10. The Serrano Timeline

On November 19, 2006, I received another envelope from Leslie Todd Jones, an inmate in the Polk County Correctional Facility in Bartow, Florida. In this particular envelope, I found a money order for $30.00 along with a note asking that I help him replace some important papers that had been destroyed after he was arrested. He also asked that I use the money to start a website. www.leslietoddjones.com was born.

.........there's a story here and we're going to tell it. You did not cross my path by chance.

I laugh now when I read those words. He was right. There is a story. I had no idea how incredible the story would be and as of this writing, I still don't know how it will end. Looking back, if I had known about Polk Voice, I would have just started a blog, but at the time, I hadn't even heard of Lakeland, Florida or The Lakeland Ledger.

The Nelson Ivan Serrano trial had just ended. The jury had made their decision. Guilty, 4 counts of capitol murder. A story in the Lakeland Ledger stated that the jury based their decision mainly on an intricate timeline. Serrano had gone through great pains to develop a false alibi. It was Todd's testimony, along with the efforts of a determined Special Agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to figure it all out. This timeline was also the reason Todd had requested that Abbott and Costello skit.

The ball was now in the Judge's hands. Would he get death? Or would he get life? We began to await a sentencing date.

Todd was upset because so much of the evidence he had gathered against Serrano had been squashed by this judge. He wanted that evidence made public. He had tried to do so in his interview with the news reporter from New York and with a reporter from the Tampa Tribune. We would use the website to publish everything the judge had not allowed.

He sent me a money order for $30.00 and asked if I would handle his legwork on the outside. He asked me to get a filing cabinet and start gathering documents and organizing them. Thirty dollars is not a lot of money so my filing cabinet became a package of cardboard file storage boxes from Office Depot. I started out with four. Overtime those four would begin to bust at the seams.

He also asked me for two new addresses. Polk County Commissioner Randy Wilkerson and The Lakeland Police Department.

(excerpts from the November 19, 2006 letter)

......Commissioner Wilkerson ... just won re-election and was falsely arrested by LPD a few months ago on a DUI. It was 3 in the morning and he was driving around Lakeland putting up campaign signs with a friend. He was exhausted. The primary was just a few days away (he won). LPD pulls him over, said he crossed the yellow line. They give him the breath test and he blows 0.00. Not one drop of alcohol! LPD charges him anyway. I hope he sues, he made front page news everywhere! I need to write him ASAP.

He also asked for a dictionary. But I had already jumped ahead of him and sent one along with that book, "A Million Little Pieces" that he had asked for in a previous letter.
Not knowing anything about building a website, I went online and did some research. I found a good site, registered a domain name, and posted an old mug shot of Todd. One that was taken before he became a homeless drug addict in a small town in Florida. His eyes seemed to stare at me off the page. Sad eyes. It was like he knew what tragedies lay ahead for his life. www.leslietoddjones.com was the name I chose. This website would become my passion. It would be viewed by many and hated by most. It would be Todd's chance to tell the truth about what really had happened in Florida all those years ago.

He sent me the Abbott and Costello skit back only he had re-written it to reflect what he had witnessed in the courtroom the day he testified against Serrano. It reflected when the vital "Serrano Timeline" had been presented to the jury. Quite comical, this skit became a hit with all those who had been involved with the trial. Except for the judge, who became my first enemy. I added it onto our new website.

NORGARD: Now Judge, for Mr. Serrano's defense we have Who's on the Orlando flight, What's on the Tampa flight and I Don't Know rented the car.

JUDGE ROBERTS: That's what I'm trying to find out!

NORGARD: I'm telling you. Who's on the Orlando flight, What's on the Tampa flight, I Don't Know rented the ......

JUDGE ROBERTS: Well all I'm trying to find out is what's the guy's name on the Orlando flight.

NORGARD: Oh no, What's the guy's name on the Tampa flight.

JUDGE ROBERTS: I'm not asking you who's on the Tampa flight.

NORGARD: Who's on the Orlando flight.

JUDGE ROBERTS: That's what I'm trying to find out.

NORGARD: Well, don't change the suspects around Judge.

JUDGE ROBERTS: I'm not changing anybody.

NORGARD: Now, take it easy Judge.

JUDGE ROBERTS: What's the guy's name on the Orlando flight?

NORGARD: What's the guy's name on the Tampa flight.

JUDGE ROBERTS: I'm not askin' ya all who's on the Tampa flight.

NORGARD: Who's on the Orlando flight.

JUDGE ROBERTS: Mr. Mason, do you have anything to add?

MASON: Why of course Judge, what is it you want to know?

JUDGE ROBERTS: Mr. Mason, what is the fellow's name who rented the car?

MASON: What is the fellow's name on the Tampa flight.

JUDGE ROBERTS: I'm not asking ya all who's on the Tampa flight.

MASON: Who's on the Orlando flight.

JUDGE ROBERTS: I don't know.

MASON: He rented the car, we're not talking about him.

JUDGE ROBERTS: Now how did I get back to the rental car?

MASON: Why did you mention his name?

JUDGE ROBERTS: If I mentioned the guy's name, who did I say rented the car?

MASON: No, Who's on the Orlando flight.

JUDGE ROBERTS: I don't know.

MASON: He rented the car.

JUDGE ROBERTS: There we go back to the rental car.

JUDGE ROBERTS: Look, if someone purchased a ticket for the Orlando flight, somebody's got to get it. Now, who has it?

MASON: Absolutely!

JUDGE ROBERTS: Who?

MASON: Absolutely!

JUDGE ROBERTS: Absolutely?

MASON: Absolutely.

JUDGE ROBERTS: So the girl at the ticket counter gave the ticket to Absolutely?

MASON: No, she gave the ticket to Who.

JUDGE ROBERTS: Absolutely.

MASON: It's about time Judge.

JUDGE ROBERTS: That's what I'm saying.

MASON: You're not saying it.

JUDGE ROBERTS: I'd give the ticket to Absolutely.

MASON: You'd give it to Who.

JUDGE ROBERTS: Absolutely.

MASON: That's it Judge.

JUDGE ROBERTS: Let me get this straight. Who purchases a ticket and whoever he is gets on the Orlando flight. He has another ticket and gives it to What to fly on the Tampa flight. Another guy actually committed the crimes. Why? I don't know! He rented the car and I don't give a darn.

MASON: What was that Judge?

JUDGE ROBERTS: I said I don't give a darn!

MASON: That's what we were hoping.

I had Thanksgiving dinner that year with Maureen, my best friend. Todd had Thanksgiving alone, in his cell. As he sat there, in jail, alone on that particular holiday, he wrote me a letter. I received it a week later. The whole page was covered with just two words; "thank-you" written about a hundred times. I had given him courage to face all the bad things he had done, hope for his future and strength to conquer what was to come.