QUOTE OF THE DAY: "“Fabricating testimony or evidence in order to defraud the courts drives a stake into the heart of our criminal justice system,” Nessel said in a statement. “Exposing such conduct and ensuring that false evidence is not submitted to or accepted by our courts is vital to the safety and wellbeing of Michigan residents.”
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PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "Smothers, meanwhile, has a long, documented history of trying to free convicted criminals by taking the rap for them. It was unclear Aug. 28 whether this latest charge may influence prosecutors to reconsider or question any of those previous cases. "The investigation is ongoing to see if there are other cases in which it's possible that Mr. Smothers fabricated evidence or supplied a false affidavit," said Nessel, noting authorities are well aware of other crimes that Smothers has claimed responsibility for."'
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "For example, in 2015, Smothers took credit for a 2007 quadruple murder that 14-year-old Davontae Sanford was convicted of, maintaining that he shot and killed the victims — not the teenage boy. In a sworn document, Smothers said that he and another man shot and killed a man named Mike Robinson, along with three bystanders in Robinson's drug house. "I cannot emphasize strongly enough that Davontae Sanford was not involved in the September 17, 2007, murders at 19741 Runyon Street in any way," Smothers stated in the affidavit, signed in prison where he was serving time for eight other admitted killings. "I had never met, spoken with, or even heard of Davontae Sanford or anyone connected to him. Davontae Sanford is being wrongly incarcerated for a crime that I know he did not commit." After eight years in prison, Sanford was ultimately freed in 2016, and later won a $7.5 million settlement with the city of Detroit over his wrongful incarceration due to police misconduct during the teen's interrogation, not Smothers' confession."
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STORY: "AG Nessel: Notorious hitman Vincent Smothers lied to help a convicted killer," by Reporter Tresa Ballads, published by The Detroit Free Press, on August 28, 2025.
- Highlights: Convicted hitman Vincent Smothers is charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to a court to free a convicted killer.
- Smothers is also charged with possessing contraband, a cell phone, in his prison cell.
- The charges stem from Smothers' alleged false affidavit and written communications discovered as a result of the confiscated cell phone.
GIST: "After years of taking the blame for other people's crimes, notorious hitman Vincent Smothers has been charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to a court to help a convicted killer: a beauty salon killer who had sought out his help, and got it, according to the Michigan Attorney General's Office.
Smothers has also been charged with possessing contraband: a cell phone he allegedly snuck into his prison cell in Muskegon County, where he is serving his 52- to 100-year prison sentence for a 2010 second-degree murder conviction involving the deaths of eight people.
"He has ruined many lives," Attorney General Dana Nessel said of Smothers at a Thursday, Aug. 28 news conference, during which she announced the charges against Smothers and noted that he has claimed responsibility for many crimes committed by others.
When asked what would motivate Smothers to do this, Nessel said: "Money," though she did not elaborate.
Nessel also announced charges against the prisoner Smothers allegedly tried to help: Shannon Anderson, 46, who is serving 17-40 years in prison for a 2007 fatal shooting he committed at an Eastpointe beauty salon. According to Nessel, Anderson recruited Smothers to help him bolster his claim that he acted in self-defense on the day of the salon killing, and that Smothers obliged.
According to Nessel, Smothers agreed to sign a false affidavit in May 2019, attesting to details of the beauty salon shooting that bolstered Anderson's self-defense story. Less than a year later, Anderson’s attorney filed a motion seeking a new trial based on new evidence — Smothers’ false affidavit — but that motion was ultimately denied by the court.
“Fabricating testimony or evidence in order to defraud the courts drives a stake into the heart of our criminal justice system,” Nessel said in a statement. “Exposing such conduct and ensuring that false evidence is not submitted to or accepted by our courts is vital to the safety and wellbeing of Michigan residents.”
According to Nessel, it was the cell phone that Smothers was caught in possession of that led to the discovery of his scheme with Anderson. After Smothers was caught possessing a cell phone in May, she said, authorities went on to search his prison cell, where they discovered written communications that laid the foundation for the latest charges.
Nessel said the investigation involving Smothers is ongoing.
Smothers, meanwhile, has a long, documented history of trying to free convicted criminals by taking the rap for them. It was unclear Aug. 28 whether this latest charge may influence prosecutors to reconsider or question any of those previous cases.
"The investigation is ongoing to see if there are other cases in which it's possible that Mr. Smothers fabricated evidence or supplied a false affidavit," said Nessel, noting authorities are well aware of other crimes that Smothers has claimed responsibility for.
For example, in 2015, Smothers took credit for a 2007 quadruple murder that 14-year-old Davontae Sanford was convicted of, maintaining that he shot and killed the victims — not the teenage boy. In a sworn document, Smothers said that he and another man shot and killed a man named Mike Robinson, along with three bystanders in Robinson's drug house.
"I cannot emphasize strongly enough that Davontae Sanford was not involved in the September 17, 2007, murders at 19741 Runyon Street in any way," Smothers stated in the affidavit, signed in prison where he was serving time for eight other admitted killings. "I had never met, spoken with, or even heard of Davontae Sanford or anyone connected to him. Davontae Sanford is being wrongly incarcerated for a crime that I know he did not commit."
After eight years in prison, Sanford was ultimately freed in 2016, and later won a $7.5 million settlement with the city of Detroit over his wrongful incarceration due to police misconduct during the teen's interrogation, not Smothers' confession.
In 2018, Smothers also tried to take credit for the killing of a drug dealer — a crime that a defendant known as Thelonious Searcy was convicted of in 2005.
Searcy, who has long maintained he is innocent, was scheduled to be retried for the drug dealer's death next month, on Sept. 8, and Smothers was scheduled to testify in that retrial, and again confess to the killing, according to Searcy's lawyer, Michael Dezsi. But the Michigan Supreme Court intervened and stopped the retrial for reasons unrelated to Smothers.
According to Dezsi, the prosecution has long held that Smothers gave a false confession in this case, and may have been paid for it. But "while the prosecutors have always made clear they don’t believe Smothers, they have never produced any evidence whatsoever to support their claim that Smothers’ confession was false or paid for," Dezsi said, adding: " ... if they have evidence that Smother’s confession is false, or paid for, they have yet to produce such evidence to me or to the court.""
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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