Michigan man paroled after serving 40 years in prison now facing rape charge in Georgia
Dexter Tolliver is accused of raping a woman in Georgia.
By Terry Camp
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SAGINAW, Michigan (WJRT) — People who committed murder when they were teenagers are getting a new shot at freedom.
They are referred to as juvenile lifers, those originally sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A man who killed a Saginaw resident in 1984 was released from prison earlier this year.
Dexter Tolliver is now 55 years old. When he was released from a Michigan prison in April, his family took him to Georgia to start his new lease on life.
But he’s been in a Georgia prison since October accused of another violent crime.
Tolliver was just 15 years old when he was accused of killing 84 year old Peter Jacobi.
Court records indicate Tolliver used to do some work for Jacobi, but he beat the man to death after an argument in Jacobi’s Cumberland Street home in Saginaw on July 31st, 1984.
Tolliver was tried as an adult, a jury found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to life in prison without parole in January of 1986.
Tolliver, like a number of other of people convicted of murder as teenagers, was resentenced.
Saginaw County Circuit Court Judge Andre Borrello sentenced Tolliver in December of 2023 to 40 to 60 years in prison. Tolliver was then paroled in April.
His release was profiled in a Michigan State Appellate Defender Office newsletter, writing that Dexter is the portrait of the purpose of defender’s office.
But now Tolliver is facing rape allegations in Marietta, Georgia, where he is accused of sexually assaulting a 66 year old woman.
Police reports and court papers from Georgia indicate the woman allowed Tolliver to move boxes into her apartment, when she says Tolliver attacked her.
Tolliver was arrested and evidence will be presented to a grand jury.
The Saginaw County Prosecutor’s office released this statement about Tolliver’s arrest in Georgia, writing, “under the new juvenile lifer law and circumstances of this case, we secured, and the Judge handed down the maximum penalty of 40 to 60 years imprisonment. The parole board could have kept him for another 20 years, but they decided to release him.”
We tried contacting the Michigan Department of Corrections and the Michigan State Appellate Defenders Office for comment but did not hear back.
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