Ricky Davis, who was exonerated and released from prison in 2020, sued the county in federal court in 2022.<\/a> He alleged police fabricated evidence and coerced his then-girlfriend to tell investigators that Davis had killed Janet Hylton in 1985.<\/p>\n Hylton was found fatally stabbed 29 times in an El Dorado Hills home. At the time, she and her 13-year-old daughter were staying at a friend\u2019s home amid marital issues with Hylton\u2019s husband. The homeowner\u2019s son, Davis, then 20, and his girlfriend, Connie Dahl, then 19, were also living there.<\/p>\n The lawsuit says Dahl and Davis returned to the house at around 3:30 a.m. and found the daughter outside the front of the house.<\/p>\n When Davis and Dahl discovered Hylton\u2019s body, stabbed 29 times with a bite mark, they called 911, the suit says. The investigation later determined Green\u2019s DNA was on Hylton\u2019s clothing and under her fingernails.<\/p>\n During the original investigation in 1985, then-Sheriff\u2019s Office forensic pathologist Robert Anthony did not note the time of death in the autopsy, or note that the victim had been moved after she was killed \u2014 a staged crime scene, the suit alleged.<\/p>\n It became a cold case.<\/p>\n When the Sheriff\u2019s Office investigated the case again in 1999, then-sheriff\u2019s detectives Rick Fitzgerald and Richard Strasser interviewed Dahl four times over 18 months, the suit alleged.<\/p>\n \u201cDahl first denied any involvement in the crime,\u201d the suit alleged. \u201cBut over the course of these multiple prolonged and intentionally coercive interrogations designed to inculpate Dahl and Davis regardless of the truth, Dahl eventually claimed that Davis had killed Hylton.\u201d<\/p>\n Dahl, who has since died, took a plea deal in exchange for her testimony against Davis and pleaded to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. She was sentenced to one year in prison.<\/p>\n The suit also alleged Fitzgerald and Strasser changed Davis\u2019 1985 interview transcript to add that Davis said he picked up Hylton\u2019s body. The detectives also met with Anthony to add a time of death that supported their case against Davis.<\/p>\n Since Davis\u2019 conviction in 2005, DNA technology has advanced, especially at the Sacramento County District Attorney\u2019s Office crime lab. Testing showed DNA from Hylton\u2019s nightgown, as well as a bite mark on her skin, that did not match Davis.<\/p>\n Superior Court Judge Kenneth J. Melekian threw out the conviction in 2020, freeing Davis. Days later the El Dorado District Attorney\u2019s Office charged another man,<\/a> Michael Eric Green, with Hylton\u2019s murder. Green\u2019s DNA matched the DNA found on Hylton\u2019s nightgown and bite mark.<\/p>\n According to the El Dorado County District Attorney\u2019s Office, Green was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison and is incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison. According to CDCR records, Green could have a parole suitability hearing as early as December 2028.<\/p>\n \u201cJustice has been served, but it took too long, and some awful mistakes were made in the past to get to this moment,\u201d El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson said in announcing Green\u2019s sentencing nearly four years ago<\/a>. \u201cI have personally apologized to Ricky Davis and also want to say we are sorry to Jane Hylton\u2019s family for the mistakes in handling this case in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n Pierson, who worked with the California Innocence Project to help exonerate Davis, vowed to spearhead a national campaign to overhaul interrogation techniques.<\/p>\n \u201cThis case has been a game changer,\u201d Pierson said at the time. \u201cIt 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\u2019t lead to any more innocent people getting wrongfully imprisoned.\u201d<\/p>\n In the Davis settlement, lawyers received $2.6 million from the settlement while Davis would be receiving $647,785 in periodic payments, according to court documents.<\/p>\n The suit also named Anthony, as well as former detectives Fitzgerald, Strasser, Larry Hennick and Bill Willson, through his estate, as defendants sued in their individual capacities.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the second known settlement in the Sacramento region in 2025 to a man who spent years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Sacramento County last year paid $8.25 million to Jeremy Puckett<\/a> who spent 19 years in prison for homicide. Both cases were taken on by the Northern California Innocence Project.<\/p>\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n![\"Ricky](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SECOND_SAC_PK_COLDCASE.jpg\" "\\"SECOND_SAC_PK_COLDCASE.jpg\\"")
Ricky Leo Davis is released from custody and hugs mom Maureen Klein, right, and another family member at the El Dorado County Jail after he was exonerated in the 1985 murder of Janet Hylton on Thursday, Feb 13, 2020 in Placerville. DNA evidence used to exonerate Davis led police to arrest another suspect Tuesday. Paul Kitagaki Jr. pkitagaki@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
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