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.

9. The Interview

Isolation, aka "the hole", is the most brutal of all confinements. A place in every prison usually reserved for the most heinous inmates. Either as a form of punishment or for inmates that can't be placed in general population because they are a danger to others. In Leslie Todd Jones' case, others were a danger to him.

There are no windows in the hole. No TV's, no chairs upon which to sit, no table for your meals. No visitors, no magazines, no books to read. No contact with any other human being nor any other inmate. You are only allowed out 3 times a week, shackled and handcuffed, for a 3 minute shower. No exercise, no trips outside to the yard.

Due to his cooperation with the State of Florida in the Nelson Ivan Serrano mass murder trial, Todd would spend nearly 60 days in this prison within the prison. It would even be many more weeks before he was able to see the light of day or the dark of night. On November 5, 2006 Todd wrote that he had finally been moved out of isolation. This would only be a temporary move as Todd continued to work for law enforcement, therefore, he would be returned to "The Hole" on a regular basis.

(excerpts from the original letter)

Sunday 10:00 a.m. November 5, 2006

I've been moved out of isolation into a 15 man unit. Each person is still "locked down" but I now have a desk, a normal height bed and a TV in the day room that I can see from my cell. Last night I got to watch "Con Air", no jokes please. It feels so strange to be sitting up writing at a desk, it's going to take a few days to get used to.

As for my cell I have a window, 2 ft. x 6 ft., with bars. But it has a cover on the outside blocking any real kind of view. All I can tell is if it's day or night. Better than where I was in isolation.

I'm still separated from the other 15 guys, but we all get about 45 minutes each day, one at a time, and get to float around and talk and trade things. I don't get to go outside. I would love to just be able to talk a walk outside in the cold, drink a soda, read the newspaper.

I'm in here again because of the Serrano case - and trust me - it's big news in here. All the CO's admire me for it but most of the slime ball inmates don't. Ironically, only one inmate (in here) knows about the Serrano case and he's very cool. Don't worry, I can fight.

Yes, I do get very cold sometimes. There's nothing I can do about that. Better than being hot I suppose.

As for a counselor, you're it! I put in to talk to the one here but he's never come by.

My lawyer was here last Wednesday and I have a court date next month. Please pray for me.

Yours truly,

Todd

Along with his usual requests for names, addresses and documents; he made an unusual request for an old Abbott and Costello skit called "Who's on First". I thought maybe the inmates were going to put on a Christmas play or something. I found the skit and sent it to him.

He also told me that he had an interview with a New York news station at the end of the month and that he really needed those papers he had left in the boiler room at Lighthouse Ministries. I didn't know why that box of documents was so important or why a New York news reporter would need them at the time. Todd asked me to call Tony at Lighthouse Ministries back and find out Billy's last name so that he could send him the money to ship the box of papers to his family in Long Island. I telephoned Tony the next day, only to learn that vital box of papers had been turned over to the director and subsequently destroyed. I wrote to Todd and told him the bad news. He took it all in stride saying, "We'll just have to get them back then". Something that would take us months to do.

It was about this time that Todd began trying to call me on the phone, collect. But as luck would have it, I hadn't had the money to pay the phone bill and my phone had been shut off. He would continue to try on a weekly basis. It would take longer to receive that first phone call from Todd than it had been to smuggle a thumb sized picture of me into the jail.

The New York news reporter did come to see Todd and as the interview was taking place, Nelson Serrano himself walked up behind Todd and a scuffle ensued. The reporter would later write:

The visitation room is an open space with individual stalls divided by sound proof plexi-glass with a phone installed in each booth for communication. Despite that Jones was under protective custody due to his participation with the State in the Serrano trial, Nelson Serrano was brought into the room directly behind where Jones was sitting, thus making him vulnerable to a potential attack. When Serrano saw that Jones was speaking to me, a person Serrano knew to be with the media, he became visibly upset. Due to the sound-proofing, I could not hear what was being said, but there were threats made and pushing and shoving. Guards had to separate the two of them. A female guard later came up and apologized to Mr. Jones for putting him at risk, for the two inmates are supposed to be kept separate at all times. She later explained to me that to make sure this problem did not reoccur that Mr. Jones’ visitation schedule would be held on different days then Mr. Serrano.

This reporter also asked the facility for an on camera interview, but the facility denied that request.

........Later, I approached the Polk County Sheriff’s department about conducting an on-camera interview with Mr. Jones so I could talk to him about his knowledge of the case. I spoke with Chief Steven Lester who is in charge of the jail facilities. Despite that Jones himself wanted to participate and the prosecuting attorney and investigators had given their okay, Lester told me that my request was denied. Lester indicated to me that he was worried about Jones’ safety. He went on to explain that it is his job to protect inmates even when they do not see it as in their best interest and he believed that Jones would be further opening himself up to retribution for being a “jail house snitch” if he participated. The problem is, however, that this is a very high-profile case in Polk County and the trial was held live on Court-TV, covered e news stations, Dateline NBC, as well as by area newspapers. The inmates in the jail are already aware of Jones’ participation in the case, which is why he is already in protective custody. Mr. Jones is not safe in his current surroundings.

This would be the first time Todd was attacked within the prison walls. The first of many. The Florida Department of Corrections did not give Todd very much protection after his cooperation with the State. And there would be many more attacks to come. Todd was on his own. Locked behind bars with people who wanted to kill him and handicapped by a prison system that couldn't figure out how to protect him.