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Paredes was convicted of the armed robbery and murder of his employer, Rick Tetzlaff.  Paredes, then 15, worked as a grocery bagger at Roger’s Vineland Foods.  He worked the evening of the murder, and was asked by Tetzlaff to stay late because there was more work that day due to it being a double coupon day.  At 8:45 p.m. Efren called his mother for permission.  She agreed but said Efren had to be home by 9:30 as it was a school night.  Efren’s mother stated that Tetzlaff told her that he would drive Efren home himself, “as soon as we’re done.”  These conversations were corroborated by the trial testimony of a prosecution witness, Pam Koebel, an employee of the store.  Efren punched out of work at 9:22, and Tetzlaff drove him home. Typically Tetzlaff worked to 10 p.m. on double coupon days, and presumably returned directly to the store.

At some point, Tetzlaff was murdered in the store, and the store was robbed of $11,000 in cash and checks.  The time was probably between 9:30 and 10 p.m. based on accounts of witnesses who lived across the street from the store.  A week after the crime, police arrested Alex Mui, Eric Mui, and Jason Williamson for the robbery of Vineland Foods and the murder of Tetzlaff.  These three, along with a fourth individual, Steve Miller, an admitted participant in the planning of the crime, implicated Paredes as Tetzlaff’s murderer.  All of these individuals were older than 15-year-old Paredes.  Alex Mui alleged that he drove Paredes home that night, rather than the victim.  Searches of these participants’ homes and the home of a friend of one of the participants yielded the car used in the crime, money linked to the crime, and the murder weapon.

Police conducted a thorough search of Paredes’ home and found no evidence of his involvement.  However, after the search, while Paredes’ family had been visiting him in jail, his home had apparently been broken into as a door was found unlocked.  Following the apparent break-in, Miller signed an affidavit stating that he forgot to tell police where Paredes had hidden money from the robbery.  The statement included where the money was hidden.  Based on this affidavit, a second search warrant for Paredes’ home was issued.  However, before this warrant was executed, Paredes’ stepfather found a small case containing money in the basement and turned it over to police.

Paredes was tried as an adult.  He was convicted due to testimony from Alex Mui and Steve Miller, who both accepted deals from the state.  Eric Mui and Jason Williamson were never called to testify because they had made several conflicting statements.  Paredes was given three life sentences.  (Info) (JD08) (Petition)  [9/07]

Davis was convicted of murder for allegedly shooting to death his wife, Priscilla, in her parent’s home.  Priscilla’s Certificate of Death stated that she died at 7:15 p.m. in Benton Harbor, but cell phone records indicate that at 7:01 p.m., Davis made a two-minute phone call from Paw Paw, 27 miles away.

Prior to trial, the state’s key witness, Melissa Peters, recanted her statements against Davis at a court hearing.  She said, “Mickey Davis over there had nothing to do with this.  Okay?  I’m sorry, everything that I have said has not been the truth. I have to now say everything that has happened. Every one of my statements needs to be removed. They are not true.”  Upon hearing this recantation, the prosecution stopped the hearing, despite defense objections, and asked for a continuance.  It received a continuance and at later hearings, including Davis’ trial, Peters resumed her original testimony.  Peters, who was known to be 17-years-old six months before the murder, also testified she had never previously been in trouble, never been arrested, or convicted of any crime.  The prosecution withheld evidence from the defense that she had a criminal history in several states as a juvenile.  (JD28 p6)  [3/07]

While married to a different man, Sharee Miller had an online romance with an ex-police detective, Jerry Cassaday, from Reno, Nevada, whom she met on the Internet.  Sharee had told him numerous lies such as being wealthy.  She had also traveled to Reno five times and had a physical affair.  In her emails, she said she was married to a terminally ill husband, Jeff, who would die soon and that they could be together soon.  Then she told him her husband died, but she had to marry his brother, Bruce, because of family pressure.  She twice told Jerry she was pregnant with his child.

Regarding the first pregnancy, she told Jerry she lost the child because her husband had violently raped her.  Regarding the second pregnancy she said her husband had beaten her until she miscarried.  She even used cosmetic make-up to fake a picture of herself, showing herself all bruised up.  She also sent some emails allegedly from her husband to Jerry saying that he found out about the pregnancy and killed Jerry’s “bastard” child.  Sharee had also told Jerry that her husband was in the Mafia.  Jerry had trouble with drugs and alcohol and moved from Reno, Nevada to his hometown of Odessa, Missouri.

Sharee’s husband, Bruce Miller, 48, worked third shift at an auto plant in Flint.  He also owned a junkyard, B & D Auto Parts, where he worked when he was not working at the plant.  One night while Bruce was alone at the junkyard, Jerry showed up and murdered him.  Police thought Bruce was the victim of a robbery as money he had on him was missing.  In her online romance with Jerry, Sharee still was not willing to join Jerry, even though she was free of her husband.  In apparent despair, Jerry, then 39, committed suicide three months after the murder.  He left a suicide note and an alleged transcript of instant messages between himself and Sharee that implicated Sharee in the murder.  He said he had murdered Bruce with Sharee’s help.

Despite her infidelity, Sharee was reportedly happy in her marriage to Bruce.  He was her third husband and provided stability that she had not had before.  She also had no known motive to kill him.  She did not even have a small life insurance policy on him.  Police found email correspondence on Jerry’s computer between Sharee and Jerry.  There was nothing in these emails that directly implicated Sharee in the murder.  They somewhat supported Sharee’s claim that she was trying to scare Jerry, so he would not call her house so much.

Sharee was tried for the murder of her husband.  Jerry’s suicide note and his transcript of instant messages, which showed Sharee participating in the planning the murder, were introduced as evidence.  The transcripts could easily have been faked.  Because he had been jilted, Jerry had motive to falsely implicate Sharee in the murder.  There was little reason to regard them as reliable or trustworthy.  Being dead, Jerry could not be cross-examined.  Jerry was also an ex-police detective who likely was more adept than an average person in deciding how to frame an innocent person.

Sharee was convicted.  Her infidelity and the lies she told to Jerry do not make her an especially sympathetic person.  Nevertheless, since the evidence used to convict her is inherently unreliable, Sharee’s conviction is also inherently unreliable.  (AJ) [9/07]

McCollum was convicted of the rape and murder of 60-year-old Lansing Community College Professor Carolyn Kronenberg.  The crime occurred in her classroom.  Police had McCollum speculate on whether he could have committed the crime while sleepwalking.  They then termed his speculation a “confession.”  DNA tests of material found under Kronenberg’s fingernails excluded McCollum and matched the profile of an unknown male.

New evidence points to serial rapist/killer Matthew Macon as the man who attacked Kronenberg.  The state has been urged to compare the DNA evidence to that of Macon.  Also a videotape has surfaced which apparently shows McCollum to be elsewhere on the college campus at the time of Kronenberg’s murder.  On Sept. 24, 2007, a court has overturned McCollum’s conviction.  (Lansing State Journal)  [09/07]

Farnsworth worked as a manager of a Wendy’s restaurant.  As part of his duties, he placed the day’s receipts in two deposit bags and dropped them in the night depository of the restaurant’s bank.  The next day the bank found only one bag.  The missing bag contained $2,289.20.  Farnsworth insisted that he deposited two bags, but his boss at Wendy’s did not believe him and fired him about a month later.

Later while being questioned by police, Farnsworth confessed to stealing the money.  He immediately recanted his confession stating he was badgered into confessing, but his confession, however temporary, was used to convict him.  At his July 1999 trial, bank employees testified that it was “absolutely impossible” for a deposit placed in the night depository to be lost.

In Feb. 2000, the owner of a car wash dropped a deposit in the same night depository and it too ended up missing.  The car wash owner knew the bank president, and on Feb. 28, the depository was opened and inspected.  Three deposit bags were found, the missing bag deposited by Farnsworth, the bag deposited by the car wash owner, and a third bag containing a deposit from a Rite Aid store that had not been reported missing.  On May 8, a judge vacated Farnsworth’s conviction and ordered that police records concerning him be destroyed.  (JD12)  [3/07]

Prevost was convicted murdering his wife’s cousin and best friend, J. Stanley Brown.  Brown was found dead in his car on Drefahl Road, 3 miles west of Mount Clemens.  Brown had been shot four times.  The coroner placed the time of death at about 11 p.m.  The prosecution alleged that Prevost had left his hotel room with Brown at 10:30 p.m. on the night of the murder and had returned alone at 2 a.m. after the murder.  The case had the direct assistance of state Attorney General Alexander Groesbeck, who later became Governor.  The Michigan Department of Public Safety reinvestigated the case in the fall of 1930.

In its report the DPS indicated the following:  (1) For weeks prior to the trial, prosecution witnesses were thoroughly drilled in midnight sessions by the Attorney General.  The Prosecuting Attorney told the DPS that he "did not believe Prevost was guilty of the crime," and that the conviction was obtained largely through the overawing influence of the Attorney General with the jury.  (2) The testimony of a taxi driver who said he saw Prevost with Brown after 10:30 p.m. was perjured.  (3) The testimony of the ballistics expert was mistaken, for the revolver presented at trial could not have been the murder weapon.  (4) The killer’s footprints in the snow were made by rubbers, not by army shoes as alleged by the prosecution.  Prevost admitted wearing army shoes on the night of the murder.  However, his feet were too small to have made the footprints had he been wearing rubbers.  (5) The testimony of the hotel proprietress that Brown had returned to the hotel at 2 a.m. was perjured.

One might also surmise that the testimony of the ballistics expert was knowingly perjured for he claimed to have determined that when last fired the alleged murder weapon was fired four times.  In addition to the DPS report, convincing information seems to have been presented to the authorities indicating rather pointedly who the true perpetrators were. In view of a1l the facts and circumstances, it was concluded that Prevost was innocent.  Governor Fred W. Green pardoned Prevost in Dec. 1930.  (CTI)  [11/07]

Hatchett was sentenced to 25 to 40 years in prison for kidnapping and raping a 23-year-old Sterling Heights woman.  After accosting the victim in the parking lot of a Super Kmart at 14 Mile and Van Dyke, a gunman forced her into her car, drove away, and raped her.  Hatchett was arrested three days later in the woman's 1990 Dodge Spirit.  He admitted stealing the car and the victim identified him as her assailant.  Following a seven-hour interrogation in which investigators promised Hatchett a deal, he confessed to the crime.  DNA tests, however, showed that the sperm left in the victim did not match him.  At Hatchett's bench trial, Judge George Steeh convicted him after ruling that the lack of a DNA match could "hardly be found to represent a reasonable doubt considering all of the evidence in the case."

Years later, after Prosecutor Eric Smith reinvestigated the case, apparently at the request of the Innocence Project, he dismissed charges against Hatchett.  Hatchett walked free in April 2008.  (Detroit Free Press)  [5/08]

Jonathan Kaled, 18, Matthew Daniels, 16, and Frank Kuecken, 19, were charged with murdering Justin Mello, and with armed robbery and with conspiracy to commit murder.  Mello was a teenager who was found shot dead in Mancino’s Pizza and Grinders in New Baltimore, after a robbery.  Mello’s murder shocked the New Baltimore community, which had not had a fatal shooting in 30 years.  Kaled and Kuecken initially confessed to the crimes, but later recanted, claiming that the police coerced them.  Other individuals claimed that the three suspects had been present at a party miles away from New Baltimore at the time of the crime.  In light of the suspects’ confessions, police did not take these alibi witnesses seriously and threatened them with obstruction of justice charges if they persisted in providing alibis.

After a preliminary hearing, charges were dropped against Daniels for lack of evidence.  The testimony of two witnesses who were to implicate Daniels fell apart on the stand as one claimed that police coerced him into giving false testimony while the other took the Fifth Amendment.  After freeing Daniels, the case judge, Paul A. Cassidy, stated, “I personally find that (Daniels), too, is guilty.  After today, Matthew Daniels and his supporters will be free to claim his innocence and the injustice of his arrest, but we who have been here present throughout the testimony will know the truth to be otherwise.”

As prosecutors prepared to try Kaled and Kuecken, two other suspects emerged, David Baumann, 20, and Dennis Bryan, 19.  Both had once worked at another franchise of Mancino’s and both had purportedly engaged in a 37 state crime spree.  One of the crimes they were charged with was a Subway restaurant murder in Florida in which the victim was forced to kneel in a walk-in freezer and shot in the back of the head.  This murder was identical to the manner in which Mello was killed.  Ballistics established that a gun used by the alternate suspects had killed Mello.  It was also established that the alternate suspects had stolen this gun in Virginia.

Police still refused to admit that and Kaled’s and Kuecken’s confessions were false.  They advanced the theory that the alternate suspects had brought the gun to Michigan, transferred it to Kaled, and then retrieved it from him after Mello's murder.  Both Kaled and Kuecken denied knowing the alternate suspects.

In April 2001, the mothers of Kaled, Kuecken, and Daniels traveled to Kentucky and Virginia where the alternate suspects were charged.  Attorneys and law enforcement in both states assured them that their children were not guilty.  Two weeks after the mothers’ trip, one of the alternate suspects, Baumann, confessed to the murder of Mello.  It was only then that local Michigan authorities decided to drop charges.  (The Problem of False Confessions in the Post-DNA World by Drizen & Leo) (Detroit Free Press)  [1/08]

Larry Pat Souter was convicted in 1992 of the 1979 murder of 19-year-old Kristy Ringler.  One evening, Souter had met Ringler at a bar and became friendly with her.  When the bar closed at 2:20 a.m., the two left with several others to continue the party at the home of Anna Mae Carpenter, which is located off of M37 (State Route 37).  While everyone else was inside, Souter and Ringler went out into the front yard of the house and became amorous.  At some point Ringler decided to go home, walking northbound along M37.  Ringler followed her for 20 to 25 feet, trying to persuade her to come back and get a ride, but he soon abandoned his efforts and returned to the party.

A short time later, at 2:55 a.m. motorists found Ringler lying unconscious in the middle of M37 about 900 feet from the home of the party.  She had two wounds to her head and died from them later that morning.  Once word of the incident reached the party, the partygoers and Souter walked up to Ringler’s location.  Along the way Souter tossed a pint-sized whiskey bottle, from which he had been drinking, into a ditch along the side of the road.

Police later retrieved the bottle, from which lab analysis revealed a trace of blood.  The investigation into Ringler’s death led to some disagreement on whether Ringler was hit by a car or by a foreign object such as Souter’s whiskey bottle.  No charges were filed and the case went cold.

In 1991, a new sheriff was elected who was committed to solving cold cases.  His office uncovered no new evidence regarding Ringler’s death, but a doctor who previously had thought Ringler had been hit with a bottle wrote a stronger report, which concluded that Ringler's injuries were caused by the bottle and that it was "virtually impossible" that a side mirror on a car could have caused the injuries.  In 1992, Souter was tried and convicted of second-degree murder.  He was sentenced to 20 to 60 years of imprisonment.

In 2005, a witness came forward after she read about an appeal filed by Souter.  She recalled that her father's motor home had a broken side-view mirror in 1979 and he had refused to talk about how it was damaged.  Police records show the woman’s father had told investigators that he had driven on the road where Ringler was hurt at about the same time that her body was found.  The woman’s father had died about five years before she came forward.  In light of this new evidence, Souter was freed from prison.  (Souter v. Jones)  [3/08]

Perry, a kindergarten teacher, was convicted of sexually assaulting two boys, ages 4 and 5 based on the boys’ testimony.  The complaint began when the mother of the 5-year-old complained her son had been “tea-bagged” – slang for oral sex.  She also said her son had been the victim of a similar assault in Chicago.  Under questioning, the 5-year-old identified Perry and said he was only fondled, but said another boy, the 4-year-old, had been “tea-bagged.”  The 4-year-old initially denied being assaulted.

At trial, the boys claimed to have been pulled from a lunch line and assaulted in an empty Special Education classroom during lunchtime.  However, post-conviction interviews with school personnel indicate that the classroom always contained students who do not go out for lunch, and at least one teacher to watch over them.  (Detroit Free Press)  [3/07]

A security guard at the Sears store in Lincoln Park stopped a woman leaving the store on April 15, 2002 with $1,300 in unpaid merchandise.  In an attempt to get away, the woman severely bit the guard.  After being arrested, the woman was taken to a police station where she told police her address, her phone number, that she was 15-years-old, and that her name was Dominique Brim.  She was allowed to leave without being booked.

Two weeks later, 15-year-old Dominique Brim was charged with retail fraud and felony assault.  She claimed she had not been at the store on April 15 and that she had not been arrested.  In court, several Sears employees, including the security guard, identified her as the person who was apprehended and who bit the guard.  The judge did not believe Brim’s mistaken identity defense and convicted her on both counts.

However, Brim’s vehement claim that she was the wrong person did impress Sears officials enough to review their store videotape of the April 15 incident.  They discovered that Brim was not the person who was involved in the incident.  After the prosecutor and Brim’s lawyer were contacted, the judge vacated her conviction before she was sentenced.  The woman on the tape was later identified as Chalaunda Latham.  She was not 15-years-old, she was 25.  Latham was able to pass herself off as Brim because she was a friend of Brim’s sister.  Prosecutors decided not to charge Latham because the Sears employees had already given sworn testimony that Brim was responsible for the theft and security guard assault.  (JD29 p4)  [3/07]