Detroit man spent decade in prison for double murder he didn't commit as investigators were promoted

A man who was falsely accused and convicted of a horrible double homicide spent a dozen years of his life in prison. But he didn't give up. He fought against a flawed system in a case that was full of lies. 

Duane Williams never thought he'd spend time in prison – let alone be sentenced to spend the rest of his life there – but that's what happened when he was convicted in a double murder and arson that changed his entire life.

Through 12 years in prison, he had one hope: that someone, someday, would listen.

"I didn't want to spend the rest of my life like that," Williams said. "Prison is like hell. I mean it really is just like hell with no escape."

It was Aug. 20, 2012 when Williams got a call from his sister. His mom's live-in boyfriend, 67-year-old Bobby Cross, and his stepson, 42-year-old Darryl Simms, were both dead in a mysterious house fire.

"I don't believe her, but I'm kind of thinking, like why would she play like this?" Williams said about that phone call.

Williams and Cross never got along and, the night of the fire, Williams said they argued and Cross pulled a shotgun. He said Cross threatened to kill him if he didn't leave. So that's what Williams did: he left and went to a friend's house Downriver. 

Neighbors related to the victims told police about the heated, alcohol-fueled argument. Witness statements also showed Williams' mother, Janet Smith, even voiced fears that her son could be responsible.

"His family (was) telling police I did it, and police looking for me," Williams said.

Seven months later, a ‘witness’ comes forward

At the time of their deaths, investigators didn’t suspect arson. Detroit Fire Lt. Patrick McNulty found no evidence of accelerants, foul play, or smoking materials, according to his report - where he listed the cause as undetermined. The Wayne County Medical Examiner ruled the deaths accidental - caused by smoke inhalation.

Yet seven months later, Williams was arrested for arson and murder.

"I was shocked, really, I thought it was over with," he said. 

Williams said they never had any evidence, just one man's word.

That man was Gary Jennings. He had been recently pulled over while on probation. He was arrested for selling DVDs, smoking pot, and driving without a license. He came up with a story that would change everything. Jennings claimed Williams had confessed to him that he set the fire at the home.

"This guy didn’t know a single detail, and they went with (his story) I told them I did it," Williams said.

And that's all it took. According to records, Jennings told Sgt. Michael Russell that Williams confessed during a phone call. In Jennings' story, he said Williams confessed to starting the fire over rent money. Police and prosecutors seized on Jennings’ account, building their case without verifying the phone records. 

There was no physical evidence - only the victim's family and friends pointing the finger at Williams. That persuaded the medical examiner to change the cause of death from accidental to homicide. 

Soon, authorities had Williams on trial for murder and arson.

"Yeah, I was angry because I couldn't believe it," Williams said. "I couldn't believe that people were getting on the stand and saying what they were saying, and (there) was nothing I could do about it."

He said his court-appointed attorney failed to defend him and ignored his phone calls. He also never let him take the stand to defend himself. A jury convicted Williams and sentenced him to life in prison.

"I told myself that -- I could live with me keeping myself in prison. but I couldn't live with somebody else keeping me in prison," Williams said.

The defiant will of an innocent man

While in prison, Williams got to work. He had the defiant will of an innocent man and spent years in the law library. He wrote letters and filed requests as he was determined to prove he was not a cold-blooded killer.

"I wrote so many letters, I think the blisters on my hands are going away now," he said.

In 2018, his persistence started to pay off. His FOIA request led to a stunning revelation: an original fire report that had been altered.

"What I was asking for was the police file. Well, what they sent me was a fire report," Williams said.

The missing lighter

In the original Detroit fire report, it mentions a Zippo-style lighter found near the couch near where the fire started.

"I noticed that it said something about a lighter in it, in the area of origin of the fire Well, the fire investigator testified there was nothing there," Williams said.

Lt. McNulty never mentioned any smoking materials in his final fire report or when he testified for the prosecution.

Three years later, Duane's battle for justice intensified when he convinced the state's appellate defender office to represent him. Then the Wayne County’s Conviction Integrity Unit started reviewing his case – which was prosecuted by Louisa Papalas.

That lighter would turn out to be just the beginning of disturbing facts that Williams never knew about the case.

Mounting evidence of Williams' innocence

While working to tell Williams' story, we reached out to Sgt. Russell. He didn't want to talk about it.

"I don’t wish to talk to you about that. If you want to run your story, run your story. Let the facts speak for themselves," Russell said. 

The facts are all out there. There was a false confession, key pieces of evidence were withheld – including 58 pictures from the fire scene with that lighter visible – and the alteration of McNulty's original fire report. 

The Conviction Integrity Unit found out someone was whiting out key sentences about the lighter and other smoking items found at the scene - all would have backed Williams' innocence.

No one admitted to altering the fire report, including McNulty, who spoke to FOX 2 by phone. He said he never testified about the lighter because neither the prosecution nor the defense ask him about it. 

For his testimony against Williams, Jennings was awarded $5,000 from the Michigan Arson Prevention Committee and got probation for his arrest. A member of that committee is Louisa Papalas, the prosecutor who handled Williams' conviction.

Even more troubling, Sgt. Russell had a history of falsifying evidence and coercing false confessions. He was the same detective who ultimately got the conviction of Davontae Sanford, who spent almost a decade in prison for a quadruple murder he didn't commit when he was 14.

Are there more cases?

Williams was looking for someone to listen to him. Enter Shaya Baum, who founded the non-profit Firefly Advocates which provides legal and social services to inmates.

Baum has been helping to fight wrongful convictions after witnessing a flawed court system firsthand. However, Baum never imagined the layers of injustice until he says his organization took on Williams' case last spring.

"I remember reading his letter no way this actually happened but that is a whole nother level of prosecutorial misconduct," he said. "I told this to the prosecutor you know this newly discovered evidence should at least entitle him to a new trial without using the words knowing I would use them. She basically said my job is to keep him in there. I said no, your job isn’t to keep him in there. It's to get justice for the victims and you are not doing that."

Last June, after 12 years in prison, Judge Bradley Cobb apparently agreed with Baum, saying the state failed to disclose evidence that supported Williams' innocence. He vacated Williams' sentence, and the Wayne County Prosecutor quickly decided not to retry the case.

"In my opinion, someone should look back at a lot of the cases if the same people are handling cases like Duane’s," Baum said.

But while Williams was in prison, the people who put him there were promoted. Prosecutor Louisa Papalas is now Senior Trial Attorney in Wayne County's Special Operations Unit, overseeing arson fraud. 

Sgt Michael Russell, who submitted the tip from the financially incentivized felon, didn’t lose his arrest powers until 2016, when Sanford was exonerated. One year later, he was promoted to Lieutenant - eventually retiring from DPD in 2020. 

Firefly Advocate Doris Houchins can't understand how that happens.

"When you find out that maybe a detective or maybe a prosecutor did something that wasn't right, people should be held accountable," Hutchins said.

To date, no one has been held responsible for sending Williams to prison. But it likely played a role in why the Wayne County Prosecutor quickly decided not to retry Williams' case.

An advocate for others

On October 17th 2024, Williams was exonerated and finally free. Now he's trying to help others who were in a similar situation.

Duane fought every day to prove his innocence, but he also found the right people and multiple organizations that had the legal resources to fight for him.

"I can't not-help people. It doesn't matter what the situation is," Williams said. "And so the guys who I know in prison who are innocent or anybody that I find out is innocent. I'm going to do everything I can to help them."

When he was released, the Firefly organization gave him a job. Williams now works to help prisoners like him, who were trapped in the system.

"I'm not really sure who do you blame. I just know that it's a flawed system," he said. "It wasn't initially the facts, the law, what's right or what's wrong. Those things didn't matter. It was being able to have people to come and make people look at it because the people who are supposed to look at it, they didn't want to look at it."

FOX 2 reached out to speak to the Wayne County Prosecutor, Assistant Prosecutor Louisa Papalas and the Conviction Integrity Unit. Spokesperson Maria Miller said "Due to potential for civil litigation in this matter we decline to comment at this time."