A Fraser man is to get a new trial in Macomb County in the 2021 drowning death of his girlfriend’s 6-year-old special needs son after the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that he was questioned by police without being given his Miranda rights.
Hunter Locke-Hughes, 24, was sentenced in 2024 to 7 1/2 to 30 years in prison on first-degree child abuse, and 43 months to 15 years for involuntary manslaughter. Macomb Circuit Court Judge Kathryn Viviano gave him credit for nearly two years in jail at the time of his sentencing.
Locke-Hughes was convicted by a jury in February 2024. A motion for an acquittal or new trial was denied in May 2025, and the case was appealed to the state Court of Appeals, according to online Circuit Court records.
“There was sufficient evidence presented at trial to support Locke-Hughes’ first-degree child abuse conviction. However, because the most critical evidence to support the requisite intent came from a custodial interrogation performed without the benefit of Miranda warnings, Locke-Hughes is entitled to a new trial on all charges,” according to the 21-page appellate court opinion released on Thursday, June 25.
Online Circuit Court records did not list a new trial date as Friday, June 26.
The county prosecutor’s office also had filed an appeal, previously saying the sentence on the child abuse conviction was 45 months below the sentencing guidelines and that Viviano sentenced Locke-Hughes to the low end of the sentencing guidelines on the involuntary manslaughter conviction.
In response to the state appellate court’s opinion, the prosecutor’s office said: “The Court of Appeals’ decision is under review at this time. The office will consider options and take the appropriate action in due course.”
Locke-Hughes’ appellate attorney, Lee Somerville, said: “I’m glad he’s getting another chance.”
“This is something that police do all the time. They say we just want to talk to you and they don’t give them their rights, even though they’re in a small room, then they arrest you afterward,” Somerville said.
Somerville said Locke-Hughes was 19 at the time with no prior criminal record. She said his defense attorney in the circuit court case also raised the issue before trial.
The appellate court opinion said that before the trial, Locke-Hughes filed a motion to quash, arguing his statements during an April 6, 2022, interview with police should be excluded from evidence at trial because “they were made in a custodial environment without being advised of his Miranda rights. The trial court heard and denied the motion, holding that Locke-Hughes was not subject to a custodial interrogation on April 6, and therefore Miranda warnings were unnecessary.”
The three-judge panel wrote in its opinion that “we cannot say that reasonable jurors would have found Locke-Hughes guilty of first-degree child abuse absent admission of the April 6 interview video. The evidence against Locke-Hughes, independent of this video, as detailed above, was circumstantial and not overwhelming.
“Though the evidence at trial revealed that Locke-Hughes had the opportunity to commit first-degree child abuse against Terrance, it did not indicate the requisite intent. The April 6 video was the only piece of evidence revealing potential intent, and thus, there is a reasonable possibility that a factfinder would have acquitted Locke-Hughes of this charge had it not been played at trial. As such, we conclude this error was not harmless and warrants reversal.”
Locke-Hughes originally was charged with first-degree child abuse and felony murder, which carried the potential of a life sentence. Involuntary manslaughter is a 15-year felony.
He was accused of holding the boy, Terrance ‘Terry’ Adams, under water while giving him a bath on Dec. 28, 2021, in a tub at a residence in Clinton Township, according to prior information from the prosecutor’s office. Locke-Hughes called 911; the boy’s mother was at work. The county medical examiner ruled the cause of death was drowning, with the manner of death indeterminate, according to the appellate court’s opinion.
The boy was born with CHARGE syndrome, a rare genetic condition that affects several parts of a child’s body, including the eyes, nerves, heart, nasal passages, genitals and ears, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Children diagnosed with this condition have unique facial features and a combination of symptoms, according to the clinic’s website, and every person with the condition is affected in different ways.
Despite the condition, the boy overcame many obstacles, such as learning to walk and partially seeing, according to his obituary.
Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @challreporter.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Appellate court: New trial for Fraser man in death of special needs boy
Reporting by Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
