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60-year-old Inmate says he's innocent, relatives disagree
ONLY ON FOX: A 60-year-old inmate says he's innocent in the murder of a man. However, relatives of the victim have quite a different story. FOX 26's Randy Wallace explains in part 1 of his special report.
HOUSTON - In a jailhouse interview, Darius Elam says he never met Rick Bowen and has no idea who murdered the 27-year-old father of three back in 1983.
"We had three boys I was pregnant at the time of Rick’s death so my third son Joshua never did know his dad," said Rick Bowen’s widow Vicki Atkinson.
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She says she has no doubt about Darius Elam’s guilt.
"As Christians, we want to think that we can forgive," said Atkinson. "But this is tough, this is hard.
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Man spent 36 years in prison for crime he didn't commit, advocates say
Darius Elam has been ruled out of the murder he is in prison for. Why is he still there?
"Nobody absolutely nobody in our family brothers and sisters aunts and uncles cousins nobody believes he did this crime," said Darius’s brother Samuel Elam.
"I believe he’s innocent based on the evidence and based on my spiritual connection with God," said Tammie Lang Campbell founder of the Honey Brown Hope Foundation. "God sent me in there to bring Darius out and that’s what we are going to do."
RELATED: Man declared innocent in murder of Houston police officer after 15 years
In May of 1983, Darius Elam and Rick Bowen were both fathers with bright futures.
"Darius got a scholarship to Texas Southern University for running track that’s how he ended up in Houston," Samuel Elam said.
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Man remains in prison for over 30 years after being ruled out through DNA tests
This is the reality for Darius Elam, who was convicted in the aggravated robbery and death of Richard Bowen in 1983. He was convicted based on jail house informants and a finger print on a piece of paper destroyed by HPD in 1995. In 2014, the original evidence was tested for DNA, and Elam was ruled out, but he remains in prison.
"They called him bear back in college he gave the best bear hugs and he was so genuinely full of love," said Cathy Bowen Rick Bowen’s sister-in-law.
Rick Bowen was last seen alive leaving a banquet
"It took 2 days before we found him and it was actually a family friend who found him," Atkinson said.
"He had been abducted after a fundraising event and made to drive to Rice University parking lot and that’s when he was shot in the back of the head," Bowen said. "His wallet and his pocket change had been stolen."
The day before Bowen’s body was found Darius Elam and a friend of his Clarence Richardson were arrested.
RELATED: Houston man convicted of murder in 2012 declared 'actually innocent'
Police say they were using Bowen’s credit card at stores in the Galleria. Elam, however, says he didn’t know Richardson was using Bowen’s credit card. Instead, Richardson claimed he found Bowen’s wallet in a park.
"90 days later or so I and I alone was charged with Aggravated robbery and the guys using the credit cards were not," said Elam.
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Honey Brown Hope Foundation appeals for exoneration of Darius Elam
New DNA evidence has come to light that may free Darius Elam, who is serving a life sentence for aggravated robbery and murder.
Elam went to trial not for capital murder but for aggravated robbery.
"I went to trial because I knew at least I thought I knew they couldn’t convict me of something I didn’t do," he said.
Elam was sentenced to life.
"After the trial was over the jury came up to me and said I’m sorry we couldn’t give him more than life," said Atkinson. "They were totally convinced he was guilty without a doubt."
"I cried like a little boy then I thought you know what I’ve got to fight," Elam said.
"The system still has its knee on our necks and strangling the very life out of us," Campbell said. "For 38 years this man has been wrongly incarcerated no physical evidence no eyewitness no admission of guilt,
There are just 2 things connecting Darius Elam to Rick Bowen’s murder: a yellow piece of paper and jailhouse informants.
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This is part one of a two-part exclusive story on FOX 26 that will be published on Wednesday.