By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
This week’s court news includes the preliminary hearing for a Dowagiac murder suspect, a sentencing and the arrest of a woman charged with drunk driving causing death.
Kyriea Jade Demorrow, 23, of Niles, was arrested on felony charges of driving while intoxicated causing death and failure to stop at a personal injury accident causing death. She has since been released on bond. As the Berrien County Record went to press, no further court date had been set.
The incident occurred in the afternoon of Sept. 15 on Pokagon Highway near Jones Road in Berrien Township. Demorrow, whose blood alcohol level is reported to have been more than three times the legal limit, was driving a Ford SUV when she struck a bicyclist. The bicyclist was identified as Todd Harrington, 32, of Berrien Springs.
Berrien County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested Demorrow after a witness and his young son had collected a vehicle description and license plate number at the time of the incident. Other agencies involved included the Michigan State Police, the Berrien Springs/Oronoko Township Police Department, the Eau Claire Fire Department and SMCAS Ambulance.
The preliminary hearing for Rolandis Russell, 24, of Pokagon Street in Dowagiac,
was held last Friday in Cass County District Court. At the end, Russell was bound over for trial in Cass County Circuit Court on first-degree murder and seven other charges. He has pleaded not guilty and demanded a jury trial. No trial date has been set and could be months away.
Other charges Russell faces include assault with intent to murder Michael Smith, carrying a weapon, an AK47 style long gun, with unlawful intent, possession of a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle and four counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Russell is accused in the July 29 death of Fabian Wesaw outside a bar in downtown Dowagiac. Russell is being held without bond in the Cass County Jail. Russell was in an altercation with two other people, Michael and Sherman Smith, and Wesaw was a bystander to the incident.
Testimony Friday came from three Dowagiac police officers and Western Michigan University pathologist Dr. Joyce deJong. DeJong conducted the autopsy on Wesaw and said he died of a single gunshot wound that entered his left back and exited through the right side of his face, severing his carotid artery along the way.
Detective Jason Rutkowske was one of three Dowagiac police officers testifying Friday. Rutkowske spoke to Russell for nearly two hours the day of the murder about what had happened earlier that day.
Rutkowske testified that Russell told him that he was in a verbal disagreement with two others, Michael and Sherman Smith, outside the Beeson Street Bar. He fled the scene and shot back at them when they continued to follow him. One of those shots hit and killed Wesaw.
While Chief Assistant Prosecutor Tiffiny Vohwinkle said there was enough evidence presented to bind over on all charges including first-degree premeditated murder, defense attorney Tat Parish said he sees the case as one of self defense or manslaughter as Russell didn’t aim at Wesaw on purpose.
In a sentencing last week, a Niles man is going to prison after being found with stolen property from a business in the Niles Industrial Park in Howard Township.
Jason Richard Eidam, 40, of Huntly Road in Niles, pleaded guilty to receiving and concealing stolen property over $1,000 and under $20,000 as a habitual offender and was sentenced Friday in Cass Circuit Court to a prison term of 14 months to three years. He must also pay $1,548 in fines and costs.
Eidam’s sentence is consecutive to any sentence he gets for violating terms of his parole from earlier convictions for uttering and publishing and second-degree home invasion.
The current incident occurred April 4 at the Specialty Products & Polymers location on Progressive Drive in the Niles Industrial Park.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.