ST. LOUIS — A Missouri judge on Monday upheld the conviction of Christopher Dunnwho has been in prison for more than 30 years for a murder he has always maintained he did not commit.
The ruling will likely release Dunn from prison, but it was not immediately clear when that would happen. He was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The ruling by St. Louis Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser came weeks after he presided over a three-day hearing on Dunn’s fate.
Dunn, now 52, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1990 shooting death of 15-year-old Ricco Rogers. St. Louis District Attorney Gabe Gore filed a motion in February to throw out the guilty verdict. A hearing was set for May.
Sengheiser wrote in his ruling that the “circuit counsel has made a clear and convincing demonstration of ‘actual innocence’ which undermines the basis for Dunn’s convictions because in light of new evidence no juror, acting reasonably, would have voted to find Dunn guilty of these crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Dunn’s attorney, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, said she was “overjoyed” by the judge’s ruling.
“Chris now looks forward to spending time with his wife and family as a free man,” Bushnell said in a statement.
The Missouri attorney general’s office opposed the effort to throw out Dunn’s conviction. Attorneys for the state said at the May hearing that initial testimony from two boys at the scene who identified Dunn as the shooter was accurate, even though they later recanted their testimony as adults.
“That sentence was correct and that sentence should stand,” Assistant Attorney General Tristin Estep said during the hearing.
Spokesperson Madeline Sieren said the attorney general’s office will appeal.
The decision in Dunn’s case came a few days later Sandra Hemme was released from a western Missouri prison after serving 43 years for a murder a judge ruled she did not commit. Bailey’s office also opposed Hemme’s release.
A law from Missouri adopted in 2021 allows prosecutors to request hearings when they see evidence of a wrongful conviction. While Bailey’s office is not required to oppose such efforts, he also opposed another effort in St. Louis that resulted in Lamar Johnson Last year he was released after serving 28 years for a murder case in which a judge ruled he had been wrongly convicted.
Rogers was shot on May 18, 1990, when a gunman opened fire while he was outside a home with a group of other teenage boys. DeMorris Stepp, 14, and Michael Davis Jr., 12, initially identified Dunn as the shooter.
In a recorded interview played during the hearing, Davis said he lied because he believed Dunn had ties to a rival gang.
Stepp’s story has changed a few times over the years, Gore said during the hearing. He recently said he did not believe Dunn was the shooter. Gore said another judge previously found Stepp to be a “completely unreliable witness” and urged Sengheiser to rule him out altogether.
Dunn has said he was at his mother’s house at the time of the shooting. Childhood friend Nicole Bailey testified that she had spoken to him on the phone that evening and that he was on the phone at his mother’s house.
Estep, the assistant attorney general, said the alibi was not reliable and that Dunn’s story had changed several times over the years. Dunn did not testify at the hearing.
The 2021 law resulted in the release of two men who had both spent decades in prison. In addition to Johnson, Kevin Strickland was released in 2021 after serving more than 40 years for three murders in Kansas City after a judge ruled that he wrongly convicted in 1979.
There will be another hearing next month Marcellus Williamswho narrowly escaped a lethal injection and is now sentenced to death again.
St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell filed a motion in January to throw out the conviction of Williams, who was convicted in the 1998 stabbing death of Lisha Gayle. Bell’s motion said three experts had determined that Williams’ DNA was not on the handle of the butcher knife used in the killing.
Williams was hours away from execution in 2017 when then-Governor Eric Greitens blocked it and appointed a commission of inquiry to investigate his claim of innocence. The commission never made a ruling, and Gov. Mike Parson, like Greitens a Republican, solved last year.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled this month that Parson had the authority to dissolve the board and set a new execution date of September 24.