ST. LOUIS — A city judge on Monday overturned the murder conviction of a man who has spent more than three decades proclaiming his innocence, paving the way for his release from prison.
Judge Jason Sengheiser said Christopher Dunn’s conviction in the 1990 murder of Ricco Rogers should be vacated after two boys who testified against Dunn recanted their testimony as adults and after an eyewitness identification expert presented evidence that undermined their accounts.
“The Circuit Attorney has made a clear and convincing showing of ‘actual innocence’ that undermines the basis for Dunn’s convictions because in light of new evidence, no juror, acting reasonably, would have voted to find Dunn guilty of these crimes beyond a reasonable doubt,†Sengheiser wrote.
Dunn is in custody at South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Missouri. A prison spokesperson said Monday around 5 p.m. that Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office has filed an appeal and it is unlikely Dunn will be released.
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Bailey’s office has opposed Dunn’s release.
The Midwest Innocence Project told the Post-Dispatch it is considering all of Dunn’s options on an appeal.
Ricco was fatally shot late on May 18, 1990, when a group of teen boys were sitting on steps outside a home in the 5600 block of Labadie Avenue in the city’s Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood. A gunman walked up and opened fire, killing Ricco almost instantly.
Two boys at the scene — Michael Davis, 12, and DeMorris Stepp, 14 — immediately claimed that Dunn was the shooter, and the two played a key role in the investigation. At trial, then-Assistant Circuit Attorney Steven Ohmer — now a retired judge — wrote in his notes that their testimony was “very strong.â€
But eyewitness identification expert Nancy Franklin testified in a May hearing that it was unlikely the boys could recognize the shooter’s face. He was standing a dozen feet away on a dark street, and Dunn wasn’t a friend or family member to either child, making their split-second recognition less reliable.
Both boys recanted their testimony years later. In a recorded interview played during the May hearing, Davis said he lied because he thought Dunn was affiliated with a rival gang.
Sengheiser wrote that without their testimonies, there is no other credible evidence of his guilt. The judge also noted that, while Dunn’s alibi was not strong, it was wasn’t essential in determining his guilt given the lack of evidence.
Dunn did not present an alibi at his trial, Sengheiser wrote. In his post-conviction proceedings, he provided an alibi in which his witnesses were friends and family, and there were differing statements about how long his phone calls with them lasted — and one of his family members at some point admitted to lying to police.
Dunn also told police that he left his house around 10 p.m. the night of the shooting, rode around with a man named Winford Rickman for two hours and then went to a woman’s apartment where he stayed until 7 a.m. before returning home. He could not provide more information for investigators to substantiate the claim, Sengheiser wrote.
Assistant Attorney General Tristin Estep argued against Dunn’s release, saying his alibi could not be trusted.
She said Dunn’s story had shifted multiple times over the years.