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The suspicious journey before a prosecutor’s death

November 19, 2018 / 33:35

This episode covers the mysterious death of Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Luna, the missing $36,000 from a courthouse, and the drug trafficking case involving Warren Grace, Walter Poindexter, and Daniel Smith.

The episode begins with Luna's involvement in a federal investigation linked to a missing money case from a courthouse evidence vault. Allegations of misconduct arise, leading to a plea deal that raises questions about legality.

Listeners learn about Jonathan Luna's background, from his upbringing in the South Bronx to his career as a federal prosecutor in Baltimore. His work involves prosecuting serious crimes, including drug trafficking and murder.

The narrative shifts to the drug trafficking case involving informant Warren Grace, who provides information to the FBI about his associates. However, Grace's credibility becomes questionable during the trial, leading to complications for Luna.

The episode culminates in Luna's mysterious death, ruled a homicide, and the ongoing investigation into the circumstances surrounding it. The episode raises questions about the integrity of the legal system and the challenges faced by prosecutors.

TLDR

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Luna's mysterious death intertwines with a drug trafficking case and missing courthouse money, raising serious legal questions.

Episode

33:35
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[Music] he was implicated in a case of missing money from a courthouse evidence fault
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there were allegations of misconduct and illegal handling of a witness in a major
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drug trafficking trial which led to the judge ordering a federal investigation one way to stop that federal
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investigation would be to come up with a quick plea deal to end the case one problem there was no way to do the plea
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deal without violating federal law and unfortunately for us Assistant Attorney Jonathan Luna this wasn't even the worst
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of it not even close [Music] [Music] out of the housing projects in the South Bronx New York City described to some of
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the poorest neighborhoods in the country came Jonathan Luna despite the nonstop violence shootings
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gangs and drugs that he grew up around Jonathan somehow managed to avoid it all and become a bright well-read student
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breeding and learning to better himself was Jonathan's drug of choice he dedicated himself to school saying that
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to be successful you had to be educated in high school he also developed the love of running and keeping fit if he
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wasn't studying he was running to his own hard work and determination Jonathan Luna overcame the
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poverty-stricken drug written violent housing projects who was brought up in and went off to college
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he was later accepted into the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1992 he graduated from law school
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and won a clerkship with a US District Judge in Greensboro North Carolina soon after he would go on to be hired as an
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associate at Arnold & Porter a law firm in Washington DC he then married the love of his life Angela in 1993 from 94
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to 97 he worked as a staff attorney in the Federal Trade Commission counsel's office but he felt a calling towards
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prosecution and in 1997 he took the Assistant District Attorney's job in Brooklyn then in 1999 he was hired as
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the assistant US attorney in Maryland a federal prosecutor when he won this job he and his wife moved to Baltimore where
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the US Attorney's Office was located Baltimore at the time was the city with a population of about 650,000 people
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it's estimated that about 10 percent of that population were addicted to either crack or heroin on average the city had
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over 200 murders Aichi it was a tough fallen city with a large drug problem there was also widespread allegations
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from residents of corruption amongst the police and other city officials Assistant US Attorney Jonathan Luna
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handled tough cases he prosecuted drug dealers bank robbers pedophiles murderers but it was the investigation
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of two drug traffickers down smith's the multi-plane dexter and the star witness
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against them warren grace where we begin this bizarre story [Music] at 21 years of age Warren grace had
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already served five years in prison on heroin and gun charges it just so happened that he was selling drugs for
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Walter Poindexter when he was caught Walter locked Warren and made sure he was as comfortable as possible when he
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was in prison he visited him regularly and was always sending in money and when Warren was eventually released from
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prison he went to live with Walter and it didn't take long for him to get straight back into the drug trade
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Walter Poindexter was a street level dealer yet various runners working a corner for him he's made me in being
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Warren grace but Walter had to sauce his drugs from somewhere too and that's where Daniel Smith comes in Dan Smith
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was an independent rap music producer and an aspiring rapper himself he was also a mid-level supplier of heroin he
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had access to the higher level dealers the organized crime gangs in New York Dan would get his drugs from New York
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Walter would then buy the drugs from day on which then he would on sell to the street on a bad day Walter and Warren
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would make a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars but that was a bad day good days could be anywhere from three
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to four thousand dollars and of course the best days of trade were the two days of the month that government assistant
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checks were issued despite business being good Walter Poindexter kept getting himself arrested
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no major drug supply charges yet but enough to keep him out of action for a little while in a way this was good news
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for Warren because he Walters absence and then he got to run the corner and make more money
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that is until Warren himself came unstuck and good arrested on April 7th 2002 Baltimore police raided his house
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to find scales heroin and two guns he was also charged with aiding and abetting this was bad news for Warren
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very bad news given his history and what he had just been caught with he faced at
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least 40 years in prison 30 without the possibility of parole he was facing the very real possibility that he wouldn't
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see the streets again until he was in his mid-50s that wasn't a very exciting prospect for
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Lauren but you've been keeping an ace up his sleeve in case you ever found himself in a bad position such as this
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he had information about the murder of Elvin Jones a murder committed by his good friend Walter Poindexter in 2001
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before Walter was arrested one of his drug users was robbed Byrd got back to him that Alvin James was the main
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responsible Walter's retaliation was swift and brutal he filled him full of bullets so
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not only was it a murder it was a drug-related murder meaning lots of Poindexter would go to prison
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without the chance of ever getting out and could even face the death penalty not only was Warren Grace happy to give
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up his friend for murder he was also more than happy to talk to the police about the drug syndicate it
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was a part of Baltimore police contacted the FBI and they couldn't resist the opportunity
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locking up a rap music producer for drug supply and clearing a drug-related shooting day we're in
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the FBI agent in charge of the case was agent Steve Skinner from the Baltimore field office he quickly filled in
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Assistant US Attorney Jonathan Luna about what they had Luna quickly arranged for Warren to be brought into
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his office along with agent Skinner to discuss what he knew Warren knew how it worked he had
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information but that information wasn't going to be for free so in order to show
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just how cooperative they were willing to be Luna dropped the aiding and abetting charge that Warren was facing
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and just like that his 40 year term dropped down to 30 but that was just the beginning if he worked with the
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government cooperated with the FBI and testified truthfully he would be granted further reductions in sentencing the FBI
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took over the case and filed Warren's charges in a federal court where they had control on May 31st 2002 Warren pled
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guilty to the gun and drug charges and he was released to a halfway house to work undercover with agent Skinner and
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the FBI basta was awaiting his sentencing Cal well the case was built against Smith and Poindexter and how
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well he testified would ultimately lead to a greater reduced sentence and he even got paid for his trouble as part of
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the deal Warren grace had to agree not to use a firearm not to use drugs and not to leave the halfway house without
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the approval of the FBI he also had to wear a monitoring device they didn't take long to break every one
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of those rules in fact he would go right back to drug dealing into shooting up the neighborhood heaven removed his
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monitoring device at times agent Skinner effectively turned a blind eye to all of this and even took active
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steps to ensure Warren's release wasn't revoked he knew what he was up to but he
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left him out on the street putting the community at risk anyway he just wanted him to get to Poindexter and Smith
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that's all he cared about Warren Grace was basically free to do what he wanted with the blessing of
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agent Skinner to build that case the FBI wide Warren up and recorded his conversations with
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Dylan Smith they got plenty of conversations nailing Smith for drug trafficking and it wasn't long before
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Walter Poindexter was released from his current sentence either and they got plenty of incriminating evidence against
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him on tape - thanks to Warren the FBI would also conduct surveillance and observe some drug transactions taking
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place they gave Warren money to buy the drugs the deal was recorded then he would end
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the drugs over to the FBI to be ended up as evidence the FBI used Warren grace to
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build their case Jonathan Luna was busy prosecuting other cases in September 2002 he prosecuted
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notorious bank robber Nicole Brown Nicole Brown was being defended by Kenneth Ravenel who would also later
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represent Dion Smith on the 16th of September 2002 60 3123 dollars was wheeled into the courtroom sealed into
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three separate bags the money was seized from the safe of Browns accomplice it was wheeled into the court shown to the
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jury and judge and ended in evidence at the conclusion of the court day the money had to be taken to the evidence
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fault in the courthouse Jonathan Luna and the FBI agent in charge of the case were responsible for
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escorting the money to the vault on the 26th of September ten days later once the trial was concluded the judge ruled
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all the evidence could be returned and it was here that it was discovered that a bag of the money was missing the bag
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missing contains thirty eight thousand one hundred dollars and what was significant about that bag was that it
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contained all of the money that the FBI couldn't identify or couldn't trace back
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to a bank note it was stolen from agents in charge of the case from the FBI Baltimore field office were officially
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the ones responsible for the money and to ensure its safekeeping so who do you think was handed the investigation to
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find out what happened to the missing money the Baltimore FBI field office of course
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it's not known if the money ever made it into the vault if it didn't that would indicate that Jonathan Luna played a
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part in its disappearance but it's more than possible the money was stolen from the vault at a later time
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ten days had passed before anyone had noticed it missing that's a lot of time for somebody to arrange to take it and
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many people came and went from the vault the story was leaked to the media soon after the media reported that more than
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36,000 dollars was missing they didn't have the exact figure so from that point on it was reported and became public
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belief that 36,000 dollars was stolen the case came to be known in the papers as the missing 36 thousand dollars the
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FBI conducted their investigation they interviewed everyone involved everyone from the judge down was interviewed the
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FBI was eager to dodge any blame for the missing money they had to try and lay the blame somewhere else this created
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tension between the Baltimore FBI field office and the Baltimore US Attorney's Office meanwhile the FBI's investigation
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into Dion Smith and Walter Poindexter continued they didn't come to an end until May 13th 2003 when they raided
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down Smith's stash house records and arrested both down and Walter both were charged with trafficking heroin
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Walter was also charged with murdering Alvin Jones although the murder trial would be
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conducted separately Darin and Walter were to be tried together on the trafficking charges and if the murder of
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Alvin Jones was brought up that would be unfair to Dion as he had nothing to do with it and it would more than likely
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result in a mistrial so the prosecution had to be careful not to mention the murder in the drug trafficking trial
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Jonathan Luna still had to file paperwork to the court about the murder and he made sure to include just how
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much information they had to prove the murder was drug-related he threatened Walter with the death
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penalty they had taped conversations detailing the murder they had Warren's testimony and they also had other
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witnesses this was important because with a drug-related murder no plea deal could be negotiated
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jonathan luna and bruce required under federal law to prosecute it the joint trial for Dion and Walters trafficking
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charges began on the 1st of December 2003 jonathan luna failed to mention that warren grace had repeatedly
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violated the terms of his plea agreement they also failed to disclose he was a paid informant this information should
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have been provided in Discovery but it wasn't and it would have serious consequences
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Warren grace was called to the stand to testify the first day of trial and he failed in the witness box
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mumbling his answers of being unclear with things it was a bad witness in fact it was so bad the judge called an early
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end to the day to allow Luna to work with him overnight it was hoped that maybe he would be a little more useful
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in the witness box the following day despite Luna not disclosing any of the information about warrant of the defense
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somebody had tipped them off and before the day ended the defense team raised the issue with the judge that they had
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information suggesting one grace had repeatedly violated the terms of his plea agreement by dealing drugs and
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engaging in violent behavior and that agent Skinner had effectively turned a blind eye it was an even more hot topic
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than usual because at this very moment a congressional investigation was being conducted into the FBI's Criminal Miss
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handling of informants imagine how nervous the FBI agents involved in this case agent Skinner being the main one
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and Jonathan lunar himself were feeling when the defense team races that was career-ending stuff especially when the
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judge asked us a copy of the violations report that was a big problem because there wasn't one
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day one was a shocking star for Luna and it didn't get much better on day two the
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side of the day Warren grace got back into the witness box and detailed the heroin operation of Deon Smith and
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Walter Poindexter but again Warren struggled he couldn't quite seem to lay the groundwork that
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Poindexter estimates were involved in a conspiracy together to traffic heroin Luna goes under pull a very surprising
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move he gets Warren to testify the violations that he committed against his plea deal
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obviously sweeping the violations under the rug hadn't worked so Luna decided to
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come here swing he decided he wanted to show the jury he was not trying to hide anything Luna was described as a sharp
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attorney experienced in criminal trials but in this case he seemed anything but he was scolded by the judge on more than
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one occasion for things like inappropriately trying to get evidence in and for forgetting to bring evidence
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to the court forgetting other files it seemed like he was lost it was a very unlearn alot
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performance with Warren's play violations Neal on record had created the opportunity for their defense they
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filed a motion to have all charges dismissed but the judge refused Warren's credibility was shot and Luna
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and the FBI were in trouble for trying to keep her quiet but there's still the issue of the hours of tapes detailing
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Dion and Walters drug trafficking activities the judge wasn't ready to dismiss just yet but the defense kept
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arguing the issue and lunar ended up lying he said he did in fact in the documents over detailing the violations
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and he can't explain why the defense is saying they didn't get them but the defense weren't having any of it they
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kept hammering the point of misbehavior and a cover-up by Luna and agent Skinner
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the defense then tried their luck for a missed role and the judge said he would consider it over not a mistral wasn't as
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good as a dismissal because with the mistrial a new trial could start over again at a later date and Walter and
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Dion would have to stay in prison until that new trial started later that night once day two of the trial had concluded
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the defense were tipped off with further information and the next day December 3rd 2003
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day three of the trial they withdrew their application for a mistrial and argued for a full-blown dismissal they
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now had information Luna and the FBI had conspired with the judge to block him issuing a warrant for Warren grace over
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his plea deal violations despite these allegations the judge refused to dismiss the charges there were still the tapes
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after all the trial continued and Warren grace got back into the witness box and
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they now go through the tape recordings when he finished his testimony the defense selected to delay their
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cross-examination of him the judge ordered Warren not to talk about his testimony or his violations or
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any other issues in the case with either Luna or the FBI until he had been questioned by the defense
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agent Skinner then took the stand and another cat is let out of the bag Skinner admitted in the box that Warren
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was a paid informant the defense still weren't aware of that and they couldn't believe what they were hearing they made
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another objection yet more information that wasn't disclosed to them this should have been but the judge overruled
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and just wanted to keep the trial moving forward Skinner then went on to detail the
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violations committed by Warren trying to avoid any blame or any knowledge before
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getting into the actual evidence against Deon and Walter at the conclusion of Skinner's testimony the defense
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successfully argued for a federal court in quarry into the MIS handling and cover-ups involving Warren grace the
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judge orders the FBI Luna and the US Attorney's Office be investigated anxious for that not to happen Luna came
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up with a plea deal he discussed the deal with the defense attorneys in the lunch break the lawyer for Poindexter
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demanded the murder charge be dropped as part of a deal so the deal offered was about ten years in prison for Smith who
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was facing 30 and 15 years in prison for Poindexter it was facing the possibility
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of the death penalty or at least lost without although the defense had exposed some serious issues with the handling of
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the case they knew it was a great deal for their clients there's still the issue of their clients being recorded on
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tape with the drug trafficking it was hard to make day's work boardings go away and the judge had
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already denied a dismissal twice because of those tapes when the deal was taken to Smith and Poindexter they couldn't
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say yes quick enough they knew how lenient the deal was Luna agreed to the requests to drop the
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murder charge but the problem was he couldn't there was against the law the murder charge was drug-related and no
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plea deal could be negotiated federal rules Luna must prosecute a drug-related murder but Lunas neck depended on the
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plague room in going ahead so did the necks of a few of his work colleagues in the US Attorney's Office and a few necks
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at the FBI Baltimore field office as well in the neck of one judge but Luna had already placed too much in the court
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file detailing just how related to drugs the murder of Alban Jones was it was too
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late to make that disappear but Luna agreed to the deal in a year when court resumed after lunch - Luna inform the
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judge that I've come to an agreement they approached the bench and the judge said that he wanted it signed in writing
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before he sent the jury home let's hear that Poindexter's lawyer questions if Luna could even make the deal happen
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given the issue of the murder charge but Luna says to the judge that he will be able to take care of it until it was in
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writing though the judge wanted to move forward with the trial at the conclusion
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of the third day's evidence the judge instructed Luna to either have the plea agreement signed off in writing or to
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come to court the next morning with his next witness ready to go after court concluded Luna got to work
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on the deal trying to work out how to make the murder of Elvin Jones go away so it could cover up the scandal and
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impending investigation in a federal court lunar couldn't approve the deal himself either had to be signed off by
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his superiors so how did Luna make the evidence that it was a drug-related murder disappear well he couldn't it was
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too late there was no way Luna could make this plea agreement lawfully unless he lied
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and said there was no evidence it was a drug-related murder Luna would be badly exposed if you went down that path
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though it wouldn't take much digging to show that it was a lawyer and if it was caught lying on an official court
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document that would mean his career would be over he would never practice law again Luna obviously struggled back
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and forth with this throughout the afternoon and into the night he stayed in his office working on the deal free
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hours she sought the help of his work colleague assistant US attorney James worry he then made a quick trip home for
00:21:54
dinner before returning to his office to keep working on a deal he worked all the
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way up to just before midnight he completed the deal for Dion smith easily enough but he couldn't complete the deal
00:22:06
for Walter Poindexter shortly before midnight Luna left his office with Walter Poindexter still still unfinished
00:22:14
only half completed on his computer Luna left his seen glasses and his mobile phone on his desk it is unknown if Luna
00:22:24
was alone or if there was somebody else with him despite being a federal building security wasn't that high
00:22:30
actually it was described as being virtually non-existent at the time there were no security cameras inside to show
00:22:37
what happened but we do know that at 11:38 p.m. Lunas car is recorded leaving the building we don't know if it was
00:22:45
alone in the car or not but interestingly Luna needed his glasses to drive and they were up on his desk in
00:22:52
his office Lunas car started to head out of town in fact it actually headed out of the state
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this was the beginning of an extremely strange journey that would go through four states before the night was L he
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headed out of state and drove into Delaware at 12:57 a.m. lunar or somebody using his card withdrew $200 from an ATM
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at the rest stop in Delaware as luck would have it the security cameras weren't working at the time this
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withdrawal was made this Delaware stop was about halfway to Philadelphia and Philadelphia prison is where Warren
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Grace was being held that may have something to do with why was headed in that direction
00:23:35
Luna's trip to Delaware was recorded on his electronic toll tag but after he's withdrawal of the $200 the remaining
00:23:43
tolls of lunes journey were paid with cash at 2:37 a.m. Lunas car entered the New Jersey Turnpike this is one a hour
00:23:53
and 40 minutes since the ATM withdrawal but this journey would only take about 45 minutes so there is close to an hour
00:24:00
missing shortly after heading into New Jersey the car headed west towards Pennsylvania Lunas car enters the
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Pennsylvania Turnpike at about 2:40 7 a.m. at Turnpike is a toll road for those who might be unaware at 3:20 a.m.
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Lunas debit card is used again this time to buy petrol at a rest stop on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and wouldn't you
00:24:25
know it the security cameras failed to capture anything yet again at 4:04 a.m. Lunas car left the Pennsylvania Turnpike
00:24:35
at exit 286 the Tollbooth ticket was later found to have a small spot of Lunas blood on it
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this journey was bizarre and made no sense at all but somebody deliberately trying to make it confusing to throw
00:24:50
investigators off about two miles from the turnpike Lunas car was found abandoned in an isolated area off a dirt
00:24:59
road near a warehouse used by a drilling company the drilling company was still in operation but it wasn't open at
00:25:05
nighttime so it was a quiet area nobody was around tire tracks show Lunas car was first behind the warehouse and this
00:25:15
is where it was thought that Luna was left for dead he'd been stabbed 36 times stab wounds all over his body including
00:25:22
his back in extensive defensive wounds on his hands there was a large pool of blood on the floor in the backseat of
00:25:28
the car but there was also blood on the driver's side door so this is where it was thought Luna may have been left for
00:25:35
dead in the backseat but he managed to get into the driver's seat to try and get away the car drive from the
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warehouse a short distance over to a nearby creek and that's where I thought jonathan may have got out of the car to
00:25:47
try to run his body was found facedown in the creek right next to his car despite his extensive wounds the actual
00:25:55
cause of death was drowning Jonathan Luna was still wearing his courtroom business suit shirt and tie
00:26:01
overcoat and his court shoes his courthouse ID badge was still hanging around his neck the car was still
00:26:09
running and was about $30 scattered throughout Luna was found about 5:30 a.m. that morning the fourth of December
00:26:17
when employees from the drilling company started to arrive to work that morning was also de Fora Poindexter's and Smith
00:26:25
stroll court started at 9:30 a.m. that still wasn't known by those involved in the case that lunar had been killed
00:26:33
assistant US attorney James Warwick who lunar had spoken to the night before about their deal appeared in court on
00:26:39
his behalf he apologized to the judge for Lunas absence and said they didn't know where he was the office was still
00:26:46
trying to track him down however he had some knowledge of the case and was prepared to act on Lunas behalf
00:26:54
where it rushed ahead with the play agreement despite Lunas absence where it ran out to Lunas office to try and find
00:27:02
the play deals if he on Smith's completed but Poindexter's was still unfinished on the computer so Warrick
00:27:08
took it upon himself to finish it and returned to the court with the two completed signed off play deals what
00:27:15
Luna couldn't or wouldn't do the night before James Warwick had Danny in about an hour or so nobody seemed to concern
00:27:22
Luna was missing at this point it's amazing all this was allowed to go ahead and was rushed through the way it was
00:27:28
the defense saw on the deal and it was done Poindexter was not prosecuted for the murder of Elvin Jones the murder was
00:27:36
essentially swept under the rug there wasn't long after this that news of Lunas death broke the coroner
00:27:44
immediately ruled Luna was the victim of a vicious homicide the coroner was quoted as saying you would think they
00:27:50
were perhaps after information from the guy when you see something like this you said this because some of the wounds
00:27:56
were only very shallow and it looked as though the knife as maybe just being held to his body what you would do
00:28:01
trying to get information here to somebody or threatening them given there was a spot of blood on Lunas
00:28:07
toll ticket when the car left the Pennsylvania Turnpike and a large pool of blood found in the backseat it's
00:28:12
quite possible he was being tortured during this bizarre journey the car took only days later stories were leaked to
00:28:21
the media from unnamed federal law sources reminding everybody about the missing $36,000 then there was
00:28:28
information leaked suggesting Luna was involved in affairs and posting on internet dating sites those stories of
00:28:34
him having a larger me on a debt that his wife didn't know about and that he was having problems in the workplace so
00:28:40
it seems as our public's media campaign was well underway quite obviously they'll trying to make you clear there
00:28:47
were plenty of motives for his murder none of which were to do with his work and the FBI quickly told the media they
00:28:53
believed Lunas death was not related to his work and it was more than likely the
00:28:57
result of a personal relationship turning bad about six weeks later in January 2004 a pen knife was found in
00:29:06
the creek right next to the spot that Lunas body was found this was interesting as it was found in a spot
00:29:13
that had already been extensively searched how was it that it wasn't found prior to this the next month in February
00:29:21
more unnamed law sources late to the media that was strongly considering a possibility that Luna committed suicide
00:29:28
they also leaked who is due to face a polygraph test over the missing 36 thousand dollars just prior to his death
00:29:34
that combined with his debt and the other alleged problems leaked to the media in Lunas life were the reasons
00:29:40
given for suicide a pretty amazing theory when you consider the blood on the tail ticket the pool of blood in the
00:29:47
back seat the defensive wounds to his hands and the wounds on his back also there was genital mutilation involved so
00:29:56
Jonathan Luna drove himself through four states stabbed himself 36 times which would have had to a start while I was
00:30:02
driving because there was blood on the toll ticket then jumped into the backseat to stab himself some more then
00:30:08
ran into the creek to drown himself the FBI tried to get the coroner to rule in his death was a suicide the coroner
00:30:18
who originally ruled Lunas death a homicide had moved on the new coroner refused the FBI's request confirming the
00:30:25
original ruling that Lunas death was a homicide and years later a third coroner would also confirm Lunas death was a
00:30:31
homicide to this day the investigation is still ongoing there is a $100,000 reward for any information leading to
00:30:40
the case being solved there are no known suspects and no known motive at least none that are being made public anyway
00:30:48
who wants a poindexter was later sentenced to 14 years in prison he was never prosecuted for the murder of Elvin
00:30:55
Jones Darren Smith's got just over nine years in prison and Warren grace was sentenced to seven years in prison with
00:31:03
credit for time already served and there's an interesting side note to all of this it doesn't have anything to do
00:31:10
with Jonathan Lunas death but it just goes to show what sort of a city he was working in at the time just prior to his
00:31:18
death others in his office were close to handing down an indictment against former Baltimore police commissioner and
00:31:24
now the Maryland State Police Superintendent Edward Norris along with his former chief of staff and others for
00:31:31
corruption and fraud in the handling of police accounts they were caught using police funds to pay for sexual favors
00:31:40
escorts to finance luxury hotel suites to buy girl's lingerie pay for expensive dinners and so on this was all going
00:31:49
down at the time of Lunas death in fact the charges were filed within a week after his death so that's what the
00:31:56
people in charge of the police are up to a similar scandal was uncovered around the same time involving police and other
00:32:02
officials in Pennsylvania as I said it's not suggested this is in any way related
00:32:08
to Lunas death it just provides a nice snapshot of what was going on in Baltimore at the time one of Lunas
00:32:16
closest friends has a theory why they experienced usually well-prepared intelligent prosecutor appeared to
00:32:22
bumble and fumble his way through the trial Poindexter and Smith making it look as though he had no idea at
00:32:28
torrance ultimately his actions would lead to the judge ordering a federal investigation
00:32:34
the Lunas friends theory was that Luna knew exactly what he was doing and what his actions would lead to and it's
00:32:41
exactly what he wanted to happen this is what his close friend Danny Rivera had to say you have to understand Joey he
00:32:52
was sly and extremely smart he didn't always do things straight on he was smart enough to sometimes work below the
00:32:59
surface Joey couldn't have liked that stuff Skinner and the others were pulling I know Joey but what was he
00:33:07
going to do about it that stuff about leaving things back on his desk and not knowing how to
00:33:11
introduce evidence come on of being with Joey in court he was sharp that's not Joey don't you see he was trying to
00:33:22
expose them [Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 90
    Biggest twist
  • 85
    Most shocking
  • 80
    Most intense
  • 80
    Most surprising

Episode Highlights

  • The Mysterious Journey
    Luna's car left the courthouse and embarked on a bizarre journey through four states.
    “This journey was bizarre and made no sense at all.”
    @ 24m 42s
    November 19, 2018
  • The Discovery of Luna's Body
    Luna was found stabbed 36 times, left for dead in his car.
    “Luna was still wearing his courtroom business suit, shirt and tie.”
    @ 25m 57s
    November 19, 2018
  • Coroner's Ruling
    The coroner ruled Luna's death a homicide, despite FBI claims of suicide.
    “You would think they were perhaps after information from the guy.”
    @ 27m 50s
    November 19, 2018

Episode Quotes

  • This journey was bizarre and made no sense at all.
    The suspicious journey before a prosecutor’s death
  • Luna was still wearing his courtroom business suit, shirt and tie.
    The suspicious journey before a prosecutor’s death
  • You would think they were perhaps after information from the guy.
    The suspicious journey before a prosecutor’s death

Key Moments

  • Plea Agreement Pressure20:45
  • Bizarre Journey Begins23:01
  • Luna Found25:50
  • Coroner's Ruling27:44
  • Media Leaks28:21
  • Investigation Ongoing30:35

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown