Man convicted of killing stepfather of Davontae Sanford gets 25-60 years
DETROIT (WJBK) - Floyd Nix, the man convicted of killing the stepfather of a Detroit man released after eight years for a quadruple homicide he didn't commit, was sentenced Thursday to at least 25 years in prison.
Nix was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison for the murder of Jermaine Tilmon. Tilmon, the stepfather of Davontae Sanford, was found shot to death on the city's east side in November 2016.
Sanford was freed from prison in 2016 after serving eight years for murdering four men when he was 14 years old.
Sanford, who was not present in court on Thursday for Nix's sentencing, has said that he's trying to move on from wrongful conviction. Just two weeks ago, Sanford was the focus of violence himself when he was shot near his apartment in the Martin Luther King Apartments as he was returning home from visitin his mother.
Sanford and his attorneys filed a wrongful imprisonment lawsuit against the state and the two Detroit police officers who arrested him for the quadruple homicide. The lawsuit seeks punitive and compensatory damages but an amount was not specified.
Just 15 days after he was sentenced to prison, a hitman confessed to the killings. It took another 8 years for Sanford to be freed.