OAKLAND COUNTY (WWJ) -- Two brothers who were sentenced to life for rape and murder in Oakland County have been exonerated Tuesday morning after serving nearly 25 years in prison.
An investigation by the Michigan Department of Attorney General's Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) discovered evidence showing that George and Melvin DeJesus were wrongfully convicted back in 1997.
The CIU then asked the Oakland County Circuit judge to vacate the convictions and dismiss the charges.
Along with the CIU, the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, the Cooley Law School Innocence Project and the University of Michigan Innocence Clinic all worked on this investigation.
“I appreciate the tireless work the unit put in to secure these exonerations for the DeJesus brothers,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said. “This day is another source of great pride for our Conviction Integrity Unit, which was established in 2019 to ensure those convicted of state crimes are in fact guilty. I look forward to our continued collaboration with the Cooley Innocence Project and University of Michigan Innocence Clinic in our collective pursuit of providing justice to those wrongfully imprisoned.“
Their wrongful convictions stemmed from an incident on July 11, 1995, when a woman’s body was found in the basement of her home in Pontiac. She was nude with a pillowcase over her head and wires binding her neck, wrists and ankles.
Linked to this scene through DNA was Brandon Gohagen -- who eventually confessed to sexually assaulting the victim. But he also claimed that the DeJesus brothers bound the victim and beat her to death.
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In exchange for his testimony against the brothers, Gohagen received a deal and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
However, at the trial, the DeJesus brothers presented alibi defenses that they were all at a party the night Gohagen said the crime occurred -- and that the three of them went their separate ways afterwards.
But both alibis were scrutinized, as they were inconsistent about the specific day the party was on.
The brothers were ultimately convicted by a jury and sentenced to life without parole on Dec. 30, 1997.
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The CIU eventually found that Gohagen acted alone in the crime and was linked to 12 other women who were sexually, physically and emotionally abused -- he was convicted of a 1994 sexual assault and murder of another woman in Oakland County in 2017.
The CIU was also able to corroborate the brothers’ alibis the night of the 1995 murder.
“We are thrilled to learn that our client, Melvin DeJesus, and his brother, George, will be fully exonerated, some 27 years after the true killer framed the brothers for this heinous crime.” Dave Moran, co-director of the University of Michigan Innocence Clinic, said. “We thank the Attorney General’s Conviction Integrity Unit for their thorough reinvestigation of this case, which led them to reach the same conclusion that we did: the brothers are completely innocent. And we thank the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office for agreeing to this result. We will now focus on helping Melvin DeJesus adjust to his freedom and move on with his life.”
George is in the process of being released from the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia, and Melvin is being released from Lakeland Correctional in Coldwater.
“We are happy that George DeJesus can say he has been fully exonerated after nearly a 25-year struggle to prove his innocence,” Tracey Brame, the director of the Cooley Innocence Project, said. “George has steadfastly maintained that he had nothing to do with this terrible crime. We are grateful to Attorney General Dana Nessel and the Conviction Integrity Unit team for their willingness to listen to the brothers and reinvestigate the case. Today, George and his brother, Melvin, have finally received justice.”