Two Northern Michigan men are accused of killing a teenager, burying her body, and then killing a woman who was involved with the murder to keep her quiet.
jriddle@thealpenanews.com
ALPENA An Alpena man wants to take back his guilty plea in an assault case after his victim claimed the assault never happened.
Damien Michael Smith, now 26, was sentenced in 2015 to two years in prison after he admitted to threatening a man with a gun in an Alpena apartment building.
The man Smith said he accosted, Christopher Medlin, told Judge Benjamin Bolser in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court Court on Monday that he lied when he told police about the incident.
Medlin, now 24, was arrested on drug charges in 2014. During interrogation after his arrest, police promised to go easy on Medlin if he gave them information about Smith, Medlin told the court.
jriddle@thealpenanews.com
News Photo by Julie Riddle
Alpena County Assistant Prosecutor Megan McKeon addresses a jury during closing arguments at a trial in Alpena’s 88th District Court on Thursday. Judge Benjamin Bolser, pictured, presided over the trial.
ALPENA Jury summons have hit mailboxes in Alpena County as courts resume jury trials in Northeast Michigan.
Felony trials at Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court scheduled for this week didn’t materialize, but a six-member jury heard a domestic violence case in the 88th District Court Thursday morning the first jury trial in that courtroom since summer.
The last Alpena County felony jury trial ended one year ago Thursday, days before the courts were closed to in-person hearings by the pandemic.
jriddle@thealpenanews.com
News Photo by Julie Riddle
John Gaddy waits to be sentenced at the Alpena County Courthouse on Tuesday.
ALPENA Saginaw man John Gaddy will spend more than two years in prison for threatening an Alpena woman with a gun.
During a January bench trial in which the judge takes the place of a jury Judge Ed Black found Gaddy guilty of the assault that stemmed from a fake drug deal.
According to witness testimony at the trial, Gaddy and another man, Duran Lowe, both of Saginaw, drove to Alpena in August and sold rock salt alleging it was methamphetamine to two Alpena women.
jriddle@thealpenanews.com
News Photo by Julie Riddle
Jeremiah McLean waits beside attorney Ron Bayot in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court on Tuesday. McLean pleaded no contest to raping a minor.
ALPENA A man will spend at least 10 years behind bars after accepting a plea deal in the sexual assault of an Alpena teen.
Though declaring himself innocent, Jeremiah McLean on Tuesday pleaded no contest to accusations that he bound, raped, and strangled a 15-year-old girl at an Alpena cemetery in June.
The News does not identify victims of sexual assault.
At the request of the girl’s family, Judge Ed Black sentenced McLean to 10 years in prison, far short of the 18 years recommended by the Michigan Department of Corrections and the life sentence possible with a first-degree rape charge.