Detroit, MI
Detroit killer-for-hire becomes convicted liar-for-hire
A killer-for-hire is now a convicted liar-for-hire.
Confessed hit man Vincent Smothers, who is serving up to 100 years in prison for a string of contract murders, had more time added to his incarceration following recent convictions for lying to a court and possessing a contraband cellphone, according to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office.
In 2018, Smothers provided an affidavit to the Macomb County Circuit Court in which he lied about two shooting victims to help bolster another inmate’s claim that he’d shot the men in self-defense, Nessel said in a press release. The contraband cellphone, discovered in Smothers’ cell in May, uncovered the scheme, in which Smothers was paid to lie, Nessel said.
Smothers, 45, was sentenced Thursday in Muskegon County Circuit Court to 14 months to 58 months in prison for possessing a contraband cell phone. Smothers, an inmate in Freeland’s Saginaw Correctional Facility, was sentenced in Macomb County Circuit Court last month to one to 40 years for providing a false affidavit to a court, an offense that carries up to life in prison.
Smothers will serve the sentences consecutively — after his 50-year to 100-year second-degree murder sentence is completed — the Attorney General’s Office said. The recent sentences push Smothers’ earliest release date up two years to April 18, 2061.
“Providing false evidence undermines the hard work of the many police, prosecutors, judges, and jurors who work tirelessly to hold dangerous people accountable and make our communities safer,” Nessel said in a statement. “This conviction and sentence make clear that those who attempt to obstruct justice will face consequences, and my office will continue to defend the integrity of our criminal justice system with the full weight of the law.”
In 2010, Smothers was sentenced to 50 to 100 years in prison after pleading guilty to eight counts of second-degree murder. Smothers said he was paid by Detroit drug dealers to kill their rivals, although he also was contracted to kill Rose Cobb, the wife of Detroit Police Sgt. David Cobb, whom he fatally shot on Dec. 26, 2007, while she sat in her minivan in a CVS drugstore parking lot on East Jefferson.
In 2008, after being charged in connection with his wife’s killing, David Cobb killed himself.
A prison cellphone discovery kicks off Nessel’s investigation
In May, officials at the Earnest C. Brooks Correctional Facility in Muskegon County found a contraband cell phone in Smothers’ cell. The discovery kicked off the Attorney General’s investigation, Nessel said.
When authorities inspected the phone, they found communications between Smothers and Shannon Anderson, an inmate in another prison serving up to 40 years following his 2010 second-degree murder conviction. The text messages laid out a scheme in which Smothers was to be paid to lie about the shooting victims to make the killings appear to have been in self-defense, according to Nessel.
Smothers signed the affidavit in 2018, providing false details about the shooting, according to the attorney general. In February 2020, Anderson’s lawyer filed a motion requesting a new hearing based on new evidence — Smothers’ affidavit, Nessel said.
Anderson also was charged with obstruction of justice in Clinton Township’s 41-B District Court. An April 2 preliminary examination is scheduled before Chief Judge Sebastian Lucido. Shannon’s attorney, Mariell Lehman, did not respond Friday to a phone call requesting comment.
When Nessel discussed the case last year, she said her office was investigating multiple cases in which Smothers was alleged to have lied about for money. Her office did not respond to an emailed request about the status of the other probes.
The crimes Smothers admitted to after his murder conviction included the 2004 killing of drug dealer Jamal Segars, for which Thelonious Searcy was convicted in 2005.
“We know that with Searcy and other cases, our understanding is that (Smothers) would provide information to shed light that wasn’t previously known about a case, even if he didn’t specifically take responsibility for the murder or shooting,” Nessel said during an August press conference.
Defense attorney plans to call Smothers as a witness in an upcoming trial
Smothers appeared in Wayne County Circuit Court on March 19, 2018, claiming he’d killed Segers, whose street name was “Q,” while the victim sat in a traffic jam on Conner near Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport in Detroit.
Searcy’s attorney, Paul Broschay, told The News Friday he plans to call Smothers as a witness during the trial.
The case has been snagged while defense attorneys and prosecutors wrangled over the admissibility of firearm evidence, Broschay said. The Michigan Supreme Court overruled the lower court’s decision to bar the defense from calling expert witnesses to try to discount the strength of the evidence, a scrap of brass that reportedly came from a spent shell casing, Broschay said.
A hearing to discuss the evidence is scheduled for May 11 before Wayne County Circuit Judge Margaret Van Houten.
Searcy was released from prison in 2021 after the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled he should be granted a new trial. Although Searcy’s request for a new trial based on Smothers’ claim was denied by former Wayne County Circuit Chief Judge Timothy Kenny, the appellate court ruled Searcy’s attorney had not properly objected to alleged prosecutorial misconduct during a hearing.
Wayne County prosecutors have maintained Searcy’s guilt, although in 2023, the Detroit City Council granted him a Spirit of Detroit award that called him an “Exonerated hero.”
How many murders-for-hire has Vincent Smothers confessed to?
Although Smothers was convicted of eight murders, he confessed to 12 murders-for-hire. Smothers told police he and a partner were paid to kill a drug dealer inside his house on Runyon Street on Detroit’s east side in 2007. Four people were killed in the house, and the shell casings found at the scene were shot from the same AK-47 rifle Smothers had used in other hits.
At the time of Smothers’ confession in 2008, 14-year-old Davontae Sanford had been in prison for a few months, following his conviction on second-degree murder charges in connection with the Runyon Street quadruple homicide. Sanford confessed to the crime, although he claimed he’d been tricked into confessing by police and an attorney who was later disbarred.
Sanford in 2022 settled a federal lawsuit against the city for $7.5 million.
ghunter@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2134
@GeorgeHunter_DN
Archbishop Edward Weisenburger and Fr. Mario Amore on restructuring
Archbishop Edward Weisenburger and Fr. Mario Amore on the archdiocese restructuring on Nov. 17, 2025 in Detroit
The list of Catholic parishes targeted for the possible stoppage of weekend Masses has grown to about 90 parishes across southeast Michigan, according to the latest proposed models the Archdiocese of Detroit has released as part of its major restructuring process.
The archdiocese released on Thursday the models for potential parish groupings for the six remaining planning areas in the archdiocese, and 32 parishes wouldn’t have weekend Mass under at least one of the models. Previously released models showed that 58 other parishes could stop holding weekend Mass.
The Archdiocese of Detroit recently completed listening sessions meant to garner feedback on the models, but parishioners can still share input through a survey that is open until July 31.
The archdiocese has been divided into 15 planning areas, or geographic areas, and three or four models are being proposed for each planning area, said the Rev. Mario Amore, executive director of parish renewal for the Archdiocese of Detroit.
The models have different proposed groupings of parishes ― called pastorates ― in which a grouping would share a pastor and potentially other priests. In some cases, selected churches in the grouping would no longer hold Saturday Vigil or Sunday Mass.
The models released on Thursday are for planning areas 6, 7, 8, 11, 14 and 15, which include parts of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties and parishes in St. Clair and Lapeer counties.
Sixteen of the parishes wouldn’t have weekend Mass under any of the models, including St. Alphonsus-Clement Parish in Dearborn, Our Lady of Loretto Parish in Redford Township and Our Lady of Hope Parish in St. Clair Shores.
The models are part of the archdiocese’s biggest restructuring plan in years. Announced last fall, Archbishop Edward Weisenburger said the archdiocese can’t maintain the roughly 200 existing parish buildings and is working to “right-size” the archdiocese, along with its personnel and financial resources.
Holly Fournier, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Detroit, emphasized that the models are just draft proposals “intended to solicit feedback from parishioners.” She said no decisions have been made regarding pastorate groupings, weekend Mass schedules or any other aspect of the restructuring process.
The Rev. Mario Amore, executive director of parish renewal for the Archdiocese of Detroit, said in May that parishioners understand that the archdiocese “needs to do something” about its challenges. But when it becomes personal for people, it’s “very difficult,” he said.
“And there’s a lot of human emotions, and … we need to honor that,” Amore said. “We need to be attentive to that, and no one’s saying that it’s an easy process, and it’s not a process that … we’re happy that we need to undertake, but it is one that we do need to undertake.”
What the latest Wayne County models show
Planning Area 6, which is in the southern section of Wayne County, excluding the Downriver area, includes 16 parishes. Eight of them would stop holding Saturday Vigil or Sunday Mass under at least one of the models for the planning area.
They include St. Mary, Cause of Our Joy in Westland, St. Richard in Westland, St. Aloysius in Romulus, St. Sabina in Dearborn Heights, St. Linus in Dearborn Heights, Divine Child in Dearborn, St. Alphonsus -St. Clement in Dearborn and St. Kateri Tekakwitha in Dearborn.
Planning Area 7, which includes the northwest portion of Wayne County, has 15 parishes, four of which wouldn’t hold weekend Mass under at least one model. They include Our Lady of Loretto in Redford Township, St. John XXIII in Redford Township, St. Priscilla in Livonia and Resurrection in Canton Township.
What the latest Oakland and Macomb Co. models show
Planning Area 8, which is in southern Oakland County, has 13 parishes, six of which wouldn’t have weekend Mass under at least one of the models. They include St. William in Walled Lake, St. Gerald in Farmington, Prince of Peace in West Bloomfield, St. Joseph in South Lyon, Church of the Transfiguration in Southfield and Our Lady of Albanians in Southfield.
Planning Area 11, which includes the southeastern section of Macomb County, the Grosse Pointe communities and one parish in Detroit, has 14 parishes. Seven of them wouldn’t have weekend Mass under at least one model. They include Our Lady of Hope in St. Clair Shores, St. Lucy in St. Clair Shores, St. Basil the Great in Eastpointe, St. Margaret of Scotland in St. Clair Shores, Holy Innocents-St. Barnabas in Roseville, St. Matthew in Detroit and St. Clare of Montefalco in Grosse Pointe Park.
What the models in St. Clair, Lapeer counties show
Planning Area 14, which is in St. Clair County, has 12 parishes, five of which wouldn’t have Saturday Vigil or Sunday Mass in at least one model. They include Sacred Heart in Yale, St. Edward on the Lake in Lakeport, Holy Trinity in Port Huron, St. Christopher in Marysville and Immaculate Conception in Ira Township.
Planning Area 15, which is in Lapeer County and part of northern Macomb County, includes ten parishes. Two wouldn’t hold weekend Mass under at least one model. They include St. Mary Burnside in North Branch and St. Cornelius in Dryden.
asnabes@detroitnews.com
Carl’s Chop House, 3020 Grand River in Detroit, 1923-2008
It was one of the most prominent restaurants in Detroit throughout the 20th century. Carl’s Chop House served Detroit for decades, from the Great Depression through the new Millennium.
Founder Carl Rosenfield first opened as the Grand River Chophouse in the early 1920s and he moved the business across the street and renamed it Carl’s in the 1930s. The often-repeated story goes that he won the full ownership of a bar from his partner in a poker game and turned it into Carl’s Chop House.
Prior to his restaurant success, Rosenfield was a well-known tire merchant. At one point, Rosenfield also owned a lighthouse near Port Sanilac.
As a restaurateur, Rosenfield persevered through many trials, including the Great Depression and a beef shortage during World War II, which left the steakhouse to serve chicken, lobster, sturgeon and “a lot of fish I never heard of,” he was quoted as saying.
A sirloin steak dinner was $1 when Carl’s Chop House opened.
By the 1960s, business was booming, and the restaurant was serving thousands of customers daily and had plans to expand the 850-seat dining room to 1,200. By then, steak dinners were up to $6.
They bounced up to $10 in the 1970s when longtime Detroit News restaurant reporter and critic Molly Abraham included Carl’s in a column, pointing out that even though the restaurant was a bit out of fashion — it had been open for more than 50 years by then — she describes the place as having “an infectiously festive, informal atmosphere.”
Along with the steaks, convivial atmosphere and firm handshakes, Carl’s Chop House was known for always being open, even on Sundays. The only day of the year it was closed was Christmas Day, Dec. 25, which was also Rosenfield’s birthday.
Rosenfield, who would support local farmers by purchasing cattle and other livestock from the Michigan State Fair, was still working at the restaurant in the 1980s when he was in his 90s. He died in 1991 at age 95.
The new owners of Carl’s Chop House ushered it into the next century for another generation to enjoy.
It wasn’t the same without its namesake proprietor, who was known for an absolutely crushing handshake, however. In 2008, owner Frank Passalacqua filed an application with the state for a topless permit, hoping to turn the property, which was now a neighbor of MotorCity Casino, from a steakhouse to a strip club.
Passalacqua, who was more successful at Mario’s Italian restaurant in the Cass Corridor, said he was losing $1 million a year on Carl’s. The gentleman’s club idea never materialized. Carl’s closed in 2008 and the building was demolished in 2010.
mbaetens@detroitnews.com
-
Health1 minute agoNo sex for 10 weeks? Championship team’s playoff strategy raises eyebrows
-
Sports6 minutes ago2026 FIFA World Cup Golden Boot Race Tracker: Lionel Messi Is Alone At The Top
-
Technology13 minutes agoMcDonald’s AI drive-thru may take your next order
-
Business16 minutes ago
Uber, California lawyers say deal reached to avert dueling ballot initiative showdown
-
Entertainment21 minutes agoReview: Dour and dull, ‘The Death of Robin Hood’ steals our time to give to the gloom
-
Politics31 minutes agoLong list of U.S. concessions to Iran raises specter of a ‘lost war’
-
Sports43 minutes agoJustin Gaethje and Ilia Topuria receive lengthy medical suspensions after UFC Freedom 250 fight
-
World51 minutes agoEU of six, not 27, is needed to ‘stay relevant’ – Bruno Le Maire
