Man gets second life sentence for second workplace shooting
DETROIT (AP) — A Detroit-area man has received a second life sentence for a second workplace shooting nearly two years ago.
Vernest Griffin, 47, of Sterling Heights was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole for killing Eriberto Perez, his former supervisor at Aluminum
Blanking Inc. in Pontiac, the Macomb Daily reported. Perez died after Griffin fired an AK-47 at him as he sat at his desk in February 2018.
An Oakland County jury found Griffin guilty in December of Perez’s premeditated murder, as well as two counts of assault with intent to murder during a shootout with police after Perez was killed.
He previously was sentenced for killing another former supervisor, Keith Kitchen, that same day at the BSD Linehaul trucking company in Taylor.
After Kitchen was shot, Griffin stole a semitrailer from BSD Linehaul and drove it to Aluminum Blanking to confront Perez.
A Wayne County jury convicted Griffin last March of first-degree murder and other charges. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Detroit man cleared after nearly three decades in prison
DETROIT (AP) — A judge this week tossed the 1991 conviction of a man who spent nearly 30 years in prison for an attack on a Detroit woman in a car.
Gerry Thomas, 62, who was helped by law schools in Michigan and New York, has long maintained his innocence. The conviction integrity unit in the Wayne County prosecutor’s office agreed that his conviction should be set aside.
“If the police had conducted a true investigation 30 years ago, Mr. Thomas never would have been arrested in the first place,” said Jane Pucher of the Innocence Project at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo Law School.
The victim said she was attacked while in a car outside a convenience store in 1987. She identified Thomas two years later. Police had no physical evidence against him or any other witnesses, according to the Innocence Project.
Thomas was sentenced in 1991 to a minimum of 50 years in prison.
Single bullet lands man in prison for nearly four years
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut man with prior criminal convictions was sent to prison for nearly four years Wednesday for being in possession of a single bullet, federal prosecutors said.
In addition to the prison term, Tyshawn Coleman, 30, of Hartford, was sentenced to three years of probation. He pleaded guilty in October to possession of ammunition by a convicted felon.
Coleman was a passenger in a car pulled over in the early morning hours of August 5, 2017 after a witness had reported that the car was involved in a fatal shooting, authorities said.
An officer conducted a pat-down of Coleman and retrieved two clear zip-lock bags from his pocket, one containing marijuana, and the other containing a .45 caliber bullet, prosecutors said.
Coleman has previously been convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, accessory to first-degree assault, first-degree assault and drug charges.
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