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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/
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RECAP: It seems that there’s corruption surrounding every aspect of this case. After Jonathan Luna’s death, the FBI kept “leaking” information that was damaging his reputation, but it seemed to be advancing some of their own careers. After the knife used in his death was discovered, CBS released that they had a “very promising suspect.” But this suspect was Jonathan Luna himself. They were pushing the suicide theory and claiming that Jonathan ended his own life because he stole $36k during a court case, even though there was never proof that he did it and there were plenty of other people that had access to that money. On December 4th, 2003, Jonathan Luna was supposed to be in court early that morning to complete a plea agreement in the Smith-Poindexter case, but his life had been brutally ended. His co-workers went full steam ahead and kept things moving that morning. James Warwick finished the plea deal and got the signatures to wrap up the case.
TIMELINE:
December 3rd, 2003
6:00 PM the meeting at the courthouse breaks up, everyone that was talking about the plea agreement is getting ready to leave for the night
6:30 PM Jonathan went home for dinner with his wife and mother in-law
8:48 PM He arrives back at the office
9:06 PM Attorney Arky Tuminelli received a call at home from Jonathan Luna, he finished Deon Smith’s agreement, but still needed to work on Walter Poindexter’s. He was going home again, but would return to the office to finish the agreement. This call lasted about 10 minutes.
9:30 PM Jonathan left a voicemail for attorney Ken Ravenell saying he would fax the plea agreement later that evening
10:30 PM He spoke to one of the attorneys again and promised they would receive the agreement by midnight
11:00 PM He was at home again and received a call on his cell, but we don’t know who this was from. He told his wife he needed to go back to the office. This was 2003, how do we not know who called him that night? His father said he didn’t mention who called him, but he apologized to his wife and said he had to go back to the office
11:38 PM Jonathan’s vehicle left the Baltimore Courthouse and his glasses and cell phone were left at his desk
11:49 PM the vehicle passed through Fort McHenry Tunnel Toll Plaza in Baltimore and traveled northbound on Interstate 95
December 4th, 2003
12:28 AM his vehicle passed through the Perryville Toll Plaza in Maryland
12:46 AM the vehicle passed through the Delaware Line Toll Plaza
12:57 AM his debit card is used at an ATM to withdraw $200 at JFK Plaza in Newark, Delaware. The footage was too grainy to know if it was Jonathan withdrawing the money.
2:37 AM his vehicle gets on the New Jersey turnpike at Exit 6A, from Route 130. The EZ Pass was not used.
2:47 AM his vehicle entered the Pennsylvania turnpike at Exit 359, the Delaware River Bridge. The EZ Pass was not used.
It’s my understanding that the EZ Pass isn’t state specific, so he should have been able to use his pass at all of the toll booths that he traveled through that night. It does look like things may have changed or improved over the years, so I tried to look at how things were set up in 2003 and it appears that in that time frame, you had to go through a specific lane marked EZ Pass and you had your pass velcroed to your windshield or dashboard so it would register. If you removed the pass or went to the wrong lane, you would need to get a ticket and pay the toll instead. So, I wonder if someone else was operating his vehicle at this time and didn’t know about that pass? Or, if it was deliberately not used?
3:20 AM his debit card was used at a Sunoco (Sun-oh-coh) gas station, King of Prussia (Prush-a), Pennsylvania to purchase gas and he paid for a second vehicle as well. There was miraculously no video footage. Employees at the Sunoco Station say he bought gas, a snack and a soda. Some reports say another can be seen on the video footage, but it is too grainy to verify if Jonathan was there. The assistant manager said he put two tanks of gas on his credit card and another employee said he bought two drinks. Does this mean he was traveling with another person or persons?
4:04 AM the vehicle exits the Pennsylvania turnpike at Exit 286, the Reading/Lancaster interchange. A paper toll ticket was turned in and it had Jonathan’s blood on it.
5:30 AM his body was discovered off Dry Tavern Road in Denver, Pennsylvania
Besides the timeline, nothing else has ever been officially released about this case, besides the leaked information. We don’t even know if Jonathan left the courthouse alone on the night of his death. Video footage of Jonathan leaving the courthouse has never been released and there are rumors from court security officers that there was a white car right behind him that followed him up to the tollbooth and Jonathan paid for the car behind him. It’s also been stated that he paid for two tanks of gas at the station that night. In 2005, DOJ’s inspector general conducted an investigation of the FBI’s investigation of the murder. The report was incredibly critical of the FBI’s investigation of the case.
Jonathan’s former boss, Thomas DiBiagio sent out a memo to his employees where he demanded no less than 3 front page worthy public corruption cases against democratic Baltimore officials prior to the 2004 election and this got leaked. Democratic officials called for his resignation. He was the United States attorney who was appointed by President Bush. DiBiagio said he regretted sending an improper message. He ended up resigning and said he was forced out in early 2005 due to political pressure stemming from public corruption investigations involving associates for the state’s governor.
DiBiagio says, “There was direct pressure not to pursue these investigations. The practical impact was to intimidate my office and shut down the investigations.” The Justice Department disputes his version of events. DiBiagio’s office had been looking into whether associates of Governor Robert L Ehrlich (Er-lick) Jr. Had been funneling money from gambling interests to promote legalized slot machines in Maryland. DiBiagio said that several prominent Maryland Republicans forced him to back off and one of the conversations became very threatening and he reported it to the FBI. He said that the FBI wouldn’t support him, and it was impossible for him to stay at his job.
Several former officials in Baltimore did back up his claims and said that he was voicing his concerns in 2004 that the corruption inquiries were jeopardizing his career, but the Justice Department said this isn’t true and they asked him to leave because, “we had lost confidence in him.” They cited his harsh management style which was causing resentments in the office and said the gambling case, or any other investigation was, “an absolute fairy tale.”
In Jan 2007, Jonathan Luna’s parents requested that the Lancaster County Coroner conduct an inquest into his death, but the Coroner declined. Private Investigator, Ed Martino was hired by Jonathan’s friend and after looking into this for months. He said that he firmly believed that Jonathan was murdered due to his work with the FBI. He was not able to link him to any suspicious or risky behavior during his investigation that lead to his death, but he felt that the FBI was trying to change the narrative on this story.
On September 25th, 2019, Attorney Kenneth Ravenell, was arrested for conspiracy for helping a client avoid charges and money laundering. Charges against Ravenell include alleged racketeering conspiracies, money laundering and drug trafficking. Federal prosecutors were also accusing him of schooling drug clients on how to use burner phones, and other methods to avoid law enforcement detection. He was Deon Smith’s attorney in the Smith and Poindexter plea agreement case, and he was Nacoe Brown’s attorney when the $36k went missing in court. It was a 16-day trial and there was evidence that Ravenell received drug money from his clients and associates, some of it in exchange for laundering money and it was estimated that he laundered over $1 million using his law firm’s bank accounts.
He had also used the firm’s resources to arrange payments to attorneys hired to represent other members of the conspiracy, and to make investments on behalf of a client who was a drug trafficker. He was acquitted on several charges, including racketeering, conspiracy, narcotics conspiracy, conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, falsification of documents and obstructing an official proceeding.
His attorney Josh Treem and private investigator, Sean Gordon who worked for Ravenell, were acquitted of charges including conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, falsification of documents and obstruction of an official proceeding. Josh Treem represented Ravenell and the FBI executed a search warrant of Josh’s law firm and seized records related to his representation of Ravenell. The guy who was originally overseeing Ravenell’s case was Josh Warwick, the guy who completed the plea agreement for the Smtih and Poindexter case. But, when the FBI did the search, Josh Treem was the one on the case and everyone was baffled that he got caught up in this thing too because he was very highly regarded.
Nacoe Brown claims that during his trial, Ken Ravenell showed up with a briefcase each day, but on the day that the money went missing, he had a large bag with him. When Jonathan Luna was murdered, everyone immediately pinned the stolen money on him, but wouldn’t investigators find an extra $36k entering his bank account, or traces of it hidden in his home after his death? There has never been evidence that he took that money, and it makes me wonder if this was a set up?
Why would the FBI be the ones involved in the search for the missing money, when it was their guys that were supposed to be watching it? Shouldn’t an outside party be investigating it then? Wouldn’t this be a conflict of interest? They could have made the money disappear just as easily as anyone else, yet they were the ones tasked with interviewing everyone at the courthouse. According to Nacoe Brown, he says that his attorney, Ken Ravenell was the only one that wasn’t interviewed or polygraphed by the FBI, even though there had always been a rumor that Jonathan was the only one that hadn’t been interviewed because he supposedly refused. You may wonder how a prisoner would know something like this. Nacoe Brown says it took him 10 years to get his hands on the discovery from the investigation on this and Ravenell’s name was the only one that wasn’t listed anywhere because he wasn’t interviewed.
Nacoe Brown believes that Ken Ravenell and Jonathan Luna stole the $36k together. Maybe the person that stole the money was worried about Jonathan taking that polygraph test. He was scheduled to take it just two days after he died. Perhaps someone needed to get rid of him before that happened. This does go against everything we know about Jonathan though. Was he involved in something bad with the FBI and their informant, Warren Grace? Yes. Was he putting together an illegal plea agreement in the Smith and Poindexter case? Yes. However, he grew up in a bad neighborhood and had every reason to fall into sketchy things as a kid, but he didn’t. He persevered and worked his ass off to change his life and his parents lives as well. He fought to help others and do the right thing. But what if he found out who did take the money? Or what if he was being blackmailed somehow?
Ken Ravenell may have been the last person to speak with Jonathan on the night of his death per the FBI’s timeline. He knew Jonathan was heading back to the office and it is rumored that someone followed him out of the parking garage. I’m not accusing anyone of anything here, this is all alleged. It has been pointed out that Ken Ravenell and Jonathan Luna were in a heated argument in the courthouse on the night of his death. It was so loud, that a co-worker had to ask them to knock it off. Was this over the plea agreement? Or something else entirely?
Jonathan was supposed to be in court the morning of his death. When he didn’t show up, someone said they were joking around with Ken Ravenell about him not being there and he said that Ken’s behavior was weird, and he got super defensive and told him not to joke about it. People in the courthouse were actually frantically looking for him and checking all over the building because their thought process was that someone made sure he didn’t show up to work that day. I’m not sure if this is something you just worry about on a daily basis in this line of work, or if there was something specific they were worried about.
Nacoe Brown thinks that Jonathan’s death all ties back to that missing money somehow. You might find it difficult to believe a convicted bank robber, but he is doing some surprisingly amazing things behind bars. People who were interviewed said that Nacoe changed their lives. He has single handedly changed the culture and he taught inmates that you can be free, but still locked up on the inside. Meaning, you need to fix the things within yourself to be truly free.
He created a spiritual development program that he rolled out in every facility where he served time. He had a huge impact on many men and helped put them on a better path. The administrative staff noticed a change in the men that Nacoe Brown was teaching and mentoring, so the bureau of prisons adopted the curriculum.
I think it’s important to pinpoint when and where the money actually went missing. Most sources made it sound like the money just disappeared off the cart in the courtroom, but I had a really hard time believing that no one in the courtroom would see this happen. The $36k was shrink wrapped, and it was in several denominations. This was a large packet, it wouldn’t just be something you could slip into a briefcase. Let’s set the scene here. It was the very end of the case against Nacoe Brown and Jonathan Luna put the case agent on the stand and either Jonathan or the other assistant reach down into a box and pulled out three shrink wrapped packages of US currency. It was very shocking for everyone.
The money was set on a desk in front of the witness chair, and it was only sitting out for about 5 minutes. Then, it went back into a box. The Judge said that he absolutely does not believe that Jonathan took the money, that’s not in his character and he doesn’t think Ken Ravenel could take it because it wasn’t something he could easily swipe and put in a bag or a briefcase. Joseph Evans was Jonathan’s supervisor at the time that the money disappeared and here’s what he said about him, “He was troubled because it happened during his watch, but personally, I have a hard time thinking he stole the money.”
Another attorney was there that day, Jackie Rodriguez Coss and she said that the evidence in this case included 7 bags of money that was seized during a search, and it was money that could be traced back to one or more of the robberies due to the serial numbers. She said the bags were clear and she roughly estimates that they were 18 inches long and 8-10 inches wide. Jackie says she is positive that the money went missing later than everyone believes.
Once the case is over, the court has to verify that every exhibit is there, it gets checked in before being locked up. After the guilty verdict in the case, Jackie went over all exhibits and checked off each one that was on the cart. She herself, verified that every exhibit was on that cart, she can’t leave the courtroom until that task is completed. She says that the money went missing after all exhibits were checked in and verified, not before. This changes everything because there are far less people that could access that money once it goes into the evidence room. Everyone accused Jonathan Luna of taking the money, but he wasn’t with her that day. Do you want to know who was? An FBI Agent, Tony Copano (Cup-on-yo). The two of them wheeled the cart out of the courtroom and as they were entering the vault, Tony said he forgot something in the courtroom which belonged to the FBI.
Jackie unlocked her office and said she would put the cart in the trial prep room, which he had a key for. She locked the door and left. They had a verdict, they didn’t need anything more with this evidence and Tony would need to take it back to the FBI evidence room after grabbing his item from the courtroom.
Jackie was married to an FBI Baltimore agent. She was off work the next day and he told her that money was missing. When Tony went to check the evidence in at the FBI, one bag of money was missing. Jackie didn’t know it at the time, but later found out that other people had a key to that door, but it also shouldn’t have taken more than a couple minutes for the agent to grab his item and get back to the cart.
It seemed like everyone was genuinely shocked that the money was brought in the courtroom. Ken Ravenll said, “I was stunned. It was unusual to bring cash into the courtroom.” Judge Andre M. Davis, who presided over the case, said, “You could have knocked me over with a feather. You would never expect something like that in court, certainly not in federal court.” After the money was stolen, it was no longer a secret that Jonathan and his boss, Thomas Dibiagio had a strained relationship. No one is quite sure what transpired, but on one occasion, DiBiagio locked Jonathan out of the office. He had given him a less than favorable performance review and put him on notice. There was one day that DiBiagio stormed into Jonathan’s office and told him to pack his bags and that’s when Joseph Evans suggested that he hire a lawyer, which he did.
Jonathan was very upset that his boss disliked him so much and other colleagues say he became less attentive to his work, he couldn’t focus on it. A week before his death, he told Attorney Arky Tuminelli that he was considering leaving the US Attorney’s Office and. At least 3 people, including Jonathan, filed complaints against Tom DiBiagio who was allegedly targeting minorities in the office. It was also a very political office where everyone knew whether you were republican or democrat and the prosecutors were asked about their political beliefs.
At work, Jonathan had a boss that didn’t like him, a judge that would fine him if he was late, he was accused of stealing money, and his drug trafficking case was falling apart because he withheld critical information. That’s a lot to handle. On top of that, his wife was very busy because she was an OBGYN and the two of them were raising two young boys and they were taking care of Jonathan’s elderly parents, whom he had moved into a small basement apartment. Even though this was a lot to handle, his friends and family say he was not suicidal, and he was so proud of his family, he constantly talked about how much he loved his wife. He would also buy presents for the kids and have them delivered to his office so he could bring them home. He was a dedicated family man according to his friends and family.
The Lancaster County Coroner’s Office ruled Jonathan’s death a homicide based on one thing and that was physical evidence. There was a fingernail wound that appeared to be defensive and there were bruises on his testicles. This information was provided to The Washington Post per an official familiar with the investigation who requested to stay anonymous because the case is still open. This official said, “You could argue that the wounds are in places that are self-inflicted technically. But they could be inflicted by someone who wanted to make him suffer. It looks like homicide.”
A private Investigator who is a former police detective, William Buckingham, has been working this case and here’s what he said about Jonathan, “He had a backbone, and he wouldn’t back off and it cost him his life. He wound up in Lancaster County and he wound up dead.” He says, “I know who sanctioned it, who did it, and who was behind the hit, if I know it, why don’t state police know it?”
Buckingham said, “Whoever went into that court house and took him out, was either known by security or had a badge. We don’t know what he would be doing in that area on his own. The body was dropped off there for a specific reason, and his car, there was another car involved and it had to be the getaway car.” He wants to see this case get solved and said, “He has a wife and two kids at home, he never got justice. I’ve made up my mind I will not rest until this case is solved.” There was blood inside the car and at some point, it was released that it was Jonathan’s and someone else’s blood. Just like everything else in this case, the investigators have back tracked on this, but Buckingham doesn’t believe the blood was tested. He believes he knows who killed Jonathan, but he isn’t ready to go public with this. An anonymous law enforcement source said that authorities also found a partial fingerprint in the car.
William Buckingham says he believes that this is a coverup by both the FBI and the Pennsylvania State Police. He believes that Jonathan was murdered because of the case he was working on. He was forcibly taken from the Baltimore office and that would explain why his glasses, cellphone, and laptop were left behind. He thinks he was beaten, stabbed and brought to Pennsylvania, where he was left to die.
According to True Crime Garage podcast, Investigators noticed that Jonathan had gone to Pennsylvania at least twice in the weeks prior to his death. As they looked into this more, they realized that he had gone to Pennsylvania several times. On the first anniversary of his death, a gas station employee at Sonoco on the Pennsylvania turnpike said that she saw him at the gas station late at night about once a month over a 6 month period. She told the Post that he always used a credit card when he got gas, and he used cash if he bought coffee. She remembered him because he was polite, always sharply dressed, and he made small talk with her. We don’t know the purpose of his trips there if this is true.
His father said he confronted Jonathan about all the trips to Pennsylvania and he told him it was all work related. That’s the only information he provided, but that would make sense with his line of work, he can’t discuss his cases. Do you know who was being held in Pennsylvania though? FBI informant Warren Grace.
William Buckingham filed a right to know request for the Coroner’s records in 2020, but his request was denied. The documents were mysteriously found in the basement of Lancaster’s Government Center in 2020 after the county denied having records on his case. The coroner and the district attorney didn’t know the records were there. It was requested that the records be made public, but District Attorney Heather Adams requested to have them sealed because making them public would substantially hinder or jeopardize the ongoing criminal investigation. A judge agreed with this, and the records have been sealed. Lancaster County’s Coroner, Dr. Stephen Diamantoni (die-a-mon-tin-ee), said he was surprised to find out the records were in Lancaster and said, “Since I took office 12 years ago, we never had possession of those charts. I had been told the physical chart and physical records had gone to the FBI. Previously when we had requested the records, we were told there were no Jonathan Luna records in the archives.”
Wayne Ross, the forensic pathologist for the Lancaster County Coroner’s Office who performed the autopsy, said, “I can’t talk about it, because it’s a homicide from my perspective. In my mind, this case will one day be prosecuted.” The coroner stated that he had died by drowning and the police concluded that this was a suicide because the wounds were shallow and appeared to have hesitations. The coroner who performed the autopsy did rule that Jonathan had been killed, so it was a homicide case.
Dr. Walp was present when the forensic pathologist conducted the autopsy. The forensic pathologist has refused to discuss the results, but Dr. Walp has released some information. He confirmed that Jonathan was wearing a business suit, shirt and tie, overcoat, socks and shoes. He did not have a wallet or cellphone in his pockets. Some people have speculated that Jonathan left his phone on his desk at work because he had a burner phone, but this is not something that has ever been discussed or found on him. It’s also been reported that his wallet was in his pocket and that’s not true. Dr. Walp confirmed that he was wearing his work ID badge around his neck, and he had his wedding ring on. This is interesting to me because the FBI made it sound like Jonathan was out cheating on his wife on the night of his death, but he had his wedding ring on. Obviously, people that cheat can wear rings, but a lot of people remove their rings when they’re cheating.
He said that Jonathan died from drowning, because he was face down in the water, and he was stabbed multiple times in the neck and upper chest. His death was ruled a homicide. Dr. Walp said Jonathan had 36 stab wounds, several shallow or prick like marks on his chest and neck and he also had several, deep and more serious wounds. The coroner believed that the pricks looked like someone was trying to get information from Jonathan or maybe it was part of some kind of torture. Some of his severe wounds were at least 4 inches deep. They were deep enough to cause hemorrhaging on both sides of his neck and his left carotid artery had been punctured, causing him to bleed to death in minutes. These wounds were enough to kill him, but he died from drowning first. He was still breathing when he ended up face down in the water.
Dr. Walp also mentioned there was a considerable amount of congealed blood which indicated to him that Jonathan had been lying in that position for a period of time. It has also been stated that Jonathan had a wound to the side of his head and Dr. Walp says there wasn’t an injury to his head. One interesting thing is that the day after Jonathan’s death, the coroner said he had been stabbed with a penknife. It took two months to find the weapon, so how did he know that? Did someone suggest a penknife?
Mark Safarik (Saf-a-rick), a retired FBI criminal profiler said the case for murder is weak. “You would have used a weapon that would have taken care of business quickly. A Swiss Army-style knife, found at the scene, killed Luna. A penknife or Swiss Army knife is not the type of weapon you’d use in a homicide.”
Federal investigators say that they investigated the bruising allegations and found nothing. They believe that Jonathan stabbed himself 36 times to “gain sympathy” from his coworkers and his boss. They believe the fatal wound, the puncturing of the carotid artery, may have been an accident.
Investigators say that they have, “obtained evidence which indicates Luna may have had contact with someone between the time he departed the US Attorney’s Office and the time his body was located.” They have never released who this person may be though.
In an interview with Brooks, the Baltimore FBI official who oversaw the investigation, he disputed this and said, “We’re certain that there was no evidence to show he was with anybody after he left the courthouse.”
While the FBI maintains that Jonathan ended his own life, most people that review this case, aren’t so sure. There’s too many questions. All of the so called, “leaks” were trying to change the narrative in my opinion. Ed Martino, a private investigator scoffs at reports that Jonathan Luna was dirty. He said he checked into his background for 6 months and he couldn’t find any link to bad behavior, and he said, “For the FBI or anyone in government to trash this man was absolutely irresponsible.”
Jonathan’s good friend, Dan Rivera said, it’s preposterous to think he would throw away his career, wife and two young children by taking money or trolling for sex on the internet. He recalled their time growing up in the projects and said, “It was not a picnic, growing up.” Jonathan worked hard to get ahead, and he pushed everyone around him to do the same.
William Keisling, the author of the book I used, said that he didn’t have any preconceptions about Jonathan as a person when he began his research in 2005, but he realized that “this was just a guy of great integrity.”
Kirchner, who took office as coroner in 2004, confirmed the reports that he was approached by FBI agents and asked to change the ruling to suicide, but he refused because he looked at the reports and agreed that the homicide ruling was correct. He even wrote an official letter to the FBI, offering to convene a coroner’s inquest similar to a preliminary hearing in a criminal case. It would allow the federal agents to present open-court testimony as to why they believe this is a suicide case, but Kirchner never received a response. He said he rejects the theory of the “hesitation marks” and says that there were multiple wounds and “none of them point to suicide.”
This case remains “open” and is a joint federal, state and local investigation. There’s too many gaps in this case and we still haven’t figured out simple things such as who called Jonathan on the night of his death? Why did he leave home so late? Why did he drive to Pennsylvania? How did his car end up at Sensenig & Weaver? It’s not an easy route to get there. Why did he leave his glasses and phone at his office? These are only a few pieces of the puzzle that need to be answered.
The best thing we can do is to keep this case going. Talk about it. Share it online. Message people in power and let them know that this deserves to be solved. We lightly touched on it previously, but On December 4th, 2005, Danny and John Rivera attended a vigil to honor their friend, Jonathan Luna and this was on the second anniversary of his death. There was a wooden cross with Jonathan’s name and years of birth and death carved on it. A wreath with a red velvet bow was lying in front of the cross, along with American flags, candles and photos. John Rivera said that if the same thing happened to someone else, Jonathan Luna, “would not stop until he got to the bottom of it.” Dan Rivera said, “I want the truth to come out.” Private investigator, Ed Martino added, “No honest investigator is going to say this was a suicide.”
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