Darrent Williams’ killer allegedly wrote a letter to a gang leader, telling him that he would not admit to the 2007 murder and confirming that he fired the shots. That letter was allegedly intercepted by a fellow inmate and delivered to the ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS in hopes of collecting part or all of the $100,000 reward offered by the Denver Broncos for information regarding the slaying.
The ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS called in a handwriting expert to apparently confirm the letter came from the hand of Willie Clark, in jail pending drug charges and one suspect in the unsolved murder. The ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS convinced the unnamed source that brought them the letter to allow prosecutors to take the letter.
He now lives out of state, moved by authorities, and refuses to testify until money comes from the Broncos or the state’s attorney’s office to also move his family to safety.
And now more about why it took so long to get this seemingly crucial piece of evidence and how the ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS was possibly involved with that delay:
The ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS provides an excruciatingly detailed breakdown of the timeline of this letter from its abduction from jail through the source/prisoner’s release to its arrival at their doorstep and into the hands of prosecutors. However, we found this passage oddly vague:
“The source contacted the Rocky in early 2008, after he was released, asking to meet with a reporter. At the time, he did not mention the Darrent Williams murder.
In April, the source said he had information about the killing. In a meeting, he said he had intercepted and copied a letter that seemed to implicate Clark.”
This would seem to imply that the ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS received a tip months before they acted on it because the tipster didn’t make his request for a reporter’s time sexy enough by name-dropping the famed unsolved crime. Therefore, it was ignored until he called again and explained exactly how juicy his story was.
We are, of course, open to additional explanation that clarifies this statement as an ongoing conversation and not simply a phone call blown off by a busy reporting team receiving all kinds of errant unsolicited tips.
11:55 am on May 30th, 2008
It seems pretty obvious to me that two things had to do with the delay:
1. Some guy straight out of jail wants to meet with a reporter. Without giving anything specific, of course he’s going to be ignored. The Denver Broncos chief of security, coaches, and even Darrent Williams’ mother also ignored his first contact efforts.
2. The delay in publishing this article since April was obviously due to make sure the source had adequate safety. This gang (the Tre Tre Crips) have killed potential witnesses in the past, and have directly or indirectly threatened witnesses in this case. They’re infamous for murdering a girl days before she was set to testify in a case against their gang leader. The case was one in which she was an attempted murder victim by the gang leader in the first place.
As a Broncos fan and a Darrent Williams fan I’m just glad to see that finally a step toward justice may have taken place.
11:58 am on May 30th, 2008
I, for one, think it’s time we embraced the Raider fan in us all.
http://thesometimesdailynug.blogspot.com/2008/05/let-us-all-just-embrace-raider-fan.html
12:04 pm on May 30th, 2008
Point #2 seemed more straightforward in the piece and more obvious. It was the time period between “early 2008″ and April that was the only part of the piece that was unnecessarily vague, leading to your first point.
You point out that he was ignored because he didn’t mention anything specific and was straight out of jail. I brought up that former point (as did the Rocky Mountain News), but why would they ignore him because he was straight out of jail? Metro reporters would know that their break in the story wasn’t going to come from a Boy Scout since Clark (or other possible suspects) didn’t surround himself with any.
Again, I’m not positive what happened here, but it is an unusually vague passage in a very detailed and thorough piece. Your points could be absolutely correct, but the Rocky Mountain News had the opportunity to say them (or something more) in this passage.
Thanks for the added detail, too. Every bit helps in a tangled case like this.