EveryThing: Judge orders release of Detroit man in 4 deaths

DETROIT — A judge on Tuesday threw out the murder convictions of a young Detroit man who pleaded guilty to killing four people at age 14, a case that has been in doubt for years after a professional hit man stepped forward and took responsibility for the slayings at a drug den.
Judge Brian Sullivan acted at the request of the Wayne County prosecutor's office and lawyers for Davontae Sanford, who's now 23.
Sanford is in a prison in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, but he'll now be released on bond and all charges will eventually be dropped, according to Sullivan's order.
Sanford is in prison for the 2007 fatal shootings of four people at a Detroit house. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder at age 15, but he's been trying to undo that plea for years, especially after hit man Vincent Smothers confessed.
Smothers insists Sanford had no role. Sanford's family says he confessed to please police.
The agreement signed by prosecutors makes no mention of Smothers. Instead, it says the state police found major problems in the work of a Detroit police official who investigated Sanford after the four homicides.

Smothers is in prison after pleading guilty to eight other killings.