Prosecutor seeks to clear inmate in Detroit house bombing

DETROIT >> Prosecutors plan to ask a judge to dismiss the murder convictions and charges against a man serving life in prison for a firebombing that killed two young children in a Detroit home.

The Wayne County prosecutor’s office also said it plans to ask the judge at a hearing Thursday to release Kenneth Nixon, 34, from prison.

An investigation showed that, among other things, Nixon did not receive a fair trial in 2005, prosecutors said Wednesday.

A 10-year-old boy and 1-year-old girl were killed in a fire after a Molotov cocktail was thrown in May 2005 into the home. Their mother and other children were injured. Nixon and his girlfriend, who allegedly drove him to the home, were arrested and charged with murder, arson and four counts of attempted murder. She later was acquitted by a jury.

Nixon was 18 when he was convicted that September. The 13-year-old brother of the children who were killed identified Nixon as the person who tossed the Molotov cocktail, but he boy’s statements were inconsistent, according to the prosecutor’s office.

A jail informant — in exchange for leniency in sentencing for a separate case — told police investigators that Nixon admitted to firebombing the house.

Witnesses also have said Nixon and his girlfriend were at a different house at the time of the firebombing.

The case was reviewed by the prosecutor’s office Conviction Integrity Unit, which collaborated with the Cooley Law Innocence Project.