After DNA sets previous suspect free after 15 years in prison, New Suspect Appears in South Lake Tahoe court
(Paula Peterson, South Tahoe Now)
PLACERVILLE, Calif. May 23, 2022 — […] Investigators got nowhere in finding the murderer and after a time, the case was closed.
It reopened 14 years later in 1999 as part of an El Dorado County Cold Case investigation.
Autumn, Dahl, and Davis were re-interviewed with interrogation techniques that have been questioned by El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson. Through the questionable interrogation techniques, Dahl said she bit the victim and that she, Davis, and Autumn participated in the murder. She entered an immunity agreement to testify against Davis, but Pierson (who was not in office at the time) said investigators fed Dahl information.
She is now deceased, reportedly of a drug overdose in 2014.
After a 2005 trial, Davis was convicted of Jane Hylton’s murder and sentenced to life in prison. He was sent to the California State Prison, Solano. Throughout the investigation, trial and imprisonment, Ricky Davis maintained his innocence. Santa Clara School of Law’s Innocence Project learned about Davis in 2014, believed him, and then worked for six years to get him freed.
The new suspect is Michael Green who was 17-years-old at the time of Hylton’s murder and is allegedly one of the boys Autumn met with the night of her mother’s death. Even though 51-years-old at the time of his arrest in 2020, he had to first appear in juvenile court and go through that process, and has since been transferred to adult court.
The case is now in El Dorado County Superior Court and is expected to go to trial on August 2, 2022.
Green was in Judge Suzanne Kingsbury’s courtroom in South Lake Tahoe on Friday, May 19, 2022. His case comes back to court on July 26 for a hearing on motions that are expected over the next four weeks.