“MIKE D” DEGRAFFINRIED (2nd from l) AND FAMILY: (l to r) cousin Edward, Jr., mother Evonne, stepfather Johnny, after conviction vacated Aug. 20, 2025
AFTER 26 YEARS, MICHEAL DEGRAFFINRIED HOME AFTER JUDGE TRACY E. GREEN VACATED WRONGFUL CONVICTION AUG. 20, 2025
THE FIGHT GOES ON: Wayne Co. Prosecutor appealed Sept. 25, trying to stop new trial before scheduled pre-hearing Thurs. Oct. 9, 2025 at 9 am; trial on Tues. Nov 11, 2025 in 3rd Circuit Court Judge Tracy E. Green’s courtroom #506 Wayne Co. CJC Criminal Division 5301 Russell Street Detroit, MI 48211
Willie Wimberly, 16-yr. old victim of 1999 Inkster drive-by shooting that killed one, injured two, testified Oct. 8, 2024 at evidentiary hearing that Mike D was not the shooter, as he told OIC Darian K. Williams and Sgt. Gregory Hill at the time.
INKSTER SGT./OIC DARIAN K. WILLIAMS extorted Michigan and Illinois drug dealers during Mike D’s trial, 1999-2001, convicted in fed. court 2003
Inkster P.O’s Gregory Hill and Anthony Abdallah involved in other wrongful convictions in addition to Degraffinried’s,
Inkster PD Officer Jamie Devoll’s PCR from scene 2/15/99 shows chief prosecution’s witness not on the scene at time of shooting.
Mother of Mike D’s son Semaje, co-defendant, swore in affidavit and Walker hearing that Williams and Hill coerced false confession of her role with threats after 81-hr. arraignment delay, she refused to implicate Mike D.
Judge Tracy Green’s order vacating Mike D’s convictions and sentences.
By Diane Bukowski
September 30, 2025, updated October 3, 2025
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Judge Tracy E. Green
DETROIT– Inkster’s Micheal ‘Mike D’ Degraffinried finally won his freedom after 26 years in prison, on August 20, 2025. Third Judicial Circuit Court Judge Tracy E. Green vacated his convictions and sentences on a charge of 2nd-degree murder, two counts of assault with intent to do great bodily harm, and felony firearm related to a drive-by shooting in Inkster on June 15, 1999.
He had been sentenced to 30-50 years for the murder of Alondre Davis, 5-10 years each for AWIGBH on Willie Wimberly and Raymone Williams, and two years for felony firearm.
Micheal Degraffinried
“I am happy to finally be free,” Degraffinried told VOD. “But Wayne Co. Asst. Prosecutor Deborah Blair filed a 64 page appeal brief Sept. 25. She sees I am innocent, and she has no grounds to stand on. They are trying to circumvent what the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in People v. Johnson and Scott–that it’s not up to the prosecutor or judge to validate witness testimony, but to a jury. They’re supposed to grant a new trial like Judge Green just did.
“For the Wayne County prosecutor, it’s not about justice, just getting conviction numbers. The prosecutor needs to be held accountable for what they do, and they would have less wrongful convictions.”
Willie Wimberley testifies on behalf of Michael DeGraffenried Oct. 8, 2024.
Wayne County, Michigan has the second highest numbers of wrongful convictions in the U.S., which has four percent of the world’s population, but 25 percent of its incarcerated population.
During months of evidentiary hearings beginning last year, defense attorney Tiffany Howell presented testimony from key defense witness Willie Wimberly, 16 years old at the time, one of the two survivors of the shooting.
He swore that Degraffinried was NOT the shooter, as he told Sgts. Darian K. Williams and Gregory Hill in 1999 after the shooting. He also testified that the chief prosecution witness (his cousin Broderick Ward) was not present at the scene during the shooting. This was confirmed by a police report from Inkster PD Officer Jamie Devoll, first to respond to the scene.
Willie Wimberly affidavit MDegraffenried case: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Willie-Wimberly-affidavit-MDegraffenried-case-1.pdf
http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Michael-Degraffenried-IPD-report-from-scene.pdf
Private investigator Vicki Yost (formerly chief of the Inkster PD) testified about the misconduct records of the Inkster police officers in charge of the case. The case even involved a “ghost” victim who claimed to have been shot by Degraffenried, but the prosecution produced no medical records to confirm that.
Above, Michael DeGraffinried’s defense attorney, Tiffany P. Howell, argues his case in front of Judge Tracy E. Green April 28, 2025. (Use Nice Volume Booster for full sound, also read captions.)
Degraffinried himself filed a pro se motion June 20, 2020, asking for relief under MCL 770.1, (allowing a judge to grant a new trial after finding that justice had not been done), and under case law, which finally led to Judge Green’s ruling. http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Micheal-Degraffinried-Motion-for-Relief-filed-6-4-2020.pdf
Micheal Degraffinried after release
Degraffenried said Inkster Police Detectives Darian K. Williams and Gregory Hill violated Brady v. Maryland 373 US 83 (1963) by concealing the fact that Wimberly told them that Degraffenried was NOT the man who shot him.
“Willie Wimberly stated in his signed affidavit that he was shot on June 15, 1999… He stated that he saw the person who committed the shooting and he can positively say 1t was not the defendant Degraffinried. He stated that he informed the detectives that tried the case that defendant Degraffenried was NOT the person that shot him. He stated that the prosecution’s office never subpoenaed him to testify, even though the prosecution’s office was charging the defendant with the attempted murder of said victim, yet defendant was never afforded the right to confront his accuser because the detectives hid the interview they had with Willie Wimberly, which 15 a clear Brady violation. Brady v Maryland. 373 US 83 (1963).
Degraffenried wrote further, “[The prosecution] hid this information from the defense and allowed perjured testimony to be introduced to the jury through the state’s main eyewitness Broderick Ward, an eyewitness that the first responding police officer, Jamie Devoll. testified as to not being on the scene at the time of the shooting.”
The prosecution appealed Judge Green’s ruling Sept. 25, claiming that Wimberly’s testimony was not believable, a violation of People v. Johnson, which requires that a jury determine those issues, and also impugning Wimberly’s character because he is in prison, a violation of People v. Hammock.
http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/People-v-Johnson-People-v-Scott-MSC-2018.pdf
http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/MSC-People-v-Hammock-7-31-2020-1.pdf
A pre-trial date is set for Oct. 9, and new trial for Nov. 11 before Judge Green, Rm. 506, Wayne Co. Criminal Justice Center, 5301 Russell, Detroit, MI. 48211.*
Records show that Sgt. Darian K. Williams, the ‘Officer in Charge’ of Degraffenried’s case, was robbing and extorting drug dealers across Michigan, using his police car while on duty, from 1999 through 2001, during the course of Degraffenried’s trial. Williams was convicted in 2003. It is unclear how Wayne Co. Asst. Prosecutor Deborah Blair plans to present any case in a new trial against Degraffenried, considering the appalling account below.
Inkster Sgts. Gregory Hill and Anthony Abdallah also played key roles in constructing the case against Degraffenried, as they did in the cases of several other men, now exonerated. Tiya Manning, the mother of Degraffenried’s son Semaje, testified at a Walker hearing seeking to toss out a false confession obtained by Williams and Hill under severe threats of spending the rest of her life in prison, and in a sworn affidavit as well. She refused to implicate Degraffenried.
Above (l to r) exonerees George Clark, Alphonso Clark, Kevin Harrington; bottom: wrongfully convicted Marcus and Vargo Johnson also of Inkster.
Detectives Hill and Abdallah were cited in the wrongful convictions of George Clark and Kevin Harrington, exonerated in 2021. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy appealed Harrington’s case FOUR TIMES causing him to suffer through FOUR TRIALS before finally agreeing to his release. Clark and Harrington are shown in the top photo at left, with exoneree Alphonso Clark, Jr. whose case involved another Inkster officer, Anthony DelGreco.
Gregory Hill was als0 involved in the cases of Vargas and Marco Johnson (bottom photo at left), which were covered in the Voice of Detroit in 2021, with claims that he elicited false witness statements for trial.
VOD is currently working on a story involving lifers David McKinney and Robin Hammock, also framed up by DelGreco. Delgreco held McKinney for four days prior to an arraignment, to coerce a confession from a 14-year-old Inkster child implicating McKinney.
David McKinney and mother Cheryl McKinney
The child later recanted, swearing he did not know McKinney and had never seen him commit the robbery and murder of an Inkster gunshop owner, and that Delgreco fed the details to him. DelGreco falsely threatened McKinney with the death penalty, and conducted trackings by different dogs weeks after the incident, using blankets he ordered for McKinney.
More cases continue to surface involving rampant corruption in the Inkster Police Department, particularly in the 1990’s through 2000’s.
But Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy keeps denying even recommendations from her Conviction Integrity Unit to free those whose lives have been stolen by corrupt cops, in league with Asst. Prosecutors seeking to rack up their conviction numbers.
Family, friends of Michael DeGraffenried turned out in force at hearing Oct. 8, 2024
VOD interviewed Mike D’s mother Evonne at court hearing Oct. 8, 2024; she traveled from Texas for every hearing, appearing with dozens of supporters
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