$13 million reward offered to massive man who spent decades in prison for a murder he didn't commit

During the nearly three decades that Michael Sullivan was behind bars, his mother and four siblings died, his girlfriend moved on, and Michael Sullivan was badly beaten in multiple prison attacks.

All this because of a murder he insisted for a long time that he never committed.

Earlier this month, Sullivan, 64, received justice when a Massachusetts jury found him innocent in the 1986 murder and robbery of Wilfred McGrath. He was awarded $13 million – but state regulations restrict awards $1 million for wrongful convictions. The jury also found that a state police chemist had perjured himself at trial; but his testimony does not guarantee Sullivan’s conviction.

This is the last in a series convictions overturned in the state in recent years.

“The most important thing is to find me innocent of murder, to wipe that off the record,” Sullivan said, speaking at the office of his lead attorney, Michael Heineman, in Framingham, Massachusetts. “Of course the money will help me a lot.”

“We respect the jury’s verdict and are considering whether an appeal is appropriate,” a spokesman for the Massachusetts attorney general said.

Sullivan was convicted of murder and armed robbery in 1987 after police said McGrath was robbed, beaten and his body dumped behind an abandoned supermarket.

Authorities focused on Sullivan after learning that his sister had been out with McGrath the night before the murder and that the two had gone to the apartment he shared with Sullivan. Another suspect in the murder, Gary Grace, implicated Sullivan and the murder charges were dropped. Grace testified at trial that Sullivan was wearing a purple jacket the night of the murder, and a former State Police chemist testified that he found blood on the jacket and a hair consistent with McGrath’s, not Sullivan’s.

Sullivan was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Meanwhile, Grace later pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to 6 years in prison. Emil Petrla, who beat McGrath and helped dispose of his body, confessed to second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole but died in prison.

“I couldn’t believe I was convicted of murder,” Sullivan said, recalling that prosecutors mentioned the purple jacket five times in their closing arguments. “My mother was crying in the courtroom, my brother was crying too. I was crying. “It was very difficult for me and my family.”

Michael Sullivan speaks with an Associated Press reporter at his attorney's office in Framingham, Massachusetts (Steven Senne/AP) — Michael Sullivan speaks with an Associated Press reporter at his attorney’s office in Framingham, Massachusetts (Steven Senne/AP)

Prison would be a nightmare for Sullivan. In one attack, he almost had his nose bit off, and in another attack, he almost lost his ear. And because he was sentenced to life in prison, the prison system wouldn’t allow him to take any classes to gain much-needed skills.

“It’s very difficult for a person, especially when you know you’re innocent,” Sullivan said. he said. “And prison is a bad life, you know. Prison is a hard life.”

But in 2011, Sullivan’s fortunes changed dramatically.

Sullivan’s attorney requested DNA testing, which was not available at the first hearing and no blood was found on the jacket. The tests also stated that substances that did not contain McGrath’s DNA were found on the jacket, and it could not be determined whether the hair found on the jacket belonged to him.

Boston attorney Dana Curhan, who represented Sullivan from 1992 to 2014 and pushed for DNA testing, said Sullivan always told her McGrath’s blood was not on the jacket. But he was surprised to learn there was no blood, disproving the prosecutor’s claim that Sullivan beat McGrath to a “blood pulp.”

“The prosecutor said this in closing: ‘Hey, if that wasn’t him, why did they find blood on both cuffs of the jacket?'” Curhan said. “He kept repeating this over and over again. Now we have no blood and no DNA match. You would expect someone who did what he allegedly did to be covered in blood. There is no blood. That was indeed the case.”

A new trial was ordered in 2012 and Sullivan was released in 2013. Sullivan spent his first six months under house arrest and had to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for years.

“I was in an emotional state when I walked out the front door,” he said.

In 2014, the Supreme Judicial Court upheld a decision to grant Sullivan a new trial, and in 2019 the state ruled against retriing the case. In that case, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan He said it was nearly impossible for his office to successfully retry the case against Sullivan, given the deaths of some witnesses and the diminishing memories of other potential witnesses.

Sullivan admits that he “shut down” after his release and to this day struggles to survive in a world that changed dramatically while in prison. Before his arrest, he worked at a peanut factory and had planned to go to school to become a truck driver and eventually work for his brother, who owned a trucking company.

Instead, he left prison with no job prospects and little hope of finding employment. He still can’t use a computer and mostly helps his sister with odd jobs. His girlfriend, whom he had known since he was 12, would visit him in prison for a decade, but eventually “he had to move on with his life.”

“I’m still not used to the outside world,” Sullivan said, adding that he spends most of his time with his Yorkshire terrier Buddy and the pigeons he keeps at his sister’s house.

Michael Sullivan brings feed for his pigeons to his sister's house on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in Billerica, Massachusetts (Steven Senne/AP) — Michael Sullivan brings feed for his pigeons to his sister’s house on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in Billerica, Massachusetts (Steven Senne/AP)

“It’s hard for me,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m always scared… I’m quite a loner.”

Sullivan’s sister, Donna Faria, said the family did not believe “not for a second” that he killed McGrath. They attended the hearing in support and spoke to Sullivan twice a week while he was in prison, visiting him every few months.

But Faria laments all that Sullivan lost while in prison, noting that he “never had children, never married, like the rest of us.”

“If it weren’t for me, my brother would be walking the streets like so many homeless people,” Faria said. “It’s almost like he doesn’t trust people. He feels safe if he is with his family. If not, he won’t do it.”

These days, Sullivan spends most of his time at Faria’s home in Billerica, Massachusetts, and often does his family’s laundry, as he did with other inmates while in prison. Despite the jury award, Sullivan doesn’t expect his life to change this much.

Sullivan is going to buy himself a new truck, but said he wants to save most of the money to make sure his nephews have what they need when they turn 21. Sullivan is not receiving any therapy because of the hardships he has endured, but his attorney, Heineman, said he plans to ask the court to provide him with therapy and educational services as part of the decision.

“They will have money. “This will make me very happy,” he said. “The most important thing is that my nieces and nephews take care of them.”

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