After years in prison for a murder who swore he did not commit, Christopher Dunn will soon be a free man.
St. Louis Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser ruled Monday that the testimony that would lead to Dunn’s conviction for murder May 1990 murder of Ricco Rogers had been recanted.
The judge also noted an expert witness who testified to the inefficiency of some “eyewitness identifications” and “troubling aspects of the case” in making his ruling.
“The Circuit Attorney has made a clear and convincing showing of ‘actual innocence’ that undermines the basis of Dunn’s convictions because in the light of new evidence no juror ‘acting reasonably’ would have found Dunn guilty of the crimes beyond a reasonable doubt,” Sengheiser wrote in his ruling.
Dunn is serving a life sentence, on murder and assault charges, but two adolescent eyewitnesses have recanted, and both former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner and her replacement, Gabe Gore, concluded they no longer believed Dunn is guilty.
In her final days before resigning in May 2023, Gardner filed a petition to vacate Dunn’s sentence.
Upon taking office later in May, Gore withdrew the petition so he could determine if he wished to pursue the case.
In February 2024, Gore filed a new motion with the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis to vacate Dunn’s 33-year-old murder conviction.
There is “clear and convincing evidence” of Dunn’s innocence, Gore said, adding: “Justice requires that Christopher Dunn’s murder conviction be vacated.”
On May 18, 1990, 15-year-old Rogers, was shot dead just before midnight, in the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood. Dunn, who was 18 years old at the time, was arrested for the murder.
The case against Dunn relied solely on the eyewitness testimonies of two children — one 12-year-old and one 14-year-old — both who later recanted. Dunn was convicted in 1991 of first-degree murder, first-degree assault, and armed criminal action and received a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
The recantations of the young eyewitnesses’ testimonies alone were enough to indicate “clear and convincing evidence of actual innocence,” Gore wrote in his motion to vacate.
Methodically detailing the evidence in the case against Gunn in his 25-page motion, Gore concluded there “is clear and convincing evidence that undermines any court’s confidence in Christopher Dunn’s conviction.”
If the same case were brought before the courts today, Gore predicted that no “jury would now convict Christopher Dunn under these facts.”
Gore added that his office found experts who could further debunk the eyewitness testimony. He ended his motion with a plea to the court, stating that “after considering all of the evidence presented, vacate or set aside the judgment of Christopher Dunn.”
If his motion moves forward, the court will hold a hearing to consider all the evidence presented during Dunn’s 1991 trial and what was uncovered by Gore’s team.
“For more than 30 years, Christopher Dunn has been imprisoned for a crime he did not commit,” Dunn’s attorneys wrote in a statement.
Sengheiser began taking testimony Tuesday May 21, 2024, in a hearing on a motion to vacate Dunn’s conviction.
“The fact of the matter is, no one saw the shooter of Ricco Rogers,” Special Assistant Circuit Attorney Booker Shaw told the court in his opening statement.
“The only witnesses who implicate Christopher Dunn are proven liars unworthy of belief.”
Two months following two days of testimony May 21-22, Sengheiser wrote, “The State of Missouri shall immediately release discharge Christopher Dunn from custody.”