Wayne County Circuit Court is considering a motion for a new trial filed on behalf of Dennis Littleton, who has served over two decades in prison for a 2000 murder he insists he did not commit.
The motion, filed by attorney Joseph Daly, argues that new evidence undermines the credibility of the case against Littleton, establishes credible alternate suspects, and reveals that key exculpatory evidence was withheld by prosecutors and Detroit police.
Littleton was convicted in 2001 of first-degree murder and assault with intent to do great bodily harm in the May 30, 2000 shooting of Robert Johnstone and Saul Rios on Hubbard Street in Detroit. Johnstone died in the attack.
Littleton, now 48, is serving a life sentence at Muskegon Correctional Facility.
The prosecution’s case at trial hinged on testimony from Rios, who survived the shooting, as well as Charles Butler and Jessica Rivera, who were in the car with the shooter. However, new affidavits and evidence suggest that Butler was the likely gunman and that Rios’s identification of Littleton was unreliable, according to the motion.
An affidavit from Dr. Margaret Kovera, an expert in eyewitness identification, identifies 11 problems with Rios’s testimony, including suggestive police procedures. According to the motion, Detroit Police Officer Moises Jimenez influenced Rios to change his initial description of the shooter from white to Black and to identify Littleton.
Jiminez was also involved in at least two other wrongful convictions, including Alexandre Ansari and Kenneth Nixon.
Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 2020 reveal that Rios originally told police the shooter was a white man driving a black Buick. Other witnesses described seeing a similar vehicle leaving the scene and corroborated Rios’s initial statement. According to the motion, this information was not disclosed to Littleton’s defense at trial, violating the prosecutor’s obligation to turn over exculpatory evidence.
The motion details multiple pieces of evidence pointing to Butler as the shooter. Witnesses, including Demond Troy Jones, testified that Butler was enraged after an altercation with Johnstone at the Hubbard Street house and vowed to “handle this.” Shortly after, gunshots rang out, and Butler returned with a black automatic pistol, reportedly boasting about silencing Johnstone.
Another man, Sean “Grape” Rouqemore, allegedly confessed to the crime shortly after the murder, according to an affidavit from Nicholas Walker. Despite this, Rouqemore was never investigated as a suspect.
Littleton’s defense also presented an alibi: A sworn affidavit from Dana Hudson states that she was with Littleton, driving to Madison, Wisconsin, at the time of the shooting.
Jimenez, who played a key role in securing Rios’s identification of Littleton, has a documented history of misconduct, including producing false testimony in another wrongful conviction case. The motion alleges that Jimenez helped steer the investigation away from Butler and other potential suspects.
The trial testimony of Butler and Rivera conflicted with physical evidence, including eight shell casings found outside the victims’ car, suggesting the shooter fired from outside the vehicle. Butler and Rivera, who both admitted to heavy drug use on the night of the crime, claimed Littleton shot from inside the car.
Key police reports and evidence supporting alternate suspects were withheld from Littleton’s defense for nearly two decades. It was not until 2020, after a third FOIA request, that 433 pages of police documents were released, many of which had never been provided to any of Littleton’s previous attorneys.
Police and prosecutors are constitutionally required to turn over exculpatory evidence, which is any information that shows that a defendant is innocent. Defendants who prove that exculpatory evidence was withheld during their trial are entitled to a new one under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brady v. Maryland ruling. Withholding exculpatory evidence is called a “Brady violation.”
In a cover story on Oct. 2, Metro Times revealed that Detroit police routinely withheld exculpatory evidence from suspects.
Littleton is just one of many prisoners to find out that police withheld evidence that may have acquitted them. In the 1980s and 1990s, Detroit homicide detectives illegally withheld records in what they called a “miscellaneous file” that was concealed from prosecutors because it contained exculpatory evidence.
At trial, Wayne County Prosecutor Patrick Muscat, who was involved in at least three other murder cases that were later overturned, acknowledged Butler as a potential suspect but dismissed the theory, citing a lack of gunshot residue on Butler’s clothing. However, a newly disclosed police report shows Butler wore black clothing during the crime, not the white clothing he turned over for testing.
“The jury never heard this evidence because it was deliberately withheld,” Daly wrote. “This evidence alone would have created reasonable doubt.”
Littleton’s motion argues that the combination of unreliable eyewitness testimony, withheld exculpatory evidence, and credible alternate suspects warrants a new trial. Daly contends that the evidence withheld from Littleton’s defense deprived him of a fair trial and due process.
“All of this evidence, individually or taken together, was material exculpatory evidence as to an alternative suspect where identification testimony was the sole issue at trial,” Daly wrote. “No doubt, the prosecution had an absolute duty to turn evidence of an alternative suspect over to the defense, because that is all the jury would have needed for reasonable doubt. And that is also what due process and a fair trial require.”
The court has not yet ruled on Littleton’s motion. If granted, it could pave the way for a retrial and a reexamination of a case marked by serious flaws in the justice system.
Dozens of Detroiters convicted of first-degree murder in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s have been exonerated because of police misconduct.
In July, Metro Times launched a multipart series called “The Closer” about the decades of police misconduct that led to wrongful convictions. Many more people still in prison insist they are innocent and were victimized by police resorting to illegal tactics.
