Randall Grinwis heads out of the courtroom during a recess in his murder trial last Thursday in Ottawa County Circuit Court. Grinwis faces sentencing later this month after being convicted of charges of second-degree murder and larceny in the death of his longtime girlfriend, Donna Hyma, in January 2024.
By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
A 59-year-old Zeeland Township man has been convicted of charges stemming from the death of his longtime girlfriend a little more than two years ago.
An Ottawa County jury last Friday returned guilty verdicts against Randall Alan Grinwis on charges of second-degree murder and larceny of more than $1,000 but less than $20,000 in the Jan. 1, 2024 death of his girlfriend of 18 years, 63-year-old Donna Hyma, inside a home they shared on Patti Place inside the Ottogan Mobile Home Estates park.
Grinwis could receive up to life in prison on the second-degree murder conviction when he is sentenced March 30 by Circuit Judge Karen Miedema. He had initially been charged with open felony murder, where the jury could have rendered a first-degree murder conviction that would have meant a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole.
However, attorneys for the prosecution and defense agreed on the third day of the trial last Thursday that the maximum possible conviction the prosecution would ask for was second-degree murder. The jury was also given the option of convicting Grinwis of voluntary manslaughter, which would have resulted in a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
According to the prosecution, Grinwis and Hyma had been arguing about living arrangements during the evening hours of Jan. 1, 2024. According to recorded statements the defendant made to three different detectives – one with Las Vegas, Nev. police and two with the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office – he extended his forearm across Hyma’s neck and pushed down on it to the point where she stopped breathing.
During the recordings that were played for the jury, Grinwis told detectives “I snapped” and “I don’t know why I did it.”
After Hyma’s death, Grinwis fled the area with $1,800 he had earlier withdrawn from the bank that was to have been placed in a lockbox belonging to Hyma’s brother. At least 90 minutes after she died, Grinwis called 911 while he was driving on Interstate 196 in Van Buren County – two counties away from Ottawa County – to request a welfare check on Hyma. He then threw his cell phone out the window, senior assistant county prosecutor Ben
Medema said.
Grinwis later stopped at a casino in Michigan City, Ind., then drove on to Chicago, where he caught a flight out of O’Hare International Airport to Las Vegas, Medema said.
Two weeks after Hyma’s death and after living on the streets of Las Vegas for a week, Grinwis walked into a police station there and confessed to killing Hyma. A little over a month later, Ottawa County detectives David Bytwerk and Tyler Kempema flew out to Las Vegas to question Grinwis about what had happened.
During testimony last Thursday, Bytwerk said that he had Grinwis do a role-play exercise where the defendant simulated what he did to Hyma.
“I tried to seat myself in a position that we had been told, and what we had (determined) from our crime scene videos where Donna was seated, to the right of Mr. Grinwis … We then asked him to demonstrate on me what he had done to her,” Bytwerk said.
“He reached his arm over to the right and placed his arm right here on my body (pointing to his throat), with the back of his arm pressing back against my throat … I definitely felt pressure there, I definitely felt where the arm placement would be on the throat and how that could cause some obstruction of breathing,” Bytwerk added.
The pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Hyma’s body, Dr. Matthew Carr of Holland Hospital, initially thought that her death was related to cardiac-
related issues. Carr testified that Hyma had an enlarged heart, that there was significant clogging of her arteries and that she had signs of emphysema from heavy smoking.
“I think a fair statement would be that she was at risk for significant further compromise,” Carr said during cross-examination.
After Carr’s initial autopsy work, he was contacted by law enforcement who informed him of Grinwis’ confession that he had killed Hyma. Ultimately, the autopsy gave her cause of death as “asphyxiation due to neck
compression, with contributing factors of ethanol (alcohol) and hydrocodone (a narcotic opioid painkiller) intoxication.”
A toxicology test showed Hyma’s blood alcohol level at the time of her death was 0.25, three times the legal limit for drunkenness in Michigan, Carr said during his testimony.
The defense pointed to Hyma’s medical history in hopes of clearing Grinwis’ name, as well as what it believed was the defendant’s intent.
“He wanted her to stop talking,” defense attorney Philip Sielski told jurors during his closing arguments. “What did he say when he was being questioned … ‘shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut the (expletive) up.’ That’s what he was trying to do. That’s what he was trying to accomplish. He wasn’t trying to kill her. He wasn’t trying to hurt her. He just wanted her to stop talking. He was tired of hearing about her (saying) ‘you’re never going to be part of this house.’”
Medema urged jurors to return a guilty verdict on second-degree murder.
“The evidence is that he was sitting there. He reached out and put pressure onto her – to shut her up. And when that didn’t work, he stood up and in his own words, pivoted his body and then drove down on her,” Medema said during his closing arguments, emphasizing the last few words.
“He had all night, to keep his cool. He had all night – like he said, ‘I wish I would have gone into the bedroom like I normally do.’ He had more than enough time to remove himself from the situation … He knew what to do, he knew where to go,” he added.
Grinwis has three prior felony convictions, the most recent being felony escape from jail through assault on a prison employee in 1996 in Manistee County, according to court records. A March 23 hearing has been scheduled on a habitual offender-fourth offense charge. He remains held in the Ottawa County Jail.
Sielski declined to comment on the verdict.
By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
A 59-year-old Zeeland Township man has been convicted of charges stemming from the death of his longtime girlfriend a little more than two years ago.
An Ottawa County jury last Friday returned guilty verdicts against Randall Alan Grinwis on charges of second-degree murder and larceny of more than $1,000 but less than $20,000 in the Jan. 1, 2024 death of his girlfriend of 18 years, 63-year-old Donna Hyma, inside a home they shared on Patti Place inside the Ottogan Mobile Home Estates park.
Grinwis could receive up to life in prison on the second-degree murder conviction when he is sentenced March 30 by Circuit Judge Karen Miedema. He had initially been charged with open felony murder, where the jury could have rendered a first-degree murder conviction that would have meant a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole.
However, attorneys for the prosecution and defense agreed on the third day of the trial last Thursday that the maximum possible conviction the prosecution would ask for was second-degree murder. The jury was also given the option of convicting Grinwis of voluntary manslaughter, which would have resulted in a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
According to the prosecution, Grinwis and Hyma had been arguing about living arrangements during the evening hours of Jan. 1, 2024. According to recorded statements the defendant made to three different detectives – one with Las Vegas, Nev. police and two with the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office – he extended his forearm across Hyma’s neck and pushed down on it to the point where she stopped breathing.
During the recordings that were played for the jury, Grinwis told detectives “I snapped” and “I don’t know why I did it.”
After Hyma’s death, Grinwis fled the area with $1,800 he had earlier withdrawn from the bank that was to have been placed in a lockbox belonging to Hyma’s brother. At least 90 minutes after she died, Grinwis called 911 while he was driving on Interstate 196 in Van Buren County – two counties away from Ottawa County – to request a welfare check on Hyma. He then threw his cell phone out the window, senior assistant county prosecutor Ben
Medema said.
Grinwis later stopped at a casino in Michigan City, Ind., then drove on to Chicago, where he caught a flight out of O’Hare International Airport to Las Vegas, Medema said.
Two weeks after Hyma’s death and after living on the streets of Las Vegas for a week, Grinwis walked into a police station there and confessed to killing Hyma. A little over a month later, Ottawa County detectives David Bytwerk and Tyler Kempema flew out to Las Vegas to question Grinwis about what had happened.
During testimony last Thursday, Bytwerk said that he had Grinwis do a role-play exercise where the defendant simulated what he did to Hyma.
“I tried to seat myself in a position that we had been told, and what we had (determined) from our crime scene videos where Donna was seated, to the right of Mr. Grinwis … We then asked him to demonstrate on me what he had done to her,” Bytwerk said.
“He reached his arm over to the right and placed his arm right here on my body (pointing to his throat), with the back of his arm pressing back against my throat … I definitely felt pressure there, I definitely felt where the arm placement would be on the throat and how that could cause some obstruction of breathing,” Bytwerk added.
The pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Hyma’s body, Dr. Matthew Carr of Holland Hospital, initially thought that her death was related to cardiac-
related issues. Carr testified that Hyma had an enlarged heart, that there was significant clogging of her arteries and that she had signs of emphysema from heavy smoking.
“I think a fair statement would be that she was at risk for significant further compromise,” Carr said during cross-examination.
After Carr’s initial autopsy work, he was contacted by law enforcement who informed him of Grinwis’ confession that he had killed Hyma. Ultimately, the autopsy gave her cause of death as “asphyxiation due to neck
compression, with contributing factors of ethanol (alcohol) and hydrocodone (a narcotic opioid painkiller) intoxication.”
A toxicology test showed Hyma’s blood alcohol level at the time of her death was 0.25, three times the legal limit for drunkenness in Michigan, Carr said during his testimony.
The defense pointed to Hyma’s medical history in hopes of clearing Grinwis’ name, as well as what it believed was the defendant’s intent.
“He wanted her to stop talking,” defense attorney Philip Sielski told jurors during his closing arguments. “What did he say when he was being questioned … ‘shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut the (expletive) up.’ That’s what he was trying to do. That’s what he was trying to accomplish. He wasn’t trying to kill her. He wasn’t trying to hurt her. He just wanted her to stop talking. He was tired of hearing about her (saying) ‘you’re never going to be part of this house.’”
Medema urged jurors to return a guilty verdict on second-degree murder.
“The evidence is that he was sitting there. He reached out and put pressure onto her – to shut her up. And when that didn’t work, he stood up and in his own words, pivoted his body and then drove down on her,” Medema said during his closing arguments, emphasizing the last few words.
“He had all night, to keep his cool. He had all night – like he said, ‘I wish I would have gone into the bedroom like I normally do.’ He had more than enough time to remove himself from the situation … He knew what to do, he knew where to go,” he added.
Grinwis has three prior felony convictions, the most recent being felony escape from jail through assault on a prison employee in 1996 in Manistee County, according to court records. A March 23 hearing has been scheduled on a habitual offender-fourth offense charge. He remains held in the Ottawa County Jail.
Sielski declined to comment on the verdict.
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