Retired cop offers alibi for teen in quadruple slaying

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BY BEN SCHMITT and SUZETTE HACKNEY FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERSOctober 29, 2009 02:58 AM

A retired Detroit police homicide commander provided an alibi during a court hearing today for a teen who is imprisoned for a 2007 quadruple killing.

William Rice, a 25-year veteran, testified that Davontae Sanford was with him at a family member's house for dinner when four people were killed on Sept. 17, 2007, in a drug house on Runyon on Detroit's east side.

"He was there with me at the time the alleged crime took place," Rice said today during an appellate hearing for Sanford in front of Wayne County Circuit Judge Brian Sullivan.

Alleged hit man Vincent Smothers confessed to the killings but he has not been charged and police believe he may have acted in connection with Sanford.

The killings occurred around 11:30 p.m., but Rice said he didn't leave the home on Teppert until 11:45 p.m. to drive Sanford back to his home on Beland.

Prosecutors challenged Rice and warned him about perjury.

"Do you know the penalty for committing perjury," Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Joseph Puleo asked.

"I'm familiar with it, yes," Rice answered, undaunted.

Rice described Sanford, now 16, as a "foster or step-nephew" who he has known for more than 10 years. He testified that Sanford stayed in the basement of the home on Teppert for hours playing on the computer while the adults cooked a roast dinner and conversed.

Rice said the adults would have noticed if Sanford left the home through a back door on the first floor.

"No there's no way," Rice said, when asked if Sanford could have slipped out the door.

On the night of the killings, neighbors said they heard a succession of 30 gunshots coming from the house. Killed were Michael Robinson, 33; D'Angelo McNoriell and Brian Dixon, who were in their early 20s, and Nicole Chapman, 25. Valerie Glover, 30, was critically wounded but survived the attack. A 7-year-old boy was found unharmed.

Police said Sanford, who was 14 at the time of the shooting in the 19700 block of Runyon, told them he and his friends plotted to rob a drug house and wound up shooting the occupants once inside.

According to his confession, Sanford said all four suspects had guns, and he used an M14 rifle that he tossed after the shooting. He said the gun did not belong to him.

After a two-day bench trial in March 2008, Sanford accepted a deal and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and felony firearm. In April, he was sentenced to 37 to 90 years in prison. His mother, Taminko Sanford, said she was advised by their attorney Robert Slameka that there was too much evidence with the teen's confession to continue the trial.

Smothers, who police say confessed to killing at least eight people, including the wife of a Detroit police sergeant, also has admitted to being responsible for the September 2007 drug house killings on Runyon.

Smothers is currently charged with eight counts of first-degree murder, but has yet to go to trial on any of them.

Sanford's lawyer, Kimberly McGinnis, called Smothers to testify before Judge Sullivan in July. Smothers asserted his Fifth Amendment privilege and refused to answer questions under oath.

Puleo has previously said there also is evidence - including gunshot residue - that points to Sanford's participation in the 2007 killings inside the Runyon Street home.

Detroit homicide Sgt. Michael Russell testified over the summer that Sanford gave investigators a description of the clothes he was wearing the night of the killings. The black jeans and PayDay candy bar T-shirt he said he wore tested positive for gunshot residue, Russell said.

But Rice testified that Sanford wore light-colored pajama pants to the house on the night in question.