untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Couple say AG candidate Leyton reneged on 2007 plea terms
Paul Egan / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Lansing -- The parents of a man who was murdered in Flint in 2006 said today they were tricked into accepting a plea deal Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton never honored.
"We were lied to, tricked and conned," said Dan McIntosh of Grand Blanc, whose 25-year-old son Adam was shot to death by gang members.
The McIntoshes appeared at a news conference in Lansing with Republican attorney general candidate Bill Schuette, who pledged to reopen the case if elected. Schuette is running against Democrat Leyton for the position.
McIntosh and his wife Deb said they agreed to a deal under which Horatio Brown would plead guilty to manslaughter on condition Brown's testimony would be used to prosecute two others involved in the case, including the man they believe was the shooter. But after Brown was sent to prison, charges against the other two were never pursued by Leyton's office, they said.
A comment was not immediately available from the Leyton campaign.
But Capt. T.P. Johnson of Flint Police, who was the captain in charge of homicide at the time of the McIntosh killing, said the case was investigated thoroughly.
"All the evidence that we were able to procure ... pointed to Horatio Brown," Johnson said. "He was the shooter."
It's true that at his sentencing Brown claimed someone else was the shooter, but that was after he admitted to committing the killing himself, Johnson said.
He said he empathizes with the family, but "I don't know any better way this could have been investigated or any rock that hasn't been turned over."
A transcript of the 2007 court hearing at which Brown's plea agreement was placed on the record shows Deb McIntosh told the judge she agreed to the deal "as long as you go after these other two."
The couple said Leyton refused to meet with them about the case until after he announced he was running for attorney general.
Last week, Brenda Simpson, the mother of another Genesee County murder victim, joined Schuette to criticize Leyton for failing to prosecute in the 1985 poisoning and drowning death of her 11-year-old son.
"Today we have another example where justice was denied a family," Schuette said.
pegan@detnews.com (517) 371-3660
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