Perjury trial of former Philly cops accused of lying in a murder case begins week two with a delay
Prosecutors are preparing to rest in their case against former Detectives Martin Devlin, Frank Jastrzembski, and Manuel Santiago, who they said lied under oath to keep an innocent man in prison.
Entering its second week, the perjury trial of three former Philadelphia homicide detectives was delayed Monday due to an issue with a witness, but Common Pleas Court Judge Lucretia Clemons said testimony is expected to conclude Tuesday and jurors will likely begin jury deliberations by mid week.
The charges against Detectives Frank Jastrzembski, Manuel Santiago, and Martin Devlin involve what prosecutors describe as years of lies that they say put an innocent man in jail for a quarter-century.
So far, the jury learned that after the 1991 rape and murder of Louise Talley in Nicetown, the homicide investigation quickly zeroed in on Anthony Wright, who detectives say voluntarily confessed to the crime.
Wright was convicted in 1993 and remained behind bars for decades until new DNA evidence emerged and called into question his guilt. His conviction was overturned and he was granted a new trial that included DNA test results implicating another man. And in 2016, a jury acquitted him at retrial.
Prosecutors with District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office now say the homicide investigation was flawed — and that the detectives’ sworn testimony at the retrial amounted to perjury and false swearing.
They say Santiago and Devlin lied under oath about the confession they say Wright gave them, while Frank Jastrzembski lied about finding the killer’s clothing in Wright’s bedroom.
» READ MORE: Perjury trial of three ex-Philly detectives zeroes in on testimony and DNA from overturned murder case
Defense attorneys for the detectives dispute the prosecution theory that their clients were untruthful about their work on the case. They say the detectives simply followed the evidence as they tried to solve the murder of the 77-year-old widow and the trail led squarely to Wright.
To make that case, they have sought to cast doubt on the jury verdict that set Wright free. The perjury trial has at times resembled yet another retrial for Wright. Attorneys for the detectives have pointed to statements from witnesses who said Wright was at Talley’s home that night in a Chicago Bulls sweatshirt, even though some of those witnesses later recanted.
Wright, now 53, took the stand last week and asserted his innocence as defense attorneys poked holes in account and essentially accused him of getting away with murder.
DNA experts testified last week that the DNA found on Talley’s body belonged to another man, a crack user who lived near her home but police never questioned in the case. And prosecutors sought to highlight that detectives did not exhaust other possible suspects during the investigation.
The jury also listened to marathon readings of court transcripts from the 2016 retrial, which included several of the statements that prosecutors say indicate that the detectives lied on the witness stand.
Santiago and Jastrzembski testified at Wright’s retrial that they had little knowledge of the DNA testing implicating another man. But in 2017, during sworn depositions for a lawsuit Wright filed against the city, they said they had been briefed on the DNA findings before the trial.
The city later settled Wright’s federal lawsuit for nearly $10 million.
Another retired detective who worked on the murder investigation is expected to testify Tuesday before the prosecution rests.