FRAMINGHAM, MA — Michael Sullivan’s mother and four siblings died during his nearly three decades in jail, his lover moved on with her life, and he was severely beaten in several prison attacks.
He had long denied committing the murder.
Sullivan, 64, received some justice earlier this month when a Massachusetts jury found him not guilty of Wilfred McGrath’s murder and robbery in 1986. He was granted $13 million, even though state statutes limit awards for unjust convictions to $1 million. The jury also determined that a state police scientist testified fraudulently throughout the trial, however, his testimony did not secure Sullivan’s conviction.
It is the latest in a series of convictions reversed in the state in recent years.
“The most important thing is finding me innocent of the murder and expunging it from my record,” Sullivan said while appearing at his main attorney Michael Heineman’s office in Framingham, Massachusetts. “The money, of course, will be very helpful to me.”
A spokesman for the Massachusetts attorney general stated, “We respect the jury’s decision and are considering whether an appeal is appropriate.”
In 1987, Sullivan was convicted of murder and armed robbery after police said McGrath was robbed and battered before being dumped behind an abandoned store.
Authorities honed in on Sullivan after learning that his sister had been out with McGrath the night before the murder and had gone to the apartment she shared with him. Gary Grace, a suspect in the murder, implicated Sullivan and had his murder charges dropped. Grace testified at the trial that Sullivan was wearing a purple jacket the night of the murder, and a former State Police chemist testified that he discovered blood on the jacket and hair compatible with McGrath’s, not Sullivan’s.
Sullivan was found guilty and condemned to life in prison. Grace, on the other hand, pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact murder and received a six-year sentence. Emil Petrla, who beat McGrath and helped dispose of his body, admitted to second-degree murder. He was condemned to life in jail with the chance of parole, but he died in custody.
“I couldn’t believe I was convicted of murder,” Sullivan said, noting that prosecutors highlighted the purple jacket five times in their closing argument. “My mother and brother were crying in court. I cried. It was quite difficult for me and my family.
Prison would be a nightmare for Sullivan. In one incident, his nose was nearly severed, and in another, he almost lost an ear. And because he was a lifer, the jail system did not let him take any lessons to learn much-needed skills.
“It’s very hard on a person, especially when you know you’re innocent,” he remarked. “And prison is a dreadful life, you understand. “Prison is a hard life.”
However, in 2011, Sullivan’s fortunes shifted abruptly.
Sullivan’s attorney requested DNA testing, which was not accessible during the initial trial and revealed no blood on the coat. The testing also revealed that the substances on the coat did not include McGrath’s DNA, and it was impossible to identify whether the hair found on the jacket was his.
Dana Curhan, a Boston attorney who represented Sullivan from 1992 to 2014 and advocated for DNA testing, said Sullivan always told him McGrath’s blood was not on the jacket. But he was astonished to see that there was no blood, undermining the prosecutor’s claim that Sullivan had battered McGrath into a “blood pulp.”
“At the prosecutor’s closing, he essentially said, ‘Hey, if he wasn’t the one who did it, why did they find blood on both of cuffs of the jacket?'” Curhan spoke. “He kept repeating it. We now have no blood or DNA matches. You would expect someone who did what he was accused of to be covered in blood. There’s no blood. That was the case.”
A new trial was scheduled in 2012, and Sullivan was released in 2013. He spent the first six months at home and was required to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for years.
“When I walked out the front door, I was emotional,” he explained.
The Supreme Judicial Court upheld Sullivan’s right to a fresh trial in 2014, and the state decided not to retry the case in 2019. At the time, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan stated that it was nearly difficult for her office to properly retry the case against Sullivan due to the deaths of some witnesses and the deterioration of the memories of others.
Sullivan confesses that after being freed, he “shut down” and still struggles to operate in a world that has changed radically since he was in prison. Before being detained, he worked at a peanut mill and intended to attend school to become a truck driver, eventually working for his brother, who ran a trucking firm.
Instead, he left prison with no employment prospects and no hope of getting one. He still cannot use a computer and primarily assists his sister with odd jobs. His lover, whom he had known since age 12, would visit him in prison for a decade but eventually “had to go on with her life.”
“I’m still really not adjusted to the outside world,” Sullivan said, adding that he spends a lot of time with his Yorkshire terrier Buddy and the pigeons he maintains at his sister’s home.
“It’s hard for me,” he admitted. “I do not go anywhere. I’m always terrified… “I’m pretty much a loner.”
Donna Faria, Sullivan’s sister, stated that the family “never for a minute” suspected he had killed McGrath. They were present at the trial to support Sullivan and spoke with him twice a week while he was in prison, as well as visiting him every few months.
However, Faria laments all that Sullivan lost while incarcerated, saying that he “never had kids, never married like the rest of us did.”
“If he didn’t have me, my brother would have been walking the streets like a lot of the homeless people,” Faria said. “It’s almost like he doesn’t trust anyone. When he is among his family, he feels secure. If he isn’t, he won’t.”
Sullivan now spends the majority of his time at Faria’s house in Billerica, Massachusetts, where he frequently does her family’s laundry, just as he used to do for fellow convicts in jail. Despite the jury award, Sullivan does not anticipate his life to change significantly.
Sullivan will treat himself to a new truck, but he plans to save the majority of the money to ensure his nieces and nephews have what they need when they turn 21. Sullivan has not received therapy for the hardships he has faced, but his attorney, Heineman, has stated that he intends to request that the court give him with therapeutic and educational assistance as part of the judgment.
“They will have money. “That will make me very happy,” he stated. “The most important thing is my nieces and nephews — taking care of them.”
