On Oct. 22, 2009 Daniel Bohanna 24 was found guilty of Aggravated  Robbery and is now facing 13 years in prison for a crime he did NOT commit. The crime happened in a small town in Delaware , Ohio on July 24, 2009. There are practically no Blacks in that town  so if a crime is committed in that town and a “black man” is involved, they will find someone to convict. In this case, the first black man they came in contact with.

 The trial began on 10/20/09. There was an all white middle aged jury, not of his peers. The Judge is  also known around the jail system to be racist. Daniel had a white public defender who was not trying to help nor fight for Daniels innocence.  His public defender was very negative the whole time and even told Daniel that “he will be convicted” even before the trial began and before he had a full understanding of  the case. His lawyer also said that  ”he does not feel comfortable representing him” nor did he want to question the detectives fully because he didnt want to be discredited in his own community.  He also told Daniel that he would get disbarred if he asked for a bond reduction. Daniel brought that information to the attention of the judge and asked if he could hire a private attorney and the judge said ” No, because we are starting trial”. Daniel told the judge that this was his life on the line and his attorney was negative and unsure. He also informed the judge about the lack of trust between himself and his attorney. When Daniel asked to switch lawyers they had already picked the members of the jury and had begun opening statements. At this time Daniel was not aware of the process of trial; he asked his lawyer to explain the process and his lawyer refused!   

Daniel asked his attorney to cross-examine the lead detective. Daniel also requested that the lead detective take a lie detector test because the detective was lying.  Daniel’s  attorney said “Absolutely Not!” because he claimed he did not want to argue with the detective. The detective took an oath and lied on the stand. The detective said he didn’t have any of the tapes but he did. The detective also stated that he did not show any of the clothing to anyone when he did. When the main witness went to the grand jury on 07/28/09 to give her real statement as to what really happened the day of the crime, the detective was there and pulled the main witness to the back room and told her “if she changes her statement he will fucking indict her”. The witness was scared so she didn’t change her statement that day. On 09/09/09 the main witness met with her attorney to talk about what took place, her attorney then advised her to write a new statement and have it notarized. On 09/28/09 the witness recanted her statement with a notarized affidavit articulating what really happened.  She hand delivered the new statement to the prosecutor’s office and also to Daniel’s public defender. The witness’s new statement did not put Daniel at the crime scene.

 On day 1 of trial after victim and the two witness’s for the prosecuting side were done testifying  and no one identified Daniel as being the suspect and with the lack of evidence, Daniel’s lawyer requested a  dismissal and the judge refused because “The main witness (who is white) and her jeep was there and a “black man” got into to her jeep”.

Few thoughts:

Why wasn’t the main witness arrested? Wouldn’t she be considered the get away driver or an accomplice? Her face was on camera, Daniel’s face was not. There was a 2 hr time frame from when crime happened to the time the detectives got to the house. This gave the witness more than enough time to drop the real perpetrator off after committing the crime. Anything could’ve happened!

 Daniel does have a criminal record but has never been convicted of anything. He made that clear to his attorney but his attorney insisted that he did not need to testify because they could bring up prior cases that were already dismissed. His attorney assured Daniel that he could trust him and rely on his closing statement. The attorney did not mention anything about what he and Daniel had discussed regarding the content of the closing statement. It was lifeless!  He stood at the podium the whole time, he said nothing about Daniel and the type of man and father that he is. He didn’t talk about Daniel’s life, children, education, goals, dreams, ambitions, work history, ect. He didn’t talk about why they shouldn’t convict an innocent man and send him away from his children for over a decade, or the lack of evidence they had. No one was able to ID Daniel as the suspect. The detective agreed that the evidence they had did not link Mr. Bohanna to the crime scene.  

Some more thoughts:  

1.If the evidence they had did not link Daniel to the crime scene, why was he convicted?

2. There was no surveillance of Daniel being at the crime scene, but there was a surveillance of the witness. 

3. No one was able to identify Daniel as the suspect

4. They let the white girl go, did not charge her with anything and has her face on camera and her car being at the crime scene.

Evidence vs Witness statements

Things found at Mr Bohanna residence after the crime:

-Black Echo Red hoodie (lettering on hoodie was white and red)

- LIGHT blue jeans was found in Jeep

-Light Grey sweat pants found up stairs in bedroom

-black do-rag found incenter island in kitchen

-black ski mask w/ red stitching and one big whole in the middle which was found in the house closet

-grey and black hoodie with skulls given to them by witness

-silver 38 hand gun (passenger side door of witness jeep)

-black 380 gun which was found in Light blue jeans pocket in the back of jeep day of robbery 2hr later.

Witnesses’ statements

Victim:

-seen suspect running up to him, suspect got within 3ft of him

-victim said suspect had on all black hoodie and did not see a logo

-suspect had on all black pants

-all black mask w/ whole in center and below nose

-person was brown complexed  

-could not see what person looked like because of mask

-didn’t see gun

-didn’t feel that suspect had a gun because suspect didn’t reach for one

-suspect had a medium build

-suspect was about 5’11”-6’0”

-based off of what victim seen he could not identify Daniel as the suspect

-victim said no money was taken nor did suspect threaten him

-suspect didn’t touch victim

-suspect said “give me the money” and victim took of running into Meijer’s

Lady who called 911 said the suspect was wearing:

-all black hoodie

-all black pants

-all black mask

-suspect was 5′ 5″

-did not see gun

-black man trying to mug someone and followed this person to jeep liberty

-she was asked:

Q. How did you know the person was black and you didnt see his face?

A. she said she knew he was black because he was wearing all black!!!??????

Witness from kinder care:

-Did a police report day of robbery

-all black hoodie

-all black pants

-all black mask

-2 days later and after detective finds the clothes in the jeep she changes her statement

- she was co-hursed by the detective  

-she also states that the detective showed her the hoodie with the logo 

-she still says suspect had on all black pants and mask

-she was asked if the pants could have been blue she said yes DARK blue

- couldnt tell if suspect was black couldnt see face

-suspect was tall

- she was asked if she could ID Mr. Bohanna as the suspect and she said NO, I can not ID him.

-did NOT see a gun 

 Reasons for being convicted

1. Because he was black and there was a “black guy” at the crime scene

2. He was at home with the main witness 2 hr after the crime was committed

3. Said he lied about who he was when the detective came to his house

4. Because he was tall and athletic build

5. Circumstantial evidence

6. 2 phone calls to the main witness from Daniel out of 300 phone calls

How many Black men has an athletic build and is between 5″11 and 6’0 tall?

Would you want your loved one taken away from you or their children for over a decade for a crime they DID NOT commit??

JUSTICE IS NEEDED………. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD……………HIS CHILDREN NEEDS HIM…………….