Widow blasts Oakland prosecutors handling of murder retrial

Kara Berg The Detroit News Published: October 30, 2025, 1:16 Pm ET

The widow of a man killed in 2010 in Farmington Hills and her attorney say the

Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office is neglecting its duties in the retrial of the man

convicted of killing her husband.

Genniver Jameel, the widow of Saif Jameel, said she is frustrated about what she sees

as corruption in the prosecutor's office and courtroom maneuvers strip away the

justice her family got in 2011 when Hayes Bacall was sentenced to life in prison for

the first-degree murder of her husband. Bacall is in the process of being retried for

Saif Jameel's murder after the Court of Appeals vacated his conviction in April.

"We are living through hell every single day -- grieving Saif while fighting a system

that seems determined to silence us," Jameel told The Detroit News in a statement.

"Instead of finding support and accountability through the court system, we have

faced betrayal and corruption that has only deepened our suffering."

Hayes Bacall was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2011 for the July 2010

murder of his nephew Saif Jameel. Prosecutors say Bacall walked into the gas station

Jameel owned and shot him 12 times, then later told police he killed Jameel because

Jameel owed him $400,000.

The Oakland County Conviction Integrity Unit reviewed the case in 2022 and

determined that prosecutorial misconduct related to lies the prosecutor told duringclosing arguments, as well as witnesses recanting their testimony, resulted in a weak

conviction.

Prosecutors and Bacall's attorneys agreed to move forward with a second-degree

murder charge instead of the original first-degree murder charge in 2023, but new

evidence has again come up, pausing justice for Saif Jameel again.

Prosecutors obtained recordings in May and July of two phone calls that one of the

recanting witnesses, Samir Bacall, Saif's younger brother, had with his aunt. In the

calls, Samir implies he lied during his recantation and was truthful in his original

testimony. He expresses a desire for revenge on Genniver Jameel because she

allegedly owes him money.

Though prosecutors transcribed translations of the calls in time to include them in

their response to Hayes Bacall's motion to dismiss the first-degree murder charge,

prosecutors did not mention them in public court filings until days after Oakland

County Circuit Court Judge Mary Ellen Brennan granted Hayes Bacall's motion Oct.

15 and dismissed the first-degree murder charge. Assistant Prosecutor David

Williams said Brennan knew about the filings from off-the-record conversations, but

they were not introduced to influence her decision on the first-degree murder charge.

The first mention of Samir's statements came in a motion for reconsideration of

Brennan's decision filed after 5 p.m. Oct. 20, the day before Bacall was set to plead

guilty to second-degree murder. The recordings call into question the validity of

Samir's recantation and his motives for his original trial testimony, Assistant

Prosecutor Shelbee Sanborn wrote in the motion for reconsideration.

Brennan said the late filing was "stunning" and said "I’ve never seen anything like

this.

"Sanborn during a hearing Oct. 21 told Brennan she had to work "very quickly" to get

this motion filed and did it as soon as she could, but did not say why the information

was not included in her response to Bacall's motion to dismiss the first-degree

murder charge. Prosecutors filed the motion after The News inquired Oct. 16 about

the recordings and why they weren't brought up.

Sanborn wrote in her motion that she did not have a chance to tell Brennan about the

new evidence, including the recordings and another witness who could testify to

premeditation, on Oct. 15 when Brennan ruled on the motion. Sanborn is asking

Brennan to reconsider her ruling dismissing the first-degree murder charge for

Bacall.

"The existence of the phone calls was never a secret. They were disclosed to the

defense and we made the court aware of their existence," said Chief Assistant

Prosecutor David Williams. "We didn’t believe that the phone calls were relevant to

the motion to dismiss, which is why we didn’t attach them to our response."

Genniver Jameel's attorney, Pam Szydlak, said the prosecutor's office's conduct is

"nothing short of alarming."

Jameel and Szydlak said Sanborn told them she would be fighting for the first-degree

charge to remain in place, and would be mentioning the recordings in her response

and at the hearing on Bacall's motion to dismiss the first-degree murder charge.

Sanborn did not mention it, however, and argued only that prosecutors were not

barred from proceeding with the first-degree case in her written response.

"The People were given a full and fair opportunity to defend against this motion, yet

they failed to do so in any meaningful or competent way — all the while pretending

they were fighting it," Szydlak said. "Rather than engage with real legal issues and the

transcripts of Samir Bacall saying he lied in his recantation, they instead offered

vague assertions, unsupported rhetoric, and outright neglect of its duty to the court

and the interests of justice.

"Williams said no one has denied Hayes Bacall shot and killed Saif Jameel, and the

prosecutor's office has continued to fight to hold him accountable for his actions.

Prosecutors are now seeking to have Bacall tried again for first-degree murder.

"Those recordings are attached to our motion for reconsideration, and the Judge has

agreed to consider them," Williams said in a statement. "The Oakland County

Prosecutor’s Office has fully pursued a transparent and thorough review of the case

against Hayes Bacall for the death of Saif Jameel."

Samir Bacall, Saif's younger brother, originally testified that Hayes Bacall had called

him multiple times in the months before the shooting, saying he was going to kill Saif

because of the money he owed him. Samir and Jameel's close friend Slieman Bashi

said in 2022 that they lied during the trial about these statements, which was part of

why prosecutors decided to reopen the case and seek to overturn Bacall's conviction.

In the recorded conversation, Samir told his aunt "she harmed me," speaking of

Genniver.

"Yes, but you don’t go to seek your revenge on her by going and changing your

testimony," the aunt said, according to a translated transcript of the phone call.

Samir talks mostly about seeking revenge on Genniver, because he says she sought

revenge on him and took his money, but also said "I did not testify falsely, no, I didn’t

lie … Geniver Geniver (sic) is the one who testified falsely, not I."

Bacall's attorney, Mark Krieger, said during a hearing Oct. 21 that he didn't think the

recording changes anything and that Brennan should not change her ruling about the

first-degree murder charge. He said Bacall was prepared that day to plead guilty to

second-degree murder. Krieger did not respond for comment.

Brennan will issue a written ruling on Sanborn's motion for reconsideration. Bacall's

next court date is Dec. 4.

kberg@detroitnews.com

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