By Ed White
Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — A lawyer trying to overturn a teenager’s four murder convictions closed her case recently with testimony from an investigator who said a Detroit hit man already in prison for killing eight people took responsibility for the same four slayings and “absolutely” wasn’t aided by a young accomplice.
Linda Borus, an investigator with the Michigan appellate defender office, was the last witness for Davontae Sanford in a long series of hearings. Sanford was just 14 in 2007 when he told police that he fatally shot four people in his Detroit neighborhood.
He subsequently pleaded guilty to murder and won’t be eligible for parole until 2046.
For more than two years, attorney Kim McGinnis has been trying to get those guilty pleas thrown out.
She says Sanford, a troubled kid who could barely read or write, simply was trying to please police.
Her strongest piece of evidence may be the confession of self-described hit man Vincent Smothers.
Smothers, sent to prison last year for eight mostly drug-related murders, told police after his arrest that he committed the so-called Runyon Street killings.
But by that time, spring 2008, Sanford had already pleaded guilty and was locked up.
Borus testified Monday that she visited Smothers in prison last November.
She said he explained how he was hired to kill certain people at a Runyon Street house to settle a feud between drug organizations. She said Smothers indicated he had help that day — but not from a teen.
“He said there was absolutely no connection between him and Mr. Sanford. He said (Sanford) had nothing to do with it. I don’t know what more I can say,” Borus testified.
But when she was finished, Wayne County Circuit Judge Brian Sullivan said he would disregard Borus’ testimony, partly because it was similar to what Smothers had already told police.
“I don’t view it as critical,” said the judge, who must decide whether to grant Sanford, now 18, a new trial.
McGinnis has been trying to persuade Smothers to appear in court and testify for Sanford.
But he has declined, fearing he would be a marked man in prison if forced to name an accomplice in the Runyon Street slayings.
Smothers has given permission to allow his former attorney, Gabi Silver, to testify about their private conversations about Runyon Street.
But the judge has blocked it, saying it would be unfair to prosecutors who wouldn’t be able to cross-examine Smothers.
The Wayne County prosecutor’s office won’t back away from Sanford’s convictions, although authorities acknowledge Smothers probably had a role in the fatal shootings.
McGinnis believes a grant of immunity would force Smothers to testify, but prosecutors have declined to ask the judge to consider it.
That stance “only complicates matters,” Sullivan said.
Spokeswoman Maria Miller said an immunity request won’t be coming.
“Sanford confessed, pleaded guilty, gave a factual basis for the crime under oath, and the claim is that he gave a false plea. The issues raised by Sanford can be decided without giving Smothers immunity. ... The fact of the matter is Smothers is free to testify at any time,” Miller said.
The judge told both sides to put final arguments in writing.
A decision about Sanford’s case is not expected for weeks.
McGinnis earned her juris doctor at Boston University School of Law, where she graduated magna cum laude and was awarded the Honorable Albert Pettoruto Memorial Award in Family Law and Trusts and Estates.
After graduation, she was a law clerk for the Michigan Court of Appeals before becoming a public defender in Detroit.She worked for Detroit Legal Aid and Defender Association,
State Trial Division, and then joined the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office in Detroit.
In 2010, one of her criminal law appellate briefs won the Thomas Cooley Law School Distinguished Brief Award, which is given to the most scholarly brief filed in the Michigan Supreme Court for that year.
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