Jamal Trulove, a one-time reality TV walk-on who was convicted in 2010 for the murder of a man in San Francisco, may still get his freedom back following an appellate court decision this week overturning his conviction.
We're getting to the point in the history of reality television that there's a catalog of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of relatively short-lived flashes in the pan that we've already completely forgotten about, no matter how much hype and magazine/blog coverage they might have gotten at the time. Take, for example, VH1's I Love New York. Remember that turd? Anyway, one of its "stars" who was in fact only on single episode as a rejected suitor for buxom Tiffany "New York" Pollard, turned out to be wanted for murder in San Francisco not long after his episode aired. That was Trulove, and he was an aspiring rapper living in L.A. at the time the episode of I Love New York 2 was shot in July 2007.
Three weeks after shooting the show, Trulove was suspected of killing 26-year-old Seu Kuka in the Sunnydale housing project in Visitacion Valley. Trulove was later apprehended in Seaside in 2008. Only one eyewitness, who saw Kuka's shooting from her apartment window, came forward in Trulove's trial, and prosecutors argued that she was the only one of about 25 witnesses on the street who came forward because of threats of retaliation. She was later put in witness protection, but Trulove's attorney argued on appeal that the prosecution never showed evidence that such threats existed, and that mentioning them in closing arguments had unfairly influenced the jury. A three-judge panel at the state Court of Appeals on Monday agreed, and now Trulove may face a retrial.
Currently, Trulove is serving a sentence of 50 years to life. His attorney now says he has five witnesses who can say that Trulove was not the shooter.
As for Tiffany Pollard, no one's much heard from her since 2009, when VH1 aired their last minute of her fifteen minutes with the show New York Goes to Work. But she's got a Twitter account (thank god, right?) and she's still coasting on her Flavor of Love/I Love New York fame by doing club appearances in Pomona, and the like.
Previously: Reality TV Character Accused Of SF Murder
