Green enters "no contest" plea to 2nd degree murder for 1985 stabbing of El Dorado Hills woman

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Michael Green appeared in Judge Suzanne Kingbury's South Lake Tahoe courtroom on Friday and entered a plea of "no contest" in the July 7, 1985 murder of Jane Hylton.

Michael Green, who is now 54, was 17 years old at the time of Hylton's murder.

The case attracted national attention after the original man convicted of the murder in 2005, Ricky Davis, had been found guilty and sent to prison. Long professing his innocence, DNA cleared him of the murder in 2020.

The DNA that freed Davis led investigators to Green who was arrested as Davis was found innocent.

Green had been with a group of boys that met Autumn, Jane's daughter, at a park the evening of her mother's murder.

Even though 51-years-old at the time of his arrest in 2020, Green had to first appear in juvenile court and go through that process, and was then sent to El Dorado County Superior Court in South Lake Tahoe.

Green entered Kingsbury's courtroom in shackles. The Judge asked for those to be removed as he sat next to his court-appointed attorney Margaret Huscher. With dreadlocks down to his knees, Green quietly answered all of Kingsbury's questions as he entered the "no contest" plea.

The El Dorado County District Attorney's Office and Huscher worked out the deal to the lesser charge, instead of the initial 1st Degree Murder charge, 37 years after the murder. Green gave up his rights to a jury trial by making the plea.

The case now goes to probation for a time served report and an analysis of credits earned since he will be sentenced under the procedures of 1985. They will also work on a restitution plan. Green cannot challenge the plea and consequences, but he could challenge a calculation of the credits for time served.

In 2022, 2nd-degree murder carries a term in state prison of 15 years to life.

Green will come back to court on September 30, 2022, at 1:30 p.m. to be sentenced. At that time, victim impact reports, if any, will be heard, as will defense testimony.

Hylton was 54 years old at the time of her murder and had just moved with her 13-year-old daughter Autumn into the home of Davis's mother where his girlfriend also lived. According to court documents, Autumn was mad that her mother wouldn't let her go to a party with Davis, who was 20 years old at the time, and his then-girlfriend Connie Dahle, 19. After they left, Autumn walked to a nearby park and ran into three teenage boys. She identified them as "Calvin, Michael, and Steve or Bryan."

She told authorities it was not Ricky that killed her mother. He later came home with Connie and went into the home with Autumn where they walked into a horrific murder scene.

Investigators got nowhere in finding the murderer and after a time, the case was closed.

It reopened 14 years later in 1999 as part of an El Dorado County Cold Case investigation.

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, but Pierson (who was not in office at the time) said investigators fed Dahl information.

Dahl is now deceased, reportedly of a drug overdose in 2014.

Green was set to go on trial for first-degree murder on August 2.