JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Three decades since mistakenly gunning down two people in a revenge killing, 10 days since the governor signed his death warrant and three weeks from his scheduled execution, Michael Bernard Bell was back in a Jacksonville courtroom with new claims.

On June 18, Bell’s defense team filed 252 pages in Parts 1 and 2 of a motion for post-conviction relief after his death warrant signed on June 13. Now 54, Bell is slated for lethal injection on July 15.

Among the new points of contention is that two witnesses now say they were coerced by the same Jacksonville detective to lie on the witness stand in exchange for preferential treatment and that he’s done this before.

Judge Jeb Branham granted him a June 23 evidentiary hearing. However, the two key witnesses who both were inmates at the time of the trial, each pleaded the Fifth Amendment multiple times during the hearing to refuse to answer questions that could potentially incriminate them. Several other witnesses often did the same or responded with “I do not recall.”

Bell was convicted two years after gunning down 22-year-old Jimmy West and 18-year-old Tamecka Smith in a car outside Moncrief Liquors in 1993, believing West was the man who killed Bell’s brother earlier that year.

Prosecutors said Bell had publicly swore to avenge his brother’s death and plotted it for months. Theodore Wright had killed Lamar Bell in June 1993 in self-defense, according to court records.

That Dec. 8, Bell bought an AK-47 rifle through a girlfriend and then waited the next night outside the lounge after locating the yellow Plymouth. He opened fire on the young couple who got into the car and at bystanders. But Wright had sold the car to West, his half-brother.

Bell was arrested in 1994 and convicted for the murders in 1995. He later pleaded guilty to three other murders ― a woman and her toddler son in 1989 and his mother’s boyfriend about four months before the West-Smith shooting ― and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, according to court records.

The defense’s basis for a failure to disclose evidence includes what the team now says was false testimony from witnesses Henry Edwards and Charles Jones, both who had been in jail.

“Edwards disclosed on June 16, 2025, that he did not see the murders, he only heard them because he was inside the store when the shootings occurred,” according to the motion. “He also said that Detective William Bolena was aware Edwards did not see the shooting and told Edwards what to testify to in exchange for favors, specifically furloughs from jail during his period of incarceration around the time of the murders. Edwards also stated that Detective Bolena pointed out Bell to Edwards in the photo lineup. … Edwards said that he felt threatened by Bolena.” 

“This is materially different than Edwards’ prior testimony at Bell’s trial where he testified that there was no agreement between him and the state; he had no problem identifying Bell; he was standing outside at the corner of the building when he saw Bell put on a ski mask, then walk up to a yellow car and started shooting into the driver’s side; that he had charges against him dropped because he was ‘innocent’ the same day he spoke to Bolena about this case; that he got nothing in exchange for his testimony; and that he had no doubt Bell was the triggerman.”

Jones had a similar account.

“Charles Jones disclosed on June 18, 2025, that he was approached by Detective Bolena in 1994 when he was in jail, that he knew Detective Bolena because he was in a relationship with Jones’ sister, Bolena coerced him to testify against Bell by offering to help him with his charges, Detective Bolena and prosecutor George Bateh told him what to say at trial. Jones said that Bell never tried to sell him a gun and he never confessed to Jones about having shot anyone. Jones also disclosed that in 2002, while he was being detained for federal charges, he was brought back to the Duval County jail to testify against Bell in a post-conviction hearing. Bateh threatened him with more time if he were to change his testimony and tell the truth. He met with both Bolena and Bateh before pleading in his federal case, and they both promised him they would get him a downward departure if he maintained his testimony against Bell,” according to the defense’s motion.

“This is materially different than Jones’ prior testimony at Bell’s trail where he testified that the had no agreement with the state for any benefit in exchange for his testimony; he talked talked to Bolena about Bell but not in exchange for any favors; he saw Bell trying to sell an assault weapon in December 1993; and that he heard Bell admits to killing Jimmy West and Tamecka Smith in January 1994.”

The defense sated both admissions were newly discovered evidence not known to Bell’s counsel at the time of his trial.

The appeal also cited a March 18, 2025, article by The Tributary involving same lead detective and prosecutor in death row inmate Kenneth Hartley’s case

“Although Detective Bolena is now associated with very similar tactics in other murder cases from the same year and neighborhood of the murders in this case, those revelations did not become public knowledge until years after the fact,” the defense said.

Bolena has since died as well as the initial judge in his case, and Bateh is retired.

A day after the defense filed its motion, the state filed its 32-page response.

Much focuses on the timelines, or lack thereof, concerning the last-ditch efforts.

“Bell contends that affidavits from Charles Jones and Henry Edwards constitute newly discovered evidence … executed just days after Bell’s death warrant was signed,” according to the state’s response. “At the outset this claim fails because it was not timely raised. Jones and Edwards state in their affidavits that they supposedly came forward with this information because a Capital Habeas Unit investigator talked with them. But CHU has represented Bell since at least 2018. Clearly, Jones and Edwards were known witnesses to Bell — they testified against him in 1995. Bell fails to explain why CHU did not contact Jones and Edwards about their testimony until after Bell’s death warrant was signed. … Bell must also show that the newly discovered evidence is of such nature that it would probably produce an acquittal on retrial.”

“This case is not a whodunit mystery,” the state said. “Erica Williams, Bell’s former girlfriend, testified at trial that Bell said he had plans to get even with Wright, and he convinced her to buy an AK-47 for him along with a 75-round drum, 30-round magazine and eight boxes of bullets. After the murders, Bell told her that “Theo killed his brother so he killed his, but an innocent girl got hurt so now the score is even.”

Jones, who is still serving prison time, repeatedly invoked his 5th Amendment rights and was basically uncooperative.

Edwards, who is no longer incarcerated, was more cooperative but still pleaded the 5th several times. In confirming he signed the affidavit, he responded to Assistant State Attorney Alan Mizrahi’s questions by stating he didn’t write or read it, he just signed it.

He also told defense attorney Robert Norgard he didn’t think the men he was talking with were investigators but that it was for a script.

Edwards: “I thought you all were making a movie.”

Norgard: “Are you kidding me, Sir, I mean seriously, you really thought investigators representing somebody in a death warrant were making a movie?”

Edwards: “Yes that’s what I thought.”

When Norgard pressed him about what the detective said to him, he also took the 5th.

“I just went along with what you all wanted me to say,” he said.

Edwards also told the court he didn’t talk with anybody before coming there that day. Norgard tried to get him to confirm what he said he told him over the weekend that his children and minister told him not to testify.

Collin Kelly, a mitigation investigator assigned to the case who helped with the affidavits, said he went over the documents with the witnesses and neither seemed to have concerns about signing them.

The defense called several witnesses who testified in the original trial who also were interviewed after Bell’s death warrant was signed amid the new investigative leads.

Paula Goins, Bell’s nephew, had previously testified that she heard him tell his girlfriend that he got his revenge, stating “Theordore got my brother and now I got his brother.” But she and Norgard went back and forth about what she actually heard and what Bolena and Bateh told her and whether they threatened her.

She said she can’t remember that awful day that she has tried to black out, but that she does recall him saying “We” did it, referring to another man with him, and not “I.” She also wouldn’t say the pair “threatened” her but “persuaded” her, making her feel very uncomfortable and that specifically Goins could go to prison for five years if she didn’t testify.

In addition, Goins said one of the victim’s families has threatened her including this day on TikTok for being in court.

Bell’s girlfriend at the time, Erica Braclet, followed suit like others pleading the 5th or saying she didn’t recall Bolena and Bateh’s tactics, even for conversations a week ago with Kelly and fellow mitigation investigator Christy Dickerson.

She did confirm being petrified when officers came to her home back when everything happened and telling her she had to go downtown for questioning. They put her in an interrogation room for 13 to 14 hours and were screaming at her. But she again took the 5th about whether they threatened her.

When Mizrahi tried to cross-examine her, she just kept saying “I don’t recall.”

Two other felons who were in jail at the time and previously testified against Bell both offered similar responses of either not recalling or pleading the 5th to questions about their original testimonies and their recent conversations with Kelly and Dickerson about what Bolena and Bateh did.

One of the last to testify was Cathy Robertson, who was married to Edwards at that time. When asked if he was a confidential informant for Bolena, she said “they had dealings.” She said Bolena sometimes brought Edwards to her for visits while he was still incarcerated and also gave her cash to help out.

No future court date was scheduled.