A man has been charged with murder in connection to the Muskegon Heights shooting last week that left one woman dead, though he is not accused of actually shooting and killing her her.

Ishmail Autman was charged Monday with open murder and a weapons charge in connection to the death of Peggy Sue Everett, according to Muskegon County Sheriff Dean Roesler.

Investigators say Autman and Everett were in Muskegon Heights on June 30 to “commit a crime” when Everett was shot in the head as they drove along 8th Street near Broadway Avenue. Everett, a 36-year-old mother of four from Muskegon, was rushed to the hospital and died the next day.

Authorities don’t think Autman shot Everett, but because his actions contributed to her death, he is being charged with murder.

Investigators did not specify what crime they believe the two were planning to commit.

Autman was arraigned Monday afternoon and denied bond, court officials confirmed. He is scheduled to be back in court on July 13.

No one yet faces charges for actually shooting Everett.

Two of four murder cases against a Muskegon Heights man were resolved Monday in court.

A Muskegon judge sentenced Leon Means to two sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Means entered a no-contest plea to charges that he killed Anna Lawson and Judy Bushman last October in their Muskegon Heights homes.

During the sentencing hearing, members of the victims’ families spoke to Means before he was lead away by guards.

“You are a cold-blooded murder of women,” said Anna Lawson’s niece Tesa Lee Griffin. “You are a serial killer. You not just a one-time killer; you killed four women, four innocent women. Now if you get out again, God knows how many times you’re going to kill again.”

Family members of the victims say they want Means to be sent to a prison in the Upper Peninsula, so it would be more difficult for his family to visit him.

Means still faces charges for murdering his wife and her mother in 1989. At the time of those crimes he had escaped from prison.

One of the two women that Leon Means is charged with killing last October in Muskegon Heights was strangled with a ligature, while the other was beaten to death and suffered multiple cuts, according to their death certificates.

The certificates for Judy Kay Bushman and Anna Ruth Lawson shed light on what Means is alleged to have done before the victims were found early Oct. 14 in their homes a few hours and a few blocks apart. Police and prosecutors have not commented on the causes of death.

Means, 62, is an accused four-time killer of women, all of whom he knew. He faces trial starting April 28 on four charges of open murder in the deaths of Bushman, Lawson and two women slain in June 1989: Means’ estranged wife, Cynthia Lou Herrera Means, and her mother, Linda Lou Herrera, both stabbed numerous times.

Lawson, who was 63, was found by a friend around 12:40 a.m. Oct. 14 in her home in the 200 block of East Sherman Boulevard.

Her cause of death was reported as “blunt impacts to the head” suffered when she was “beaten by another,” according to the death certificate signed by Muskegon County Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Elizabeth Douglas after an autopsy.

Under “other significant conditions contributing to death but not resulting in the underlying cause,” the certificate lists “sharp force injuries of the head, neck, trunk and extremities.”

A 30-year-old man has been charged with open murder in connection with the June 26 shooting death of motorcyclist Jake Rameau in Muskegon Heights, according to an official in the Muskegon County Prosecutor’s Office.

Muskegon County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Timothy Maat said Robert Earl Gee has been charged with open murder in relation to Rameau’s death. Maat said the charges, issued at about 3 p.m. on Monday, July 7, are related to evidence collected during the weekend providing “sufficient evidence” that Gee is responsible for Rameau’s death.

Gee previously was taken into custody July 4 on a concealed weapons violation.

Rameau was killed when his bike crashed around 1:55 a.m. Thursday, June 26, in the 2400 block of Peck Street. After it was initially reported as a single-vehicle traffic death, an autopsy found a bullet wound in Rameau’s body, making it a homicide investigation.

Dashawn Andrew Boylan, 25, also has been arraigned on charges of Unlawful Driving Away of an Automobile (UDAA) in connection to the incident. Boylan was arraigned by Muskegon County 60^thDistrict Judge Richard Kloote, who set his bond at $50,000 or surety with a preliminary examination scheduled Monday, July 7.

Steven Lynn Bailey, 26, and Harry Darnell McBride, 46, also have been arraigned in connection with Rameau’s death.

Bailey has been charged for tampering with evidence while McBride has been charged for lying to a police officer in the course of a violent felony investigation. Both men have been arraigned on the charges.

Maat said the investigation is ongoing and further charges will be considered as the evidence develops.