Three decades after a Jacksonville man was sentenced to die for killing a teenage drug dealer, the Jacksonville police and prosecutors are facing increasing pressure to produce documents that could undermine the credibility of their key witnesses – and potentially blow up the case. 

In the order by U.S. District Judge London Kite, the sheriff’s office, which built the murder case, was given until Oct. 27 to comply – or explain why they didn’t. 

The documents relate to Kenneth Hartley’s 1993 trial in the murder of 17-year-old Gino Mayhew. An investigation by The Florida Trib titled Cold-Blooded called into question the credibility of multiple witnesses against Hartley and his two co-defendants, especially that of a man known by police to be willing to lie under oath. 

Police confidential informant Sidney Jones was the star witness against Hartley, and the jury was not told two essential facts about his past: that he had previously been “blackballed” as unreliable by Jacksonville detectives, with whom he had worked for years informing on drug dealers, and that he had once been convicted of perjury for his false testimony in a murder case.

Additionally, in the course of introducing Jones to the jury, the prosecutor had him acknowledge only a fraction of his criminal past – vital information to establish his credibility.  Nor were jurors told of his past as a paid informant. 

Jones swore that Mayhew was dealing drugs when Jones saw Hartley and a codefendant force Mayhew at gunpoint into the victim’s Chevy Blazer outside the Washington Heights apartment complex and make him drive the three of them away to an unknown destination. Mayhew was found shot dead the next morning behind a school.

That testimony was supported by the sworn statements of three jailhouse informants, all of whom claimed Hartley confessed behind bars to killing Mayhew. Two have since recanted, The Trib reported. 

Juan Brown, a second man who had been a confidential police informant, claimed under oath he saw Hartley and one of the codefendants riding in the Blazer, with Mayhew behind the wheel, on dimly lit Moncrief Road in the general direction of the schoolyard where the teen’s body would be discovered the next morning. 

Hartley has been on Florida’s Death Row for more than 30 years. His two co-defendants, Ronnie Ferrell and Sylvester Johnson, are in prison for life. All were tried separately. Both codefendants have filed their own motions for post-conviction relief, using much of the same information Hartley’s attorneys and The Trib uncovered. 

Aside from his work as an informant, other facts about Brown’s background were not brought out at the trial, including that Mayhew had used the Washington Heights apartment of Brown’s girlfriend as a base of operations for drug dealing.

Hartley’s appellate attorneys have been fighting for additional records they believe are held by any of multiple agencies, including JSO, and that have not previously been disclosed to Hartley’s current or former legal teams. 

In June, Judge Kite ordered the sheriff’s office to redact and release some of those requested documents. A subsequent order by the judge said that, according to Hartley’s attorneys, JSO had failed to provide some of what had been requested. The items in question include unredacted versions of the eyewitness’s arrest and booking reports, any of JSO’s communications with the Fourth Circuit State Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Integrity Unit, and any documents related to the confidential informant status of any other listed witness.

The Trib’s investigation found that Jones had nearly 40 convictions at the time of Hartley’s trial, including the perjury rap, which was later overturned because the trial judge declined to give him an opportunity to return to the witness stand and correct his sworn statement.  In the previous murder trial, Jones had testified he witnessed the arrest of two murder suspects while in a Trailways bus station.

It was soon determined that, at the time those arrests occurred, he was not in the bus station, but serving jail time. Had they known of the witness’ previous lies under oath, Hartley’s jurors could have factored that information in when weighing the credibility of his testimony in Mayhew’s murder.

JSO’s attorney said the department no longer has related documents because they have been purged due to the passage of time. However, Kite’s order notes that the officer in charge of the confidential informant database “found that [some of the listed witnesses] were at one time confidential informants,” which Hartley’s attorneys argue contradicts the department’s claim to not have records. 

JSO said that information “came from that officer’s personal knowledge, not documentary proof.” 

Kite stipulated that if records have in fact been purged, JSO officers with knowledge of confidential informants and document retention policies must be made available for testimony on Oct. 27.

Nichole Manna is The Florida Trib’s Senior Investigative Reporter.