for BigTrial.net
Last November, Anthony Nelson, a 46 year-old convicted felon, went on trial on charges that he had repeatedly raped his live-in girlfriend's 15 year-old daughter.
From the motions filed in the case, it looked like a slam dunk for the prosecution. That's because the D.A. had as evidence a series of nearly 90 incriminating text messages exchanged between the defendant, known as "Pop," and the alleged victim whom Pop refers to as "Boo boo."
"So you're mad because I don't want you to touch me anymore?" the alleged victim texted Pop. "I'm 15 . . . Isn't Mom enough?" To which the defendant replied, "I run this house you hear me?" And, "You turn me on you know what you be doing. So cut it."
What happened next is a textbook example of how the incompetence of the dysfunctional D.A.'s office under Larry Krasner enabled an "armed and dangerous" defendant to beat the rape charges, and then go out and allegedly victimize another young woman.
That would be Jailene Holton, 21, an innocent bystander. Police say that on June 28th, Nelson, in a rage after he lost a dispute over the availability of a pool table, opened fire on the front of a Northeast Philadelphia bar. One of more than 15 shots struck Holton in the head, killing her.
Rather than being out on the street, Nelson, according to prosecutors familiar with the rape case, should have been in jail doing time. But that would have required a competent prosecutor who knew how to try a rape case. Instead, court records show that over a 17-month period in 2020 and 2021, the rape case against Nelson was juggled in court by a half-dozen of Krasner's junior prosecutors, who are inexperienced, poorly trained, and typically have no idea what they're doing.
When the rape case against Nelson finally went to trial on Nov. 10, 2021, representing the defendant was Greg Pagano, a career criminal defense lawyer of 30 years who's tried thousands of cases, and won acquittals for a host of defendants that include alleged mobsters, drug dealers and murderers.
Representing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was Assistant District Attorney Eamon Kenny, a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School who was hired by Krasner in the fall of 2018. Kenny may be a sensitive guy because he's a guitarist and composer; he's also interned at the Federal Community Public Defender's office, where they require the opposite mindset of a prosecutor. But in the Philadelphia courts, Kenny's a novice ADA who hasn't tried more than a half dozen cases.
Pagano declined comment and Kenny did not respond to a request for comment. However, a lawyer who was present during the rape trial and requested anonymity described it as a mismatch between a seasoned criminal defense lawyer and a novice prosecutor who got "annihilated" in the courtroom.
"This kid could be Larry Krasner's kid," the seasoned lawyer said about ADA Kenny, who holds an M.A. in Music, Jazz Guitar and Arranging from New Jersey City University, plus a B.A. in Psychology from Tulane University. In front of a jury, however, ADA Kenny apparently was a less than formidable prosecutor.
"He totally looks like a nerd," the seasoned lawyer said about ADA Kenny. "He's missing that element of being a down to earth person that jurors could relate to. This kid was wet behind the ears; he hadn't tried too many cases for sure, and he absolutely just doesn't have that killer instinct to fight, and that desire to win."
As a result, the Commonwealth lost the case.
Nelson, who'd been in jail for some 22 months since his arrest on Feb. 7, 2020 for rape, went free.
And then, as it frequently happens in Philadelphia under D.A. Krasner, when an armed and dangerous criminal goes free, he gets into more trouble. And another innocent victim pays the price for the progressive policies of our D.A.
On June 28th, police said, Nelson was among a group of men who got kicked out of the Philly Bar and Restaurant in Northeast Philadelphia after they argued with a bouncer who wouldn't let them use a pool table that was reserved for league play.
In a patrol alert issued by the Philadelphia Police Department's Detective Bureau, Nelson, described as 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds, was "considered armed and dangerous."
![]()
Reading those texts, it's still hard to believe that the D.A.'s office lost the case. But for Krasner's prosecutors, winning a conviction in court is a rare event.
A fugitive task force of U.S. marshals arrested Nelson Wednesday at Harrah's Casino in Atlantic City and charged him with murder, as well as gun charges. The murder of Holton was a tragedy that seasoned prosecutors said could have been prevented if the ADAs in Larry Krasner's office knew what they were doing.
But they don't, and it's by design.
Krasner, who promised to be the most transparent Philly D.A. ever, as he has for the past three years, did not respond to a request for comment.
When he first took office back in January 2018, Krasner's first official act was to fire 31 senior prosecutors, while declaring, "The coach get to pick the team."
The new Philly D.A., a career criminal defense lawyer who had never prosecuted a traffic stop, replaced the most senior prosecutors in his office with a combination of social justice warriors, former public defenders and woke progressives fresh out of law school.
It could be argued that if Larry Krasner thinks you're a prosecutor, it's proof positive that you're not. His track record as a coach for hiring talent is certainly suspect. And so are the dismal results from his office.
Over a four-year period, Krasner personally recruited and hired 181 lawyers fresh out of law school. But as of Nov. 3, 2021, 61 of those hires, or 33.7%, had already quit the D.A.'s office. Another 37, or 17.1%, flunked the bar exam.
As a result, in Larry Krasner's D.A. office, it's amateur hour. As veteran criminal defense lawyer Chuck Peruto told Big Trial last February, "I haven't lost a jury trial since Larry Krasner took office."
Peruto, who ran against Krasner as a Republican last November and lost big time, said last year that he had tried a dozen cases since Krasner took office, including two murder trials, and he won them all.
"This is a joke," Peruto said about the level of competence in Krasner's D.A.'s office. "You don't even get the thrill of victory that you used to get if you win, because if you don't win, you stink."
One of the experienced prosecutors fired by D.A. Krasner was Carlos Vega, the first Latino homicide prosecutor in the state who, during a 30-year career, prosecuted more than 500 murder cases, winning all but 14. Vega took a dim view of assigning a novice to prosecute a rape case.
"This kid [ADA Kenny] had no business trying a case of that magnitude and complexity against a seasoned criminal defense attorney," said Vega, who ran against Krasner in the Democratic primary for D.A., and lost. If you're going to prosecute a rape case, Vega said, "You can't get a case like that in the last minute."
According to court records, ADA Kenny, the last of a half-dozen novice prosecutors assigned to the case, didn't make a court appearance until a trial readiness conference on Nov. 3, 2021, a week before it was time to pick a jury.
In order to successfully prosecute a rape case, Vega said, "You have to spend months with the victim and the witnesses. You have to develop a rapport with them, so they can feel comfortable, and they know in court that you have their back."
When he was in the D.A.'s office under Ed Rendell, Vega said, he had to wait five years and try some 50 cases before he was allowed to prosecute either a murder case or a rape case.
Being a prosecutor, Vega said, also requires an edge that a public defender or a social justice warrior might not possess.
"Doing a jury trial is not a gentleman's sport," Vega said. "You're a gladiator and you have to be able to relate to a jury. A woman is now being exposed and brutalized. She has to tell a horrible thing to twelve strangers."
"You're prosecuting the case because you believe your victim," Vega said. "You've got to in there to bring justice to that victim."
As far as Vega is concerned, ADA Kenny didn't lose the case. It was lost before it went to court.
Because with a novice prosecutor trying the case, "This is really unfair to the victim," Vega said. "The victim deserves an attorney who is well trained and well seasoned."
"It's a mismatch," Vega said about a novice D.A. going up against a seasoned pro like Pagano. "It's like a little league team playing against a major league team," Vega said. "You already know what the results are going to be."
If the D.A. had a competent prosecutor, Vega said, Anthony Nelson "would not have been there to kill this lady."
Nelson's criminal history begins in 1994, when he was found guilty on three gun charges and was sentenced to a year's probation.
In 2001, Nelson was found guilty of possession of a controlled substance and was sentenced to a year's probation. That same year, he was sentenced to 2-3 months in jail for obstructing public highways.
In 2001, Nelson was found guilty of possession of a controlled substance and was sentenced to a year's probation. That same year, he was sentenced to 2-3 months in jail for obstructing public highways.
In 2004, Nelson was found guilty of robbery with intent to inflict serious bodily injury, burglary, a gun charge, terroristic threats and simple assault. He was sentenced to five to 10 years in jail.
In the text messages, Pop begins by asking Boo boo if "You chill wit me later."
"No," she replies. "I wanna chill by myself. A girl needs her space, k?"
"Ok have it your way," he replies. "Erase my txt."
But the alleged victim was taking screen shots of those texts.
"Don't care what you say what notes you leave what you write don't care," Pop writes. "I run this house you hear me."
When the alleged victim tells Pop she doesn't want him to touch her anymore, he writes, "You let me because you liked it."
"Now I don't want you to," she replies. "I know it's wrong."
"So why you let me," he asks.
"I know it's wrong now," she replies. "I wasn't thinking. Now everything is weird."
"I hate myself," she writes. "Why did I let you. . . . What is wrong with me. I want to die. Because you keep talking to me like this . . . Saying I liked it. When we know it's wrong."
"And I want to stop it," she writes. "But you want more. And you're not gonna stop. No matter how many times I say no."
Pop tells her this is the "last time," but she replies, "You keep saying that. You know u r lying."
"I'm 15," she writes. "18 I'm not . . . It's illegal."
That didn't bother Pop.
"I had my first child at 15?," he writes back. "So stop with the bull shit."
"That doesn't make it right," she writes. "Why do you need me in this way . . . Isn't mom enough?"
"You turn me on you know what you be doing," he replies, "So cut it."
In a June 17, 2021 motion filed by Nelson's lawyer, Pagano contended that "Mr. Nelson denies that the messages were authored by himself or sent from his cellphone, and furthermore suspects that the text messages were fraudulently created and or fabricated to implicate him in a crime he did not commit."
Pagano also argued that neither the phone or its contents had been authenticated or subjected to a forensic extraction or analysis. But the judge, however, denied Pagano's motion, and ordered that the nearly 90 text messages be admitted as evidence.
In court, Pagano continued to argue that sex never happened between Nelson and the 15 year-old, and that the text messages were fabricated. Amazingly, he won the argument.
After the verdict, Pagano filed a motion to expunge the arrest of his client for rape, and the D.A.'s office consented to it.
The D.A.'s own Data Dashboard shows how inept the D.A.'s office is at obtaining guilty verdicts under Krasner.
According to the D.A.'s own stats, the percentage of guilty verdicts won at trial have gone from 17% of all criminal cases in 2014 under former D.A. Seth Williams, all the way down to just 2% of all criminal cases prosecuted last year under D.A. Krasner.
Meanwhile, the percentage of criminal cases withdrawn or dismissed by the D.A.'s office has gone from 28% in 2014 under former D.A. Seth Williams all the way up to 67% last year under D.A. Krasner.
That's more than two-thirds of all the criminal cases filed by the D.A.'s office!
Keep in mind that the D.A.'s office last year under Krasner handled just 53% of the criminal caseload formerly handled by Seth Williams' prosecutors in 2014. And during that same seven-year period, the conviction rate in the D.A.'s office has fallen from 50.7% under Seth Williams in 2014 all the way down to 22.6% last year under D.A. Krasner.
The evidence is there, both statistically and anecdotally, that Larry Krasner is a complete failure as D.A., as well as a menace to the public health and welfare.
But unless he's impeached, or somehow removed from office, Krasner will continue to let armed and dangerous criminals off the hook. And they'll continue to go out and hurt, maim and/or kill more innocent victims.
Just ask the family of 21-year-old Jailene Holton, whose funeral was held yesterday.