Roseville man gets 15 to life for 1985 El Dorado Hills murder of Jane Hylton

The case of a 1985 El Dorado Hills murder and a previous wrongful conviction finally came to a close last week in an El Dorado County Courtroom. Roseville resident Michael Green was sentenced by El Dorado County Judge Suzanne Kingsbury to 15 years to life in prison for the second-degree murder on Sept. 27. The sentence was for the 1985 death of El Dorado Hills resident and local journalist Jane Anker Hylton. Back in July, Green pleaded no contest to second-degree murder for the killing. Prior to his arrest, another man, Ricky Davis was wrongfully sentenced for the crime and served a 15-year sentence. Davis had maintained his innocence during his sentence. In 2020, DNA that was once recovered at the El Dorado Hills crime scene was processed using modern technology and the results proved Davis was innocent and Green was linked to the crime scene. After a motion filed by the Northern California Innocence Project out of Santa Clara University, Davis was released from prison and Green was located and arrested at his Roseville home. "Justice has been served but it took too long and some awful mistakes were made in the past to get to this moment," said a statement from El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson, who, along with the California Innocence Project, led the effort to exonerate Davis. "I have personally apologized to Ricky Davis and also want to say we are sorry to Jane Hylton's family for the mistakes in handling this case in the past," Pierson said. Green's DNA was processed from evidence that had been collected 37 years ago, particularly Hylton's nightgown. Hylton was reportedly bitten by him in the struggle the night she was murdered om July 7, 1985, on Stanford Lane in El Dorado Hills. Green, who was 17 at the time of the murder, was reportedly one of three young men who were with Hylton's 13-year-old daughter, Autumn, the night of the murder. The two were staying at the home of Ricky Davis' mother, as Hylton was seeking refuge from her husband at the time. Davis and his girlfriend at the time, Connie Dahl, returned home from a party the night of July 6, 1985 and found Hylton murdered in the residence where she had been stabbed nearly 30 times. The new DNA evidence proved that Davis was indeed innocent. Pierson's office issued a statement explaining that the primary evidence against Davis was the "false confession of a co-defendant obtained through the use of aggressive interrogation techniques now known to be more likely to produce false confessions." "This case has been a game-changer," Pierson said. "It has forced me to push back against some long-held interrogation practices among investigators and has set me on a path toward changing the way our office and prosecutors across the country find the truth using a better, scientifically-proven method. We need to make changes now so that false confessions don't lead to any more innocent people getting wrongfully imprisoned." Since the case, Pierson has implemented a new policy for his office that limits the filing of criminal charges in any case where the primary evidence against the suspect consists of a confession obtained through the use of "threats, deception or psychologically-manipulative interrogation tactics." "False confessions result in the wrongful convictions of factually innocent individuals while allowing the actual perpetrator to evade justice," said Pierson. "Investigators should use a rapport-based information-seeking approach because the science shows it's more effective." Kingsbury noted that she has presided over a multitude of murder cases and heard arguments on adolescent development. After being released, Davis filed an $18-million lawsuit against El Dorado County for his wrongful conviction. There are currently no updates on the ongoing lawsuit.