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.
- Posted December 31, 2019
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
Michigan appeals court affirms conviction in gas station clerk's murder
headlines Oakland County
headlines National
- New Legalese: You may have heard a deepfake, but what about ‘Twiqbal’?
- From Intake to Outcome: An in-house lawyer’s guide to matter management solutions
- 2 BigLaw firms in merger talks that could produce 1,600-lawyer firm with top 50 revenue
- Send in the paralegals
- Lawyer reprimanded after mistakenly emailing opposing counsel with plan to avoid judge’s call
- ‘I don’t play well’ judge who threatened to track down, jail misbehaving litigant gets tossed from case