A Michigan man has sued Hertz, the car rental company, saying he could not produce a receipt that would prove his innocence until he was convicted of a 2011 murder.
The man, Herbert Alford, was convicted in 2016 of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Michael Adams, 23, in Lansing, Michigan. Alford insisted he was innocent and that a car rental certificate from the Hertz location at Die Lansing airport would prove that he was nowhere near the scene of the murder when it took place in October 2011.
The company delivered the receipt in 2018 and the charges against Mr. Alford was dropped last year.
Mr. Alford, 47, filed the case against Hertz in the circuit court in Ingham County, Michigan on Tuesday. It is said that Hertz’s “actions, defects and negligence” helped Mr. Alford in prison and then in prison, for five years. The case claims unspecified monetary damages.
“This man did not ask for six months to deliver all their records,” he said. Alford’s attorney, Jamie White, said about Hertz. “He just wanted his receipt.”
Hertz said in a statement that the company was “deeply saddened” by what happened to Mr. Alford happened.
“While we were unable to find the historic rent record of 2011 when it was requested in 2015, we continued in good faith to locate it,” Hertz spokeswoman Lauren Luster said in an email Thursday. . “With the progress in the search for data in the years that followed, we were able to locate the rental record in 2018 and provide it immediately.”
Mr. Adams was fatally shot in Lansing on October 18, 2011 during a drug-related dispute, according to the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office.
Three days later, the office issued a warrant and Mr. Alford charged with second-degree murder. Mr. Alford said he rented a car from Hertz at the Capital Region International Airport in Lansing, during the shooting. Depending on the traffic and the route followed, the airport is about 20 miles by car from the scene where Adams was shot, Mr. White said.
“It’s too far away,” he said. “He could not have committed this crime.”
A jury found Mr. Alford was convicted of second-degree murder and two counts of arson in December 2016. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison, Mr. White said.
Mr. Alford is appealing, and in August 2018, a judge granted his motion for a new trial based on the evidence received from Hertz.
Mr. White said he sought several subpoenas and court orders over three years to get Hertz to deliver the receipt. If it had been provided earlier, he said, Mr. Alford was not convicted and would not have served five years in prison and jail time.
Ingham County prosecutor Carol A. Siemon said Hertz’s testimony, which was not available at the initial trial, was a factor when her office said in December that the charges against Mr. Alford is removed and that he does not face a second trial. The announcement was reported by the Lansing State Journal.
“We do not believe we can prove Mr Alford’s legal responsibility by default ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’,” Siemon said in a statement. “The prosecutor’s office in Ingham County rejects the case against Herbert Alford.”
Michael S. Cheltenham, the chief prosecutor in Ingham County, said on Thursday that “the Hertz evidence was a material factor in our decision not to Alford will not be tried again. ”
He added that police and prosecutors “have never said that the Hertz timestamp document certainly proves that someone other than Alford shot Michael Adams.” He said the case remains open.
White said the case against Hertz could be delayed due to the reorganization of the bankruptcy.
“We can not make a dollar amount for years of your life and your reputation,” he said.