Prosecutor backs off Detroit man's 4 murder convictions

DETROIT -- A judge on Tuesday threw out the murder convictions of a young Detroit man who pleaded guilty to killing four people at age 14, a turnaround in a case that has been in doubt for years after a professional hit man stepped forward and took responsibility for the slayings at a drug den.

Judge Brian Sullivan acted at the request of the Wayne County prosecutor's office and lawyers for Davontae Sanford.

Prosecutor Kym Worthy long had resisted efforts to revisit the convictions until law schools at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University and other pro bono lawyers got involved in 2015.

Sanford, now 23, is in a prison in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, but he'll now be released on bond, probably by today, and all charges will be dropped after the judge learns more about the conclusions by state police in an investigation that was requested last year by Worthy.

"No one can give Davontae Sanford and his family back the nine years he has spent in jail for a crime he did not commit, but the court's decision corrects a grave injustice," said Heidi Naasko, an attorney for Sanford.

David Moran, director of the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school, said Sanford's time in prison reflected a "complete breakdown" in the criminal-justice system.

Worthy spokeswoman Maria Miller said there would be no additional comment from the prosecutor's office until Thursday.

Sanford has been locked up for the 2007 fatal shootings of four people at a Detroit house.

He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder at age 15, but he's been trying to undo that plea for years, especially after hit man Vincent Smothers confessed to the so-called Runyon Street homicides.

Smothers insists Sanford had no role.

Sanford's mother said the teen, blind in one eye, barely could read or write in 2007 and confessed to please police.

The agreement presented to the judge makes no mention of Smothers.

Instead, it says the state police found major problems after interviewing a former high-ranking Detroit officer, James Tolbert, who was involved in the investigation of the four slayings.

State police learned Detroit police drew a diagram of the murder scene -- not Sanford as had been reported previously by investigators.

The conflict "seriously undermines" Sanford's confession and subsequent guilty plea, the prosecutor's office said.

Smothers, meanwhile, is in prison for 52 years after pleading guilty in 2010 to eight other killings.

He said he was hired regularly by drug dealers to kill others in the trade but never would take on a child as a sidekick.

In an affidavit filed in court last year, Smothers, 35, described in great detail how he and another man carried out the Runyon Street murders.

"I hope to have the opportunity to testify in court to provide details and drawings of the crime scene that could only be known by the person who committed the crime: me," Smothers said.

In 2012, he said during a prison interview he wanted to help Sanford.

"I understand what prison life is like; it's miserable. To be here and be innocent -- I don't know what it's like," Smothers said of Sanford. "He's a kid, and I hate for him to do the kind of time they're giving him."