NOVI (WWJ) – A Detroit man is suing an Eastpointe Police Department detective for allegedly withholding evidence that led to a nearly eight-year prison term for a crime he didn’t commit.
Mack Howell, now 62, was convicted of robbing a 7-Eleven store in Eastpointe in August 2014. Two years later he was sentenced to 25-50 years behind bars.
This March Howell walked free and all charges were dismissed by the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office, with the help of their Conviction Integrity Unit and the Michigan Innocence Clinic.
From the time he was arrested in 2015 to his exoneration on March 20, Howell spent 2,782 days behind bars – more than seven years and seven months.
On Tuesday the Mueller Law Firm held a press conference announcing the lawsuit against detective Matthew Hambright, alleging he intentionally hid evidence that would have shown another man – who pleaded guilty to six 7-Eleven stores around the same time –was responsible for the armed robbery that landed Howell in prison.
““I want to know why they accused me and why they badgered me and kept telling me – you did it, you did it, you did it,” Howell said at Tuesday’s press conference.
At the time of the robbery, the 7-Eleven clerk described the robber as a Black male, about 6-feet-tall, with a medium build. He was wearing black pants, a black hooded sweatshirt and a black mask that obscured most of his face except his eyes.
She told investigators the robber took off running out the front door after grabbing money from the cash register.
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The lawsuit says a police K-9 from the Roseville PD got a "hit" on a paper bag containing a beer can and a straw directly in front of the store, despite the robber being seen on surveillance video as not having anything in his hands as he entered the store.
Later test results from the Michigan State Police lab indicated that DNA from the lip of the beer can belonged to Howell, while an unknown female's DNA was on the straw inside the beer can, according to the lawsuit.
Hambright was the officer in charge of the case and he had determined that Howell – then 53 years old and 5-foot-6, 200 lbs. – was his suspect.
But the law firm says Howell was “unable to walk any significant distance without assistance” because of Peripheral Artery Disease in both legs. The lawsuit claims Hambright “convinced the 7-Eleven store clerk to identify Mack Howell as the robber, despite her having only seen the robber's eyes.”
Hambright allegedly failed to disclose to the prosecutor in Howell’s case that there was a serial robber of 7-Eleven stores in the spring and summer of 2014 who, at 5-foot-10, 175 lbs., matched the description of the robber involved in Howell’s alleged crime.
Hambright was present when the serial robber pleaded guilty to five armed robberies of 7-Eleven stores in the spring and summer of 2014, according to the lawsuit. He was sentenced to prison a year before Mack Howell went to trial.
Last year Macomb County's newly formed CIU began reviewing new evidence that wasn’t presented to the prosecutor by the police, including the evidence of the serial robber.
That new evidence also included scientific photogrammetry results showing the robber of the 7-Eleven store to be the same height as the serial robber. The CIU then concluded that Howell, who was physically unable to run, was “factually innocent of the crime.”
“When you intentionally fail to turn over evidence, when you cheat to win, then you should be held accountable for the eight years that he did behind bars,” attorney Wolf Mueller said at the press conference. “Hambright chose not to disclose the evidence of a serial robber that the defense was entitled to. The prosecutor has testified and will testify that she never got ahold of it.”
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