In the summer of 2011, Stephen Brinkley was found dead inside his Detroit home after a fire. Firefighters extinguished flames at the rear of the house and discovered Brinkley’s body, but the medical examiner determined he had been killed before the blaze — suffering multiple stab wounds to the chest, abdomen and an eye, plus numerous cuts on his face and extremities consistent with a violent struggle and defensive wounds. There was no evidence of forced entry.

Christopher Michael Jones had been living with Brinkley for several months. A neighbor saw Jones calmly leave the residence shortly before smoke was seen coming from the back of the house and later identified him in a police lineup. Investigators found blood matching Jones’s DNA on the inside of the front door and on a piece of clothing near the entrance, and witnesses reported Jones had cuts on his hands days after the fire.

Jones was tried on premeditated first-degree murder and arson charges. The jury convicted him and he received life in prison for the murder plus a lengthy sentence for the arson. Does anyone have information about Brinkley’s life in Detroit or who might have seen him and Jones in the months before the killing?