People vs. Sergeant Raymond Jennings falsely accused and wrongly convicted
Sergeant Raymond Lee Jennings of the Army National Guard was wrongfully convicted for the murder of Michelle O’Keefe on September 21, 2009 due to malice and conviction by Detective Sgt. Longshore, Private Detective Jeffra, and Mayor of Lancaster R. Rex Parris. There was no DNA, forensic evidence including ballistic (residue), reasonable motive or eyewitnesses naming Raymond Jennings as suspect. DNA analysis pointed to an unknown male. Raymond Jennings uniform was tested for residue, none was present. No gun registered to Jennings matched assailant weapon. There were other individuals within Palmdale Park N Ride when the assault occurred. Investigators could not locate others within lot, other than a Victoria Richardson, that came forward a year after time of murder. She admitted to her and other acquaintances being with the lot and around crime scene. Acquaintances and Mr. Richardson weren’t properly investigated by authorities and Ms. Richardson refused to relinquish names of other acquaintances.

Mr. Jennings had no prior convictions. He’s a father of five and married at time of Michelle’s death. He was a two time Iraq Veteran and decorated Sergeant of the Army National Guardsman. He was employed by All Valley Security, Incorporated as an unarmed security guard at the Palmdale Park N Ride. The night of said murder he heard the assault taking place but wasn’t able to see the assailant/s. He cooperated with police in interviews, gave “layman” ballistic accounts as to how he thought shots were fired, and even submitted to a polygraph. Due to the nature of incorrect procedure administrating the polygraph, investigators claim Jennings failed. Results should have been considered inconclusive.

Over the course of the next five years, investigators released information about Jennings as a suspect to the press. There was an abundance of news reported by Antelope Valley Press naming Jennings as a suspect even though investigators lacked evidence to file charges against Jennings. The O’Keefe posted billboards with rewards for information pertaining to Michelle’s murder. Every year the Family held memorials in Michelle’s honor while AV press continued to release news on the memorials, still naming Jennings as a suspect. Raymond Jennings continued to reside in Los Angeles County with his family, cooperating with investigators and dealing with the publicity by the media naming him a suspect. The overall prejudice exposed to the community was evident and horribly deprived Raymond Jennings of his civil rights.

Detective Longshore ability to identify suspect became exhausted and he started to turn his attention towards Raymond Jennings. In the meantime Longshore instructed the O’Keefe family to check into filing civil lawsuit against the City Government of Palmdale, All Valley Security and Raymond Jennings. The O’Keefe family approached Civil Lawyer R. Rex Parris, now Mayor of Palmdale. Mr. Parris was reluctant in taking the civil case but became interested with the knowledge at Mr. Jennings failed the polygraph. All this information is actual facts stated by R. Rex Parris’ interview during the filming of “The girl in the blue mustang”, released by Dateline NBC. Interviews were collected by correspondent Keith Morrison. Palmdale settled for a multimillion dollar lawsuit that was not made public. During the Civil disposition of Raymond Jennings, Mr. R. Rex Parris invited an editor for Antelope Press and they released an article about Jennings the following day, titled “Weaving a web of lies.”

R. Rex Parris admitted that, if Jennings would have had a lawyer, the lawyer would have never allowed media to attend the disposition. The media continued to release news with Mr. Parris boasting about solving the murder during the disposition even though Mr. Jennings had not been charged. R. Rex Parris hired a private investigator and they went to North Carolina to harass Jennings family and friends, and never turned up one piece of evidence pointing to Raymond Jennings. Volunteer PI Jeffra stated that they need Victoria Richardson and her acquaintances to come forward for questioning, because they couldn’t locate her. The O’Keefe Family invited Psychic Sylvia Brown to the Montel show and they aired an episode implicating Jennings as the murderer.

Mr. Jennings volunteered for another tour of Iraq, and while he was fighting for our country, all the investigators got together with the O’Keefe family and created a PowerPoint presentation from all the hours of taped interviews by Jennings. They presented to the DA in Antelope Valley and they DA thought they might have a case. Parts of the PowerPoint presentation was released by Dateline NBC, and consisted of lies and hearsay. It was 5 years later while Jennings was in Iraq that the DA decided to file charges. When Jennings returned from Iraq, the sheriff department in Lancaster contacted the media, so they could report on the arrest. The obvious outcome was to add more unjust media to Jennings and more bias to Jennings case.

During the preliminary hearing in the People vs. Raymond Jennings, Superior Judge Christopher Estes ruled to move case to trial. Christopher Estes had an already established friendship with Civil Lawyer R. Rex Parris, Mrs. Parris and their family. Mr. Parris was a heavy campaign contributor to Mr. Estes step up from DA to Superior Judge back in early 2000. Prosecution never presented new evidence on Mr. Jennings, and asked a jury to come to a unanimous vote on a highly circumstantial case, without the knowledge of others within the lot and crime scene. Being that the Antelope Valley Courthouse wasn’t equipped to handle a long run trial, and the judge ruled to move the trial to downtown Los Angeles.

Raymond Jennings was tried two times in Los Angeles; both times the jury couldn’t come to a unanimous vote (hung jury). After the second trial the residing superior judge allowed the people to decide if they wanted to try one more time to convict or dismiss Raymond Jennings case. Michael Blake put in a motion for move of venue to Antelope Valley Courthouse and the motion was denied due to the cost. Prosecution Attorney Michael Blake provided his own personal funds to have the trial moved to Antelope Valley. Antelope was an area highly aware of Michelle O’Keefe’s murder and constantly exposed to news by the Antelope Valley Press naming Jennings as a suspect for 6 years. This 3rd trial occurred 9 years after Michelle O’Keefe murder and after a month of deliberation the jury came down with a guilty verdict for 2nd degree murder. Raymond Jennings was sentenced to 40 years on May 1st, 2010. They convicted Raymond Jennings with no evidence pointing at him.

Three trials to get it the way that the O’Keefe Family, Detective Longshore, R. Rex Parris and Prosecution Attorney Michael Blake wanted it, guilty. Raymond Jennings endured 6 years of negative media attention before even being charged with a crime. Raymond Jennings family and friends were harassed. They never produced Victoria Richardson as witness during the trials; Mr. Richardson is a known Blood member. She is serving life in prison for possession of 10 kilograms of crack cocaine amounts to a little under a million dollars in street value. Due to ill investigation, malice and void of Raymond Jennings civil rights, the individuals that are employed to protect our rights, abused them. They pressured our well established ethics within our judicial and jury system, while intentional withholding evidence supporting Raymond Jennings innocence. Mr. Jennings should have never been tried for this crime. We are asking for the California Attorney General to follow up on the ill investigation into Victoria Richardson and her acquaintances. For a DNA comparison to run against the Simi Valley Rapist (Vincent Sanchez) and DNA found on Michelle O’Keefe. We are asking for Raymond Jennings to be freed of convictions. We are asking for the professional individuals within this petition to be investigated for malice and withholding evidence that would have cleared Jennings from this crime. We are also asking that Raymond Jennings name be completely cleared and his full military status to be reinstated and honored.

We the people, we employ you to protect the rights of our citizens and we deliver this unto you, with faith in our Judicial System. More on this story at my website dedicated to Jennings at http://withoutareasonabledoubt.webs.com/... People supporting Jennings on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Factsareproo...ningsInnocence. And our petition to the California Attorney General at http://www.petitionspot.com/petition...ymondJennings/..
JewelsNewsLeaf  6/12/10

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