Death row was never a concern of mine, unfortunately, its now where I'm at. I was unjustly and wrongfully convicted by a corrupt system and a public defender who promised the world, yet sat back and did nothing but sell me out. I was convicted of 2 counts of 1st degree murder of which I am innocent. I'm actually one of the victims involved in a crime of passion that has since changed my life, and hopefully by the grace of God, I can receive a second chance and get my life back.
It all happened because of an email, but here is the complete telling of January 15, 2007, and what led up to that day when Duceliz and Kayla Diaz were found dead in their Bern Township apartment.
My name is Albert Perez and I was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death on May 27, 2009 in Berks County, Pennsylvania.
I dated Duceliz for about 2 years until I broke-off the relationship in May of 2006. I had enough of the mental, verbal and physical abuse I took from her, also of spending numerous nights in my car or at my mother's apartment in Brooklyn, NY, because Duceliz always felt like kicking me out. I've had to call the police to asist me and gather my things to move out due to her violent nature more than once, and also when she stole my car after we broke-up. Unfortunately, I never pressed charges nor sought out a PFA (protection from abuse) order due to the fact that I never wanted her to get in trouble. Today I look back and wish I did.
See, Duceliz couldn't let go of me nor accept that I moved on and started dating again. She started to stalk and harass me, vandelized my car many times and continuously sent emails to my place of employment. She even tried to start a physical fight with me at the Fairgrounds Mall in Reading, PA, when she saw me walking with a woman I was dating. It was one of these emails that made me decide to pay Duceliz a visit and tell her to let me be. I took a trip with my girlfriend and two other couples to Atlantic City for New Years in 2007, that no one knew about since it was spur of the moment. In this email, Duceliz not only knew about it but described the clothing I was wearing, so you could imagine how disturbed that made me feel.
So, I confronted her on Friday, January 12, 2007, about how she could not possibly have known about my trip and why she just could not leave me alone. She turned it into a joke, stating, "I won't tell you my screts but I know everything about you." Apparently, she also knew I recently got engaged in December. After a few minutes of getting nowhere, I was just about to leave when she insisted we meet again to discuss everything, including how she had me paying child support for Kayla - who was not my biological daughter. I really wanted answers so against my better judgement, I agreed to meet her Monday morning since I had off from work.
On Monday, January 15, 2007, I drove my fiance to work and then drove to Duceliz's apartment, arriving around 9:30 a.m. She answered the door wearing lingerie, so I asked her to get dressed but she refused saying she was comfortable in her home - so I let it go and went inside. It was warm, so I put my jacket on a chair in the kitchen and then went to the computer in the living room where she was seated. We started speaking. She showed me her myspace but yet she still was playing games and not telling me how she knew of my trip.
She then walked to her bedroom and asked me to follow so she could show me some of my things she still had and her new widescreen TV. She tried to kiss me, but I turned away and told her thats not why I was there. Once again against my better judgement, I had sex with her. It was meaningless and I didn't even take my clothes off or kiss her. When it was done, I told her it never should have happened and that I needed to leave.
At this moment is when Kayla awoke. I didn't even know she was home, so Duceliz sat her in the living room with something to eat and to watch TV. When she returnd to the bedroom, I advised her I wanted to leave without Kayla seeing me because I didn't want to confuse her. She got mad that I wanted to leave and asked me to stay with them, even offered to forget about the last eight months of our separation if I stayed. I told her we could never be together again because I was happy, engaged and finally getting my life straight. I asked her again about the email but she again refused to tell how she knew.
We got into a small argument then she told me to take my things and get out of her life. I only asked for my playstation so she put it in a plastic bag and gave it to me, then told me to take my pet geckos. I told her they were a gift to Kayla and started to leave, grabed my jacket when she asked if I was going to say anything to Kayla. I just smiled and walked out, then she slammed the door shut.
As soon as I got out of the building, I lit a cigarette and walked to my car. I just put the bag in the backseat when Duceliz called me from her window. She wanted to show me one more thing and didn't want us to say goodbye the way we did. I nodded at her, and smoked another cigarette before going back inside. The door was open so I walked right in and toward the bedroom where she was. I first noticed Kayla lying at the foot of the bed and it just didn't look right. Duceliz stood right next to her, so I picked her up and immediatley smelled something weird, then realized she was dead.
By then, Duceliz walked to the other side and I asked her what happened. Thats when she started yelling at me, "its your fault, look what you did; you're going to pay for it. If I can't have you then nobody else can." I don't know what happened to me or what went through my mind but I lost control of my emotions and snapped. At this moment I blacked out. I laid Kayla down and grabbed a cord off the floor and strangled Duceliz with it. When I came to and realized what was happening, I immediatley let go. Duceliz fell on the floor and I went to the bathroom to try and compose myself and clear my mind.
I was so scared, thats when Melanie (my fiance) called me at that moment on my cellphone, it freaked me out so bad I couldn't pick up till she called again. I lied to her, telling her I was home taking a nap because I was scared to tell her the truth. When we got off the phone, I tried to figure out what I was going to do and I knew the police wouldn't understand. Thats when I decided to try and make it look like a suicide by hanging Duceliz in her closet. The rod cracked and the cord snapped so I left her on the floor, and then hung Kayla in the bathroom to make their deaths look similar. I typed a suicide note, emailed it to her sister and left.
I told no one about it and tried to act like it never happened until the police started asking me questions. I knew they wouldn't believe me so I lied to them and said I haven't seen Duceliz in months. Another time, I admitted to being there but when I left they were both alive. It wasn't till over a year later that they arrested me and I told them the full truth. Then they said they were charging me with both deaths. I couldn't believe it because numerous times the police told me they knew Duceliz did something to make me snap and that she killed Kayla. They said they had statements that she was violent, abusive, controlling, that she stalked me and refused to let me go, that I was a nice guy and a good father figure to Kayla - but they still charged me with both deaths.
I was given public defender Kevin McCarthy Beals, Esq. as my trial attorney. The head prosecutor was ADA Adrian Schucka and Judge Linda K.M. Ludgate presided. The state police and DA's office were already putting me in the news that allegedly they could prove Duceliz died before Kayla, therefore, saying I am a liar and killed both of them. By blatently misstating the facts, they completely prejudiced any potential juror into already seeing me as guilty- therefore rendering an unreliable verdict at my trial. See, medically speaking it is scientifically impossible to determine who died first when two people die within minutes of each other, but of course the public wasn't told this.
I told Mr. Beals my side of the story and he looked into the "supposed evidence" and told me the DA has no way to prove what they believe allegedly happened. He promised my wife and I that he would get a well known forensic pathologist to evaluate the case, a medical expert to give an opinion on the cause and time of death and also if it were possible to tell who died first. He also promised a psychological expert to evaluate Duceliz's state of mind at the time of her death, and give an opinion on the validity of my story. Mr. Beals told me not to worry, that this is a prime example of a crime of passion and the worst I would receive would be 5-10 years for voluntary manslaughter, so both myself and my wife relaxed.
To relax was the worst thing I could do, little did I know Kevin Beals would turn his back on me and do absolutely nothing to present a defense on my behalf and willingly take away my Constitutional right to effective counsel. He neither interviewed nor investigated any of the people I adked him to, that would have testified on my behalf on my non-violent character or any event pertinent to the case that they witnessed. Nor did he attempt to get police reports of the times I called them on Duceliz. Judge Ludgate even went as far as to deny me the opportunity to fire Mr. Beals and get private counel of Jack MaMahon Esq. of Philadelphia, PA, saying she wouldn't allow it since Mr. Beals was overly qualified to handle my case himself - violating my Sixth Amendment right.
I then found out by a third party that happened to see the autopsy reports, of DNA evidence of an exculpatory nature that proved my case, so I confronted Mr. Beals about this. Hesitently, he finally told me there is evidence that proves Duceliz was responsible for Kayla's death and he planned on shedding light on this at trial. I then requested my discovery so I could look everything over personally, but he refused - saying I wasn't entitled to it. I also asked for the transcripts of my omnibus pretiral motion hearing, of which he told me he couldn't get for me.
At the motion hearing, lead investigator Corp. William J. Moyer stated when questioned by Mr. Beals, how and why they were pressing charges against me, that they did so only based on his "theory that I committed the crimes in question." So on the stand, he admitted in other words that they had no evidence to back up this "theory." It also came that Duceliz's sister, Miosotis Diaz, alleged that I made a statement to her of my knoweldge to kill someone and make it look like a suicide. (Quite convenient to the prosecution, don't you t hink?)
Well, at Berks County Prison, I found an inmate who knew Miosotis personally and asked if he would call and question her about this alleged statment, in the hope of getting her to tell the turth. In December of 2008, hope came through when on a recorded phone call from BCP, she told him she made the statement up to make sure I was found guilty. The statement the DA planned on using to show premeditation was a complete lie. Of course, I immediately told Mr. Beals about this, but he chose to wait until May of 2009, on the week of my trial, to subpeona the call. Then told me he didn't have the money or the manpower to go through more than 200 twenty minute phone calls; even though he had the date, time and pin nubmer used. Also, since he neglected to get a statement from said inmate, and now couldn't find him - he said he couldn't use the phone call anyway. Evidence to impeach a prime prosecution witness was readily available but never even searched for.
I also learned Donald Sumner, a jail-house informant, was to testify at trial that I allegedly asked him what would happen to me upstate when they find out what happened. However, another inmate came forward, willing to testify that Sumner told him he wag going to get on my case to get out of prison early, and this wouldn't be the first time he did it since he worked for the Pennsylvania State Police. I had Mr. Beals subponea this inmate who actually beat his case and was home at the time of my trial. But on the day he was to testify, Mr. Beals said to the Judge and myself on record, in her chambers, that my witness refused to show up and lie for me under oath. Days later I got ahold of this peron, and he said Mr. Beals called him and told him not to show up, that in fact he was very willing to testify for me and came home early from vacation just to do so. Yet, another violation to my right of effective assistance of counsel.
Duceliz's family members, one by one, came to the stand and of course tried to make her sound like the perfect mother. statements brought up previously made to the PSP were very contradicting. Statements that Duceliz was very depressed, emotionally disturbed, unstable with sudden violent outbursts, obsessed with me and even an unfit mother. Miosotis stated she hated the way Duceliz abused Kayla, and that Kayla would rather spend time with her aunt and grandmother than with Duceliz, her own mother. Yet on the stand, she couldn't recall making such a statement while holding a copy of it in her hands. Brother-in-law, Hector Ruiz, staed to the PSP that Duceliz always got over me because I refused to fight her back, that she was violent and not always there for Kayla. Older sister, Brenda Ruiz, also said Duceliz was depressed, never happy, and violent towards others.
Duceliz's mother, Haydee Santiago, on the stand said Duceliz spent over $100 on makeup the weekend before her death and was the happiest she's every been. She even cleaned her apartment for the first time. A friend of hers testified that Duceliz spent only minutes out of the week with Kayla, and that she didn't know how to ask her mother for Kayla because Duceliz never has her and wanted her to be home on Monday. These are the people who knew Duceliz the best and were the closest to her and these are the things they had to say about her when she died. Their very own statements prove Duceliz was the type of person capable of killing her own daughter. She was depressed and unstable. My side of the story of what happened that day in fact is what happened. I loved Kayla as if she were my own flesh and blood, and was even going to adopt her until her mother and I broke up. I would've never hurt Kayla or put her in harm's way.
The prosecution called an expert on felicide and he gave his opinion that Duceliz didn't kill Kayla - yet he admitted on the stand that he never reviewed these and more negative statements about Duceliz and her state of mind, nor did he interview family or friends. So I ask, did the paycheck the DA's office gave him to testify have anything to do with his opinion since obviously the facts did not?
Their own medical expert stated you cannot tell who died first when they died minutes within each other, also that it takes anywhere from 60 seconds to 4 minutes to die from asphysication. Nowhere did anyone get on the stand and show evidence of any sort to support this theory that I supposedly killed Duceliz then Kayla. They even tried to link me with fibers but the fiber "expert" said there is no way to prove the fibers in question actualy came from the same place.
2-Counts Of 1st Degree Murder?
And why wasn't the DNA evidence of exculpatory nature brought up by either the prosecution or my very own counsel? Because the system that charged me, prosecuted me, defended me, and convicted me is corrput and unjust. Because of all this, I was wrongfully convicted and now sit on death row, where I have to fight in every way possible to save my life, being as the State now wants to take it away. Why? Because I was at the wrong place at the wrong time and couldn't afford private counsel to uphold my Constituional rights.
It is extremely difficult to overturn a murder conviction, even when a wrongful conviction is blatantly obvious. The legal battle is very time consuming and expensive, and it is not a matter of innocence or guilt anymore, the defense has to prove that the convicted person was deprived of his/her Constitutional rights. There is no qustion I was denied my rights on numerous occasions. While I may deserve a sentence for voluntary manslaughter, I do not deserve the murder convictions that have stolen my life and seperated me from my children, family and wife.
I now have court appointed attorney, Erik Winter, Esq. from Reading, PA, and he's handling my post-sentence motions and direct appeal. I am a bit concerned though, as Mr. Beals committed suicide shortly after my trial (maybe his conscience got to him) and Mr. Winters apparently was a personal friend of his. He says there is no conflict of interest, "while Mr. Beals was a friend of mine, he did a poor job in many respects of defending you. I have no problem pointing his errors out to the court. I do not believe that you deserve the death penalty and based on the utter lack of a defense that you received, I believe you deserve a new trial."
Yet, he's the same person who told my wife to consider that I got life since the State won't execute me unless I stop fighting or sign-up for it. Now he tells me the courts won't pay for me to get a copy of my transcripts or discovery, so I sit here in my cell with none of my paperwork, files, discovery, or anything else since neither I nor my family have the money to pay for them. How can I fight for my life without the necessary tools, or the things that it is my right to have?
I believe I have the right to effective counsel, as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment and the right to a trial that's outcome and result are reliable, fair and just. If anything, like I said earlier, I am only guilty of one count of voluntary manslaugher for the death of Duceliz Diaz, where I was placed in a situation of emotional distress without the opportunity to calm down. Anyone in my shoes that day could've done the same as myself. I was wrongfully convicted due to prosecution misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel, blatent with-holding of evidence, violations to my due-process, Brady and possible Miranda rights and severe violations to my Constituional rights.
I am only 28 years old, an intelligent, talented artist who is loving, caring and generous who has family and friends waiting to welcome me back home with loving arms.
