Man sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder after revealing the first thing he’ll do when he gets out of prison

An inmate’s murder conviction was overturned Monday after more than 30 years in a Missouri prison, after years of insisting he was innocent.

Christopher Dunn, now 52, ​​was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1990 death of 15-year-old Ricco Rogers and has been serving a life sentence without parole for the past 33 years.

But St. Louis District Judge Jason Sengheiser ruled Monday that District Attorney Gabe Gore “has clearly and convincingly shown that Dunn is ‘actually innocent,’ undermining the basis for Dunn’s convictions. Based on the new evidence, no juror acting reasonably would have voted to find Dunn guilty of these crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.”

He then ordered the Missouri Department of Corrections to release Dunn, according to First Warning Fourwith her lawyer saying she was “overjoyed” with the decision.

“Chris now looks forward to spending time with his wife and family as a free man,” said Tricia Rojo Bushnell, executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project.

Christopher Dunn’s murder conviction was overturned Monday after more than 30 years in prison

But a prison spokesman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch It was announced Monday that Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office has filed an appeal and that it is unlikely he will be released.

Attorneys for the state opposed overturning Dunn’s conviction at a hearing in May.

They claimed that the initial testimonies of two boys present at the May 18, 1990, shooting, in which they identified Dunn as the shooter, were accurate — even though they later retracted their statements as adults.

“The verdict was correct and that verdict must stand,” argued Deputy Attorney General Tristin Estep.

She also claimed that Dunn’s alibi was unreliable because he had changed his story several times over the years.

He stated that he was with his mother at the time of the shooting. His childhood friend testified that she had called him that evening and that he was on the phone at his mother’s house.

Dunn was arrested after two teenagers identified him as the gunman who shot and killed 15-year-old Ricco Rogers

Rogers was shot on May 18, 1990, when a gunman opened fire while he was outside a house with a group of other teenage boys.

DeMorris Stepp, 14, and Michael Davis Jr., 12, initially identified Dunn as the shooter.

But in a recorded interview played during the May hearing, Davis admitted he lied because he believed Dunn had ties to a rival gang.

Stepp’s story has also changed several times over the years, Gore argued, with another judge recently ruling that he was a “completely unreliable witness.”

However, Stepp recently stated that he did not consider Dunn to be the shooter.

At the May hearing, eyewitness identification expert Nancy Franklin argued it was also unlikely the boys would have recognized the shooter’s face that night.

She noted that the shooter was standing about 10 feet away from them, on a dark street. And since Dunn was not a friend or family member, it is unlikely that Stepp and Davis recognized him in a split second.

Sengehiser ultimately concluded Monday that “the only evidence incriminating Dunn has been retracted.”

He acknowledged that Dunn’s alibi for the night of the murder was not strong, but he argued that it was not essential to establishing Dunn’s guilt, given the lack of evidence against him.

Dunn’s attorney, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, said she was “overjoyed” by the judge’s ruling

It is unclear whether Dunn will be released from prison as the attorney general’s office has appealed the judge’s ruling

Dunn’s potential freedom was made possible by a Missouri law passed in 2021 that allows prosecutors to request hearings when they see evidence of a wrongful conviction.

The law has led to the release of two men who have both spent decades in prison.

Lamar Johnson was released last year after serving 28 years for a murder case in which a judge ruled he was wrongly convicted.

Additionally, Kevin Strickland was released in 2021 after serving more than 40 years for three murders in Kansas City after a judge ruled he was wrongly convicted in 1979.

Next month, there will be a new hearing for Marcellus Williams, who narrowly escaped a lethal injection and is now again sentenced to death.