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E124: Jonathan Luna
1.9k Plays4 years ago
Imagine how hard it must be to have a job where you hold the fate of someone in your hands. Think about all of the enemies you may make along the way and how terrifying that must be. What’s even more terrifying is to think that some people would seek revenge on the people who have judged them, and sometimes they carry out their revenge so masterfully that we are left to wonder if it were an accident or if it were murder.
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Transcript
Introduction to True Crime Podcasts
00:00:00
Speaker
Alison and I want to take a minute to introduce you to a new True Crime podcast that we think you'll love as much as we do. Let me just give a little teaser about this podcast from a portion of one of their recent ratings on Apple podcasts. Quote, amazing podcast of real cases. So easy to listen to and you find yourself getting pulled into each mysterious case.
00:00:23
Speaker
I really like how you can find more photos and info on the blog and IG page. The podcast is very thoughtfully researched and delivered."
00:00:42
Speaker
Mm hmm. Kristen focuses on cases in Maine and New England and other small towns. Her show has original interviews and is presented in a detailed documentary style of storytelling. She brings light to so many cold cases, missing person cases, crime stories, just like Maggie and I do that often get overlooked. She is rooted in deep research, straightforward narration, and
00:01:10
Speaker
making sure that she puts families and victims first. So, Sleuth Hounds, if you like cases with a mysterious twist, check out Murder, She Told to see what all the fuss is about. We'll think you love it. We love it. And here's a little bit about the show from Kristen herself.
Exploring Crime Stories in Maine
00:01:30
Speaker
Growing up as a latchkey kid in a small town in Maine, I always assumed I was safe. After all, unless it makes national news, murder isn't something people talk about around here. But that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Murder, She Told is a true crime podcast featuring crime stories, unsolved murders of missing persons, and baffling cold cases from my home state of Maine, New England, and small towns across America.
00:01:54
Speaker
These are the crime stories your hometown doesn't want to talk about, the mysteries buried deep in the newspaper archives of local American history. These are the homicides you've probably never heard of before. Through detailed storytelling and connections with family, friends, and investigators closest to the case, Murder She Told will hit home for any true crime fan, whether you're from Maine or from away. Visit murdershetold.com to suggest your hometown crime story and subscribe now wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
00:02:26
Speaker
I'm Kristin Seavey and this is Murder, She Told.
Teaching Empathy in Judgement
00:02:33
Speaker
Today at my school, students went to their advisory class for a core project lesson. And according to core projects website, their vision is to help schools become the place where students can come as they are, get what they need and leave prepared for whatever is next. Each lesson from the core project focuses on different aspects of life, time management, making good choices, making good judgments, making friends, you know, that type of thing.
00:03:02
Speaker
Today we talked about the concept of making a judgment versus being judgmental. I told my students that making judgments isn't necessarily a bad thing, but we cross the line when we become judgmental. Being judgmental comes when we make up our minds and don't allow ourselves to adjust our thinking, attitudes, or beliefs. Then we just end up hurting people around us.
00:03:25
Speaker
Common ground is the quickest way to improve judgmental attitudes between peers. It never fails to amaze me that when we find similarities between each other and have those shared experiences, those judgmental tendencies seem to decrease, especially the more and more we find that we are alike.
00:03:46
Speaker
So we played a game. We put all of our chairs in a circle around the room. I sit in the middle and said, have you ever experienced something that I had done that I thought they could relate to as well. So I started with, have you ever ridden a roller coaster? And every student that had done that got up to find a new seat and the person left standing had to do another have you ever statement.
00:04:11
Speaker
It was fun to hear the experiences they had compared to some of mine. I was surprised by how much all these seemingly different kids had in common. One student asked if they had ever climbed a tree, and I was surprised that nearly all of them had. And in the end, it was eye opening for my students as well to see that they had common ground with someone that they had previously judged.
00:04:35
Speaker
I imagine how hard it might be to have a job where you literally judge someone or play a part in someone's judgment like a lawyer. Where it's your job to make judgments that could alter a person's life or their family. You hold the fate of someone in your hands. I know it must be bittersweet to save an innocent man or put a criminal behind bars.
00:04:56
Speaker
But I think about all the enemies you must make along the way and how terrifying that must be. What's even more terrifying is to think that some people would seek revenge on the people who have judged them. And sometimes we carry out revenge so masterfully that we're left to wonder, was it an accident or was it murder?
Engaging Listeners in Cold Cases
00:05:17
Speaker
This is the story of Jonathan Luna.
00:05:55
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron.
00:06:04
Speaker
We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families. With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
00:06:32
Speaker
So before we start, Maggie, I just want to sneak a little comment in here. I wanted to send a huge thank you to all of our listeners who joined Good Pods this past week and listened to our cases or wrote us reviews. You are amazing, first of all. So thank you to Carol, Mick, Shell, Natalie, Melissa, and Keisha.
00:06:58
Speaker
And Allison, before we jump into today's case, I wanted to take a second to check with you about something that happened to me when writing this case. OK.
Researching Jonathan Luna's Case
00:07:08
Speaker
So have you ever had so much information on a case that you were just overwhelmed and didn't really know where to begin? Yes. Do you remember the Kevin Ives and Don Henry case, the one I kept putting off because I was like, I don't want to name names because I don't want to die?
00:07:27
Speaker
Yeah, there was so much that we had to split it into two episodes and there I still left a ton out. Well, this case was one that was probably the hardest that I have
00:07:44
Speaker
like the hardest time I have had writing a case. I researched this case actually several weeks ago, and if you know anything about me and this whole process, Lou Townes, I very rarely am ahead of the game, and I have been for a few weeks now, and it's because of Jonathan's case, because I researched it, I started writing it, and got really overwhelmed with everything, and I put it off and researched another one and did it, and then put it on again,
00:08:12
Speaker
And then finally, I was like, no, this is the time. This is the week. This is the week. So I have listened to the case file podcast on this like six times. I've watched some documentaries. I've read a bunch of things. So I am hoping in the end, I did Jonathan Luna's memory justice. Just know
00:08:38
Speaker
This is very legalese. It's very court casey. And I think that was part of the reason it was kind of overwhelming to me because I think I was too dumb to understand a lot of what I was talking about.
00:08:55
Speaker
Here we go. OK, I'm ready. All right. So Jonathan Luna was born on October 21, 1965. He grew up actually in a housing project near Yankee Stadium in the South Bronx, New York City. OK. His father was Filipino. His mother was African-American.
00:09:14
Speaker
And despite growing up in a very rough part of town, that was said in all my research, everything I listened to talked about how rough this part of town was. Jonathan never gave into the peer pressure around him to join a gang, to sell drugs, drop out of school, do drugs.
00:09:33
Speaker
He didn't find any interest in that. Instead, he used what he saw around him each and every day as motivation to make a better life for himself. So instead of joining gangs, selling drugs, dropping out, he studied hard, read a lot of literature and made this and made very detailed long-term goals for himself after high school. That's amazing. I mean, that takes
00:10:02
Speaker
That takes a lot of guts because it means you're not giving in to peer pressure of what's around you and you're okay standing out.
00:10:14
Speaker
And I think when coming from small town, Kentucky, I think the top of peer pressure we experienced as kids or even that our students experience now would be nothing compared to the top of peer pressure that you would have to join a gang or sell drugs in the Bronx, New York. Absolutely. It would be a whole different ball game.
00:10:40
Speaker
Jonathan would go on to receive his undergrad and then go on to study at the University of North Carolina School of Law. So he gets his undergrad, then goes to law school. Which is, you know, that's difficult to get into, so. Yeah, and that was my first long-term goal in life. And then I started studying for the interest exam. Oh yeah. I actually took the LSATs. I thought that I wanted to do,
00:11:10
Speaker
Well, you know, I love logic problems and there was a whole section and that was like, oh, I loved it. It was amazing. But then I was, I already had my master's in English and I was like, I was enrolled in the PhD program and I was thinking, what am I doing? I would just end up putting myself, you know, even more in debt. So I just stuck with English. This is why Alison's a genius. Cause how many people can say I was in the PhD program?
00:11:41
Speaker
Well there were several. Okay so he goes to law school and he started his legal career by working at Arnold and Pointer in Washington DC and he was there from 1993 to 1994.
Luna's Legal Career
00:11:56
Speaker
He married the love of his life Angela in 1993 surprisingly in his
00:12:02
Speaker
case in my research. I did not read a lot about his relationship with Angela. They got married. I know they had two kids, but that's really all I know about him. I wonder if he was a workaholic.
00:12:17
Speaker
I think he was because he left Arnold and Pointer and then began working at the Federal Trade Commission. He was there until 97. Jonathan then served as a prosecutor in Brooklyn and then moved to Baltimore in 1999 to become the Assistant United States Attorney where he was a federal prosecutor. So he moves up. Right. Pretty quickly. So that obviously is his focus. Yeah. Very career driven.
00:12:47
Speaker
Yeah, and in my research, sometimes it would say that he stayed at the office until like 11 1130 at night. So it's kind of like us sometimes. Yeah, as teachers, he basically lived there. Yeah.
00:13:01
Speaker
So obviously, Allison, when he landed this job, he and his wife moved to Baltimore, where his office was located. And at the time, Baltimore, and this was very much like the Michigan case that I did.
00:13:17
Speaker
time Baltimore had a population of around 650,000. I read that of that. This was also in the podcast that I listened to around 10% of that population at the time. So in 1999, around 10% of Baltimore's population were addicted to cracker heroin. That's a huge amount of people. Yeah. That is huge.
00:13:43
Speaker
And on average Baltimore had, I think I read 200 murders per year. Oh my gosh. In one city. Yeah. In one city. Wow. And then like when I was researching that, cause I just talked in, you know, crime rate Baltimore. Yeah. And it had tons of articles that were like the crime rate is nearly as bad as it was in 1999. So like it must have been almost like record setting at that time. Yeah. Yeah.
00:14:13
Speaker
So the town obviously had major issues. Drugs were running rampant. Murderers were obviously running rampant. There were also rumors about mass corruption among city officials and the police officers in the town. But Jonathan Luna's reputation seemed to be
00:14:38
Speaker
Like I guess almost supersede that. He was extremely respectful. He was professional, described as professional by his peers. And he was known to handle tough cases and handle them well. So he prosecuted drug dealers, bank robbers, murderers, child rapists, pedophiles, all of it. So he's taken like the whole gamut of crime and he's sending them to jail or prison.
00:15:04
Speaker
Yes. Throwing the book at a lot of people. Yeah. He was also viewed, as I said, as very effective, perhaps too effective considering the case that probably many believe could have potentially, you see what I did there, led to his end. There's no proof, but maybe. Okay.
00:15:33
Speaker
We are going to begin our story today with Jonathan's final federal case. And again, I hope this is not confusing because we are going to meet a couple different people and have some different experiences before we really get into Jonathan's story. He has a lot of background. Okay. Give us the experiences. Okay. Okay.
00:16:02
Speaker
So two Baltimore residents, Walter Poindexter, what a good last name. Love it. Okay. And Dion Smith were brought up on heroin charges. They were captured as a result of evidence provided by Baltimore drug dealer, Warren Grace. So those are the three
00:16:25
Speaker
criminals that we're gonna kind of focus on. And with them that we began going on this semi-crazy trip. So Warren Grace found himself in jail at the young age of 21 on several different charges, one of which was a drug
Drug Operation Overview
00:16:48
Speaker
dealer. This is the drug dealer? Yes, Warren Grace, a drug dealer.
00:16:54
Speaker
and future informant. At the time of his arrest, he was selling heroin for Walter Poindexter. So Poindexter, in my mind, no idea if this is really the terms that are used. I'm picturing Poindexter as drug lord, Grace as drug dealer.
00:17:12
Speaker
He works for Poindexter. That's how I pictured him. Poindexter sounds like a name though where you'd have like a pocket protector. Yes it does. You probably were in the mathletes. Yeah but obviously not this one. So when Grace was arrested, I almost said was arrested,
00:17:33
Speaker
Was arrested when Dexter felt that it was his duty to ensure that Grace has stay in prison was as comfortable as it could be like okay, so he's taking care of his peeps Yeah, almost like father's son in a way or brothers, maybe So he would often send Grace money Because I guess you can buy things in jail. I didn't know that at the commissary. I know watching
00:18:03
Speaker
love after lockup, which I'm currently watching love during lockup. What is this? Is this a show? Yeah. People who are in love with people in prison. Sounds interesting. It's super interesting.
00:18:20
Speaker
So he was into money for the commissary and he would visit him regularly. Grace was finally released and when he was released he actually moved in with Walter Poindexter and soon fell back into the drug ring. Man. So his time was time wasted basically. Which I mean in his mind he's thinking well there's one person in my life who's taking care of me and it's Poindexter. Right.
00:18:50
Speaker
Up until this point, yes. Well, actually, I guess you could really say the whole time, but it gets weird.
00:19:04
Speaker
Poindexter was a big time drug dealer. So in fact, he had several people working for him. I both read and listened to a lot about Walter Poindexter. And from what I researched, it appeared that he had a dealer like everywhere. He was big time. Oh, despite this vast operation, though, so
00:19:33
Speaker
you know, drug lord, lots of dealers. Yeah. Grace was Poindexter's go-to, the best drug dealer that he had. Which is probably why he took care of him. Right. Which makes sense because you want to take care of the person that's bringing you in the most money. Right. And while I don't know a lot about drugs, you guys know this about us. Yes. I do know. We thought that Google's lettuce was just anger at being on a diet and eating salad, but you know.
00:20:01
Speaker
I do know that every drug dealer has someone they get drugs from.
00:20:10
Speaker
Right. Right. Unless you're making them. And he wasn't from what I know. Even well functioning if that's what you can really call this operation. So even well functioning drug rings like Poindexter's had to have somebody that they were buying drugs from. OK. And I read that Poindexter sourced his drugs from Dion Smith. So now we've met all three of all three of our people.
00:20:39
Speaker
So the latter goes, Deon Smith is producing the drugs. Poindexter is distributing and Grace is selling.
00:20:52
Speaker
I believe so. Okay. And according to the podcast case file, like I said, I almost could quote of this podcast. Did you listen to it six times? Smith was an independent rap music producer and aspiring rap artist himself. And he was also a big time drug dealer because he had access to gangs in inner inner city, New York, that supplied him with his drugs. So Smith gets his drugs from New York.
00:21:22
Speaker
Then Poindexter gets his drugs from Smith and Grace sold those drugs out on the street. Okay.
00:21:29
Speaker
In that same podcast, the host Casey, which if you have not listened to, I highly recommend you probably have because it's way famous, but his voice is very soothing and the cases are interesting. But he said that on a bad day, that Walter Poindexter and Warren Grace would bring in around $1,200 a day on a bad day. That's like a teacher's salary every two weeks.
00:21:59
Speaker
Yeah. On a bad day. Yeah. On a bad day, you made as much as I'm making two weeks. On a good day, they were looking at upwards of $3,000 a day. Oh my gosh. Now we're talking a month.
00:22:15
Speaker
I'm not salary. I'm not salary in a day. And now you know why people who do get how easy it would be to get ropes into that lifestyle. Oh, yeah. Because of what it could offer and then how hard it would be to get out of it because you're like, uh, so I'm basically going to do something illegal or live in poverty. Yeah, yeah, basically. And sadly, they're
00:22:42
Speaker
most profitable days were days that government issue checks were distributed. Oh, that is sad. Which is sad. But so they're raking in, you know, between 1200 and $3,000 a day. And Poindexter kept finding himself getting arrested. And it was according to case files, nothing major, but enough to keep them off the streets for a while. And really, this was a good thing for Warren Grace, because with Poindexter off the streets, it meant that he was in charge. Because remember, he is like,
00:23:12
Speaker
the best seller so I'm sure like the next guy on the total now he doesn't have to share a cut yeah and cuz he's now pulling in more money and the spotlight is now on him but really his like claim to fame wouldn't last very long
00:23:31
Speaker
On April 7th, 2002, Baltimore police raided the home of Warren Grace and they found enough drug paraphernalia and like drugs to put Grace away for a long time. I'm talking that
00:23:47
Speaker
If everything went according to plan, Grace would likely be behind bars and off the streets until he was in his late fifties. Because he was probably facing a 30-ish, maybe 40-year sentence without the possibility of parole. And this is not ideal for Warren Grace, but he is not stupid because he, if you were in this,
00:24:17
Speaker
like employment ring or whatever, whatever you wanna call it. If this is your job, you know eventually that crap is gonna hit the fan and you are gonna have to have some way to save your own tail. It's eventually gonna have to, it will eventually happen. And for such a dilemma as this, he had something up his sleeve. He had information about a murder, a murder that was carried out by his very good friend, Walter Poindexter.
00:24:47
Speaker
And he was ready to use that information to his benefit. OK, hold up. So Warren Grace was in prison. Poindexter takes care of him, sends him money, goes to visit him. Grace gets out.
Informant Dynamics
00:25:04
Speaker
Now Poindexter's locked up. Grace is pulling in all kinds of money. But once he gets arrested, he's going to rat out Poindexter to save himself. Yes, ma'am. You are correct.
00:25:17
Speaker
Yes, you are correct. And again, according to case file Poindexter, this is the information that Warren Grace has. Poindexter murdered this man named Alvin Jones as a retaliation for robbing one of Poindexter's drug houses. What are all of these names? There is not a, okay. I don't know if I thought that there was a, like a stereotypical drug dealer
00:25:47
Speaker
like kingpin name of people. I didn't think it was Alvin. I didn't think it was Poindexter. Or Warren. Yeah. I think you're a grandpa when I hear the name Warren. Yeah, I'm thinking grandpas when I hear these names. Not like 20 and 30 year olds probably. Yeah. Yeah.
00:26:09
Speaker
So Poindexter murdered Alvin Jones because Alvin Jones raided one of their drug houses when Poindexter discovered that it was indeed Alvin Jones who had robbed him. He filled Jones quote unquote full of bullets. Hmm.
00:26:27
Speaker
So so not only was Walter Poindexter a murderer, he was a drug related murderer. And this meant that if convicted, Poindexter would never get out of jail and could likely face the death penalty. So I'm sure Warren Grace is thinking, OK, well, if I give this info and he is convicted, then I don't really have to worry because he's going to be in jail potentially
00:26:57
Speaker
lethally injected, so don't have to worry about retaliation. Yeah, that's exactly what happened. Warren Grace quickly became an informant for the police and soon the FBI. And he knew how this would work. He knew if he gave them information, he would get a less harsh sentence. And that's exactly what happened. Grace's 40 years turned into 30.
00:27:25
Speaker
then with more information, he was released to a halfway house to work with investigator Skinner. So he goes from having to spend 30 years in jail to now he's at a halfway house. Of course, the court had several stipulations that he was supposed to follow. Like he wasn't supposed to leave the house during certain times. He was supposed to wear a monitor. He couldn't carry a gun. Definitely could not deal drugs.
00:27:52
Speaker
All of those stipulations were quickly broken promises on Grace's behalf. Agent Skinner had to work extra hard to ensure that Grace set out of jail so that he could continue to build cases on all of these people.
00:28:10
Speaker
He overlooked quite a bit of rule-breaking Allison and even though grace like to the point that it almost becomes unethical the things that were Overlooking because at this point Skinner knows that grace is selling drugs using a concealed weapon Taking his ankle monitor off
00:28:35
Speaker
But Skinner was determined to get to Smith, so the big drug dealer, then Poindexter. And he knew that Grace was the ticket to get them, so he overlooked a what. Oh no. And again, Warren Grace is not stupid, and he knew
00:28:56
Speaker
that a lot was being overlooked. Right. And so he took advantage of the fact that Skinner needed him more than he really needed Skinner at this point.
Complications in Legal Proceedings
00:29:07
Speaker
Poindexter does get released and Grace continued to work with Skinner to build a drug case against his quote unquote friend.
00:29:15
Speaker
Yes, quote unquote. Right. I feel like Poindexter was a friend to Grace, but I don't know that Grace was a friend to Poindexter. In return, yeah. Right. The investigation finally came to an end in 2003 when the FBI raided an establishment, the business of Smith, from my understanding. It was the recording studio.
00:29:39
Speaker
and Poindexter because there was like recordings that Grace had handed over of Smith and Poindexter talking about all these drugs that they had and all the things that they had done. So the court have a lot on Smith and Poindexter at this point and they finally have enough that they're able to raid one of their stashes. Okay. Did they get anything?
00:30:00
Speaker
Yes, they did. In an article published on July 14, 2003 on The Baltimore Sun, author Gail Gibson said, quote, The indictment alleges that Poindexter, also known by the nickname Fella, shot and killed Alvin Jones on January 22, 2001 because Poindexter believed that Jones had burglarized one of his drug group stash houses.
00:30:23
Speaker
Baltimore attorney who represents Poindexter said he expected a separate indictment to be returned soon separating the two defendants and charging Poindexter directly with the murder. So they find when they raid the house, heroin
00:30:41
Speaker
and lots of other illegal things. But mainly it was a heroin house. And the lawyer at Poindexter says like anytime he knows that Poindexter will be up on the murder charge and up on the drug charge in regards to the raid. It can't be the same thing because they didn't happen at the same time. So it had to be two separate trials.
00:31:11
Speaker
So without elaboration, federal prosecutors said in court papers that the case against Poindexter and Smith, like I said, is related to a separate drug and gun charge than the murder of Alva Jones. Right. Okay.
00:31:33
Speaker
So core papers describe Poindexter and Smith as jointly operating a bullying armed heroin business from various locations. And in that article it said from the recording studio at 911 West 36th Street and addresses in the 3600 block of Spalding Avenue. So a lot of places. Mm hmm.
00:31:58
Speaker
In the end, both picked up heroin charges and Walter Poindexter was charged with the murder of Jones. And again, these are separate trials. So the two would be tried from heroin together. And that trial was set to begin December 1st, 2003. And then Poindexter would be tried individually for the case of Smith. Or not Smith, but Jones, because Smith had nothing to do with that. Okay.
00:32:23
Speaker
So Allison, you can imagine it would be really hard to take these two to trial on direct charges and not bring up the fact that point extra.
00:32:35
Speaker
murdered somebody. But that was exactly the job that Jonathan Luna had to do, or Poindexter's case could be dismissed as an unfair trial. He has to ensure that he is walking the line, so to speak. Keeping everything separate. Yeah.
00:32:56
Speaker
According to CBS News, Jonathan Luna and the defense attorneys negotiated through the afternoon on Wednesday, and this is again in December, and they reached a plea bargain on the drug charges at the end of the day. And US District Judge William Quarles Jr., who presided over the case, knows that this plea deal is in the works. Okay. Okay.
00:33:25
Speaker
And we'll go into more details about said plea bargain. So we know the men entered their guilty pleas around noon on Thursday, but a lot happens that makes you question the legality and the validity of these plea deals. Oh no.
00:33:56
Speaker
Jonathan Luna had failed to mention the amount of times Grace violated his plea agreement and that he was a paid informant, and all of this information should have been disclosed to the defending attorneys, but it wasn't.
00:34:09
Speaker
A lot of this case, like I said, has gone over my mind. But if I know anything, I know that it is a big no-no not to release information when you're supposed to release it to the defending attorney. And attorneys have a way of finding out things. They're like,
00:34:33
Speaker
best friends, like if someone, when I was in high school, hurt my best friend, I could find out everything about that person. And I feel like that is the job of a defense attorney. You're gonna find out everything. And all of this information is leaked to the defense.
00:34:54
Speaker
And they freak out. They tell the judge that they know that Warren Grace violated the terms of his plea agreement. They say, we know he was selling drugs. We know he was carrying weapons. We know he removed his monitoring bracelets. And we know that all of this was ignored by Agent Skinner. Yeah, that's not good.
00:35:14
Speaker
No. That's not good. And after what was a disastrous beginning of the trial, Grace was not a very good witness. In the Case File podcast, the host actually talks about he was on the stand on Wednesday. The judge basically told Jonathan Luna, like, he sucked at this. You need to coach him and put him back on the stand on Thursday because this was horrible. Oh, it was that bad.
00:35:42
Speaker
Yes, like mumbling through his accounts, half-heartedly telling what he knew about the drug ring. Almost like he didn't really want to say it out loud because I'm sure Smith and Poindexter were sitting right there.
00:35:56
Speaker
So I think that played a lot of it, but it just was not a very good trial. Smith does end up pleading guilty to the distribution of heroin and possessions of a weapon for the purposes of drug trafficking. And Poindexter pled guilty to the distribution of heroin to a government witness. So they both pleaded guilty. Yes. And only because they get
00:36:23
Speaker
the deal of a wash time. Yes.
00:36:31
Speaker
Many people said this was not the best performance Jonathan had had in court. This usually well-respected straight cut man seemed very lost in front of the jury. He forgot evidence and was, according to case files, actually scolded by the judge. The defense was furious and asked for the case to be thrown out on the grounds of that paperwork never being received about Grace.
00:36:55
Speaker
Case files stated that Jonathan actually lied, stating that he had sent that information and that the defending attorney must have simply like misplaced it or lost it. And he never sent any of that information. Skinner openly admits that Grace was a paid informant. Again, more information for the defense and information they should have known from the beginning. They are livid and they ask for the charges to be completely dismissed.
00:37:24
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Because the judge has the recordings of Smith and Poindexter admitting to this drug trafficking ring, all of these things, like all their requests for the charges to be thrown out are denied. The judge does agree for the FBI and Jonathan to be investigated though, because so much wrongdoing has been done. Seeming corruption. Yes.
00:37:53
Speaker
And in a last ditch effort to save his own skin, so to speak, Jonathan comes up with this plea deal, the plea deal of a lifetime that he pitches to the defense attorney over lunch. And this is where we get those guilty pleas because you're going to flip your lid when you hear. Oh no.
00:38:13
Speaker
what this plea deal is. So, Poindexter's lawyer demands that the murder charge be dropped as a part of the deal. So the sentences would be reduced to 10 years in jail for Smith, okay, and only 15 for Walter Poindexter. For all of that heroin and all of that.
00:38:35
Speaker
Yes. And the murder charge dropped. Not even, not even go into trial. Yes. Both Smith and Poindexter, when they hear this, they're like, heck yes. Guilty. Like take it. Yeah. They know they're getting off easy.
00:38:51
Speaker
But so Jonathan Luna is like, yes, this is a plea deal. We agree. The prosecution agrees like this is going to happen. But Jonathan couldn't drop the murder charge because it was drug related. Those were federal guidelines. So he said.
00:39:10
Speaker
You get 10, you get 15, and I drop the murder charge. But then after they agree, he's like, just kidding. I can't drop the murder charge. Well, from my understanding, I don't think he ever told them that. Oh. Because after the breaks, the lawyers approach the bench, and this is when they tell the judge, like, we've reached a deal. And the judge tells them, I have to have it in writing.
00:39:35
Speaker
but there's no way that Luna could legally make this agreement. He couldn't just make that evidence disappear, but he tells the judge he will get the deals for them. And courts dismissed for the day. He quickly finished the deal for Smith. That was easy and left his office around midnight on December the 3rd with Poindexter's deal only about halfway done. Okay.
00:40:03
Speaker
because, again, he can really do that. He's going to figure out, how do I dismiss the murder charges and get around federal guidelines? Yes. How do I do this and not lose my job? Yeah.
00:40:17
Speaker
So he was supposed to appear in court Thursday, December 4th, 2003 to give these plea deals to the judge to enter those plea deals. But he fell to show up for court and everybody, including the FBI, began to look for him.
00:40:37
Speaker
in an article published in 2020 on March the 10th, so not that long ago. The author stated that it's called Breaking News Concerning Jonathan Luna's Murder Case. The author stated that since Jonathan didn't show up that day in court, his supervisor, James Warwick, the chief of
00:40:56
Speaker
the offices of Criminal Division actually arrived in the courtroom and asked for a 15-minute recess so that he could go to Jonathan's office to find those unfinished plea deals. So he's basically going to take over the case for Jonathan for the day until they can figure it out. Yeah, where he is. The article states, quote, Warwick proceeds to Luna's office, finds one completed plea deal on Luna's laptop,
00:41:20
Speaker
along with the uncompleted plea deal for the defendant involved in the alleged drug-related murder. He cuts in pace between the two documents in a splish-dash fashion to complete the deal. Warwick then signs Luna's name to the plea agreement and initials it." How is that not... That seems wrong to me. He's going to sign somebody else's name? I think from what
00:41:49
Speaker
I've read that they had discussed, because this was his supervisor. So he had discussed this with him and was working with, like Jonathan and the supervisor were working together. So he knew the essence of what was happening. So I guess that's why it also could have been like one of those PDFs where it just manually signs your name without you actually having to sign it. Like you just click.
00:42:17
Speaker
Yeah. You click it and it signs and initials. So I'm wondering if it's something like that. I'm not a hundred percent sure. Um, so Luna was supposed to have faxed the plea deal agreement to a bunch of different people, but like that night, but that didn't happen. So not only did he not show up, he didn't do the work the night before that he was supposed to do.
00:42:45
Speaker
Yes. And another quote in that article said quote, it was still in his computer up in his office and we'd page him and his cell phone is on his desk, his glasses are in his office. We're probably, this is a quote from Agent Skinner, we're probably going to go over to the parking garage where we park and just look for his car, end quote.
00:43:07
Speaker
And a lot of people have got caught up on that quote because Skinner starts to say this is where Luna like Jonathan Luna would park but then corrects himself and says it's where we park. And a lot of people say from this we gleam not only that the agents park where Jonathan part but also that they knew the car that Jonathan would have been driving because they were going to look for his car.
00:43:35
Speaker
a lot of people look into that a little bit mm-hmm and it wasn't until
00:43:42
Speaker
all of this transpires, that someone is finally like, we probably need to take a recess and figure out where the heck this dude is. Yeah, that'd be smart. And a short while later, the head prosecuting attorney in Luna's office was informed that Jonathan Luna had been found dead in an icy stream in rural, look, that's that word, rural, rural, rural.
00:44:10
Speaker
Yes, in Pennsylvania.
The Night of Luna's Disappearance
00:44:13
Speaker
And that he had been stabbed dozens of times. His throat was split, like slit nearly ear to ear. And his Justice Department ID badge was still around his neck.
00:44:29
Speaker
As we know from the quote from Agent Skinner, his cell phone was in the office. He left his glasses, which he needed to drive. He left his laptop, which seems weird to me if you're working on a plea deal. Yeah. And several other things he would have needed left behind in the office. So obviously he was taken to this spot. Well, otherwise, well, was his car there too? Yes. And like,
00:45:00
Speaker
over the cell phone part. Maybe this was a cell phone that was a work phone. I can also justify the glasses thing. Anthony has glasses for like every location that he would be in. He has car glasses. He has work glasses. So maybe he had another pair in his car. So I can kind of gloss over that too. But
00:45:26
Speaker
There's just a lot of crazy surveillance. Oh. Sort of. And it's not like he was two miles away from his office. Right. He went from. Well where where is this trial Baltimore. To rural Pennsylvania. Yes. Like how far away.
00:45:56
Speaker
So let's talk about it. We are going to talk about the final hours of Jonathan's life. We know his car was last seen on surveillance footage, leaving his work around 1130. We are not able to tell if there was someone else in the car or who was driving his car's easy pass, which you'll be able to give us more details on that because for us redneck people, I have, I mean, I know what an easy pass is, but I don't really know like.
00:46:26
Speaker
what all it can track or do? Well, basically like, because I have one. Um, so when you go through a toll, it like electronically, like the cameras somehow picks up your easy pass. And so if you have money loaded on it, then it just automatically takes it off of your account. Oh, yeah. For like toll roads and things like that. Yeah.
00:46:56
Speaker
Okay, so his car leaves work around 1130. His easy pass was next tracked passing through Fort Henry, a toll plaza there on Interstate 95. 11 minutes later around 1150. So our timeline is a little 1130 ish is when he leaves. He's picked up at 1150 from the
00:47:19
Speaker
Um, toll booth or whatever. Okay. So we want to say, was he headed home? But he would have been going North had he been, I mean, he would have been heading South, not North if he'd been going home. Oh, so he's going in the opposite direction. Yeah. And again, how's he driving if he left his glasses behind? But unless he's like Anthony, like he has more than one car glasses, like you have a car jacket.
00:47:48
Speaker
At 1228 AM, Jonathan's vehicle continues northbound and passes through Prairieville Tow Plaza in Maryland. At 1246, Jonathan's vehicle passes through the Delaware Line Tow Plaza. So thankfully, because of this easy pass, we have a pretty good idea of where he's going.
00:48:08
Speaker
At 1257 a.m. Jonathan's debit card is used at an ATM at JFK Plaza in Newark, Delaware So he either used it or someone else used it and knew his pen Mm-hmm unfortunately because You know, why would they work? the security cameras were not working and we were not able to get any footage of who withdrew the money from the ATM and
00:48:38
Speaker
And per case files, up to this point, we were able to track Jonathan because of that toll tag. But after this withdrawal from the ATM, all of his tolls were paid with cash. Which tells me that I don't think... I'll stop right there. I don't think that Jonathan Luna was driving.
00:48:58
Speaker
because I think right then there's a recognition of, okay, I'm leaving a trail. Yeah, I've got to stop.
00:49:10
Speaker
Yeah, I agree, and most everybody does. At 1237 a.m., and that's an approximate time, Jonathan- Do I get 1237? No, sorry, my bad. 237. Okay. 237. Jonathan's vehicle gets on the New Jersey turnpike at exit 6A from Route 130, a journey that should not have taken that long, right? So we're at the ATM at
00:49:39
Speaker
one o'clock almost one yeah and at 237 we're turning off of route 130. At 1247 Jonathan's vehicle enters the Pennsylvania turnpike at exit 359 going toward the Delaware river bridge.
Discovery of Luna's Body
00:49:57
Speaker
At 320 his debit card is used again at a gas station to make a purchase and yet again the security cameras get nothing.
00:50:09
Speaker
Oh, and where was where was this gas station? This gas station is in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. And then at four, we see Jonathan's vehicle exits Pennsylvania Turnpike at exit 286. The reading Lancaster interchange. Later, investigators found a small spot of blood, which was Jonathan's blood on the toll booth.
00:50:36
Speaker
But to me and several others, it almost seems like somebody's trying to confuse investigators at this point. Right. Or in that long hour of time, he's already been injured and whoever's driving has his blood on his hands. But like, when you pay for it, like, is there a person in a toll booth? Some do, yeah.
00:51:02
Speaker
especially up north, there will be like a big line and some lanes will be for people with easy pass, but then other lanes are if you have cash and then there's sometimes there's actual people, sometimes you'd like throw your coins down into a round thing.
00:51:22
Speaker
Just toss it in there. Yeah. But I'm wondering, I almost feel like there couldn't have been a person in there because then if Jonathan was injured, they would have seen him. They would have seen it. Yeah. If we know that his throat was slit, then how was there just a drop?
00:51:41
Speaker
Well, I think this is my personal belief. I think in this final spot that we're gonna talk about, that's where he was actually killed. I think he may have been tortured on the way there. So at 5.30 AM, Jonathan's body is discovered off Dry Tavern Road in Denver, Pennsylvania. Tire marks led
00:52:08
Speaker
like back and diagonally toward the stream where he was found indicating that his car which was a Honda had been parked at the rear of the property so we can tell where the car moved during this whole thing. The company would have been closed at the time that Jonathan or whoever pulled up so that is why his body was discovered
00:52:33
Speaker
about an hour later between the four and the five o'clock times because nobody would have been there when they originally got there. And when the employee started to arrive at work, one employee saw a faint red glow near the creek around 530. And that was the car lights because the car was still on and running and the body was then discovered.
00:52:58
Speaker
He found the employee. The Honda with its front end over the stream, it was still running. The dashboard, all the lights were on there. Blood was smeared over the driver's door and the left front of the car almost looking like a smeared handprint. Jonathan was face down in the stream underneath the car engine. I didn't read anything that said that he had been ran over.
00:53:29
Speaker
Oh, I don't know. Maybe if the water was kind of running and it kind of pushed him there and he may have got stuck. I'm not sure. He was still wearing his suit. Still had on his black overcoat. Still had the ID badge around his neck. There was a pool of blood on the rear floor. So like the back seat in the floor, there was a pool of blood. So that's what's making people think maybe he was tortured along the way.
00:53:58
Speaker
Well, I think the blood at random locations along the way make people think that. And even though he had 36 knife wounds. Oh my gosh. And some were like shallow, almost, if you could picture somebody like holding a knife up to you and be like, you better say something. Oh yeah. And it would give like a little cut. Yes.
00:54:24
Speaker
not like fatal wounds, but in total he had 36 wounds. So despite those 36 wounds, he also had a head injury.
00:54:37
Speaker
there was water in his lungs.
Was Luna's Death a Murder or Suicide?
00:54:41
Speaker
So his official ruling was that he drowned because of the water that was in his lungs. They do end up finding the murder weapon and it was actually his pocket knife. Wow.
00:54:59
Speaker
yeah no suspects or motive for his murder were ever determined there was a major smearing campaign that took place after jonathan's death there was an article by m smith called black thin mysteries the unsolved death of jonathan luna and it said that prior to
00:55:22
Speaker
the Smith Point extra drug case. At a 2002 bank robbery case that Jonathan handled supposedly the case ended missing $36,000 of the evidence money and people suspected that Luna was responsible for that.
00:55:42
Speaker
Because people say that he had problems with money. He had like twenty five thousand dollars in credit card debt. He supposedly had like a dating website. So they're trying all of these things to paint him in a negative light. OK.
00:56:03
Speaker
And many, including people from the FBI, want to call Jonathan's death a suicide, saying that those shallow cuts were like hesitation cuts, like the shallow ones before he went in for the deep ones.
00:56:27
Speaker
But the local Lancaster County authorities and two coroners both ruled it a homicide. Additional evidence collected during the investigation captured a second blood type and a partial print, as well as we do have some grainy footage from one of the stops that was made, but nothing that I think will ever really lead to anything. And Jonathan's case at this point still remains ongoing.
00:56:57
Speaker
So we have the 36 stab wounds. We have the head trauma. We have injuries to his neck and chest. I also think I read that he had defensive wounds and like you could tell with his fingernails that he had tried to fend off whoever. His attacker.
00:57:19
Speaker
So really with our theories, we just have two. One is suicide and it was initially reported that Luna did not have any substantial defense wounds and that those shallow wounds were quote unquote hesitation wounds in a suicide victim. People say that the motive for his suicide would have been that credit card debt that he had. Well, first of all, like literally
00:57:48
Speaker
probably every American has some amount of credit card debt. I don't see you, I mean, I don't know, but I don't see you being suicidal over $25,000 in credit card debt. Right. I would think he would be more upset thinking about what if I promised with getting this guy out of a murder charge.
00:58:10
Speaker
That was another thing too, especially where the judge said that he was going to be investigated. So with that and the missing $36,000, the plea deal that he really may not be able to carry through to very high up.
00:58:31
Speaker
criminals that you have lied to Some people say that Those are reason enough for him to have committed suicide They say that
00:58:48
Speaker
It could have been an accidental suicide that maybe Luna was fabricating a kidnapping and went a little bit too far, which is very disturbing to me. But that's another theory. I just, I mean, I'm not buying it, but I can
00:59:07
Speaker
get where they're coming from. Yeah. I can see it, but I'm not buying it. And like the dating profile, people make fake Instagram pages and Facebook pages all the time. Maybe somebody thought it'd be funny to make a dating profile for Jonathan Luna, and it wasn't even Jonathan Luna that made it, you know? Right. Right. I couldn't play off all of that. And then lastly is the theory of homicide, which I feel that we all think it was a homicide.
00:59:32
Speaker
Lancaster County coroner who performed the autopsy ruled his death homicide by drowning. Luna left his glasses which we know he needed to drive and his cell phone.
00:59:44
Speaker
He had called defense attorneys earlier in the night saying he would fax over the documents that he never did. The pool of blood in the backseat would suggest that Jonathan was in the back and someone else was driving. It's my personal belief that Jonathan was left for dead in the backseat of his car.
01:00:03
Speaker
because that's where the pool of the blood was. But he somehow managed in my mind to climb to the front, hence the smearing of the blood. Oh, and tried to get out and then like collapse.
01:00:16
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah, and then I think Thinking he'd get away he got out of the car and then fell and collapsed into the stream and drowned I do think that he was perhaps tortured along the way. I Can't explain why he was taking taken on such an elaborate car ride if it Maybe was just a scare tactic. I don't know. I
01:00:43
Speaker
So I definitely think he wasn't driving, not just the blood in the back, but also the taking down of the easy pass and beginning to use cash from there. Because I mean, if he were going to commit suicide, then he would have to know that he is going to fulfill that act before he could be found.
01:01:10
Speaker
you know, eliminates the need to make this big elaborate drive in the first place. And it definitely eliminates the need of taking down the easy pass to try to throw people off of your track. Right. Unless it was accidental suicide with the kidnapping thing. That's true. Yeah. I believe in my gut that
01:01:31
Speaker
It was homicide. Obviously, we do have a certain someone who might be mad about Poindexter not getting the time. And I don't even think it necessarily has to be Smith, Poindexter, or Grace. I think it could be anybody. Oh, it definitely could. That he had prosecuted. And that's sad, but true.
01:02:01
Speaker
Jonathan Luna dedicated his life to serving justice. But sadly, like so many cases we cover on coffee and cases, he thus far has been denied justice. We don't know who killed him. We don't even know why. But we do know that his family deserves answers. Regardless of any past mistakes, any past choices, no one deserves to die before their time.
01:02:23
Speaker
Help give Jonathan the justice he deserves. If you have any information regarding the case of Jonathan Luna, you are asked to call the Lancaster County Crime Stoppers at 800-322-1913.
01:02:39
Speaker
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01:03:08
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.