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)
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Alexander Rossi was taken to a hospital for further evaluation after he crashed early in Monday's practice for the Indianapolis 500.
Rossi spun going through the second turn on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's 2.5-mile oval, hitting the outside wall before the car skidded down the track with the rear end of his No. 20 car briefly dragging along the top of the wall. The trailing Pato O'Ward tried to avoid a collision but couldn't stop in time and hit the side of Rossi's car, and Romain Grosjean was also collected in the crash.
Rossi appeared unsteady when he first tried to climb into a vehicle that took him to the track's infield medical care center.
O'Ward and Grosjean also went to the medical center, where they were both quickly checked and released. Track officials initially announced that Rossi, the 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner, was awake, alert and undergoing evaluation. Dr. Julia Valzer later said Rossi had been taken to the hospital.
It was the first crash this month on Indy's oval.
“Just wrong place, wrong time and just got collected there,” O'Ward said before Rossi's hospitalization was revealed. “These cars don't stop very well when you're going at those speeds and with how you run the brakes. Obviously, I just hit the brakes and there wasn't much I could do to avoid him, so I'm glad Alex is all right and Romain as well.”
It wasn't clear whether the crash would impact the 33-car starting grid for this weekend's sold-out race. Three of the eight fastest drivers in Sunday’s qualifying — Rossi, O’Ward and Conor Daly — all sustained damage to their cars, as did Grosjean, who qualified 24th.
Less than 24 hours earlier, Rossi came within a whisker of winning his first Indy pole. He was bumped out of the top spot by defending 500 champion Alex Palou of Spain. Palou's four-lap average of 232.248 mph was ahead of Rossi's 231.990. The Californian still wound up in the middle of the front row and is set to start from a career-best second.
O'Ward, the Mexican driver with Arrow McLaren, earned the No. 6 starting slot, the outside of Row 2, while Daly qualified eighth for his season debut with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Now all three, plus Grosjean, will spend the next three days repairing cars they’d spent months fine-tuning.
“The car was still really good again today in race trim, it felt really comfortable," Daly said. “Unfortunately, we got caught up in the Turn 2 accident in front of us and collected some damage. Hopefully the (crew) guys can get that all fixed up. I am still quite happy with the car.”
The grid already has changed because two drivers, Caio Collet of A.J. Foyt Enterprises and Jack Harvey, Daly's teammate, were sent to the back of the field because of rules violations. IndyCar officials said they found unapproved changes and unapproved hardware on the drivers' equipment when they went through post-qualifying technical inspection Sunday evening.
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden posted the fastest lap in a practice session that was abbreviated first by the crash and then rain, which washed out most of the final hour that cars were scheduled to be on the track. One more short practice will be held Friday during the annual Carb Day festivities, which include the pit-stop competition.
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Pato O'Ward, of Mexico, drives through the third turn during qualifications for the Indianapolis 500 auto race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Alexander Rossi prepares too drive during practice for the Indianapolis 500 auto race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Monday, May 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
