JUSTICE SERVED IN 40 YEAR COLD CASE- RICHMOND SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR THE DEATH OF HIS COUSIN

CASSOPOLIS – One of Michigan’s oldest cold cases was closed last week with the sentencing of Raymond Richmond for the 1977 murder of his cousin, Robert Stasiak. Stasiak’s death was originally ruled a suicide.
The case against Richmond, now 58, began two years ago when then Edwardsburg-Ontwa Township Police Chief Tim Kozal re-opened the cold case. Stasiak’s death had originally been ruled a suicide in 1977 but Kozal, his officers and Southwestern Michigan College criminal justice students were able to build the case for murder.
Richmond was arrested last year on an open murder charge and agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder in August. Last Friday, Cass Circuit Judge Mark Herman accepted the plea agreement and sentenced Richmond to a prison term of 12 to 18 years. He has credit for 503 days already served.
Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz noted that this was one of the oldest if not the oldest cold case to be solved in the state of Michigan. He credited the efforts of Kozal, officers and SMC students as well as the persistence of Robert Stasiak’s daughter, Stephanie Stasiak.
“He’s been gone 40 years, but if he was here he would be proud that justice prevailed and most proud that his daughter grew up to be such a fierce warrior,” Fitz said. “She went back to law enforcement year after year, he’d be proud of her righteous anger … Justice has been done, his daughter restored his honor and his name.”
Stasiak’s daughter, Stephanie Stasiak, talked about how she grew up without her father and blaming her mother for not getting him help before his supposed suicide. She was 17 when she first learned that Richmond, her father’s cousin, had confessed to others that he had killed her father.
“Here we are 40 years later and justice has finally happened for my dad,” she said. “I never had the chance to know him because of your selfish actions. I’m told how much I look like him and I hear about him but it doesn’t fill the hole left by his death. I can’t remember his smile or his hugs.”
Stasiak said that while her father can now be at peace with Richmond’s sentencing, she can’t forgive Richmond. “I’ll always be missing a piece in my heart,” she said. “I can’t find it in my heart to forgive you. 18 years is nothing compared to the lifetime of hurt we’ve had.”
Defense attorney Paul Jancha said it was the saddest day he’s had in 43 years as an attorney. “My client could not be more remorseful,” he said. “He was foolish and careless but not malicious. My client has been in an internal prison since the incident occurred. He has been in and out of mental health and drug facilities since this happened. He has lived a horrible life.”
Richmond apologized for his actions and said he was “as close as brothers” with Stasiak until that day in 1977 when he got mad at Stasiak for flushing drugs down a toilet. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about what happened,” he said. “I was stupid and careless, I wish I could go back and change what happened. I’m very sorry, no words can express how sorry I am.”
While Jancha and Richmond tried to paint Richmond’s actions on Nov. 2, 1977 as an accident, Judge Herman disagreed. “You said you grabbed a 22 caliber rifle and pointed it at him, he grabbed at it and the gun went off and he was hit,” he said. “You said you left and went to work. You didn’t assist him or call for help. It’s hard for the court to believe that it was an accident.”