Jurors deliberating in a monthlong federal armed robbery trial in Washington, D.C., stumbled onto a key piece of evidence that investigators, prosecutors and defense attorneys had all somehow missed.
A Chinese yuan bill tucked in one piece of clothing and a suspicious white powder folded inside a piece of paper in another were discovered during deliberations in the trial of Shamell Naquan Joyner, who was accused of robbing a string of 7-Elevens and gas stations, and stealing cars, in the spring of 2023.
It took the jurors themselves to uncover the evidence in the pocket of the defendant’s jacket.
Neither the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office, law enforcement, nor Joyner’s defense team had known the items were there. The mix-up rattled longtime lawyers across the federal court, with several telling CNN they’d never heard of anything quite so embarrassing, though some former D.C. prosecutors said it isn’t unheard of for evidence to slip past investigators.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras, who has a decade on the bench, didn’t hide his disbelief. “The Court shares Mr. Joyner’s amazement at law enforcement’s failure to uncover the Chinese Yuan, note, and powdery substance in the physical evidence,” he wrote in an opinion.
From the bench, he added, “Mr. Liolos, who I know is from New York, is probably astonished that any money got past the police department,” referring to Joyner’s attorney John Liolos.
According to a trial transcript obtained by CNN, the jury foreperson described the moment a juror reached into a jacket’s breast pocket.
“We were looking at (the jacket), and (one of the jurors) reached in the breast pocket, and she pulled out — it looked like a receipt, but there was a white powder or white substance inside,” the foreperson said.
“Some of it, kind of, spilled out a little bit, but (a juror) put it back in the pocket and we put it back in the bag.” A search of a sweatshirt turned up more. “He pulled out—it was crumpled up—it was a bill…one of the Chinese Yuan bills,” the foreperson said.
Contreras brought jurors in one by one, telling them the items weren’t part of the case’s evidence; each said they could set the discovery aside.
Deliberations resumed, and the jury ultimately deadlocked on 15 of 28 counts, citing disagreement over reasonable doubt, but convicted Joyner on 13 charges tied to five armed robberies and a carjacking.
“The jury’s verdict ensures the defendant will face a 31-year mandatory minimum sentence,” a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson said. Joyner’s lawyers haven’t yet appealed.
