KEVIN SYKES IN PRISON SINCE 2002 FOR SHOOTING DPD COP VICKI YOST; REAL SHOOTER HAS CONFESSED, SYKES IN W. VIRGINIA AT TIME
TRIAL JUDGE PATRICIA FRESARD DENIED SYKES’ MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL, EVIDENTIARY HEARING APRIL 7, DENIED RELIEF TWICE BEFORE
WCPO Chief Asst. Pros. Donn Fresard with wife Judge Patricia Fresard
“CASE SHOWS A PATTERN OF SYSTEMIC DPD CORRUPTION” — ATTY. PHILLIP COMORSKI
WITNESS SWEARS NOTORIOUS DPD COP BARBARA SIMON, CITED IN MULTIPLE WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS, FALSIFIED STATEMENT, FORGED SIGNATURES
SYKES WAS SHOT BY DPD COPS 15 TIMES IN 1998, WON A CIVIL LAWSUIT AGAINST THEM; BELIEVES THIS LED TO HIS 2001 FRAME-UP
YOST AND DPD’S EUGENE BROWN KILLED LAMAR GRABLE IN 1996, ANOTHER CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY
GRABLE’S FAMILY WON $6 MILLION CIVIL JURY VERDICT AGAINST BROWN; COA CITED LIKELY ‘DEVIANT POLICE BEHAVIOR’ BY BROWN AND YOST TO COVER-UP THE MURDER OF LAMAR GRABLE
YOST NOW WORKS AS PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR FOR WCPO, CIU, etc., APPEARS UNTOUCHABLE FOR CRIMES COMMITTED AS DPD OFFICER
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By Diane Bukowski
June 19, 2026
KEVIN SYKES WITH SON KEVIN SYKES, JR.
DETROIT--Kevin Sykes is serving concurrent terms of 39 to 70 years for “assault with attempt to commit murder” on charges of shooting former DPD Lt. Vicki Yost in the leg and shooting at her partner, outside Page’s Palace Bar and Grill on Detroit’s east side, on Dec. 29, 2001. His earliest release date is 1/24/2043, with a maximum date of 1/24/2074.
Sykes has sworn since he was charged that he is innocent, that he was not even in Michigan at time of the crime. The University of Michigan’s Innocence Clinic has strongly supported him. They obtained a sworn, detailed affidavit confessing to the crime from another man, Masada King.
But they recently cited a conflict of interest in pursuing the Sykes case, because the victim was DPD Lt. Vicki Yost, now a private investigator, who was working on another case they were handling. Yost’s questionable history with the Detroit and Inkster Police Departments is addressed later in this story.
Atty. Phillip Comorski
Sykes is now represented by defense attorney Phillip Comorski, who filed a MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL UNDER MCL 770.1, OR IN THE ALTERNATIVE SUCCESSIVE MOTION RELIEF FROM JUDGMENT UNDER MCR 6.502(G)(2).
WCCC Judge Patricia Fresard, Sykes’ trial judge in 2002, denied Sykes’ motion for a new trial and an evidentiary hearing April 7, 2026, as she did in 2004 and 2016, when the Michigan Innocence Clinic produced the real shooter, Masada King. Allegedly she said King did not identify what he was wearing.
Read Kevin Sykes Complete Motion for New Trial by Atty. Comorski at: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Kevin-Sykes-MOTION-FOR-NEW-TRIAL-and-SUCCESSIVE-MOTION-FOR-RELIEF-FROM-JUDGMENT-by-Phillip-Comorski.pdf
Judge Patricia Fresard’s Complete Opinion and Order Denying Motion: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Kevin-Sykes-OPINION-AND-ORDER-DENYING-MOTION-1-Patricia-Fresard-1.pdf
WCCC Judge Patricia Fresard, Sykes’ trial judge in 2002, once again denied Sykes’ motion for a new trial and an evidentiary hearing April 7, 2026, refusing to hear directly from witnesses.
Judge Fresard saw Masada King’s affidavit in 2016, but declared it was not credible, in violation of People v. Johnson, 502 Mich. 541, 918 N.W.2d 676 (Mich. 2018), which says a judge cannot act in the place of a jury in determining credibility.
“[I]f a witness is not patently incredible, a trial court’s credibility determination must bear in mind what a reasonable juror might make of the testimony, and not what the trial court itself might decide[.]” Johnson, 2018.
Read Masada King’s complete affidavit at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Masada-King-affidavit-Kevin-Sykes.pdf
MULTIPLE WITNESSES CONFIRM MASADA KING’S ACCOUNT OF EVENT, KEVIN SYKES’ PRESENCE IN CRAWFORD, W. VIRGINIA DEC. 29, 2001
Fresard has now denied Sykes an evidentiary hearing in which she would have heard Masada King, the actual shooter, testify to assess his credibility, acting as a “reasonable juror,”
She would also have heard from other witnesses not examined previously, who backed up King’s confession, or confirmed Sykes’ alibi that he was in Crawford, W. Virginia. They include:
- Felicia Dyer (box r.)
- Michael Reed: “Michael Reed indicated in his affidavit that he saw King in the bar arguing with some people in what appeared to be an intense conversation. As King proceeded to leave the bar, Mr. Reed heard multiple gunshots coming from the outside.” (Defense brief.) Complete Felicia Dyer affidavit at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Felicia-Dyer-affidavit-Kevin-Sykes-2.pdf
- Richard Davis: “In his affidavit, Richard (Rick) Davis maintains that he accompanied King at Page’s Palace Bar on the night in question. At some point after their arrival, King said he had to go back out to the car, so Davis and another friend proceeded to the bar to get some drinks. Minutes after King walked out the door, Davis said he heard gunshots. . . Subsequently, Davis and others that apparently attended the bar were arrested and transported to the homicide section at 1300 Beaubien. According to Davis, the detectives referred to him as a suspect.” (Defense brief.)
Tyrone DeShawn Moore said that DPD Inv. Barbara Simon falsified his statement and forged his signature (see box left).
Lashawn Vines:
“In her affidavit, Lashawn Vines asserts that she and Mr. Sykes were in a relationship and lived together with her three children in West Virginia in 2001. Vines’ birthdate is December 22, 1976. Vines and Mr. Sykes spent her birthday together in W. Va. on December 22, 2001, and he was in W. Va. up until the time he got arrested in early 2002.”
Vines didn’t testify on Mr. Sykes’ behalf about his whereabouts because Child Protective Services threatened to take her children away from her if she continued to encounter Mr. Sykes or the criminal proceedings.” Defense brief. (VOD: Detroit police repeatedly use this tactic in other cases. THEY call CPS.)
TRIAL TESTIMONY OF DPD’S LT. VICKI YOST, OFFICER FRANK SENTER
“Lt. Vicki Yost was assigned as the shift boss for midnights at the 11th Precinct (T, Vol II, p33-34). At 1:45 a.m. there was a radio dispatch about a man with a gun at the bar (T, Vol II, p 35). Yost was in plain clothes in a semi-marked vehicle, and as she approached the bar, she saw Officers Collier and Senter exit their vehicle with their weapons drawn (T, Vol II, p 36).
SITE OF SHOOTING OF VICKI YOST 12/ 29/01
This trial testimony, cited in Sykes’ defense brief, lends credence to Masada King’s account of the shooting outside Page’s Palace, and those of the other supporting witnesses.
King describes a dispute inside the club, with members of a local gang suspected in the murder of Ron Davis, a friend of King’s and a cousin of Antonio Davis, who was originally Sykes’ co-defendant. It was dark (1:45 a.m.), Yost was in plainclothes, and her car was only “semi-marked.” King says he started shooting because someone drove up in a black car and brandished a gun at his group.
(Note: The van cited by King was registered to Davis, who was arrested. In a plea bargain before Judge Fresard, Davis pled nolo contendere t0 a charge of Weapons-Firearm-Possession by a Felon. A second charge of Weapons Carrying Concealed, was dismissed after Judge Patricia Fresard severed Davis’ case from Sykes May 1o, 2oo2, tben held an evidentiary hearing the same day for Davis. She sentenced Davis, who put the weapon involved into a van registered to him, to probation.)
EYEWITNESS ID’S BY DPD LT. VICKI YOST, OFFICER FRANK SENTER
“Eyewitness misidentification
contributes to an overwhelming majority of wrongful convictions that have been overturned by post-conviction DNA testing. (Innocence Project).” Eyewitness Misidentification Archives – Innocence Project
Sykes’ attorney Comorski notes that no physical evidence ties Sykes to the shootings Dec. 29, 2001. His fingerprints were not on the assault rifle police took from a dumpster near Page’s Palace.
The only evidence was eyewitness ID’s by DPD Lt. Vicki Yost and DPD officer Frank Senter from a severely flawed photo line-up. Sykes was not present for a live line-up because he was in Crawford, W. Virginia from at least Dec. 22, 2001 to the day Detroit police came to arrest him pursuant to a warrant dated Jan. 3, 2002, on which he was not arraigned until Jan 24, 2002.
Photo line-up: Yost ID’d Sykes “I think it’s No.2, the shooter that shot at me.” Senter ID’d Sykes after Senter wrote in a police report Dec. 29 “writer did not observe the source of the shots.”
Photo line-up Dec. 31, 2oo1. All those in line-up have chains with jail ID’s around neck except Sykes #2 (top center), a tactic police use to show guilt by association, according to VOD’s legal expert. Vicki Yost: “I THINK IT’S NO. 2 (top), the shooter that shot at me.” DPD Ofc. Frank Senter ID’d #2 although he said in Dec. 29 PCR: “WRITER DID NOT VISUALLY OBSERVE THE SOURCE OF THE SHOTS.” Yost’s partner P.O. Melonie Taylor ID’d No. 5 (bottom center).
At a photo lineup two days after the incident, Yost identified Mr. Sykes saying, “I think it’s no. 2” (T, Vol II, pp 61-63, 78-79). Yost wrote no police report (T, Vol II, p 64). On December 31st, Yost also made an identification, stating “I think it’s 2, the shooter, that shot at me” (T, Vol II, p 94). At the time of the shooting, there were at least thirty to forty people outside (T, Vol II, p 82).
On December 30, 2001, Officer Senter made an “immediate identification” of Mr. Sykes, within two minutes (T, Vol II, p 92). The only photograph in the array where the person was not wearing a chain with jail ID around his neck was Mr. Sykes, making his photo stand out. Sykes told VOD that police used a photo from Jackson, Michigan taken during his arrest for playing loud music in his driveway. He was charged with DUI although he was not driving.
BOTH VICKI YOST AND FRANK SENTER ARE WHITE. THEY IDENTIFIED SYKES IN A PHOTO LINE-UP. CROSS-RACE ID’S HAVE BEEN PROVEN TO BE UNRELIABLE SOURCES OF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS.
But in his police report Dec. 29, 2001, Senter wrote, “Info wrt made loc and observed 11-60 in f/o said loc. Wrt exited veh and began to carefully approach when several shots were heard fired. Wrt did not visually observe the source of the shots. 11-60 [Yost] did sustain an apparent gunshot wound to her lower right leg.”
On Dec. 30, 2001, Senter signed a lengthy Q & A “witness statement.” In it, he told an unknown interviewer, “Wrt then looked toward Paige’s Palace Bar when wrt observed a BM app. 5’10” to 6’0 with a stocky build walking rapidly toward a van . . . The subject had on dark pants and a tan coat w/fur around the collar. Subj then looked back in the direction of wrt and wrt observed what appeared to be a long rifle on the subj right side. . .within min radio announced subj was in the area of Modern [sp?] and Arlington. Wrt then went back to vehicle and headed S/B Dequindre toward Modern [sp?]. Upon crossing over McNichols wrt observed said subj hiding behind the driver’s side door of a 4Dr white sedan in the parking lot of the BP Gas Station on the SE corner of McNichols and Dequindre.” He said he lost sight of the subject and went back to the scene to attend to Yost until an ambulance came, then resumed looking for the subject with no further observation.
But after an FOIA was later submitted for the case file, a Dec. 29 police report from Senter’s partner Wendy Collier that had not been provided in discovery surfaced. It said “Wrtr exited vehicle and observed a possible perp wearing a beige winter coat, in f/o loc. Seconds later, wrtr heard shots fired. Wrtr then took cover as doing so fell and landed on right hand fracturing the fourth finger. Then poss, perp. then fled in unk dir. Wrtr notified 11-70 at scene about injury. Wrtr’s partner then took wrtr to (redacted) hospital see injury report.” Other documents, however. disclosed that the hospital was Cottage Hospital in Grosse Pte. Farms, 15 miles and a 40-minute round trip from Page’s Palace.
On Oct. 20, 2011, the Wayne County Prosecutor charged Senter with 5 counts of Uttering and Publishing, 4 counts of forgery and obtaining money under false pretenses.
WERE CHARGES IN RETALIATION FOR SYKES’ WINNING LAWSUIT VS. DPD’S ANDREW WHITE, RODGER JOHNSON, WHO SHOT HIM 15 TIMES?
On July 30, 1998, Kevin Sykes was shot 15 times by DPD narcotics cops Rodger Johnson and Andrew White, according to a civil lawsuit filed on his behalf by Atty. Randall Upshaw, who went on to represent him at his 2002 trial.
The officers raided a home at 13461 Fleming that he was in. Sykes tried to flee next door to 13445 Fleming, jumping from a 2nd-floor bedroom window to a 2nd-floor bedroom window next door. He was stopped by window bars there.
An officer yelled ‘gun’ although he was unarmed, and White and Johnson shot him a total of 15 times, including twice after he fell from the roof to the driveway. Johnson and White were never disciplined or charged for their horrific behavior.
Atty. Randall Upshaw
The cops allegedly found a potato chip bag with some marijuana in it, near the driveway where he fell, and allegedly found a .22 caliber gun inside the bedroom he tried to break into. The lawsuit says Sykes was “severely and permanently injured. . .with multiple permanent injuries including but not limited to 15 bullet wounds causing a broken arm and multiple internal injuries.”
Sykes won his civil lawsuit for an undisclosed settlement amount. Court records show that Sykes was criminally charged, but Judge Diane Hathaway dismissed charges of Controlled Substance (delivery/manufacture (narcotic or Cocaine) Less Than 50 Gr. and Weapons Felony Firearm against Sykes. He pled Nolo Contendere to assault with a dangerous weapon, with an amended sentence of 120 days in the Wayne County Jail.
YOST INVOLVED IN 1996 LAMAR GRABLE DEATH, ANOTHER CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY; MCOA FOUND HER TESTIMONY NOT CREDIBLE
After retiring from decades in the Detroit and Inkster Police Departments, Vicki Yost founded Shield Strategic Solutions, a private investigation agency.
It is now widely used by the Wayne County Conviction Integrity Unit in the Prosecutor’s office and other law enforcement agencies, as well as well as defendants whose families hire her to investigate their cases. Many extol her skills. But previously, Yost had a long and questionable career in the Detroit and Inkster Police Departments.
Newly hired after moving into Detroit, Yost was the partner of three-time killer cop Eugene Brown when he shot 20-year-old Lamar Grable to death on Sept.21, 1996 in another case of mistaken identification. That case was publicized nationally and globally.
Arnetta Grable and Herman Vallery, Lamar’s parents, helped found the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality and led a broad campaign for their murdered son, coalescing with the families of Brown’s other victims, Rodrick Carrington and Darren Miller. Arnetta Grable filed a civil suit against Brown, which resulted in a $4 million jury verdict, which later became $6 million after the City of Detroit’s unsuccessful appeals.
Lamar Grable’s mother Arnetta Grable (ctr.) brother Aaron Grable and sister Arnetta Grable Jr. (upper left), attys. and supporters including Cornell Squires gather after jury verdict against Eugene Brown.
Affirming the jury verdict, an appeals court said, “Dr. Peters testified to inconsistencies between Yost’s testimony regarding the manner in which the gun found near Grable’s body was fired.” (Yost admitted she took the gun home before turning it into the evidence unit.)
“Dr. Peters opined that these inconsistencies raised ‘a serious doubt’ regarding the number of shots fired or what happened to the weapon as it was being examined. Dr. Peters found it odd that Yost’s version of the events seemed to become clearer as time passed since one’s memory is generally fresher closer to the event. Dr. Peters opined that defendant’s and Yost’s behavior could be consistent with peer secrecy and deviant police behavior.”
Experts at the Eugene Brown hearing also found that Brown himself fired two shots into his own bullet-proof vest, attempting to prove that Grable had fired at him. Yost was there when Brown did this.
The Detroit Police Department rewarded Vicki Yost with promotion after promotion after Grable’s death. Only five years afterwards, when she was shot, Yost had made lieutenant and rapidly ascended the ranks to become a Deputy Police Chief.
Vicki Yost as Detroit Police Inspector.
Ironically, the DPD made Vicki Yost its liaison to the U.S Justice Department in 2003, as it began its investigation into DPD patterns and practices of brutality, including killings, conditions at police lockups, and illegal police dragnets, (arrests of witnesses and others to coerce their cooperation in homicide investigations).
The investigation began after Arnetta Grable went to Washington to meet with Atty. General Janet Reno about her son’s death. The investigation led to a consent decree involving federal oversight, which ended in 2013. However, Detroit police continued their pattern and practice of brutal killings, unsafe jail detention policies and dragnet practices. See: DETROIT POLICE SEX SCANDALS: WHO IS MONITORING POLICE BRUTALITY? | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought
INKSTER POLICE DEPT. HIRES VICKI YOST AS POLICE CHIEF IN 2014, NINE MONTHS BEFORE NEAR FATAL BEATING OF FLOYD DENT
The Detroit suburb of Inkster hired Yost as the city’s Chief 0f Police after she retired from the Detroit Police Department. Nine months later, in 2015, she was forced to leave under a cloud after notorious DPD cop William Melendez, nickname “Robocop,” also a new Inkster cop, became known world-wide for nearly beating Black motorist Floyd Dent to death in 2015.
From her years in the Detroit Police Department ascending to Deputy Chief, Yost would have known that Melendez and 17 other 3rd and 4th Precinct cops were charged by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2004 with running a “Ramparts” style squad that was wreaking havoc in Detroit’s Black community, framing up defendants they arrested and torturing and beating them, including hanging them out windows and other atrocities.
A jury of largely non-Detroiters rendered a “nullification verdict” after a defense attorney for the cops warned that the victims who testified against the cops could be moving into their cities. Melendez had also been sued 12 times for misconduct, including the 1995 killing of a suspect he chased in the street. (Box at right.)
Yost held a press conference after news of the Floyd Dent beating surfaced, in which she urged the public to await the results of an internal investigation.
“I think what’s really understated here is the restraints and the limitations of a police department while there’s an ongoing criminal investigation,” she told Detroit WDIV Channel Four. “It’s really difficult as a police chief to speak when facts are flying about, some of which are patently false.”
But Yost resigned two days after the beating, giving 30-days’ notice of her departure. However, Inkster City Manager Richard March released her immediately, saying he “wished her well.”
VOD has covered the cases of other wrongly convicted people whose families have used Yost’s Shield Strategic Solutions and experienced good results. But that does not make up for the 1996 murder of Lamar Grable, or the wrongful conviction of Kevin Sykes, and other police murders and wrongful convictions.
The toll such cases take on the lives of the families and their supporters is enormous. Cornell Squires died in 2016, Arnetta Grable in 2017, and Herman Valley in 2018. Cornell Emmanuel Squires, Cornell’s son who had two young children when his dad died, died at the age of 41 in 2023. Their souls are still calling out for justice for Lamar Grable and other victims of police and mass incarceration.
Kevin Sykes, in prison for 24 years, wrongly convicted on the testimonies of Vicki Yost and Frank Senter, deserves to have them come forward and own up to the truth in his case, so he can spend the rest of his life with his son Kevin Sykes, Jr. and other family members. It’s not too late.
Banner flown by Lamar Grable’s family on the 20th anniversary of his death, starting in the field where he died, down to DPD headquarters in downtown Detroit.
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RELATED STORIES:
Michigan Citizen stories by Diane Bukowski on Lamar Grable and Eugene Brown and Vicki Yost http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Serial-Killer-Kop-and-other-stories-MC.pdf
