Michael Bush, 25, of Sumpter Township was bound over to circuit court for trial following a two-hour preliminary exam June 3 before Judge Brian Oakley in 34th District Court.
Bush will face charges of felony murder and arson in the Nov. 18, 2008 death of 89-year-old Frances Cothern at her home at 41780 Bemis Road, Van Buren Township.
Bush was ordered to appear for arraignment on the evidence at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit at 9 a.m. June 10. Family members have been told the judge is expected to find the evidence compelling enough to set a trail for late summer. Bush could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty of murder.
After his exam, Bush was returned to the Wayne County Jail, where he has been held without bond since the night of the murder/arson.
Bush’s preliminary exam was delayed since last December until two separate psychiatric exams were completed and he was found competent to stand trial. Then, the May 20 exam was delayed again because the arson expert could not be present.
Friends and family of Mrs. Cothern and friends and family of defendant Bush filled Judge Oakley’s courtroom for the June 3 exam.
Testimony showed Mrs. Cathorn died of blunt force trauma to her head and neck, and smoke and soot inhalation, showing she was alive and breathing when two fires were set in her home.
Wayne County Special Assistant Prosecutor for Homicides Cory Newman led the questioning of witnesses.
First witness was Dr. Leigh Hlavaty, M.D., who has been Wayne County assistant medical examiner for 10 years. She detailed her Nov. 19 external exam and autopsy on Mrs. Cothern, who had been identified by family members.
Dr. Hlavaty said two major body burns covered 85% of Mrs. Cothern’s body and there were five lacerations, or skin tears, on her head that were not caused by the fire.
She was struck by a blunt object before her death which is proven by the body’s reaction to the injuries by hemorrhaging beneath the skin, the medical examiner testified.
She said Mrs. Cothern was hit on the bridge of her nose, between her eyes, the outer left brow, the left forehead, and the right side of her head.
Dr. Hlavety said the body had third- and fourth-degree burns all over, with deep burns on her back and head. The front of the right thigh and the right arm and thigh were spared burns.
The internal exam showed bleeding on both sides of the front of the brain. There was a fracture of C-5 in the neck and damage to the spine.
There was soot internally which means she was alive at the start of the fire and could breathe in the smoke, the medical examiner testified.
Dr. Hlavaty testified the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head and neck, and smoke and soot inhalation. The manner of death was homicide, meaning death caused by another person, she said.
She testified that there was carbon monoxide in her blood and soot in her airway. She stated that the CO level was 59% and anything above 10 or 12% shows the person was alive at the start of the fire.
There were no other injuries or diseases present, Dr. Hlavaty concluded.
The next witness was Sgt. Matthew Woodruff, fire investigator from the Michigan State Police, based at Northville.
Sgt. Woodruff said Van Buren Township contacted the MSP operations in Lansing for assistance and he was assigned. He testified to his experience and specialized education and was qualified as an expert witness.
Sgt. Woodruff’s testimony was in great detail. He testified that he responded to the crime scene at close to midnight Nov. 18-19 and the fire department was still completing the fire suppression and a wall was being taken down.
He said he conducted interviews with VBT police and fire fighters to find out their observations. He made sure a search warrant was secured before entering the premises. He said he walked the scene to make sure it was safe for him and then began photographing the scene.
There was considerable fire damage in the northeast corner of the residence, he said.
He said he observed, on the floor of the badly charred kitchen, a body face down with its head to the north and feet to the south. He said the head was wedged against cabinets. Later he found out it was a woman, he testified.
Sgt. Woodruff testified that nothing was done with the body before the medical examiner came, except for photos. He said he photographed the interior and exterior of the house. Since there was no electrical service to the house, he decided to come back and do further investigation by daylight. He said a professional company boarded up the scene and a uniformed VBT police office was stationed at the scene for the night.
Sgt. Woodruff testified that in the morning he talked to the neighbor directly to the east, since he had been the 911 caller reporting the fire. The neighbor’s observations would be helpful in reporting where he saw the fire first, he said.
Then he did daytime photographs of the scene and the fire department and police department sent trained fire investigators to assist him. He explained the standard procedure of tracing the fire and he determined the fire was not caused by electricity or gas or a smoking item, such as a fireplace or candle.
Sgt. Woodruff testified in his opinion the cause of the fire was arson and the origins were in two separate areas: the utility room adjoining the kitchen and the closet in the west wall of the northeast bedroom.
“They were humanly set, intentionally set fires,” Sgt. Woodruff testified.
No accelerants were found in the home and he didn’t know how the fires were started. He said the house was full of all kinds of storage, with cardboard boxes, and they could have been set on fire. When asked if it could have been accidentally started by a candle, Sgt. Woodruff said he would have found evidence of candles if that had been the case.
Defense attorney Gabi Silver asked if he found any candles in the home and he said he didn’t recall.
The third witness was Nicholas Griffith who told police Bush came to his home that night telling of killing a woman and setting her house on fire.
Griffith, 29, said he knew Bush through a friend for about six or seven years.
On Nov. 18, at about 8:30-9:30 p.m., he said he was at his home in a mobile home park just off Lohr Road putting his four children to bed. He said his girlfriend Kaitlyn Lawson lived with him, but they had had an argument and she went down the street to her mother’s house.
The door was unlocked and he heard “someone busting in calling Kaitlyn,” Griffith testified.
He said he came out of the bedroom with the children and saw Bush waving a shotgun. He testified he was in fear for his life. Griffith said he took the gun from Bush without resistance and checked for bullets. When he found there were none, he returned the gun to Bush.
“He was kind of out of it, kind of frantic,” he testified, adding they went into the kitchen and Bush said, “I just killed some old bitch. I shot her and burned the house.” Griffith apologized to the court for the language he had to use to report the conversation.
He said he called Kaitlyn at her mother’s house and she came home and took the children, while he remained in the kitchen with Bush. He said Kaitlyn spoke briefly with Bush before leaving.
Griffith testified that Bush hauled jewelry and money out of his pockets and put it on the kitchen table next to the gun.
“He asked me if I could get him some pills and drugs and I said sure and left and called 911,” Griffith testified. He said he went to the neighbor’s to call and Van Buren Police came out “in full squad.” He said he told police what Bush said, including that he committed the crime “on Sumpter” and set the house on fire because he was afraid his fingerprints were there and he wanted to “cover up evidence.”
Griffith said that Sumpter and Bemis roads cross. The murder/arson was actually on Bemis Road.
Griffith testified that Bush had a drug problem and he’s seen him under the influence, but although Bush told him he uses heroin, marijuana, pills, Xanex, crack cocaine, he has only directly witnessed him using marijuana and pills a couple of times.
Defense attorney Silver referred to Griffith’s statement to police that he had never seen him paranoid before. That night he had “glossy eyes, speech slurred, slow in reflex, anxious, paranoid,” the statement said.
Silver said maybe acting strangely and oddly may “just be his behavior” and Griffith agreed that was possible.
The next witness was VBT Police Detective Mark Abdilla who said that night he was called to the fire as a fire fighter, because he is cross-trained, but he was traveling in a township vehicle listening to the scanner and diverted to another scene for a “man with a gun” report, with the man reportedly saying he would shoot police if they came.
He said he talked to Griffin and Lawson at the neighbor’s house next to their home and then “heard radio traffic that Mr. Bush was at the window.”
Det. Abdilla said he and Officer Mike Moening took cover and observed Bush come out of the home with nothing in his hand. Abdilla testified that Bush turned to go back into the home, and “I put hands on him and took him down.”
Abdilla testified that police found in Bush’s pockets jewelry, keys, rubber gloves, money, and a pill bottle with the name of Frances Cothern on it. The jewelry was later identified by family members as belonging to Mrs. Cothern.
Abdilla said he secured the evidence and Bush was taken into custody, somewhere around 10 or 11 p.m.
He said he then went back to the fire location and assisted with the investigation.
His next contact with Bush was about 11 a.m. to noon the next day at the VBT police department where he interviewed him. He said he read Bush his rights and Bush signed his Miranda Rights form at 11:57 a.m. and the document was entered into evidence.
Abdilla said he found Bush “alert, attentive, looked me in the eyes and wanted to know why he was there. He didn’t appear to be on drugs or alcohol.” He didn’t ask for an attorney, Abdilla said.
Defense Attorney Silver asked if Bush appeared to be under the influence when he was first taken into custody and Abdilla said he didn’t know.
She asked if the video from the VBT holding cell is preserved and Abdilla said, “We can try to retrieve it, if you’re asking.”
She asked what Bush was wearing at the time and was told he had on jeans, a T-shirt and jacket. Abdilla repeated Bush was alert, attentive, and Abdilla “didn’t smell anything.”
Abdilla said he asked Bush about the gun and Bush said he started out without the gun that evening and he was going to someone’s house to look at it. He said he bought it from “a guy named Anthony.”
Abdilla testified that Bush said he was with his mother and fiancé at his home and never left. When asked how he got to the home where he was taken into custody, he said he had an argument with his girlfriend and he saw a friend who gave him a ride.
Abdilla said Bush told him the jewelry in his pockets belonged to his fiancé, but the fiancé said it wasn’t hers.
Abdilla said Bush then told him he bought the jewelry from “a guy named Anthony.” He also got the pills from “Anthony,” Bush reportedly told Abdilla.
Abdilla said when he asked about what happened at the murder/arson site, Bush stopped talking and asked for an attorney and he was put back in his cell.
Abdilla said at about 10 p.m. that night, Sgt. Bart DeVos called him at home and said Bush asked to talk with him. He reportedly said he wanted to tell Abdilla the truth.
“Do you hear Mr. Bush speaking on the video in his cell?” asked attorney Silver.
“Yes. He was talking to someone in the next cell and asking Sgt. DeVos to talk to me,” Abdilla testified, adding at about 10:30 or 11p.m., he again read him his rights, Bush initialed the rights, “and we spoke.”
“But you didn’t believe him,” Silver said.
“I pressed him on the fact he was lying. I took notes and transcribed them and destroyed my notes. My common practice,” Abdilla said.
When Silver asked why the interrogation was not recorded, Abdilla replied, “We do not have a policy and procedure to record or videotape.”
Silver said that Abdilla put Bush back in his cell and took his clothing because Abdilla was angry because Bush wouldn’t speak. Police didn’t give him any other clothing to put on, Silver continued.
“Did you get him an attorney?” Silver asked and Abdilla replied, “Once he was arraigned, he got an attorney.”
Silver said when Abdilla went home he didn’t know what took place at the holding cell, but she asked him if he was aware of any police officers speaking to Bush who threatened Bush. Abdilla said he doesn’t know if it happened or not.
After Bush called Abdilla back, he made a statement.
Silver asked Abdilla to read the statement he took that night. Abdilla read that Bush said on Nov. 18, he started feeling ill and needed some Xanex. Abdilla said Bush told him he “went to where Donna Carnahan lived, but she moved.”
Abdilla said Bush told him he went to the victim’s house and took jewelry and lit fire to clothes because he was worried he had left fingerprints. He said he bumped into someone as he was leaving and he ran across the street and found a gun in a garage. He said he walked Bemis Road to the trailer and police took him into custody.
Abdilla said Bush said, “It was the drugs … I thought it all was a bad dream and I felt terrible about what happened…”
“The entire conversation is paraphrased in the report. Every word said is not reported,” Silver noted.
Another statement is written out by Bush himself in his handwriting and signed.
When the prosecuting attorney made a motion to bind Bush over on charges of homicide/felony murder and arson, he pointed out that some of the defendant’s family members have made contact with Kaitlyn Lawson and Nicholas Griffith to try to influence their testimony.
The prosecutor asked Judge Oakley to make it a condition of bond so Bush’s family members can’t contact witnesses, but Judge Oakley said, “I can’t tell him I’ll penalize him if someone runs his mouth.” Actually, Bush has been held more than six months without bond, and there still is no bond.
Judge Oakley warned Bush: “Don’t have your family and friends talk about this case. They can talk about the weather, but not about this case.”
In December, Chief Judge Tina Brooks Green also warned the defendant’s family not to contact the victim’s family.