Man wrongfully convicted in Pontiac murder case should be freed, prosecutor review finds
Fire investigator Robert Trenkle is starting to resemble Santa Claus.
In March, he decided not to cut his hair or beard until Anthony Kyles — a man Trenkle has repeatedly said was wrongfully convicted of murder nearly 25 years ago in a Pontiac house fire — is freed from prison.
That could happen soon.
Oakland County prosecutors reexamined the case stemming from the deaths of four people killed in the fire, including three young children, and concluded Kyles should be released.
“After a lengthy investigation, it is now clear that Mr. Kyles was wrongfully convicted,” Beth Greenberg Morrow, director of the prosecutor's office's newly formed Conviction Integrity Unit, said in a statement to the Free Press.
Her conclusion follows an investigation by the Detroit Free Press, which showed evidence has emerged raising doubts about Kyles’ guilt.
A key witness lied during Kyles' trial
During Kyles' trial in 1997, the prosecution’s theory was the fire was intentionally set and started on the porch area. Jurors heard that Kyles feuded with the children’s mother over drugs, he threw a Molotov cocktail at her house and a witness saw it. A jury convicted Kyles of four counts of second-degree murder; then a judge sentenced him to life in prison.
Kyles has always maintained his innocence.
During its investigation, the Conviction Integrity Unit hired an independent fire investigator, not Trenkle, to review the case. What the fire investigator determined, combined with findings about the witness who told jurors he saw Kyles start the fire, led Morrow to conclude Kyles had been wrongfully convicted.
“First, an independent fire investigator determined that the fire was not arson, and that the fire did not originate on the front porch,” she said. “Second, the sole eyewitness lied when he testified that he saw Mr. Kyles start the fire.”
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Kyles' plan for when he's free
The next step: Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald, along with Kyles' attorneys at the Michigan Innocence Clinic, will ask a judge to set aside the conviction and release him from prison, Morrow said.
During a phone call from prison Monday, Kyles told the Free Press that he looks forward to seeing his children and grandchildren and wants to visit his parents’ graves. They died while he was in prison — one in 2005 and the other in 2006.
“I haven’t been to sleep in a couple of days,” Kyles said after learning about the developments in his case.
Earlier this year, a Free Press investigation highlighted several issues with his case. Keith Hollimon, the witness who testified he saw Kyles start the fire, has recanted, saying he lied to the jury about what he saw. Hollimon appears to have received a break in his own criminal case despite a prosecutor's assurance to Kyles' jurors that he did not. And Trenkle, who began reviewing the case about seven years ago, determined the initial investigators "committed a grave error” concluding the fire was arson.
Children ages 5, 2 and 1 died in the fire
Trenkle concluded the fire in the 300 block of Chandler Street was most likely caused by an improperly rewired cord on a space heater and started in a bedroom. It was accidental, he said.
Trenkle, who said he has never met or spoken to Kyles, stopped cutting his hair and shaving to show support for him, pointing out Kyles has been in prison 50 times longer than his hair has been growing.
When asked why the case was so important to him, Trenkle replied: “justice.”
Trenkle said he started his investigation after getting a call from Scott Lewis, a former TV investigative reporter turned private investigator. Kyles’ family asked Lewis for help in 2015 and Trenkle got involved because of his fire expertise. He has investigated thousands of fires over his career.
“I always think what if it happened to me, what if it happened to one of my family members, so I owe somebody I’ve never met, never spoken to, the same as I would do for my own family,” Trenkle said.
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The fire killed four people in 1995. Robert Perry, 37, went back into the burning home to try and rescue Demetrius, 1, Mercedes, 2, and Albert, 5. None of them survived.
Three other kids and their mother were in the home when the fire broke out and made it out.
'Nothing can ever fix' 25 years lost
A detective with the now-defunct Pontiac Police Department testified about how he believed the fire started, telling jurors it was caused by the application of an accelerant to the front porch. A multijurisdictional task force that included Pontiac police, the FBI and the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office also investigated the case. The task force was established in the '90s to investigate homicides in Pontiac.
Imran Syed, co-director of the Michigan Innocence Clinic and Kyles’ attorney, said the Conviction Integrity Unit conducted a thorough, meaningful review.
“Twenty-five years lost is something he could never get back and nothing can ever fix that.” Syed said. “But what we can ask here is when mistakes are found, we don’t look the other way.”
Kyles' family is now awaiting a reunion. Some relatives have never met Kyles because they were born after he went to prison.
Ashley Johnson, Kyles’ oldest child, was 12 when her father was convicted. She told the Free Press she looks forward to hugging her dad and spending time with him.
“We’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” she said.
Contact Elisha Anderson: eanderson@freepress.com. Follow on Twitter: @elishaanderson
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Prosecutors: Anthony Kyles wrongfully convicted in Pontiac murder case
