Donte’s Story

How Did This Happen?

Donte’s Wrongful Arrest and Conviction

On the evening of January 28, 2006, gunshots rang out from a group of young men standing on a corner in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood of North Philadelphia. One of the bullets fired from the group struck a passing car, hitting and paralyzing a 6-year-old boy.

LaRhonda Wright, who was in the car, claimed 18-year-old Donte Rollins fired the shot that struck the child, who was her grandson. She said that she had known Donte for more than a decade and knew that he hung out in Strawberry Mansion. LaRhonda’s husband Benjamin didn’t get along with Donte because of previous tension between Donte and Benjamin’s nephew. Because of this, the Wright family believed Donte had fired the shot that hit their grandson, intending to hit Benjamin.

Donte quickly became a suspect in the case because of this statement.

Later that same night, a police officer saw Donte walking to his house and stopped him. Donte had been coming home from shopping with his friends – he wanted a new outfit for a date he had later that night. LaRhonda was driven to Donte’s house, where she identified him as one of the men on the corner earlier that evening. Donte proclaimed his innocence, explaining that he had been shopping at the Gallery Mall in Center City Philadelphia, and then went to the Net store on 5th and South Street – both miles away from the scene of the shooting.

 Still, he was arrested on the spot.

 The trial for Donte and his co-defendants took place in November 2007. At the trial, LaRhonda admitted her statement to police made no mention of a gun. Additionally, Benjamin admitted at trial that during the shooting, LaRhonda said she didn’t know who was shooting at the car.

The defense brought Donte’s mother, Ava Rollins, to the stand to testify about security videos she obtained from the two stores Donte shopped at on the night of the incident. She pointed him out in the first video at the Gallery Mall at 6:14p.m. on the night of the shooting, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and a chain around his neck. The second video from The Net, which showed Donte there at about 8 p.m., wasn’t shown to the jury, but photos from the video were presented. Furthermore, Donte’s aunt and a family friend both testified that it was Donte in the photos, again wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and a chain around his neck.

The officer at Donte’s home the night of the crime said he first saw Donte walking up the street to his house between 8:15 and 8:30 p.m. and that LaRhonda identified him at 8:30.

 The prosecution argued that it was impossible for Donte to have traveled from the Gallery Mall to the site of the shooting, over to The Net, and then back to his home. They also argued that the video evidence was inconclusive. The jury was deadlocked – unable to reach a unanimous verdict – and asked to see the video from The Net. However, they weren’t allowed to view it because the video hadn’t been entered into evidence.

The following day in December of 2007, the jury returned a guilty verdict. Donte, along with three other young men, including his cousin Raheem Collins, were charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm, and other related charges. Donte was convicted and sentenced to 62 and a half to 125 years in prison.

Donte’s Quest to Prove His Innocence

Donte appealed to the state Superior Court in 2010 – he was denied. And in 2011, the state Supreme Court declined to review his case.

In 2013, attorney Michael Wiseman and lawyers from the Project filed a post-conviction petition for a new trial, claiming that Donte had inadequate legal defense in his first trial. Donte’s defense lawyer in his original trial failed to present evidence that could have shown Donte’s timeline of events was indeed the truth, and that he could not have committed the crime. Most notably, Donte’s defense did not present the video from him shopping at The Net. The lawyer also failed to call alibi witnesses to the stand. This includes a friend of Donte’s who could have testified he was in The Net video with him, and another friend who was with Donte throughout that evening and who had a receipt from The Net with an 8:09 p.m. timestamp. Furthermore, the defense did not present a receipt from Donte at the Gallery Mall timestamped 6:18 p.m.

Additionally, if the defense had presented transcripts of police radio transmissions, the records would have shown that the officer who first encountered Donte on the night of the crime was mistaken in the timeline he presented. The transcripts showed the officer didn’t call in his encounter with Donte until 8:36 p.m., not 8:15 p.m. like he testified. This shows a 21-minute time difference that contradicts the prosecution’s argument that the person in The Net video couldn’t have been Donte.

After the petition was filed, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office’s Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) re-investigated the case. In April of 2016, the prosecution agreed to vacate Donte’s conviction. However, in November 2016, Common Pleas Court Judge Rayford Means denied the petition. When former Project Executive Director, Marissa Bluestine, asked for further reasoning, he refused to respond. The Pennsylvania Superior Court criticized Judge Means for delaying proceedings in Donte’s case multiple times, demanding unrelated testimonies, and disagreeing with requests for relief.

Donte, along with the prosecution and the state Superior Court filed an appeal. In December 2016, the Superior Court vacated Donte’s charges and he was released from prison.