DETROIT (AP) — A man who spent nearly 21 years in prison for the deaths of two Michigan hunters agreed to a $5.25 million settlement after accusing police of failing to turn over evidence that could have helped him at trial, a lawyer said Monday.
Jeff Titus was released in 2023 and his murder convictions were erased at the request of prosecutors. The Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school and two investigators got authorities to acknowledge that an Ohio serial killer might have been the person who killed the hunters in 1990.
Titus had long declared his innocence.
“It's been a long road for Jeff,” attorney Wolf Mueller said. “He's 74. He lost two decades of his life. The money doesn’t make up for the loss of decades, but it allows him to put this part of his life behind him.”
An email seeking comment from the lawyer who defended a retired homicide detective in the lawsuit wasn't immediately answered.
Doug Estes and Jim Bennett were fatally shot near Titus’ property in Kalamazoo County in 1990. Titus initially was cleared as a suspect, but murder charges were filed against him 12 years later. Prosecutors portrayed Titus as a hothead who didn’t like trespassers.
Students and staff at University of Michigan law school were trying to get him a new trial when a 30-page file from the original investigation was discovered at the county sheriff’s office. It was a blockbuster: It referred to an alternate suspect, Thomas Dillon of Magnolia, Ohio.
Jacinda Davis, at the TV network Investigation Discovery, and Susan Simpson, through the podcast “Undisclosed,” had raised doubts about Titus’ guilt and aired questions about Dillon’s possible role.
Dillon died in prison in 2011. He was arrested in 1993 and ultimately pleaded guilty to killing five people in Ohio who had been hunting, fishing or jogging.
The lawsuit that was settled Monday did not center on Dillon as an alternate suspect. Rather, police were accused of violating Titus' rights by not sharing information that could have cast doubt on the trial testimony of a key witness, Mueller said.
FILE -Jeff Titus speaks at a news conference after learning he will not face a second trial after his double murder conviction was overturned, Thursday, June 1, 2023 in Kalamazoo, Mich. (Marie Weidmayer/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP, File)
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — An elementary school bus returning from an educational trip to a scenic waterfall in Uganda veered off the road and overturned, killing at least 20 children and one adult and leaving at least nine children in critical condition, police and a government official said Friday.
The bus crashed Thursday night in the Kapchorwa District in eastern Uganda on the way back from the region’s Sipi Falls, the Uganda Police Force said in a statement posted on X.
Survivors, including three adults and several children, were taken to several hospitals, according to police. More than 28 children were being treated in hospitals, nine of them in critical condition, Ugandan Minister of Local Government Balaam Barugahara Ateenyi said on X.
The adult among the 21 people who died appeared to be the founder and head of the school, Barugahara said.
Video from the Uganda Red Cross showed bodies of victims in and around the wreckage as people arrived to help following the nighttime crash. Some of the survivors were transported to a hospital in a pick-up truck, according to the video provided to The Associated Press.
Education Minister John Muyingo said the government had suspended all school trips and tours across the country of around 45 million people in response to the tragedy.
The bus belonged to the King David Junior School, an elementary school in the capital, Kampala, police said. The village where police said the crash occurred is near the Uganda-Kenya border, some 300 kilometers (some 190 miles) from Kampala.
The driver reportedly lost control of the bus, which veered off the road, struck a rock and overturned, according to the police statement, which added that the information was preliminary and the cause of the crash was under investigation.
A police photo showed the bus lying on its side with the entire roof ripped off and the seats exposed, including some that were mangled. Luggage and clothing lay strewn on the road.
Road accidents are common in the East African nation and often are blamed on poorly maintained vehicles, speeding and poor road conditions, which are problems across Africa. At least 14 people died when a bus collided with a truck in a remote area of northern Uganda earlier this month.
Africa has the worst road safety record in the world, with more than 300,000 annual road deaths and around 26 deaths per 100,000 people. In Europe, which has far more road traffic, there are around 20,000 deaths yearly and nine deaths per 100,000 people, according to the World Health Organization and the United Nations.
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
A bus lies on the side of the road Friday, July 17, 2026, after it crashed Thursday night in the the Kapchorwa District in eastern Uganda. (AP Photo)
A bus lies on the side of the road Friday, July 17, 2026, after it crashed Thursday night in the the Kapchorwa District in eastern Uganda. (AP Photo)
