My Case by Arthur Tyler

 

 

              On March 12, 1983 Mr. Sander Leach was shot and killed in his van outside the parking lot of the East 66th Street Meat Market in Cleveland,Ohio.

 

On this day Leroy Head and myself went to the  East 66th Street Meat Market to cash a stolen check.  Mr Sander Leach sold produce outside in the parking lot of the Meat Market.  While I was in the store, Leroy Head decided to attempt to rob Sanders Leach, and ended up shooting and killing him. 

 

On March 14, 1983, the police brought Leroy Head and two of his friends, Anthony Gillis and Jeffrey Gillis, to the police station to question them concerning an unrelated homicide. The police believed that these individuals were witnesses, as opposed to suspects, to an unrelated murder.

 

During the interviews, the subject of the Leach murder came up. Anthony and Jeffrey Gillis informed the officers that Head shot Sander Leach, "HEAD came to their] house right after the shooting and told them that he just killed the old man who sold produce on East 66th." The police sought to talk with Head about the crime but he refused until he could speak with his mother, Barbara Head.

The police officers transported her to the police station. After meeting with her son "for approx [sic] 3 minutes she came out of the room crying and saying that he did it." Head then confessed to police that while Tyler was outside Sander Leach's van and unaware of what was taking place inside the van, Head and Leach struggled during which Head shot Mr. Leach. Head reduced his oral confession to writing "at the first shot I starting [sic] falling over towards him, and that's when the gun went off a second time". On March 14, 1983, Detectives Svekric and Kunz took a written statement from Anthony Gillis.

In response to the question whether he knew who shot Sander Leach, Gillis responded "Yes, Leroy Head."

On March 16, 1983 I voluntarily appeared at the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department. When interviewed, I said that I was outside Mr. Leach's van when Head shot Mr Leach.

On March 24, 1983, Head again confessed to being the killer. During an interview with Arthur Provenzano, an investigator for Arthur Tyler's lawyer, Head wrote out a statement in which he admitted to having fatally shot Sander Leach while Tyler was outside the van. "I grabbed for it [the gun] and it went off - the old man fell back and I fell on top of him - the gun went off again."

In his original confession, Head told authorities that Leach pulled a gun during the robbery and was shot twice as he and Head struggled over the weapon.
Head said he left the gun in Leach's van when he fled. Police said no gun was found there, but that's hardly definitive: Testimony revealed that at least two people from the neighborhood were in and out of the van before police arrived. One actually moved the body. So, there's no telling whether the shooter left a gun or not.
Police also said that Leach's wife told them he never took a gun to work. So, the prosecution argued, Head's confession had to be a fabrication.
But records show that Mrs. Leach told defense investigators the opposite - that her husband usually did carry a gun with him.
And according to apparently undisclosed portions of a police report, detectives found an unspent .38-caliber bullet in Leach's pocket - the same caliber as the gun that killed him.

 

 

On May 18, 1983, the same Detective again met with Anthony Gillis. He confirmed for the police that Head asked him to dispose of the pistol that he (Head) used to shoot Leach. "So I asked Leroy did he kill him, and he said I think so."

On more than five occasions, Leroy Head stated that he had in fact committed the murder that I was eventually convicted of committing

In his confession Leroy Head, implicated me in this crime stating that I was with him when he committed the murder, he then confessed again to an investigator hired by my Attorney's clearing me of any wrong doing.

Then on May 27, 1983, during a meeting involving Head and his lawyer, Stuart Saferin, and Assistant County Prosecutor Gerstenslager, Head changed his story and said that it was me who shot Sander Leach.

Within a week he pled guilty to the Aggravated Murder and Aggravated Robbery of Sander Leach. The Aggravated Murder charge included a firearm specification, but not a capital specification, thereby removing all risk for Head that he would be sentenced to death.

We were both charged with aggravated murder.

Their theory was that I borrowed a nickel for a bag. Borrowed bullets, planned to rob Mr Sander Leach, and that Leroy Head only confessed because I told him I would kill his family if he ever told anyone, and that he should plead guilty because he wouldn't get much time.

After Anthony Gillis made his statements against Head, he too had a change of heart and decided I threatened him as well.

Both were allowed to disregard their statements and confessions and put the murder on me.

The "evidence" Leroy Head gave to the police was that, "he watched a guy about 45 years old, with brown skin and an afro, give me bullets.

 

 

Leroy Head said we stopped to buy a paper bag to put the gun in. A woman testified that we stopped and bought a bag, but it was not the woman who was to have sold us the bag.

We had the addresses to both witnesses, but when lawyers tried locate them, they never existed.

Anthony Gillis's additional testimony was that we got the gun from him.

As it happened, I was actually convicted twice - by two separate juries - and sentenced to death both times.

On December 27th 1984. My first conviction was voided because of incompetence by my first lawyer, who referred to me as a "pimp" in the jury's presence and argued against execution for me by saying the victim was an "old codger" who was likely to die soon anyway.)

On April 27, 1986, Head stated, in his own handwriting, that he alone had shot Mr. Leach "I shot and killed him" and that Tyler was unaware the crime was taking place.

On May 16, 1989, Head told attorneys Joanne Bour-Stokes and Richard Vickers that he had lied when he testified at Tyler's trial and that he (Head) killed Leach. Head said the prosecutors threatened him at Tyler's second trial that if he did not testify he would be tried for capital murder or sent to a less secure prison, with the prosecutor making sure the other inmates knew he was a snitch.
On retrial, the jury heard very differing testimony given by Leroy Head and Anthony Gillis than they gave at the first trial, returned the same guilty verdict.

A different judge imposed the same death sentence.

Dan Ryan, a defense attorney in Tyler's second trial, said in October 2006, that he was never told about the bullet, which could have been used to support Head's original confession.
"Why would he [Leach] have a bullet if he didn't have a gun to put it in?" Ryan said.

Perhaps even more significant is the money.

In his testimony against Tyler, Head said that he had acted as lookout for the robbery, that he heard shots fired, looked inside Leach's van and saw Tyler going through the dead man's pockets.

But what neither Ryan nor the jury knew is that police found $154 in cash and food stamps as they went through Leach's clothing at the coroner's office.

 

 

That evidence could have supported a scenario - similar to Head's original confession - in which the would-be robber was so startled by Leach pulling a gun and the shooting that followed that he didn't stick around to finish the job.

 

 

 

But it also undermines a key feature of Head's testimony.
"He had to be lying about Tyler going through his pockets," Ryan said. "There is no way, when you've got a guy who's been accused of robbery, that the victim still has money in his pockets."

Ryan - himself a former prosecutor - accused Gerstenslager of not following the rules requiring disclosure of evidence.

Gerstenslager said he can't remember the evidence after all this time, but that his policy was always to disclose everything in his file.

Former County Prosecutor Corrigan wouldn't allow his prosecutors to open their files to defense lawyers, Gerstenslager said, "but we read them the files. I did, anyway. We told them everything we knew."

A trial transcript suggests, however, that Gerstenslager may have skipped some things.

In response to a question about disclosure of evidence, Gerstenslager assured the trial judge that he showed or read a part of the original police report to Ryan a few weeks before Tyler's trial - specifically, pages six and seven.

The information about the bullet and the money was in that same report. But it was on page one.

On April 25, 1991, Luther Aldridge, a half-brother of Anthony Gillis, stated in an affidavit that he had gone to Gillis's house around 6:00 p.m. on the day of the homicide. Head was present and told Aldridge "that he had robbed and shot the vendor." Aldridge also stated that later in prison he encountered Head and asked him why he was letting Tyler remain on Death Row. Head told Aldridge he was going to confess to the crime.

On June 21, 2000, Tyler deposed Head, who refused to answer any questions, citing his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Tyler's counsel asked that a lawyer be appointed for Head and the Court agreed.

On September 7, 2000, Tyler again attempted to take the deposition of Head at the Marion Correctional Institution after Head and his new lawyer had a chance to confer. Head confirmed his name but asserted his Fifth Amendment privilege as to all questions dealing with Arthur Tyler, the shooting of Sander Leach, and all related events before and after the shooting.

I am now at the end of my appeal of writ from a conviction where the evidence was ignored, and the testimony was added as they went. Head could be paroled later this year. Anthony Gillis was never convicted of anything.
It came down to my word against theirs and the jury bought their new versions over the evidence that existed.

 

Another part of the story is that the prosecutor who went after me became an associate in the law firm which my trial judge appointed to handle my first appeal, during that appeal
I won my new trial anyway despite this. The problems came when I went to trial the second time.

The judge decided to make me keep the appeal attorney's despite my objections that they worked with the prosecutor who convicted me at my first trial!

This case was so bad, so messed up that no prosecutor wanted to touch it, so the court allowed the prosecutor who convicted me at my first trial, who went to work for the Attorney's who did my appeals during those appeals, to leave the office of these same attorneys who were handling my new trial, to prosecute my 2nd trial, with these attorney's as my lawyers.
The judge would not let me fire them because he said it was okay as they only shared space.

Every pre-trial transcript where this was discussed disappeared.

It also came to light that the investigator I was told to hire worked for Leroy Head at the time he was confessing to the murder.

I never stood a chance, and the only thing that can prove my innocence is the evidence that created the conviction in the first place. I've been sitting here 25 years believing some court will right this wrong.
Sadly I don't have any more appeal of rights. I'm about to file a successor Habeas Corpus petition.

On July 27, 1991, Head confirmed in an affidavit that he, not Arthur Tyler, killed Leach. "Leach pulled a gun out and he was shot while we scuffled."

On April 25, 1991, Luther Aldridge, a half-brother of Anthony Gillis, stated in an affidavit that he had gone to Gillis's house around 6:00 p.m. on the day of the homicide. Head was present and told Aldridge "that he had robbed and shot the vendor." Aldridge also stated that later in prison he encountered Head and asked him why he was letting Tyler remain on Death Row. Head told Aldridge he was going to confess to the crime.

My attorney has filed a mandamus in the U.S. Supreme Court and I'm a part of the Lethal Injection Lawsuit that everyone is now waiting for the U.S Supreme Court to answer.

So I get about (4) four months to convince someone that the state of Ohio will kill an innocent man if no court steps up.

 

I didn't commit this crime I'm sitting here for. I'm no angel, but I'm no murderer either.

 

 

 

 

 

My appellate lawyers have been trying for years to get Head to give testimony saying he was the gun man and not me.
Head has responded by taking the Fifth. (He has been advised by attorneys that he could be re-charged with capital murder if he repudiates his trial testimony.)

The only apparent solution would be to offer him immunity from further prosecution, but U.S. District Judge David Katz noted that only a prosecutor can do that.
So, Katz asked the Ohio attorney general's office to recommend the immunity option to local prosecutors.

The attorney general's office declined.
And Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Mason's office has said it has no intention of making any such offer.

Head could be a free man, Gillis was never convicted and I have sat waiting to be executed for 25 years for a crime BOTH these men said I did not commit then they changed their minds.

Any help that people can provide would be gratefully received. Thank you for your time to read this and hopefully your concern.

Sincerely

Arthur Tyler

If you think you can help me, I can be written at:

Arthur Tyler # A175-63
OHIO State Penitentiary
878 Coitsville-Hubbard Road
Youngstown
Ohio 44505

My outside contacts are;-

Wendy Alsford and Karen Torley
You can e-mail them at; "This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it!"

For more information on this case see:

http://justiceforarthurtyler.blogspot.com/

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/investigate-the-case-of-arthur-tyler.html

We need people to sign the petition in preparation in the event I need to apply for clemency.

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