Court Watching: Attorney announces insanity defense for Ray Bailey murder charges

On March 17, the attorney for Raymond Lee Bailey, 38, of Wyandotte, who is charged with murdering four people in Sumpter Township on Aug. 15, 2020, gave circuit court notice of a defense of insanity.
Bailey’s next “final conference,” his eighth, was set for May 9 before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Kelly Ramsey.
Bailey has been in the Wayne County Jail without bond since his arraignment on Aug. 19, 2020. He was bound over to circuit court at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice by 34th District Judge Lisa Martin on April 26, 2021. Besides the four, first-degree murder charges, Bailey is charged with four felony firearm charges. Conviction on just one murder charge could bring life in prison.
He is charged with the shooting deaths of his former fiancée and her sister and their two cousins: Laura Tanner, Sarah Tanner Grupa, and Neil and Forrest Sampson in Laura’s home in the 24900 block of Martinsville Road in Sumpter Township.
Bailey had been charged with domestic abuse and assault to do great bodily harm less than murder (felony assault) at 34th District Court in November 2019, but both charges were dropped. The domestic abuse charge was dismissed without prejudice when the victim, Laura Tanner, did not come to court to testify against him. Those charges have been reinstated.