{"id":1358,"date":"2022-03-23T10:01:14","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T10:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linksus.net\/hear-from-brothers-who-spent-25-years-in-prison-for-wrongful-oakland-county-murder-conviction-wdiv-clickondetroit\/"},"modified":"2022-03-23T10:01:14","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T10:01:14","slug":"hear-from-brothers-who-spent-25-years-in-prison-for-wrongful-oakland-county-murder-conviction-wdiv-clickondetroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/23\/hear-from-brothers-who-spent-25-years-in-prison-for-wrongful-oakland-county-murder-conviction-wdiv-clickondetroit\/","title":{"rendered":"Hear from brothers who spent 25 years in prison for wrongful Oakland County murder conviction – WDIV ClickOnDetroit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest Detroit news, weather and sports from WDIV Local 4.
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Derick Hutchinson<\/a><\/span>, Senior Web Producer
Published:\u00a0Derick Hutchinson<\/a><\/span>, Senior Web Producer
PONTIAC, Mich.<\/strong> \u2013 Two brothers who were wrongfully convicted of an Oakland County murder<\/b><\/a> spoke Tuesday, shortly after being released from a quarter-century in prison.
George and Melvin DeJesus were exonerated Tuesday (March 22) after spending 25 years in prison for the July 11, 1995, murder of a woman in Pontiac<\/b><\/a>. The woman was found nude in her basement with a pillowcase over her head and wires binding her neck, wrists and ankles, according to authorities.
\u201cIt was hard,\u201d George DeJesus said. \u201cYou can lose faith that it\u2019s not going to happen, but we always fought hard. Just when we\u2019d feel that momentum going down, my mother made us promise that we would never give up, no matter what happens.\u201d
\u201cFor me and my brother, that\u2019s one of the things we always fought for,\u201d Melvin DeJesus said. \u201cWe never lost any doubt that one day we would be free, so for (Michigan Attorney General) Dana Nessel and the team doing everything they did and getting us that freedom, it\u2019s incredible.\u201d
Nessel said the DeJesus brothers were wrongly convicted of murder and felony firearm based on testimony from the real killer, Brandon Gohagen.
Gohagen confessed to sexually assaulting the woman but received a plea deal in exchange for testifying against the DeJesus brothers. He claimed Melvin DeJesus forced him to sexually assault the woman before both brothers bound her and beat her to death, officials said.
The Dec. 30, 1997, conviction of the DeJesus brothers resulted in a life sentence without parole. But their convictions were vacated Tuesday after the Michigan Attorney General\u2019s Conviction Integrity Unit reviewed the case.
\u201cIt\u2019s surreal right now,\u201d George DeJesus said. \u201cI need some time to process it, but I can tell you walking out of that prison was extremely great. I haven\u2019t been outside in — for me it\u2019s been 26 and a half years. So walking out, just with the feeling of vindication — it was great. This is the best day of my life.\u201d
\u201cWhen I heard that, I wanted to get off my chair and jump,\u201d Melvin DeJesus said. \u201cI had to contain myself in front of the judge.\u201d
The CIU conducted DNA testing, reviewed both brothers\u2019 claims of innocence, spoke to witnesses and reviewed decades of documents. Witness statements made within weeks of the crime corroborated the brothers\u2019 alibis, members of the unit said.
\u201cI\u2019m ecstatic,\u201d Melvin DeJesus said. \u201cI waited so long for this. You know the words that I heard the most? \u2018Be patient.\u2019 Finally, we\u2019re free.
\u201cWhen the judge told me I was free, I was real emotional. I tried to hold it back, but I couldn\u2019t. It just started coming down. I was, like, \u2018Man, come on, just be strong.\u2019 Sure enough, I couldn\u2019t do it. I was so happy and I can\u2019t even describe how I\u2019m feeling right now because it just happened so fast. Even all the years that we tried and tried, I just don\u2019t know what to say now. I\u2019m glad I\u2019m here.\u201d
When Nessel asked George DeJesus how long it had been since he last saw his brother, he estimated 24 years. He said he hadn\u2019t even met some of the other family members who greeted him.
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of them that I haven\u2019t met and I just met for the first time,\u201d he said. \u201cI was so happy to see them, and I can\u2019t wait to sit down and talk to each and every one of them individually. That way I can meet the ones that I haven\u2019t met yet and get to know them and talk to the ones I do know.\u201d
His release didn\u2019t feel real until he started putting on new clothes.
\u201cWhen I actually walked out of the prison, I was not really believing it until — I can say when I started putting on these clothes and I took off the blues,\u201d George DeJesus said. \u201cWhen I took off the blues and starting putting on these, every stitch of clothing I put on, my smile got bigger and bigger.
\u201cWhen I put these clothes on, it was real for me.\u201d
Their mother didn\u2019t want to let her sons go.
\u201cThis is a blessing,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m overwhelmed. I have no words to say, but I don\u2019t want to let him go. I\u2019d be afraid that somebody will snatch him from me.\u201d
\u201cIt was difficult, but we fought,\u201d George DeJesus said. \u201cWe fought hard and finally came through. I appreciate everybody who had a hand in helping us get to this point. It\u2019s like vindication. I\u2019ve been saying the same thing over and over, and for everyone to finally realize what I was saying, it was just like a vindication — it\u2019s the best word I can put for it.\u201d
Here\u2019s the full video of the brothers speaking<\/b><\/i>:
Here\u2019s more from Nessel<\/b><\/i>:
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Derick is a Senior Web Producer for ClickOnDetroit and has been with Local 4 News since April 2013. Derick specializes in breaking news, crime and local sports.
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The latest Detroit news, weather and sports from WDIV Local 4.LIVEDerick Hutchinson, Senior Web ProducerPublished:\u00a0March 22, 2022, 1:02 PMUpdated:\u00a0March 22, 2022, 6:28 PMDerick Hutchinson, Senior Web ProducerPONTIAC, Mich. \u2013 Two brothers who were wrongfully convicted of an Oakland County murder spoke Tuesday, shortly after being released from a quarter-century in prison.George and Melvin DeJesus were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":869,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}