DNA proves innocence of man convicted of El Dorado County murder

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - A man who was facing life in prison after being convicted in 2005 for a murder that authorities now know he did not commit, is now heading home a free man. Ricky Leo Davis, now 54, was 20-years-old when a friend of his mother, 54-year-old Jane Hylton, was brutally murdered in their El Dorado Hills home in 1985.

On July 7, 1985, Davis and his 19-year-old live-in girlfriend, Connie Dahl, called law enforcement, saying they were at a party in Cameron Park and returned home to find Hylton murdered.

Upon arrival, authorities found what looked like a staged crime scene.

Hylton had been stabbed 29 times, leading to her death in the home where she was temporarily staying with her 13-year-old daughter Autumn. Hylton also had a bite mark on her shoulder.

The homeowner was out of town, so authorities interviewed the remaining occupants - Autumn, Dahl, and Davis. Autumn had left home that night and met three boys in a park. She identified them as "Calvin, Michael, and Steve or Bryan."

Investigators got nowhere and the case was closed.

It reopened 14 years later in 1999.

Autumn, Dahl, and Davis were reinterviewed with interrogation techniques that have been questioned by El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson. Through the questionable interrogation techniques, Dahl said she bit the victim and that she, Davis and Autumn participated in the murder. She entered an immunity agreement to testify against Davis.

After a 2005 trial, Davis was convicted of Jane Hylton's murder and sentenced to life in prison. He was sent to the California State Prison, Solano.

Throughout the investigation, trial and imprisonment, Ricky Davis maintained his innocence.

Melissa O’Connell of the Santa Clara School of Law’s Innocence Project believed him when she first became involved in the case. Since 2014 O'Connell said she believed he was innocent and new changes to crime scene DNA testing have led up to Davis's release.

O'Connell spoke at a press conference in Placerville Thursday with Pierson.

Pierson said law enforcement back in 1985 fed the then 19-year-old Connie Dahl information during their interrogation, information that was ultimately responsible for Davis's conviction.

The District Attorney said the interrogators told Dahl about a bite mark on the victim's shoulder and that she ended up claiming it was hers. Old DNA processes could not determine the sex or identity of the bite mark, but new science determined the bite was made by a man.

Pierson said he was troubled by the investigation and set out to seek the truth instead of a suspect's confession, leading him to work with the Innocence Project and O'Connell.

The search was on for the person who bit Hylton and research and DNA family trees led them to one of the three teenagers who were with Autumn that summer evening in 1985. The Court was reopening the case since Dahl's false testimony led to Davis's conviction. He did have a new April 14, 2020 trial date set until the news Thursday.

"We had to find out the truth, no matter what," said Pierson.

"It took six years of research and retesting and Geneology to get to this point," said O'Connell. "This is a day long over-due."

The Sacramento County Crime Lab evaluated the unknown male DNA and used genetic genealogy to lead them to Green.

The new data that is freeing Davis has also put Michael Green, now 51, in jail. He was arrested in Roseville, California this week and is waiting for transfer to El Dorado County. Pierson said Green will have to first appear in juvenile court then start the process of transferring the hearing to adult court since he was a minor at the time of the murder.

O'Connell said Davis was very emotional Thursday as he sat in court to hear the charges against him dropped and his exoneration.

"He got to hug his mom," she said.

Autumn had asked authorities for copies of her school yearbook as she thought she could identify the boys she met in the park the night of her mother's murder. They never allowed her to see them.

"Wish we could have gotten him out sooner," said Pierson.

During the press conference Thursday, Pierson said he expects lawsuits to be filed for Davis's wrongful incarceration.