At about 10 p.m. on February 24, 1985, two men entered an apartment building at 50 East Philadelphia Street in Detroit, Michigan, where they confronted 45-year-old Roger Cottingham, who dealt drugs from apartment Number 2.
Edith Gibson, who was present, later told police that the men demanded money and shot Cottingham in the back. She said that she was ordered to remove money and drugs from Cottingham’s pants, and both men fled. She told police the shooter was Joseph Johnson and said she did not know who the other man was.
Leroy Gigger, who also was present, told police that Jerry Littleton was one of two men. Gigger and Gibson both said that a man named Anthony Garrett had left the apartment just before the two men entered.
On February 25, 1985, Littleton and Johnson were charged with Cottingham’s murder after Gigger, Gibson, and Garrett identified them in photographic lineups.
However, on March 4, 1985, the prosecution dismissed the charges against Littleton after Gibson, Garrett, and Gigger recanted their identifications. In the motion to dismiss, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office said that they had subsequently identified 22-year-old Kenneth Milton as Johnson’s accomplice. The motion said that Milton had been arrested and that he and Johnson had both confessed to the murder.
In September 1985, their cases were tried separately. Johnson chose to have his case decided by a judge instead of a jury. On August 28, 1985, Detroit Recorder’s Court Judge Samuel Gardner convicted Johnson of second-degree murder. Johnson was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
In September, Milton went to trial before a jury in Detroit Recorder’s Court. Gibson identified him as the shooter. She testified that Milton struck Cottingham in the head with the gun, fired a shot into the floor, and shot Cottingham in the back. During cross-examination, she admitted that at the time of the shooting, she had a $70 to $80 a day heroin habit.
Gigger did not testify because he was dead. Garrett was called as a witness, but refused to testify after invoking his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.
On September 26, 1985, the jury convicted Milton of first-degree murder and using a firearm in the commission of a crime. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
His conviction was affirmed in 1988 by the Michigan Court of Appeals. Over the next several years, Milton filed motions seeking relief from judgment, but the motions were denied. In 2020, the Michigan Supreme Court remanded the case back to the trial court for a hearing on Milton’s claims.
Among his assertions were that prior to the shooting, a witness, 12-year-old Steven Jackson, was in a car with Johnson, Littleton, and a man known as “Taxi Tony,” a nickname used by Garrett. According to an affidavit from Jackson given several years after the shooting, Garrett pulled the car into the parking lot next to a house on Philadelphia Street.
Jackson said Littleton and Johnson got out of the car, drew guns, and went onto the porch of the building. According to Jackson, several minutes later, they came out of the house with their guns in their hands, and Johnson purportedly said, “Jerry shot Roger.” As Garrett drove away, Garrett asked them if Roger was dead, and they said that they did not know.
When Littleton asked what was going to happen next, Garrett told him not to worry about it because he had something planned. Jackson said he had told his mother what he saw, and she drove him to the police station where he gave his statement. That statement had not been disclosed to Milton prior to his trial.
Milton also filed an affidavit from Althon Vann, who said that sometime prior to the murder, he was at Garrett’s house with Littleton talking about committing a robbery at a home on Philadelphia Street. Vann said that Garrett and Littleton asked Vann to join them because there would be plenty of money to go around. According to Vann, the intent was to scare off rival drug dealers in the area. Vann said he did not go with them.
Sometime after the murder, Vann encountered Littleton in the Wayne County jail. According to Vann, Littleton told Vann that he was lucky he did not come with them to the robbery because things went bad, and a man got killed. Vann claimed that Littleton admitted to shooting a man in the head. Vann said he asked Littleton if he had a chance of beating the charge and that Littleton told him that Garrett was going to pay off the only witness who could identify him and “Joe” as the shooters.
Vann said that Littleton said he was going to give the witness 10 bundles of heroin and $2,500 dollars in cash and that Milton would be framed for the murder.
The prosecution said the affidavits contained false information. Jackson’s affidavit said the conversation he had in the car with Garrett, Johnson, and Littleton was before 8 p.m., but the murder took place after 10 p.m.
After the remand, the evidentiary hearing on Milton’s claims was put on hold as the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) investigated the case.
In May 2022, Johnson was released on parole.
The CIU discovered that the prosecution’s claim that Milton had confessed when the case against Littleton was dismissed and Milton was charged was not true. The CIU also established that Garrett, Johnson, and Littleton were involved in a drug-selling operation that was located in the building on East Philadelphia Street.
In October 2024, the CIU and Rachel Wolfe, attorney for Milton, filed a joint order agreeing to vacate Milton’s convictions and to dismiss the case.
The order noted, “Milton did not confess and steadfastly maintained his innocence.” The order also said that “Milton was an outsider” to the drug-dealing of Garrett, Littleton, and Johnson. Garrett told the CIU that Milton “was not involved in the drug trade, and did not sell for him.”
“The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office and Mr. Milton stipulate that there is reason to believe that if the jury knew this information about Garrett, Littleton and Johnson, it is likely it would not have convicted Mr. Milton in this case,” the order said.
On October 30, 2024, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Shannon Walker vacated Milton’s convictions, and the case was dismissed. Milton was released more than 39 years after his conviction.
In October 2025, Milton was awarded $1,954,162 in compensation from the state of Michigan. In November 2025, Milton filed a federal lawsuit against Elmer Harris, the lead detective in the case, for failing to disclose Jackson’s statement to the prosecution.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 05-04-2026
