Sign up to get updates from us
Jonathan Luna was a federal prosecutor, working on a plea agreement for the Smith-Poindexter case. On the night of December 3rd, 2003, his vehicle left the Baltimore courthouse at 11:38 PM. His body was discovered early the next morning, face-down in a creek with multiple stab wounds. Could this have something to do with his line of work? Perhaps this is a cover up? Some people believe he ended his own life, but others say this is an obvious homicide.
Website: https://www.drinkingthecoolaid.com/
Resources:
There are many mysteries to unravel in this story. Was this suicide or homicide? Why would Jonathan Luna’s autopsy report be sealed and withheld from the public? Why did his co-workers work to destroy his reputation? This mystery is full of false leaks, misinformation and straight up lies. On the surface, it’s a tragic death, but if you look close, you’ll notice that there is a lot of strange and nefarious activities happening in the background and someone just might be manipulating the case to throw everyone off the trail.
Jonathan Luna was a complex person, according to his friend, Dan Rivera. He said, “We thought he was a bit of an oddball.” He had a ready sense of humor, and an intellect that didn’t always operate head on, but beneath the surface. He was larger than life, confident, funny, loyal, charismatic, and some of his friends called him Joey.
Jonathan Paul Luna was born on October 21st, 1965, and he grew up in a public housing project called the Patterson Houses, in what’s called the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx and it’s located near Yankee Stadium. In the book, the author quoted an article from Scientific American that said, “The Mott Haven section of New York City’s South Bronx has long been one of the poorest neighborhoods in the nation. The median household income of its residents, most of whom are African American or Hispanic, is less than one third of the U.S. median.” Jonathan’s father was Filipino and his mother was black and he himself, identified more as black. He was very aware of racism early on and he was different than the other kids growing up in the projects. He wanted to learn and read. He had a linen closet in his apartment that he turned into a library. It was stuffed full of books and magazines. It provided him with an escape from the streets.
Jonathan’s father waited tables at neighborhood restaurants and his mother stayed home to raise the kids. There was violence and drugs happening all around the Patterson Houses and Jonathan would see people from his apartment window, lining up to buy drugs from the street dealers. Jonathan grew up seeing what drugs could do to people and he was determined to steer clear, but it was tough to avoid the violence, happening all around him. His close friend that he grew up with, Dan Rivera, said they were just trying to stay alive. The two of them were determined to escape. Jonathan threw himself into his studies and he started running. He would always tell his friend, Dan, that they needed to stay active. Keep their mind, bodies and souls healthy. He wanted to be physically fit and well educated.
When Jonathan was in high school, he barely left his house to do anything, even with his friends, because he was spending so much time studying. They didn’t know anyone who graduated from college, but Jonathan wanted to be the first. He knew early on that if he wanted to be successful, he should dress the part. In high school, he started wearing stylish clothing, with ties and trench coats and his friends dubbed him a fashionista. He purchased GQ magazines and studied fashion books. People began noticing the effort he was putting in and they were telling him that he looked like Michael Jackson from the Thriller album.
After junior high, Jonathan enrolled in the New York School of Printing, a public trade school. By his senior year in high school, he decided to study law, so he enrolled in New York’s Hunter College, then he transferred to Fordham (For-dum) University. After graduating with a history degree, he traveled to Germany. When he was 23-years-old, he was accepted into the University of North Carolina School of Law. The majority of the people attending this school, had a lot of money. The kids in law school were driving BMWs and Jonathan had a bicycle. He could have let this intimidate him or make him feel like he didn’t fit in. It could have made him focus on jealousy, but instead, he worked harder to prove that he deserved to be there. In a letter to a friend he wrote, “What I try to keep in mind is that these people are just people no more or less than myself.” He told his friend, “You are young, bright, healthy, single and the world is at your feet. You are in command, and you alone can determine your destiny. All we have to do is remind ourselves of people that we know who really don’t have many avenues open to them!”
Towards the end of his first year at the University of North Carolina, Jonathan found out that his father had cancer, so he took a year off to take care of him. He did go back to school, and he met Angela Hopkins when she was in her last year of medical school, and they got married on August 29th of 1993. In September, Jonathan was hired as an associate at Arnold and Porter, a prestigious Washington DC law firm. From 1994 to 1997, he worked as staff attorney in the Federal Trade Commission’s general counsel’s office. He felt drawn to prosecution and realized that he wanted to help people who had been stuck in similar situations to him when he was growing up in the Patterson Houses. In 1997, he got a job as an assistant district attorney in the Brookly DA’s office. In 1999, he was hired as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s office. He moved his family back to Baltimore, so his wife could be near her family.
During his four years with the office, Jonathan prosecuted about 80 criminal cases and six civil cases. Everything was going great for him at first. When he was initially hired, former US attorney Lynne Battaglia (buh-tag-lia) was his boss and she said, “He was bright, engaging, enthusiastic, I just thought he’d be a really good prosecutor.” Unfortunately, she was replaced in 2001 by Thomas DiBiagio (Di-baj-io) and that’s when Jonathan started to struggle. Andrew White, a former prosecutor recalled that, “He and Jonathan didn’t see eye to eye. If you get on the wrong foot with Thomas DiBiagio, it’s difficult to get back in good standing.”
Jonathan’s friends say he was a kind-hearted and energetic person who often helped the less fortunate by providing them with legal aid and he represented victims of hate crimes and racism in the court. His mother-in-law was living with them in their basement, and he moved his own parents into an apartment a few miles away and helped with the payments. He also drove his parents around town in his car. He was taking care of a lot of people. One thing to keep in mind, because this will become clear later as to why it’s important. Jonathan’s eyesight got worse as he aged. He had glasses and he needed them to drive.
It was December 4th, 2003, when Jonathan Luna’s car was discovered a short distance from the road, near some trees. It was idling, in the dark, located just a few minutes from the Pennsylvania turnpike. Blood and small amounts of money were strewn around the inside of the car. Jonathan’s body was lying outside of the car, near the front bumper. He was face down in an icy stream and the water was running around him. His throat was slashed, and he had stab wounds all over his body. On his right hand, he wore a law school ring that depicted the scales of justice. Jonathan Luna was a prosecutor, and he was 38 years old. He was still dressed in his court attire, with a Justice Department ID badge hanging around his neck. He was supposed to be in court later that morning for a case he was prosecuting. The case involved a hip hop record producer and an associate who had been accused of selling large quantities of heroin in Baltimore.
Just slightly before midnight, Jonathan had left his desk at the office and disappeared, until his body was discovered about 70 miles away from his office. He left several items in his office, including his cell phone, his glasses, and an unfinished plea agreement, which was typed up on his office laptop, sitting on his desk. Jonathan was an assistant US attorney, and he often was involved in some violent cases. Prior to his death, he had prosecuted 3 men who were selling cocaine in Baltimore, a man who planned to burn down a house to get rid of six people, a robber who shot up banks, a Navy physicist who was using the internet to find young girls, it was a lot of awful cases coming across his desk and perhaps it put him in danger.
Jonathan did confide in his friends about his job and said that his boss, U.S. Attorney Thomas DiBiagio, thought he wasn’t doing a good job and he was trying to “push him out”, so Jonathan was working harder and later at work. One co-worker said that he overheard DiBiagio say Jonathan was “gone” and another coworker told Jonathan that he should get a lawyer to represent him in his troubles with DiBiagio. He did take this advice and shortly before his death, he retained former federal prosecutor Andrew C. White. So, he’s having so much trouble with his boss, that he felt the need to obtain a lawyer, then he winds up dead soon after. You can see how this would look bad for his boss.
Jonathan’s friends started talking to the reporters and word got out that he was worried about losing his job. DiBiagio denied the claims and told the Baltimore Sun, “His job was not in jeopardy in any respect. Jonathan Luna is remembered by this office as being a wonderful colleague, and his death is a genuine loss to us all.” Months later, in the summer of 2004, the real story came out. A former co-worker, Assistant US Attorney Lisa Griffin, wrote to DiBiagio saying that, “I am deeply embarrassed to hear that you led the press to believe that Jonathan was not in jeopardy of losing his job. That was not so.” She sent this after she found herself another job and she said that DiBiagio demanded, “a dangerous homogeneity (hoh-ma-ge-nay-ity) of thought” and she also said that “Good lawyers no longer speak up for fear of having their reputations tarnished.” DiBiagio tried to spin the story to say that he was withholding the truth to protect Jonathan’s family.
Jonathan had been working in his office until almost midnight on December 3rd because he feared he would lose his job. He was working on a plea agreement for the two men he prosecuted, Deon L. Smith and Walter O. Poindexter. Deon operated a rap music label called Stash House Records. He was also an aspiring rap singer who performed under the name Papi Jenkinz. Jonathan had been in court all week prosecuting the two men as they stood accused of dealing heroin from their Hampden neighborhood recording studio on West 36th Street.
Deon and Walter were charged with multiple counts of heroin distribution and conspiracy to sell heroin. Walter faced 60 years in prison for 3 counts of heroin distribution and Deon was facing 27 years. Walter was also accused of killing Alvin “L” Jones, whom he believed had burglarized one of their stash houses. The government’s main witness, Warren Grace, had testified that he sold and bought heroin with Deon and Walter. Warren had worked with both men, and he was a paid FBI informant.
On the stand, Warren and his principal FBI handler admitted that strange things happened while he had worked for the Justice Department. Warren was under house arrest, but the FBI agents allowed him to come and go as he pleased. He ended up being accused by some neighbors of shooting up the neighborhood and dealing heroin. While he worked for the feds, Warren distributed heroin and heroin was found in his Ford Excursion.
The defense accused Jonanthan Luna of failing to make proper disclosures before the trial about the government’s strange dealings with Warren Grace. They also wanted to know what informant Warren Grace was doing with his FBI handlers? Was Jonathan Luna keeping secrets? And, if so, why? The judge was angry and agreed to do an investigation of Jonathan and his FBI cohorts. That’s when he suddenly agreed to a plea deal, which stopped the trial, and it also stopped the inquiry of himself and the FBI.
Jonathan offered a plea agreement that knocked decades off Deon and Walter’s jail time and it would also mean that Walter wouldn’t be charged with Alvin Jones’ murder.....but....the agreement wasn’t actually legal. Jonathan was afraid of some of the FBI agents that were working with him and some of the FBI agents disliked him. One or more agents had reason to want him discredited or gone.
As prosecuting attorney, Jonathan had some input when it came to the handling of his witness, the FBI informant, but he did not have control, the FBI was in charge. The week prior to his death, on November 22nd, 2003, Jonathan’s hometown newspaper, The New York Times, headlined a story, called, “FBI let innocents get death sentences: report.” A closely watched congressional committee issued a report exposing FBI informant activities in Boston. One retired agent was even charged with arranging gangland murder, with the help of his longtime informants. If you haven’t heard that term, gangland murder means organized crime. One committee witness, a U.S. Attorney, testified: “If you go against the FBI, they will try to get you. They will wage war on you. They will cause major administrative problems for me as a prosecutor. It would have precipitated World War II if I tried to get inside the FBI to deal with informants. That was the holy of holies, inner sanctum. They wouldn’t have allowed me to do anything about that.”
Jonathan’s body was found at 5:30 AM and it looked like he had left his desk in a hurry. How would he leave his cellphone and glasses sitting right on his desk? He walked out of the office in the federal courthouse, shortly before midnight. Leaving behind that unfinished plea agreement. That plea agreement wasn’t legal. Jonathan was using it to cover up a murder that he was obligated by law to prosecute. Alvin Jones had been murdered by Walter Poindexter and Jonathan was going to cover it up and he was under a ton of pressure to get this done. If he didn’t find a way to get the plea agreement, he and others in law enforcement would be under investigation in federal court. He was working on a legal file that now becomes evidence in his own investigation, but the people in charge of his investigation are the subjects of the investigation.
The author of The Midnight Ride of Jonathan Luna, William Keisling, began doing his research at the federal courthouse in Baltimore, just a few blocks from Inner Harbor. Jonathan’s office was in a neighborhood that had high crime rates and William Keisling noticed there was a sign in the parking garage that provided a warning, be sure to take your cell phone from your car. Inside the office, he learned that Jonathan had gone out of his way to meet people in the courthouse where he worked, and they all seemed to like him and many of them were very traumatized by his death. William mentioned that every time he went to the courthouse to review the files Jonathan had last worked on, the receptionist would make a quick call and the same man would appear. He felt like he was being watched, like they were trying to keep track of everyone that touched those files. But why? He was, after all, just a book writer. Is there something they didn’t want people to find? Either way, it was definitely on William’s radar.
As he sifted through the documents, it became obvious that files were missing. Things that were referenced throughout the documents, were not in the folder and the transcripts of the court proceedings, the written record of what had been said in court that day, wasn’t in the folder either. William asked the clerk if he could get a copy of the transcripts from Luna’s last case, and she said there weren’t any court transcripts that had been made for the Smith-Poindexter case. She said he could order them, but the court reporter was retiring, so he would need to hurry. He called and of course, the court reporter had already retired.
William was able to get the court reporter’s home phone number, so he called Ned Richardson and asked if he could still help. Ned said that the records he was looking for, were viewed as “sensitive.” By whom, William asked. Ned said, by the FBI. They were part of a criminal investigation, and he didn’t know if they could be released. He had just finished transcribing them for the investigators and then he turned them over to the US attorney’s office in Baltimore before he retired. William said, well, court transcripts are public documents. Ned told him there were over 700 pages of transcripts and it would cost 83 cents a page, so it would be a little over $600.
How interesting. William was requesting the documents in May of 2004, Jonathan Luna had died in December of 2003. There was supposed to be hundreds of state and federal investigators placed on a task force, searching for clues in his death, yet the transcripts from his last court case were JUST completed? Ned claimed that the delay was partly his fault due to his retirement. He said that the Justice Department had been pressuring him and calling him, asking to get these done. One of Jonathan’s former associates, Baltimore Assistant US Attorney John F. Purcell, who goes by Jack, had also ordered a copy of the transcripts.
William did rush over with the payment to get a copy of the transcripts. Ned said that he knew Jonathan Luna and “He always wore his glasses in court. He needed them to see.” Ned said he found it strange that his glasses and cell phone were left on his desk the night he died. He said that some people in the office believed that he had been struggling, but that’s not how Ned saw it. He said that Jonathan was bright and articulate. He said that he was on the ball, until his last case, where he uncharacteristically was fumbling and became unglued. Ned said that Jonathan’s last performance in court was odd.
On the witness stand, FBI Special Agent Steven Skinner, who worked with Jonathan on the Smith-Poindexter case said, “Looked like he didn’t want to be there. Which was odd because he spent almost two years on this case. You’d think he’d want to be in court.” William used this opportunity to ask Ned why he thought Jonathan agreed to a plea. Was it because the judge agreed to investigate his star witness, heroin dealer Warren Grace? Ned said, that’s what it looked like to him.
William took the transcripts and began sifting through the evidence in front of him. It’s a very tangled web and it all began on the day Jonathan Luna met his FBI-sponsored informant, Warren Grace. He started his career as an FBI informant in April of 2002, shortly after he was caught with heroin and a machine gun in Baltimore. He was 21 years old and was a repeat offender who had already served nearly 5 years on the heroin and gun charges. Less than 18 months earlier, he had returned to the street from prison. He never got past the 11th grade, he had been selling cocaine and heroin on the streets since the age of 14 and everyone called him Pug. When he was 16, he was selling crack on the street and that’s when he first ran into Walter Poindexter who also goes by Fella and Shorty.
In the transcripts, Warren Grace recalls that, “I met him beginning in ‘94, you know, on the strip, on the street corner. He was walking by, walking a dog, and we exchanged numbers and just went from there. You know, he was just walking down the street with his dog. I was hustling. I was selling drugs, Cocaine. He told me he had a few prices about cocaine.” Walter Poindexter handed his number to Warren Grace. He called him up and they worked out a deal. Walter Poindexter would give him cocaine to sell, and Warren Grace would pay him later on, after he was done. He would keep part of it and pay Walter whatever he was owed.
Several months into this, in 1994, Warren Grace was arrested for heroin distribution, and he also had a gun. He was arrested numerous times at this point, but he didn’t go to prison until 1995 and he was in for four years and nine months. The only person that visited him while he was locked up was his grandfather and besides that, the only other visitor was Walter Poindexter. He would tell him that he was showing him loyalty. The two of them also talked on the phone and occasionally, Poindexter sent him money. He visited him about once or twice a month for five years. While Warren Grace was locked up, he earned his GED, and he was released on December 9th of 2000, and he went to live with Walter Poindexter. It was Walter, his brother, and his mother, and they treated Warren Grace like family, which he never really had.
He didn’t do much for the first few weeks after being released, but he jumped right back into selling heroin that was supplied by Poindexter. He said he would stake claim to a Baltimore street corner, set up a heroin shop, and keep it running. He was selling a lot of it and Poindexter had several suppliers, including rap music producer Deon Smith. They were cutting it down into small little rocks or pebble-sized pieces and putting it in small vials. They marketed it, pushed out a lot of the competition and gave it a distinctive name, 9-1-1. (nine eleven)
Warren Grace said, “It was basically just happenstance, really. The name just came up. That was the name we wanted to use, because once they hit it, that’s what they was going to need. 9-1-1. They’d have to call an ambulance. It was good shit. So once they hit it, that’s what they was going to need. 9-1-1.” Around January of 2001, someone broke into, and burglarized an apartment that Walter Poindexter used as a drug stash house and word got back to Walter that the culprit was Alvin Jones. One of Walter Poindexter’s girlfriends called Alvin Jones to warn him, and Alvin Jones told his father that he was being accused of robbing a house.
On January 22nd, 2001, Walter Poindexter murdered Alvin Jones. Jonathan Luna later wrote in the court papers that at least two people witnessed the murder. Afterwards, Walter Poindexter bragged to Warren Grace about the murder. Federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna, made the case that Alvin Jones was murdered in retaliation for the break-in at the drug stash house. He filed several court documents and even threatened Poindexter with the death penalty. It just doesn’t seem that difficult to see the motivation here. Walter Poindexter’s drugs were stolen, and he wanted Alvin to pay for that. It sounds simple, but it’s not. This very case has many dark secrets and it threatened to expose the FBI’s informants.
The case needed to be buried once things fell apart. Warren Grace’s FBI handlers were under fire and to stop an investigation of the FBI and the US Attorney’s office, Walter Poindexter would be given what’s referred to as the sweetheart plea deal by the prosecutors. By law, the plea deal isn’t allowed to be given to anyone who commits a drug-related murder. How do you get around that? Make the drug-related murder disappear. It was the only way to protect the FBI. Jonathan Luna would have to pretend that Alvin Jones’ murder wasn’t related to drugs and this was a big problem for him, because he didn’t want to do it and soon, he was dead.
In April of 2001, a few months after Alvin Jones had been murdered, Baltimore city police raided Walter Poindexter’s home and he was arrested. It wasn’t for murder charges, just drug charges. He was in for a short time, then he was back on the streets, dealing heroin. Every time he got locked up, Warren Grace realized that he was able to get far more money, dealing heroin. He started setting up his own shop and finding his own supply and he was also dealing directly with Deon Smith at Stash House Records.
On April 7th of 2002, the police raided the house Warren Grace had been staying at and they found a scale, some heroin, and packaging materials, and two guns. Warren was indicted on three criminal counts: possession of the firearm as a felon; possession with intent to distribute 100 grams or more of heroin; and aiding and abetting. He faced a maximum of 40 years in jail and a $250k fine and he was just about to turn 22.
He applied for a public defender on May 13th, 2002, and he said he was a self-employed rap artist. He said he didn’t have cash on hand, but he made about $1,000 a month. He also said he had a dependent, a 9 year old daughter, Chantile Grace and he paid $300 per month in child support. He was in big trouble this time. He had already served 5 years for drug and gun charges. He had two prior convictions, so he was being labeled as a career offender, which meant he would most likely get a sentence of 30 years to life and that 30 years would be without parole.
Warren Grace knew this was bad, so he started talking to the Baltimore city police and told them about the murder of Alvin Jones. He threw his good friend, Walter Poindexter right under the bus and told them that he murdered Alvin Jones in retaliation for the break-in at the drug stash house. A drug-related murder could put Poindexter away for life. As the Baltimore police began investigating the murder, the word was spreading on the street that the snitch was Warren Grace. He was doing anything he could to get himself a good deal, and that even meant giving up some of his suppliers and giving up information on other street dealers.
The police sifted through all of the information and the thing they wanted most, was Stash House Records. They wanted to bust rap music producers, more than they wanted to solve Alvin Jones’s murder. The FBI was looped in, and they created the “Safe Streets Program.” Baltimore FBI Special Agent Steve Skinner said, “The Safe Streets Program was put together by the FBI to address what is actually called safe streets. Our goal is to make streets safe, to make neighborhoods safe. By doing that, we investigate violent groups, gangs, and we put together investigations against those groups using drug violation laws. We have a task force, which basically means that, in addition to FBI agents, we also have local police officers who are detailed and deputized to work with us. And they include Baltimore city police detectives. At one point we had Baltimore County police detectives. We have had Maryland state police detectives. We have also had housing authority detectives as well.”
Task force members secretly aided and abetted the city’s heroin traffic and they let their informants run wild. Take Warren Grace, for example. He was free to deal heroin while working for the task force. It was a corrupt system that certainly wasn’t serving the public, it was crippling them. Warren Grace was described as a cooperating witness. He provided information and almost acted like an agent of the government. He was involved in cases and would do things to help investigations. He was paid by the FBI, but he wasn’t employed by them. It was off the books.
RESOURCES
