POLICE SAY HUFFMAN NEVER HARMED HIMSELF, BUT VICTIM DIED VIOLENTLY- WAS DEATH PREMEDITATED OR ASSISTED SUICIDE?

NILES – More information about the July murder of Angela Cluver in Niles came out last week at the preliminary hearing for the man accused of killing her. James Parker Huffman was Cluver’s boyfriend and has claimed that he killed her in a failed suicide pact.
Huffman was in Berrien County Trial Court last week for a preliminary hearing. He is being charged with one count of open murder which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
At the end of last week’s hearing, defense attorney Scott Sanford raised the possibility of Huffman being charged with violating the Michigan assisted suicide law in addition to the murder count. Violating the assisted suicide law is a five-year felony.
Huffman’s hearing before Trial Judge Scott Schofield was continued until Nov. 9 to give the judge time to consider the possible assisted suicide defense. Sanford and Assistant Prosecutor Cortney O’Malley have until Nov. 6 to provide information to the judge about the assisted suicide violation question as well as two other issues.
Huffman, 52, walked into the Niles Law Enforcement Complex July 24 and told police that he had strangled his girlfriend, Angela Cluver, in a failed double suicide pact at their South 14th Street home in Niles. Police then went to the home and discovered Cluver’s body which was in a state of decomposition.
The hearing featured testimony that provided more details about the case from Niles police dispatcher Nikki Metz, Niles Police Capt. Kevin Kosten and Detective Chad Mitchell along with Dr. Joseph Prahlow, the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy on Cluver’s body in Kalamazoo July 25. Prahlow testified by phone.
Metz said she first thought that a warrant was out on Huffman and he was turning himself in. When it turned out he was there to say he had strangled his girlfriend, she turned him over to detectives.
Kosten said he was one of the first officers at the home and was the person to discover Cluver’s body in the laundry room. Cluver’s eyes were taped shut, there was tape gagging her mouth and her arms and legs were also taped together-evidence that O’Malley said showed it was homicide and not suicide.
Kosten later went through the home taking photos and collecting evidence. He said he found handwritten notes on the kitchen table saying “I killed Angela”, “sorry dude”, “call 911” and “get rid of notes.”
Mitchell said he interviewed Huffman for nearly two hours the morning of July 24. Huffman gave him a number of different reasons for the “attempted double suicide” including that Cluver had medical issues, there was family drama going on and they had financial issues.
“It came to a head that Friday,” Mitchell said. “He said they sat down at the kitchen table and discussed their plan to commit suicide, that he would strangle her and then cut himself. He said they both drank some beer and then they went into the bedroom where she lay on her back and he asked her if she was ready and she nodded yes.”
“He leaned over and put his hands around her neck,” he added. “He said it seemed like a long time, maybe five minutes, and he had his eyes closed the whole time. He then shook her by the neck and heard a popping noise. He lay down next to her but couldn’t kill himself.”
Mitchell said Huffman told him that he moved Cluver’s body when he wanted to go to bed that night. Huffman said he taped her arms and legs to make it easier to move her body to the laundry room.
Huffman said he attempted to kill himself several times over the weekend by cutting himself, suffocating himself by stuffing socks in his mouth and trying to electrocute himself. Mitchell said an examination of Huffman’s body on July 24 found no evidence of cuts, burn marks or any other injury.
Prahlow said he ruled that Cluver died from a violent homicide due to strangulation after the autopsy. Although the body was badly decomposed, he found evidence of abrasions and scratches on her neck and contusions and broken bones in her neck. She had alcohol, a prescription drug and nicotine from tobacco in her system.