Note: This story was written as a final project in investigative journalism and was never published. A link to my honors thesis about the conflicts I encountered while writing this story is available here:
Analyzing and Negotiating Conflicting Ethics in Journalism
Gentle, patient and compassionate are some of the words used to describe Gary Leiterman by his close friends and family. An outgoing and friendly man, he is said to be committed to community improvement, invested in good education and guided by a strong ethical standard.
He is also a convicted killer.
On July 22, 2005, Leiterman was found guilty for the 1969 murder of Jane Mixer after a jury deliberation that lasted a few hours on a Friday afternoon.
Leiterman’s conviction has been called the “greatest miscarriage of justice” and the “most obvious case of legal error” in expert testimonies about the trial, calling into question the reliability of DNA testing in criminal cases.
On March 20, 1969, Jane Mixer’s fiancé dropped her off to meet David Johnson, the name written on a University of Michigan sign-up sheet for students to find rides to their intended destinations. Mixer needed a ride from Ann Arbor to Muskegon, where she planned to announce her engagement to her parents.
Mixer’s father grew worried when she didn’t show up on time. As the hours passed, worry turned to fear and he set out to follow the route to Ann Arbor and back. He hoped to find his daughter safe, perhaps stranded somewhere on the road.
Mixer’s body was discovered the following morning in a cemetery a few miles east of Ypsilanti. She had been shot twice in the head by a .22 caliber gun and strangled with a pair of pantyhose that were still tied around her neck.
Mixer was the third of seven victims during a two year killing spree that haunted young women in the Ann Arbor area. Collectively called the “Co-Ed Murders,” only one was officially solved. For nearly four decades after his 1970 conviction, John Norman Collins was informally assumed responsible for all seven deaths.
Collins had a roommate named David Johnson, the same name used to offer a ride home to Mixer on the night of her death, according to 2005 testimony by Lt. Earl James. James, who investigated the case in 1969, said all Ann Arbor area men named David Johnson were thoroughly investigated and subsequently cleared as suspects. James recalled being reassured by the seemingly conclusive link between the Mixer case and Collins.
Thirty-six years later, Mixer’s case was reopened, sending a devoted husband and father of two to prison for the rest of his life.
Leiterman’s conviction rested primarily on a DNA match that linked him to evidence from the crime scene. He proclaims that he is innocent, citing false evidence and poor legal representation as the culprits for the guilty verdict.
His DNA profile was found in numerous places on a pair of pantyhose used to strangle the victim, a match that initially seemed credible. It was a second DNA match found on the evidence that roused suspicion.
Lab documents say the second profile was taken from a drop of blood on the victim’s hand. It belonged to John Ruelas, a Detroit man convicted of murdering his mother in January of 2002.
The match suggests that Ruelas was present at the scene of the 1969 homicide. He was only four years old at the time.
He and his family have been investigated and cleared as suspects, but how his DNA ended up at the crime scene is still a mystery.
Lab documents confirm that the DNA samples of both Leiterman and Ruelas were processed in the same lab at the same time.
Evidence from the 1969 crime, still unsolved at the time, was removed from storage for testing unrelated to either DNA sample. Lab documents prove that the Mixer evidence was also tested simultaneously in the same building as the samples belonging to Leiterman and Ruelas.
Too suspicious to be called a coincidence, one expert working for the defense said the simultaneous testing and inexplicable presence of Ruelas’ DNA on the evidence can only mean one thing.
Short of 4-year-old Ruelas or someone with his exact DNA profile being present at the crime scene, both of which are extremely unlikely, the only explanation is that cross-contamination occurred, said Theodore Kessis of Applied DNA Resources in his post-trial analysis of the evidence.
Leiterman said his lawyer didn’t know about the overlapping timelines during the 2005 trial.
The prosecution’s case also relied on a handwriting analysis that matched Leiterman’s writing to that found on a phone book during the initial investigation.
The words “Muskegon Mixer” were written on the cover of the book, found on the University of Michigan campus. Handwriting analysts for the trial said they used notebooks containing primarily medical terminology seized from Leiterman’s house for comparison.
They had to use a photocopy of the evidence for assessment, as the original book was accidentally thrown away, according to trial transcripts.
Lt. Thomas Riley, document analysis specialist for the prosecution, said he was “virtually certain” that Leiterman wrote those words on the phone book.
“It’s my opinion that it is highly probably Gary Earl Leiterman wrote the ‘Muskegon,’ ‘Mixer’ entries on the phone book,” Riley testified.
Riley testified that he had unwittingly used documents written by Solly Leiterman, Leiterman’s wife, in his comparison, but added that he “did not necessarily use them to form” his opinion.
Riley also admitted to altering Gary Leiterman’s handwriting, testifying that he ignored strokes of specific letters that otherwise would not have matched the writing on the phone book.
Riley’s analysis was refuted by Robert Kullman, a forensic document examiner for the defense. Kullman’s argument has since been supplemented by Hartford Kittel, an FBI document analyst who also claims that Riley’s testimony was false.
The Leitermans filed for a federal appeal nearly two years ago and have yet to receive a response, Solly Leiterman said. She said the wait is better than being denied, which often happens immediately, but it’s hard to stay patient.
At 68 years old, Gary Leiterman is almost six years into a life sentence without parole, the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder in Michigan.
A Michigan native who settled in Gobles, Leiterman is described as a man of many passions. He loved to serve his wife breakfast in bed and finds joy in giving lavish gifts. He once traveled to Chicago to buy an antique straight razor for his father-in-law simply because he had mentioned enjoying one in the past.
A lover of dogs, nature, history, art and fishing, he is dedicated to his hobbies and treats life as a celebration. Photography is one of his main interests, manifested in the vast collection of photos his wife still has. Many are scenes in nature, Leiterman’s favorite subject to shoot, but also of Leiterman himself smiling in the sun or camping with his kids, his tanned skin evidence of the hours he spent outdoors.
Now residing at E.C. Brooks Correctional Facility in Muskegon, Leiterman tries to stay productive. He maintains a garden, writes short stories and stays in touch with friends through detailed letters that he writes nearly every day. Solly Leiterman said her husband still sends out the Christmas cards every year.
“Everything is special to him,” Solly Leiterman said. “He’s very sentimental.”
Before his incarceration, Leiterman established a fulfilling small town lifestyle with a ride range of hobbies and accomplishments.
He found himself living on a modest farm in Gobles during the summer of 1974. It was the end of an eight-year stint traveling southeast Michigan as a pharmaceutical representative and Leiterman was looking for “a more rural environment” after years spent living in small spaces in busy cities.
He was a member of the Irish Setter Field Trial Club for five years before moving to Gobles. He conducted weekly training sessions that often lasted for hours to prepare his dogs for simulated hunting competitions. A self-proclaimed lover of animals, Leiterman acquired nearly half a dozen Irish Setters, as well as a horse that he trained himself.
Bill and Rachel Kube, who lived just down the road from Leiterman’s new rural estate, quickly befriended their new neighbor.
“This is a small town,” Rachel Kube said, pointing just down the road to the property where Leiterman lived. “You know your neighbors.”
Rachel Kube described Leiterman as a “fun-loving, outgoing man of multiple interests.” She defined him by his dedication to the local community and his commitment to his family.
He started his family early in 1977 while working at a car dealership in Gobles. When describing the first time he met his wife, Leiterman often states that she caught his attention by trying to trip him in the dealership.
With a reminiscent smile, Solly Leiterman denies remembering him at all.
A Filipino woman who was relatively new to the United States, Leiterman recalls her response the first time her future husband called her house and asked to see her:
“Oh, that guy?” she said. “No!”
Leiterman said “that guy” was persistent, calling occasionally over the next couple of months to see if she would relent. She never said yes.
One day in February, Solly Leiterman found herself stranded at a bus station. It was then that Gary Leiterman finally got the call back he’d been hoping for.
“I had no ride and no cell phone and the only person I could think to look up was Gary,” Leiterman said. “I didn’t even know his last name; I just called the first Gary in Gobles and he was there in 20 minutes.”
She agreed to a date to thank him for his kind gesture, after which she found the tables had turned.
“He didn’t call after our first date,” she said. “I had to call him.”
It didn’t take long for Gary Leiterman to change his muse’s mind. He proposed to her with his grandmother’s ring and the two were married in August of the same year.
While working at the Gobles car dealership where he met his wife, Leiterman also doubled as a surgical technologist at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo. In 1979, he decided to quit the sales job in favor of committing to the health care field.
He obtained an associate degree in nursing from Kalamazoo Valley Community College in 1981, when he was hired at Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo as a registered nurse on the surgical staff.
Over the next two decades, Leiterman built up an expansive resume at Borgess, holding numerous positions and participating in training programs for new employees. He also took courses in Health Care Administration at Western Michigan University when his schedule permitted.
Judy Betten, his clinical supervisor for almost his entire medical career, said Leiterman’s patients loved him. She recalled that he was “never very outgoing” but that he was “good, reliable and easy to get along with.”
“He was always doing little things,” Betten said. “He would get his patients a warm blanket or a new pillow without them asking.”
Judy Betten’s husband, Dr. Kenneth Betten, was an anesthesiologist and often worked in the operating room with Leiterman. Although the two did not see each other outside of the hospital, they became good friends on the clock.
The two shared the passions of “a man’s man,” as Judy Betten described. They both loved hunting, fishing and sports—Dr. Betten was a former athlete, Leiterman a high school coach.
“He was serious about his work, interested in doing a good job and easy to get along with,” Dr. Betten said, adding endearingly that Leiterman “always had a beautiful belly.”
In 1985, Gary and Solly Leiterman adopted two kids. Both biologically the children of Solly’s brother in the Philippines, Olive was 8 years old and Darwin was 13 when they moved to Gobles.
“You can’t tell those aren’t Gary’s natural kids,” Solly Leiterman said of her husband’s fathering. “He was more of a parent than I was.”
Bill Kube said Leiterman was an “honest family man” who had a “firm set of standards that he held himself and his family to in the way of ethics and behavior.”
Leiterman said his paternal philosophy is founded in mutual respect.
“The whole thing is, anybody can love somebody,” Leiterman said. “I love those kids and they love me, but it’s absolutely meaningless unless they respect you and you, in turn, as a parent respect them.”
Leiterman, known for his consistent demeanor and ability to contain his emotions, could not help but get choked up when discussing his children. Even over the phone, his sentimentality was apparent.
“Still today as you and I talk, I feel that love from them,” he said of his children.
He recalled a moment a few weeks earlier when his children and grandchildren were visiting him. His daughter, Ollie Yanilla, reached over and removed his glasses from his face. She then cleaned them off and placed them back in place, all without saying a word.
With a deep, loud laugh, Leiterman quipped, “where did she get that self-indulgent power from?” before admitting that in reality he “enjoyed the attention” and saw the small act as the embodiment of the love, comfort and respect he shares with his children.
Wanting to be as involved as possible in his children’s lives, Leiterman volunteered with the athletic booster club, substituted as an umpire at baseball games, coached summer softball leagues, and served a four-year term as a trustee on the Gobles Public Schools’ Board of Education.
“He was an active supporter of the athletic department and very interested in good education,” Rachel Kube said. “He did whatever was necessary.”
Leiterman frequently attended high school athletic events with the Kubes. Rachel Kube recalls Leiterman’s meticulous nature manifesting itself in his support of his kids’ athletic endeavors.
“The football team was in a tournament and he had the scores of all the other teams and games and statistics figured out,” Kube said. “He showed up with an analysis of everything, talking about how many points we needed to beat each team by to win. We all just laughed and let him go with it.”
Solly Leiterman agrees that her husband pays close attention to details.
“He tells such long stories,” she said of his tendency to embellish stories with the minutest details. She said she can’t hold it against him, though, because his in depth storytelling truly shows his fervor for life and his appreciation of the little things.
Leiterman’s legal struggles began in October of 2001. After a long battle with kidney stones in 1999, he obtained a prescription for the painkiller Percodan. He soon became addicted and began forging his own prescriptions for the drug.
“It controlled my life,” Leiterman said. “I fed my addictions by writing prescriptions and signing my neurologist’s name.”
Leiterman said no one else knew about the addiction.
“I wanted to get off that drug desperately,” Leiterman said, “but the problem with that was that I had to get treatment, but to get treatment I had to get off of it.”
On Oct. 3, 2001, Leiterman was in a hurry to get home and attempted to shoplift his prescription from a Meijer pharmacy in Portage. Police records show that he was apprehended and upon searching his vehicle, they found blank prescription pads.
Leiterman admitted to forging prescriptions for himself and was charged with three counts of fraudulent possession of a controlled substance, a felony.
According to court records, Leiterman was required to complete the Kalamazoo County Substance Abuse Diversion Program, upon which his record would be cleared of the charges.
Leiterman completed the program on March 29, 2002.
Not four months before Leiterman’s arrest, legislation was proposed that requested all convicted felons in Michigan be required to submit a DNA sample for the state database.
The bill was sponsored by former state Sen. Tom George, R-Mich., who also happened to be a colleague of Leiterman’s at both Bronson and Borgess hospitals.
The legislation was passed, effective January of 2002. The Michigan State Police Laboratory received Gary Leiterman’s buccal swab, a sample of saliva, on Feb. 22, 2002, according to forensic scientist Julie French’s testimony at Leiterman’s trial.
French testified that Leiterman’s DNA was processed for the first time in July of 2002, but failed to produce a full DNA profile. It was nearly two years later before a successful profile was submitted into the database.
Meanwhile, the box of evidence from Mixer’s 1969 case was brought to the same lab for testing for reasons unrelated to Leiterman. Ruelas’ DNA was also tested during this time, according to trial testimony.
Jeff Nye, supervisor of the forensic science division of the lab, testified that the respective cases’ lab testing did overlap, but “barely” and believes that cross-contamination is highly unlikely, according to trial transcripts.
Dr. Kessis believes that the lack of an explanation for the presence of Ruelas’ DNA is reason enough to dismiss the legitimacy of Leiterman’s DNA.
In his post-trial analysis of the case, Kessis points out that the failure of Leiterman’s first DNA sample to create a full profile implies that it was somehow depleted of DNA, suggesting that it experienced “some form of transfer” prior to testing.
Kessis also stated that the validity of Leiterman’s DNA was suspect because it was so well preserved, whereas all other DNA found on the evidence, including that of the victim, was degraded beyond use.
Sarah Thivault agreed, testifying that “there is some human judgment involved in interpreting DNA test results” due to environmental factors that cause degradation, which is visible to the eye.
Steve Kesten, a juror in Leiterman’s 2005 case, believes Ruelas’ DNA match was a mistake.
“I think that was Jane Mixer’s blood,” Kesten said in an interview for A&E TV’s Cold Case Files. “My personal opinion is that there may have been a mix up in the lab and that’s how that drop of blood was associated with John Ruelas.”
Kesten does not feel the same about Leiterman.
“I’m fairly certain that we made the right decision and that Gary Leiterman was guilty of this crime,” Kesten said.
Prosecutor Steven Hiller agrees. He said in his interview for the same show that Ruelas’ DNA is “something that’s been lost to history, but it doesn’t change the fact that Gary Leiterman’s DNA was on Jane Mixer’s pantyhose.”
The DNA match between Gary Earl Leiterman’s profile and numerous spots on the 1969 evidence was made on July 7, 2004, according to lab documents.
It was four months before Leiterman had any idea that he was being investigated as a murder suspect. Early one November morning as Leiterman was preparing to drive his South Korean exchange student to school, two Michigan State Police officers appeared on his doorstep.
Under the impression that he was being questioned about suspicious activity in the neighborhood, Leiterman agreed to meet the police at the station in Paw Paw after he drove to the school.
He was arrested for the murder of Jane Mixer the same day and hasn’t returned since.
Less than one week before his arrest, Leiterman said he was gathering trash from around the house when he saw two photos lying face-down on top of the exchange student’s garbage can.
He said he thought they were photos he had taken of her to send home to her parents, so he picked them up.
Instead, Leiterman said he found two Polaroid photos of the student, presumably unconscious, lying on a bed with her dress pulled above her head.
“I was quite frankly stunned and a little perplexed,” Leiterman said.
Trying to be “socially polite,” Leiterman decided not to discuss the photos with anyone else, but rather try to get the student placed in a different home without “making a scene.”
Leiterman said he kept the photos in a closet before throwing them in the trash the Saturday before he was arrested. He never took the trash out.
According to the police report from the first search of the Leiterman estate, the two compromising photos were found in the drawer of the bedside table in the master bedroom. Leiterman was charged with possession of child pornography.
Given the impending murder trial, Leiterman said his family encouraged him to plead guilty and get the charge out of the way.
“I was not convinced that was the way to go,” Leiterman said, “until 5 nights before my trial, [my lawyer] came to me with 2 pages of pornography they said they found on my computer.”
Leiterman vehemently refuses that the pornography was anything but spam, but he was presented with two options.
“It was 20 years in prison or time served,” Leiterman said. “Between the photos, the prosecutor and the porn, it became an easy choice.”
Nearly four years and two felony cases after his initial arrest that set in motion the events that would decide his future, Leiterman’s murder trial began.
In addition to the DNA and handwriting, the prosecution leaned on the murder weapon for Leiterman’s conviction.
In 1969, Leiterman lawfully owned a .22 caliber gun, the same type used to shoot Jane Mixer, according to trial transcripts.
He reported the gun missing in 1985, when he believes his wife accidentally threw it out while cleaning. He said she was throwing out boxes of newspapers Leiterman had kept, one of which may have contained the gun.
Police searched the house three times and never found the weapon.
Rachel Kube, who attended all but one day of Leiterman’s trial, described the experience as “just awful.” She said she saw two jurors sleeping during one of the presentations.
Friends described Leiterman as uncharacteristically subdued throughout the trial. Even from the first interrogation, his calm demeanor made officers wary of his behavior.
“We didn’t get any type of the normal response that you would expect to see from someone who’s being accused of a crime of that nature,” Detective Eric Schroeder told A&E TV. “Never at any time did he jump up and get angry.”
Judy Betten said that even before the trial, Leiterman rarely allowed his feelings to show. She has never seen an “outburst” from him, even since his conviction.
“He had a poker face through the whole trial,” she said. “Even now, he expresses disappointment but he never gets highly emotional.”
Maggie Nelson, Jane Mixer’s niece, attended the 2005 trial. She said she was taken aback by Leiterman not because of solemn disposition, but because of his semblance to a certain cartoon character.
With a shiny bald head framed with thick white hair, a full white mustache that is almost a caricature of itself and wire-rimmed glasses reminiscent of the 1970s, Nelson said Leiterman hardly looked the part of a murderer.
“Where I imagined I might find the face of evil,” she wrote in her novel about Mixer’s life and death, “I am finding Elmer Fudd.”
Never lacking for words or refusing a chance to defend his innocence, Leiterman is an articulate man who expresses himself with well-planned words rather than impulsive displays of emotion. He did not, however, take the stand at his trial.
He said he insisted on testifying until his lawyer, Gary Gabry, told him that the last 5 people he represented that testified on their own behalf got sentences of life without parole.
“That chilled me to the bone,” Leiterman said of his choice to refrain.
Betten said that Leiterman “could only have helped himself” by testifying. “They needed to find out that this was a real human being, not someone just sitting there,” she said.
On his “flat-affect” disposition, as Betten described him, Leiterman said he sees no point in becoming visibly angry.
“I let those things kind of settle without getting stirred up,” he said. “I can’t begin to explain to you how hard it’s been but I don’t know how it does any good to express that openly to anybody.”
“It’s extremely difficult and extremely anguishing, and I am unbelievably furious that this could have happened,” Leiterman said.
For some, it is sadness rather than anger that this case evokes. Solly Leiterman said she lost 15 pounds in one week after her husband’s verdict was read.
“I couldn’t get out of bed, still couldn’t sleep,” Leiterman said. “When I heard that word ‘guilty’ I just kept thinking, ‘did I hear that right?’”
After the verdict was read, Gary Leiterman dropped his head into his hands. When he first lifted his eyes to meet his wife’s, she said only the words “stay alive” across the courtroom.
She said she was worried her husband would not survive the ordeal, as he had been moderately ill just before it all started.
Despite her playful grievances about her husband’s long and detailed stories, Leiterman is not a short-winded talker. She is rarely without a relevant anecdote or an interesting topic to discuss. After describing this final day in court, she remains silent and somber.
Judy Betten said she was simply shocked when the verdict was read. She said she didn’t think the prosecution’s case could have convinced anyone Leiterman was guilty. The only thing she was worried about was whether there would be room for her in the car on the drive back to Gobles, as she thought Leiterman would be along for the ride.
Now, Gary and Solly Leiterman plan movies to watch at the same time and call each other to discuss them after. She said it’s the closest they can get to the time they used to spend together.
During visits, friends say Gary Leiterman tries to talk about “normal things” and expresses his gratitude for their company, always polite and very interested to hear what’s happening around the town.
With a motion for a new trial expected within a month, Solly Leiterman has hope for her husband’s release. She looks forward to the day when he comes home, even if only to gain a little extra space.
Not a sentimental woman, she doesn’t share the “pack rat” habits of her relic-collecting husband.
“The only reason I haven’t gotten rid of all of these things he has kept over the years is because they’re precious to me now,” she said, “but if he gets home… they’re gone!”
Leiterman’s current lawyer, Bryan Zubel, said he has “located a fair body of material” that he believes will “show Mr. Leiterman’s due process rights were violated.”
Zubel said Leiterman’s conviction is the result of misinformation, deceit and lack of proper procedure throughout the initial trial. He is not filing for an appeal, but rather a new trial in the original court.
“We are trying to put together a coherent argument to prove to the trial court that Leiterman’s rights were violated by the government,” Zubel said. “For the first time we have the ammunition to prove his case.”
Jess Herndon 