A decades-old murder mystery in Saginaw

Gabriel Ferris had spent six days in a Michigan courtroom, listening to the state label him a scoundrel, a cheating husband who’d lied to his new wife in 1974— who slipped out of his honeymoon bed in a cottage on the shores of scenic Lake Huron to drive an hour for one final rendezvous with Cheryl Miller, a visit, they said, that ended in murder.

But it turns out that there is much more to the story of Gabriel Ferris than what prosecutors told.

In fact, this was the third time that Ferris had been tried for the murder of Cheryl Miller. In the previous trials there’d been one hung jury, and one conviction later tossed out.

And Michigan’s Court of Appeals had come down hard on the Saginaw authorities who’d prosecuted Ferris— even ruling that prosecutors once allowed a jailhouse snitch to testify falsely that he didn’t expect a deal in exchange for his testimony against Ferris.

Attorney David Nickola, and law professor David Moran are among those who’ve represented Ferris during his odyssey through Michigan’s justice system.  According to Nicokla, it was a "trifecta of injustice." "There was the judge, prosecutorial misconduct, and ineffective assistance of defense counsel."

Hansen: How would you characterize this case to somebody who is totally unfamiliar with the twists and turns?

Law professor David Moran: The prosecution theory that somebody on their honeymoon night for no apparent reason, sneaks out and rapes and kills an ex-girlfriend is so strange, that I thought there’s got to be more to this story. It doesn’t make any sense.

Now, Ferris had another chance to convince a jury of his innocence. And new trial attorney Dan Willman believed the jury could only conclude that Ferris was not guilty.

A lack of physical evidence
There was hardly any physical evidence linking Gabe Ferris to the crime scene. There was none of his semen, blood, hair, or skin tissue. It was a weak case, the defense argued, even though Gabriel Ferris’s fingerprint was found on a dresser just a few inches from the victim’s head.

Ferris claimed he and Cheryl Miller had sex all over the bedroom. And fingerprint analysts were forced to admit, they couldn’t prove the prints were left the night of the murder.

Other potential suspects
The defense argument was simple: there was far less reason to believe that Ferris had committed the murder, and more reason to believe someone else had done it.

First, the defense brought up the original suspect, Abbass Esfehani. You’ll recall he was the victim’s former boyfriend, described as hot-tempered, who made a hasty return to Iran in the days after the murder. Esfehani’s fingerprints were found on the banister leading up to the murder scene.

And the exchange student’s former roommate remembered a strange reaction when Esfehani discussed Cheryl Miller’s death. Defense attorney Nickola theorizes that Esfehani was a jilted lover, and that could have caused him to lash out. "Miss Miller was not only beautiful but she was very bold. And Mr. Esfehani was from a country culturally where men generally dominated and manipulated women. And Ms. Miller dumped Mr. Esfehani," says Nickola. "And I don’t believe he could take it. He was a jilted lover. And that has all the ingredients for the recipe of murder."

Next, remember the second suspect police had focused on?

Tony Alverez was the cousin of the victim’s roommate. Like Ferris, he was older, and perhaps grayer, but still 30 years later, answering question about the case. After all, he’d been in the house many times. And prosecutors now admitted the dark hairs found on the victim’s body, belonged to him.

It turned out that the hairs weren’t the only piece of evidence linking Alverez to the murder.

After pointing to other viable suspects, the defense was about to drop a bombshell. Because it turns out that when the physical evidence was gathered from the crime scene 30 years ago, and detectives began following leads, those dark hairs on the victim’s body weren’t the only crucial pieces of evidence that pointed away from Gabriel Ferris. The medical examiner also found something highly unusual, left behind, he believed, by the man who raped and murdered Cheryl Miller.

Moran: He told the two detectives that he found a large quantity of semen, and what was remarkable was not finding sperm.

Hansen: Indicating that whoever raped Cheryl Miller was sterile.

Moran: Right.

It was true:  Police and medical reports said whoever raped and murdered Cheryl Miller was sterile; and for years detectives pursued that lead, looking for a sterile killer.

Hansen: You had Ferris tested?

Moran: We did. And the test results came back that he had a normal sperm count.

Hansen: Could a person with a normal sperm count have raped Cheryl Miller?

Moran: Almost impossible.

And the defense moved to bolster this stunning evidence by calling one of the nation’s leading experts on male reproduction  to back up the claim that Ferris could not be the killer.

Hansen: The original medical examiner had concluded that whoever raped Cheryl Miller was sterile.

Stroud: The problem with that turned out to be, Abbass Esfehani is not sterile. Tony Alverez is not sterile. Gabe Ferris is not sterile, so even of the pool of suspects that the defense argued could have committed this crime, none of them were sterile.

Hansen: Maybe none of them committed the crime?

Stroud: Well there’s always, I suppose, that possibility and again if you take just that single piece of evidence you can create whatever doubt you wish to create.

The defense was focused on presenting hard physical evidence to show the jury that Gabriel Ferris could not be the killer; what it said were hairs and semen that didn’t come from Ferris. And the defense argued the state had a shaky case, based on two old fingerprints, circumstantial evidence, and witnesses whose stories had changed over three decades.

And the defense argued the case never would have gone to trial had it not been for one man.

Roy Walton, the retired Saginaw Police Detective who’d reopened the cold case in 1994, 20 years after the murder and quickly zeroed in on Ferris as a suspect.

The defense pointed out that Walton didn’t follow up on crucial evidence that could’ve led to other suspects.

Next, the defense argued, that if the jury couldn’t believe the detective’s word, neither could it believe the witnesses he turned up — including the latest jailhouse snitch who claimed Ferris confessed to him.

And the defense claimed equally unbelievable was the ex-girlfriend who’d testified that Ferris had said he "didn’t mean to do it." Another man present during the conversation, contradicted her.

The defense was set to wrap up its case, asking the jury a simple question: Did it make sense that Gabriel Ferris would, on the first night of his honeymoon, make love to his new wife, then sneak out of the house, and drive 65 miles to visit a former girlfriend? A woman he was now accused of killing?

And further, did he have time that night to commit the crime? After all, Ferris’s wife said she heard him returning to the house around sun-up, which was at 6 a.m. and the medical examiner said the murder occurred at virtually the same time between 5:30 and 6 a.m.?

Questioning the ex-wife
It was time now for the defense to question the credibility of  the witness at the center of the prosecution’s case, Ferris’s ex-wife.

The woman Ferris had married two days before the murder, Terri Igaz, took the stand. The defense attempted to portray her as an ex-wife with an axe to grind—who had, before changing her story, once provided Ferris with an airtight alibi for the morning of the murder.

But two days later, she went back to police with new details, including claims that Ferris had left the home and returned with blood on his clothes.

Hansen: She told police at one point that this may have all happened in a dream of hers.

Willman: Yeah that’s correct.

Hansen: What does that say about her credibility as a witness?

Willman: I think it sinks it!

The defense rested its case. But before the judge would send the jury to deliberate, prosecutors would get one last chance to explain why science could still show that Gabriel Ferris was the real killer.

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