execution style.

Quincy was an 18-year-old kid.

I mean, he's not going to be doing execution-style murders.

Thompson was probably murdered by somebody in Pray's organization.

He must have done something to cross him.

>> One of the possible motives for killing Leonard Thompson was that Leonard Thompson was under active investigation.

Perhaps Wayne Pray was concerned that Leonard Thompson would turn him in, would snitch on him.

>> According to the DEA, Wayne Pray had between 200 and 400 people in his drug network and used violence when necessary to maintain his control.

>> 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?"

>> Quincy Spruell, with me now, you drove up from Baltimore to be here with us.

I thank you for that.

I was watching you as we were watching the documentary.

I imagine you haven't seen this in quite some time.

What was that like?

>> It's definitely a travel down memory lane.

Some parts it's difficult to look at because it takes you back to that place and that time.

You were essentially fighting for your life.

>> And you're a young man.

You were a teenager when you were arrested.

>> Right.

>> At what point did you say, "I'm going to reach out to a news organization, to Michael Aron, and write a letter, give it a shot"?

>>I think it was sometime around, might have been around '90, '91.

My cell essentially became my battle station.

I developed a list of organizations and people that I thought can be of assistance.

And I wrote everybody, CNN, not CNN at the time, but 60 Minutes, Dateline, 20/20.

Those were some of the organizations at the time that were doing reports on wrongful conviction cases.

So I was writing everybody.

>> So eventually you hear back from Michael, I'm guessing via letter?

>> Right.

>> And what was that like?

What did he write to you?

>> It was exciting.

I called Camille, and she had told me that she had some conversation with Michael and Marilyn-- >> Camille being your attorney at the time?

>> Yes, Camille Kenny.

And Ms. Marilyn Melkonian, he was in touch with, and told them the date that he was interested in looking into the case.

So it was an exciting time for me, the people that were supporting me, and my family.

It was like a godsend, like a prayer had been answered.

>> How, though, knowing that you're innocent, right, and knowing that all these, I'll say, sloppy errors were being made as far as what was being relayed to you, how did you find that strength to fight?

>> My family and my daughter was a big inspiration.

She was only one years old when I had got locked up, so getting home to her was a priority.

I mean, and living in there is, you know, it's not a place you want to be, and especially if you shouldn't be there, if you've been convicted of something you didn't do, there's a demand that you fight and that you struggle for release.

>> But you, at some point, did you lose faith in the justice system, that they would even go so far as to hear an appeal and go through that process?

I mean, after seeing how it was playing out?

>>Yeah, maintaining faith in the justice system was a challenge.

I mean, I don't think that my faith was with them.

I think that I had faith in the higher power.

I had confidence in the people that were supporting me, like my attorneys, like Marilyn and Michael.

And, yeah, so it wasn't about faith in the system.

It was about, you know, faith in the higher power and knowing that you have to find a way out.

>> Knowing that you were there wrongfully and that you wanted to get back to your family.

>> Right.

>> What effect do you think the two key witnesses, Derrick Notis and Onnie Simmons, what effect do you think the fact that they recanted during the trial, did that have on your conviction and on your belief in where this would go?

>> During trial, I thought that their recantations would definitely be impactful.

>> You would think, right?

>> Yeah, like it was mentioned, there was no real evidence linking either me or Cummings to the murder.

The case was just based on, you know, those statements that were made.

So I thought that with those being recanted, you know, a big part of the case would suffer.

I mean, it was just unbelievable that a jury decided to still find me guilty under those circumstances.

>>So when you get the notification that Michael Aaron is going to come with a news crew and sit down for an interview with you, how did you process that and how did you mentally prepare?

Because I'm sure it felt like you had everything on the line.

>>Yeah, it was an exciting time, but it was definitely pressure filled because I felt like my freedom could hinge on how well I was able to express my innocence and articulate the issues in my case.

So I definitely felt a lot of pressure, but I think that just having faith in the higher power and believing in something greater and believing in justice and believing that right will prevail is what helped to sustain me.

>> How did you keep yourself, I don't want to say balanced because I imagine you can't be balanced.

I know you experienced solitary while you were imprisoned as well.

How did you keep yourself together?

>>Well, I think it's interesting that you use the term balance because that is what I pursued.

Being in that situation, you could be down a lot.

Moments of happiness are temporary.

You know, like the good news that, you know, a journalist has taken interest in your case, somebody that's credible and respected.

That can be a lift.

But then the reality of your circumstance brings you down.

>> Those walls are still around you.

>> Exactly.

And they are real.

So you find balance.

You seek balance.

That's how I survived 25 years of that.

Not looking to be happy, but just looking for that middle road to be balanced.

That was important for me.

>> But you also went through a big transformation in seeking an education and going on to help others, which we'll talk about later.

You could have just focused on yourself and staying balanced, but you didn't.

>> No.

Yeah, helping others was important to me.

When I first got locked up, for an example, when Shawn Cummings came to Trenton State Prison, he was 17 years old.

>> Yeah.

You guys are babies.

>> Yeah.

And it was fine for him to push a broom, to mop, and prison authorities had no problem with that.

And it angered me because I felt like he should be in school, you know.

So that, you know, education was important to me.

I felt like without books, without learning, without an interest in those type of things, I wouldn't have never found my way out.

So, yeah, I committed a lot of time to try and help other people.

>> Yeah.

An outlet.

Quincy, thank you.

We're going to talk more in just a bit.

That's going to do it for us this evening, but tune in tomorrow night for more of Michael Aron's documentary, "Call for Justice," and we continue our conversation with Quincy Spruell.

Don't forget, 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 happy and healthy new year.

Help others.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow night.

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