Ex- Detroit police official James Tolbert, who up until February was the Flint Police chief, faces the possibility of perjury charges in connection with the case of Davontae Sanford, the youth who was imprisoned for a 2007 quadruple murder in Detroit he didn't commit, the Detroit news reports.
The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office has until July 13 to decide whether to charge Tolbert.
George Hunter of The Detroit News reports:
Tolbert testified during a July 13, 2010, court hearing that the 14-year-old Sanford had drawn a sketch of a 2007 quadruple homicide scene in a house on Runyon on Detroit’s east side. State police say the former Flint police chief lied on the stand, and are seeking perjury charges.
But Michigan’s six-year statute of limitations for perjury is set to run out next month. If Tolbert isn’t charged by then, he can’t be prosecuted.
The crime scene sketch is among the evidence used to charge and convict Sanford with the murders. He served eight years in prison before a Michigan State Police investigation, submitted to prosecutors last month, found he wasn’t responsible for the killings. Sanford was released from prison June 8.
At the same time, questions are being raised as a result of the Michigan State Police report, which showed Wayne County prosecutors were told back October about Tolbert's alleged perjury, but waited eight months before telling Davontae Sanford’s attorneys about evidence that would help exonerate him, according to The News.
Sanford confessed and pleaded guilty in the 2007 slaying of four people in a drug house on Runyon Street in Detroit. He was 14 at the time, was learning disabled and was known for spinning stories. But two weeks after heading to prison hit man Vincent Smothers confessed to the killings and said Sanford had no role in the murders. Attempts to set him free after that were unsuccessful until recently.
The News reports that State Police say Smothers, his alleged partner, identified by Detroit News sources as Ernest Davis, and another man who hasn’t been named, committed the Runyon killings.
State investigators have submitted murder warrant requests for the three men.
