On Feb. 12, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Annette Berry sentenced Michael Scott Bush of Sumpter Township to 30 to 60 years in prison for the Nov. 18, 2008 murder of Frances Cothern.
Bush, 26, was taken to the Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson to begin his sentence.
At a recent court session he entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder in exchange for the prosecutor’s dropping of first-degree murder and arson charges.
Nine of Mrs. Cothern’s family members were present in the courtroom at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit for the sentencing.
Ruth Claxton, daughter of the murder victim, said Bush told the court that he was sorry that he messed up the life of the victim’s family, his family’s life, and his own life and that he was really not a bad person.
Claxton said Bush kept his head down during most of the court session and showed no emotions.
Claxton addressed the court with her prepared statement before the final sentencing.
“I briefly told about the wonderful, loving person she was, that I didn’t understand why she had to suffer in her last few minutes of life, and how I personally did not think 30 years was enough, since that would only put him in his 50s if he got out,” Claxton reported.
Claxton said Judge Berry seemed a bit angry when she started out with her pre-sentencing comments.
“She started by saying that the parents should be held responsible for some of what their children do,” Claxton reported. “Their children ended up in the foster care system and a vast majority of the foster care providers are only in it for the money,” Judge Berry reportedly told the courtroom.
“Only a few care and nurture the children, while most of the children end up physically and sexually abused by the foster care providers,” Claxton said Judge Berry stated.
Claxton said Judge Berry stated, “The court system failed society by putting him back with the mother who couldn’t take care of him in the first place. He was abused by his father and it was his parents that got him into and provided him with drugs and alcohol and selling drugs.”
Judge Berry apologized to the family of Frances Cothern for the court system’s failure to protect them and that the laws needed to be changed.
Judge Berry asked Bush why he needed to abuse an eighty-some-year-old lady and set the house on fire when he knew there was still a person in the house.
Bush replied that he was high on drugs. When the judge asked what kind, he said alcohol, cocaine and marijuana.
Judge Berry predicted that Bush was not going to have an easy time in prison and if he did survive prison that he would serve his full sentence and not be out until he is in his 80s.
Judge Berry said she thought the prosecutor’s office decided the right thing with the plea bargain.
She said a trial would have been grueling for the family, since there would have been descriptive testimony and disturbing pictures and the image would stick in the family’s minds forever.
Judge Berry told the court that she has been on cases that haunt her after seeing the pictures and hearing the testimony.
After sentencing Bush to 30-60 years in prison she ordered that he was not to contact the victim’s family.
Mrs. Cothern, an 89-year-old woman who lived at 41780 Bemis Road in Van Buren Township, was robbed, brutally beaten, and her house set on fire. A coroner’s report showed she was still alive when the fire was set.
Bush has been in the Wayne County Jail since his arrest Nov. 18, 2008, the night of the murder.