Just after 10 p.m. on June 22, 2015, 37-year-old Paul Mitchell was shot to death in his car on the east side of Detroit, Michigan. Otis Parker, a passenger in the car, was not injured.
Before the shooting, Parker and his friends and family had watched a fireworks display along the Detroit River. (Mitchell had stayed behind.) After the event ended, Parker and the others were walking home, and a 13-year-old boy tossed a firecracker in the air that landed near a group of men. There was an altercation, which included one of the men displaying a gun.
A short while later, Mitchell and Parker went on a beer run, and the shooting occurred while Mitchell was leaving the parking lot of his apartment complex.
Investigators with the Detroit Police Department believed Mitchell’s shooting was connected to the earlier confrontation after the fireworks.
Parker said he could not identify the shooter, but witnesses told police about the altercation after the fireworks and described the person whom they believed to be the shooter as a Black man with short to medium twists, dreadlocks, or braids in his hair.
The police had recovered a surveillance video from the area where the shooting occurred. It showed a silver car cruising suspiciously in the vicinity. The police stopped a silver car a few hours later, arresting Niko Evans for a traffic violation.
At the police station, Evans gave a statement implicating Dorian Lyles and a man named Devon Douglas. A detective asked Evans whether he witnessed the shooting. Evans answered, “It was them two, Dorian and Von.”
Evans later identified Lyles from a photo array.
On June 26, 2015, Jacquelyn Williams, Mitchell’s aunt, selected Lyles from a photo array as one of the men in the altercation after the fireworks. She told a detective, “This was the one that was talking the most when I said I see you every day. He made the statement, ‘[You] better not walk up on me.’ I didn’t see a gun on him.”
Despite those identifications and a separate Crime Stoppers tip regarding Lyles, the investigation on his involvement stalled. Lyles gave a statement to police on July 14, 2015. He said he was with his girlfriend and his son at the time of the shooting and was not involved with the crime.
On July 22, 2015, Williams and her daughter, Ayanna Williams, each viewed a photo array that included a year-old mugshot of 31-year-old Dorreon McBride. Each woman selected McBride and said he displayed a gun. Parker also looked at an array containing McBride’s photo but did not make an identification. (Court records don’t say how McBride’s photo came to be included in the array, but a later motion filed by McBride’s attorneys said, “Mr. McBride’s name was linked to these crimes through a series of unfortunate events— including the fact that a man with a similar name [Dorian Lyles] was originally thought to be involved.”)
Police arrested McBride on July 25, 2015, charging him with first-degree murder, assault with intent to murder, carrying a concealed weapon, and using a firearm in the commission of a felony.
At a pre-trial hearing, McBride’s attorney, Wright Blake, sought to quash the identifications made by the Williamses, arguing that they had been tainted because the women had seen videos of McBride prior to viewing the photo arrays. The judge denied the request, stating, “It may not be proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but that’s for a jury to determine … There’s probable cause, which is a very low standard.”
McBride went to trial in December 2015 in Wayne County Circuit Court. No witnesses placed McBride at the crime scene, and on December 15, 2015, a jury convicted him of carrying a concealed weapon but was unable to reach a verdict on the other charges, resulting in a mistrial on those counts. The judge sentenced McBride to five years in prison.
His retrial began on May 16, 2016. As at the first trial, Wright Blake represented McBride.
Jacquelyn Williams testified about the altercation. She said that after the child threw the firecracker in the air, six or seven men approached the boy. Williams said she recognized some of the men from the neighborhood. She said she told the men that it was just kids playing around, and one of the men said, “We don’t give a fuck about the kids.”
The argument continued. Williams said that McBride was among the group, wearing black shorts and a black shirt with a design of orange, red, and yellow. She said her son, Anthony Williams, told McBride that life was short, and McBride responded, “not for us,” then lifted his shirt to display a gun.
During cross-examination and on re-direct, Williams testified that prior to selecting McBride’s photo in the array, she had seen him in YouTube videos created from surveillance videos taken at a nearby liquor store. She said that watching these videos, which included other individuals who took part in the altercation before the shooting, led her to identify McBride. She said that it appeared in the videos that McBride was trying to grow his hair out.
Ayanna Williams also identified McBride as the man who flashed a gun during the altercation but testified that it was she—not her brother—who told McBride that life was short. On cross-examination, Ayanna Williams testified that she had seen a video of McBride rapping prior to viewing the photo array.
Parker testified but did not identify McBride as the shooter. He did say that the man who threatened the Williamses after the fireworks wore clothes similar to those worn by the man who shot Mitchell.
The state had a new witness at the second trial. Kevin Corley testified that he met McBride in July 2015, when they were both in the Wayne County Jail. Corley was charged with attempted murder and other crimes. (He reached a plea deal with prosecutors after implicating his co-defendant.) Corley testified that McBride told him he was “high on Xanax” when he shot Mitchell with a 9 mm handgun and that Parker was the intended target. He also said that McBride told him that the driver of another vehicle blocked Mitchell’s exit. Corley testified that he was friends with Mitchell’s family and informally attended Mitchell’s funeral.
During cross-examination, Corley testified about his criminal background, which he said included illegal gun trading with a Russian arms dealer and working with doctors who provided illegal prescriptions.
After his arrest, McBride had given a statement to police, asserting his innocence and lack of involvement with the shooting. During the initial questioning, McBride provided police with his cellphone number.
The state moved to introduce that brief section of his interview into evidence. Blake objected and said that the state needed to introduce the entire interview. Judge Dalton Roberson overruled Blake.
With this evidence introduced, Detective Michael McGinnis testified as an expert on cellphone records, including analysis and mapping. He testified that the phone tied to McBride pinged cellphone towers near the crime scene on June 22, 2015.
Antoine Crump, one of Blake’s clients in an unrelated case, testified that Blake advised his clients not to talk to other inmates about their cases. He said he never heard McBride discuss his case with Corley.
Ashlee Russell testified that she was with McBride most of June 22, shopping for groceries and then going to a barbecue at the house of McBride’s grandmother. She said that McBride was wearing pants and a black shirt with an Army pattern. She said they split up at around 10 p.m., and McBride was at her place when she got home at around 1 a.m.
Russell testified that she didn’t know Mitchell or Parker. She testified that she knew Evans and that it was possible that McBride knew him as well. (The state’s theory was that Evans was the driver of the second car that Corley testified had blocked Mitchell’s exit.)
McBride testified that he was napping at Russell’s house at the time of the shooting and did not know either Parker or Mitchell. He said he was on disability at the time because of Crohn’s disease. He also said that his hair was short in June 2015, and he was not trying to grow braids or twists.
During rebuttal, the state sought to introduce a two-minute clip of McBride’s video interview with police, where police questioned McBride about what he heard that night. Blake again objected, arguing that the rule of completeness required the state to introduce the entire interview. Judge Dalton Roberson again overruled the objection.
During the interview. McBride said that he heard gunshots while he was near a DJ booth on the night of the fireworks. This appeared to impeach his testimony that he was asleep during the critical period of the altercation and the shooting.
On redirect, McBride testified that the police did not tell him when the shooting occurred, and he must have heard the shots he referred to before he fell asleep.
During his closing argument, the prosecutor returned to this brief portion of McBride’s interview, telling jurors that McBride had given detectives a “completely different story.”
On May 20, 2016, the jury convicted McBride of first-degree murder, assault with intent to murder, and possession of a firearm during a felony. Judge Roberson sentenced him to life in prison without parole.
McBride, now represented by Kristina Dunne, appealed. He claimed that Judge Roberson had erred in allowing the state to cherry-pick parts of his interview to introduce as evidence. McBride also claimed that Blake had provided ineffective representation by not adequately preparing him to testify and not moving to suppress the identifications made by Jacquelyn and Ayanna Williams.
Dunne had sought to have a judge hold a hearing on the claim of ineffective assistance, and she would later say in court filings that her ability to develop this claim was hampered by Blake’s refusal to provide her with his trial files. In early 2017, a judge signed an order requiring Blake to give Dunne access to the files, and Dunne would later supplement her appeal based on some of this information.
On January 23, 2018, the Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed McBride’s conviction. It said the “rule of completeness” with regards to statements made by defendants was not absolute and simply required the introduction of other evidence that out of fairness ought to be considered by the jury. It also said that Blake had either waived or not properly raised his objections to the use of the snippets of McBride’s statement.
The appellate court also rejected McBride’s claim of ineffective representation at trial.
McBride sought leave to appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court. By now, Dunne had more fully developed a claim of ineffective representation, which said that Blake had failed to introduce exculpatory evidence, including: witness statements that said McBride’s hair was short at the time of the shooting; photos confirming that length; and cellphone records indicating that McBride didn’t use his cellphone between 8:25 p.m.-10:38 p.m. on June 22, supporting his alibi that he was asleep at the time of the shooting.
She said in a filing that the Court of Appeals erred in not calling for an evidentiary hearing on Blake’s trial work and led to an incongruous ‘Catch-22’ opinion from the court of appeals affirming Mr. McBride’s convictions but finding that his meritorious issues on appeal were ‘waived’ by retained counsel Wright Blake’s inaction.”
The Michigan Supreme Court denied McBride’s leave to appeal on July 3, 2018.
On November 13, 2018, McBride filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The petition repeated most of the claims made in state court. A judge dismissed the case on September 30, 2019, ruling that McBride had not exhausted all his avenues through the state courts. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the ruling on August 4, 2023.
In early 2020, while his habeas petition was pending, McBride asked the Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) of the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office to review his case. The CIU began a reinvestigation, working with students at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law’s Conviction Integrity Clinic. In 2021, Corley recanted, telling the CIU that he testified falsely at McBride’s trial in hopes of getting a reduced sentence.
On February 26, 2024, Judge Margaret Van Houten of Wayne County Circuit Court vacated McBride’s conviction for murder, assault, and possession of a firearm during a felony. Those charges were dismissed, and McBride was released from prison. Judge Van Houten’s order did not vacate the earlier conviction for carrying a concealed weapon.
Prior to Judge Van Houten’s order, the CIU and Dunne had stipulated that “there is substantial reason to believe that without the informant’s testimony, the jury would again not have convicted Mr. McBride of the murder and other charges related to the murder.” The stipulation noted that Corley had recanted and that Parker, the only eyewitness to the shooting, had not made an identification.
After his release, McBride filed a claim for state compensation, and he received $150,000 in compensation in July 2025.
– Ken Otterbourg
Posting Date: 11-08-2025
