FOX 2 - It was a horrible crime that took the lives of two children, but now 15 years later the Wayne County prosecutor says they charged the wrong guy and tomorrow Ken Nixon will get a chance to walk out of prison an innocent man.
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Wrongly convicted of deadly 2005 firebombing, man to walk free
It was a horrible crime that took the lives of two children, but now 15 years later the Wayne County prosecutor says they charged the wrong guy and tomorrow Ken Nixon will get a chance to walk out of prison an innocent man.
Back in 2005, a Molotov cocktail was thrown through the window of a house on Charleston in Highland Park. The fire took the life of 10-year-old Raylord McCulley and his sister, 1-year-old Tamyah Vaughn.
Shortly after the fire, the victim's mother spoke with FOX 2.
"That is all I can feel is hate and anger. and whatever they get, it will never be enough," said Naomi Vaughn. "It can't replace my kids. my kids will never be brought back."
A then-19-year-old Ken Nixon, a tow truck driver, lived near-by. Police discovered gasoline on his clothes.
He says the gas was due to his job, but police felt at the time it was evidence, And investigators had a 13-year-old eye-witness.
Feeling the case was thin, the prosecution struck a deal with a jailhouse informant. Despite the alibis in Nixon's favor, a jury convicted him and he was sentenced to life without parole.
Enter the Cooley Law School Innocence Project in 2018 who found the informant didn't tell the truth about having knowledge of the case prior to testifying.
The two children killed in the 2005 firebombing.
"It turns out the informant had been employed in the first place because the testimony of the witness, the young boy, was shaky in the first place," said Tracey Brame, Cooley Law Innocence Project. "It was inconsistent."
They worked with Kym Worthy and the Wayne County Conviction Integrity Unit to find the conviction may have been obtained unlawfully.
"They are not afraid to grant relief when it looks like there isn't enough there to warrant the conviction standing," Brame said.
Nixon will go before a judge on Thursday, and the prosecution is asking that the case be dismissed. He'll also be entitled to compensation by the state for unlawful imprisonment.
"He is entitled to over three-quarters of a million dollars," said attorney Wolfgang Mueller. "That will at least help him get a head start on repairing the damage that happened."
A judge must first sign off on all this. That is expected to happen at 1 pm. after which the prosecutor fully expects Nixon to walk from the Ionia Correctional Facility a free man.