Michigan appeals court affirms conviction in gas station clerk's murder

MUSKEGON, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan appeals court has affirmed the conviction of a man in the disappearance and death of a gas station clerk in western Michigan.

Some evidence found at Jeffrey Willis’ home should have been excluded at trial, the court said, but it doesn’t outweigh other “strong untainted evidence” that showed he was responsible for Jessica Heeringa’s death.

Heeringa, 25, disappeared in 2013 while working at a gas station in Norton Shores in Muskegon County. Her body hasn’t been found.

The appeals court last Thursday found no problem with prosecutors telling jurors about Willis’ connection to the death of another woman, Rebekah Bletsch.
Bletsch, 36, was fatally shot while jogging in 2014. Willis, 49, is serving life sentences for both deaths.

Willis was arrested in 2016 when a teenager said he tried to kidnap her. The arrest jump-started investigations of the Bletsch homicide and Heeringa’s disappearance.