KANSAS CITY, Kan. – A Kansas man will receive $1.5 million from the state after he spent 23 years in prison for a double murder he didn’t commit.
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Lamonte McIntyre was 17 when he was accused of killing two men in 1994.
What happened
Someone armed with a shotgun opened fire on a car in Kansas City, Kansas on April 15, 1994. Doniel Quinn, 21, died at the scene and Donald Ewing, 34, died at a hospital afterward.
Within 24 hours, police arrested McIntyre after two eyewitnesses, including Quinn’s cousin, Niko, identified him as the shooter. He was charged as an adult with two counts of first-degree murder. His case went to trial in September of that year.
Both witnesses testified that McIntyre was responsible for the murders, while his family members testified that he was with them at the time.
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, there was nothing that connected to McIntyre to the victims. However, the prosecutor said he had a vendetta against the victims, and he was found guilty of both murder charges and given two consecutive life sentences.
Lack of physical evidence
Shotgun shells were recovered from the scene but they weren’t examined for fingerprints.
Additionally, police never examined his clothing even though he was arrested shortly after the crime. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, witnesses said the shooting was standing next to the car, thus they may have been hit with blood or glass after firing shots.
Conflicting information
Less than a year after McIntyre’s conviction, Niko Quinn’s sister, Stacy, revealed that she was across the street from the shooting scene when it happened. She said she saw the shooter, and it was not McIntyre. Stacy Quinn said she was never questioned at the time of the crime.
After this, Niko Quinn took back her ID of McIntyre. She claimed she told the prosecutor, Terra Morehead, that McIntyre was not the shooter twice before the trial. Morehead allegedly told her she would be arrested and have her children taken away if she didn’t positively ID him in court.
The sisters signed sworn affidavits that said McIntyre’s features did not match those of the gunman.
During an evidentiary hearing in 1996, both sister’s statements were rejected and McIntyre was not granted a new trial. According to Judge J. Dexter Burdette, Stacy Quinn was unreliable because she didn’t come forward sooner and she used drugs. The judge also said Niko Quinn’s statements were not credible.
Freedom after 2 decades
During an evidentiary hearing in October 2017, the Wyandotte County district attorney, Mark Dupree, said the prosecution believed McIntyre’s sentence should be vacated. This was in the midst of evidence suggesting police and prosecutorial misconduct.
The hearing was supposed to be a week long, but Dupree dismissed the charges. McIntyre was released from prison after 23 years.
Discoveries that led to freedom
Investigations by Centurion Ministries, attorneys, a retired police detective and the Midwest Innocence Project uncovered issues with McIntyre’s case that eventually led to his freedom.
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, Morehead did not disclose that Niko Quinn said McIntyre wasn’t the shooter before the trial. Additionally, Morehead did not reveal that the mother of Niko and Stacy Quin also said he was not the shooter.
Morehead was also accused to eliciting false testimony from the other witness in the case, Ruby Mitchell.
Mitchell first told police the shooter had brown skin, was wearing his hair in French braids and may have been a man named Lamonte who dated her niece. Three hours later, she picked McIntyre out of a photo lineup.
During questioning, Morehead is accused of getting Mitchell to say that she picked the person she saw was the shooter, but that she no longer thought it was the man who dated her niece. Additionally, evidence showed that Mitchell wouldn’t have been able to see the shooter’s face from where she was standing at the time of the murder.
Misconduct allegations against lead detective, Roger Golubski, came into question, as well as accusations that Morehead had a relationship with the judge on McIntyre’s case several years prior.
These allegations of misconduct were taken into consideration when McIntyre’s case was investigated further.
Dupree said that by dismissing the charges, he wasn’t admitting that any officials on the case committed misconduct. Instead, he wanted to fix the injustice.
Wrongful convicted lawsuit settled
A wrongful conviction lawsuit was filed against the state in March 2019.
In February 2020, McIntyre was awarded $1.5 million.