Sometimes it’s better to bet on yourself, and in the case of Gregory Dean Tucker, his decision to represent himself in court just worked out in his favor. To the surprise of many, the Detroit man was able to persuade a judge to toss his burglary conviction after doing the one thing legal experts say not to do.
The 65-year-old was charged for his alleged role in a 2016 robbery of a beauty shop, and the only piece of evidence prosecutors said placed him at the scene of the crime was a single Coca-Cola bottle, according to AP News. Tucker’s DNA was recovered from the soda bottle found at the scene, but no one could explain how or why it got there in the first place.
In his own conviction appeal, Tucker argued since his DNA was only found on the bottle and literally nowhere else at or near the scene, the state’s evidence against him was insufficient. The Detroit man cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on evidence, and U.S. District Judge David Lawson, who presided over Tucker’s case, agreed.
“Any inference that [Tucker] must have deposited his DNA on the bottle during the course of the burglary was pure speculation unsupported by any positive proof in the record,” Lawson wrote in his ruling. “There also was no evidence offered at trial about when his DNA was or could have been deposited on the bottle. And that gap in the proofs is fatal to the state’s case.”
Tucker was accused of robbing a Ferndale, Mich. beauty shop and stealing $10,000 worth of supplies, a television, clock and a computer, per AP News. Authorities recovered no evidence from security footage nor were they able to track the stolen goods down.
The only piece of evidence recovered was that of Tucker’s DNA on a coke bottle. “A pop bottle has monetary value,” Tucker said in an interview from prison. “You can leave a bottle on the east side and it can end up on the west side that same day.”
Even though a judge ruled to dismiss the burglary charges from 2016, the 65-year-old will remain in prison for unrelated offenses. According to online records, Tucker is serving time for three other charges, including two counts of breaking and entering.