Mich. Inmate Representing Himself in Court Convinces Judge to Vacate Conviction: Here's How He Did It

Gregory Dean Tucker, 65, filed a successful habeas corpus claim from behind bars

• Gregory Dean Tucker was convicted of a 2016 break-in at a beauty salon in Ferndale, Mich.

• In a last-ditch habeas corpus appeals process, Tucker successfully argued that the Coke bottle found at the salon with his trace DNA – the only evidence tying him to the crime — was insufficient to lead to a conviction

• In his decision, U.S. District Judge David M. Lawson granted the writ of habeas corpus petition and explored alternative theories as to how the bottle could have ended up at the scene, noting that the claim that Tucker’s DNA got on the bottle “during the course of the burglary” was “pure speculation unsupported by any positive proof in the record"

An inmate being held by the Michigan Department of Corrections has managed to not only represent himself in court, but successfully convince a district judge to vacate his conviction in connection with a 2016 beauty salon break-in.

Gregory Dean Tucker, 65, filed a habeas corpus claim from his cell at Parnall Correctional Facility in Jackson, Mich. No eyewitnesses reported seeing Tucker enter the Ferndale, Mich. salon where the break-in occurred in September 2016. Furthermore, his fingerprints weren’t found inside the studio, and no surveillance footage recorded the incident.

However, prosecutors linked him to the crime scene at the time because he was one of two people whose trace DNA was found on a Coke bottle in the salon.

Such “trace evidence found on a moveable object at a crime scene, absent any other circumstantial proof about when the trace was deposited, is not sufficient by itself to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” U.S. District Judge David M. Lawson said in his August opinion and order granting petition for writ of habeas corpus, which was reviewed by PEOPLE.

In the 14-page opinion, Lawson – who vacated the 65-year-old’s convictions for breaking and entering with intent to commit larceny and being an habitual offender – wrote that: “the presence of Tucker’s DNA on the bottle did not lead ineluctably to the conclusion that he was present at the crime scene.”

Talya Ashford, who ran the beauty and makeup studio on the second floor of a commercial building in Ferndale, Mich., had closed up shop around 4 p.m. local time on Sept. 16, 2016, according to a narrative of events summarized by the judge.

When she returned at 5 a.m., she found her salon “ransacked” with “much of her inventory stolen,” including about $10,000 of beauty supplies, a television, a computer and a clock, which had been taken off the wall, according to the judge.

Ashford eyed a Coke bottle and a cigarette lighter, which she did not recall being there when she had left the previous afternoon, although she later testified that clients sometimes brought in such items.

Prosecutors built their entire case around the Coke bottle.

But Lawson wrote in his opinion this summer that there was no evidence to substantiate Tucker being the one who had left the bottle at the scene.

“There also was no evidence offered at trial about when his DNA was or could have been deposited on the bottle,” Lawson writes in his opinion. “And that gap in the proofs is fatal to the state’s case.”

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In an interview with the Associated Press from Parnall Correctional Facility – where he remains behind bars, per state records – Tucker said he was “overwhelmed” by the ruling, adding that he was clueless as to how the Coke bottle had wound up inside the salon.

“A pop bottle has monetary value,” Tucker said, referencing the state’s 10-cent deposit law. “You can leave a bottle on the east side and it can end up on the west side that same day.”

Anne Yantus, a lawyer who is not connected to the case but worked for three decades in the State Appellate Defender Office, told the AP that an inmate representing himself through the last resort federal appeals process known as a habeas claim is a challenging feat.

“I’m just impressed that this is a man who had enough confidence in himself and his legal skills to represent himself with a habeas claim,” she noted to the outlet.

Tucker previously represented himself “with the help of standby counsel” in the burglary trial, according to Lawson.

The judge noted in his decision that while Tucker should not continue serving time for the vacated convictions, he is also “serving a sentence on another conviction.”

Meanwhile, the Michigan’s Department of Attorney General is “seeking an appeal,” of the overturned case Danny Wimmer of the department tells PEOPLE, adding that the department filed a notice of appeal in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Aug. 27.

Wimmer says Tucker will remain behind bars “on other convictions” pending that appeal.

A search of his Michigan Department of Corrections online records on Thursday, Sept. 5 shows three active sentences for which Tucker is serving time including two breaking and entering cases in Oakland and Wayne counties, as well as a stolen property case out of Oakland.

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