Free Tyrone Noling

Lies put man on death row, three claim
Portage investigator used coaching, threats to get confessions, men say

What jurors didn't hear was that, according to the account Alliance police Detective William Mucklo recently gave The Plain Dealer, officers searched Dalesandro's car the day of Noling's arrest and didn't find a gun.

Today, Prosecutor Vigluicci dismisses evidence of the fruitless search. Maybe, he says, the detective has a faulty memory.

After a day of deliberation, the jury found Noling guilty. "I didn't do it," he told the judge before he was sentenced to death. "Someday, maybe someday, the truth will come out."

In 1997, a year after the conviction, St. Clair and Dalesandro, who pleaded guilty to lesser crimes involving the murders, signed affidavits stating Noling was innocent. So did Wolcott. St. Clair is serving 20 to life for the Hartig murders while Dalesandro is in prison on unrelated drug charges.

Vigluicci dismisses their recantations. The three are lying, he says, to save themselves and a friend. If Noling is exonerated, then St. Clair and Dalesandro might be able to clear their names too.

That's not true of Wolcott, who, because of his immunity deal, didn't spend a day in prison.

"I don't know about Wolcott," Vigluicci said when asked why Wolcott would swear Noling is innocent. "Friendship? Fear? Who knows? There's a myriad of possible reasons. For me to say that I'd lose sleep over that? Nope, I wouldn't."

The prosecutor expressed surprise that anyone would believe Wolcott, but his testimony was key to the government's case.

Wolcott, now a 31-year-old artisan who builds wooden floors for a living, says he has a moral obligation to tell the truth. "I did the most evil thing imaginable. I have to go to sleep each night knowing that."

It's long past time, he says, to get some rest.

Courts so far reject the recantations.

Court after court has rejected Noling's appeals. Judges say the recantations aren't credible, even though they've refused to let Wolcott and the others tell their stories in a courtroom.

In March, U.S. District Judge Donald Nugent denied Noling's request for an evidentiary hearing that would have allowed them to testify.

Nugent has yet to rule on the case, but wrote that the court was not concerned with Noling's guilt or innocence, but "solely the question whether his constitutional rights have been preserved." If Noling loses there, he can appeal the decision. As a last resort, he can ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. If it refuses, the state will set an execution date.

Because the courts have rejected the recantations, Noling worries that without proof someone else pulled the trigger, he's a dead man.

Noling has had nothing but time to think about his case and imagine Wolcott in his tropical paradise. He said he blames Craig and prosecutors, not Wolcott.

Four thousand miles away, Wolcott said he wishes he could travel back in time, to the moment he agreed to take the deal and testify against Noling.

He would whisper into the ear of the boy and tell him to think hard about what he was about to do. Don't think about survival, he would tell the boy. Think about what's right.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
asimakis@plaind.com, 216-999-4565

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