He's serving life for a fatal fire he says he didn't set – and evidence may now prove it
PONTIAC, Mich. – Anthony Kyles started serving his life sentence 24 years ago for firebombing a house in Michigan and killing four people, including three young children.
He insists he's innocent.
Evidence has emerged in his case raising fresh doubts about his guilt. A fire expert reexamined the case and determined the initial investigators "committed a grave error” concluding the fire was arson. A key witness has recanted, saying he lied to the jury about what he saw. And now, a Detroit Free Press investigation found that the witness appears to have received a break in his own criminal case despite a prosecutor's assurance to Kyles' jurors that he did not.
Kyles’ oldest child, Ashley Johnson, was 12 when a jury convicted her father of murder.
As an adult, Johnson wrote to the man who testified he watched her father light something on fire then throw it at the home before flames erupted the morning of Sept. 11, 1995.
“I’m hoping that after all of this time, you have had many days in which you thought about what you did to a man, who you know in your heart, didn’t set fire to that house,” she said in her 2011 letter to Keith Hollimon.
Johnson told him he could still fix the situation with the truth.
Hollimon, a prisoner himself at the time, responded, according to a handwritten letter reviewed by the Detroit Free Press, part of the Paste BN Network. Its contents contradict what he told jurors more than a decade earlier.
“Til this day, I regret my part,” the letter said.
During its investigation, the Free Press reviewed hundreds of pages of transcripts, reports, affidavits and other documents associated with the case, talked to dozens of people and sought additional records. The newspaper obtained three letters documenting Hollimon's cooperation with authorities – information Kyles said could have helped him at trial but he never saw until this year.
Kyles said jurors may have concluded that Hollimon received nothing for his testimony. The letters cast doubt on that and had jurors known about them, they might have acquitted him, Kyles said.
Kyles has a group of supporters who believe he is innocent and should be freed, including a fire expert, a private investigator and Kyles’ attorney. Others, including a now-retired FBI agent who worked the case, contend Kyles is guilty and belongs in prison.
The investigators initially ruled the fire arson. But years later, the case as reviewed by an outside fire investigator who concluded the fire couldn't be deemed arson.
That investigator said the fire was accidental, most likely caused by an improperly rewired cord on a space heater.
Megan Richardson, a supervising attorney at the Michigan Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School and Kyles' current attorney, said that information is game-changing.
“Mr. Kyles shouldn’t have to spend the rest of his life in prison for a crime that not only did he not commit but that didn’t actually occur,” she said. “This was a terrible, tragic accident.”
Fire erupts killing four
Gas service had been shut off before the 1995 fire at the two-story home located in Pontiac, Michigan, a suburb north of Detroit, because the bill hadn't been paid.
Shortly before the flames, one of the six children in the home told his parents – Robert Perry and Jacqueline Etchen – he was cold, a police report says. Perry got up and turned on an electric space heater that had recently been rewired using a lamp cord.
Etchen said the boy returned to his parents’ room and told them: “My room’s on fire!”
They jumped up. The time was about 6:30 a.m.
“Jackie states as she ran into the dining room area, Robert was beating at the fire with something trying to put it out,” a police report says. “Jackie said she yelled at Robert asking him what was on fire and he told her the heater.”
Etchen, who could not be reached by the Free Press, would testify that Robert brought three of their children out of the house and told her to take them across the street.
“He told me he loved me,” she said. “And he went back into the house.”
By that point, Etchen could see flames and hear the fire crackling.
Robert Perry, 37, risked his life to try to rescue Demetrius, 1, Mercedes, 2, and Albert, 5, from the burning home. All four died.
Neighbors said the fire appeared to have started on the porch and the front of the house was engulfed when firefighters arrived, a 1995 Free Press article said.
"We're working on the fire's origin and cause, but this is definitely a suspicious one," Pontiac Police Capt. Kermit Peters said at the time.
Investigators examined the space heater, plugs, cord and base moldings. They noted in a police report that the heater had been wired in a way that could make it dangerous but concluded the heater didn’t cause the fire.
Investigators determined an accelerant was used and the fire started on the front porch.
“Having eliminated all possible accidental causes for this fire, this case will be ruled as incendiary,” the report said. “And having resulted in the deaths, a homicide. The investigation continues.”
Information surfaces
More than three weeks after the fire, Hollimon talked to detectives. By that point, he and another man had been arrested in cases unrelated to the fire for breaking into apartments in Pontiac, records show.
The fire came up during an interview with Pontiac police the day of their arrests, Oct. 5, 1995. One of the detectives who interviewed Hollimon also was investigating how the fire started. He asked Hollimon whether he had information about the fire.
Hollimon, who was on parole when arrested, felt providing information might help him in his case, police said.
Hollimon, who would later testify that he was an acquaintance of Kyles, told detectives he had overheard Kyles having a conversation. Hollimon said Kyles was owed money, Kyles had the home burned and Hollimon didn't know who actually ignited the fire.
A multi-jurisdictional task force that included Pontiac police, the FBI and the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office also investigated the case. The task force was established in the '90s to investigate homicides in Pontiac.
Investigators with the task force thought Hollimon knew more than he initially told police. They questioned Hollimon several times in the months that followed the fire and pressed him for more information. He eventually implicated Kyles as the person he saw set the fire.
Meanwhile, Hollimon's own case was proceeding through the court system. In July 1996, Hollimon pleaded guilty in Oakland County Circuit Court to four counts of home invasion and being a habitual offender. During the hearing, there was discussion of sentencing him to the low end of the sentencing guidelines – a minimum of two years. Because of previous convictions, Hollimon could have faced up to life in prison, the court transcript shows.
When he testified about Kyles and the fire before a federal grand jury two weeks later, Hollimon hadn't been sentenced.
"We have subjected you to polygraphs to ensure ourselves that, in fact, you are telling the truth about whether or not (Kyles) actually threw this object at the house; is that right?" Hollimon was asked during the proceeding.
"Yes," he replied.
Federal authorities agreed to provide information about Hollimon's cooperation with them – likely through a letter to his attorney in the home invasion case – that could be turned over to the judge, a transcript of the federal grand jury proceeding shows.
The following month, in August 1996, an Oakland County Circuit Court judge sentenced Hollimon to one year in the county jail for the home invasion case. Attorneys and the judge had met privately in chambers before the sentence was imposed. There is no mention of Hollimon's cooperation in the brief sentencing transcript.
His codefendant received a sentence of 1-20 years in prison. The codefendant ended up serving two years, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.
The Free Press contacted Hollimon's attorney in the home invasion case who said he doesn't recall details after so many years. The assistant prosecutor on the case, now an Oakland County Circuit judge, didn't return messages from the Free Press, and the judge who presided over the case has died.
Case goes to trial
Despite the federal grand jury investigation, Kyles never faced charges in federal court. In February 1997, he was charged in state court with four counts of first-degree felony murder in Oakland County, Michigan.
His trial started in circuit court that October, two years after the fire.
Jurors heard that Kyles and Etchen, the children’s mother, were drug dealers.
The two feuded over drugs, Kyles threw a Molotov cocktail at her house and a witness saw it, then-Assistant Prosecutor Gregory Townsend said in his opening statement.
The firebomb caused the house to burst into flames and three children and their father died, he said.
Kyles' attorney during the trial, Phyllis Marks, told jurors that fake crack cocaine was sold from the house, angering several customers who got a ball of wax instead of drugs. She said the evidence would show other people had a motive to start the fire.
The defense did not dispute the prosecution’s theory that the fire was deliberately set.
Etchen, who admitted to selling fake drugs, testified that a day or two before the fire, Kyles had threatened to blow up her house over a drug dispute. He also had threatened her with a gun before the fire, she said.
Jurors also heard from Hollimon, who placed Kyles at the scene, and a detective who told jurors how he believed the fire started.
“There is no doubt in my mind that this fire was caused by the application of an accelerant to that front porch,” Detective Stewart Trepte testified.
Trepte, who worked in the detective bureau of the Pontiac Police Department and conducted fire investigations, told jurors the electric heater was examined and eliminated as a cause of the fire. Other accidental causes were also eliminated.
During questioning, he explained how a Molotov cocktail works. Accelerant is put in a container, like a glass bottle, and there’s a wick, which is sometimes paper or cloth. The wick is lit, the container is thrown and if the bottle breaks, the accelerant spreads and is on fire.
That matched what Hollimon described seeing Kyles do.
Hollimon said he saw Kyles light something in his hand, throw it at the house then saw flames break out on the porch area. Hollimon didn’t want to get involved in the case and was afraid of Kyles but eventually spoke to police three or four times, he said.
“It troubled me and I was really bothered by it.” Hollimon testified, about why he initially provided information to police. “I just wanted to get it off my chest.”
Under cross-examination, Kyles’ defense attorney questioned Hollimon's version of events, how he got his information and asked whether he was lying to protect himself.
“Isn’t it true, Mr. Hollimon, that you made every bit of this up to try to save yourself from what was going to happen to you as a result of picking up another case while you were on parole?”
“No,” Hollimon replied.
Before jurors began deliberations, Townsend summed up the prosecution’s theory in his closing argument: The defendant wanted to teach Etchen a lesson and show he was in charge. Townsend called Hollimon brave for ultimately coming forward to testify to what he saw and heard.
"What benefit did Keith Hollimon get?" Townsend said, according to the trial transcript. "None? What does he get out of this? Nothing," the prosecutor said.
Townsend told jurors the only promise Hollimon got was investigators would do their best to keep him and his family safe.
"The evidence in this case is overwhelming to this defendant's guilt," he said. "You have an eyewitness ... who saw it happen. ... He had no reason to come to this court and make that up."
Townsend didn't respond to messages from the Free Press about Kyles' case.
The defense attacked Hollimon's credibility, telling jurors he gave several different stories and reminding them of testimony that Hollimon thought providing information after his arrest may help in his own case.
Kyles' attorney said Hollimon lied to detectives, who she believed were seeking the truth, and also lied to jurors.
“The defense’s position is that Mr. Hollimon’s testimony is untruthful, fabricated, unbelievable and incredible,” she said.
Jury returns verdict
After 15 hours of deliberations over four days, the jury found Kyles guilty of lesser offenses: four counts of second-degree murder.
During Kyles' sentencing, a relative of the victims told him: "I wish you could see firsthand the pain that you inflicted on the three surviving children as well as our entire family."
Kyles also spoke.
"I cannot apologize for something that I had no part in whatsoever," he told the judge.
Kyles said he knew some of the people who died, including Robert, and shared in the family's pain.
“I’m not standing in front of this courtroom trying to portray that I’m a righteous man,” Kyles said, adding, “we all know that I have a record.”
He spent time in prison for drug crimes before his murder convictions and also had a conviction of retail fraud, records show.
Oakland Circuit Judge Deborah Tyner sentenced Kyles to life in prison.
"This was a tragedy and continues to be a tragedy for everybody involved," she said.
Daughter writes key witness
With her father locked up for life, Kyles' oldest daughter Johnson moved from Michigan to Alabama to live with her mother.
Over the years, Kyles repeatedly challenged his murder convictions through filings in state and federal court. Ultimately, those efforts were unsuccessful.
Fifteen years after the fire, Johnson, now 37, wrote Hollimon – something her father initially opposed, she said – because she was in pain about her dad's imprisonment.
Johnson did not say she was Kyles’ daughter in her 2011 letter. Instead, she identified herself as “a friend of someone you know.” She wrote no one was trying to hurt Hollimon or force him into anything.
She also said she knew Hollimon was forced into what he did.
“This man has spent all these years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, lost family and missed his children growing up all because of a lie," she wrote. "You still have a chance to fix the situation with the truth.”
Johnson closed by asking him to respond.
She received a handwritten letter back, dated Feb. 23, 2011. It said detectives got to Hollimon while he was in the Pontiac Police Department.
Hollimon wrote that investigators showed him pictures, said Kyles was involved with children getting hurt and they needed his help to bring justice for the kids. He also said he was offered help with his own case.
“They gave me all the information about the fire, how it got started and then said I would also get (a) reward for report of arson,” the letter said.
Hollimon wrote that he regretted his part.
“I was upset about the senseless loss of life of the children which they told me was his fault,” he said. “I don’t know how to get an affidavit or if it would help. But I’ve been trying to right that wrong for years. I hope this helps, God Bless.”
Stan Christ, a retired FBI agent who served as the task force officer in charge of the case, said Hollimon was adamant he saw Kyles toss the firebomb into the house and he believes Hollimon told the truth when he testified.
“There’s zero doubt in my mind that Anthony Kyles did this,” he told the Free Press in February. “He deserved what he got.”
Christ said he wasn't involved in determining the cause of the fire.
"There was a Molotov cocktail thrown into the house and that’s what caused the fire as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
Other detectives involved in the investigation, including those who testified they interviewed Hollimon, have also retired. Not all of them could be located for interviews.
An FBI spokeswoman deferred comment to the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office. The Pontiac Police Department was disbanded in 2011.
Reading Hollimon's letter transformed Kyles' outlook on life.
“That was a major turning point for me,” Kyles told the Free Press, adding that when he saw it, he said, “I can’t believe this guy finally told the truth.”
Kyles created an affidavit from the letter and included 10 questions for Hollimon to answer, according to Johnson, his daughter.
"What was conveyed to you as to why you only received one year in the county jail for the burglaries?" one of the questions asked.
Hollimon's handwritten response said: "Because of special circumstances."
Others examine heater
After receiving the affidavit from Hollimon, Kyles got a new lawyer, but after several years, he felt not enough progress had been made with the case.
In 2015, his family asked Scott Lewis, a former TV investigative reporter turned private investigator, for help. Lewis sent Hollimon an affidavit in prison, similar to the previous one. Kyles was working on a new appeal at the time and wanted a more recent affidavit, Lewis said.
In his affidavits, Hollimon recanted his testimony. He said he was not at the scene of the fire, didn’t know how the fire started and police promised they'd help with his case.
“That’s really strong evidence,” Lewis told the Free Press.
Hollimon answered the 10 questions again but this time was more specific about why his sentence was only one year – because of his help with the arson case.
In 2016, Lewis filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking to examine the space heater that was in the children’s room when the fire broke out. The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, which took over policing in Pontiac in 2011, had possession of it.
That inspection happened in March 2016. Robert Trenkle, a fire forensics analyst who has investigated thousands of fires over his lengthy career, accompanied Lewis.
Trenkle, who also reviewed investigative reports, photographs, court transcripts, laboratory analysis and fire diagrams in Kyles' case, later issued a report with his findings.
“This was an accidental fire and it most probably originated from the improperly rewired cord of the space heater,” Trenkle concluded.
His report said the "state’s investigators committed a grave error by concluding this fire was arson," their conclusions were not based on proper scientific methodology and the investigators’ "tunnel vision" prevented them from seeing the most probable cause: the electric space heater. Without further interviews, he couldn’t eliminate children playing with matches or a lighter as a potential cause, his report said.
Trenkle told the Free Press he was convinced that Kyles is innocent of starting the fire.
“The fire,” Trenkle said, “100% started in the bedroom.”
The Free Press could not reach Trepte, the detective who testified more than two decades ago about what he believed caused the fire, for comment.
Lewis, who also said he believes Kyles is innocent, and Trenkle alerted the Michigan Innocence Clinic of the developments and the clinic launched its own investigation.
In 2017, Hollimon was paroled from prison. In 2018, students with the clinic and a supervising attorney met with Hollimon at a Burger King, said Richardson, Kyles' current attorney. Hollimon wanted to make good on something he knows he shouldn't have done, she said.
Then in March 2019, the space heater and its wiring got another look over, this time from an electrician.
Michael Mathews, who has investigated hundreds of fires, told the Free Press he believes the space heater is the probable cause of the fire.
"I don’t believe the fire started on the porch," he said.
Dedicated to the truth
In a recent email to the Free Press, one of the detectives who served on the task force and worked on the case in the '90s said he was dedicated to the truth then and now.
Retired Oakland County Sheriff's Office Detective Sgt. Mark Goodrich wrote that he's sure all the investigators in his crew knew that "you don't give anyone information that they just regurgitate back to make a case."
Goodrich, who has been retired more than 20 years, said witness testimony can be motivated by many things, and investigators used a polygraph test and attempted to corroborate information whenever possible.
"Although very skeptical of this late appeal, I would never want Mr. Kyles to languish in prison for a crime he didn't commit, if that's the case," he wrote.
Ernest Perry lost his father and three of his siblings in the fire and told the Free Press he doesn't believe the fire was an accident.
He was in the home when the fire broke out, said he believes Kyles is guilty and should remain behind bars.
“I don’t want this man out," he said earlier this year.
'I lied'
Last month, Hollimon told the Free Press he's not sure of Kyles' guilt or innocence.
“I just know my part ... should never have occurred,” he said during a phone interview.
Hollimon reiterated some of what was in the letter to Kyles' daughter written more than a decade ago and the affidavits he signed after that.
“I was not there,” Hollimon told the Free Press. “I lied about being there.”
Over the years, Hollimon spent time behind bars for crimes including receiving and concealing stolen property, home invasion and weapons charges, a spokeswoman for the department of corrections said.
Hollimon said he has felt shame and embarrassment for his involvement in Kyles’ case. He said he was shown pictures of the corpses, told Kyles was responsible for a "horrendous crime against children" and was presented with an opportunity to get out of his own legal trouble.
When the Free Press asked whether he got a deal in his own case, Hollimon said he received a lighter sentence.
Hours after his arrest around the time of the fire, Hollimon heard from a Pontiac detective who said he would present information of his cooperation to the prosecutor's office but could make no other promises. It's unclear from records reviewed by the Free Press what police conveyed to prosecutors about his cooperation or when.
Regardless, it's clear the prosecutor's office was informed about Hollimon's assistance by a federal prosecutor who wrote three letters documenting it, records obtained by the Free Press show. The letters – all dated in 1996 before Hollimon was sentenced for home invasion – were addressed to Hollimon's attorney and also given to the prosecutor on the case.
"I am writing this letter to acknowledge the interviews your client has provided regarding a continuing federal investigation," one of the letters said. "Mr. (Hollimon) has provided several interviews regarding a subject currently under investigation by federal and state authorities."
The federal prosecutor went on to say he would continue to provide updated information about Hollimon's cooperation "should he continue to cooperate." Hollimon did continue cooperating. A week later he testified before a federal grand jury about the fire.
The Free Press obtained copies of the letters under Michigan's Freedom of Information Act from the county prosecutor's office. They were records in Hollimon's home invasion case. Hollimon and Kyles had different prosecutors on their cases.
Kyles said he had never seen the letters before the Free Press obtained them earlier this year.
Hollimon was never asked about the letters – and the questions they raise about getting a potential break in his case – during Kyles' trial, even though both sides knew Hollimon had testified before a federal grand jury and they appeared to have the grand jury transcript that mentioned a letter.
The federal prosecutor who authored the letters is no longer with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne Pratt, a supervisor when they were written, told the Free Press the agreement between the federal government and Hollimon was put on the grand jury record and it was agreed to under oath.
"That’s the right way to do it," Pratt said.
The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, not the federal government, was required to disclose all deals with the witness, he said.
Richardson, Kyles' attorney, said the logical conclusion is Hollimon was getting something for his cooperation. Richardson said she doesn't believe the information was adequately relayed to Kyles’ jury.
She hopes the next step in Kyles' case is the new Conviction Integrity Unit at the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office reviews it.
Investigators relied on outdated science to conclude the fire was arson and Hollimon recanted, she said.
“I completely believe in Mr. Kyles' innocence," Richardson said.
'Tip of an iceberg'
Kyles' case will be one of the first to get another look by the Conviction Integrity Unit that launched this year, Beth Greenberg Morrow, the unit's director, told the Free Press this month.
"His case will be fully reviewed and investigated," she said.
Richardson said witnesses like Hollimon, whom she described as a jailhouse informant, have repeatedly led to injustices in Michigan and the problem could be worse than is known.
Hollimon, she said, had the option of cooperating with law enforcement, pointing the finger at someone and receiving a lenient sentence.
“A lot of people would probably do what he did,” Richardson said.
Reforms, including tracking jailhouse informant testimony, are needed, she said.
At least eight men whose cases involved jailhouse informants have had their convictions overturned since 2018 in Michigan.
“We’re at the tip of an iceberg in terms of the use of jailhouse informant testimony and how that’s led to wrongful convictions in the state,” Richardson said. “I think there are probably a lot of people ... who are serving time for crimes they didn’t commit because of the use of jailhouse informants.”
Kyles' hope for future
During an interview with the Free Press from prison, Kyles said he hopes the truth will be known one day.
He said he has never wavered about his innocence.
Kyles says he’s not angry. But he wants more protections put in place.
He lost decades with his children. Kyles, now 54, wants to spend the time he has left with his kids and grandchildren.
He said he believes Hollimon's words were important to his conviction but not as crucial as the testimony from the expert fire investigator who told jurors how he believed the fire started.
He was relieved when he heard another fire investigator conclude that the likely cause of the fire was the space heater.
That was what Etchen told investigators her boyfriend said was on fire before he died, Kyles said.
“From day one, Sept. 11,1995, (investigators) knew the space heater was the potential cause of the fire,” he said. “And I’ve been here for over 24 years and counting now.”
Both of Kyles' parents died since he has been in prison – one in 2005 and the other in 2006.
He said he had comfort knowing they believed he was innocent. If he is released, Kyles said one of the first things he'll do is visit their graves.
“And let them know that I made it home.”
Follow reporter Elisha Anderson on Twitter: @elishaanderson
Timeline in case
Sept. 11, 1995: A fire at a home in Pontiac kills four people, including three young children.
Oct. 5, 1995: Police arrest Keith Hollimon and another man for breaking into apartments.
April 4, 1996: The man arrested with Hollimon is sentenced to 1-20 years in prison. He serves two years before he is paroled in April 1998.
1996: A federal prosecutor documents Hollimon's cooperation with authorities and provides three letters to Hollimon's defense attorney in the home invasion case and the prosecutor in that case. They are all dated before Hollimon's sentencing.
Aug. 22, 1996: Hollimon is sentenced to one year in the county jail in his home invasion case. By that point, he has cooperated with authorities and testified before a federal grand jury about the fire.
February 1997: Anthony Kyles is charged with four counts of first-degree felony murder for the deaths of the four people who died in the fire.
October 1997: Kyles’ murder trial is held in Oakland County Circuit Court. Hollimon testifies he saw Kyles start the fire. The prosecutor tells jurors Hollimon didn't receive a benefit in his own case. A jury finds Kyles guilty of four counts of second-degree murder and he is sentenced to life in prison.
2011: Ashley Johnson, Kyles' oldest child, sends a letter to Hollimon and receives a response. Hollimon would later sign affidavits recanting his earlier testimony.
March 2016: A fire forensics analyst inspects the space heater that was in the children’s room the night of the fire. He later writes a report that says the fire was accidental and "most probably originated from the improperly rewired cord of the space heater."
March 2019: An electrician examines the space heater and wiring. He later tells the Free Press he believes the space heater is the probable cause of the fire.
February 2022: Kyles says he never saw the letters obtained by the Free Press that show Hollimon's assistance with authorities before Kyles' trial. Megan Richardson, his attorney, says the logical conclusion is Hollimon was getting something for his cooperation, and she doesn't believe that was adequately relayed to the jury.
February 2022: Hollimon tells the Free Press detectives gave him information about the fire, says he lied about being at the scene and received a lighter sentence in his case.
March 2022: The director of the new Conviction Integrity Unit at the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office tells the Free Press that Kyles' case will be reviewed by her unit.