TOP photo: (L to R) Sister Christine McKinney, Mother Cheryl McKinney, David McKinney, and (front) brother Chauncey Dennard

David McKinney wrongfully convicted of the 2004 murder/robbery of Black Inkster gun shop owner Clyde Alexander, based on 14-yr.-old child’s coerced statements, now recanted, to Inkster cops linked to exoneree cases

Inkster Detectives Anthony Delgreco, others coerced McKinney’s “confession” during delay in arraignment, using threat of death penalty, denying him access to his attorney repeatedly

“The only independent witnesses the day of the crime describe a [WHITE MALE] fleeing the scene.” —Private Investigator Vicki Yost, a former Inkster police chief. “There is no evidence linking David McKinney to the crime scene or any guns or other items taken from same. . . The background facts and physical description do not match David McKinney.”

“Delgreco is a liar and you cannot trust anything he says.” AP Elizabeth Walker per Yost; Walker named three cases where he lied to prosecution, said she was willing to testify in court about the matters.

Neither Inkster police nor ATF appear to have investigated other possible suspects, although multiple similar gun shop robberies took place across Michigan in 2004; waitress in adjacent bar said a white couple overheard Alexander telling her that a new gun shipment was coming in, the night before the robbery

By Diane Bukowski

October 20, 2025

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NOTE: VOD is working on a separate story on the wrongful conviction of Robin Emmanuel Hancock, also linked t0 IPD’s DelGreco

ATF photo of Alexander’s Gun Shop and Range after fire 8/3/2004

DETROIT— David McKinney, now 43, has spent 20 years in prison, serving life without parole for the “Homicide-Felony Murder” of Black Inkster gun shop owner Clyde Alexander on August 3, 2004.

His conviction was based on statements from a 14-year-old child, taken by Inkster Detective Anthony DelGreco without the presence of his mother or an attorney. DelGreco threatened to try him as an adult, if he did not cooperate. The child was later tried on the gun store murder/robbery as a juvenile and spent seven years in a juvenile facility during his most formative years. He recanted his statements against McKinney in a sworn affidavit in 2021, which also negates the basis of his own conviction.

Police coerced child to lie about gun store robbery

(Excerpt from 2021 affidavit of Clifford, 14 at arrest) “I do not know David McKinney and have never met David McKinney, excluding my testimony at trial . . . the statements I made to police during the investigation were false, coached and coerced. . .Over the course of my interactions, Officer Delgreco and his partner would writ me out of juvenile and convey me various places for questioning. During these transports, I was coached and told what to say.”

A “confession” coerced from McKinney during an illegal delay in arraignment, using unfounded threats of the death penalty, and without the presence of his attorney Raymond Mullins, was the second factor. Detectives Anthony DelGreco and others began gathering evidence on the murder charge after arresting McKinney Aug. 17, 2004, using a minor 2002 narcotics complaint as a pretext.

Atty. Raymond Mullins (AA News 2006 photo) was life-long advocate for Black community, chaired NAACP chapter.

During the following weeks, they took him to the Dearborn Police station for a polygraph exam which they told him he failed, with no documentation. Mullins was present at the station but was not allowed in to meet with his client.

The cops planted blankets in McKinney’s cell and used tracking dogs inside police cars, two weeks after the gun shop robbery, to get touch DNA evidence off the blankets, a failed effort. They also arrested and charged the 14-year-old child, then coerced his statements.

After putting together their alleged case, they re-arrested McKinney on Nov. 20, 2004, again using the narcotics co as a pretext. McKinney’s defense attorney Raymond Mullins represented him from Aug. 17, 2004 through his trial on murder charges in 2005. During a Walker hearing on the case, Mullins got Inkster PD detective Anthony Delgreco to admit that he had denied McKinney access to Mullins on repeated occasions.

Inkster Police Department, then at 27301 River Park Drive

(excerpt) “Delgreco and another officer . . . asked me all these questions, telling that they had evidence linking me to a crime,” McKinney wrote to his mother. “How Clifford told them all this stuff about me. I didn’t even know who Clifford was. I never told Delgreco that I planned it. It was more of a question, like ‘I planned it?’ I asked for my attorney multiple times before the interrogation was ended. I was placed back into my cell, where I had no access to the phone. I asked the turnkey lady could she get my phone turned on, but she said later that they wouldn’t let her do it.”

This is the only crime listed on McKinney’s court records, or on the Michigan State Police ICHAT site. He had no previous record that could have portended the gruesome murder of Clyde Alexander.

INKSTER POLICE INCLUDING ANTHONY DELGRECO INVOLVED IN MULTIPLE WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS FROM THE 1990’a, 2000’s

Inkster Police officers Anthony DelGreco, Gregory Hill, and others coerced the false statements, of both the 14-year-old child and McKinney. This was their modus operandi in the convictions of exonerees Alphonso Clark, George Clark, and Kevin Harrington, as well as that of Robin Hammock, who along with McKinney, remains incarcerated. They are among a roster of corrupt Inkster cops also involved in the convictions of others including Micheal Degraffinried, whose charges were dropped August 20 after an evidentiary hearing, and Marco and Vargas Johnson, brothers whose stories VOD previously covered.

David McKinney, mother Cheryl McKinney

“Both David’s and Robin’s cases involve the same corrupt detective out of the Inkster Police Department, Anthony Delgreco,” McKinney’s mother Cheryl McKinney told VOD. “He was also the detective that was involved in Alphonso Clark’s case, who was released in 2023. We thought once Alphonso was released, that both Robin and David would be following soon thereafter. It’s a shame they are so quick to lock up, but it takes sometimes decades to release someone, even after it is so clear that an injustice has been done.”

Private investigator Vicki Yost testifies during 2024 Micheal DeGraffinried hearing; judge dismissed charges Aug. 20, 2025

“NO EVIDENCE LINKS DEFENDANT MCKINNEY TO THE CRIME” — P.I. Vicki Yost of Shield Strategic Solutions, former Inkster Police Chief.

Private Investigator Vicki Yost, a former Inkster police chief, made this declaration after an exhaustive investigation of court and police records in McKinney’s case.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s Conviction Integrity Unit investigated both cases but has since refused relief, despite Yost’s submission of her extensive report on McKinney’s case to CIU Director Valerie Newman April 14, 2021. Yost’s report discounts virtually all of DelGreco’s allegations against McKinney.

Valerie Newman, CIU Director (l): Wayne Co. Pros. Kym Worthy (r)

“The only independent witnesses the day of the crime describe a w/m (white male) fleeing the scene,” Yost wrote.

“They included a City of Detroit bus driver, a UPS driver, and witnesses at nearby stores. among others. A waitress at an adjacent bar told police investigators that the night before, a white couple drinking at the bar overheard Alexander telling her that he was expecting a new shipment of guns the next morning.

Yost says that Elizabeth Walker, former Deputy Chief of Worthy’s Special Prosecutions Unit, told her, “Delgreco is a liar and you cannot trust anything he says. Specifically, Walker referred to 3 cases in which Delgreco was not honest in his transactions with the WCPO. Ms. Walker indicated she would go on the record and share this information.” (See box below.)

“David McKinney is arrested on November 20, 2004,” Yost recounts. “Per the Investigator’s Report, Police Report and Walker Hearing testimony of Detective Anthony Delgreco, McKinney was arrested on an outstanding narcotic charge.

“This is false, new evidence confirms McKinney was arrested at the direction of Detective Delgreco and held for the homicide investigation,” Yost continues.

“Police Misconduct/ Possible Perjury: Detective Anthony Delgreco testified in the Walker Hearing in the McKinney case on June 24, 2005 in front of The Honorable Michael M. Hathaway. In the Walker Hearing Detective Delgreco testified that McKinney was arrested on another case unrelated to the homicide investigation. Under cross Delgreco reasserts that McKinney was arrested on the narcotics charge. The court indicates that the narcotic incident was from 8-19-02. Delgreco denies the narcotics warrant was a device to bring McKinney into custody.”

Court records show that a warrant on the 8/19/02 narcotics complaint was requested on 11/03/2003 but the warrant was not signed until 11/22/2004.

“No physical evidence exists linking David McKinney to the crime scene or any guns or other items taken from same. . .

“The statement of 14-year-old Clifford (last name withheld from publication) who received a plea deal for his testimony, gave multiple statements to police and failed a polygraph. When [he] indicates he has information on the Inkster Case his statement to DPD mentions “Nephew” – later identified as Anthony Fields who is tied to selling a gun stolen from the gun shop.

“Young also gives the name of “Shawn Shawn” who is later identified as Teshomb Fore who was also charged but acquitted in this matter. Young does not mention McKinney until his 3rd statement. The background facts and physical description do not match David McKinney.”

Yost’s full report is at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/McKinney-CIU-Memo-highlighted.pdf

Gun shop robberies rampant across Michigan in 2004; no evidence that ATF in league with IPD broadened investigation to consider other suspects

VOD reviewed McKinney’s homicide file, trial transcripts including the Walker Hearing, and other documentation, but noted no evidence that other possible suspects were investigated, either by the Inkster Police Department, the Wayne County Prosecutor, or the ATF.

The following email was sent to the ATF after their report on the robbery was found, but no reply has been received.

“This is Diane Bukowski, editor of the Voice of Detroit newspaper at Voice of Detroit. I am seeking information related to the case of David McKinney, Michigan Third District Court Case No. 05-000357-01-FC. I was referred to your office by a retired ATF officer who worked on the case.

“Mr. McKinney and others were convicted of the robbery/arson of Alexander’s Gun Shop and murder of its Black owner Clyde Alexander in Inkster Aug. 3, 2004. Multiple ATF agents including Raymond Tomaszewski testified at the trials of McKinney and co-defendants in 2005 and afterwards. Voice of Detroit (VOD) has reviewed extensive legal documentation on the case including court transcripts, police reports including materials from the McKinney homicide file, and more.

“During this investigation, we discovered the attached ATF report on the conviction of co-defendant Anthony Fields in the case, which says this was only one of two such recent robberies in Michigan. But we found reports of numerous other gun shop robberies including one murder in Michigan in 2004. ATF agents also investigated these cases, according to media reports. (See second attachment.)

:In reviewing the documentation related to Mr. McKinney’s case, we did not find anything indicating that the ATF reviewed these other gun shop robbery/murders in Michigan that year for possible suspects in the Inkster case.

“Please advise whether any such thorough investigations by the ATF for alternate suspects took place in the Inkster case”

LINKS TO ARTICLES FROM ATF AND MLIVE

Youth sentenced in Inkster gun-shop owner’s killing ATF

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Youth-sentenced-in-Inkster-gun-shop-owners-killing-ATF-1.pdf

Gun shop owners bearing arms in wake of thieves MLive

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Gun-shop-owners-bearing-arms-in-wake-of-thieves-MLive.pdf

INKSTER COP DARIAN WMS. EXTORTED DRUG DEALERS DURING CASE V. MICH. LIFER MICHAEL DEGRAFFENRIED | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

‘MIKE D’ NOT THE SHOOTER, VICTIM OF 1999 INKSTER DRIVE-BY SAYS; OIC DARIAN WILLIAMS CONVICTED OF EXTORTION | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

WRONGLY CONVICTED, ALPHONSO CLARK JR. LOST MOM BEFORE RELEASE; PUBLISHES BOOK ON GRIEF IN PRISON | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

MICH. LIFERS VARGAS & MARCO JOHNSON FIGHT 30-YR. FRAME-UP; CITE INKSTER COP FROM 2 EXONEREES’ CASE | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

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