DETROIT (AP) A young man who pleaded guilty to killing four people when he was 14 was set to walk out of prison a free man Wednesday, eight years after a professional killer told authorities he was responsible for the slayings.
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Davontae Sanford was just 14 when he confessed to killing four people after being interrogated by police for two days without a lawyer.
It was a light blue, specked with white clouds and fading jet streams.
Sanford ultimately pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 37-90 years behind bars, the Detroit Free Press reports. He would have been 53 on his earliest release date in 2046, most of his life behind him by that time.
In the Detroit case, the judge ordered prosecutors to file a motion to dismiss the case, which means Sanford will not be retried, said a statement from Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office.
Worthy spokeswoman Maria Miller said there would be no additional comment about the case by prosecutors until Thursday. “His confession made little sense and got more wrong than right”, she said.
The conflict “seriously undermines” his confession and subsequent guilty plea, prosecutors said.
Two weeks after he was sentenced, a hit man confessed to the murders, according to court documents.
“If everyone doesn’t have access to justice, there is no justice system”, Naasko said.
While Worthy spoke infrequently about Sanford’s case when questioned about it in the past, she said the 2015 state police investigation convinced her there were issues with Sanford’s conviction.
A major turning point in the investigation was the realization that it was former Detective James Tolbert of the Detroit Police Department who drew a diagram of the crime scene, not Sanford, as investigators had originally alleged. “This called into question Tolbert’s credibility in the case”.
Prosecutors concluded that “Recognizing the importance of that testimony, attorneys from the Prosecutor’s Office worked with Sanford’s attorneys… to move to dismiss his case”.
His exoneration came after Michigan State Police decided past year to reinvestigate the case.
CORRECTS YEAR OF WHEN PHOTO WAS TAKEN TO 2007 INSTEAD OF 2017 – This Aug. 7, 2007, photo provided by the Michigan Department of Corrections shows Davontae Sanford.
Davontae Sanford, 23, declined to speak to reporters as he left prison in Ionia in western MI with a brother and a lawyer. They have spent years pushing for Sanford’s release.
His final prison meal was “chili-mac”, said Gautz.
Men in the recreation yard wore orange trousers and T-shirts, some holding shovels and tending the prison garden.
“He’s not going to make a statement”, Newman said as they walked toward the parking lot, followed by almost 20 members of the media. His brother carried his belongings in a plastic sack.
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As Sanford got in the rear, passenger seat of the royal blue Ford Fusion, he and his brother could be seen still smiling in the backseat and talking. She said her plan was to “hug him, kiss him and just be happy he’s home”.
