Boyhood memory leads to new trials in 1999 Detroit murder case

Michigan Supreme Court

DETROIT – The Michigan Supreme Court has granted new trials after a man who witnessed his mother’s murder at age 8 said the wrong men are in prison.

Charmous Skinner Jr. is now in his late 20s. He was never interviewed by police or defense attorneys, despite being in the van with his mother when she was slain in Detroit on Mother’s Day 1999.

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Michigan’s highest court said Monday that Skinner’s description of the shooter is vastly different to the details offered at trial. The court says the convictions of Justly Johnson and Kendrick Scott “were based on shaky grounds.”

Johnson and Scott have been in prison for more than 18 years.

The case was reopened after a TV-reporter-turned-private-investigator, Scott Lewis, found Skinner in 2011 and interviewed him about his mother’s death.