Dexter is Real
In my second Wrongful Convction Novel, A DREAM IN THE DARK, the ordeal experienced by my fictional character, Dexter Diaz, is based on the real-life nightmare endured by Lorenzo Montoya. He was sentenced to life without parole at the age of fourteen.
What ultimately led to his conviction was a false confession obtained by the detectives who used the Reid technique. As described in A Dream in the Dark, this technique encourages officers to tell a person they have evidence that in reality they do not possess; to ask loaded questions such as Did you plan on killing her, or did it just happen?; and to downplay the crime using It could happen to anybody scenarios. It’s psychological warfare that, over time, wears down a subject while making a confession preferable, practical, and inevitable. The technique works on guilty suspects, and it is also extremely effective with innocent people. Fourteen-year-old Lorenzo Montoya didn’t have a chance.
In Mr. Montoya’s actual videotaped confession, the detectives fed him facts he didn’t know, lying to him about fingerprints, shoe prints, and, yes, hair prints that they claimed to have found. Also, after Mr. Montoya’s mother left the room, they threatened him with adult prison. Young Lorenzo Montoya stood strong for hours and denied his guilt sixty-five times before he succumbed to the adults in the room.
Thankfully, attorney Lisa Polansky took Lorenzo’s case. After meeting with Lorenzo, she realized he had little grasp of the basic facts about the murder. She watched the confession video, in which the detectives swung from loving, fatherly tones to intimidation and menace, and recognized that this was a case of a coerced false confession. When Polansky’s investigators uncovered DNA evidence that contradicted Mr. Montoya’s conviction, the DA offered a plea deal for time served. After thirteen years behind bars, Lorenzo Montoya walked free in 2014.
Emily Johnson, the murder victim in this case, was a twenty-nine-year-old special-education teacher who loved her students at Skinner Middle School in northwest Denver. May all who loved her find peace.
