Marvin Grimm, Jr.

The Crime

At 2:40 p.m., on Nov. 22, 1975, a three-year-old boy, identified in court as C.H., was reported missing by his mother. She said she had last seen him about 1:30 p.m. heading toward a wooded area behind their apartment complex in Richmond. At 2:45 p.m., police officers arrived. Looking for C.H.’s family, they knocked on the door of Mr. Grimm, who was 20 years old. Mr. Grimm said the family lived across the hall.

Over the next four days, 350 people, including police and a helicopter, searched the area in one of the most intense search operations in Richmond history. 

On Nov. 26, 1975, the boy’s body was found lying face up and fully clothed in shallow water of the James River, nine miles from his home. His arms were folded across his chest as if he were asleep.

Deputy chief medical examiner Marcella Fierro concluded that C.H. died from asphyxia before he wound up in the river. She said there was a moderate amount of mucus in the boy’s throat, and that a microscopic analysis of smears “revealed the presence of spermatozoa.” A toxicology report indicated the presence of alcohol, acetaminophen, and chlorzoxazone, a muscle relaxant.

The Investigation

On Dec. 16, 1975, the police, with no suspects and no leads, picked up Mr. Grimm at his place of work at 4:45 p.m. after he completed a nine-hour shift. At the police station, detectives interrogated him about two arguments that C.H.’s father had with him. C.H.’s mother had told police that Mr. Grimm was “odd in his actions.”

Police later said that only after questioning Mr. Grimm without a break until 9:10 p.m. did they advise him of his Miranda warnings. During the night, he was given two polygraph examinations. Mr. Grimm would later say that the detectives threatened him with the death penalty. Although Mr. Grimm didn’t know it, the death penalty was an empty threat since it did not apply to the crime he was suspected of committing.

At 11 p.m., police said Mr. Grimm told them “what happened.” 

The officers took him out to show them the route he took on the day C.H. disappeared, then returned to the station. At 2:20 a.m., police turned on a tape recorder, and Mr. Grimm gave a statement.

He said that he had left the apartment building to get food for the weekend from his mother. When he returned, he saw C.H. outside. He said he went inside and turned on a football game on television. He said he blacked out during the second period, left the house, and went to the laundry building in the apartment complex. There, he saw C.H., who asked if Mr. Grimm would take him to a convenience store for a soda.

Prompted by leading questions from a detective Mr. Grimm said that he drove the boy to a parking lot and “forced sexual assault on him.”

Mr. Grimm said he wrapped the boy in his peacoat and drove him to the river where he tossed the boy into the water while unfurling the coat. He said he tore his shoe when he slipped at the river while tossing the boy over the bank. He then drove home and later took part in the search for C.H.

On Dec. 17, 1975, Mr. Grimm was arrested on charges of first-degree murder, sodomy, and abduction with intent to defile. 

The police searched Mr. Grimm’s apartment and his car, collecting his shoes and a peacoat from the apartment and two towels and several hairs from his car. The physical evidence was sent to the Virginia Division of Forensic Science (DFS) where it was analyzed by forensic analyst Mary Jane Burton.

The Trial

On March 10, 1976, instead of going to trial, Mr. Grimm pled guilty to the charges in Richmond City Circuit Court. Judge Frank A.S. Wright scheduled an evidentiary hearing for March 15 before he would agree to the conviction.

At the hearing, a detective recounted how Mr. Grimm had confessed. In addition, the prosecution presented Ms. Burton’s report of her analysis of the hairs. She said that three hairs found on the floor of Mr. Grimm’s car as well as a hair found on a child’s sock in the car were “consistent” with C.H.’s hair. She said the hairs were not Mr. Grimm’s. Ms. Burton said that four hairs found on the peacoat were “consistent” with C.H.’s hair. These hairs also were not Mr. Grimm’s, she said.

Ms. Burton said she had tested swabs of the pharynx, epiglottis, esophagus, nasal passage, and oral cavity taken during the autopsy. She also performed tests on a towel recovered from Mr. Grimm’s car. Ms. Burton’s serology report was dated March 12, 1975, two days after Mr. Grimm entered his guilty plea and three days before the hearing. Her serology testing on the swabs excluded Mr. Grimm — she found blood type O, and he had type A. This fact was not pointed out by the defense. Ms. Burton said that a stain on one of the towels from Mr. Grimm’s car indicated the presence of seminal fluid. 

Doctor Marcella Fierro, the medical examiner, testified to her autopsy results and the presence of spermatozoa and a “thick white gelatinate material” in C.H.’s mouth. 

Judge Wright entered a finding of guilty on the three charges. In May 1976, Mr. Grimm was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

The Exoneration

In March 1989, Mr. Grimm filed a petition for DNA testing, but it was denied. Two years later, in 2001, Mr. Grimm, now represented by a lawyer, sought testing again. In December 2003, Mr. Grimm filed a petition for a writ of actual innocence based on results of that testing that excluded him as the source of the biological evidence found in C.H.’s throat and excluded C.H. as the source of the hairs found on the peacoat. The Supreme Court of Virginia denied the petition in May 2004, saying the petition was filed too late, and that not only had Mr. Grimm confessed, but police had confirmed “much of the detailed descriptions” in the confession.

In February 2012, Mr. Grimm filed another petition for a writ of actual innocence based on DNA testing of the hairs that excluded C.H. and on the swabs and smears from C.H.’s mouth, throat, and nose that excluded Mr. Grimm. That prosecution opposed, and the petition was dismissed. The Virginia Supreme Court again noted Mr. Grimm’s guilty plea and confession and found that “the forensic reports were inconclusive as to two of the hairs that were found and no DNA profile could be obtained from some of the pharynx, esophagus and oral swabs ‘due to an insufficient amount of DNA.’”

In August 2017, Mr. Grimm petitioned Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe for a pardon, but no action was taken. On April 3, 2020, Mr. Grimm was released on parole. He was required to register as a sex offender and to wear an ankle bracelet. 

In October 2021, after the Virginia General Assembly authorized DNA testing at private laboratories, Mr. Grimm filed a post-conviction motion to have the evidence retested by Mitotyping Technologies. The motion was granted. In 2012, DFS had tested the hairs and excluded C.H. from all but two hairs, saying their tests on those two were inconclusive. Mitotyping Technologies’ testing, conducted in 2023, excluded C.H. as the source of the two hairs from the car, one hair from the sock found in the car, and three hairs from the pea coat as well as the two hairs which DFS had called inconclusive. Seven of the hairs had different DNA profiles, indicating that they had been shed by seven different people. By this time, not only had Mr. Grimm been excluded as the source of any biological material on the slides from C.H., but an analysis showed there was no sperm in the boy’s throat at all. Further, the towel that Ms. Burton said appeared to contain semen was negative for the presence of seminal fluid.

In April 2023, Mr. Grimm’s legal team, including Susan Friedman and Timothy Gumkowski of the Innocence Project and lawyers from the law firm of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, filed a petition for a writ of actual innocence. The petition cited the test results as well as reports from Professor Richard Leo, an expert on false confessions, and Dr. Jeffrey Brent, a toxicology expert. Professor Leo concluded that there were numerous factors present that indicated Mr. Grimm’s confession was false, including that his version of events did not comport with the evidence, and it appeared that police had fed him details when Mr. Grimm was unable to provide them himself.

Dr. Brent reported that based on his analysis of the toxicology report, C.H. had ingested the alcohol, chlorzoxazone, and acetaminophen at least 90 to 150 minutes prior to his death. This made it impossible for Mr. Grimm to have been involved since police records showed he was in his apartment within 75 minutes after the boy was last seen.

In a response to the petition, the Virginia Attorney General’s Office agreed that Mr. Grimm’s convictions should be vacated and the case dismissed. The prosecution’s brief in the case said that the evidence had been so debunked that there was no longer evidence that the boy was the victim of a crime.

The prosecution also noted that Mr. Grimm’s scientific evidence “largely debunks his confession.” The response said that if DNA analysis had existed when C.H.’s body was discovered, DNA testing would have quickly excluded Mr. Grimm, and he never would have had an opportunity to falsely confess.

On June 18, 2024, the Virginia Court of Appeals granted the writ, and ruled that Mr. Grimm was innocent.