Sorry Drequan, but that Star of David tattoo didn’t fool the court into thinking you were Jewish.

No short sentence in a country club prison for you.

WKZO:

A suspect charged for the murder of a Battle Creek resident last year will likely spend decades behind bars.

Drequan Scott was sentenced in Calhoun County Court for the death of Howard Gillette, who was found dead in a a burned out home on January 1st, 2019.

Scott has plead guilty to second-degree homicide in connection to the 58-year-old’s death. He previously pleaded guilty to a felony firearms charge and has served 440 days of a two year sentence for that offense.

Battle Creek authorities discovered Gillette’s body while responding to a house fire at 250 Graves Avenue early on New Years Day. The man’s body was found riddled with gunshots inside the residence by firefighters at the scene.

Investigators say they believe Gillette was shot sometime before the fire was set on either December 30th or 31st.

During a drunk driving stop officers arrested Scott the night before the fire was set. Evidence including a blood soaked sweatshirt and gun in his possession were later linked by detectives to the homicide.

Scott was released on bond but later became a person of interest in the case. He was charged with open murder on January 2nd and lodged in the Calhoun County Jail.

The Battle Creek Police Department has previously said there investigation indicated Scott set the fire to cover up the murder.

…

Dequan Scott was sentenced for second-degree homicide on March 16th, 2020 and will serve a maximum prison sentence of up to 80 years.

Yikes.

Sounds like he was really mad at them.

WWMT:

The trial began for a Battle Creek man almost 500 days after police said he brutally attacked another man and his girlfriend at their apartment in 2018.

Otha Carroll, 47, is accused of killing Dennis Selmon, 64, brutally beating Megan Aston, 37, over the head and then setting fire to Selmon’s North Washington Avenue home in October 2018.

Otha Carroll.

Carroll faces multiple charges including first-degree murder, attempted murder and arson. If convicted, Carroll could be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The prosecution called several Battle Creek police officers to the stand Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020, who were involved in the chase that led to the arrest of Carroll.

The officers testified in the hours after the fire, which they believe was intentionally set, they tracked Carroll down at his home in Battle Creek.

Police said Carroll was leaving from his driveway in a minivan as they arrived to arrest him.

Megan Aston. No photo of the male victim, but “Dennis Selmon” doesn’t sound like a jiggabooish name.

Andre Yarbrough.

Even by nog standards, this thing looks dysgenic.

Is it possible for something that looks like that to be anything other than a serial felon?

Battle Creek Enquirer:

The man charged with shooting a Battle Creek police officer could face two life sentences if convicted.

Andre Yarbrough, 30, was arraigned Tuesday on charges of assault with intent to murder and assault on a police officer resulting in serious injury and two counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Yarbrough is charged with shooting and wounding Battle Creek Police Officer Jeff Johnson, 35, early Saturday, while Johnson was attempting to arrest Yarbrough on several warrants.

…

Police have alleged that Yarbrough was staying with Arredondo at 310 Cherry St. and that she interfered as Johnson was attempting to arrest Yarbrough. She was arrested Monday on an unrelated warrant and is expected to be arraigned Wednesday on the new charges.

Calhoun County District Court Magistrate Earl Brutsche told Yarbrough that he was also charged as a habitual offender because of felony convictions in February of attempted obstructing a police officer and two convictions in 2013 of obstructing police and possession of drugs.

The magistrate said, because of the prior convictions, the assault with intent to murder and assault on an officer both carry maximum sentences of life in prison and could be imposed consecutively if Yarbrough is convicted.

Battle Creek police said he shot Johnson twice, once in the leg and then, when the officer was on the ground, in the upper chest. Body armor protected Johnson from the second shot, which injured his wrist, police said.

Johnson was released from Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo on Monday where he had been treated since the shooting.

Jeff Johnson.

Randale Benjamin.

I’m not sure if I believe her.

He doesn’t look like a killer to me.

Battle Creek Enquirer:

A verbal exchange about a dog may have led to a May Battle Creek homicide, a woman testified Tuesday.

“We were walking down the sidewalk and a girl was walking her dog,” Catherine Wells said. “Brent looked back and said ‘woof, woof.’ The girl said, ‘I’ll let this dog go on you.’ Brent said, ‘Do it.'”

Moments later, Wells testified, a man approached Brent King, the two exchanged a few words and the other man fired five shots from a handgun, killing King, 42, of Battle Creek.

Wells testified on the second day of a preliminary examination in Calhoun County District Court for Randale Benjamin, 33, of Springfield. He is charged with homicide, assault with intent to murder and weapons violations in the death of King and the wounding of another man, Jessey Rathbun, 34.

Testimony began in June when District Judge Frank Line heard from police officers who went to the scene at 356 Capital Ave. N.E. at 4:02 a.m. on May 27.

After hearing from Wells, the case was adjourned until later this month after defense attorney Neils Magnusson said he wanted to review an autopsy report received Tuesday and consider if he wanted other prosecution witnesses to attend a lineup to determine if they could identify Benjamin.

Wells told Prosecutor David Gilbert that she and King, Rathbun and two other women were walking on the north side of Capital Avenue towards the scene of an earlier shooting on Poplar Street involving a friend.

She said the woman with the dog was on the south side of the street near a gas station when she and King exchanged words.

Wells said the group crossed the street and continued walking toward Poplar Street but she realized someone had come from the porch of a nearby home and was following them.

She identified the man as Benjamin but said she had never seen him before.

“I looked back and this man got off the porch and this dude was approaching,” she said. “Brent looked back and this dude was approaching and Brent walked up to him and they were face to face.

“He walked up and said a few words and he shot him,” Wells said.

Brent King.

Randale Benjamin and Brittany Nash.

What was the confrontation about, I wonder?

Perhaps he had issues with the fact that she was dating a nice colored fella…

Battle Creek Enquirer:

The 33-year-old suspect in the Memorial Day killing of Brent King was arrested Friday afternoon.

Battle Creek police said Randale Benjamin of Springfield was found about 1 p.m. at the home of a relative in the 200 block of Weeks Avenue near the intersection of Capital Avenue and Columbia Avenue.

Benjamin is named in a warrant charging him with open murder and several weapons violations.

Battle Creek police have alleged he shot and killed King, 42, of Battle Creek, during a brief confrontation on the sidewalk along Capital Avenue Northeast about 4:01 a.m. Monday.

Police said Friday they had been following several tips about Benjamin’s location before going to the home on Weeks Avenue more than an hour before the arrest.

Officers began surveillance of the home before the MRAP, the department’s military vehicle used by the Emergency Response Team began to approach. It was then that police said Benjamin ran from the rear of the house but was captured by officers in the back yard of the home when he attempted to climb a fence to separating the yard from the parking lot of several commercial businesses.

He was taken into custody without further incident. Police said he was taken to the department for questioning and then to the Calhoun County jail to await an arraignment probably Monday.

“The Battle Creek Police Department would like to thank the public for their help as well as the Calhoun County Sheriff Department and Consolidated Dispatch Center in getting this dangerous person off the streets,” Detective Sgt. Todd Elliott said in a statement.

Police have alleged that Benjamin shot King multiple times after King had a verbal confrontation with Benjamin’s girlfriend, Brittany Nash, 29, of Battle Creek.

Officers said Nash was walking her dog when she encountered King and they exchanged words.

Nash was sought by police and found and questioned Thursday and is not being charged, Elliott said Friday.

Brent King.

Drequan Scott.

Dequan doesn’t look Jewish to me, but I’ve never known a tattoo to lie.

He must be one of those black Israelites I keep hearing about on YouTube.

Battle Creek Enquirer:

Battle Creek police have made an arrest in the shooting death of a man found dead on New Year’s morning.

An 18-year-old Battle Creek man is in the Calhoun County jail, held in connection with the death of Howard Gillette, police said Thursday.

That man, Drequan Scott of Battle Creek, was arraigned on charges not related to the homicide but he is being held pending review of a police report implicating him in the shooting death.

Police said that a missing dog, a traffic stop by the Michigan State Police and several tips and interviews led them to the suspect and his arrest Wednesday at a home in the first block of Maple Terrace.

Investigators now believe Gillette was shot and killed on Dec. 31, about 24 hours before the fire was reported at 12:47 a.m. New Year’s morning.

Gillette, 58, was found dead on the kitchen floor of his home at 250 Graves Ave. after Battle Creek firefighters were called and found the house in flames.

Firefighters found Gillette’s body and he was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy on Tuesday showed Gillette had been shot three times.

Howard Gillette.

The driver who was killed after hitting an ambulance early Tuesday had her license reinstated Monday after having it suspended in 2009, according to the Secretary of State.

Battle Creek police said a LifeCare Ambulance was traveling north on North Avenue with running lights and the siren going with a cardiac arrest patient in the back. A westbound passenger vehicle on Garfield ran the flashing red light and hit the ambulance around 1 a.m. about three blocks away from Battle Creek Bronson Hospital.

The driver of the passenger vehicle, 61-year-old Shirley Ann Stokes, was killed on impact. Her passenger, 54-year-old James Earl Stokes, died on scene, according to police.

The patient, 74-year-old David Lynn Simpson, was transferred to another ambulance and taken to Bronson Battle Creek Hospital emergency room, where he died moments later.

His wife Beverly Simpson said that when she was informed of her husband’s death, she was not told that something had gone wrong during the ambulance’s trip to the hospital.

“Why didn’t somebody tell us or tell me that he was in that ambulance?” Simpson questioned. “To think that he was in that ambulance, and whether he could have been saved, I don’t know. That’s another thing: Could he have been saved?”

Police say a mishap communication is to blame for Simpson not being informed of the crash. They were told she had been notified of the death at the hospital and didn’t realize she was not told about the crash.

Simpson said she and her husband of 30 years “did everything together.”

“I don’t know how to explain him. He was Dave,” Simpson said.

They had a small argument on Monday, she said, but settled everything before going to bed.

“He said, ‘I’m sorry I yelled at you today.’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m sorry I yelled at you, too.’ And off we went to sleep,” Simpson recalled.

Mark Devriendt, an apparent Battle Creek firefighter who was injured in the crash, wrote the following statement on his Facebook page:

“I would like to thank my fellow firefighters, life care ambulance personnel and supervisor, My Fire Chief and Battalion Chief and our police officers for your support early this morning. We all made it out OK with some bumps and bruises but we’re OK. Thank you all so much.”

The Battle Creek Police Department accident reconstruction team was called to the scene to take over the investigation.

Police said speed and alcohol may have played a role in the crash.

“It makes me angry,” Beverly Simpson said.

The at-fault driver, Shirley Stokes, had a number of violations on her driving record, but none appear to have involved alcohol. Her license had been suspended since 2009 before being reinstated on Monday, according to the Secretary of  State’s Office.

Another White man shot by a drug-addled Black thug.

From Wood TV:

One person has been charged with homicide after a Tuesday shooting death in Battle Creek.

Ghermell Bolden was arraigned Thursday on a charge of felony murder.

He accused of killing Allyn William Reeve, Jr. early Tuesday.

Reeve, 23, died at a residence in the 100 block of East Territorial Road, Battle Creek police say. Officers responded to the scene around 4:30 a.m. after a report of a  break-in in progress.

Tuesday, BCPD said the death may have been drug-related.

Police arrested two people in connection to the death Tuesday. The first was taken into custody after police received information that a suspect in the murder may be at a Bedford Township residence.

Bolden, 22, turned himself in later that evening.

His bond was denied Thursday. He is expected back in court on July 3 for a preliminary hearing.