(MPRN) A federal judge vacated convictions Friday for a man accused of committing two murders near Kalamazoo in 1990.
Jeff Titus was convicted more than a decade after the crime, based on a cold-case investigation. The Michigan Innocence Clinic has been working to free him for years. An attorney for the clinic found a file with evidence on a different suspect.
That evidence was never turned over to attorneys — and never presented to the jury — in Titus' trial.
Friday, a federal judge said it was enough to vacate the original convictions and set Titus free.
David Moran is an attorney with the Michigan Innocence clinic. Three years ago, he found the file on a different suspect — a confessed serial killer named Thomas Dillon, who matched the description of someone spotted near the murder scene.
"When I read those, saw those pages, I really believed that the case was going to be won. Unfortunately it took another three years, but at that point I really did believe that the case would be won," he said.
Titus had an alibi, and even the original detectives assigned to the case didn't believe he was guilty.
“I am so glad to be free, finally, after 22 years of a nightmare that should never have happened," he said after he was released.
Kalamazoo County prosecutor Jeff Getting called the new evidence "exculpatory" but says he hasn't yet ruled out charging Titus again.
