THE ZACHARY PETTUS CASE
Zachary Pettus is from Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the youngest child in a family of 10. He came out to Huntington Beach, California in the Spring of 1983 to stay with his sister Veronica Ingram. He enrolled in Marina High School to earn the last few credits for his high school diploma while staying with his sister. He was 18 years old.
He enjoyed hanging with his friend Brian Gatlin, a 16 year old that has lived his entire life in Southern California. Zac became like a second son to Brian’s mother, Barbara Gatlin. Zac also hung out with his nephew, Roberto ‘Bert’ Ingram, his sister Veronica’s son, who was a couple of years older than Zac.
Where everything went wrong for Zac was when he decided in September of 1983 that California was not for him and decided to return home to Cincinnati, but he did not want to call home and ask his parents for money to return home. He also wanted to help his sister Veronica before he returned home, he had only been in California for 5-6 months at this point. Zac dis-enrolled himself from Marina high school a few days before the incident that would permanently change his life. On September 17th, 1983, Zac went to look for a job to earn money. Zac went to several businesses in the area and put in several applications. The last business Zac went to was the business, Somewhere in Time, owned by Darlene Hazboun. (The store Somewhere in Time was in a small strip mall on the second floor that included several small businesses. Next to the stairway leading up to the store was a busy liquor store.) Zac was there for over twenty minutes. talking to the owner and a couple of customers in the store. Zac had been to this establishment once before, a couple of weeks earlier to inquire about purchasing a Zoot suit for a halloween party he and his nephew was going to. He was told to keep coming back since the store gets new shipments daily. When Zac left the location, he took a bus and went to play basketball, but while at the bus stop Zac was approached by someone he knew, Darcy Bivens. They chatted until Zac got in the bus.
The next day, September 18th, 1983, Zac was home alone. He wrote a letter to his girlfriend back in Cincinnati and went to mail it. Around 11:30 AM, a school bus driver saw Zac standing in front of his sister’s apartment when she dropped off children in front of the apartment complex. She noticed him because when the children got off the bus, they all ran up to Zac and started playing with him. At 1:30 PM, a bank teller said that she had just returned from lunch and Zac was her first customer upon her return. Zac was making a deposit into his sister’s bank account on behalf of Veronica. Both the bank teller and her supervisor stated that Zac was in the bank between 1:30 PM and 1:40 PM. Another neighbor stated that he was returning from work at 1:50 PM and he saw Zac walking across the street coming from the direction of the bank. (The bank was right across the street from the apartment complex.) At 2:15-2:20 PM, a clerk at a photo booth in the same parking lot of the bank actually stated she spoke to Zac when he approached her and asked her about the helicopters flying overhead. Everyone that saw or spoke to Zac that day said that Zac was wearing a polo shirt, jeans and smelled strongly of cologne. They also said he was very friendly and relaxed.
That same day, Darlene Hazboun, who was the owner of the shop, Somewhere in Time was dropped off at her employee/friends home by her husband, who also worked in the area. (Darlene and her husband lived in Lake Elsinore, California but worked in Huntington Beach and drove in together everyday. Darlene always parked her car at her friend's home to use once her husband went to work.) Darlene arrived at her friend's house sometime after 8 AM so that she could run errands and open up her store, where her employee/friend would join her later in the afternoon. Darlene ran errands, including making a deposit for several days receipts from her business to the bank before she opened the business for the day. Darlene opened the business at 11 AM, where she had one couple that purchased a greeting card. In the meantime, Darlene’s husband called her and stated that he was having back problems and he would like to leave and go home early to relax. He asked Darlene if she could get her employee/friend to come in early so that they could go home early. (The couple spoke several times that day to try and coordinate their travels.)
At 1 PM, Mister Felix, a UPS driver that frequently delivers to the shopping center that housed the store, Somewhere in Time, delivered a package to a store right across the walkway from the store, Somewhere in Time. Mister Felix stated that he saw Darlene Hazboun standing at her counter in her store. He did not deliver to Somewhere in Time that day, but he has frequently delivered to the store and knew the owner, Darlene Hazboun by sight. Mister Felix remembered delivering to the store right across from Somewhere in Time at 1 PM and he stated he did see Darlene because the door was open.
Another customer that interacted with Darlene Hazboun that day was a Vet Tech who worked at a veterinarian office that was around the counter from Somewhere in Time. She stated that she got off from work at 1 PM and drove around the corner to Somewhere in Time. She stated that she arrived in the store between 1:05- 1:10 PM, no-one but Mrs. Hazboun was in the store, and she spent most of the time on the phone while the customer was in the store. The customer looked around and tried on 2 shirts. She then paid $3 on a layaway that she had at the store. The customer stated that she left the store around 1:20 PM, and Darlene Hazboun was still in the store, alone but well. Darlene’s husband said in his police report that he last spoke to his wife around 1:30 PM, and she was alive and well, and she did not indicate anything was amiss. Just before 2 PM a customer who had accompanied her aunt to the same shopping center as Somewhere in Time because her aunt had a business in the same shopping center, and had a meeting at 2 PM, decided to wait for her aunt to complete her meeting at the store Somewhere in Time. This customer went upstairs to the store, which was locked, but the employee arrived about the same time and unlocked the door, and they both entered the store. No-one was around and nothing seemed out of place. The customer started shopping and after 10 minutes she was joined by her aunt who had completed her meeting. About 5-10 minutes later, the employee alerted the customers that something was wrong and they would have to leave, and the employee called the police. The employee had found Darlene’s body, hogtied, gagged and stabbed to death in the area customers used to try on clothes.
The police arrived and spoke to several witnesses. Two witnesses were a store owner and her employee from a crocheting store down the walkway from the victim’s store. The owner, an older white woman, stated that a customer had come into her store and stated that she had tried to enter Somewhere in Time and a young black man, wearing red athletic gear and a t-shirt had greeted her and prevented her from entering the store. He had politely but firmly showed her out. He had a friendly smile but his eyes alarmed her. She said he had stated that the owner had stepped out but would return shortly. The customer stated that something was not right! The crochet store owner stated, “Oh! It must have been that same kid that was here yesterday.” (The previous day, Zac had been there looking for a job.) However, her employee, a young white woman, had seen the young black male that the customer had seen that day, and she had seen Zac the day before. The black male that interacted with the customer the day of the crime had passed by the crocheting store earlier in the day and turned to smile at the young woman. This young woman stated that it was not the same man that was there the day before, it was someone different. (The older woman that owned the crocheting store saw Zac the day before but did not see the suspect the day of the crime. She made an assumption because the suspect was described as a young black male.) The two women, the crochet store owner and the customer decided to go to Somewhere in Time to see what was going on. When they arrived, the door was locked, they could not see inside and no-one was around, so they returned to the crochet store. Since this was highly usual, the owner of the crochet store decided to call the management of the strip mall to let them know what was going on, so that they could call the employee to let her know something was wrong. The customer then left but not before she left her name and phone number. When the women spoke to the police, they claimed that it had to be around 1:15 PM when the customer left to go home after leaving the crochet store, based on the clock in the rental car she was driving.
The police also spoke to a young 14 year old girl that was there with two other youngsters. Her name was Darcy Belvins. She stated that she was told about the crime from a young boy and decided to come over to see. (The police never verified this.) She stated that she had been at the store the day before, looking for a job. She further stated that she knew of a boy by the name of Zachary Pettus that went to her school and was trying to date her friend Michelle Munoz. She stated that she had run into him yesterday at "Somewhere in Time" and he told her that he had a “job” proposition for her. She stated that Zac told her that if she would call stores and act like she was selling security equipment, and find out which stores did not have security equipment and let him know. She stated that Zac told her that he had a friend that would rob those stores. She stated that Zac said they would pay her for that information. Darcy stated that she told Zac, “no, because she is no thief!” When the officer asked her why she was not in school, she stated that she never goes to her afternoon classes. Darcy also stated that the reason she was in the area yesterday is because she was “diligently” looking for a job. However, when pressed she stated that she did not put in any applications because the people either looked too busy or that they did not look like they would hire a teenager. (None of this was ever checked by the police, the DA or the defense.) Compare this with Zac, the police found several applications that Zac had put in with different businesses in the area on September 17th. This was put into evidence. Darcy sent the police Zac’s way.
Another witness the police talked to was a white gentleman that was recovering from surgery at home. He was on his 2nd floor balcony across the street from the strip mall where Somewhere in Time was located, and on the same side as the bus stop where Zac waited for the bus the day before. He stated that he saw the young black male that was wearing the red athletic gear the day of the crime. He stated that he saw the same young man in the shopping complex around the time the crime was committed. He went on to say that it was the same young black male that he saw walking with a young girl to the bus stop the day before, and he identified Zac as that same man. However, the police located the young girl that was walking with the young man the day before the crime. She was shown a lineup with a picture of Zac in it and asked if this was the person walking with her. The young girl said, “No, this was not the same person walking with her.” She went on to say, “Zac was not as good looking as the young man walking with her.” She said she did not know the person walking with her, he was trying to get her phone number but she did not give it to him, she said he walked her to the bus stop where she got on the bus, but he did not get on the bus. She went on to say that when she returned later that evening and went to the liquor store that was in that same strip mall, she saw that same young black male standing around a car with a number of other males, staring at her, and it made her very nervous! (But, that person was not Zac, and this girl was not Darcy.)
Later that night, the police used Michele Munoz to get Zac out of the house around 8 PM to arrest him for the crime of murder in the commission of a robbery. They arrested him without incident, but while they were arresting him, Travis Robinson, a friend of Zac’s sister Veronica, walked up to the police and began questioning them about the crime and any witnesses. They questioned Zac for several hours, but in the meantime two police officers stayed with Zac’s sister Veronica at her home waiting for the go ahead to search her home for evidence, which they received about 9 or 10 PM. They searched the entire house as well as her storage bin at her apartment complex, and used flood lights to search the route Zac would have had to take to get from the crime scene to his sister’s home. They found nothing. The police also thoroughly searched the crime scene and dusted everything at the crime scene for prints the day of the crime. They found nothing linking Zac to the crime! (Zac stated that he was very surprised that they did not find any of his fingerprints at the crime scene because the day before he had touched several surfaces while he was in the store.)
The next day, September 19th, 1983, Zac is still in custody, and his sister is taken by Zac’s friend's mom, Barbara Junious to meet with Milton Grimes, an attorney that Mrs. Junious’ pastor had recommended from Santa Ana. While she was gone the Huntington Beach PD CSI team made entry into her apartment to make a second search for evidence with more experienced personnel and a police dog. When Veronica returned with Milton Grimes and his investigator, they observed the police bringing things out of the home and placing the police dog back into the car. Milton Grimes and his investigator went in to speak with the police. The police left about 15 minutes later, but we do know they searched the entire house, again, and still found nothing to tie Zac to the crime. (That is 2 searches.) After the police left, Milton Grimes also searched the home, especially Zac’s room, and they too found nothing.
A few days later, the Huntington Beach CSI team returned to Veronica’s home to search again, in particular, Zac’s room. On this search, they found a $20 dollar bill and two $10’s loose in a pants pocket. (This turned out to belong to Zac’s older brother Carlos who sometimes stayed with his sister.) So, once again they still found nothing to tie Zac to the crime. The police thought they might have found the petty cash taken from the crime scene, but the cash did not match the small bills and change that was taken, and Zac has been in custody since the evening of the crime. Veronica called Milton Grimes and told him about the search and he and his investigator returned and inspected the home again.
The day before the police would have had to release Zac for lack of evidence, two officers went back to Veronica’s home, unexpectedly. While one officer stayed with Veronica downstairs, the other went upstairs to Zac’s room and less than 5 minutes later, according to Veronica, the officer returned holding 2 broken necklaces, and said, “found them!” Veronica stated that she immediately said, “you did not find those up there!” (This was the first time that Veronica was present during a search and was not allowed to watch, as she was allowed to watch in the other searches.) In the meantime, while these 2 officers were “finding” the necklaces in Zac’s room, another officer was returning to the crime scene, alone. He decided to dust only one object in the entire store, a file cabinet inside the office of Darlene, a section no customers would have access to. However, that same file cabinet was dusted the day of the crime, and no prints were found on the cabinet, but this day, according to this officer, Zac’s partial palm print was miraculously found on the file cabinet this time! The “found” necklaces, with the victim's name engraved on the back and the “found '' partial print found on the file cabinet allowed them to hold Zac in custody and formally charge him with the murder and robbery. Zac was convicted of murder with special circumstances, in commission of a robbery. The death penalty was on the table, but during the penalty phase of the trial the judge took the death penalty off the table. Zac was sentenced to Life Without the Chance of Parole, LWOP in 1985, he has been in prison ever since.
POINTS OF CONTENTION
For every witness that tried to place Zac at the scene of the crime, a more reliable witness disputes that. The owner of the crocheting store just assumed that since she saw Zac at the store the day before the crime, it was him that the customer interacted with the day of the crime, but she never saw the suspect the day of the crime! However, her employee saw both Zac the day before, and the suspect the day of the crime. And she said they were two different people. But, another witness states that the 3 women before talking to the police were huddled together talking about the suspect, which may have influenced the identification of the suspect. One of these same witnesses failed to identify Zac in person in court until he stood up in shackles. She identified two other black men as Zac until the judge brought an end to that line of questioning by the defense. The other male witness that tried to identify Zac from his second floor balcony, identified Zac as the young man trying to pick up the girl going to the bus stop, as the same person he saw at the crime scene the day of the crime. But, the girl who had a much better look at the person definitively stated that Zac was not the one that spoke to her! I don’t believe this young lady was ever shown any other pictures for ID.
As for the “found’ necklaces, no-one saw those necklaces at ANY of the previous searches. As a matter of fact, one CSI officer stated that he searched the area, on the 2nd and 3rd police searches that the officer claimed to have “found” the necklaces and said those necklaces were not there! Where were they? Where did they come from? No-one else saw those necklaces in the 5 previous searches by both experienced CSI professionals and the defense team, no-one saw the jewelry! The officer claims he found the necklaces in a small open tupperware container on Zac’s record player with some pennies. He claims to have seen them in a previous search but did not believe they had anything to do with crime! (The jewelry had the victim’s name engraved on it, and all of Zac’s necklaces were on nails hanging neatly on his closet door by the size and were all silver. DNA testing has never been done on these items, and the victim was found with expensive earrings and a watch on, why weren’t those taken too? Also, the necklaces appeared to have been snatched off the victims neck and broken into three pieces, one piece was very short. If a suspect is in a hurry, why would they also grab a little piece of necklace, what is the value in that? Why were these vital evidence items only found 1 day before they would have had to release Zac for lack of evidence? And, why did they block Veronica from observing the ‘search’, something they hadn’t done before?
Darcy Bevins placed Zac at the scene, but her story and character was never challenged. Darcy was a primary witness for the prosecution, she was 14 years old. Darcy wasn’t living with her mother, she was living down the street with ‘friends.’ She was a problem child at school, she was transferred from high school to high school until she ended up at the Continuation high school in Huntington Beach. She was known to drink and smoke and get high. She was also known as a liar and a troublemaker. Darcy was a minor but was questioned without an adult present. Darcy claimed to not know the victim, she said her friend Michelle Munoz knew the victim better, but we found out Michelle did not know the victim, but we recently found out Michelle’s little sister was holding onto a secret involving Darcy and the victim. She told her sister Michelle a few years ago that when she was 10 years old, Darcy convinced her to steal a couple of pieces of their mother’s jewelry and she and Darcy, whom was 14 at the time, sold the jewelry to the victim, because Somewhere in Time was a secondhand clothing store that frequently bought secondhand clothing and jewelry. Michelle’s sister said Darcy took the money and bought cigarettes, chips and soda, she got nothing! She had carried that secret with her for decades, swore to secrecy by Darcy. Michelle told us that her mother despised Darcy and forbade her children to have anything to do with Darcy! So, they only hung with Darcy behind her mother’s back. When the police questioned Michelle, they questioned her without her mother, and listening to the tapes, you can hear Darcy coaching Michelle on what to say. No-one called either of them on that! Michelle Munoz’s mother knew nothing about her daughter’s involvement and unfortunately she passed away a few years ago so we weren’t able to talk to her. Michelle had a motorcycle accident a few years ago and had a traumatic brain injury and she doesn’t recall a lot about Zac or the case, she remembers just a few things about Darcy, but she did agree to go under hypnosis if need be. We were also told Darcy might have been dating Travis Robinson. Zac told us that he met Darcy at school, she actually pursued him, but he was interested in her friend Michelle. Darcy testified at the trial, but was never investigated or challenged by the defense or prosecution, she was heard in the halls of the courthouse talking about the case within hearing of the jurors during the trial. Over the years different people have spoken to Darcy’s ex-husband and a former roommate, neither has anything good to say about her, she has been described as a liar and a thief. We have tracked her to Minnesota, but no-one has talked to her.
Travis Robinson was a friend of Zac’s sister Veronica. However, Veronica has through the years tried to put Travis as Zac’s friend, which we have discovered was not true. Veronica at this time was a drug addict and prostitute, but the family did not know this, or else they would not have let Zac come out alone to California. Zac stated that he saw Travis around town and at the youth club in town and he was a good dancer, but he did not know him! He met Travis formally when his sister Veronica took him over to Travis’s home so she could talk privately to Travis’s mother, and while they talked, Travis took Zac into his room where he showed Zac his martial arts weapons, his swords and knives, as well as his boxing gear. After spending that little one on one time with Travis, Zac decided Travis was not “his cup of tea!” Zac and his sister were only at Travis’s home for about 20 minutes before they left. The next time Zac saw Travis, Brian Gatlin and Zac were returning from playing basketball and going to Brian’s home. They returned to Veronica’s apartment to pick up something for Zac. When they walked up, they saw Travis’s bike on the front steps, when they walked in, Travis and Veronica were in the living room talking. Brian and Zac went upstairs, got what they came for and left. They were there for only 5 minutes but when they left, Travis was still there. The night Zac was arrested and being placed in the car, Travis came up to the police and was questioning them about the crime and if anyone had seen anything. (The police told Zac this when they were questioning him.) Travis was also seen at the scene of the crime around the time the crime was committed, wearing the clothing described by the witnesses. He was seen by a Huntington Beach police officer passing the scene at the time. The officer identified him when he saw Travis a couple of days later filing a police report about a stolen bike. Travis was also stopped and briefly questioned by a police officer earlier in the day of the crime, down the street from the victims store at a Winchell’s donut shop. Travis was questioned by the police, but with his mother present, (Travis was 19 years old). Travis told the police that Zac had stopped by his home to borrow his bike the day before the crime. Travis said Zac was returning from school and had books. (However, because Zac and Travis were not friends, Travis did not know Zac had signed himself out of school a few days before and was not attending school the day he claimed to have seen Zac returning from school. But, when the questioning got too intense, Travis’s mother rushed in and stopped the questioning, (they left the door cracked so she could listen in.) The police never searched his home or questioned him again, the prosecution nor the defense never questioned Travis even though the defense did bring up his name during his closing statement. Travis did not testify and he left the area very soon after he was questioned by the police. Travis is a documented LA gang member, and has often proudly bragged about this. He is a person of interest in another murder in LA, and he is presently in the same prison as Zac serving time for murdering his girlfriend, he stabbed her over 17 times, while claiming self defense. An attorney for the San Diego Innocence Project went to question Travis when he was at Lancaster State Prison in 2017, and while he danced during the entire visit, he bragged about his gang affiliation, told the attorney Zac was too much of a wimp to have done the crime and that everyone knows Zac did not do the crime! But he made excuses to justify the murder of his girlfriend and talked about how the police tried to set him up for the other murder in LA, and how he spent over a year in custody before they had to release him because the witnesses to the crime changed their stories. And since Travis has been at Chuckawalla with Zac, Travis has told anyone that will listen that “everyone knows Zac did not commit the crime, and he was set up to take the fall!” But, Zac wants nothing to do with him! We believe Veronica was getting her drugs from Travis and his mother, and Travis actually did the crime. Travis was the only one that the police interviewed that refused to let them take his picture. We don't know where they got the picture of Travis that they did use, but his eyes were closed in the picture.
As for Zac’s sister Veronica. By her own description, she called herself the ‘Black Sheep’ in the family. What the family did not know was Veronica was a heavy drug user and was participating in prostitution as a side hustle. If they had known that, they would have never let Zav come to California. Veronica stated that she believed the family blamed her for Zac’s situation. Veronica was Zac’s step-sister, she was his mother’s daughter, conceived before his mother met Zac’s father. There were 6 children, out of the ten born to Zac’s mother and father. Zac’s mother brought 2 daughter’s into the marriage, while his father bought in 1 son, and another child was adopted, in addition to the 6 born of the marriage. And, after talking to Veronica, several people have come to the conclusion that Veronica secretly resented the 6 children born from the marriage between her mother and stepfather. Veronica had two children, both older than Zac and neither lived at home with their mother. Veronica’s oldest child, Roberto, ‘Bert’, was the only person the police totally cleared because most of the police department believed more than one suspect did the crime and they figured the most likely person that would have done the crime with Zac would have been Bert. So, they interviewed Bert, took his picture, checked and cleared his alibi, searched Bert’s car and home, spoke to his girlfriend and roommates as well as Bert’s employer. As for his mother, she did everything she could to tie Travis to Zac and distance herself from Travis. During the wait for the first police search, while they were waiting for permission to search her home, the officers asked Veronica why Zac was out here instead of back home with their parents? Veronica told them that they believed Zac stole money from his mother and he was hiding from the consequences. But, when they asked Veronica’s son Bert about it, he told them, “He heard about the missing money, but absolutely not! Zac does not steal!” I spoke to the family back east and they confirmed what Bert said about the money. Veronica was at 5 of the 6 police and defense searches of her home, she closely observed 4 of the 5, but was blocked on the last ‘search’ when one officer went upstairs to search while another stayed downstairs to block her. She also told anyone that would listen that Milton Grimes was not competent enough to handle the case. But she also went against advice of counsel and asked Barabra Junious to drive her to the police station to talk to the police, after Milton Grimes told her not to! She told the police that Zac went to Somewhere in Time the day of the crime to pay on a layaway. (This was not true, Zac had no layaway there, nor did he ever tell her that.) She went further and without prompting from the police, Veronica told the police Travis was Zac’s good friend, but that Travis could not have had anything to do with the crime because Travis was in Los Angeles at his brother’s funeral the day of the crime, so he wasn’t in the area! Veronica did not know Travis had already told the police during his questioning that His brother, another gang member, killed a month before the crime had been dead and buried for weeks! She also did not know that 2 different police officers saw Travis around the crime scene the day of the crime, and that Travis walked up to the officers arresting Zac the night of the crime and started asking some very suspicious questions, and no-one ever called her on it at the time. Veronica also got on the witness stand, and according to witnesses, acted like a snippering idiot on the witness stand! However, several people, as well as myself all agree Veronica was hiding something that might have helped clear her brother, but it was a secret she took to her grave a few years ago.
As for the miraculously found partial palm print of Zac’s, I have the forensic report done the day of the crime. It detailed what was dusted for fingerprints at the crime scene the day of the crime. One of the things dusted and listed in that original report was the file cabinet in the victim's office where her dog was found unharmed. The report stated that there were no prints found on the file cabinet when they dusted. But, on the same day 2 Huntington Beach detectives were ‘finding’ those necklaces in Zac’s room, just one day before Zac would have been released from custody for lack of evidence, another officer was returning to the crime scene to dust just one item for prints, again, the file cabinet in the victim’s office! And, behold, he miraculously found a partial palm print where one wasn’t there before! And, based on this ‘new’ evidence the DA went forward with formal charges against Zac. (Of course the police had taken Zac’s full hand prints by now.) The evidence of the necklace and the partial pam print was what got Zac convicted of this crime, even though one of the victim’s parents did not believe Zac was guilty.
The timing of the murder does not fit……. No-one questioned or checked the UPS driver’s account, except to take his statement. The defense did not get his delivery records for the day to verify his time. Did he deliver to that complex at 1 PM?
No-one verified the time and statement of the vet tech that went to the store after work after 1 PM. No-one checked her work records to firmly establish her times. We know she was there, the money she paid on her layaway was still on the front counter when we saw the police video.
The victim’s husband said in his police statement that he spoke to his wife several times that day because they were trying to leave early to get something to eat and to get home and relax because of his back problems. He also stated that he stepped out of the office for a second and his wife called and spoke to his secretary, but he called her back. He went on to state in the police report that the last time he spoke to his wife it was around 1:30 PM and she was fine. No-one subpoenaed his phone records or the phone records of the victims store! This would have given an undisputed record of when the victim was still alive and who she spoke to and what time. We checked and the phone company only keeps the phone records for 5 years, so they would have been available to the police, the prosecution, the defense team and the appellant attorney up to 5 years after the crime, but no-one bothered to get these vital pieces of evidence! I don’t believe the defense team questioned the victim’s husband.
No-one bothered to get the bank video of the day of the crime which would have showed Zac inside the bank between 1:30-1:40 PM the day of the crime, and, the defense team just let the teller and her supervisor write letters but not appear at the trial because they were afraid of being fired because the time it would have taken from work! How pathetic and unprofessional, a subpoena would have protected them. Nor did anyone subpoena the bank records showing the deposit being made by Zac that day. Zac also stated that he went to the post office to buy a stamp and mail the letter he had written that day, no-one followed up on that lead! Another witness stated when they saw Zac he was eating chips and a soda. Zac stated he bought them at the store in the banking plaza, no-one followed up on that lead. Because everyone that said they saw Zac the day of the crime stated he was wearing jeans and a white polo shirt, and smelled of cologne. They said he was relaxed and very friendly. However, everyone that saw the suspect stated he was in red athletic shorts or pants and a t-shirt, and no-one mentioned any cologne. Also, no-one bothered to follow up on the school bus driver's story about seeing Zac that day when she dropped off the kids, even though some of those same kids came to court in support of Zac. Nor did they fully vet the neighbor who saw Zac walking from the direction of the bank at 1:50 PM when he was coming from work. The banking center was right across the street from Veronica’s apartment complex, the crime scene was about a mile away on another street.
Shortly after Zac was taken into custody, the police dispatcher received a call from what the police describe as an older white man that stated the kid that they had in custody had nothing to do with the crime. He stated that the girl that gave the police his name had something to do with the crime, and they needed to look at her! He gave the wrong name, he called her Delores, or something like that, but it was obvious who he was talking about. He said they needed to release that kid because he was innocent. The police dispatcher made a report and turned it over to the team investigating the crime but they dismissed it and never followed up. They said, “that was just somebody trying to help the defendant.” Nothing was ever done about this report by the police, the prosecution or the defense.
Another woman was stabbed to death 3 miles from the original crime scene about a week later, it was an attempted robbery with no witness. No-one ever tried to see if the two crimes were linked because Zac was already in custody. This crime was handled by the OC Sheriff department, while Zac’s case was handled by the Huntington Beach police department, and it remains unsolved to this day, and yes, Travis was still in the area at the time.
There was also a police report submitted by a witness the day of the crime, a gas station attendant that said there was a car of young black men at his station right after the crime would have taken place that were acting suspiciously, but this report was never turned over to the defense team until over a year later, about 15 days before the jury came back with their guilty verdict. And, when the defense investigator made contact with the witness, he was not very helpful because he said that because after he made the report no-one contacted him, he put the incident out of his mind, he figured it wasn’t important so his recollection over a year later was foggy and no help! Also, there was a report by the Westminster police department that stated a car driven by a black male the day of the crime, after the crime took place, was driving erratically. No-one followed up on this report. Either incident could or could not have anything to do with the crime, but because of incompetence, or stupidity or just blatant corruption we will never know! Back in the 1980's and even recently, Huntington Beach has been known for its racism, especially in their police department, even though they have made improvement, but in the 1980’s it was out of control!
For the trial, it was held at the Westminster Courthouse, just 5 miles from the crime scene. However, trials that are death penalty trials are held at the larger courthouse in Santa Ana. But, the DA chose to have this death penalty at the smaller courthouse in Westminster. In the Westminster area the jury pool is smaller and not as diverse as in the larger and more diverse area of Santa Ana.
The jury was made up of 10 white citizens, 1 black male and 1 young Hispanic female. During the trial, the jury heard Darcy talking about the case in the hallways. The jury also heard one of the female prosecution witness refer to Zac as “that nigga!” Also, one of the jurors referred to Zac as a “nigga.” One juror went to the crime scene to look around, during the trial with her husband without the court’s permission. After the trial, 2 jurors, the Hispanic and the black juror wrote to the defense team and reported this to them, they also said they did not believe in Zac’s guilt. They reported that they were bullied and intimidated into a guilty verdict by the white jurors. This is all detailed in the defense Motion for a new trial, which was denied by the trial court.
Milton Grimes handled this case, pro bono, at the request of his pastor. Grimes had a co-counsel from the public defender's office by the name of Marnie Glass. It was his first Capitol Murder case. In the following years after the case, Grimes has given derogatory and conflicting statements about Zac and the case. He also claims to have lost/misplaced the murder book. He has been a study on incompetence and stupidity to say the least, a fact he refuses to acknowledge. Zac would have probably been better off with a public defender as the lead attorney, it couldn’t have gotten worse.
The San Diego Innocence Project had Zac’s case 4 times but blew it four times!!!! The first time they put in a Motion for DNA testing then did not show up for hearing, and the court dismissed it without prejudice. A few years later they took up the case again and assigned it to a student who went to visit Zac by himself, and promised that even after he graduates he would still handle the case, but when he graduated a year later, he became a ghost! The 3rd time they had the case, they assigned the case to another student, he made a bunch of false statements and promises that he could not keep, then he graduated. The last time they had the case, they did assign it to an actual attorney, and she did work on the case. She was the one that actually went to Lancaster and interviewed Travis Robnson, and she got the Orange County DA to agree to test DNA for the case. But, they used the DA’s lab and they claimed they couldn’t test the necklaces, the ties that bind the victims hands and feet, nor the binds that were used to gag her. But, they did test her fingernails, and they said there were trace amounts of Zac’s DNA and other unidentified DNA on her nails. So, she was told by Justin Brooks the director of the San Diego Innocence Project to drop the case, which they did. I contacted one of their former students, who is now an attorney, and told them what happened. He told me to email him the report, and he took it back to the Orange County crime lab and spoke to a supervisor. Even though the supervisor did not do the actual testing, he was able to read the report and said, the trace DNA they found did not prove Zac’s innocence or guilt. The trace DNA found was not skin, blood or saliva, it could have come from sweat, because we already knew Zac had contact with the victim less than 24 hours before her death. He further said there was no reason that the lab techs could not have tested the other items in evidence, he said it made no sense! I want to remind you that Zac interacted with the victim less than 24 hours before her death. He shook her hand twice that day, she also gave him a pen and paper to write his contact information down, a pen and paper she took back once he was done with them. (I am told that DNA can survive on the body for well over 24 hours. I checked and it was a very warm day on September 17, 1983, plus Zac is a heavy sweater and he admitted he was sweating from going around to different businesses.) FYI- People who knew the victim stated that she was a fighter, she would have fought for her life. And, the same day of the crime, when Zac was taken into custody, the police strip searched Zac. They were looking for scratches, bruises or anything indicating Zac had been involved in a fight or struggle. They found nothing on Zac’s body the day of the crime. Anyway, the Innocence Project dropped Zac’s case, again.
THE PRESENT DAY
Now another Nonprofit organization in Long Beach, California named, 'Unite the People Inc.', has agreed to take on Zachary's case. They have agreed to prepare and file with the Federal Courts a Writ of Habeas Corpus, based on the 2023 California Racial Justice Act, Law AB 256, which provides equal justice for individuals that have been harmed by the racial bias and discrimination that permeates our criminal justice system. They will also make inquiries to the California Governors office about the Clemency and Pardon applications that have been submitted over 4 years ago. In short, the organization will act as Zachary's attorney's in the courts and with our elected officials. This organization is charging a much lower fee then a private attorney, which would cost in the range of $25,000 to $30,000, if not more to do the same services on behalf of Zachary.
I am asking for donations to reach our goals to pay the fee to retain the service of 'Unite the People Inc.' on behalf of Zachary Pettus! Zachary has been paying the price for a crime he did not commit! Please help us find justice for this innocent man, any amount will do! No donation is too small. Please donate and share this with your friends. Thank you and God bless!
If you would like to read more about this wonderful organization that has agreed to take on Zachary's case, you may read about them at: www.unitethepeople.org
