Wrongly convicted man takes his own life at the Falls

Sometimes life is not fair.

Michael Agee is no longer with us. He took his own life Friday at the American Falls. He would have been 33 on November 10.

The Express interviewed Kim Anklin, a private investigator who helped free him in 2023 and who was on the phone with him 20 minutes before he died.

It was just after noon Friday when police were called to Prospect Point. Witnesses said a Black man, now known to be Agee, was arguing with someone on the phone when he hopped over the railing and entered the water.

Sources contacted the Express Friday evening with the news. Anklin confirmed.

“I am so heartbroken. I helped get him out of prison” Anklin said. “I was on the phone with him 20 minutes before it happened.” It is believed he was on the phone with his girlfriend shortly before he died.

In 2012, Agee was wrongly convicted of crimes committed in 2010.

His big downfall? Police asked him for an alibi. He said he was in school on the day of the crime. He was not. He skipped.

Police had their man. Except they didn’t.

All the evidence was circumstantial. A delivery driver was robbed. The robber was Black and the same age, about as Agee. A used furniture store on 18th Street was also hit.

In 2013, Niagara County investigators received DNA evidence that could have exonerated Agee but never provided it to the defense. Prosecutors also failed to provide defense with a police report that pointed to another possible suspect.

His family, always believing his innocence, eventually, during the pandemic, was able to pool enough money to retain private investigators.

They worked the case until June, 2023 when Darius M. Belton, serving time for the murder of Louis Ubiles, confessed to being involved in the furniture store robbery and providing a gun to the person who robbed the pizza driver. Agee had nothing to do with either.

Agee was freed by State Supreme Court Justice Betty Calvo-Torres in July of 2023 with no bail after Calvo-Torres declined the $50,000 proposed by the Niagara County District Attorney’s office.

The DA was in the current process of retrying Agee. Anklin said she was confident he would be found innocent. The defense was leaning toward asking for Calvo-Torres to rule at the trial, not a jury.

“You wrongly convicted him before,” Anklin said Friday with an incredulous tone, “now you are going to wrongly convict him again?”

Agee was trying to adjust to his new life. He took a loan from a company that provides high interest funding to wrongly convicted people.

“The case is over now,” Anklin said. “We will never know if the judge would have exonerated him or not. We will never know.”

As for his state of mind, Anklin said Agee was “blind with rage” over the woman with whom he was in a relationship.

“He had everything going,” Anklin said. “He was going to be a millionaire. His friends could talk him down but his girl. They didn’t work together. She is toxic.”

Anklin said a large portion of Agee’s struggles could be attributed to his time in prison. Wrongfully convicted people often suffer from post traumatic stress disorder because being sent away without just cause is a horrific experience.

Readjusting is even more difficult for the wrongfully convicted because the programs that help a paroled convict readjust, from counseling to housing and other programs, don’t exist.

“If you get paroled,” Anklin said, “you get all kinds of things.”

Agee was working at a dialysis clinic, had inventions he wanted to patent and was trying to move forward with his life despite what the woman in his life and DA’s office were putting him through.

“There is nothing the DA’s office and girlfriend can do now,” Anklin said. “You got your pound of flesh and you have blood on your hands.”

Anklin said her investigations have resulted in the reversal of 6 convictions since 2013. It was only by chance she came to know Agee.

She was living in Brooklyn in 2021 when she got very sick with Covid and came to Niagara Falls Memorial for treatment with monoclonal antibodies. While she was there, she mentioned what she did for a living. Someone at the hospital told her about Michael and gave her his number. He was at Wende Correctional Facility.

She said she offered to visit but he didn’t want her to take time away from the investigation so they only talked on the phone. On the day of his release, Anklin was in court.

“His attorney looked at him and said ‘Do you know who that is,’ ” Anklin recalls, “he pointed me out and Michael started crying.”

The Express requested an interview in 2023 but Agee’s attorney asked to wait until after the District Attorney’s folly ended. The reason for pursuing the prosecution was likely greed. When Agee was found not guilty at a retrial, the County would be liable for civil damages for the wrongful conviction and withholding evidence.

One nightmare was over that day but it didn’t end until Friday morning. Here is a link to WKBW-TV’s interview with Agee from better times in 2023.

https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/a-new-life-wrongfully-convicted-ni…?