Delayed Justice

Coming back from yet another spinal fusion, there’s the tug to get back to work on a homicide. The last seven years have largely been devoted to my film work on peace activist A.J. Muste (radicalforpeace.org). Now that’s done I might could do more work. Doesn’t matter that I’m 74 and don’t walk well.

The case is that of Tony Willis, shot and killed outside his house. He collapsed roughly at the intersection of Lafayette and Brown streets in Grand Rapids.

More to come.

Here is the trial schedule (for now) for Beverly McCallum of how things are scheduled to roll out in Eaton County (thank you Alysia Sofios):

Status conference for pretrial motions – April 27 at 11 a.m. 

Final pretrial – August 29 at 3 p.m.

Jury selection – September 8 

Trial – September 11, 12, 13, 15th (afternoon), 18th (until 1:30 p.m.) 19th, and 20th.

Initially, she was to be tried for second degree murder, but the crime warranted a first-degree charge. 

Finally, I have been missing in action, seriously missing. Yet another spinal fusion (my third). Enough pain to go around. I hope you will forgive me.

Beverly McCallum faced her accusers and Judge Kelly Morton in 56A District Court, Eaton County. Her arraignment today resulted in charges of first degree murder and molestation of a body. Alysia Sophios was in the courtroom and said that the judge heard from Gord DeVries, the discovered of the body of Roberto Caraballo, forensic pathologist Stephen Cohle, and Chris McMillan, one of the admitted participants in the crime, who witnessed the assault and gave out on Ms. McCallum’s part in the planning and execution of the murder.Much more to come.

The murderer of Shelley Speet Mills (stabbed to death in 1970) has skirted justice for yet another year. Oh, gosh. What will it take? A confession? A true report that the killer may have relayed to someone else? I do not know but I pray it happens.

A few days ago I noted that the website was blowing up at the “We Remember” node for Shakara Carter. Yes, we have her listed, but the file is very thin. There are some podcasters who had done a ton of work on the case. More, I think they have done a very fine job in talking the story. The podcast? Crime Junkie.

1996. Sharon Kay Hammack was found murdered. This according to John Tunison of mlive: “Her body was found by a truck driver, who discovered her wrapped in a cloth and dumped along 76th Street SE, near Kraft and Broadmoor avenues in Caledonia Township. She had been strangled.

“She also had been stabbed twice in the head.”

And now, thanks to DNA and a whole lot of hard work, Garry Dean Artman, 64, an over-the-road trucker, has been charged with her murder. Artman was most recently based in Florida but he lived in Grand Rapids in the mid-90s when at least a dozen local women, including Hammack, were found dead in Kent, Muskegon, and Ottawa counties.

He was arrested down south and has been extradited and arraigned. One of my favorite reporters, Susan Samples of WOOD TV, filed this report.

I am more than dilatory getting this posted.

In other actions, Beverly McCallum, accused of leading the assault on Roberto Caraballo in Charlotte, MI, in 2002, will be facing her preliminary hearing in Eaton County District Court Sept. 20. Our friend Alysia Sofios will be in court and I’ll ask her for an update.

The probable cause hearing and conference for Beverly McCallum was postposed Friday in Eaton County District Court until 10:00 a.m. August 29, with the preliminary now scheduled for September 20.

Beverly McCallum is scheduled to go before 56A District Judge Kelly Morton tomorrow morning at 10:30 for a probable cause hearing and conference. Beyond that, Ms. McCallum is scheduled for a preliminary exam July 29 at 1 p.m., again before Judge Morton. It is entirely likely that this latter meeting will have to be postponed if all goes to schedule. Of course, there are a wide range of other outcomes…she may waive her preliminary and plead, or waive the prelim. and go right to trial.

And the questions remain. Here is a well done update with Fox 17 reporter Matt Witkos.

As always, I believe that somebody knows something.

Beverly McCallum/Magliochetti/any number of other aliases/ has been returned to the Eaton County Sheriff’s Department and staff for arraignment today in Eaton County District Count. After a lengthy delay in a Roman jail, her extradition-blocking efforts came to naught, and Italian authorities told U.S. Federal Marshalls to come pick her up or they would release her. It didn’t take them long to swoop in and escort her back to the states. She was booked into the Eaton County Jail at 1:19 a.m. Saturday morning. And this afternoon she was arraigned in 56A, the court room of Judge Kelly E. Morton. She was bound over to circuit court on charged of second degree murder and for exhuming or mutilating a body. Her bond was placed at $10 million.

McCallum is scheduled to appear in court on July 22.

The only hitch? Judge Morton denied our request to video the proceedings, something pretty much inexplicable.

I have a deep gratitude for the U.S. Marshalls who did the heavy lifting to get Ms. McCallum here, the Eaton County Sheriff’s office, the Eaton County Prosecutor’s office, the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department (Bob Donker, ret., in particular) for their steadfast determination to see her face justice, accused in the 2002 murder of her husband, Roberto Caraballo.

The Eaton County Sheriff’s Facebook page makes mention of others, too: “On Friday, July 8, 2022, Eaton County Deputies took custody of Beverly McCallum at the Grand Rapids Gerald R. Ford International Airport. McCallum has been in custody since February 2020 in Rome, Italy, for pending Murder-related charges. We would like to thank the United States Marshall’s Service Western District of Michigan, the Eaton County Prosecutor’s Office, the Polizia di Stato of Rome, Italy, and the Gerald R. Ford Airport Police Department for the smooth transition of taking McCallum into our custody.”

Meanwhile, her daughter, Dineane Ducharme remains in the Huron Valley Complex/Women’s. She rolled the dice at trial and lost: instead of taking any plea she was convicted of first-degree murder. That’s a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

So, why is Ms. McCallum charged with only second degree murder and not first? My understanding is that it had to do with even the possibility of having her extradited. This is on the Roman justice system. I think local prosecutors made a wise decision to get her back and to honor their agreement. The penalties for second degree murder might well range from 20 to 40 years. It may well be a life sentence. I’m not wasting a minute second guessing it.

McCallum is scheduled to appear in court on July 22. We’re at the start of what might turn out to be a long process. Will she choose to go to trial, plead nolo contendere, or guilty? We’ll wait it out.

Dineane Ducharme was sentenced to life in prison today for her part in the 2002 murder of her stepfather, Roberto Caraballo.

On this same day, Dennis Bowman was sentenced to 35-50 years in the no-contest plea in the murder of his adopted daughter, Alexis Badger (aka Aundria Bowman) in 1989. You can read about it here and you can watch the prosecuting attorney’s press conference after the sentencing.