Michigan
Michigan Court of Appeals orders another new sentence in Lenawee County sex abuse case
ADRIAN — A man convicted in 2018 by a Lenawee County Circuit Court jury of engaging in sex acts with the son and daughter of his on-again, off-again girlfriend and wife should have his minimum sentence reduced again, a Michigan Court of Appeals panel has ordered.
David Alan Stevens’ minimum sentence on a conviction for first-degree criminal sexual conduct should be set between six years and nine months and 11 years and three months, Judges Mark J. Cavanagh, Kathleen Jansen and Allie Greenleaf Maldonado said in their opinion. The change is due to a prior conviction in Ohio being incorrectly used as the basis for a habitual offender enhancement.
“The record does not provide a sufficient basis upon which to conclude that the conduct giving rise to defendant’s Ohio conviction would have been a felony in Michigan, and therefore, the trial court erred by sentencing defendant as a habitual offender,” the opinion states.
This will be the second time Stevens, 48, has been resentenced. The new sentence will be about one-third of the original minimum sentence in this case.
Stevens, 48, is currently serving 14 to 75 years in prison after being resentenced in 2022.
First-degree criminal sexual conduct is punishable by up to life in prison.
Stevens was convicted in 2018 after a trial in Lenawee County Circuit Court of one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. Judge Anna Marie Anzalone sentenced him to 21 years and 10 months to 75 years in prison.
The first time he was resentenced, the Court of Appeals found Stevens’ attorney failed to object to faulty jury instructions provided by Anzalone and he failed to request an instruction that would limit how the jury was to consider testimony about other acts that was given during the trial. The Appeals Court vacated the two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and ordered he be resentenced because of how the vacated charges had factored into the scoring for the minimum sentence on the first-degree charge as well as an error in calculating the minimum sentence. Anzalone’s new sentence was 14 to 75 years in prison.
In the latest appeal, a different three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals — Judges Mark J. Cavanagh, Kathleen Jansen and Allie Greenleaf Maldonado — agreed with Stevens’ argument that he had been improperly sentenced as a habitual offender. Stevens had prior convictions in Ohio for possession of criminal tools and nonsupport of dependents. For a prior conviction in another state to be used as a habitual offender enhancement, the offense must have been something that would have been a felony or attempt to commit a felony in Michigan, the opinion said.
Anzalone had determined that the criminal tools conviction would not have been a felony in Michigan. The nonsupport charge is a fifth-degree felony in Ohio, but the appeals judges said how another state classifies its offenses doesn’t matter.
“Establishing that defendant was guilty of a fifth-degree felony in Ohio does nothing to establish that this would have been a felony in Michigan,” the opinion states.
In Michigan’s law regarding nonpayment of child support, the opinion says, someone has to violate a court order to make payments in order to be convicted of a felony.
“The critical difference between these offenses is that the Ohio offense does not necessarily require the failure to provide support to be in violation of a court order whereas the Michigan offense does,” the opinion states. “Because the Ohio crime can be committed without there being a support order in place, it is possible for the same conduct to be a crime in Ohio but not in Michigan. Therefore, the knowledge that defendant was found guilty of this crime is not, on its own, sufficient to conclude that the underlying conduct would have been a felony in Michigan. Accordingly, sentencing defendant as a habitual offender with a violation of this Ohio statute serving as the predicate offense requires the court to ascertain some knowledge of the facts underlying the Ohio conviction.”
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There was no information in the sex-abuse case’s record about the underlying facts in Stevens’ nonsupport conviction, the appeals court said.
“There is nothing in the record suggesting that defendant was ordered to pay any such costs, suggesting that the conviction might not have arisen from the violation of an already-existing support order,” the opinion states. “Because we do not know if defendant’s failure to support a dependent conviction was committed in a violation of a court order, it necessarily follows that we do not know if the conduct giving rise to the Ohio conviction would have been a felony in Michigan.”
The prosecution had time to provide evidence that Stevens had violated a court order for support, the opinion said.
“Indeed, the initial resentencing hearing was adjourned specifically to afford the prosecution the opportunity to adequately address whether defendant’s Ohio conviction for possession of criminal tools would be a felony in Michigan,” the opinion says. “The initial hearing was adjourned in July, and the prosecution had until October to gather the information it needed to meet its burden. During that period, it decided to amend the information to list the nonsupport conviction as the predicate for defendant’s habitual offender status but failed to admit any evidence regarding the underlying facts of the nonsupport conviction.”
Giving the prosecution a second chance to meet its burden of proof would be against the principles of fairness and “implicate double jeopardy concerns because the prosecution’s failure to present sufficient evidence of an equivalent prior conviction is analogous to the reversal of a conviction based on insufficient evidence,” the opinion said.
The appellate panel rejected Stevens’ arguments in the latest appeal that his minimum sentencing guidelines range was not properly calculated.
— Contact reporter David Panian at dpanian@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @lenaweepanian.
A group of residents on Holland Road in Taylor, Michigan, say they are now doing everything they can to keep their neighborhood the way it is after some of them received a letter saying the city is considering rezoning their neighborhood.
“People across the street from me could have warehouse front property instead of woods and nice residential homes,” said Matthew Streicher.
Streicher, whose family has owned property on Holland Road for more than 100 years, says that has been his concern after he received a letter from the city about a proposed rezoning from residential to light industrial directly behind his home near Wick and Holland roads.
“So that’s when I also decided to start knocking on doors around here and saying this is what is going on, we need to speak out and have a voice as to what happens in our backyards, literally,” said Streicher.
Streicher told CBS News Detroit that three of his neighbors received that letter, informing residents that there’s a possibility of a new cold storage warehouse development if this land is rezoned.
“Nothing that belongs in a neighborhood,” said Tim Adkins.
“Heartbreaking, heartbreaking, you know,” said Denise Haggadone.
Many who live on Holland Road say this possibility is even more disturbing because of how long everyone has lived on this quaint road. And these same homeowners say that an industrial facility would only bring in more traffic and take away natural green space, most likely hurting their property value as well.
“It’s nice to see the wildlife, you know, there’s so few places left,” said Adkins.
On Tuesday, CBS News Detroit spoke off-camera with City Council Chairman Charley Johnson, who also lives on Holland Road. Johnson says he understands all of his neighbors’ concerns and agrees with them.
He says the company proposing this rezoning has every right to do so, and that the planning commission will vote on it Wednesday evening.
“It’s sad, I raised my kid here, and he’s planning on having this home after I pass or retire or what have you,” Haggadone said,
The residents hope to see a big turnout at Wednesday’s planning commission meeting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 3, at Taylor City Hall.
The Sterling Heights City Council is set to consider a resolution Tuesday evening opposing tax policy bills in Lansing that one councilmember contends put every municipality “at risk.”
The Michigan House voted in May to pass several bills that would slash property taxes across the state, but skipped a vote on a bill needed to replace some of the more than $5 billion in lost tax revenue.
At its Tuesday evening meeting, Sterling Heights City Council is slated to consider the adoption of a resolution opposing Michigan House Bills 5872 through 5879 due to “their potential negative impact on local government revenue, financial planning, and administrative operations,” a city document said. Sterling Heights City Manager Mark Vanderpool said the city would lose about $5 million in annual revenue from the bills. He said there’s no “guaranteed replacement” for the lost revenue, and the city would need to cut services, he said.
“So we’re deeply concerned about that,” he said.
The House’s sweeping tax cuts can’t be implemented without the passage of a separate bill levying a loosely defined 6% sales tax on services that has yet to be revealed. Republicans who control the House did not hold a vote on the sales tax hike bill, which remains in committee.
All combined, the four property tax cuts passed by the House are estimated to result in a tax revenue loss that could progress from $5.5 billion to $7.5 billion a year, according to a series of nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency analyses.
Vanderpool, the Sterling Heights city manager, said he wants the state Legislature to work “hand in hand” with cities, townships and villages to come up with a solution for “guaranteed revenue replacement.”
“We are more than willing ― I think our reputation precedes us ― to work with our state legislators hand in hand to come up with viable solutions that … may reform property taxes without harming communities across the state,” he said.
Sterling Heights Councilwoman Barbara Ziarko said the legislation reduces the city’s revenue without a guarantee of what it will be replaced with. She said that in the future, the legislation could prevent the city from maintaining positions that it has promised residents it would maintain, including public safety roles.
“When they put the burden on our local government, they’re actually putting it on the residents of whatever community it is,” she said.
State Rep. Steve Frisbie, a Calhoun County Republican, previously said that Michigan residents need to see tax relief immediately. He noted a ballot proposal collecting signatures last year would have eliminated all property taxes in the state. That citizens’ initiative, known as AxMiTax, fizzled out and won’t be on the ballot this fall.
“They realized that our property taxes are too high and they demand that we take action now,” Frisbie said.
More on the bills
The cuts passed by the House in May would eliminate the 6-mill State Education Tax and eliminate the 0.75% real estate transfer tax assessed on the sale price of real estate.
House Republicans also signed off on eliminating the personal property tax. That bill, largely intended to benefit utility companies, is tied to separate legislation that requires utilities such as Consumers Energy and DTE Energy to pass on personal property tax savings by cutting electric and gas rates for their residential customers. It also requires utilities to freeze rates for two years.
Jennifer Varney, Sterling Heights’ finance and budget director, said the elimination of the personal property tax would result in a $4.3 million annual revenue loss for the city. She said the personal property tax refers to the taxes that businesses pay on their assets, such as their machines and vehicles.
Another tax on the chopping block is the so-called “pop-up tax,” an increase in a property tax bill that occurs when a house transfers from one owner to the next in Michigan, uncapping a constitutional limit on the property tax increase on a home’s taxable value.
Under the state Constitution, a property’s taxable value cannot increase by more than the rate of inflation or 5% each year. But when a property is sold, that cap lifts and is reset at a new, often higher taxable value, resulting in a “pop-up” in property taxes.
Varney said the “pop-up” is the only way cities “recapture” the true value of a home. Michigan also has the Headlee Amendment, a state law that requires local governments to roll back millage rates if taxable property values rise faster than the rate of inflation.
“If you take away the pop-up … and you keep the rollback of the millage, you’re basically limiting any kind of growth in taxable base for municipalities,” she said.
Staff Writer Beth LeBlanc contributed.
asnabes@detroitnews.com
Search for missing Michigan woman Lynette Hooker reopened
The search for missing Lynette Hooker has been reopened. Hooker, who is from Michigan, was with her husband in the Bahamas when he claims she fell off a boat. However, new location data from his cell phone contradicts the story he gave authorities.
(FOX 2) – The search for a missing Michigan in the Bahamas has been reopened after authorities say her husband allegedly gave police false information.
Lynette Hooker and her husband Brian were boating in the Bahamas in early April when, according to her husband, she fell off the boat and was swept to sea. Brian told police he had to paddle to shore after Lynette fell into the water because she had the key.
Brian was taken into custody in the Bahamas after Lynette’s disappearance, but was later released and returned back to Michigan.
Recently, it was revealed that new location data from Brian’s cell phone contradicts the story he gave to authorities, and suggests he may have sent search crews to the wrong area. This new information has led to the U.S. Coast Guard reopening its search for Lynette.
The Source: Previous reporting and information from FOX News were used in this story.
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