IONIA, Mich. (AP) – A man who entered prison as a teenager in 2008 stepped out into sunshine and freedom Wednesday, eight years after a professional hit man told authorities he was responsible for the slayings.
The hit man’s first acknowledgement that he was involved came only about two weeks after Davontae Sanford was sent away. But prosecutors repeatedly refused to reopen the case, believing they had already put the right killer behind bars.
Sanford, 23, emerged from a prison in Ionia in western Michigan. He declined to speak to reporters in Ionia and quickly drove off with a brother and two lawyers for the 130-mile trip back to Detroit.
After returning to the city, he told reporters Wednesday evening that he wants to try to “put this behind me and move on with my life” and take “one day at a time, one step at a time.”
A day earlier, Sanford’s guilty pleas were erased by a judge at the request of prosecutors who conceded the case was compromised by flawed police work.